I love talking to founders with "startup scars," but what about "M&A lawyer" scars?
I sat down with Sam Coxe, the founder of Flaus. She’s not a dentist. She was an M&A attorney at Skadden, grinding in a "very, very high pressure, super intense" environment.
Her "aha" moment? A massive dental bill after admitting she was a "terrible flosser". She went to buy an "electric flosser" and was "shocked to discover nothing like this existed".
So she built it. And she built it into a monster.
Flaus scaled to eight figures in revenue with a two-person team. This is a masterclass in methodical disruption.
Here’s how she did it.
1. Start Selling a New Category
Sam’s core insight is brilliant. She knew she couldn't win by just being a better product. She had to reframe the entire "stale" and "medical" category.
Legacy brands like Oral-B "have been around for decades... and they move so slow". Her disruptive reframe? "Oral Beauty".
She's "helping people understand that not only is this medically important, but it's also important for looking your best, feeling your best overall wellness and beauty".
This is how you win against giants. She knows that "consumers, particularly Gen Z, Gen Alpha really want to feel that like authentic connection to the brand, the brand ethos, the brand story, the team". Building that connection, she says, is "basically impossible for these large conglomerates to do".
2. How an "Outsider" Built a Moat of Trust
As a lawyer, Sam had zero credibility in the dental space. She had to build it from scratch, and she attacked it on two fronts.
Pillar 1: Professional Validation (The "White Coat")
Day One: "when I first came up with the idea... I immediately got two dentists involved... as well as an engineer... I kind of identified... my two biggest, weakest spots... and fill[ed] those".
The GTM: She made dentists a core channel. "We go to about eight to 10 dental conferences a year," which has "become its own revenue stream" as dentists "wholesale the product into their dental office".
The Proof: "we just completed our first set of clinical trials... and the results are so positive... was found to be significantly more effective at removing plaque".
Pillar 2: Cultural Validation (The "Stamps of Approval") She systematically collected massive "stamps of credibility".
The list is insane: "I was on Shark Tank last year, and then we were at Time's Best Inventions of the Year, Fast Company... And then... Literally last week we were Oprah's list of favorite things".
She even knows who each stamp is for, noting that while Gen Z might say "Oprah who?", that validation is critical for Baby Boomers with "fine motor dexterity limitations". Her next move? QVC on Black Friday.
3. The "Methodical" Growth Ladder
The secret to her 2-person, 8-figure team? She wasn't a "spray and pray" founder. She was "super methodical".
First, she has the "consumable replenish" (the floss heads), which "makes us a little bit less reliant on... upfront acquisition" and lets her "lean more into... retention".
Then, she followed a precise growth ladder:
Step 1: "we started... with one color skew, one channel, nailed that, got my first million dollars".
Step 2: "And I was like, okay, a layer on Amazon... that blew up".
Step 3: "Then I was like, okay, let's layer on two other colors".
This discipline is her biggest advantage. "we are only on three channels... Meta, Google and Amazon. That's it". She sees competitors who are "also in retail" and "doing Tik Tok," but Flaus hasn't "even... foray[ed] into any of that yet".
That's not weakness. That's a roadmap.
A huge thanks to Sam for the masterclass. She's proof that you don't need to be an industry insider to win. You just need a better insight, a plan to build credibility, and the operational discipline to execute.
