1 session inside Boa
Raquel Bouris
Founder, Who Is Elijah
Raquel Bouris is the founder of fragrance brand Who Is Elijah, which she started as a side hustle filling perfume bottles in her garage while working full time. Almost seven years on, the brand sells through David Jones and Sephora, is roughly 50% retail, and is planning a European launch next year and a US entry in 2027. Her husband Adam joined the business about four years ago and runs operations.
The session
What Raquel teaches
Film the work, then voice over it if the camera scares you
Raquel could not talk to camera in the early years, so she filmed herself filling perfume bottles in her garage and lounge room, then recorded voiceovers explaining what she was doing. That behind-the-scenes footage of moving warehouse to warehouse became what the brand got known for. If you are not confident yet, shoot first and narrate later, then let practice build the on-camera confidence.
From Raquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →Turn a retailer rejection into a sampling stunt out the front of their stores
Boots rejected Who Is Elijah with the line "you've got no brand awareness here, no one knows who you are". Raquel booked a flight five days later, took 500 discovery sets and her content girl, and stood out the front of three Boots locations handing samples to customers going in and out. She asked each person to go inside and ask staff if they stocked Who Is Elijah. Nine months later Boots emailed and agreed to stock the brand.
From Raquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →Use RocketReach to get buyer emails and post samples until they answer
Raquel calls getting a retailer's attention the easy part. Take out a RocketReach membership, pull the buyer's email and office address, post them samples and keep emailing until they reply. She also landed David Jones at about 18 months in by DMing their fragrance buyer on LinkedIn.
From Raquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →Check brand alignment before you sign, because a big order can cost you a better retailer
Raquel accepted a nearly $2 million order from Priceline. Sephora then pulled Who Is Elijah from almost all of its stores, and it took a couple of years to repair. She is now number four best-selling fragrance in Sephora Australia and New Zealand, and believes she would already be in Sephora US if she had stuck to Sephora and David Jones. Being in Boots also made other UK retailers say "you're a Boots brand, we don't want you".
From Raquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →
Watch the full sessioninside Boa.
Session notes are free. The recordings, the live advisories and the founders in the room are for members.