[SaaS & eCommerce Series] Reality of Buying a Founder-Led Business With Brian Nolan

Brian Nolan is the Co-owner of Darren & Phillip, a purpose-driven lifestyle brand creating premium matching apparel and accessories for dog lovers and their dogs. He leads the brand’s American growth, strategy, and e-commerce expansion while advancing its mission to support dog rescue organizations worldwide. Before acquiring the company, Brian co-founded and led Sellbrite and BookOutdoors, which were acquired by GoDaddy and Hipcamp, respectively. A USC Marshall School of Business alumnus, he draws on extensive experience in entrepreneurship, product development, marketing, and e-commerce to build customer-focused brands that combine commercial growth with meaningful social impact.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [5:59] Brian Nolan introduces Darren & Phillip and its mission-driven apparel brand
• [12:12] The criteria Brian used to evaluate an e-commerce acquisition
• [15:49] Brian’s first steps after taking ownership of Darren & Phillip
• [18:10] Inventory challenges across human sizes, dog sizes, and seasonal collections
• [22:59] Lessons from structuring seller transitions and acquisition incentives
• [25:10] Brian’s transition from Sellbrite founder to GoDaddy executive
• [28:25] Bootstrapped growth versus venture-backed expansion
• [31:51] How Brian validated demand before building Sellbrite’s full product

In this episode…

Building a successful software company and buying an established consumer brand require very different operating skills. When a founder moves from SaaS exits into e-commerce ownership, how can past experience create an advantage without obscuring the realities of inventory, brand identity, and customer behavior?

According to Brian Nolan, the transition from startup exits to brand ownership requires proven growth instincts and a willingness to relearn the fundamentals. He emphasizes evaluating repeat purchases, unit economics, and audience engagement before an acquisition. After taking over Darren & Phillip, he improved systems, expanded sales channels, refined the product line, and repositioned the brand as a premium, human-first lifestyle company. The experience also showed him the impact of founder visibility and the value of longer transitions, performance-based incentives, disciplined inventory planning, authentic storytelling, and a clear brand identity.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Brian Nolan, Co-owner of Darren & Phillip, to discuss moving from SaaS exits to building a stronger e-commerce brand. Brian explains how he evaluated and acquired Darren & Phillip, repositioned its products and identity, and managed complex inventory challenges. He also shares lessons on seller transitions, acquisition incentives, and using Shopify and AI to guide decisions.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Brian Nolan on LinkedIn
• Darren & Phillip
• Sellbrite
• Hipcamp
• Shopify
• STOQ
• Claude Shopify Connector
• ChatGPT
• The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Reiss
• R-Squared Ventures
• Colorado StartUps Slack Group
• CTO Slackers
• My First Million Podcast

Special mentions:

• William Harris on LinkedIn
• Roy Rubin on LinkedIn
• Bill Gross on LinkedIn
• Roy Erez on LinkedIn

Related episodes:

• “[Top Agency Series] Why Your eCommerce Store Isn’t Growing or Profiting With Elumynt’s William Harris” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Resources & Gener8tor Series] Top Tools and Growth Hacks” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “The Benefits of Multi-Channel Marketing for B2C Businesses With Brian Nolan” on the Up Arrow Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “I’ve always loved having tangible products and being able to show people what we actually are making.”
• “I wanted to wake up every morning and be excited about what I was doing.”
• “That’s the hardest part, honestly. And probably the area that I have the least experience in.”
• “Thank God for AI that can look at our sales and help me figure this stuff out.”
• “I probably should have at least done a year, to be honest, to smooth out the transition.”

Action steps:

1. Evaluate acquisition fundamentals before buying: Reviewing repeat customer rates, unit economics, audience engagement, and growth opportunities helps determine whether a brand has sustainable potential.
2. Structure a longer seller transition: Extending the handoff period provides more time to learn operations, preserve customer trust, and transfer founder-led relationships.
3. Tie acquisition payments to performance milestones: Linking part of the purchase price to results keeps sellers engaged and reduces the buyer’s financial risk.
4. Use sales data to guide inventory decisions: Analyzing product demand, sizes, and reorder patterns helps prevent excess stock and protects cash flow.
5. Divide responsibilities according to individual strengths: Establishing clear ownership of creative, technical, and marketing functions reduces conflict and improves decision-making.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Brian Nolan. You can check him out at DarrenandPhillip.com, which will go into. And it’s really, I guess, a tagline. Brian is always in good company, made for dog people and the dogs they love, which we’ll see. It’s awesome. Like matching sweatshirts, matching robes. You got to check it out. So I’ll formally introduce Brian in a second. But Brian, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out.

This is kind of a you know, obviously you span a lot of different genres here, right? You had a software company, we’re talking e-commerce company. So we’ll go right now in present day because you sold a couple companies in e-commerce. Who fits into that? William Harris, for one, is amazing. And you did an interview on William’s show and I did an interview with William, so people should check that out. But he basically talked about why your e-commerce store isn’t growing or profiting. And it really went deep on that. And back in the day, William worked for Brian’s software company, Sellbrite. Another one since we’re in the dog space, I had a group from Gener8tor, which is like an incubator in Wisconsin, and one of those companies by Bradley Will is Mumbies, which is a natural, sustainable chew toy and treat for dogs. Right. And think of like coffee tree wood and coconut husk. So it’s like healthier and things like that. So people can check that out. And I’ll tell Bradley to check out your site, Brian. I’m sure he’ll dig what you’re doing over there. So that many more on InspiredInsider.com.

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that by one, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do everything: easy button strategy, accountability, execution, production. Number two, we’re an easy button for a company’s gifting. So, you know, it could be staying top of mind for clients, partners, prospects, even staff from a culture perspective, just send us a list of addresses. We’ll do everything else. And it’s not like kind of like a one off gift. It’s think getting something or sending something every four months for five years. And I don’t like sending like a mug with someone’s logo. It’s like, Brian, we were just talking before we hit record. I like food, so it’s food, right? I always like getting food, so it’s sending just sweet treats in the mail. So, you know, if you have questions, go to Rise25.com or email [email protected] to learn more.

I’m excited to introduce Brian Nolan. He’s a serial entrepreneur. Two successful exits. Sellbrite, which was an e-commerce SaaS business acquired by GoDaddy and BookOutdoors. I think one of the interviews I watched, Brian of you, you were still in the midst of BookOutdoors, which was interesting. And BookOutdoors is an online travel booking site acquired by Hipcamp. And today he and his wife own Darren & Phillip, which is a premium lifestyle apparel brand for dog people. And also it’s donated over $1 million to dog rescues worldwide and help thousands of dogs find loving homes. So, you know, a fun fact about Brian, which we’ll dig into. I may make you do a trick, I don’t know, but he is a member at the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. People who know me, I geek out on magic actually. So Brian, thanks for joining me.

Brian Nolan: 04:03

Dr. Jeremy, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:06

I was going to go with the company and what you do, which we’ll get to, but like what’s your favorite magic trick?

Brian Nolan: 04:11

Oh man. I don’t know about a favorite. The one, my go to is one that I’ve been doing since I was probably 15 years old that I saw David Copperfield do on one of his specials back in the day. It’s called Crazy Man’s Handcuffs. So it’s a rubber band trick that the rubber bands are sort of linked together in your fingers, and then they melt apart. I love it because you can do it anywhere. And I could do it with like women’s hair ties or whatever, right? So I don’t need to carry around a deck of cards or carry a, you know, any kind of.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:41

You pull out of your jeans, you have a deck of cards right here.

Brian Nolan: 04:45

Yeah. So that’s probably my favorite that I’ve done thousands of times, and it blows people’s minds. And it’s just easy to do. No, not easy to do, actually. Easy for me to perform. But it’s hard to do and hard to learn.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:59

People don’t realize actually Rise25 started with the first event we did with a group of entrepreneurs in San Francisco, and I thought it’d be fun to, we did an after party and we flew in a mentalist for that party to do just close up magic with people. And it was like we spent our whole budget. It was not a profitable event. We spent our whole budget on flying this mentalist in and just having them perform. And it was money well spent.

Brian Nolan: 05:36

You know what? People kind of dog on magic sometimes say it’s geeky or nerdy or whatever, and it is. But there’s very few people I’ve met that don’t love good magic.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:48

Exactly.

Brian Nolan: 05:49

So, you know, say what you want. People tend to love it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:52

Yeah, I do. So, Darren & Phillip.

Brian Nolan: 05:56

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:56

Talk about what you do there. I’m going to pull up the website.

Brian Nolan: 05:59

Okay. Yeah. Like you mentioned, it’s a lifestyle apparel brand for dog people, dog lovers. So, you know, you think of apparel brands or lifestyle brands. You got everything from people who love golf, people who love activewear and yoga, you name it, right? There’s surf, whatever. There’s active, there’s lifestyle brands for everything. But we didn’t find a good one for dog people. And what that means is identity and people who love and do everything with their dogs and not always needing to match their dogs, although that’s kind of what we do. But we also make things just for the human as well. And so you don’t always have to match. And it’s, and its products, like our dog walking bag that have functionality. Built in poop bag dispensers, for instance that you know, it’s a nice crossbody bag that you can wear out. Typically, women wear it out at any occasion, but it also has functionality for walking a dog.

So my wife and I actually acquired this brand about a year and a half ago after selling BookOutdoors, and we wanted to try something different. Rather than starting a new brand from scratch, we wanted to buy something that had some momentum already, that we felt like we could take our experience and try to drive growth, and put our own flavor on the brand. And so this brand was actually started in Australia and had grown pretty well in Australia and even in the UK and Europe and had gotten into the US a little bit, but they didn’t. The founders really didn’t know how to grow the brand from Australia in the US, so it was a good opportunity for us to take it over.

But what we really loved is that from the beginning, the brand has always been mission driven and it’s always been about dog rescues. And so to date, like you said, the brand has donated over $1.25 million to dog rescues around the world through our community. So some of that is community donations. Some of that is proceeds from sales. Sometimes we build products that are where 100% of the proceeds go to the rescues, like these calendars we do every year. So we really love that aspect of it because we are dog people ourselves. We’ve had five rescue dogs ourselves and we’ve done a lot with dog rescue, so it was a great match for us to take over this brand. And buying a brand is not easy. And you know, the brand was growing well.

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