The shortcut always costs more 🧼 Kate Assaraf

Kate Assaraf built Dip to seven figures while turning down some of the growth channels most founders chase. She does not sell on Amazon, and she has not relied on Meta or TikTok ads. Instead, she built the business through independent refill stores, salons, and surf shops, one relationship at a time.

On paper, some of those decisions look expensive. Kate believes the opposite. The shortcuts were the expensive option. Beneath the sustainable beauty story is a bigger question about how businesses grow and what happens when convenience starts pulling you away from the thing that made people trust you in the first place.

In this episode, we get into growth channels, trust, repeat purchases, brand decisions, and what founders need to think about before saying yes to the kind of growth that changes the business underneath them.

What we cover

1️⃣ The expensive side of the shortcut

Kate shares why some of the fastest-looking routes turned out to be the costliest mistakes.

2️⃣ What repeat purchases say that marketing cannot

A first sale shows you got attention. A second sale tells you whether the product actually delivered.

3️⃣ Trust built closer to the customer

This part gets into why Kate chose independent retailers, relationships, and slower channels over noisier growth tactics.

4️⃣ The trade-offs hidden inside each growth channel

Amazon, paid ads, and marketplace scale all come with consequences. Kate talks through what they change beneath the surface.