How No Pong inventor Melanie McVean built a $4 million business by sticking to her guns

Ever become so fed-up with your roll-on deodorant that you raid the pantry to concoct your own fresh smelling — and much less chemically intensive — alternative?

Me neither. But Melanie McVean has, and now she’s making millions disrupting one of the most mature industries on supermarket shelves, period.

Well, okay, it wasn’t that simple, but it’s also not that complicated.

It’s 2015 and McVean, interested in finding out the types of chemicals she was putting on her body, is reading an ingredient list.

Butane, check. Aluminum chlorohydrate, check. PPG-14 butyl ether, eh … check?

Those are the first three participants in a rather long (and incomprehensible) list of ingredients for Rexona’s popular aerosol deodorant.

The product is stock standard in the $4 billion global deodorant and antiperspirant industry, where aluminum-based products have long been popular.