The Entrepreneur Experiment EE490 - 1 Product, €3M Revenue, 450 Stores: The Gigi Story with Jennie Haire and Lisa Hughes
In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Jennie and Lisa, the founders of Gigi, the women’s health brand rethinking hormonal support through premium, evidence-led supplements.
From working as registered nutritional therapists to building a fast-growing consumer brand, Jennie and Lisa share how their clinical experience led them to spot a major gap in the market: women being told to take multiple supplements for PMS and hormone balance, with no simple, targeted solution in sight. What followed was a crash course in product development, manufacturing, branding, retail, cashflow, and persistence.
They open up about the reality of building a product-based business from scratch — from begging manufacturers to take a chance on them, to selling out their first production run in just two weeks, to learning the hard way how brutal stockouts can be when demand outpaces supply. They also share how social media, education, and bringing customers behind the scenes helped them build trust early and create real momentum.
This is a powerful conversation about solving a genuine problem, building in a capital-intensive category, and creating a brand with purpose in a space that has long underserved women.
🎧 Show Notes
In this episode, we cover:
🔥 How Jennie and Lisa turned clinical insight into a fast-growing women’s health brand
🚀 The lightbulb moment behind Gigi and why they started with one hero product
🧠 Why the best business ideas come from momentum, frustration, and seeing a real problem up close
💊 The flaw in asking women to take 4–5 different supplements for one issue
🏭 What it really takes to find a manufacturer when you have no track record
✈️ The trip to Paris that changed everything for the business
📦 Minimum order quantities, funding pressure, and the realities of cash-heavy product businesses
💸 How they used grants, personal capital, and negotiation to get their first production run made
📱 Why social media and education were key to winning their first customers
💌 How documenting the journey built an email list and a loyal early audience
🛒 Selling direct-to-consumer while also expanding into pharmacy and retail
📈 The operational stress of selling out — and why “high demand” can still create huge problems
🌊 Why branding mattered, and how they built a women’s health product that didn’t look overly clinical
❤️ Building a business that genuinely improves women’s lives, while also building a commercially viable company
💬 Standout Quote
“There has to be a better way.”
That simple frustration became the foundation for Gigi — and the catalyst for building a product designed to genuinely improve women’s quality of life.
Links & Resources
Follow Jennie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennie.haire/
Follow Lisa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisahughes_nt/
Follow Gigi Supplements: https://www.instagram.com/gigisupplements/
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