She spent $225,000 of her own money on a brand that hadn’t sold a single bottle yet.
Before that, she priced her first fragrance at $250 and the internet came for her. “Who do you think you are? You’re not Gucci. You’re not Creed.” Her team told her the price is the price. She sold out, did over a million dollars in six months, and people started reselling the bottles on eBay for $600.
Funmi Monet is the founder and CEO of Influxious, the fragrance brand that launched exclusively at Sephora. She was a licensed therapist first. Then she trained at ISIPCA in Versailles, joined the Sephora Squad, and built an audience of more than 500,000 people who trust her nose.
In this episode we get into where the $225,000 went and why she doesn’t regret a cent, the standard founder advice she ignored on purpose, the VC who told her a million dollars was too small a check to write, how she studied the Ami Colé shutdown so she wouldn’t repeat it, why niche fragrance brands don’t pay creators, and the de-auntie era that started with one rude comment about her wig.

Shop everything in the Influxious collection here: https://shopmy.us/collections/4363401
Gold Standard:
https://go.shopmy.us/p-78615163
High Life:
https://go.shopmy.us/p-78615206
Discovery Set:
https://go.shopmy.us/p-78615281
Well Loved:
https://go.shopmy.us/p-78615369
Magic Hour:
https://go.shopmy.us/p-78615443
Shop more of my favorite products here: https://shopmy.us/shop/softnest

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WHERE TO FIND FUNMI MONET
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funmimonet/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@funmimonet
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@funmimonet
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/funmi-monet-68613363/

INFLUXIOUS
Website: https://influxious.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/influxious.co/
Shop at Sephora: https://www.sephora.com/brand/influxious

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 “You’re not Gucci. You’re not Creed.”
1:15 Quick favor before we start
1:31 The biggest misconception about the fragrance industry
3:12 You don’t need a wall of perfume, you need an audience
4:23 The question she wishes people would ask her
5:57 Why that perfume smells different on you
7:40 Charging $250 and the backlash that followed
9:05 Sold out, then resold on eBay for $600
10:15 From Clubhouse to a Sephora shelf
11:54 The founder advice she deliberately ignored
13:34 Raising a $1M pre-seed with $7 in her account
15:15 What she needs from angel investors right now
17:45 The Room: inside the Afropolitan private membership
18:28 Sponsor: Zobo Money
19:13 How her ambition actually changed
20:27 Why scaling too fast kills good brands
22:00 Where the $225,000 of her own money went
23:29 What fragrance houses do to new brands with no money
26:41 Perfume school in Versailles
27:43 Cutting out the middleman on packaging
28:32 How she’s avoiding the Ami Colé situation
31:11 Saying no to money she badly needed
32:50 The therapist chapter
33:10 The Dr. Cheyenne Bryant licensing debate
36:35 High functioning vs high value men
37:38 The therapy session that started all of this
39:39 Why she’ll probably never hit a million followers
41:19 Nigeria to Oklahoma
42:53 Losing Yoruba and her biggest regret
45:24 The Nigerian parents who let her take art class
46:34 Influxious was a high school art project
47:35 Her mother’s perfume and special occasions
49:38 Choosing yourself on the days you don’t want to
50:05 The de-auntie era
51:43 Turning 30 with none of the plan intact
54:30 When your parents redirect the prayer
58:36 Dating while launching a business
59:52 Why niche fragrance brands don’t pay creators
1:01:56 Lean into your personality and build a series
1:04:51 Building the Influxious Insiders community
1:06:13 “You are the niche”
1:09:38 The lesson that cost her the most
1:11:27 For the woman who thinks her thing is too small
1:13:17 What her clients taught her about what people really want
1:14:48 The stranger who recognized her in Istanbul
1:15:38 One year out, five years out
1:18:24 The delulu number
1:19:51 Rapid fire
1:26:56 Who should be in this chair next