Podcasts about D2C

Most brands treat their subscriber portal like a settings page. Turns out, it's actually their highest-risk revenue moment — 70% of subscribers who log in are there to cancel, skip, or bail. Piyush Jain, CEO of Loop Subscriptions, has the data from 1,900+ D2C brands to prove it, and the playbook to stop it.Inside the episode:How OSEA Malibu cut churn from 10% to 5% without offering a single discount — using a free travel kit timed to the exact order where most subscribers were dropping offThe "Mystery Reward" pop-up that intercepts high-intent cancellations in real time — and reduces churn by another 23% for brands using itWhy 20–25% of cancellations happen within days of your upcoming order email — and how Four Sigmatic engineered a 40% save rate on their cancellation flowHow Good Protein drives 25% of total subscription revenue from upsells — and why second-order subscribers are worth 2x more than first-order onesNon-traditional subscription plays for brands outside consumables: from air purifier filter programs to digital membership add-ons—Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact and request your FREE strategy session today!—Chapters: [00:00] Intro — Mystery Rewards & The Portal Churn Problem[00:22] Show Introduction & Guest Welcome — Piyush Jain of Loop Subscriptions[02:29] Why 70% of Portal Visitors Want to Cancel or Skip[04:09] Case Study: OSEA Malibu Cuts Churn in Half With Gift Rewards[06:59] Mystery Rewards — Gamifying the Portal for High-Risk Subscribers[10:55] Streaks & Loyalty Gamification — The Duolingo-Inspired Approach[14:22] Zero-Day Churn — When Customers Subscribe Just for the Discount[19:43] Cancellation Flows — How FourSigmatic Saves 40% of Cancellations[21:42] Increasing Product Consumption to Reduce Churn[25:03] Second-Order Subscribers — Why They're 2X More Valuable[29:13] Upselling as a Zero-CAC Revenue Channel — The Good Protein Story[34:20] Non-Traditional Subscriptions — Air Purifiers, Shoes & Digital Memberships[39:07] How to Increase Subscription Take Rate on the PDP[42:42] Wrap-Up & How to Connect With Loop Subscriptions—Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQmbMwBW8LYDfFAqNqlgTGw Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ Request a Free Strategy Session: https://www.omgcommerce.com/contactRelevant Links: Piyush's LinkedIn: /piyush-jn/Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, JC Hite, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Stephane Colleu, Jeff Oxford, Bryan Porter and more

Jyoti Lohman started The Beauty Way, a spa experience and product line to inspire women to pause and be taken care of. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [AirVantage Heating & Cooling Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it’s Stephen Semple. Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, and this week we’ve got a really fun, great interview so we’re not going to be talking to Dave Young this week. We’ve given him yet another week off for Dave. He’s busy with things at the academy in any case. So we’re here with Jyoti Lohman from The Beauty Way, and we had a conversation and there was just so many things that you shared that it was one of these ones where I really have to get you onto the podcast. So this is going to be awesome. But before we get into a bit of the history of the company, tell me a little bit about where the business is today in terms of the success that’s happening because you’ve gotten into some pretty big places where your product is now being sold. Jyoti Lohman: Yeah, I have. Well, I’m so happy to be here, Stephen. I couldn’t wait for this conversation. We had such a great first connection, and I was excited to be doing this with you, so thank you for having me on. Stephen Semple: Oh, and before you go on to that, the funny thing was we discovered I was literally in Austin, Texas. We got on and did a call and not only that, near Dripping Springs, you’re like, “Oh, I’m near Dripping Springs.” I could have drove over and saw you that day. Jyoti Lohman: I know. I love that synchronicity, right? That was our first thing and I was like, “Okay, this is going to be a good one.” Yeah, that was really cool. So my whole mission here has been to inspire women to create that purposeful pause and to feel nurtured and to feel cared for. And where we’re at now, it’s transformed into these signature Beautyway treatments. I’ve got something at the Fairmont here in Austin. So you can have a Beauty Way manicure and pedicure where we’re not only using the products, but there’s these affirmations that we’re saying. And so these really incredible treatments that are full body and soul. We’re launching in Proper Austin here in May. So this is May 1st, so very shortly here, hopefully in time for Mother’s Day. I am working currently on another signature treatment with Miraval Resort here in Austin and they are a company that’s been around for years and a leader in wellness. So creating these signature treatments that are using the products, but also sort of bringing in focus my mission and my purpose of women taking a moment to really care for themselves and how powerful it is to pour into ourselves because we show up for so many people. I couldn’t be happier about where we are and it’s been a windy road. At first it was just kind of selling online, and I’ve been able to get in touch with these major resorts and create something really from my heart that I know people are feeling cared for. Stephen Semple: And the things that you’re doing for the resorts, they’re a little bit unique for each one, aren’t they? Jyoti Lohman: Yeah. So like I said, this experience has been so cool. So the one with Proper, I’ve worked with their lead therapist and their spa director and it’s over months of really fine-tuning what really connects with that resort and what their purpose is and bringing my purpose together and really connecting those dots. So we’re creating these bespoke really treatments for the different resorts. And I’ll be in Miraval next week and they have a fabric of their own, of their own purpose. And so yeah, we’ll be pulling together what The Beauty Way means. And The Beauty Way is a Navajo philosophy and prayer and they call it walking in beauty and it’s walking in balance, harmony, connection with nature and with yourself. So we get to pull in the essence of and the ethos of The Beauty Way and really connect it back to what the property means. Stephen Semple: That’s really interesting. What year did you start the business again? Jyoti Lohman: I worked with a chemist and so I’ve created all of these formulas side by side with a chemist that I work with. So I started when my daughter was about one years old. So about four years ago I started working on the packaging, working on the mantras, working on the ethos, pulling together the inspiration from my mom and her wisdom in self-care that she really taught me and pulling everything together. And then I launched in November of 2023. So it’s been about two and a half years. Stephen Semple: So there was a few years in development launched in November of 2023. You’re in a bunch of locations, right? Jyoti Lohman: Yep. Stephen Semple: Are you able to share with us what you do in sales these days? Jyoti Lohman: Well, I have so many different ways. I’ve got the wholesale, I’ve got influencer marketing, I’ve got D2C sales, I’ve got all these different ones. So we are on track for six figures this year. Stephen Semple: Nice. Nice. Jyoti Lohman: Yes. That is- Stephen Semple: Cool. Jyoti Lohman: Yeah. Very proud of that. Stephen Semple: That’s very exciting. Jyoti Lohman: Yes, very exciting. Very exciting. Stephen Semple: So here’s one of the things I found that was really interesting that you’ve done. So I’m in this coaching program called The Strategic Coach. It’s a quarterly coaching program for entrepreneurs that’s run by Dan Sullivan. And one of the things Dan’s often talking about is taking your services and either turning or adding a product to it or taking your product, adding a service to it. So there’s this melding of service and product that happens. And you’ve done that with the resorts where you’ve got this spa treatment, and you could have just walked in and said, “Hey, I’ve got this treatment and I’ve developed it and it’s really cool and it’s great for people and people love it.” But you went that step further and went, “Well, let’s create this treatment that’s specific to your spa that’s got all this ritual and things.” How did you land on doing that? Jyoti Lohman: It’s actually an interesting story. And again, I just started with a product, but I knew that this was bigger than a product. The product is sort of the vehicle of how I help inspire women to take that moment and to do these treatments. But I was actually at a spa and getting a treatment and there was this… I did this body scrub research. And so they’re doing this body scrub and they’re using a salt. Mine is sugar and they’re using a salt. And I thought, oh, this salt’s a little rough on the body, but it’d be great for a foot scrub. I’m just thinking in my head. And so she says to me, I say, “Well, I love this salt. Do you sell it in your retail? Can I pick this up? I love the way that it feels and this would be a great thing.” And she says, “We don’t sell this. This is just in treatment.” And I literally had this light bulb go, “Wait, this is a perfect retail conversion. I’m getting to use the products, see how it feels. Instead of looking at something on a shelf, I’m getting to experience this and you’re the expert and now I’ve tried it and it’s amazing. I want to be able to buy it.” And I couldn’t. And I went, “Okay, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Let’s bring these two together.” And what I did was I found, I’m not a therapist, so I don’t know all the logistics of treatment. I know my products inside and out and what they do and how they feel and the connection I want you to have with that. So I found a therapist who had been doing treatments for 25 years and she and I created these spa protocols and it was something I had never heard of. I had no idea this was even a thing. People do do this, but I was not familiar with it and I couldn’t buy the thing I wanted to. And I thought, this is amazing. So I created six protocols where I infuse some breath work, I infuse affirmations and then you can use the products. And I thought speaking from an experience, you get to try them and understand how they work and how they feel. And from a business point of view and to speaking to a spa director, here’s your built-in retail conversion. So that was really kind of blending those things, both of those missions for me. Let’s make some money and let’s be successful here and let’s create these treatments so that people can try it and love it and ultimately buy it. And the way that it smells and the way that it feels, our olfactory is so powerful that when you buy this and take it home and you’re using it at home, it sort of brings you back to that moment of calm and connection. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off and trust me you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: One of the things that people don’t realize, scent is really an interesting language because it’s the one sense that is processed differently than the rest of it. It’s- Jyoti Lohman: Totally. Stephen Semple: … very, very highly tied to memory, unbelievably tied to memory. If I bring in theater popcorn and we’re doing an envisioning exercise, something like that, you find yourself, you immediately think movie theater. If we’re popping popcorn, it’s like it’s movie theater or it’s like doing something with the kids, but all of those things immediately come. So it is really interesting that yes, the scent will take a person back to that. But the other thing I find interesting is Dave Young, who I often do this podcast with, he teaches a course at the Wizard Academy just outside Dripping Springs called Portals and the Languages of the Mind. Jyoti Lohman: That sounds interesting. Stephen Semple: And scent is a language. Jyoti Lohman: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So is speaking, so is touching. And what’s interesting is you’re now creating a product which links into- Jyoti Lohman: Sensory. Stephen Semple: … all of those things. Jyoti Lohman: A sensory experience. Stephen Semple: Which makes it very- Jyoti Lohman: Yes. Stephen Semple: And very sticky. You’re hitting on multiple fronts. You’re hitting it here and you’re hitting it here and you’re hitting it here, which really is super interesting, super interesting. Jyoti Lohman: Well, I’d love to take credit that I’ve had this business degree and I’ve studied all the psychology, but it’s really I’m so guided by intuition, and I just had this light bulb that went, oh, my gosh, this will tie back and you can have that experience at home and here’s how we do it. We get you involved and experiencing it. And I created this scent. It’s this really interesting scent and it’s a citrus. Stephen Semple: So you purposely right out of the gate thought about scent when it came to this. Jyoti Lohman: Absolutely. Well, I’m very sensitive to scent, extremely sensitive. If something is very overpowering, I have an immediate headache and it’s kind of always been that way. If my husband’s using a new hand soap, I’m like, “Uh.” So I was really, really intentional with the scent, but I understand the connection that scent has and the power that scent has to make us feel a certain way. And so when I was creating this scent, I didn’t want to do it unscented because I think the sensory experience of the scent is so powerful. So I didn’t use anything synthetic so that it really was a natural scent. And it’s probably one of the things I’m most proud of as the physical product because it’s something that if you’re sensitive to smell, it’s so light and grounding. It’s got these citrus high notes and it’s got this ginger and pink peppercorn that really makes it sophisticated and grounded. So it kind of covers, I want to say, “It’s very universal,” and so men use it. It’s not overly floral or vanilla or it doesn’t overtake the situation, but you feel it. It’s a very clean kind of sensual scent. And so it really ties people back to that experience. And again, I can’t take too much credit for it except for I just really, I tapped into my intuition and as how I experience things and then knowing that there’s sensitivities and people are just getting more and more sensitive to things as we get more and more manufactured kind of sense. So it was a very intentional part of it to be a feel, a smell and all those sensory pieces. Stephen Semple: And the whole idea of marketing a skincare product through spas and things like that. I did a Episode 207, I did a podcast on Dr. Gross who basically had developed a skin peel and they very, very much were like, he marketed through his own practice, but very much were like, “Okay, we’re going to market this through spas and resorts and things along that lines. Have people experienced this and then they’re going to want to come and follow up and buy our product. And yes, it’s an additional line item and all of those things.” So this path of doing it that way has been proven as being a legitimate way to do this. But then you’re also selling online and through influencers. What have you been doing on the online front? Jyoti Lohman: With bootstrapping a business from the get go and not relying on millions of dollars, but relying on heart and hustle. The path I thought was the wholesale piece is something I… I don’t know if I have control over it. I don’t think I have control over it, but I know that I can connect with people one-on-one and talk to them about the product. The D2C space direct to consumer and website is so hard to tap into without millions of dollars for ads and all of this. And so that’s kind of the strategy that I’ve taken is getting into these bigger resorts, having these sensory experiences, building in that retail conversion. And my D2C business has been supported by my client going to these resorts and seeing it. So that’s been a real strategy for me, again, just sort of really looking at how I shop and where my core customer is. So that’s been my strategy there. And then the influencers, that’s a tricky space and I think it’s changing a lot and my brand is, it’s such a tricky space. Stephen Semple: It is. Very tricky space. Jyoti Lohman: And paying for someone to say it one or two times is not going to get you anywhere and you have to align. I mean, it seems so simple, but you really, my brand is so authentic. It’s very founder-led marketing. I’m out there, I’m the face of the brand, I want to connect with people, I want to talk about the mission. And so finding people that are really authentic and not suggesting 16 sunscreens in a week just because they have a big following, it’s hard. It’s hard. Stephen Semple: Yeah, it’s hard. Jyoti Lohman: It’s finding those people that really align. And then I’ve done mostly gifting because part of the authenticity of this brand is that people try it and they fall in love with it. And so a lot of these influencers who want thousands of dollars, I want you to love it. And so it’s a slower game, but I find those people that try it and really get that experience and get the purpose behind it. And that’s been successful with more micro influencers, people that have that like 15,000 following because they’ve created a model where people really actually trust what they’re doing. So that’s been really what’s been successful for me. And it’s also just meeting people and showing up and connecting and being your authentic self and not having to be on. I’m never on. This me, this is what you’re getting. So I think people connect with that. And so I’ve had a lot of people just do things with gifting. Speaker 11: Oh, no, no. Speaker 12: What? Speaker 11: I was enjoying this episode. Speaker 12: Don’t worry. Part two’s coming next week. Speaker 11: It better. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a big fat, juicy five-star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90- minute Empire Building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

This month's playable trends are the kind you only catch when you're staring at hundreds of creatives in a row: the dress-up "please your boyfriend's mom" hook quietly flooding match-3 UA, and the Playrix templated-playable machine that turns one build into an entire portfolio.Matej Lančarič and Ondrej Mosberger are joined by Robin Kuyer, who leads Unity PlayWorks (formerly Luna Labs) and has been building playables for five years. They break down the fashion/dress-up template appearing across Crazy Labs, Kinetic, and others (often with identical assets) and why it's really a match-3 onboarding wrapper, the Playrix masterclass of strongly templated playables reused across Township, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes, and the single most underused tactic in the industry: taking one winning playable build and squeezing everything out of it with asset swaps, camera-angle changes, and different cut points. They also dig into long playables (and why 3 minutes can pre-qualify your best payers), the authentic-vs-non-authentic debate (where CTR can double but ROAS stays close), network approval chaos, and where AI playable production is genuinely heading — plus why "make a playable that performs well" will never be a working prompt.The throughline, straight from Robin: production speed means nothing without the foundation. Knowing what a good hook, reward loop, and progression actually look like is the part too many studios skip.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Game designers on playable team?03:35 The fashion / dress-up playable pattern08:00 Why it's really match-3 in disguise16:14 The Playrix templated-playable masterclass20:35 One build, many ads — asset swaps and camera angles27:00 Long playables and pre-qualifying payers36:46 Authentic vs non-authentic playables40:00 Can AI vibe-code a winning playable?--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.

In 2022, Mamaearth's founder made two unusual logistics bets: one on a shipping aggregator and one on a small Delhi drone startup nobody had heard of. Now, four years later, those bets have converged into one of India's fastest-growing logistics categories.Drones are now flying blood samples to hospital labs in 10 minutes instead of four hours. They're cutting delivery costs for D2C brands trying to escape marketplace commissions. They're even moving parcels between dark stores for Zepto.But the economics only work in certain places. And India's regulations weren't built with any of this in mind.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

CEREAL TALKのニュースレターはこちらhttps://cerealtalk.jp/(00:00) Unboxed1周年・最終回(01:02) D2C世代区分の整理(07:29) 第1世代と第2世代の違いとは？(13:27) 第1・第2世代のExit答え合わせ(21:33) ブランドを買収するとは？(32:22) 第3・第4世代で調整できたブランドは？(34:17) 「ミレニアルピンク」と「blanding」(38:41) 第一・第二世代でクローズまで行ったブランドは？(40:08) マットレスD2Cの全滅(41:54) マーケターは全てを台無しにする(45:03) ディストリビューション・ブランド・プロダクトの優位性(47:28) 世代の変化に通底する共通の学び(48:44) VC調達の期待値調整(53:14) 第3・第4世代でどのブランドが生き残るか(55:16) 世代を跨ぐブランドはなくなるのか？＜おたよりフォーム＞https://forms.gle/Tgzv4y8PCTs86EcY6＜メンバー＞沼田 雄二朗https://twitter.com/Numauer最所 あさみhttps://twitter.com/qzqrnl宮武 徹郎https://twitter.com/tmiyatake1草野美木https://twitter.com/mikikusano

India's next big consumer brands won't be built on taste. They'll be built on habits. In this episode of Khul Ke Scale, Shantanu Deshpande (Founder & CEO, Bombay Shaving Company) sits down with Rahul Jain (Co-founder, Beanly Coffee) and Samayesh Khanna (Co-founder, Beanly Coffee), along with industry veterans Shiv Shivakumar (Operating Partner, Advent | Ex-SVP, Nokia | Ex-CEO (India), PepsiCo) and Toshan Tamhane (Global Chief Operating Officer, UPL) to break down what it really takes to build a modern consumer brand in India.From coffee habits and convenience culture to product psychology, repeat purchases, distribution, and brand recall, this episode goes deep into why some brands become daily rituals while most disappear after the initial hype cycle.Beanly Coffee explains why they're betting on India's “on-the-go” lifestyle, how small product decisions influence consumer behaviour, and why building a habit is far more important than simply building a good product.At the centre of the conversation is a bigger question every founder struggles with: Why do consumers remember some brands instantly… while forgetting others completely?What you'll learn from this episode: • Why 25% of Indians skipping breakfast is a massive business opportunity • Why convenience is becoming India's biggest consumer trend • Why most D2C brands fail after their first growth spike • The real role of packaging, fragrance, texture, and recall in FMCG • How founders misunderstand consumer behaviour while scaling • What makes certain products become part of people's daily routinesIf you're building a consumer brand, D2C startup, FMCG business, or simply trying to understand where Indian consumer behaviour is heading, this episode offers a sharp breakdown of what actually creates long-term brand relevance in one of the world's toughest markets.Navigate your way through these chapters: 00:00 Coming Up01:40 Introduction02:25 How Beanly Started10:39 Question 1: Innovation, Scale, and Strategic Focus19:35 What Latin America Teaches About Coffee26:18 Question 2: Building the Right Omnichannel Mix34:38 Question 3: How to Think About ESOP Allocation44:00 Building a Strong Employee Value Proposition49:46 Question 4: Choosing the Right Investors and Capital Structure53:24 Shiv's Key Takeaways for Beanly59:41 Closing Thoughts

Supercell rebooted MoCo, their monster-hunting RPG, with a big relaunch update - new weapons, new abilities, redesigned portals, daily jobs. The hype cycle lit up. And after playing it, the verdict is brutal: it's still dead on arrival.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg dig into the MoCo relaunch and why it doesn't fix the game's core problem. MoCo launched in March 2025 with a download spike, hit a hard shark fin, and the relaunch pumped it back up to roughly 230K DAU — but only around $14K/day in revenue and ~$5M lifetime (about one peak day of Brawl Stars). Jakub's diagnosis as a hardcore RPG player: the game has no depth, no chase items, no endgame, just farming stat-cores and a cosmetics shop. The relaunch added "depth-ish" — a little bit of depth sprinkled into the depth — but lightweight RPGs don't exist, and Supercell's broad-and-accessible business model is fundamentally incompatible with what makes RPGs work.The conclusion the hosts land on is uncomfortable: in its current state, MoCo is essentially unsalvageable as an RPG. Either pivot it into a MOBA, or kill it and go back to strategy games — the thing Supercell is genuinely great at.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — what does this mean for Supercell?02:19 The relaunch and the search for one positive sign03:30 The numbers — shark fin, 230K DAU, $14K/day07:40 The core problem — no depth, no chase items12:50 "Gen Z slop": why the RPG genre rejects this16:00 The endgame problem — stat-cores and cosmetics26:00 MoCo vs Diablo Immortal vs Path of Exile30:45 The verdict — kill it or pivot to MOBA--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

ILLUSTRATION: NATSUMI OGAWA 「WWDJAPAN」ポッドキャストの「サステナブルファッション・トーク」は、ファッション業界のサステナビリティに関するトピックスをざっくばらんにお話しする番組です。本番組では、記者の木村和花がホストを務め、「WWDJAPAN」サステナビリティ・ディレクター向千鶴とともにお届けします。 今年5月、シーイン（SHEIN）が、「透明性」を掲げてきた米D2Cブランドのエバーレーン（EVERLANE）を買収する見通しが報じられ、業界がざわつきました。「サステナは負けたのか」「理念だけでは食べていけないのか」。そんな受け止めも広がりましたが、はたしてそうなのか。番組では、この問いについてディスカッションします。話は、この買収が映し出す2010年代アメリカ発D2Cブームの一つの終わり方と、サステナビリティが「当たり前」になった時代にブランドが問われる「商品の力」へと展開してゆきます。

How do you protect the human craft of storytelling while navigating a global independent market that is rapidly contracting? This week, Giles Alderson and Phil Hawkins sit down for an incredibly candid, wide-ranging masterclass with Jonathan Yunger—President of Millennium Media and co-founder of Arcana Labs. Jonathan has masterminded massive worldwide features grossing billions of dollars—producing major franchise hits like The Expendables, The Hitman's Bodyguard, and the Fallen series, alongside star-driven indie standouts like Tesla starring Ethan Hawke, Jolt starring Kate Beckinsale, Till Death starring Megan Fox, and The Enforcer starring Antonio Banderas. His latest project, John Rambo (directed by Sisu filmmaker Jalmari Helander), is a masterclass in 99% practical, old-school action cinema. Yet, Jonathan is also leading the charge on ethical, artist-driven tech integration through Arcana Labs—an enterprise-grade ecosystem fully vetted by major streaming networks after rigorous multi-month security compliance reviews. In this episode, we strip away the PR spin to examine how the disruption of streaming windows broke the traditional indie minimum guarantee model, and why embracing assistive workflows is the key to reclaiming creative risk.

Epic spent five years and over $100M breaking the platforms' 30% tax — then cut V-Bucks by 20% to "pay the bills." If the company that won the fee war still gets squeezed, what does that say about everyone else?The answer isn't about fees. When AI makes content infinite and attention stays finite, the only asset that appreciates is the direct relationship with your players — the one distribution channel that gets cheaper the stronger it gets. And a nearly invisible economy of community-run game servers has been proving its dollar value for fifteen years.I sit down with Liam Wiltshire, GM of Tebex — the merchant-of-record platform behind direct payments for Rockstar, Take-Two, Hytale, and FiveM — to unpack it.In this episode:Why "is 30% dead?" is the wrong questionCreator codes: how trust drives 50–227% more spendThe BNPL and crypto data that surprised even TebexWhy 35% of desktop game purchases happen on a phoneHow Hytale launched off Steam and secured two years of runway from pre-orders aloneThe £20, 16-year-old origin story behind a company that's processed $1.5BRead the full breakdown and subscribe at gamemakers.com.Chapters00:00 — Epic cut V-Bucks: why it's really a margin story03:47 — When content is infinite, what's actually scarce?07:38 — The shadow games industry: Hypixel, FiveM & a $1.5B economy10:13 — The data: creator codes, BNPL & buying on a second screen13:33 — Liam Wiltshire joins: the state of the industry16:35 — Why every player purchase is a "CapEx decision"18:50 — Is the 30% platform fee dead?21:00 — Who really owns the player relationship?23:27 — D2C across mobile, web, PC & console34:59 — Treating the platform as an acquisition channel42:57 — UGC servers & what a "merchant of record" actually does1:00:40 — Creator codes: how trust drives more spend1:19:04 — BNPL & crypto: the numbers that surprised Tebex1:31:20 — Payment optimization & one-click checkout1:40:43 — The £20 origin story & the $29M exit

Direct-to-consumer is finally out of the shadows. Eight public studios just revealed how much revenue they drive through D2C — and the numbers make the case better than any pitch could. But there's a window closing, and the studios moving now are the ones who'll win.We are joined by Chip Thurston (FastSpring) for a D2C deep-dive built around the Pocket Gamer report aggregating publicly disclosed D2C revenue. They break down the three cohorts (social casino, mid-core, casual) and what each tells us, the standout data points (Playtika at 39% of revenue, Fishing Clash at 33%, Double Down at 44%), the difference between direct-checkout links and web stores and why you need both, Google's new External Content Links policy, the still-unapproved Epic v. Google settlement and its 20% linked-payment fee, where Apple's appeals stand after the Supreme Court declined to hear them, and the single most actionable takeaway: maximize US D2C traffic today, while you can still steer without fees.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — maximize US D2C traffic today01:35 The Pocket Gamer D2C report and why it matters05:35 The three cohorts — social casino, mid-core, casual11:50 Direct checkout vs web store — the frictionless path16:00 Google's External Content Links policy explained21:20 The Epic v. Google settlement and the 20% fee30:10 Where Apple stands after the Supreme Court36:20 Casual works too — Playtika and the playbook

What does it actually take to build a brand that survives the modern internet? In this episode, we sit down with Ankit, a seasoned marketing agency founder, to pull back the curtain on the messy, unglamorous reality of Indian business.Ankit Saraf is the Founder of Meraqi Digital, one of Eastern India's leading and fastest-growing independent digital marketing consulting agencies based in Kolkata. A visionary marketer, Ankit holds a Master's in Advertising and Design from the University of Leeds and brings over 13 years of cross-continental experience to the table. Before turning entrepreneur, he spent nearly a decade in London working with top-tier global agencies, leading highly impactful digital portfolios for iconic multinational giants including Budweiser, AB InBev Global, Sainsbury's, Procter & Gamble, and Olay. Driven by a desire to bring world-class marketing standards and international work culture to his hometown, he returned to India in 2016. Launching Meraqi Digital under challenging circumstances with an initial capital of just ₹20,000 in a small room, Ankit scaled the business rapidly, crossing ₹1 crore in revenue within 2.5 years. Today, he leads a robust, multi-award-winning team of over 40 digital natives, orchestrating digital transformations and growth strategy mandates for heavyweights like the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, WOW! Momo, Emami Group, and ITC Limited.From the toxic trap of chasing short-term viral trends to why legacy "boring" businesses quietly make the most money in India, this conversation is a masterclass for every modern founder, D2C marketer, and next-gen family business owner. If you are tired of surface-level startup advice and want real, data-backed insights on what actually drives sales and consumer sentiment, this episode is for you.Key Takeaways From This Episode:The Quick Commerce Illusion: Why the highly visible D2C brands you see all over social media are secretly bleeding money under the hood, while unsexy traditional businesses are booking massive profits.The Pan-India Scaling Trap: Why burning limited capital to target all of India on day one is a recipe for failure, and how to successfully build hyper-local validation first.Next-Gen Family Business Friction: A practical, zero-BS guide for young founders on how to introduce digital marketing to traditional parents without disrupting the legacy systems that already work.The "Fickle" Modern Marketer: Why chasing every single internet algorithm trend is ruining brand identity, and how legacy giants maintain deep consumer connections over decades.The Reality of AI in Agencies: How artificial intelligence is actively changing agency workflows, why it excels at boring data crunching, and why it will never replace raw human creative emotion.

Is YouTube the most underrated paid channel for eCommerce brands right now? In this episode, I sit down with Brett Curry, founder of OMG Commerce, to break down exactly how seven- and eight-figure brands should be thinking about YouTube ads. Brett has been running YouTube campaigns for top D2C brands for years, and he reveals why YouTube looks terrible in most reporting tools… and why it's still absolutely worth the investment. Listen in as Brett goes deeper on what a winning YouTube ad actually looks like, why the homepage often outperforms the product page for cold traffic, and how creative fatigue on YouTube compares to Meta. You'll also hear his takes on Google Shopping and Amazon in 2026, why branded search spend may be costing you more than it's worth, and how OMG uses geo holdouts and incrementality testing to prove what's actually working and not just what looks good on a dashboard.  You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/4sufbwdk  Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners? Learn more here.  

Johan Gawell, grundare och VD Sudio, gästar podden Framtidens E-Handel. De går på djupet med Sudios transformation från D2C till en renodlad wholesale-strategi, hur man bygger lönsamma retailrelationer med Elgiganten och Best Buy, vad tullarna mot USA faktiskt kostar i kronor och ören, och varför ett starkt brand är det bästa skyddet i en värld där AI snabbar upp konkurrensen. Johan delar också sin syn på budgetarbete, risktagande och varför grundarteamet är bolagets viktigaste tillgång - inte kapitalet, inte kanalen.05:00 - Alfapet-appen såldes på Wall Street, kapitalet gick till Sudio.08:11 - Smartphones skapade hörlurar som kategori - timing var allt.22:45 - 800 kvm på Östermalm + Right Ventures in - sen slog covid.40:00 - Tre wholesale-nycklar: hyllplats, lönsamhet, överträffa retailerns KPI.47:08 - Köpte tillbaka aktierna i krisen - rådgivaren sa konkurs, Johan sa nej.49:10 - Budget på bevisad data - inte önsketänkande om Meta-experter.53:00 - Lokalt lager i USA löste tullar. Hormuzsundet ett större hot.66:27 - Brand är vallgrav - AI snabbar konkurrens men kopierar inte förtroende.74:07 - Bästa rådet: ett synkat grundarteam slår kapital och kanal varje gång.Här hittar du Johan & Sudio:https://www.linkedin.com/in/johan-gawell/ https://www.sudio.com/eu/ Sponsor Mimir:https://trymimir.com/ Framtidens Berns Event:https://framtidensehandel.se/products/roast Följ Björn på LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjornspenger/ Följ Framtidens E-handel på LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/framtidens-e-handel/ Besök vår hemsida, YouTube & Instagram:https://www.framtidensehandel.se/ https://www.instagram.com/framtidens.ehandel/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEYywBFgOr34TN8NtXeL5HQPoddproducent och klippare Michaela Dorch & Videoproducent Fredrik Ankarsköld:https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-dorch/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankarskold/ Tusen tack för att du lyssnar!Support till showen http://supporter.acast.com/framtidens-e-handel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Album 8 Track 17: The Mythology Behind a Great Marketer w/Louis MonoyudisWhat does an undergrad degree in folklore and mythology have to do with scaling direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to millions in revenue? Everything.In this episode of Brands, Beats, and Bytes, hosts Darryl "DC" Cobbin and Larry Taman sit down with seasoned executive Louis Monoyudis (CMO at Artware Editions, former global CMO at Bokksu, Fable Pets, Levo, and Roam). Louis pulls back the curtain on how a deep understanding of human narrative, ritual, and "belief" acts as the ultimate foundation for hyper-growth marketing.Discover why data infrastructure must balance founder intuition , the real reason crowdsourced fashion platforms face massive scaling hurdles , and what "agentic shopping" means for the survival of the traditional brand website. Whether you are a founder battling hubris or a marketer trying to stay ahead of the AI curve, this episode provides a masterclass on balancing creative judgment with business performance.Key Takeaways: The Fine Line Between Religion and MythEscaping the Echo ChamberThe Reality of Decision FatigueAgentic AI & The Future of ShoppingHuman Taste vs. Machine DataThe ROI of CommunityDon't forget to subscribe, rate, and share with a fellow Brand Nerd!Instagram | LinkedIn

AI creatives just hit a new level and the most surprising convert is Playrix. After years of holding back, they've gone all-in on AI across Township, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes. Matej, Jakub, Felix (and Freddie the robot) review 100+ AI creatives to figure out what's actually working right now.The episode is a guided tour through the current AI creative landscape: AppQuantum's Golden Goblins running AI influencers from a creative team scaling toward 100 people, Playrix's full-AI pivot with the recurring "there are no ads in Township" concept (and Felix's repeated insistence that ads are coming anyway), the "getting slapped" husband concept that has spread across the entire 4X category in a single month, freezing-families intros rendered at near-Pixar quality, the pajama guy who quietly took over Last War / Dark War creatives, and the broader collapse of creative production timelines from a week to a single day. It's the clearest snapshot yet of how fast AI creative production is moving — and how quickly a single winning concept now propagates across an entire genre.The throughline: this isn't about whether AI creatives work anymore. It's about who's iterating fastest.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Freddie the robot judges the AI creatives02:30 AppQuantum's Golden Goblins and the 100-person creative team04:00 Century portfolio downscaling AI (and near-Pixar quality)07:30 Playrix goes full AI across all three games08:00 "There are no ads in Township" — the recurring concept16:30 Freezing Families gets the full AI intro treatment22:20 The "getting slapped" concept takes over all of Forex33:30 Top Heroes, anime quality, and where this is heading━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━-PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

Tina Müller ist die CEO, Susanne Schgaguler die CMO von Weleda.Mit Olli & Martin sprechen sie über Weledas Transformation als Playbook – nicht nur für Traditionsmarken.Weleda ist über 100 Jahre alt und zeigt gerade, wie viel Gegenwart in einer Marke stecken kann, die ihre Herkunft nicht verlässt, sondern neu wirksam macht. Tina und Susanne geben Einblick in einen Wandel, der nicht bei Kommunikation stehenbleibt: von schonungsloser Analyse über neue Produktinnovation, internationale Wachstumsambition, digitale Commerce-Strukturen und Social-Media-Relevanz bis zur Frage, wie viel KI eine Marke verträgt, die im Einklang mit Mensch und Natur stehen will.Diese Folge ist ein Gespräch über große Schritte, klare Führung und die Fähigkeit, Erfolge nicht als Ruhepunkt zu missverstehen.KEY TAKEAWAYS:Digitalisierung muss top down gewollt, geführt und als Wachstumstreiber verstanden werdenTransformation gelingt, wenn Analyse, Strategie, Disziplin und Team zusammenkommenschnelle Erfolge, klare Kommunikation und kreative Unruhe halten Organisationen wandelbarLinkedIn:→ Tina Müller→ Susanne Schgaguler→ Olli Busch→ Martin Boeing-MessingKeywords: FMCG, Beauty, Retail Media, TikTok Shop, Gen Z, D2C, Social Commerce, Consumer Centricity, Stakeholder Alignment, Change Leadership, Plattformstrategie, Organisationdesign, Transformationsgeschwindigkeit, Leadership Team Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FREE: Find out why you're brand isn't ranking in AI with a Remarkable Digital Free AIO Audit Here The best eCommerce Australia founder stories start with a problem nobody else has solved.Amanda Phoenix moved from Vancouver to Melbourne with $3,000 to her name, had a motorcycle accident, and sewed her first product from a $5 polka-dot tablecloth she bought at Spotlight. Today she runs Peak Moto - Australia's leading women's motorcycle gear retailer with stores in Melbourne and Brisbane and a fast-growing eCommerce store.In this episode of the Ecommerce Australia Podcast, Ryan Martin sits down with Amanda to trace the full founder journey: From living on a chicken farm in regional Victoria on a working holiday visa, to a presale campaign that flooded her Gmail with 200 orders in a single evening, to rage-quitting a marketing agency job and opening a 29-square-metre hole-in-the-wall with no running water and a four-hour daily limit imposed by the absence of a toilet.Amanda shares hard-won lessons on eCommerce SEO, finding the right marketing agency, why she walked away from wholesale (B2B) to go all-in on direct-to-consumer, how she negotiated her first commercial lease to exit penalty-free, and why community, not advertising, has been the biggest driver of growth for Peak Moto.If you're an Australian eCommerce founder, a product-based business owner, or thinking about opening a bricks-and-mortar store alongside your online store, this episode is essential listening.What You'll Learn• How Amanda bootstrapped Flying Solo Gear Company from zero - no money, no network,no plan• Why a presale strategy turned a hobby into a real eCommerce business overnight• The exact lease negotiation that let her exit her first store with 30 days notice and no penalty• Why she dropped B2B wholesale and went D2C — and what it meant for margins• How to build a community that sells for you without paid advertising• What to look for (and watch out for) when hiring an eCommerce marketing agency in Australia• Bricks-and-mortar lessons: why smaller is smarter when opening your first retail locationEpisode Timestamps00:00 Welcome — the full circle moment02:00 Amanda's background: strength coach, national team, total burnout04:30 Why Australia? Selling everything for $15K CAD and booking a one-way ticket06:00 Chicken farm in regional Victoria — the working holiday visa reality08:30 Moving to Melbourne: nearly run over by a tram on Day 110:00 The motorcycle accident that created Flying Solo11:30 The $5 Spotlight tablecloth, a borrowed sewing machine, and the first bum bag13:30 The Yarra Valley petrol station moment — what are you wearing?15:00 Kill Switch Pack: carbon fibre, Kevlar, and the world's toughest bum bag17:30 Flying Solo born in one day at the cafe downstairs20:00 The presale that changed everything: 200 backpack orders in one evening22:00 Word of mouth, Mailchimp, and growing without paid ads24:00 Rage quit → first retail space → 29sqm with no toilet27:30 Importing MotoGirl, Revit saying yes when everyone else said no29:00 Why Flying Solo became Peak Moto31:30 Founder advice: smaller MOQs, ditch B2B, test before you scale36:00 How Peak Moto built a community that drives word-of-mouth sales40:00 Bricks and mortar lessons: leases, location, lifestyle44:00 How to find a good marketing agency — and the red flags to watch forLinks & MentionsGuests→ PeakMoto — Women's Motorcycle Gear (Melbourne & Brisbane)→ Flying Solo Gear Company→ Amanda Phoenix on InstagramMentioned in this episodeRevit Motorcycle Gear — peakmoto.com.au/brands/revitMotoGirl — UK women's motorcycle gear brandPulp Digital — Meta ads agency (shoutout: Bella)

In this episode of The Private Equity Podcast, Alex Rawlings speaks with David Bell, former Wharton Professor of Marketing and early-stage investor in consumer companies including Diapers.com, Warby Parker, Harry's and Jet.com. David shares what he looks for in standout consumer brands, why founder insight and capital discipline matter, and how businesses can build emotional and symbolic value around everyday products.David explains why great consumer companies often begin with a simple frustration: what is wrong with the status quo? From buying diapers online to rethinking eyewear pricing, the best founders identify a clear customer problem, build a strong proposition, and execute with precision. He also discusses why overcapitalisation can damage consumer brands, using Allbirds and Casper as examples of businesses that grew quickly but struggled to sustain value.The conversation explores omnichannel distribution, brand storytelling, cultural relevance and genuine product innovation. David highlights Touchland, Warby Parker, Native, EOS, Hello and Happy, showing how founders can elevate mundane categories through design, positioning and customer experience.Key Takeaways: Great consumer investments often start with a visceral customer problem.  Capital efficiency is critical because consumer exits rarely match software-scale outcomes.  Strong brands combine functional, emotional and symbolic value.  D2C alone is rarely enough; winning brands need a measured omnichannel strategy.  The next wave of consumer winners needs real product innovation, not just better go-to-market.  Founder obsession with small details in design, scent, usability and narrative creates differentiation. Timestamps: 00:03 – Introduction to David Bell and his journey from New Zealand to New York 01:00 – David's background at Wharton and investing in consumer companies 01:28 – What attracted David to early winners like Diapers.com 02:19 – Why Diapers.com solved a fundamental customer pain point 03:15 – The importance of insight, execution and market size 03:44 – Lessons from Allbirds and the dangers of overcapitalisation 05:32 – How great consumer brands scale beyond the early stage 06:27 – The shift from pure D2C to omnichannel distribution 07:52 – Why strategic buyers value brands with retail traction 09:18 – Why some consumer brands fail to sustain momentum 10:11 – Touchland and the reinvention of hand sanitiser 11:33 – Cultural relevance, collaborations and emotional connection 12:03 – Sponsor message from Grata 12:32 – What makes a brand fundamentally strong 13:29 – Diapers.com and the power of descriptive branding 14:26 – Warby Parker's storytelling, fairness and American heritage 15:49 – Building cognitive associations through brand activations 17:40 – How much brand success is intentional versus luck 18:09 – Opportunities in legacy consumer categories 19:24 – Why obsessive attention to detail matters 20:19 – Craig Dubitsky, EOS, Hello and elevating mundane products 21:15 – Happy Coffee and design-led differentiation 22:14 – Where the consumer industry is today 22:43 – Capital-efficient growth and the Native deodorant example 23:39 – Why real product innovation now matters more than ever 24:36 – What David reads, watches and listens to 25:04 – Identifying white spaces in health, wellness and longevity 26:30 – Consumer opportunities through cultural arbitrage 27:27 – Lessons from Coca-Cola's global distribution and brand power 28:24 – How to connect with David Bell 28:52 – Closing remarksRaw Selection partners with Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies to secure exceptional executive talent. We focus on de-risking executive recruitment through meticulous search and selection processes, ensuring top-tier performance and long-term success.

Block Out by Grand Games is scaling to $300K/day — and it doesn't even have an Android version yet. It's about to become Grand Games' biggest title, overtaking Magic Sword, and the whole thing is a masterclass in perfect execution over original innovation.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg break down Block Out, the deterministic sort puzzler that's quietly become one of the most aggressive scalers in mobile. The conversation covers how Block Out's iteration is now out-earning the game it borrowed from (Color Block Jam), the level-design difference that makes it more casual and more approachable, the UA upgrade that Jakub estimates at 500%+ over Grand's earlier games, the iOS-only / US-only / single-AppLovin-campaign soft launch playbook (the same one Pixel Flow used), the blended-ROAS interstitial strategy driving 32-36% ad revenue, and the 1,000+ creatives and 260 playables now powering the scale. Plus the bigger Grand Games story: a $70M raise, $105M+ total funding, and a template machine that takes proven concepts and executes them better than anyone.The thesis, straight from the episode: Grand Games doesn't do giant innovation. They do perfect execution.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 the 500% UA upgrade03:50 The numbers — $300K/day, 140K downloads/day, iOS only06:40 The Grand Games template — perfect execution, not innovation10:25 What a deterministic sort puzzler actually is13:25 Block Out vs Color Block Jam — the level design difference20:50 The soft launch playbook — one AppLovin campaign, US only21:45 The ad question — blended ROAS and 32-36% ad revenue26:30 The UA breakdown — Mintegral, 1,000 creatives, 260 playables--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

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Halal-Süßigkeiten aus dem WG-Zimmer auf über hunderttausend Follower und Millionenumsätze gebracht – Tayfun Öner macht vor, wie ehrliches Bedürfnis, Community-Nähe und gelebtes Performance-Marketing ein D2C-Modell prägen, das echte Alternativen schafft. Wie Frust über fehlende Auswahl zur Gründung führt und Content zu Selbstbewusstsein, ohne Übermut: Die Neigung, klein zu bleiben, zahlt sich aus, wenn Wachstum Haltung braucht. Du erfährst... …wie Tayfun Öner mit Miralina eine Nische für Halal-Süßigkeiten erobert. …welche Rolle Performance-Marketing und Content bei Miralinas Erfolg spielen. …wie TikTok Shop und Influencer-Marketing Miralinas Wachstum befeuern. __________________________ ||||| PERSONEN |||||

Voodoo wasn't supposed to be making this kind of money. For years their entire portfolio sat at sub-$100K/day games — Mob Control, Cap Heroes, the usual hyper-casual treadmill. Then something switched in early 2026 and now they're suddenly running at $1M/day in IAP across the portfolio. The flag-bearer for the new era is Marble Sort.We dig into Marble Sort by Voodoo — a sort-category puzzler that scaled from launch in February to $200K/day in IAP plus $52K/day in ad revenue by March. The conversation covers the sorter-category explosion (Pixel Flow's Scopely acquisition for close to $1B set the precedent), the 800-1,100 creatives running on AppLovin and what they tell us about Voodoo's creative production discipline, the level-design and APS-curve methodology that Tripledot-style studios actually use, why this game could be just a mini-game inside Royal Match (and why that matters), and the bigger story underneath: Voodoo just launched a mid-core PvP studio led by ex-Kameli Games French founders, signaling a serious IPO push in the next 1-2 years.If you want to understand the Voodoo renaissance — or just figure out why Jakub keeps insisting "the sort category is the new hot shit" — this is the episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Voodoo is suddenly doing $1M/day in IAP02:24 The sorter category is the new hot shit (and why)05:36 The Voodoo portfolio renaissance — Castle Clashers + Marble Sort08:56 Walking the game — sorting mechanics, level curve, no live-ops yet13:40 The level design metrics — APS curve, booster win ratio17:38 32% ad revenue + $52K/day = roughly $250K/day total19:59 800-1,100 creatives in 30 days — AI + gameplay + AppLovin altered videos28:33 Voodoo's new mid-core PvP studio + the IPO setup--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

Ever noticed your Amazon sales dropping and immediately blamed your ads? We all do it! In this episode, Michael and Campaign Manager Olena reveal a massive secret about what is really killing your sales.It turns out you do not have to be completely out of stock to lose money. Just having a lower inventory drops your conversion rate and your sales velocity. Olena actually brought the receipts for this one. She stacked daily Business Reports and Inventory Ledgers to prove this crazy theory with hard data.When she looked at the numbers, she found something wild. One client could never break $9,600 a day in sales with low stock. But they always hit over $10,000 when fully stocked. Why does this happen? It is all about the Amazon algorithm and delivery times. When your stock is low, it does not go down equally everywhere. This means longer delivery times in certain states, which hurts your regional conversions.We'll see you in The PPC Den!

A top-5 mobile game with 60-70 million daily active users just disappeared from Google Play for 24 hours and came back. Nobody from Hungry Studios is saying anything. That's the headline.Jakub Remiar flies solo this week with nine stories from the May 23-29 news cycle. The Block Blast Android outage is the biggest shock — a game that big going dark on a major platform for an entire day with zero public explanation. The Monopoly Go licensing story is the most quietly important: Scopely paid Hasbro $41M last quarter alone, confirming the $168M/year run-rate that puts Monopoly Go in genuinely different stratosphere from everything else in social casino. And Valve raised the Steam Deck OLED 1TB from $649 to $949 — a 40% hike that prompted Tim Sweeney to publicly joke about Gabe Newell's $500M super-yacht.Plus: Playtika layoffs as social casino keeps declining, Unreal Engine 6 teased via Rocket League, NetEase posts 7% YoY growth, CD Projekt Red announces a new Witcher 3 expansion called Songs of the Past, IO Interactive's James Bond game hits 1.5M copies in 24 hours, Fortnite returns to iOS to a 3.4M download spike, and the GDC 2026 trend report confirms generative AI is the only thing anyone in the industry is talking about.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — the Steam Deck mega-yacht joke00:30 Block Blast vanished from Google Play (and came back)02:00 Playtika layoffs + Monopoly Go's $41M Hasbro license fee03:30 Unreal Engine 6, NetEase Q1, Witcher 3 + James Bond05:24 Sponsor — Potensus06:32 GDC 2026 trend report — generative AI dominates07:30 Fortnite iOS return drives 3.4M downloads in 8 years08:30 Steam Deck +40% price hike + the mega-yacht punchline

Most D2C brands have tried YouTube ads. Almost none of them are getting credit for what those ads are actually doing. Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce and the guy behind YouTube growth for brands like Native, Arctic, and Dude Wipes, makes the case that in-platform reporting is under-counting YouTube's real impact by roughly 70% — and that the brands leaning in right now are about to widen the gap on everyone still dabbling.This one goes deep: incrementality testing, omnichannel attribution, creative frameworks, and why your Meta winners almost certainly won't survive on YouTube.Inside the episode:Why a 1.0 in-platform ROAS on YouTube is probably a 3.4 in reality — and the 190-test incrementality study behind that numberHow Arctic drove a 25% Walmart sales lift (and 230% branded search lift) by running YouTube in select markets — measured scientifically against matched control marketsThe three creative types that actually work on YouTube: hero/brand films, single-creator UGC, and the specific criteria your Meta winners need to meet before you bother testing themHow to diagnose a broken YouTube ad using just three metrics: view rate, click-through rate, and average watch time per impression — and what each one tells you to fixWhy campaign structure for retail lift looks completely different than for D2C sales — and how to set up for both at once—Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact and request your FREE strategy session today!—‍Chapters:[0:00] Introduction: Why Most Brands Still Suck at YouTube[1:51] Audience Poll: Who's Actually Winning on YouTube?[3:15] The Core Problem: Bringing a Meta Mindset to YouTube[4:05] YouTube as Trust: Creators, TV, and Time Spent[8:14] Incrementality 101: Measuring the Real Impact of Your Ads[11:22] How Incremental Is YouTube? The 3.4x ROAS Reality[15:28] Going Omnichannel: Using YouTube to Drive Retail and Amazon Sales[19:13] Arctic Case Study: Measuring YouTube's Impact on Walmart Sales[24:09] Creative Diversity: The Essential Elements of a YouTube Ad[27:16] Creative Breakdown: Single Influencer, Hero, and Mashup Ad Examples[38:05] Creative Story Arc: How to Hook Viewers and Drive Action[40:24] Creative Feedback Loops: What Data to Watch and Why[46:09] Campaign Structure: How to Buy Media Based on Your Goals[51:56] Measure, Model, Maximize: The Trifecta of YouTube Measurement—Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQmbMwBW8LYDfFAqNqlgTGw Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ Request a Free Strategy Session: https://www.omgcommerce.com/contactPast guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, JC Hite, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Stephane Colleu, Jeff Oxford, Bryan Porter and more

Chirag Taneja built GoKwik into 1 in 5 D2C checkouts in India. But the path there was a series of bets that didn't work, jobs that didn't last, and one moment in 2020 where the suitcases for Canada were packed and waiting in his living room.In Episode 12 of Unstarted, Chirag sits down with Avnish Bajaj to talk about what it actually means to keep tinkering, and when tinkering becomes the thing that holds you back.They get into: 1. What's really important to start a business: idea, capital, or knowledge? 2. Why choosing the right problem matters more than solving any problem 3. The Canada PR that almost happened (and the suitcases that are still in his house) 4. Probabilistic thinking, and why "generate choices" beats "make decisions" 5. Should you have a co-founder you don't already know? 6. How he thinks about ESOPs, the size of the pieUnstarted is a Z47 series. For founders, by founders. New episode every Thursday.Chapters 00:18 From the shop floor to a 1-in-5 D2C company01:35 A banker father, a single parent, and "play with intent"03:15 Why he chose Delhi College over IIT Delhi Civil05:30 The first Asian team to build a Formula race car06:25 The Maruti bet that landed him on the shop floor07:10 Q: Idea, capital, or knowledge — what matters most?08:50 How Bombay Shaving Company became the foundation of GoKwik09:35 The right problem matters more than the right solution10:55 Payments were broken in 2005. They were still broken in 2017.11:50 Pick your game: badminton or golf?13:20 The Canada PR, the suitcases, and the trip that never happened15:25 Generate choices before you make decisions17:50 When the tinkerer turns on himself19:15 Why "what worked then" stops working at 1-to-1022:45 Q: When should you have a co-founder?24:45 Why arranged co-founders are too risky28:30 Closing

One guy. Five helpers. $30 million a year in revenue. 97% profit margin. Zero UA. 700 million lifetime downloads. The most successful solo developer in mobile gaming history is Swedish and you've probably never heard of him.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg return with another One Man Wonder episode — this time on Robert Topala (RobTop Games) and Geometry Dash. The game launched in 2013 as a premium $1.99 title, spawned a free-to-play Lite version, and has been compounding ever since. Active users just hit an all-time high of 10 million DAU — double where they were in October last year. Daily revenue is $75K, with 2025 trending toward $27M after a record $33M in 2024.The most uncomfortable part isn't the revenue. It's that Topala has literally one UA creative running, his entire growth engine is organic, and his profit margin has stayed between 93% and 97% every single year since 2015. He's still in Sweden paying full Swedish tax because he can't be bothered to relocate. The lesson for everyone else? Either build something so good that creators on TikTok and YouTube market it for free for a decade — or accept that you'll never operate at this margin profile.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — $27.4M revenue, one employee02:32 One Man Wonder #N — meet Robert Topala from Sweden05:18 All-time-high 10M DAU and the growth curve doubling14:32 Ad revenue breakdown: $75K/day total revenue16:35 The Swedish financial filings — 93-97% profit margin since 201520:12 How AppLovin mediation 3x'd revenue from 2022 to 202422:41 Third biggest platformer by downloads — just one person26:34 TikTok and YouTube as the real UA engine--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠#mobilegaming #useracquisition #gamedesign #geometrydash #robtop #onemanwonder #f2p #geometrydashshowcase Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

Ilya Mikin is Vice President of Technology M&A at Corum Group, one of the leading technology M&A advisory firms globally. His background spans more than two decades across enterprise marketing at Intel and Unilever, executive and CEO roles at companies including iHerb, multiple founder exits across AdTech, MarTech, and FinTech, and now advising founders through acquisitions. He has been on every side of the M&A table, which makes his perspective unusually grounded.This episode gets into what has fundamentally changed about how technology and e-commerce companies are built, valued, and sold. The old playbook of raising VC money, growing at all costs, and gunning for IPO has largely collapsed. What replaced it is a market where M&A has become the primary liquidity event for founders, and where the rules for what makes a company attractive have shifted significantly.Eitan and Ilya dig into what acquirers actually look at today: why NRR, GRR, and low churn have become the cornerstones of valuation, why private equity now represents up to 40-50% of buyers in some sectors, and what it means to be an AI-native company versus an AI-enabled one. They also cover the mechanics of the M&A process itself — the four to eight week preparation phase, how Corum builds competitive tension among buyers, why the narrative around a business often matters more than the financials, and the internal deal killers that founders rarely talk about openly.Ilya also shares his take on where shoppable video sits in a world increasingly shaped by agentic AI, why he believes emotional product categories are protected from agent-driven purchasing, and what he is personally watching in the space. Founders who are building toward an exit, or who have never seriously thought about timing one, will find this conversation both practical and clarifying.Website: https://www.vimmi.netEmail us: info@vimmi.netCommerce Untold: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featuredGuest: Ilya Mikin, Vice President Technology M&A, Corum Group, Ltd.Ilya Mikin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilyamikin/Corum Group, Ltd.: https://www.corumgroup.com/Watch the full Youtube video here:https://youtu.be/2lFD9JXIjIgKey Takeaways:VC investment in D2C e-commerce collapsed more than 90% from its 2021 peak, while M&A deals in that same sector grew 47% in 2025 — the exit path has fundamentally shiftedIPO is no longer the default liquidity event for most founders; M&A is now the primary outcome to plan aroundAcquirers today prioritize NRR, GRR, and low churn over raw growth rate — the stickiness and profitability of your customer base drives valuation more than top-line momentumPrivate equity now represents up to 40-50% of buyers in some sectors, and PE buyers lead with EBITDA, not vision — a minimum of $2-3M ARR and $500K EBITDA is roughly where serious interest startsBeing an AI-native company can increase your valuation by 20-30% or more; for true AI-native businesses, multiples can reach up to 20x EVFor AI companies, proprietary data sets matter more than the technology itself — the model is the moatMarket consolidation follows a cycle: the first quartile of a consolidation window has the most buyers, the most competition, and the highest multiples. Waiting too long means the music stopsThe narrative you build around your company matters more than your financials in the early stages of a buyer conversation — buyers need to feel fear of missing outRunning a competitive process with multiple interested buyers is the single most powerful lever a founder has in an M&A negotiation — inbound interest from one buyer puts the founder in a weak positionDeal fatigue and co-founder misalignment are the two most common internal reasons M&A deals collapse before closingAgentic AI will likely commoditize purchasing for basic, emotionally neutral products — but shoppable video remains essential for fashion, luxury, and any category where emotional decision-making drives the purchaseMore than 20% of WallID's customers now come through AI search channels like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, with zero marketing spend — a real signal of how discovery is changingChapters:[00:00] Introduction and Guest Background[00:57] Ilya's Path from Intel and Unilever to E-Commerce and M&A[02:07] How the Approach to Building and Exiting Startups Has Changed[03:29] Why VC Investment Collapsed and M&A Deals Are Rising[04:40] What Acquirers Actually Look at Today: NRR, GRR, and Profitability[05:58] The Rise of Private Equity as a Buyer and What PE Wants[07:20] How AI-Native Companies Command a Valuation Premium[08:47] Where E-Commerce Multiples Stand Today[10:32] The Sell-Side Process: Preparation, Positioning, and Narrative[12:06] The Consolidation Window and Why Timing Your Exit Matters[13:38] How Corum Prepares Founders for Market[14:17] Technology Evaluation: AI vs. Non-AI Companies[17:00] Building the Story, Outreach, and Creating Competitive Tension[20:02] How Long a Typical M&A Process Takes[21:44] Deal Fatigue and Co-Founder Misalignment as Internal Deal Killers[23:28] Shoppable Video and Agentic Commerce: Where Emotion Still Wins[26:09] WallID: Solving Checkout Friction and Fraud at Scale[28:13] Managing Multiple Ventures and the Side-Hustle Mindset[29:44] What Ilya Is Watching in E-Commerce Right Now: Know Your Agent[31:04] How to Connect with Ilya and Corum Group

AppQuantum's Golden Goblins is five years old and still dropping new creatives nobody else is matching. Magic Sword is running 5,000+ new playables per month. Match Villains just flipped the "save the king" formula and is converting harder than ever. And AI creatives are now indistinguishable from human ones in roughly half of the libraries we looked at.Matej Lančarič is joined by Felix Braberg and John Wright (Playable Maker, sitting in for Jakub) to walk through Sensor Tower's April creative trends and figure out what's actually winning right now. The conversation covers the Golden Goblins production machine and why they're still using gates (yes, gates), Match Villains flipping the king-rescue formula into peasant-rescue, the AI invasion of creative libraries, why near-death experience hooks are showing up everywhere, the $40 vs $10 CPI gap between 4X and idle arcade creatives, the brutal volume race (Magic Sword 5K, Royal Match only 300), and the 80/20 iteration rule that separates winners from everyone else.If you ship creatives every week and want to know what's actually working in April 2026, this is the episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — "what signals do you look for anymore?"02:14 Golden Goblins is still dropping new stuff (and using gates)09:13 The 5,000 creatives per month volume race13:55 The 80/20 rule — iteration beats new concepts21:00 "Save the Peasants" — Match Villains flips the king formula30:40 The Royal Match Apple billion-dollar problem35:30 AI creatives are now 50% of some libraries39:13 The $40 vs $10 CPI gap and the Tasty Travels playbook━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Special guest: John WrightJoin our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

How do you build a high-growth, digital-first brand and disrupt a $billion market? In this episode, we speak to John Bailey, Co-founder and Sarah Power, President EMEA & APAC of Revive Collagen, who reveal the D2C strategy, customer acquisition tactics and scaling playbook that took them from startup to global retail success - while staying profitable. Expect sharp insights on brand building, influencer marketing, subscription models and international expansion - plus the mindset needed to lead in a competitive market.

A 5-year-old location-based game just 5x'd its downloads. There were no new creatives. No new geos. No marketing push. Just one regional event that changed how the game actually works in Taiwan.We break down Pikmin Bloom by Niantic — the quiet survivor of the post-Pokemon-Go location-based wave that everyone forgot about, but which has been quietly making $30-50M/month for years and just spiked dramatically in early 2026. The conversation covers the Pikmin IP history, the game's walking-based resource-conversion mechanics, why 58% of revenue comes from Japan, the brutal scale comparison to Pokemon Go ($85M in 5 years vs $75M in 30 days), and the most interesting product story of the episode: Niantic's regional experiment in Taiwan where they moved mushroom locations weekly from November to February, driving a 5x download spike that's still scaling.The takeaway isn't about Pikmin specifically. It's about what product-driven UA looks like when creative-led UA stops moving the needle.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Pikmin Bloom is scaling, why?03:16 Pikmin history lesson — Nintendo IP, RTS origins06:16 The actual game: walking, flowers, Pikmin work for you13:01 The 5x download spike and Taiwan's surprise dominance14:53 The brutal comparison — Pikmin Bloom vs Pokemon Go17:01 The Japan IP rule: everything Nintendo touches is sacred24:12 The Niantic Taiwan experiment that changed everything━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

In today's episode, we are so happy to have Amanda McKee as our guest. Amanda has been part of our program BDA and has done such an incredible journey. She's the owner & CEO of KIANO life, offering superfood & protein powders with 100% clean and plant based ingredients. She's also running the growth agency Straight Ace which helps D2C brands grow.She shares how she went from overworking and realizing that more time doesn't always mean a higher salary. Instead, she decided to invest in her mindset in different ways and started manifesting so many exciting things in her life. She focused on two big goals in BDA - one was to build equity worth EUR 1 million in a company and the other was to manifest her dream house by the water, something she had dreamed about since childhood. In this podcast episode, Amanda shares how she sets goals, how she works with limiting beliefs and the power of consistency when it comes to reaching your dreams and goals.This episode is perfect for you if you also have big goals and want inspiration on how to achieve them. Thank you Amanda for being part of our podcast! P.S. If you're also curious about learning more about BDA, join our waitlist here: https://businessanddreams.typeform.com/to/D4XBjQOmYou can also DM us “BDA” on Instagram at @businessanddreams.Thank you for listening to this episode!

Long-form playables aren't just back — they're crushing it. The top playable in April hit 75% impression share. Whiteout Survival is doing it with 3 new playables a month. And the format that's winning everywhere is the one your mum would recognize.Matej Lančarič is joined by Ondrej Monsberger and John Wright for another Playable Trends deep-dive. The crew goes through Sensor Tower's top playable creatives for April, focusing exclusively on long-form playables and what's actually driving impression share right now. The conversation covers the production trick of building one playable script and shipping 20 variations, why the "mum test" puzzle format is dominating, the BitLife "find the shoes" frustration mechanic, Royal Match's redirect-then-return experiment, and the awkward truth that Whiteout Survival made only three new playables in April but still has 99% impression share on puzzle creatives.If you make playables — or you're trying to understand why CPI keeps climbing despite shipping more creatives — this is the episode to bookmark.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 the "mum test" and recognizable formats02:24 Welcome — the never-ending playables debate revisited06:15 Sensor Tower setup and April's top long-form playables09:27 One script, 20 variations — the production playbook13:50 The completion-rate vs engagement-clicks tradeoff21:00 The 75% impression share playable of April25:48 Royal Match's redirect-then-return experiment30:05 Whiteout Survival: 99% impression share, 3 new playables38:24 Predictions for next month — and the arrows trend

Dream Games swore they would never add ads to Royal Match or Royal Kingdom. In February 2026, they quietly did it. Here's the proof — and what it means for the rest of the industry.Felix Braberg flies solo this week to break down the three biggest stories in mobile gaming: Playtika officially walking away from social casino to chase Disney Solitaire (with D2C revenue now at 62% of their IAP), Mistplay's acquisition of Mychips as the rewarded UA M&A wave begins, and the most interesting story of the week — Dream Games caught adding ads to Royal Kingdom via Wayback Machine forensics, generating an estimated $170-190K/day in interstitial and rewarded revenue while 6x'ing downloads in markets like Brazil.If Dream Games breaks, Playrix is next.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Royal Kingdom's $190K/day ad revenue01:25 Playtika exits social casino, casual is now 76% of business03:10 The D2C dark pool — Playtika now at 62% off-platform04:45 Mistplay acquires Mychips — the rewarded UA M&A wave07:00 Royal Kingdom's secret ads — Wayback Machine forensics08:30 The Brazil test — 25K to 150K downloads/day, IAP also up09:30 Top charts wrap — Magic Sword, Grand Games, Monopoly Go━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

YouTube ads veteran Brett Curry (OMG Commerce) and TikTok Shop expert Jordan West (Social Commerce Club) went back and forth live on what's actually moving the needle for D2C brands right now — and some of their takes are going to sting. Most brands are still treating Google spend as a given, measuring YouTube with click-based attribution that was never built for it, and ignoring a TikTok Shop launch strategy that flips the creator dynamic entirely.Inside the episode:The YouTube Shorts formula that's working in 2026 — why Brett reversed his position, and the 4 things a video must have (including minimum length) before you waste money testing itThe Blitz methodology explained — how Social Commerce Club seeds hundreds of creators in a 24–48 hour window to manufacture momentum and make big creators come to you instead of the other way aroundWhy Jordan thinks most Google spend is a non-incremental tax — and the channel hierarchy he'd use for every D2C brand over $10MThe TikTok Shop–to–Shopify halo effect — the data Jordan's team is seeing that almost nobody is talking about yet"My brand is too premium for TikTok Shop" — Jordan's reframe on why that objection is almost always wrong, and what to ask insteadSponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!Chapters:[0:00] Introduction: Brett Curry & Jordan West Swap Podcasts[1:09] Why YouTube CPMs Are the Most Underpriced in the Industry[5:00] What's Working on YouTube Shorts: The Framework for Winning Creative[7:57] TikTok Shop Deep Dive: Jordan's Obsession with Demand Generation[10:01] Like, Know, and Trust: Why YouTube Is the Ultimate Brand-Building Platform[11:28] Ad Break: OMG Commerce Omnichannel Growth[12:37] The Blitz Methodology: How Social Commerce Club Concentrates Creator Signal[16:46] Moments vs. Blitzes Explained: Definitions and How They Drive Momentum[19:42] How Far Can Brands Actually Scale on YouTube?[21:53] Why MTA Tools Underreport YouTube: The Case for Incrementality Testing[22:58] The Problem with Multi-Touch Attribution: Jordan's New Halo Tracking Concept[25:17] Incrementality Explained with a Retail Store Analogy[28:43] Rapid Fire YouTube Questions: Mashup Creatives and Repurposing Creator Content[30:53] YouTube Targeting Strategy: Why You Still Need to Feed the Algorithm Signal[32:22] Which Brands Should Be on YouTube But Aren't?[33:09] Hot Take: The Right Ad Spend Hierarchy for D2C Brands[34:43] YouTube vs. Meta by Product Type: Apparel, Problem-Solution, and Omnichannel[37:15] If TV Works, YouTube Should Work: The CTV and Linear TV Connection[38:10] Is Your Brand Too Premium for TikTok Shop? Jordan's Answer[39:42] Why TikTok Shop Is a Fundamentally Different Beast Than TikTok Ads[41:05] Wrap-Up: Where to Find Brett and JordanConnect With Brett:LinkedIn: / thebrettcurryYouTube: / @omgcommerceWebsite: https://www.omgcommerce.com/Request a Free Strategy Session: https://www.omgcommerce.com/contactRelevant Links: Jordan's LinkedIn: jordan-west-marketer/ ‍Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, JC Hite, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Stephane Colleu, Jeff Oxford, Bryan Porter and more

Most edible gifting businesses don't work at scale, the logistics are brutal, the margins get squeezed, and the moment quality slips, the whole experience breaks. Rachel Solomon Fascitelli built Boarderie anyway, and it worked.  Rose Hamilton, CEO of Compass Rose Ventures and co-host of The Story of a Brand Show, sits down with Rachel to unpack how a finance background, a COVID pivot, and an obsession with operational precision turned a 2,000 square foot commissary kitchen into one of the most impressive D2C food businesses in America. * A category nobody else wanted — and exactly why she chose it. Rachel saw what others missed: a $100+ year-old edible gifting category that had never been innovated on, wide open for a founder willing to do the hard operational work to get there. * Profitable from day one, on purpose. With a finance mind running the growth engine, Boarderie was never going to be a "grow now, profit later" story. Rachel treated the ad account like a trading account — efficient CAC, disciplined spend, and a relentless focus on the bottom line from the very beginning. * Premium execution is an operations story, not a branding story. Shipping 35,000 handmade boards a day during peak season, with FedEx turning planes around in Memphis to keep up — the wow moment customers experience starts hours before the box ever opens. * Bootstrap founders learn what funded founders often don't. When there's no safety net, you have no choice but to figure it out. Rachel's team did every job themselves — paid media, content, logistics, production — before hiring anyone to do it for them. * Don't build for the coastal bubble. Build for the country. Rachel's sharpest advice for founders: stop chasing what's trendy in New York and LA, and start asking what the rest of America actually needs. That's where the real white space lives. Join us in listening to this episode for one of the most practically useful founder conversations we've had in a while. Rachel doesn't just inspire — she gives you a framework.   From bootstrapping to Shark Tank to scaling dessert as a second category, this is a masterclass in what it really takes to build a profitable, operationally excellent consumer brand.  For more on Boarderie visit: https://boarderie.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, please leave The Story of a Brand Show a rating and review.  Plus, don't forget to follow us on Apple and Spotify.  Your support helps us bring you more content like this!

For many eCommerce brands, getting the first sale is not the hardest part. Keeping customers coming back is. In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Greg speaks with Matthew Holman, founder of D2C subscription agency Subscription Prescription, about how eCommerce brands can improve retention and increase recurring revenue by adding a subscription component to their business.Matt explains why subscriptions are often misunderstood by founders. Many brands treat them purely as a way to increase lifetime value, but according to Matt, the real opportunity is creating a better customer experience that naturally drives recurring revenue. Good onboarding is key. Matt explains that the first 7–10 days after a purchase are critical because that is when customers decide whether they feel like they are "winning" with the product. Brands that educate customers early, guide them through the experience, and reinforce value tend to see far stronger retention. Greg and Matt also dive into why some ecommerce businesses force subscriptions where they do not belong, the psychology behind multi-month subscription offers, and why value stacking often works better than endless discounting. For founders looking to improve customer retention and grow recurring revenue, this episode is filled with practical insights and real-world examples. Topics Discussed in this episode: What makes a business a good fit for subscriptions  (06:16) When subscriptions do not work for ecommerce brands  (09:30) The weirdest subscription product Matt has ever seen (12:38) What separates high retention offers from those that just churn (14:38) Mistakes founders make when trying to grow subscription revenue (18:56) Building offers that increase retention and LTV  (22:03) How new businesses should test subscription offers (27:29) Matt's recommended testing framework for new subscription offers (32:42) How to attract high-value consumers instead of discount shoppers (36:17) Mentions:  Empire Flippers Podcasts Empire Flippers Marketplace Create an Empire Flippers account Subscribe to our newsletter Matt's LinkedIn TheSubscriptionDoc.com Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to reduce churn and increase recurring revenue through subscriptions!

For many eCommerce brands, getting the first sale is not the hardest part. Keeping customers coming back is. In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Greg speaks with Matthew Holman, founder of D2C subscription agency Subscription Prescription, about how eCommerce brands can improve retention and increase recurring revenue by adding a subscription component to their business.Matt explains why subscriptions are often misunderstood by founders. Many brands treat them purely as a way to increase lifetime value, but according to Matt, the real opportunity is creating a better customer experience that naturally drives recurring revenue. Good onboarding is key. Matt explains that the first 7–10 days after a purchase are critical because that is when customers decide whether they feel like they are "winning" with the product. Brands that educate customers early, guide them through the experience, and reinforce value tend to see far stronger retention. Greg and Matt also dive into why some ecommerce businesses force subscriptions where they do not belong, the psychology behind multi-month subscription offers, and why value stacking often works better than endless discounting. For founders looking to improve customer retention and grow recurring revenue, this episode is filled with practical insights and real-world examples. Topics Discussed in this episode: What makes a business a good fit for subscriptions  (06:16) When subscriptions do not work for ecommerce brands  (09:30) The weirdest subscription product Matt has ever seen (12:38) What separates high retention offers from those that just churn (14:38) Mistakes founders make when trying to grow subscription revenue (18:56) Building offers that increase retention and LTV  (22:03) How new businesses should test subscription offers (27:29) Matt's recommended testing framework for new subscription offers (32:42) How to attract high-value consumers instead of discount shoppers (36:17) Mentions:  Empire Flippers Podcasts Empire Flippers Marketplace Create an Empire Flippers account Subscribe to our newsletter Matt's LinkedIn TheSubscriptionDoc.com Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to reduce churn and increase recurring revenue through subscriptions!

David Bell, co-founder of Idea Farm Ventures and early investor behind Warby Parker, Harry's, and Diapers.com, and CJ break down how consumer investing works. They cover why durable consumer companies require more than clean unit economics, how to apply SaaS-style thinking to businesses without contracts, and why the best opportunities often live in boring gray space.—SPONSORS:EY works with high-growth tech companies to navigate the messy realities of scaling—from regulatory requirements to IPO readiness. By helping teams get it right early and often, EY lets founders stay focused on building while reducing risk as they grow. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartupsSpendHound is a SaaS spend management platform built for finance and procurement teams that want visibility and leverage in every deal. By tracking all your software, benchmarking pricing across thousands of vendors, and surfacing contracts and renewals, SpendHound helps you stop overpaying and negotiate with confidence. Trusted by teams at ZoomInfo and Hootsuite. Get started at https://www.spendhound.com/cjBrex is an intelligent finance platform that combines corporate cards, built-in expense management, and AI agents to eliminate manual finance work. By automating expense reviews and reconciliations, Brex gives CFOs more time for the high-impact work that drives growth. Join 35,000+ companies like Anthropic, Coinbase, and DoorDash at https://www.brex.com/metricsAleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/runRightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and billing tool workarounds. It handles high-volume subscriptions, usage-based contracts, and mid-cycle upgrades, so you can scale without scrambling at month-end. For RevRec that keeps your books clean, visit https://www.rightrev.com/CJRillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cj—Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsNGuest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bell-086820/Company: https://www.ideafarmventures.com/CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Preview and intro3:16 Edge: economics and psychology5:21 Best ideas in boring gray space5:41 Functional, emotional, and symbolic value7:08 Grüns gummies and divisibility9:02 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex12:31 Ideation: personal pain vs. market analysis13:17 Diapers.com and the Starbucks origin story16:00 Warby Parker: asking why16:33 LTV to CAC in D2C18:02 Retention math: 85 to 90% can double LTV19:00 Milkman and recurring vs. reoccurring20:42 Trust economics22:38 Warby stores boost online sales22:58 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet26:12 Away store as advertising27:46 Warby discovery: dots on a map30:10 Home try-on word of mouth value32:09 D2C unit economics mistakes34:55 Innovating on distribution35:50 Touchland in Sephora: right channel, right signal37:00 Capital allocation: margin and low CAC first39:18 Sequencing: people, brand, then inventory40:58 Product vs. brand: the 8x10 thought experiment42:23 Consumer monetization shifts45:45 The gravity framework50:32 Isolation principle: most underused lever52:36 Working backwards from exit at day zero57:23 What if your business isn't venture scale?59:32 Book plug: Founders Gold1:00:25 Credits

In this episode of the Omnichannel Marketer, host Kait Stephens interviews Heather Wood, SVP of Marketing at GOODLES.Heather shares her journey from the organic produce and craft coffee industries to leading marketing at GOODLES, a better-for-you mac and cheese brand taking on the biggest incumbents in the category. She discusses what it takes to build a brand people genuinely love, how GOODLES made the bold leap from D2C into nationwide retail with Target before they even officially launched, and why packaging is still their number one point of discovery.The conversation explores how GOODLES uses community — not scale — as their north star for engagement, the bold decision to turn off all paid media when transitioning to retail, and why keeping creative entirely in-house has been central to the brand's authentic voice.TAKEAWAYS:GOODLES is a better-for-you mac and cheese and pasta brand built on the principle of maximizing nutrition without compromising on taste.Going up against major incumbents requires being nimble, creative, and authentic — and getting the product and brand right before launch, not after.GOODLES launched into Target nationwide before their official launch, making a bold go-or-no-go decision that set the trajectory for the brand.D2C is used primarily as a community and education channel, not a primary revenue driver, with the GOODLES Clubhouse serving as a hub for their most passionate brand promoters.Word of mouth is the second-biggest point of discovery for GOODLES, right behind on-shelf packaging, and investing in quality community engagement is what drives it.Packaging is the brand's biggest billboard; GOODLES built it with a timeless strategy to outlast fleeting dietary trends.GOODLES keeps all creative in-house and uses AI very sparingly, believing that authentic, passion-driven creative cannot be outsourced or replicated.Turning off all paid media when transitioning to retail was a scary but ultimately successful bet that forced full commitment to the retail channel.Celebrating wins and expressing gratitude to your team is one of the most underrated and important things a startup leader can do.Where to find Heather Wood: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherwoodsc/Website: https://www.goodles.com/ Where to find Kait Stephens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kait-margraf-stephens/ Website: www.brij.itSUBSCRIBE TO THE OMNICHANNEL MARKETER www.theomnichannelmarketer.com

India's richest buyers still choose SIPs over Mercedes. Why? When a ₹1 Cr car loses to a ₹10k SIP, you're not fighting competitors, you're fighting mindset. In this episode, Shantanu sits down with Santosh Iyer (MD & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India Pvt. Ltd.) for a no-filter conversation on why India's luxury car market is still tiny, what really drives high-ticket purchases, and how culture, family hierarchy, and risk appetite shape consumption in this country. From selling weighing machines to building one of India's most premium auto brands, Santosh's journey is anything but conventional. He shares how early failures in Nepal, turning around Yamaha, and working across global companies shaped his belief in one core idea: trust first, everything else later. Key takeaways from the episode: 1. Why Mercedes competes with SIPs, not just BMW & Audi 2. Why a ₹1 Cr car still takes 45 days of family decision-making 3. What stops India's luxury market from scaling despite rising incomes 4. How D2C changed car buying and killed the “discount mindset” 5. What EVs, AI, and the next decade of mobility will actually look like. If you're building a premium brand, selling high-ticket products, or trying to understand Indian consumers beyond surface-level data, this episode will completely change how you think about scale in India. Navigate your way through these chapters: 00:00 Introduction 04:17 Santosh Iyer's early journey and leadership style 07:27 Entrepreneurial beginnings and risk-taking mindset 13:22 Moving into automotive and joining Yamaha 20.26 How the Indian luxury car consumer has evolved 28.00 Why SIPs are Mercedes-Benz's biggest competition 30.05 India's luxury car market vs China and global benchmarks 31:51 How car-buying decisions have evolved over the years 36:40 Inside Mercedes: teams, technicians, and execution 40:04 The D2C model and the challenge of changing dealer behaviour 46:55 Future of Mercedes in India and the EV shift 50:00 AI in automotive and marketing, and ‘make in India' for the world, and the export opportunity 01:01:12 Closing Thoughts

Will Nitze started IQBAR in 2018 to solve his own problem: long hours, a bad diet, daily brain fog. He designed the formulas for cognition, low net carb, low sugar, low glycemic. What he didn't know was that the rest of America was about to get obsessed with that exact macro profile for a completely different reason: weight loss. When keto took off, IQBAR was one of only three keto-compliant bars on Amazon. That lucky overlap was the first of several step-change moments that took a 15-person team to over 100% compound annual growth for 8 straight years, and into the shelves of Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Target.In this episode of Predicting The Turn, Will unpacks why startups beat legacy CPG on speed rather than size, why he runs the entire company with a "benevolent dictator in every division" model instead of bloated marketing teams, and how IQBAR raised a little under $10M across 8 years without a single egregious fundraise. He also breaks down the move from D2C to mass retail, why packaging becomes the billboard when the shelf replaces the digital feed, and how the Bites launch turned into an incrementality test in real time.If you care about how emerging CPG brands actually scale inside Costco, Sam's Club, and Walmart without blowing up their cap table, this one is a masterclass.Key Topics- Why IQBAR's brain-health formulation became accidentally keto-compliant- The 15-person "benevolent dictator" operating model- Raising under $10M across 8 years and why bootstrapping isn't a virtue- Working capital reality when you move from Amazon to Walmart and Costco- Why packaging becomes the #1 marketing lever in mass retail- Building a platform brand across bars, hydration, coffee, and Bites- Running incrementality tests to avoid cannibalization- The three step-change moments: keto, Costco, Thomas Keller partnership- Picking a North Star that keeps you fired up in year 8

eTail Palm Springs is one of the most important events on the e-commerce calendar. As one of the most anticipated events in the e-commerce calendar, eTail brings together senior retail leaders, DTC brands, and digital innovators to explore the evolving future of online and omnichannel retail. Every year, the event draws a powerful mix of founders, marketers, technology providers, and retail operators — all under one roof in the California desert.Isaac Morey, Co-Founder of Content Cucumber, was on the ground at eTail Palm Springs this year recording conversations for the Talk Commerce podcast. The result? A compilation video packed with some of his favorite interviews from across the show floor. Each one is a quick snapshot of the people, ideas, and energy that make eTail such a standout event.Here's a look at every clip in the compilation.0:40 Scott Ohsman, Always Off Brand5:38 Elizabethe Lachhar, RezolveAI10:57 Amrit Shergill, ShopVision14:21 Udayan Bose, NetElixer16:27 Andrew Watt, MAI18:17 Patrick Yoon, CHEQScott Ohsman, Always Off Brand: AI Is Moving Past the HypeScott Ohsman kicked things off with signature energy and a sharp take on where AI in e-commerce really stands. He argues that AI is finally moving from buzzword to tactical tool — but warns that a "blister" correction is coming, and that mediocre brands relying on AI as a crutch will be the first to get flushed out.D2C Brands Are About to Have a MomentIn the same conversation, Scott made the case that D2C brands are quietly positioned for a traffic windfall thanks to LLM-driven search sending users directly to brand websites. It's unpaid traffic, and the brands doing solid foundational work will benefit most.The Vibes at eTail Are UnmatchedScott closed with a love letter to the eTail experience itself — the Palm Springs sunshine, the resort setting, and the surprisingly positive energy on the exhibitor floor. According to Scott, even the vendors are in a good mood here, and that says a lot.Elizabeth Lachhar, Rezolve AI: The Case for Agentic CommerceElizabeth Lechhar from Rezolve AI broke down what agentic commerce actually means and why it matters right now. With Generation Alpha bringing five trillion dollars in buying power online in the next few years, the traditional e-commerce funnel is reaching end of life — and brands need to prepare for a conversational, hyper-personalized future.Shopping Will Become a 360° ExperienceElizabeth painted a picture of what the near future of shopping looks like: not just searching for a blazer, but asking an AI what to wear in Palm Springs, what goes with it, and whether you can still wear it to lunch. Commerce is becoming circular and lifestyle-driven, not linear.Get Your Data Ready NowIn her closing remarks, Elizabeth urged retailers to start preparing their data infrastructure for the agentic future. From multi-dimensional search to automated payments, the entire commerce stack is about to change — and Resolve AI is building the end-to-end platform to support that shift.Amrit Shergill, ShopVision: Why Retros Shouldn't Be AnecdotalAmrit Shergill of ShopVision explained how most brands rely on fragmented, anecdotal data when looking back at key campaigns like Black Friday. His company captures every digital touchpoint across competitors and reseller channels, turning guesswork into clarity and predictive insights.Pricing Intelligence: Finding White Space in the MarketAmrit dove deeper into a specific pain point he's hearing at eTail: pricing challenges. Brands with large wholesale networks are missing margin and product-line opportunities because they can't see how competitors are pricing similar products. His platform matches products across brands and surfaces the white space.Udayan Bose, NetElixir: $30 Million in Revenue Driven by ExperimentationNetElixir's founder, Udayan Bose shared that their machine-learning-powered experimentation platform has driven roughly $30 million in cumulative additional revenue across 250 experiments in the past year. The message is clear: performance AI — the kind that drives measurable outcomes — is the next frontier every e-commerce brand should pursue.NetElixir: AI Is Moving from Buzz to ActionUdayan also noted a shift in the eTail conversations this year: people aren't just talking about AI anymore — they're asking whether it actually drives results. NetElixir's high Net Promoter Score (84.4, double the industry average) backs up their claim that human expertise combined with AI delivers exceptional performance.Andrew Watt, MAI: Agentic AI for Google Ads ManagementThe team at MAI founded by former Google Ads and Instacart ad platform engineers introduced their agentic AI for paid media. Their platform plugs into Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Shopify, then autonomously builds and manages campaigns — taking over work that used to require agencies or in-house teams. They're expanding to Bing and Meta next.Patrick Yoon, CHEQ: Client-Side Detection: Cleaning Up Invalid TrafficPatrick explained how their client-side pixel unlocks intelligence retailers have never had access to before — from reducing paid media ad waste by up to 70% to identifying which bots on your site are malicious and which are actually acting on behalf of real consumers through LLMs.The AI-Bot Hybrid Future of Retail WebsitesIn a deeper dive, Patrick shared that Gartner predicts one in five interactions on retail websites will involve an LLM by 2028. The takeaway: you can't just block all automation anymore. Retailers need nuanced intelligence to distinguish between helpful AI agents and bad actors, and that distinction will directly impact ROI.

For heritage brands trying to stay relevant with younger consumers, Samsonite's playbook offers a useful case study. On this episode, David Oksman, VP of marketing and direct to consumer at Samsonite, discusses how the 115-year-old luggage company is shifting away from product specs and leaning into more social media-first, culture-led marketing by targeting travelers by psychographic rather than demographic, and measuring emotional connection alongside traditional conversion metrics. He also talks about the brand's latest social-first campaign with Olivia Culpo and how Samsonite thinks about younger D2C challengers like Away and Béis. His advice for other marketers navigating the same tension: don't be a heritage brand — be a brand with heritage.

Xander Shepherd is the co-founder of Artet, a brand that is changing the way we gather, toast, and experience cocktail culture. Rooted in tradition with a modern twist, Artet was founded by two brothers, and their cousin who wanted to create an alcohol-free alternative that blends sophisticated mixology with nuanced botanical flavors.  With its amaro-inspired aperitif and a selection of elevated canned spritzes, Artet offers a hemp-derived Delta-9 THC-infused experience that is both refined and approachable—perfect for those seeking an NA option to savor at the table amongst family and friends.  In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro [02:17] Finding Ecommerce ideas in daily life  [05:48] Experimenting in small, safe spaces [10:29] Sponsor: Migrate [12:27] Reshaping customer perspectives [18:22] Callouts [18:32] Navigating customer purchase friction [21:11] Presenting your product as opportunity [25:05] Sponsor: Intelligems [27:05] Navigating state-by-state THC rules [31:50] Protecting customers with age checks [36:22] Sponsor: Electric Eye [37:31] Setting high standards for the industry [47:10] Connecting customers to buying paths  Resources: Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube The original THC aperitif artet.com/ Follow Xander Shepherd linkedin.com/in/xandershepherd/ Migrate and grow more klaviyo.com/honest    Book a demo today at intelligems.io/ Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Most DTC brands are making million-dollar channel decisions based on attribution data that's fundamentally wrong. Olivia Kory — CSO of Haus and the incrementality expert Brett references on stage more than almost anyone — breaks down what it actually takes to know if your ads are working. Spoiler: if you've been writing off YouTube based on MTA, you owe yourself a retest.Inside the episode:Why YouTube's true ROAS is 3.4X what the platform reports — and how Haus's 190-test study across 74 brands proved it (plus why your D2C numbers alone are only half the picture)The right time to start incrementality testing — it's not when you're huge, it's when your business gets complicated enough that turning off ads won't give you a clean answerHow StockX went from barely spending on YouTube to making it their #2 acquisition channel — by running geo holdout tests and acting on the resultsWhy Meta's optimization might be too good — and how brands like Jones Road are improving their iROAS by making changes that look worse in-platformThe surprise winner: AppLovin — Olivia came in skeptical of mobile game ad inventory and got data she didn't expectHaus's new DTC Basics tier — a lower-cost entry point so more brands can stop guessing which channels are actually driving growth Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today! Chapters: [00:00] Intro clip — Olivia on treating incrementality as a report card vs. a growth tool[00:22] Introductions & background — Olivia's path from Starcom → TubeMogul → Netflix → Quibi → Sonos → Haus[06:55] What is incrementality? — The randomized controlled trial analogy; geo holdouts vs. click-based attribution[10:45] When should a brand start using incrementality? — The low-to-mid 8-figure inflection point; multi-channel complexity as the signal[15:34] Native platform lift studies (Meta & Google) — Are they worth it? Signal loss, CAPI, iOS 14.5 limitations[17:25] Geo holdout vs. user-level testing — Why Haus was "born out of the ashes of iOS 14.5" and went all-in on geo[19:37] How a Haus geo holdout test actually works — Data ingestion, experiment design, market matching, results[23:20] Actioning on incrementality data — Coaching leadership, making reallocation decisions, improving channel performance over time[26:02] How long should you run a test? — Why 2-week YouTube tests fail; 4–6 week minimums and the role of consideration cycles[27:19] Incrementality as an optimization loop, not a report card — Connor from Ridge, Cody from Jones Road Beauty, and the StockX story[30:42] Key metrics defined — iROAS, iCPA, incrementality factor, and why in-platform ROAS can mislead you[32:47] Branded search — Is it incremental? Simple Modern's 5% read, when Amazon bidding on your terms changes the math[35:57] Treatment window & post-treatment window (PTW) — How Haus structures tests for YouTube, Meta, and CTV; lagged effects explained[39:36] Consideration cycles & post-purchase surveys — Why your path-to-purchase report is probably shorter than reality[41:00] Halo effects: Amazon & retail — Why omnichannel brands that only measure D2C are understating YouTube's impact[41:58] The Haus YouTube study findings — The 3.42x incrementality factor; halo effects that doubled lift when Amazon/retail pulled in; Demand Gen vindicated[44:10] YouTube vs. Meta: how the channels differ incrementally — Meta's short payback window, the "too good at intent" problem, and why YouTube wins on halo effects[46:53] Surprises from the data — YouTube (not surprising to Olivia), AppLovin (very surprising), and why TV results swing wildly based on inventory type[50:16] The biggest levers to improve incrementality — Creative first (30–50% wins), then account structure, traffic composition, and spend level[51:46] A DemandGen campaign running on Gmail — A real audit story and why traffic composition can make a channel look broken when it isn't[53:13] Haus's new DTC Basics tier — A lower-cost entry point to measure D2C and Amazon across core ad channels[54:54] Wrap-up & where to find Olivia — Part two teased around the next Haus YouTube report Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: / thebrettcurry YouTube: / @omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ Request a Free Strategy Session: https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact Relevant Links: Olivia's LinkedIn: /olivia-kory-50230812 Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, JC Hite, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Stephane Colleu, Jeff Oxford, Bryan Porter and more

Innovation is often confused with complexity. In this episode, Jennifer Peters, Director of DTC and Martech at OLLY, argues that the most successful brands in 2026 are the ones that execute the fundamentals with relentless consistency. They move past the hype of custom builds to focus on what actually moves the needle for a modern wellness brand. WHY YOU SHOULD LISTEN: - The Headless Trap: Why the trend of overly complicated, custom builds is fading and why almost no business is as "unique" as they think. - Beyond the $10 Coupon: How OLLY uses receipt scanning to build a unified view of the customer across Walmart, Target, and D2C. - Boring AI: Why the real power of AI lies in "un-glamorous" tasks like catalog enrichment and data hygiene rather than creative prompts. - AEO is the New SEO: How the role of the brand site is shifting from a revenue driver to a discoverability hub for Answer Engines (LLMs). THE TAKEAWAY: Stop sinking costs into flashy trends. Start investing in a site that actually converts.

Mark Lester and David Lester are brothers who have turned a shared history of high-level brand strategy into a family legacy of innovation. David is the co-founder of OLIPOP, the prebiotic soda that has fundamentally changed the beverage landscape by blending gut-health science with the nostalgia of a classic cola. Mark, co-founder of the consultancy Squint, has spent his career at R/GA and We Are Pi shaping the strategic direction of global icons like Nike and Samsung. Together, they represent a unique bridge between the rigor of global brand building and the intuition required to launch a category-defining startup. What You'll Learn in This Episode The hidden strategy of finding category value in plain sight How to break only one rule really hard to drive innovation Lessons from building a billion-dollar brand using global marketing rigor Why the discovery channel of the retail store still beats direct-to-consumer The unique dynamic of using brotherly advice to jump into the entrepreneurial unknown Episode Chapters (00:00) Intro (01:24) Growing up in Northern England with entrepreneurial roots (04:28) The Nashville hike that launched a business partnership (06:59) Concepts for innovation and the "break one rule" mantra (12:29) The philosophy of Squint and finding hidden value (15:15) Managing the shift from family connection to business collaboration (18:02) Navigating the pivot from D2C back to retail discovery (24:48) Lessons in building brands for scale from the very beginning (28:11) Brands that make the Lester brothers smile About David Lester and Mark Lester David Lester is the co-founder of OLIPOP, the prebiotic soda brand that has achieved over half a billion dollars in sales by blending gut-health benefits with classic nostalgia. Before turning his focus to functional beverages, David spent a decade in global innovation and marketing at Diageo, working across three continents to master the discipline of consumer goods. Mark Lester is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Squint, a strategic brand consultancy that helps global icons like Nike and Netflix unlock hidden value. With a background at R/GA and We Are Pi, Mark brings twenty years of big-brand experience to the challenge of category disruption. What Brands Have Made David and Mark Smile Recently? The brothers recently shared a smile over the enduring power of brand nostalgia and personality. Mark is energized by the intelligent copywriting of David protein bars and the experience-led branding of Duolingo, while David finds joy in the community-built legacy of Atlanta's Octane Coffee and the timeless playfulness of Nintendo. Resources & Links Connect with David and Mark on LinkedIn. Learn more about Squint and OLIPOP. Listen & Support the Show Watch or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon/Audible, TuneIn, and iHeart. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to help others find the show. Share this episode — email a friend or colleague this episode. Sign up for my free Story Strategies newsletter for branding and storytelling tips. On Brand is a part of the Marketing Podcast Network. Until next week, I'll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices