Before Laurel Bathhouse, Dave was building everything except a body wash brand. He had a clothing label that worked with names like The Weeknd and Juice WRLD, built shoes from recycled sex toys, helped run Machine Gun Kelly’s business portfolio, and even did political subversive marketing on Biden’s campaign. But at some point, the noise became too much. Dave and his wife, Laura, were ready to build something of their own—on their own terms.

That shift didn’t come with a five-year business plan. It started with a scent. A scent that was supposed to be a fine fragrance. But when Laura smelled it, she didn’t say “this smells expensive”—she said, “this smells like body wash.”

At first, Dave was mad. He had spent months working on it. But the feedback stuck. And when the sale of his last business put a pause on developing new products, he sold their house and used the cash to start building Laurel.

Bootstrapped by Design

Laurel isn’t just self-funded. It’s self-built, self-tested, and self-run. Dave still manages every ad himself, tracks every data point, and builds every piece of creative. Laura, a respected fitness instructor in LA, shapes the brand tone and is the unfiltered voice behind much of Laurel’s content.

It’s not just the product that’s handcrafted—it’s the entire brand engine. “I always say, from zero to $300K, it’s just doing something, learning from it, fixing it, and doing it better the next time,” Dave said.

They’re not just bootstrapping for the financial upside—they’re doing it to protect the soul of the brand. Laurel plays with nuance, humor, and innuendo in a way most corporate brands simply can’t. “We tow the line,” Dave said. “But that’s the point. It’s fun, cheeky, and it breaks through the noise in a way big companies can’t replicate.”

Tone That Cuts Through the Noise

From the outside, Laurel might look like a marketing machine. Viral TikToks. Clever Instagram posts. High engagement with a small following. But the secret to that performance is less about volume—and more about voice.

Their content isn’t trying to sell. It’s trying to connect. Dave described their brand voice as the real way he and Laura talk—dark humor, nuance, and just enough edge to stay interesting. “No one wants to be sold to,” he said. “So we ask, how do you sell without selling?”

Their best-performing TikTok? It didn’t even mention the product. It just featured Laura. But it was enough to spark a wave of Google searches and direct Amazon traffic. The lesson? “E-com is a moving target. You can’t rely on a funnel you built six months ago—it’s probably already broken.”

Content First, Every Time

After flatlining at $16K/month in revenue for a few months, Dave realized he had to make a shift.

“The biggest thing I’d tell myself a year ago is: focus on content, and do it sooner,” he said. Now, he wakes up early, builds a content queue based on brand themes, and constantly iterates. “I have a list of every talking point we care about—education, humor, dating, fragrance—and I try to combine them into something new each day.”

Even the ads are made in-house. Dave designs them in Photoshop, runs them through Meta, tests, iterates, and rebuilds. “The biggest trap is putting more spend behind what worked, thinking it’ll keep working. But creative fatigue is real. You’re basically starting over every 10 days.”

A Retail Strategy That’s Secondary to Storytelling

Laurel is now carried by Goop, Forward, and Urban Outfitters—but retail hasn’t been the rocket ship. “Retail validates us. But I haven’t seen it translate directly to sales,” Dave said. “It’s more about the perception. When someone visits our site and sees those logos, it helps close the loop.”

Ironically, most of their retail wins came from Dave’s cold outreach. “I find the right buyer, track them down, and follow up a hundred times,” he said. “Goop was one of the only ones who actually reached out to us.”

What Actually Moves the Needle

Laurel’s earned press in Forbes, Dieline, and Fast Company—but none of that has made a noticeable dent in sales. “Press doesn’t convert the way it used to,” Dave said. “It might have during COVID, but anymore.”

Instead, the secret weapon…. A meme page. Dave runs a personal meme account with over 150,000 followers. He uses it to test and distribute content that’s tangentially connected to Laurel. It helps build brand heat in corners of the internet that legacy brands can’t touch.

$150K in Sales and Climbing

Ten months into the brand, Laurel Bathhouse crossed $150K in gross sales, with March topping $31K—almost double the previous month. It’s not hockey-stick growth. It’s real, intentional, and sustainable.

Dave is quick to point out that it’s not about finding one ad that works and scaling it—it’s about finding the 1 percent that works, killing the rest, and repeating the cycle.

“You double down on the ad that’s working, but then it burns out. So you go back and build a new one, slightly better. That’s the cycle.”

A Smart Brand Built from the Ground Up

Dave operates with a framework he calls the “smart brand chart.” It includes:

• Who is the enemy (in Laurel’s case, “big soap”)
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• What is the brand’s differentiator (pH-balanced, better scent, better experience)
  
  
• What’s the friction to activation
  
  
• How are we stacking habits to add more value
  
  
• What’s the peak intensity (the most emotional version of using our product)
  
  
• Where does social proof show up
  
  
• And how are we using humor as a Trojan horse for emotional connection
  
  

“I think about habit stacking a lot,” Dave said. “The spray deodorant we’re developing is a good example—it moisturizes, deodorizes, and adds scent, without the friction of lotion. That’s value.”

Looking Ahead: Growth Without Compromise

What’s next for Laurel? New scents like Rocket Man and Banana Hammock. A product line extension into natural creams and body sprays. More cheeky campaigns. And more control.

Dave isn’t interested in being on every shelf. He’s not chasing a big-box strategy. “I want Laurel to be a brand people remember. A scent that brings you back to a moment in time,” he said.

Even if the brand ends up niche, it’ll be intentional. Personal. Close to the heart. And still built the same way it started—by hand, with soul, and one smart decision at a time.