How Alvaro Gellings Built an 8-Figure Brand in Public

Alvaro Gellings co-founded Day One with Arda Saatci, Germany's largest creator, 2.5 years ago. They launched with the Cyborg Season campaign: Arda ran 3,000 km from Berlin to New York, generated over 1 billion organic views, and hit seven-figure revenue on launch day. No paid media at launch. Day One is now an 8-figure business growing 400-500% year over year.

Everything from this episode, structured into a free playbook:
https://www.elevatorgoods.com/talks/alvaro-gellings

Follow Elevator:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatorgoods
X: https://x.com/elevatorgoods
Website: https://www.elevatorgoods.com

Follow Monish Sabnani (Host):
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msabnani93/
X: https://x.com/msabnani93

Follow Alvaro Gellings:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alvaro.gellings/
X: https://x.com/GellingsAlvaro
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@alvarogellings
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvaro-gellings-495692230/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:47 What is Day One and the Cyborg Season launch
04:55 Why Alvaro started building in public
09:00 How he started
14:10 What building in public actually gave Day One
16:39 500-2,000 job applications from a single Instagram Story
17:30 Network effects: founders and billionaires reaching out
20:28 The satisfaction of showing what it actually takes
28:09 Where Day One is now: 8 figures, 400-500% YoY
33:13 International expansion and the athlete partnership model
37:25 The 43,000-person WhatsApp community
39:37 Org chart, key hires, and the COO hire
44:39 The three hires Alvaro would make today
47:51 Leadership style and who he wants to become
51:33 Advice for new entrepreneurs in 2026
1:01:29 How to start with almost nothing: the ad validation tactic
1:06:53 Rapid fire round
1:13:56 The building in public trap: the biggest mistake first-time founders make
1:17:08 Best investment ever made in the company

#ecommerce #dtc #brandbuilding #entrepreneurship #dayone #sportswear #buildingbrands