What it Takes to Keep a Brand Alive, Relevant AND Profitable for 20+ Years with Nikita Sernack from Nookie

Most brands don’t survive one trend cycle, let alone 20+ years.

But Nikita Sernack has built Nookie through the pre-social media days, the rise of founder-led brands, international stockists, COVID, AND the launch of a second label (Rumer).

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Nikita to chat about what actually keeps a brand relevant for that long. From building a cult customer base, to knowing when growth isn’t profitable, to hiring people who can take the business further than you can alone.

Key moments:

0:00 - How Nikita built Nookie before social media, e-commerce and founder-led brands became the norm

6:21 - Building a guilt following before social media really took off

9:22 - The hiring mistake that makes founders busier than ever

13:48 - What happens when your core product is built for events people suddenly can’t attend

15:03 - Why launching a second brand can expose weaknesses your first brand was strong enough to hide

17:45 - How to lead a team without becoming the person every decision has to come back to

20:13 - What a founder should focus on once the business has grown past the early stage

24:14 - The cost of saying yes to the kind of growth most brands dream of