PhD Economist to 40K Units | Surabhi Jaju | The Founders' Stack Ep 03

What happens when an Economics PhD and CFA Level 2 dumps a potential corporate career in London to build a bootstrapped skincare brand in a Tier-2 Indian town? In this episode of The Founder's Stack, we sit down with Surabhi Jaju, co-founder of Rustic Art. While mainstream D2C brands burn VC cash to chase vanity metrics, Rustic Art is quietly shipping 30,000 to 40,000 units monthly out of Satara, Maharashtra—completely bootstrapped, profitable, and powered by an 80-90% local, women-led factory floor. 🚀 Key Takeaways: The Anti-Burn Rule: Why refusing VC money saved their unit economics. The Sourcing Advantage: How manufacturing next door in Satara protects their working capital. Waterless Products: The engineering behind concentrated formats that don't ship water. Economics to E-Comm: Translating macro data models into hyper-efficient ad spend. Rustic Art Website: www.rusticart.in Apply to be a Featured Founder: https://forms.gle/4H1phfnNMFPbWeD29 Founders' Psyche - https://founderspsyche.substack.com/ Founders' Capital - https://founderscapital8.substack.com/ ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 - Episode Teaser 00:33 - Satara Over London: An Unconventional Choice 01:56 - From PhD to Bootstrapped D2C Founder 02:53 - The Mission Behind Rustic Art 04:10 - Shifting Away from Third-Party Manufacturing 05:18 - The Hidden Realities of Contract Manufacturing 06:13 - Real Capital Requirements for a D2C Launch 07:06 - The Origins: A Mother’s Sustainability Thesis 09:55 - E-Commerce Playbook & Early Marketplaces 10:44 - Scaling to 40K Units Monthly without Funding 12:32 - Navigating the Logistics of COVID 14:18 - Why You Don't Need External Validation 14:33 - The Small-Town Sourcing Advantage 16:32 - Re-engineering Supply Chains Locally 18:25 - Concentrated Products: Why Stop Paying for Water? 21:11 - Building an 80-90% Women-Led Factory Floor 24:30 - Merging Corporate Economics with the Warehouse Floor 26:56 - The Decision to Protect the Cap Table 28:53 - Expanding to 150 SKUs & One-Stop Shopping 31:11 - Escaping Metro Traffic for a Better Work-Life Balance 32:13 - Quick Commerce & Ad-Spend Optimization 32:57 - Taking Clean Indian Formulations Global 34:18 - Innovation: Vegetable-Based Safe Makeup 37:12 - Closing Thoughts: Passion Over Vanity Metrics Music licensed via Soundstripe: FGTHADHJGDMJBLQ9, FRC86AQOBTMH4QPB, VWCJR2F3BGASRXFQ