Breaking the Mold: The Real Playbook Behind Category Creators | ClickZ.com

At AMPLIFY Founderverse opening session, four Shark Tank alumni revealed what it takes to build products that defy the rules and still scale. Rather than tweaking within existing categories, the founders behind onewith, Moment | Drink Your Meditation, TANDM Surf, and Overplay each brought to life businesses that asked consumers to adopt new behaviors. Their stories weren’t about riding trends – they were about creating demand where none existed.

Here’s what we learned:

1. You won’t get clean data on something people haven’t seen before
Hayley Segar, founder of Onewith, didn’t rely on traditional customer research to build her seamless swimwear brand. Because there was no direct comparison, standard surveys and early feedback didn’t reflect the real potential. Instead, she focused on early purchase behavior and return rates to validate what worked using post-launch performance as the real signal.

2. Early traction often starts with emotion, not strategy. Juliette Clark, co-founder of TANDM Surf, didn’t begin with a formal GTM plan. She launched with a clip of her dad and sister riding a tandem surfboard capturing joy, not product specs. That video became the foundation for a now-patented product with broad appeal. The key takeaway? Authenticity travels farther than polish, especially early on.

3. Creating a new category means anchoring to moments, not just benefits. Moment | Drink Your Meditation founder Aisha Chottani built her alcohol-alternative brand around a ritual: winding down. Rather than marketing it as a better-for-you drink, she focused on the occasion it served. It was a subtle but crucial pivot, selling context, not just product, that opened up new acquisition and retention pathways.

4. Vision-led founders still need feedback loops to scale. All founders acknowledged the role of instinct, but none dismissed data. Once their initial ideas reached market, every team turned to signals from actual usage and conversion to inform packaging, creative, messaging, and expansion. The common thread: vision gets you to launch, but structured experimentation and measurement drives growth.

What does it take to build a household brand from a completely unconventional product? | ClickZ.com

At AMPLIFY Founderverse NYC, Sean Riley – Co-Founder and Chief DUDE at DUDE Wipes gave one of the most practical, no-BS sessions of the day.

– He talked about what it means to scale from zero to $150M+ without playing by traditional rules.
– He unpacked how DUDE Wipes got into Walmart without a retail team.
– He showed how media, memory, and momentum were the true unlocks.

If you’re in CPG, retail, or building something that doesn’t “fit the mold,” this one’s worth your scroll.