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The E-Commerce Podcast for Founders Who Are Still in It
She Turned a $400 Candle Order Into a $2M Brand. Here's the Spreadsheet.
Maya Chen started with a $400 order from a Guangzhou supplier she found at 2 a.m. on Alibaba. Eighteen months later, her candle brand ships 4,200 units a month and just landed its first Whole Foods shelf. We recorded the whole thing — including the freight forwarder who lost her first container.
Reported by the Airwave desk · 47 min listen · Full transcript available
FRAGILE · HANDLE WITH CARE
EP. 001 → LISTENER
We don’t interview brands after they’ve made it. We record while they’re making it.
We don't interview brands after they've made it.
We record while they're making it.
The spreadsheet is the story.
Not the press release.
Sourcing at 2 a.m. deserves a byline.
So does the ad spend that didn't work.
“I paused the episode three times to write down the supplier negotiation script. Then I used it the next morning.”
“The fulfillment episode saved me from signing a 3PL contract that would have cost me $8,000 in hidden fees.”
“Finally a podcast that talks about the Thursday at 11pm when your ad account gets banned, not just the exit.”
62 Episodes.
Zero Fluff.
Start Here.
She Turned a $400 Candle Order Into a $2M Brand. Here's the Spreadsheet.
Maya Chen walks us through every Alibaba message, every freight invoice, and the one supplier relationship that changed everything. The spreadsheet is real. We're publishing it.
The $14,000 Facebook Ad Experiment That Taught Us Everything About Cold Audiences
Jordan Mitchell ran 47 ad variations in 11 days. He lost $14K before the algorithm clicked. Then it clicked hard.
The 3PL That Lost 600 Units and What We Did About It
Sarah Kim's third-party logistics partner lost an entire pallet. This is the story of the insurance claim, the customer emails, and the contract clause she wishes she'd read.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen
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The sourcing, ads, and ops stories that mattered this week — curated from the Airwave desk every Friday morning before the market opens.
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This week’s links →
- SourcingHow to negotiate Net-30 with a new Alibaba supplier
- FulfillmentThe real cost of a 3PL switch mid-Q4
- AdsWhy this brand turned off retargeting and grew 22%
- WholesaleWholesale pitch deck template — steal this
- OpsCash flow model for your next restock
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