- Just Go Grind
- Posts
- #342: Ryan Bartlett of True Classic, on Growing Revenue to $150M in 3 Years, Comedy as an Intentional Marketing Tool, and Lessons for Successfully Scaling Manufacturing and Hiring
#342: Ryan Bartlett of True Classic, on Growing Revenue to $150M in 3 Years, Comedy as an Intentional Marketing Tool, and Lessons for Successfully Scaling Manufacturing and Hiring

Ryan Bartlett is the Co-Founder and CEO of True Classic, a D2C men’s clothing brand that has grown from $0 to $150M in revenue in just a few years. At True Classic, they understand that not every body is shaped the same. That’s where they come in, making premium, high-quality, everyday essentials for every type of person, with no gimmicks.
Their goal with this company has always revolved around over-indexing on the value they give to their customers and communities. This means best in class customer service, entertaining ads that make you laugh, products that are intentionally designed to help you look better, and donating shirts at scale (40k+/month) to help homeless vets, shelters, schools, and other communities in need.
Topics Covered by Ryan Bartlett in this Episode
What True Classic is doing today
Ryan’s background, True Classic’s origin story, and getting the business off the ground
What differentiates True Classic and how Ryan thought about their market positioning
Early manufacturing decisions and product development
How Ryan approached early marketing
The power Facebook marketing and how their changes in privacy policy have impacted companies
How they became more intentional with their marketing by creating comedic video ads
What enabled them to scale to $150M in revenue in 3 years
Agencies vs. in-house marketing
The benefits and dangers of moving at warp speed
Lessons learned for successfully scaling manufacturing
Developing their intentional hiring strategy
Launching internationally
Ryan’s big vision for True Classic
The mission and impact aspect of True Classic
Subscribe to the Just Go Grind Podcast
Want to Join a Supportive Community of Ambitious Founders?
Learn more about the Just Go Grind Founder Community, a group of more than 90 founders learning and building together each week 👇
Reply