About Video

Chynna Hansen was taping boxes for a cross-state move when she turned to her husband and said 

she was starting a business. He asked if they could maybe just get moved first. She said she 

didn't think they could wait.

Chynna is the founder and CEO of Vast Apparel and Little Mama Shirt Shop — both seven-figure 

businesses built in Idaho Falls. She started with a $400 seed fund from a unicorn birthday 

invitation that went viral on Etsy, bootstrapped Little Mama Shirt Shop into a seven-figure DTC 

brand, and then built Vast Apparel from scratch when the DTC market shifted. Vast is now up 

300% year over year.

What she covers:

→ A unicorn birthday party invitation that went viral on Etsy — selling thousands of copies, one name-swap at a time, staying up nights changing the birthday girl's name by hand (long before AI)

→ Starting Little Mama Shirt Shop with $400, a Facebook Live to five friends and her grandma, and selling out that first night

→ Meeting her screen printer in his "little dark basement" — long beard, covered in tattoos, rode a Harley — with total confidence from a small-town girl who didn't know what she didn't know

→ Building a team of 30 moms who close at 2pm every day so everyone can pick up their kids from school

→ Working only Tuesdays and Wednesdays — and getting a full week's work done in two days

→ Taking a deliberate dip in Little Mama revenue to simplify the launch schedule when the team started burning out

→ A spiritual impression so strong she stopped the business mid-planning: "Give it away" — two weeks before a major campaign launch

→ Starting The Heart of It Foundation and giving back hundreds of thousands of dollars through Little Mama Shirt Shop over the years

→ $30,000–$35,000 raised in 24 hours for Texas flood relief through a single launch

→ Building Vast Apparel when equipment was sitting idle — and watching it hit 300% year-over-year growth

→ The $270 naming contest for Vast (Phil Knight paid $30 for the Nike swoosh — she did the math and matched it in today's dollars)

→ Why she named her flagship backpack after her dad and what that legacy-building means to her

🔗 CONNECT WITH STU

Instagram: @stu

Website: https://startupswithstu.com

📌 CHAPTERS

00:00 – Intro and where the name Chynna comes from

02:30 – Growing up in Salmon, Idaho (3,000 people, two stoplights, 86 kids in her graduating class)

05:00 – The $200 gap that started everything: staying home with her first son

08:00 – The viral unicorn birthday invitation and saving $400 to start Little Mama Shirt Shop

12:00 – Taping boxes in Utah, telling her husband she was starting a business right now

15:30 – Selling out on Facebook Live to five friends and her grandma

18:00 – Meeting the screen printer in his dark basement (and why her husband was nervous)

21:00 – Running the business in the cracks of motherhood: late nights, early mornings, never trading motherhood for ambition

25:00 – Building a team of 30 moms — closed at 2pm, no Saturdays

28:30 – Working only Tuesdays and Wednesdays and still growing

32:00 – Little Mama hits seven figures, then the DTC market shifts

36:00 – Vast Apparel is born out of idle equipment and necessity — now up 300% year over year

40:00 – The Phil Knight naming contest and the moment "Vast" gave everyone chills

43:30 – The spiritual impression three weeks before launch: "Give it away"

47:00 – The Heart of It Foundation, $35K in 24 hours for Texas floods, and giving back locally

51:00 – The charter plane and the rocket ship: Little Mama and Vast, side by side

#entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #womeninbusiness #mompreneur #ecommerce #vastapparel #idahofalls #bootstrapped #ladyboss