How This Founder Got Her Product in 700 Targets and Counting with Founder and CEO of ZEYA

I sat down with Amiee LeMaire, the founder of ZEYA, to unpack how she took a deeply personal passion for clean fragrance and turned it into a national brand now selling in over 700 Target stores. She had no background in CPG and no finished product when she pitched to one of the largest retailers in the country.
In our conversation, we get into the tactics and the mindset:
How she pitched with just a deck
What it took to build a DTC and retail launch at the same time
How she raised $2M in seed funding
What it means to price a product in a category that didn’t really exist
Why she chose to scale without alcohol and without compromise
And how she does all of this while parenting two young kids

If you are building a consumer brand, raising capital, or pushing through personal barriers to pursue what matters, this episode will speak to you directly.

About Aimee:
From a young age Aimee LeMaire had a passion for fragrances and scent-scaping her home seasonally. Originally from Louisiana, Aimee moved to Los Angeles after college and began a successful 10+ year career in the entertainment industry working on feature film and television development and production.

Following the birth of her first child Aimee was unable to find fragrance products with transparent ingredients that were baby-safe as well as pet-safe so she began studying perfumery when production shut down during Covid and eventually turned an olfactory passion into ZEYA.


Aimee built ZEYA with the goal of bringing clean, better-for-you, and luxurious fragrance products into the home that are affordable and captivate the senses. Helping people to create a home or work environment where they can thrive and live their best life is a personal passion and the guiding light for ZEYA.

🔗 Connect with Aimee:
💼 Linkedin:   / zeyafragrance  
🌐 Website: https://zeyashop.com/
💼 LinkedIn:   / aimee-blank  
📷 IG:   / aimee.lemaire  
📷 IG:   / zeyafragrance  
⭐ TikTok:   / zeyafragrance  

Susan Sly is the maven behind Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. An award-winning AI entrepreneur and MIT Sloan alumna, Susan has carved out a niche at the forefront of the AI revolution, earning accolades as a top AI innovator in 2023 and a key figure in real-time AI advancements for 2024. With a storied career that blends rigorous academic insight with astute market strategies, Susan has emerged as a formidable founder, a discerning angel investor, a sought-after speaker, and a venerated voice in the business world. Her insights have graced platforms from CNN to CNBC and been quoted in leading publications like Forbes and MarketWatch. At the helm of the Raw and Real Entrepreneurship podcast, Susan delivers unvarnished wisdom and strategies, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business veterans alike to navigate the challenges of the entrepreneurial landscape with confidence.

📢 Connect with Susan Sly:
🌐 Website: https://www.susansly.com
📷 Instagram:   / susansly  
💼 LinkedIn:   / susansly  
🎙️ More Episodes:    / @susansly  

#Aimeelemaire #Zeyafragrance #Zeya #susansly #businesspodcast #startup #RawAndRealEntrepreneurship #Entrepreneur #Entrepreneurship #womeninai #womenintech #StartupSuccess #ceowomen #startupstories #IndustryInsights #StartupStories #BusinessStrategy #SuccessStories #InnovationTalks #podcastersofinstagram