Honest Ecommerce

·E394

Why Fulton & Roark Skipped DTC and Sold Wholesale First

August 10
29 mins

Episode Description

At 6 years old, Kevin Keller was already "stealing" his father's cologne — a habit generously tolerated by his dad — and discovering that scent could change the way you felt before you ever said a word.

That early fascination with transformation eventually became Fulton & Roark, the American fine fragrance house Keller co-founded in 2013 with $11,000 and a belief that perfumery could be both deeply personal and distinctly American.

Raised in Atlanta and educated at Georgia State University and Wake Forest University, Keller began his career in journalism before turning to music and culture, where he profiled brilliant emerging musicians and artists. What stayed with him was a fascination with culture, place, and tradition — and how those forces subtly shape the way we carry ourselves in the world.

Built without outside capital, Fulton & Roark has grown into a nationally distributed independent fragrance brand, available in nearly 500 retail locations including premier independent boutiques, select Ritz-Carlton and Omni properties, and Neiman Marcus stores and online. The brand has been featured in GQ, Vogue, and ELLE, among others, and its fragrance Roark's Cove was a finalist for the Universal Prestige category of the Fragrance of the Year Award from The Fragrance Foundation.

He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with his wife and two children, and mentors young founders at Wake Forest University.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

  • [00:00] Introduction
  • [01:08] Solid fragrances vs extrait de parfum
  • [02:08] How the founder’s love of fragrance began
  • [03:16] Founding a niche brand with $11,000
  • [05:26] Going to market without a DTC plan
  • [07:39] Sponsor: IntelliGems
  • [09:19] The GQ feature that forced them online
  • [11:37] Building first websites on Squarespace
  • [12:37] Sponsor: Klaviyo
  • [14:47] Building the marketing flywheel
  • [18:04] Sponsor: eFulfillment Service
  • [19:40] Getting customers to pay for samples
  • [22:37] Callouts
  • [25:26] Why founders overrate daily metrics
  • [27:30] Learning to delegate as a founder
  • [27:54] Where to find Fulton & Roark
  • [29:02] Final thoughts

Resources:

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