The things founders used to hide are becoming the exact things that build trust with their customers now:

The kitchen.

The folding table.

The family members filling bottles.

The fact that your “warehouse” is your dining room.

For years, online business culture pushed founders to look bigger than they were. More polished. More established. More corporate.

But I think something has shifted.

I think people are craving real stories, real people, and real businesses now more than ever. Especially in a world where so much content feels overly produced, automated, and disconnected from actual human beings.

When I built my beauty brand, I mixed and filled products in my kitchen. First in a tiny apartment in Queens, and later in my house in New Jersey. At one point, I had staff working at my dining room table while products were being filled a few feet away on my kitchen counters.

I remember recording an episode of the Where Brains Meet Beauty podcast at my house years ago. The host, Jodi, came over and we sat at my dining room table to record while two of my team members worked in the kitchen nearby. They were laughing and talking in the background, and I remember feeling slightly flustered because I knew people would hear them on the recording.

But at the same time, this was the reality of my business. And I never really saw the value in hiding it.

Meanwhile, I was friends with founders who were also making products in their kitchens but didn’t want anyone to know. They didn’t want customers to know their husband was helping pack orders or their sister was doing customer service because they worried it would make the business seem small or amateur.

But I honestly think people connect with that story now.

If you’re building something without investor money, if you’re figuring it out as you go - it doesn't have to read as small. It can read as intentional and personal. And in a time when consumers are talking constantly about not knowing what brands to trust anymore, that matters.

I think people want to know who made the thing they’re buying.

I think they want to know there’s an actual person behind the product. Someone who cares. Someone who built it from scratch instead of trying to manufacture the appearance of success before it actually exists.

You do not need to pretend to be bigger than you are in order to be taken seriously.

You do not need a giant office or a perfectly curated setup to deserve visibility. And you are not limiting your future by telling the truth about where you are right now.

Eventually, we did move out of my house and into a commercial space. And five years later, I sold the brand.

Being honest about where I started didn’t stop any of that from happening. If anything, I think it helped people trust me more.

So if you’re building something right now and worrying that your setup isn’t impressive enough to show online, this is me telling you:

Show us anyway.

Tell the truth anyway.

If you’re making it in your kitchen, I want to see that kitchen 😊

You're exactly where you're supposed to be.

 If you want support from someone who has navigated the realities of building, scaling, and eventually selling a product-based business, you can learn more about coaching here