In this episode, Yaw shares how a homemade skincare solution for his wife turned into Ava Estell, a brand that’s now made over £25 million. It started as a personal project to address her hyperpigmentation with natural ingredients and quickly evolved into a viral success during the COVID lockdown.

He explains how his background in engineering and natural products helped him formulate the product, and how an unexpected legal battle forced a full rebrand early on, leading to the name "Ava Estell," a tribute to both his wife and daughter.

Yaw also dives into the key drivers behind Ava Estell’s success: building a strong brand story, having the right skills from past startup experience, and understanding marketing and operations at scale. He shares why he turned down £2M in funding, and the tough lessons that followed.

The episode also covers:

Biggest win: Building a meaningful, scalable brand rooted in love and purpose.
Biggest lesson: Saying no to early investment can be costly in the long run.

An inspiring and insightful conversation packed with lessons on resilience, strategy, and building something that lasts.

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The Bread and Butter by Emmanuel Asuquo & Tayo Oguntonade is not your typical finance or business podcast, it explores real-life stories of how money plays a part in our day-to-day life - with no boundaries, no secrets and no censorship. In each episode we invite you to be a fly in the room when we discuss money taboos, key financial advice and some of the hottest money topics online, often with well-known guests from influencers, athletes to musicians. Together we discuss money in a super relatable way, talk about the impacts it's had on their journey and the role it plays today. Topics will revolve around how money plays a part in parenting, living and working abroad, entrepreneurship and content creation & more!

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