The Mineraw: From Kitchen to RM1M valuation

A business and product case study in founding, scaling, and exiting a DTC consumer brand

Overview

Role	Founder & Managing Director
Duration	June 2018 – Feb 2025
Type	Direct-to-consumer, vegan skincare
Outcome	RM1M valuation, 24K+ followers, sold 2025
Tools	Shopify, Adobe, Canva, Instagram

The Problem

The Malaysian clean beauty market in 2018 had a clear gap ~ vegan, minimal skincare existed mostly at premium price points, marketed to a Western audience. Local consumers with real skin concerns and limited budgets had few honest, affordable alternatives.

There was no business plan. There was hormonal cystic acne, a kitchen, RM5,000, and a decision to start.

The core product question: Could a brand built on honest ingredients, priced for real people, find its own audience — without paid growth, outside capital, or a team?

Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Role & Relationship
Customers	Malaysian women 18–35, sensitive/acne-prone skin, budget-conscious, values-driven
Suppliers & Manufacturers	Raw ingredient vendors, contracted factory for scaled production
Retail Partners	Physical stores across KL where products were stocked
Media	Press and editorial contacts across lifestyle and beauty publications
Platform Partners	Shopify, Instagram, pop-up market organisers

🏗️ Phase 1 — Define & Validate

2018 — Kitchen production, zero budget

Business problem: No proof of demand. No capital for large production runs. No brand yet.

Approach

Formulated products from scratch — clay mask, rose water toner, and a face oil. The face oil was the counterintuitive call: conventional wisdom said oily, acne-prone skin and face oil don’t mix. Customers disagreed. It became the standout product.
Defined brand identity before spending anything: name (mineral + raw = The Mineraw), logo, packaging, website, photography — all solo
Launched in small batches; first products sold out before restocks were ready, with no marketing spend

Decision made: Stay lean, stay honest, grow only when demand pulls — not when budget pushes.

Outcome: Profitable within the first month. Revenue-funded from that point forward — no external capital for the first three years. Early customers returned and referred others. Demand exceeded batch capacity before any marketing spend.

📈 Phase 2 — Scale & Systematise

2019–2021 — Factory production, retail expansion, organic growth

Business problem: Kitchen production couldn’t meet demand. Operations were entirely manual. No systems for inventory, fulfilment, or reordering.

Approach

Mapped kitchen-to-customer fulfilment from scratch; identified where solo operation was creating bottlenecks
Briefed and onboarded a contracted manufacturer — defined formulation requirements, batch sizes, quality standards, and turnaround expectations
Defined packaging specifications end-to-end: materials, print specs, supplier briefs
Expanded from DTC online to physical retail across KL — mix of outbound outreach and inbound stockist interest
Scaled to 10 active SKUs; discontinued underperformers with transparent customer communication

Decision made: Treat every operational process like a product — define it, document it, iterate on it.

Outcome: Scaled to RM1M estimated valuation by 2022. Revenue reached RM170K in the peak year. Stocked across multiple retail locations in KL. Consistent product quality maintained across all factory production runs.

📊 Phase 3 — Sustain & Analyse

2020–2022 — Data-informed decisions, COVID surge, post-COVID recalibration

Business problem: COVID created an unexpected demand surge — then a harder correction. Needed to make product and marketing decisions with limited data tools and no analyst support.

Approach

Tracked repeat purchase rates, best-selling SKUs, and drop-off points via Shopify analytics
Used customer DMs and IG Story surveys as qualitative research; ran polls to understand shifting post-COVID needs
During the COVID surge: 10–15 orders per day, fulfilled remotely while a part-timer managed packing on the ground
Made product decisions based on what customers reordered, raised concerns about, or stopped buying
Adjusted content strategy based on organic reach and engagement data; ran paid ads selectively then stopped

Decision made: Repeat purchase rate above 25% became the north star metric — if customers came back, the product and experience were working.

Outcome: Sustained profitability through the post-COVID correction. Community trust maintained through transparent communication — including publicly acknowledging when products were discontinued and why.

🚪 Phase 4 — Exit

2023–2025 — Transition to minority shareholder, brand sale

Business problem: Post-COVID demand had dropped, competition had increased, and running every function alone was no longer sustainable — or honest. I had started a new role in product design and stopped believing in the brand enough to keep selling it convincingly.

Approach

Began winding down — running clearance sales, having accepted the business was ending in its current form
An existing customer and close friend offered to buy the brand rather than watch it close
Documented all processes, supplier contacts, brand guidelines, and operational requirements for a clean handover
Negotiated sale while retaining a minority stake; transitioned ownership February 2025

Outcome: Clean exit. RM5K invested in 2018; RM1M valuation at exit. No external debt. Ran the brand and a full-time product design role concurrently for the final year.

What This Demonstrates

Capability	How it showed up
Zero-to-one Product Building	Built product, brand, and distribution from scratch with RM5K and no prior business experience
User Research	Customer DMs, IG Story surveys, and repeat purchase data used as primary qualitative and quantitative inputs
Data-Informed Decisions	Set repeat purchase rate (>25%) as north star metric; tracked SKU performance and drop-off via Shopify
Process Design	Mapped and documented all production and fulfilment workflows solo; treated operations like a product
Stakeholder Management	Managed suppliers, factory, retail stockists, press, angel investor, and employees simultaneously
Product Lifecycle Management	10 active SKUs from concept to discontinuation; exited underperformers with transparent customer communication
Business Strategy	Positioning, pricing, channel mix, investor relations, and exit planning — all owned solo