#45 - Ali von Paris (Route One Apparel)

In this episode of The Exit Whisperer, we sit down with Ali von Paris, founder of Route One Apparel, a Maryland-themed clothing company that went from a viral college T-shirt idea to a self-funded powerhouse. Ali dives into the early hustle of building a business from scratch, learning e-commerce when it was still the wild west, scaling to 4,000+ SKUs, and eventually navigating the emotional and strategic complexities of selling her business.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to exit a company you built from the ground up—or how to scale a community-rooted brand into a full-blown movement—this one’s for you.

00:00 - Intro: Meet Ali von Paris

01:30 - The Viral T-Shirt That Changed Everything

04:00 - Turning a Hobby Into a Business

08:45 - Growing with No Outside Funding

12:20 - Getting Shut Down (and Why It Fueled Her)

16:10 - First Office, First Employees, First Big Wins

19:50 - Licensing with Old Bay & Maryland Legends

24:00 - Learning the Business Side (The Hard Way)

28:30 - Fixing Inefficiencies That Held Her Back

32:00 - How a Sequin Jacket Made $500k

36:15 - The Emotional Shift That Led to Selling

41:00 - The Number That Meant Financial Freedom

45:00 - Finding Identity Beyond the Business

49:00 - What Selling Actually Looked Like

54:00 - Her Next Chapter (and a Call for Like-Minded Founders)