How Micha Medendorp Is Scaling Marie-Stella-Maris Across Europe

“You can’t do everything. Focus on what’s working and scale it with discipline.”

As CEO of Marie-Stella-Maris, Micha Medendorp is scaling a purpose-driven luxury brand that started in mineral water and evolved into natural personal care and home fragrance. 

Drawing on his experience growing Rituals into a billion-euro brand, he’s now leading Marie-Stella-Maris’ charge across international markets with stores, hospitality, and DTC at the heart of the playbook. 

In this interview, Micha shares lessons from scaling, why brand story is everything, and the biggest growth challenges facing European DTC brands today.

Can you tell me a bit about Marie-Stella-Maris and what your role as CEO looks like?

Marie-Stella-Maris means “the stars of the sea.” We’re a social enterprise. We started as a premium mineral water brand, donating a portion of every sale to clean drinking water projects through our foundation.

At a certain point, we realized we needed to sell a huge volume of water to have a meaningful impact. But we were already in premium hotels and restaurants, so we started placing soaps in restrooms. People would ask: What is this smell? Where can I buy it? That curiosity sparked the idea for a store.

Now, water is only 20% of the business. We’ve evolved into a luxury personal care and home scent brand. We’re kind of an entry point to the luxury tier, where we compete more with Aesop and Diptyque than the Rituals of the world.

We're omnichannel: our own stores, our website, department stores, perfumeries, boutique hotels, airlines like KLM, and corporate gifting. Hospitality is still a big channel for us.

What does your day-to-day as CEO look like right now?

When I joined three and a half years ago, the business was under €8M in turnover. I focused on getting the basics right—processes, systems, upgrading our supplier base and logistics.

Now, we’ve scaled from an Amsterdam-centric brand to one with a presence across the Benelux and just launched in Germany. My role has shifted to driving our next growth phase. That includes:

• New product development
• Growing brand awareness and relevance
• Expanding distribution
• International expansion

All of this requires funding, so I’m also focused on cash flow and preparing our Series B round.

What needs to change when a business goes from startup to scale-up?

It’s all about organizational maturity. In a startup, the founder and a few senior people do everything. But once you scale, a middle layer emerges. You get specialization, layered teams, and eventually a matrix setup with local and HQ leads.

At Rituals, where I worked before, we scaled into a €2.4B business. There, a product launch meant 20+ countries and multiple channels at once. Every move was a big hit—or a big failure. The organization becomes more structured, more complex, and much more like a well-oiled machine.

What are the main levers you’re pulling to grow Marie-Stella-Maris today?

Last year we did €22M. We’re aiming for €100M within five years.

Our growth is coming from:

1. Own stores – We have 10 today and plan to grow to 60.
2. Online – Our web shop should match the turnover of our stores.
3. Resellers – Department stores and perfumeries help us build awareness ahead of retail expansion.
4. Hospitality – Airlines and boutique hotels introduce new customers to the brand.
5. Brand building & social commerce – We’re using social more as a channel for conversion, not just awareness.

The model is to lead with resellers and hospitality to create brand familiarity, then open our own stores in those markets once we see traction.

What did you learn from Rituals that you’re applying now?

We productized everything. From our selling ceremony to social campaigns so it could scale. Whether it’s a store in Shanghai or Amsterdam, the experience feels the same. We allowed for light localization, but 80–90% of the experience was consistent. That consistency gave us scale and efficiency.

We try to do the same at Marie-Stella-Maris: build a winning formula, then roll it out in new markets without over-customizing.

How do you approach localization when expanding into new regions?

It’s a mix of trial and error and local insight. You launch, then realize German customers respond differently than Dutch ones, so you tweak. But the key is working with local teams—they naturally understand cultural nuance. A Dutch person selling into Germany? That’s tough. A German seller? Much easier.

Also, look at competitors. If they’re all doing something differently in a market, there’s probably a reason. You can adapt that insight to your own brand story.

What advice do you have for founders going from €5–10M up to €20M+?

By the time you reach €5M, you should know what really works for your brand—what’s unique and what’s generic.

The mistake most founders make is chasing too many things. They explore new products, new channels, too early. But you rarely have the resources—money, people, time—to do everything.

Instead, double down on what’s working until there’s no more stretch left. Then and only then, branch out.

How do you know when you’ve maxed out a product or channel?

It could be flattening turnover. Or you’re seeing poor retention—customers buy once or twice, then disappear. It might be that your core offering is stale, or that people are just waiting for something new.

Another sign: you’re relying heavily on paid channels and hitting a wall. That’s when you shift toward brand building. Meta might be tapped out, but brand awareness could unlock new growth. Especially for the 80% of people who don’t know you yet.

What are the biggest challenges facing European eCommerce brands right now?

1. Paid performance is less effective and more expensive: Standard influencer campaigns and Meta ads just don’t hit the same. You need new acquisition tactics, like social commerce or owned communities.
2. The market is overcrowded: After COVID, everyone launched a brand. If you’re not meaningfully different, you’ll need to make more noise—and that’s expensive.

So the real question is: do you have a clear, differentiated brand story? Are you solving a real consumer problem? If not, it’s going to be tough to grow without burning cash.