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1. A Customer-First Approach to Business: Daniele believes prioritizing long-term relationships over short-term losses is key to driving repeat business and sustained growth. Even in cases of customer error, MonkeyHands will resend an order to build trust, encourage loyalty, and foster future purchases.
2. Customer Feedback Drives Innovation: Daniele reminds E-Commerce leaders that listening to your customers is the only way to know how well your product is performing and how it can be improved. MonkeyHands drives innovation through a tight customer feedback loop - complaints from gym owners and clients about chalk’s messiness led to the development of a gel-based grip.
3. Perseverance as a Mindset: Success in E-Commerce depends on sustained perseverance and consistency rather than shortcuts. Daniele stresses that entrepreneurs must persist through inevitable setbacks, as continued effort not only drives progress but also builds deeper understanding of the business and industry.
4. Reinvest Over Taking Profits: MonkeyHands’ growth is driven by a strict reinvestment strategy – retaining 100% of profits to fund expansion. Daniele maintains that the approach enabled bootstrapped scaling from a small operation to a full factory without external funding or debt, while prioritizing long-term business stability over short-term personal gain.
5. Balance Growth and Stability: Entrepreneurship is a constant balancing act between growth and stability, marked by daily operational challenges, emotional ups and downs, and shifting priorities. Daniele reminds leaders that while early stages are stressful, long-term growth brings more manageable “good problems” and a more stable, rewarding rhythm that allows for greater focus and strategic thinking.
Founded in 2019, MonkeyHands set out with a clear mission: to provide climbers and gym-goers with a healthier, more effective, and cleaner alternative to traditional chalk. Its innovative grip gel has since become a staple for athletes seeking peak performance in their sport. Discover how co-founder Daniele De Paolis scaled the bootstrapped company through a disciplined approach of reinvesting 100% of profits while maintaining a relentless focus on customer needs.
Meet Daniele De Paolis, Co-Founder of Monkeyhands!
MONKEYHANDS is a D2C sports brand, with a cosmetic background. The first company in the world that specializes in developing premium grip aid solutions according to the sport and skin needs. Thanks to our innovative and unique formulas we are helping thousands of athletes to improve their performances and increase their safety at the time of practice, while taking care of their health
When Daniele De Paolis partnered with Vicente Dominguez, a chemical engineer and avid climber, their goal was to create a higher-quality chalk for grip in the sport. Through extensive testing, they discovered that traditional climbing chalk – commonly used on rock walls and in gyms – often contains chemicals that can be harmful to both skin and lungs. This insight led them to explore a chalk-free alternative that could deliver clear benefits: improved performance, a health-conscious formulation, and a more sustainable approach (as chalk is a mined mineral linked to environmental impact). They ultimately developed an innovative grip gel made from cosmetic-grade ingredients – safe, effective, durable, and gentler on both equipment and clothing. In 2019, the pair co-founded MonkeyHands, later expanding their vision with the launch of personal care brand ILHŨ in 2024.
As the leader of marketing and sales, Daniele is focused on building relationships and expanding the brand’s reach. “What I enjoy most about working in E-Commerce is striking deals with B2B clients and partnering with major retailers,” he says, noting that MonkeyHands is currently stocked on Amazon and at Walmart.
Micromanagement is often seen as necessary for leaders in E-Commerce who want to stay closely connected to both the business and their teams. While he understands this, Daniele admits that he doesn’t enjoy closely monitoring team members to ensure they’re performing and delivering results.
In the early days, the co-founders ran the company themselves – Daniele handled the business side while Vicente focused on production. As the company began to scale, they brought on additional employees to support operations. “Now, we have nine to ten team members working across the brands and seven people in the factory,” Daniele says, noting that the team is fully remote and spread throughout Mexico. “We used to have an office, but realized that with a remote structure, we can hire the best talent, wherever they are,” he adds.
“We have a rule – we never take profits. All profits are reinvested into the company 100%,” Daniele says. This disciplined, bootstrapped approach has allowed the co-founders to grow the business from a kitchen apartment operation into a full-scale factory without outside investors or debt. “We need to make sure the company always has enough,” he adds, using an analogy: “Imagine you have a kid, and you’re taking food from them to feed yourself.”
Monkeyhands’ CX philosophy is rooted in the belief that “the customer is always right.” Even when issues stem from customer error – such as providing an incorrect address – the team prioritizes relationship-building over rigid adherence to policy. “For me, it’s much more important that they receive the products, because in the end, they could potentially become a repeat customer,” Daniele says. “You may lose money on the first order, but it’s actually an investment if they come back.”
A portion of revenue is reinvested into research and development. MonkeyHands has its own factory, giving the co-founders the freedom to experiment and iterate based on customer feedback. “We listen to our customers, what they tell us, and we try to create products that solve those pain points,” Daniele says, noting that frequent complaints from gym owners and clients about chalk’s messiness led to the development of a gel-based grip.
Asked about the future of his brands, Daniele begins with MonkeyHands. “Our goal is to boost sales by 40–50% compared to last year,” he says. The outlook for 2026 is already promising, with the brand up 70% versus the first quarter of 2025. The co-founders also plan to expand ILHŨ from Mexico into the U.S. and European markets by the third quarter.
Another key priority is evolving the factory into a third revenue-generating business. “By the third quarter, we want to start producing for other brands, not just our own,” Daniele shares. “We are already in touch with potential customers.”
“You need perseverance,” Daniel says of the mindset required to succeed as an e-commerce entrepreneur. “That’s the only thing that gets you to what you want to achieve – there are no shortcuts.” Building a brand takes hard work, and setbacks are inevitable, but persistence brings a deeper understanding of both your business and the broader industry. “There’s no magic formula,” he adds. “You just have to keep going.”
What excites Daniele most about E-Commerce? I think the most exciting part about E-Commerce is that you can see the data all the time – you can rely on data. You can access your Shopify store and see every metric – how it is growing and areas that it’s not. You can check the heat map on your website to see where the clients and potential customers get stuck. You literally have all the data at your hands – it’s quite easier to predict.
Can’t-live-without-tool? Excel.
Key hiring trait? Problem solving. To be honest, you need to hire the person first, and after a while, you’ll start to see how well they solve problems. If they do, it’s the best quality you can have.
AI or no AI? It’s very interesting at the moment. I think E-Commerce owners, among all the markets, are the ones who are going to benefit most because we can save on costs. We can get results in such a short time. You can analyze results from Amazon sales and Shopify very quickly. It’s kind of like your intern. To be honest, right now, it would be very hard not to use AI every day.
Favorite book or podcast? One podcast that I do listen to is My First Million – because it’s fun. Another podcast that is more focused on E-Commerce is In the Money – it’s interesting because they interview a lot of figures in the E-Commerce space.
#1 challenge as a CX leader? Every day is a challenge. Trying to keep everything together while growing your business – you need to focus on growing but at the same, not lose sight of what you already have. It’s about trying to put the pieces together. Every day you wake up, you have a plan to do something and then there are emails to answer and problems to solve. The simple fact of having a business is a challenge in and of itself. At the same time, it's exciting. When it goes well, it gives you energy. You have ups and downs at the beginning. Excitement and depression – you think you’ll make money and then you don’t. But once you stabilize – it’s going to be more exciting, more relaxed and you can focus a little bit more. You’ll have more problems because you are growing, but they are good problems most of the time.
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