She Built a $7M Skincare Brand From Her Kitchen — No Investors, No Ads

She built a $7M+ skincare brand from scratch — no investors, no ads, no funding. Just a problem she needed to solve and the work ethic to see it through.🎙️ In this episode of The Art of Kaizen, Kyle sits down with Kerry Benjamin, founder of Stacked Skincare — a multi-seven-figure self-funded brand she built from her kitchen while battling eczema, MRSA infections, and zero business experience. Kerry left a 15-year career in tech (Microsoft, DoubleClick) to become an esthetician, and turned that into one of the most respected skincare brands in the D2C space.This is not a highlight reel. Kerry shares the packing boxes alone until midnight, the 3PL disaster she had to fix overnight, the products she launched and killed, and the moment everything finally flipped. If you're building a business right now with no one handing you anything — this conversation was made for you.💡 What you'll learn in this episode🔹 How Kerry validated her business with 3 SKUs before spending a cent on ads🔹 The word of mouth strategy that got her featured in major publications with zero PR budget🔹 Why launching too many products almost hurt her brand and what she did instead🔹 How she audited her entire tech stack and cut thousands in monthly bloat🔹 The D2C vs retail decision every product founder needs to think through before scaling🔹 What she'd tell a first-time founder with no funding and no mentor⏱️ Timestamps0:00 The story behind Stacked Skincare4:20 Leaving a 15-year tech career to go to beauty school9:45 Getting featured in Byrdie with zero ad spend15:30 Packing 800 boxes a month from her house22:00 The 3PL mistake and how she fixed it fast28:40 Why she stopped launching new products34:00 Cutting her tech stack bloat with AI38:00 Advice for first-time founders with no funding42:00 What's next — moving to Costa Rica and helping entrepreneurs🌐 Find Kerrystackskincare.comInstagram @kerrybenjamin🚀 Connect with KaizenWebsite → kaizenmarketing.agencyInstagram → @kaizenmarketing.agencyEmail → [email protected]