Shaan Puri's $50M Baby Brand - Bums & Roses: The Stealth E-commerce Playbook

Owner Profile: Shaan Puri is the co-host of the wildly popular My First Million podcast where he shares business insights with hundreds of thousands of listeners. Beyond the mic, he's quietly built an e-commerce empire in the baby clothing space without most of his audience even knowing about it!

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Ever wondered how to build a multi-million dollar e-commerce brand without telling anyone about it? We break down Shaan Puri’s e-commerce strategy and his secretive approach to building Bums & Roses, a premium baby clothing brand that's thrived by staying under the radar while targeting a lucrative niche market that most entrepreneurs overlook.

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Stealth Mode Strategy: Puri intentionally keeps Bums & Roses separate from his podcast audience to maintain clean analytics and prevent competitors from discovering his playbook

• Niche Selection Mastery: By focusing on underserved segments within the baby apparel market, the brand avoids competing with retail giants

• Community-First Approach: Building authentic connections through family-centric content before pushing product has created a loyal customer base

• Precision Ad Targeting: Leveraging Facebook/Instagram's demographic targeting to reach parents (particularly mothers) with visually compelling campaigns

🛠️ TOOLS & RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Instagram Marketing: @bumsandroses serves as the brand's primary platform for community building and product showcasing

• Shopify: While not explicitly confirmed, this is the likely e-commerce platform powering the business

• Meta Ad Platform: Leveraged for precise parent demographic targeting

• Affiliate Program: Offers 15% commission to incentivize authentic content creation

💼 BUSINESS IDEAS & OPPORTUNITIES

• Stealth Brand Launch: Test business concepts without announcing them to your existing audience to get genuine market feedback

• Micro-Niche Expansion: Identify underserved segments within saturated markets (eco-friendly pet products, custom apparel)

• Influencer-Free Validation: Build authentic customer base without relying on personal influence or following

• Community-Driven Product Development: Use customer feedback loops to refine offerings based on real parent needs

📊 STATS & TRENDS WORTH NOTING

• Affiliate Commission Rate: 15% commission suggests healthy profit margins and customer lifetime value

• Meta Ad Dominance: Despite rising costs, Facebook/Instagram remain primary customer acquisition channels for parent demographics

• Multi-Channel Promotion: Encouraging affiliates to leverage email, YouTube, and paid ads indicates diversified marketing approach

• Premium Positioning: Brand focus suggests higher price points and margins than mass market alternatives

🔑 ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES

1. The Stealth Launch Method

• Create separate business entity (Puri uses Little Bum Bums, LLC)

• Build social presence before product push

• Test ad creative with cold audiences only

• Avoid mentioning to existing audience/network

2. The Community-First Framework

• Focus Instagram content on family stories, not just products

• Feature "Our Family" content to humanize the brand

• Build trust before heavy product promotion

• Encourage authentic user-generated content

3. The Niche Selection Process

• Identify underserved parent segments with specific aesthetic preferences

• Solve specific pain points (durability, style, eco-friendliness)

• Position as premium alternative to mass market options

• Test rapidly, scale cautiously based on engagement metrics

4. The Affiliate Amplification System

• Offer compelling commission structure (15%)

• Encourage multi-channel promotion

• Maintain transparency in affiliate relationships

• Leverage parenting influencers for authentic placement

📝 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

What makes Shaan Puri's Bums & Roses remarkable isn't just its reported success, but the counter-intuitive strategy behind it. While most entrepreneurs leverage their existing audience to launch new ventures, Puri took the opposite approach—building a thriving baby apparel business in stealth mode to ensure authentic market validation. By focusing on niche targeting, community building, and precision ad campaigns rather than personal influence, he's created a case study in sustainable e-commerce growth. The key lesson? Sometimes the best way to build a business isn't to tell everyone about it, but to solve a specific problem for a specific audience so well that they can't help but tell others.