Liftoff with Keith Newman: For Founders looking for a new growth playbook and further inspiration. · Former Journalist, Startup + GTM exec Keith Newman

No Fashion Experience? No Problem | How Justin Baer Built Collars & Co to $75M

·27 min·1 clip

Justin says Shark Tank had a “top five percent” outcome and he closed the deal with Mark Cuban and Peter Jones.

1. Liftoff with Keith Newman profiles Collars & Co, the e-commerce brand built by Justin Baer around dress-collar polos and menswear. 2. Keith Newman hosts Justin Baer, the founder and CEO of Collars & Co, because Baer scaled the company from zero to $75 million. 3. The episode asks how a non-fashion entrepreneur built a fast-growing apparel brand in a crowded market. 4. Baer says the idea came from wearing a sweater over a dress shirt in New York and finding it uncomfortable. 5. He describes making a polo with a firm collar so he could avoid the sleeve bunching and heat of a long-sleeve shirt. 6. Baer says his seven-year-old daughter told him to film a TikTok video in his closet. 7. He says the phone started beeping with orders while the family was watching Netflix. 8. Newman points out that Baer came from tech rather than fashion, and Baer says that naivete helped him. 9. Baer says entrepreneurs who know nothing about an industry can sometimes move faster than insiders. 10. The discussion turns to digital marketing, where Baer talks about Facebook, Meta, Instagram, CAC, LTV, and ROAS. 11. He says spending $50,000 a day on Facebook is hard even if smaller tests are easy. 12. Baer says he targets different avatars, including finance bros, dads, and men nearing retirement. 13. He says Facebook is pushing more AI-driven ad buying and simplifying what used to be a black box. 14. Baer says product quality comes first, then brand, then marketing, and he keeps repeating product-market fit. 15. He says Collars & Co can break even on the first order and make money on the second purchase. 16. Baer says the brand is expanding beyond polos into pants, knit polos, merino wool sweaters, blazers, and pull-on shorts. 17. He says shark tank success came from filling out the ABC form at 11:30 at night and going through 10 to 12 interviews. 18. Baer says many Shark Tank segments do not air, that the show shot an update remotely during COVID, and that he closed with Mark Cuban and Peter Jones at 10%. 19. The tone is conversational and tactical, with Keith Newman pressing Baer for numbers, process, and growth lessons. 20. Founders, e-commerce operators, and paid-social marketers will get the most from this episode, while listeners looking for narrative storytelling will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded founder story about turning a niche clothing idea into a fast-scaling brand.

Justin Baer makes a straightforward founder story feel sharp and grounded: Collars & Co went from an unknown e-commerce brand to $75 million in about three years, and the hard-collar shirt is framed as a product that found room in a crowded market.

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Hear how Justin Baer turned a collar idea into a fast-growing brand.

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