Who Gives A Crap Founder on Challenger Lessons - Danny Alexander

About this episode

Danny Alexander discusses the journey of Who Gives A Crap and the lessons learned in building a purpose-driven brand.

Danny Alexander, co-founder of Who Gives A Crap , joins us to share how a toilet paper brand became a global challenger business while giving away 50% of its profits to charity. From launching with a viral crowdfunding campaign to capitalising on the global toilet paper shortage, Danny breaks down how the brand combined purpose, creativity, and strong fundamentals to stand out in a commoditised category. We also discuss the realities of scaling a mission-led business, the differences between DTC and retail marketing, lessons from failed launches, and how to build a team and culture that lasts. A brilliant look at what it really takes to build a brand people care about. Timestamps 00:00 – Start 00:29 – The founding story of Who Gives A Crap 02:55 – The benefits of having three co-founders 05:00 – Naming the company 07:07 – Innovating in packaging design 10:08 – The story behind the emergency roll 10:58 – Why they give away 50% of profits 12:53 – Convincing investors to support the mission 14:38 – The viral crowdfunding campaign 17:33 – Capitalising on the toilet paper shortage 22:45 – DTC vs retail marketing 24:36 – Most effective marketing campaigns 27:46 – Biggest challenges and…

People in this episode

Host: Jon Evans

Guest: Danny Alexander

Topics covered

• challenger brands
• mission-led business
• marketing strategies
• scaling businesses
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• toilet paper
• crowdfunding
• charity
• marketing
• business scaling
• DTC
• retail marketing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Who Gives A Crap, DTC, retail

More episodes of Uncensored CMO

• Greg Hahn on why the biggest risk you can take is to be ignorable · June 10, 2026 · 59 min
• How Chili’s used creativity, culture and customer experience to create one of the greatest turnaround success stories - George Felix · June 3, 2026 · 1h 4m
• Tom Goodwin and Rory Sutherland Fix Marketing (Part 2) · May 27, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Rory Sutherland and Tom Goodwin Fix Marketing (Part 1) · May 20, 2026 · 1h 4m
• How to manage a crisis with ex United Airlines Chief of Comms, Jim Olson · May 13, 2026 · 45 min
• Marketing lessons from 20 years at Google - Dan Taylor · May 6, 2026 · 48 min