Zero Fillers, Zero Funding, Zero Salary
Zero fillers in the product. Zero outside funding. Zero salary since September. In this episode of Built in Kilkenny, Charlie Cook sits down with Odhrán, co-founder of Second Self Life, a premium protein brand built from scratch in Kilkenny with his partner Amy-Leigh. They had enough money saved to go to Australia. They put it into a business instead. Manufacturers laughed them out of the room. Their Belgian partner told them their formula wasn't ambitious enough. They made three sales in January. And they kept going. This is the real story of building a clean supplement brand with no funding, no safety net, and no shortcuts. 00:00 Intro 00:23 Who came up with the idea 01:09 Breaking into a 60 billion dollar industry 02:12 Clean ingredients and why the big brands use fillers 03:24 Choosing the right ingredients 04:56 The Belgian manufacturer who said "not ambitious enough" 05:56 Leaving the 9 to 5 07:27 We were going to go to Australia 08:06 The product was supposed to be ready in September 09:31 What tipped you over the edge 10:45 Constantly learning 11:14 Market research advice 12:30 The Eton Mess flavour 14:06 Bootstrapped with no funding 14:31 First batch arrives in January 15:02 Mortify yourself 16:33 Learning meta ads the hard way 17:39 The Wild Tales partnership 19:23 How the cafes are receiving it 20:32 Distribution over profit 22:00 The pricing and why it costs what it costs 24:33 Tasting it live 28:48 What's next for Second Self Life 30:09 Helping Irish farmers 31:25 Working together as a couple 33:44 The dark early days 34:22 Social media comparison trap 36:06 Moving back home at 25 40:35 Advice for anyone thinking of starting Built in Kilkenny — honest conversations with the founders and builders behind this city. No gurus. No overnight-success stories. Just real people talking about what it actually takes to build something. New episodes regularly. — Follow the journey: charliecooklive.com TikTok: @charliecooklive Instagram: @charliecooklive
