From Smelly Bachelor Pad to $100M Business: The Azuna Founder's Incredible Journey

Serial entrepreneur Scott Dancy turned a smelly apartment problem into a multi-million dollar business. Here's how Azuna went from $12K a month to on track for $100M in sales.

Key Takeaways

• Dancy officially launched Azuna in 2019 and saw sales accelerate during the pandemic.
• For the first couple of years, Dancy handled everything himself — all the way to $3 million in sales.
• Now, Azuna has a team of 50, nearly $100 million in annual sales, and is eyeing an eventual sale.

The Smelly Apartment That Sparked a Business

In 2017, father of two Scott Dancy was going through a divorce and living alone in Buffalo, New York. When his washing machine broke, the horrible smell from standing water became unbearable. A friend suggested tea tree oil — a natural antibacterial and antimicrobial solution. "It got rid of the smells," Dancy recalls. "I was like, This is amazing — how do we market this?"

Unlike other products that just mask odors, tea tree oil attacks the source: mold, mildew, and bacteria. This insight became the foundation for Azuna.

From Zero to $12K a Month

Dancy officially launched Azuna in 2019. With no prior experience in the category, he wrote his own ad copy, handled customer service, and even shipped orders himself. "For three years, I set an alarm every day for two hours to wake up to see if there were things I needed to respond to," he says.

By April 2020, Azuna was doing $12,000 in monthly sales. Then the pandemic hit, and demand exploded. In May 2020, sales jumped to $105,000. Dancy quickly secured third-party logistics to keep up.

Bootstrapping to $3 Million

Despite the rapid growth, Dancy bootstrapped the business for two years, handling everything alone until reaching $3 million in sales. "I got us up to about $3 million in sales for the most part on my own," he says. Azuna raised less than $10 million — far less than competitors who typically need $50 million in equity.

Scaling to $100 Million

Azuna hit $53 million in sales last year and is on track to exceed $100 million this year. The company now has 50 employees. Dancy admits the biggest challenge has been the sheer speed of growth: "When a business goes from making $500,000 a month to $3 million a month within four months, it requires a significant operational shift."

The Exit Plan

Dancy plans to sell Azuna in about 18 months, targeting $20 million in monthly sales by then. He's seeking an institutional investor with retail experience. Azuna's position as the world's largest buyer of Australian tea tree oil with non-compete contracts gives it a unique advantage.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

"Plan for the worst and be delusional a little bit," Dancy says. "Some decisions that I look back on could've gone really bad, but they were also the things that shaped the success of the business." He encourages aspiring founders to go all in rather than treating their venture as a side hustle.