When the indie fragrance brand Phlur first launched in 2022, it was only available online—meaning customers had to buy its perfumes without ever smelling them. At the time, creative director Chriselle Lim wasn’t sure whether anyone would actually want to take that risk. But after she posted on TikTok that the signature fragrance “Missing Person” was inspired by her own experience with “the smell of a heartbreak,” the orders started flooding in.
Today, Phlur is available through both Sephora and Amazon, and was purchased in late July by the private equity firm TSG Consumer. It’s one example of a small company that’s leveraged savvy marketing, a clear brand perspective, and a voice on social media to develop a dedicated fanbase and pave the way for a successful acquisition.
At the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Wednesday, Lim joined Allison Ellsworth, cofounder and chief brand officer of the prebiotic soda brand Poppi; Sarah Gibson Tuttle, founder and CEO of the nail care company Olive & June; and Giorgos Tsetis, cofounder and chair of the hair supplement company Nutrafol, to discuss how small brands can go up against incumbents and actually stick with consumers in 2025. Here are three main takeaways:
1. Start with an insight that big brands have missed
When Tuttle founded Olive & June in 2013, she said that category leaders in the nail care aisle had become a kind of echo chamber, all competing for the same market share while losing sight of what customers actually needed. Her brand was able to break through by identifying an overlooked pain point for nail-obsessed customers.
“Before Olive & June, the incumbents were really focused on salon products that were made for manicures, and they just put them on the shelf and assumed that the consumer would use them,” Tuttle explained. “What we realized by being hyperfocused on the consumer is that there weren’t products that were available for them to actually do their nails at home, so everyone felt completely stuck in the category.”
Tuttle’s solution was to create a brand centered around providing easy-to-use products while also educating customers on how to do their own nails. Since focusing on the at-home nail care market, Olive & June has scored partnerships with Target, Walgreens, and Walmart, and was acquired for $240 million in 2024.
2. Build a solid community on social before you scale
Brands that are successful on social media almost always have one strategy in common: posting as quickly as possible to stay on top of trends. But, for many bigger companies, layers of legal approvals and executive oversight make it difficult to actually move at the speed of the cultural zeitgeist.
At Poppi, which was founded in 2018 and acquired by PepsiCo this May for nearly $2 billion, Ellsworth says her team made posting on social an early priority. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok served as the initial testing ground for the brand to pitch its prebiotic recipe and connect with customers looking for a healthier soda alternative. Now, Ellsworth advises others to “build your community before you scale” and avoid thinking of social media as an afterthought to “leave up to the intern.”
“What happens is, you get so big that it’s not a priority, and then you’re reactive to what someone else has already done—you’re almost copying what other people are doing versus paving the way,” Ellsworth said.
3. Be picky about how you distribute
After Tsetis launched his hair supplement brand Nutrafol online in 2016, he said he faced significant pressure to quickly launch in stores like Sephora and Ulta. Instead of caving to those demands, he decided to wait eight years before partnering with any retailers.
“I was like, ‘Well, does it actually make sense to show up here with an expensive supplement?’” Tsetis says. “Someone is going to buy it one time, and they may not see results. Then we made the money, but they’re actually not set up for success.”
Eventually, Nutrafol did ink deals with both Sephora and Ulta, as well as other retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Target—but Tsetis said that period of resistance was important to build necessary customer awareness and ensure that the brand was expanding for the right reasons.
“[We had to] make sure that that the strategy was truly set up for success, not just for the company, and not just to make more money or to take in more market share,” Tsetis says. “Instead, does it make sense for the customer for us as a brand to show up in this spot? Ultimately, you’re stealing someone’s time, and that comes with responsibility.”
