The Blueprint for Scaling Powerful Brands: Venture Capital, Grit, and Game-Changing Growth with Chris Van Dusen
What separates a lifestyle business from a scalable brand? In this episode, Dan Rochon interviews Chris Van Dusen—venture capital leader, former founder, and black belt in Jiu Jitsu—about the real blueprint for scaling powerful brands. Chris shares how he helped grow and sell multiple companies, including one of the largest CBD brands in the U.S., and what he now looks for when investing in late-stage startups. You’ll discover why most founders fail from lack of focus, how understanding your true customer unlocks explosive growth, and why increasing conversion rates can multiply revenue without increasing marketing spend. Chris also reveals the mindset shift entrepreneurs must adopt to balance confidence with humility—and how discipline outside of business directly impacts leadership performance. If you want to build a brand that scales, attracts smart capital, and creates real enterprise value, this episode delivers the strategy and the grit required to make it happen.
No Broke Months For Salespeople · No Broke Months, Chris Van Dusen, Dan Rochon
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (cdn.simplecast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
In This Episode Guest:
Chris Van Dusen
Marketing & Sales | Private Equity | Corporate Strategy
Chris Van Dusen is a marketing and growth professional with extensive early-stage and capitalization experience. He is the founder of Parcon Media (now Parcon LLC), former Chief Growth Officer of Balanced Health Botanicals, and a key growth partner behind Surf City Still Works.
About Chris Van Dusen
Chris launched Parcon Media and scaled it to $1.5M in top-line revenue in under two years before merging into what is now Parcon LLC. The agency worked with brands including Travis Mathew, Experian, University of California Irvine, University of California Office of the President, and Maglite.
As Chief Growth Officer of Balanced Health Botanicals (BHB) in Denver, CO, Chris allocated and deployed a ~$20 million marketing budget to democratize CBD and scale BHB into the largest supplier of hemp-derived CBD globally. His strategy fueled massive DTC and brick-and-mortar growth through 2019 and navigated the shifting COVID-19 landscape in 2020—culminating in a $75M sale to Village Farms (NASDAQ: VFF) in August 2021.
Simultaneously, Chris helped scale Surf City Still Works in Orange County, CA. He expanded marketing, retained Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (the largest spirits distributor in the U.S.), raised $3.7M in capital, and moved operations into a 25,000 sq ft manufacturing facility—the first of its kind in Orange County. He also built a world-class advisory board including Bob McKnight (Founder of Quiksilver) and Travis Brasher (Founder of Travis Mathew), leading to a merger with Kimo Sabe, a Los Angeles-based mezcal company.
Chris holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the College of William and Mary. He has served on boards including the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) and the Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF). He is a member of Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), Young Executive Council (YEC), a National Board member of Alder, and has previously been a member of PTTOW!. Chris frequently speaks on marketing, growth, product-market fit, and brand building.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
● Why truly understanding your customer is the foundation of scalable growth
● How conversion rate optimization can 5X your ROI without increasing ad spend
● The difference between lifestyle businesses and venture-scale companies
● What venture capital investors actually look for before writing a check
● Why focus beats chasing every opportunity
● How discipline, grit, and “doing hard things” build elite entrepreneurs
● The balance between confidence and coachability in leadership
Connect with Chris Van Dusen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrismvandusen/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chrisvandusen
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@officialcvd
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christophervandusen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismvandusen/
To find out more about Dan Rochon and the CPI Community, you can check these links:
- Website: No Broke Months
- Podcast: No Broke Months for Salespeople Podcast
- Instagram: @donrochonx
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NoBrokeMonths/
- Facebook: Dan Rochon
- LinkedIn: Dan Rochon
- Teach to Sell Preorder: Teach to Sell: Why Top Performers Never Sell – And What They Do Instead