How We Built a $50M Consumer Brand with 7 People

About this episode

Alex Schinasi and Lee Rotenberg discuss how they built Hulken into a $50M brand with a small team, focusing on their operating model and strategies.

Seven people. $50 million in annual revenue. One brand that somehow manages to feel like it's everywhere. If you've ever wondered how Hulken actually works (the operating model, the org chart, the tools, the strategy), this is the episode. This week on Unfinished Business, there's no guest. It's just Alex Schinasi and Lee Rotenberg, co-founders of Hulken and co-hosts of this show, getting into the questions they get asked most often: How do you run a brand this size with a team this small? How do you think about brand vs. growth? What does AI actually look like in your day-to-day? And what's actually coming next? Alex and Lee built Hulken from scratch into one of the most recognizable product brands in the DTC space: a rolling bag that started as a practical solution and became a cult object. They did it with a lean team, a very deliberate agency model, and a relentless focus on what actually moves the needle. In this episode: → The $50M with 7 people model: Why Hulken runs on a lean in-house team and a carefully chosen agency network → Alex's recent aha moment: growth and brand have completely different north stars, and treating them as the same function quietly dilutes both…

People in this episode

Hosts: Alex Schinasi, Lee Rotenberg

Topics covered

• consumer brand
• entrepreneurship
• AI in business
• team dynamics
• growth strategy
• DTC space

Keywords

• Hulken
• consumer brand
• lean team
• AI systems
• growth vs brand
• DTC
• agency model

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hulken, Hermès, Claude Cowork

Products: rolling bag

More episodes of Unfinished Business

• Going From $50M to $100M: How We Use Partnerships As Our Biggest Growth Levers at Hulken · June 2, 2026 · 19 min
• The DTC Trap That Built Juliet Wine's Retail Empire | Allison Luvera · May 26, 2026 · 29 min
• What Most DTC Founders Get Wrong About Entering a Crowded Category | Greta Meyer · May 19, 2026 · 33 min
• The DTC math most founders refuse to do (until it's too late) | Suze Dowling @ Pattern Brands · May 12, 2026 · 37 min
• Inside Hulken: How Our CBO Built a $50M Community-Led Luxury Brand · April 14, 2026 · 32 min
• How Dylan Munro Invented a New $130M DTC Category and Built a Factory to Protect It · March 31, 2026 · 34 min