Ep 574: How Pretty Litter Scaled to $300M+ With Only 12 Employees

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Daniel Rotman built Pretty Litter into a $300M+ revenue juggernaut by doing something most founders won’t: going all-in on an unsexy product. In this episode, he breaks down how a single innovation in kitty litter unlocked a billion-dollar outcome—with just $1M raised and a 12-person team.

For DTC founders scaling from 7 to 9 figures...

• How to win in overlooked categories (and why sexy products attract deadly competition)
• Why kitty litter was the perfect subscription product
• The secret to high-margin DTC logistics (and how silica unlocked DTC viability)
• Daniel’s media buying strategy in year 1 that drove $750K solo
• How Pretty Litter used smart ops, lean hiring, and brand positioning to build a moat

Who this is for: Founders, growth leads, and marketers looking to scale profitably and avoid the DTC hype traps

What to steal:

• The underdog category playbook
• Retention-driven brand building
• The ops strategy behind $300M revenue and 12 employees

#DTCGrowth #SubscriptionBusiness #RetentionMarketing #BootstrapStartup #EcommerceStrategy #ConsumerBrands #FoundersJourney #LeanStartup #ProductInnovation #BrandBuilding #UnsexyProducts #ScalingUp #StartupExit #PetCareIndustry #MarketingTactics

00:00 – Introduction: The Power of Unsexy Products

04:41 – The Loss That Sparked Pretty Litter

16:41 – The Health Monitoring Breakthrough

20:25 – From Idea to Launch in 6 Months

23:44 – $750K Year One, Solo Founder

25:33 – Why Daniel Said No to VC

30:20 – Year-by-Year Revenue Growth to $300M+

36:00 – How Unsexy Built a Moat and Killed the Copycats

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