21. Absolute Collagen: The science and emotion behind a £30M subscription brand

Maxine Laceby started making collagen in her kitchen before collagen was even a category. No business plan, no external capital, no blueprint. Just a product that worked — and a conviction that the customer deserved better.
Nine years later, Absolute Collagen is a £30M subscription business with 80% of revenue coming from repeat customers, a globally peer-reviewed clinical trial, and one of the most loyal communities in UK consumer health.
In this episode, host Peter Beckman sits down with founder Maxine and her daughter Darcy — the science to Maxine's emotion — to unpack what actually built this business. From the post-purchase journey that drives retention, to the counterintuitive decision to stop acquiring new customers, to building trust in a category full of shortcuts.
Highlights:
00:52– From kitchen table to £30M: the origin story
05:15 – Launching into a market that didn't exist
06:08 – Why they went direct-to-consumer in 2017, before anyone else was doing it
11:45 – The subscription model: 80% of revenue and how they built it
16:23 – What happens in the first 30 days as an Absolute Collagen customer
21:31 – The scary decision to stop chasing new customers — and why it worked
30:55 – From value to premium: evolving the brand as the category commoditized
37:45 – Science as a brand moat: clinical trials, B Corp, and supplier audits
47:37 – Navigating retail (Boots, Amazon) without losing the community
53:15 – Maxine and Darcy's number one Treyd Secret

Produceras av More Than Words