Outsource expertise, not accountability: Nuchu's founder on running a brand solo

I started Nuchu after my own gut health issues. I became much more conscious of ingredients and started questioning why so many gummies contained added sugars, artificial sweeteners or ingredients that weren't gut-friendly. Today we have three products, for beauty, immunity and stress support.

I don't think I've had two identical weeks since we launched two years ago. One morning I might be negotiating with a retailer, the afternoon could go on regulatory requirements, and the next day I'm doing an in-store activation or meeting a potential investor.

Right now most of my time goes on business development, managing our retail relationships and overseeing marketing. I'm still hands-on with the smaller details too. I write a lot of my own outreach emails, follow up with stockists and regularly check how our products are performing.

It's a constant balance between working in the business and working on it. I'm learning to be more deliberate about protecting time for the bigger picture.

What I keep

I've deliberately kept business development, key relationships and the overall brand vision close to me.

At this stage, nobody can tell the story behind Nuchu like I can. When I'm speaking to a retailer, a hotel or a potential partner, I'm not just selling a product. I'm explaining why I created it and what makes it different.

For me, delegating isn't about removing myself from the business. It's about spending my time where I add the most value.

What I hand off

Manufacturing was outsourced from day one. We're a supplement brand, so an experienced contract manufacturer was essential for formulation, quality control and production.

Beyond that, I've mostly used freelancers rather than building an in-house team: graphic design, regulatory compliance, logistics, PR and digital marketing. The advantage is flexibility. You get specialist expertise without the overhead of a full-time team. The catch is that you have to be very organised, because you're coordinating several outside partners while still running the business yourself.

Outsource expertise, not accountability

My biggest lesson is that outsourcing doesn't automatically save you time.

Bring someone in too early, before you have clear objectives, measurable KPIs and a proper reporting structure, and it creates more work, not less. You can spend a lot of money managing the relationship, chasing updates and wondering whether the work is producing results.

Other areas are the opposite. With regulatory compliance and specialist technical work, trying to do everything yourself can cost far more in the long run.

So my rule is to outsource expertise, not accountability. You can delegate the work, but as the founder you still need to know what success looks like and how it's being measured.

Choosing where your attention goes

We sell DTC, through retailers and marketplaces, and through hotels and wellness venues across the UK, the EU and Switzerland. I don't personally handle fulfilment. We work with logistics partners in the UK and Europe, so orders are processed and shipped without me touching stock. I keep operations as streamlined as possible so I can focus on growing the commercial relationships.

Not every channel needs the same attention. Some are fairly automated. Others, particularly wholesale and hospitality, depend on relationships. The real challenge isn't managing several channels. It's knowing which one deserves your attention at any given moment.

As a founder you can easily spend your whole day reacting. I've learned to keep reassessing where my time will produce the biggest return.

AI as an extra pair of hands

I use ChatGPT almost like an extra member of the team. It helps me draft and refine emails, research potential retail partners, prepare proposals, analyse sales figures, compare competitors and organise my thoughts before important meetings. Something that used to take an hour of research or drafting now takes a fraction of that.

I don't use it for important commercial or regulatory decisions. It handles the groundwork so I can focus on the decisions themselves. For a solo founder, that means working with some of the capability of a much larger team without having one.

Trust your own judgement

One of the hardest parts of being a solo founder is that every decision is ultimately yours, and there isn't always someone sitting next to you to test ideas on.

I've built a network of people I trust, including entrepreneurs, advisers and specialists, and I try to go to whoever has dealt with the specific problem I'm facing. I also use AI as a first sounding board. Being able to challenge an idea, explore different scenarios or structure a problem often gets me to a clearer decision.

But you can ask ten people for advice and get ten different opinions. At some point you have to trust your own judgement. That's probably the biggest thing building Nuchu has taught me: getting comfortable making decisions without complete certainty.