Navigating Early Challenges in Healthcare Product Launch

Rob Schutz is the co-founder of the unicorn Ro, a healthcare company that initially offered ED medications and later expanded into other products and services for sexual health, weight loss, fertility, hair, and skin. Prior to Ro, Rob was instrumental in the exponential growth of BARK/BarkBox, a now prominent subscription service for dog products. Currently, at Snagged.com, he is focused on helping businesses acquire premium domain names and digital assets.

In this episode of the DTC POD, Rob shares valuable insights into the growth strategies that have contributed to the success of both BARK/BarkBox and Ro. He discusses the importance of focusing on core, consistent marketing channels such as paid search, paid social, and email, while also allocating a separate budget for testing and exploring new, experimental strategies and channels.

Rob offers practical advice for founders and marketers, stressing the need to plan for scale, set and clearly communicate priorities, foster strong relationships between growth and marketing leaders, and structure teams effectively as the company experiences rapid growth. He also shares his expertise in domain brokerage, discussing strategies for acquiring and negotiating domain names to help build strong brand identities.

Interact with other DTC experts and access our monthly fireside chats with industry leaders on DTC Pod Slack.

On this episode of DTC Pod, we cover:
1. DTC Marketing Strategies
2. Optimizing Marketing Budget
3. Testing Marketing Channels
4. Digital Marketing Challenges
5. Building and Structuring Teams
6. Importance of Domain Names

Timestamps
00:00 Rob Schutz’s DTC experience: BARK/BarkBox, Ro, Snagged.com
07:37 Process of acquiring domain names
11:10 Why Rob Schutz founded Snagged.com
14:28 From User Acquisition Manager to VP of Growth at BARK/BarkBox
16:27 Lessons from BARK/BarkBox’s growth journey
20:56 Strategies for choosing and testing growth channels
26:09 Transitioning from BARK/BarkBox to Ro
29:00 Challenge with digital performance platforms in the early days of Ro
31:33 Rolling out Ro’s ED medication state-by-state, launching other products
35:47 Planning for scale around high quality of care
35:51 Iterations around how to structure the team as Ro scaled
41:47 Rob Schutz’s advice to founders
46:35 Sports sponsorship as a performance channel
48:10 Snagged.com’s domain services

Show notes powered by Castmagic

Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.  

Additional episodes you might like:

• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth

• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content

• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views

• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands

• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook

• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands

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Projects the DTC Pod team is working on:
DTCetc - all our favorite brands on the internet
Olivea - the extra virgin olive oil & hydroxytyrosol supplement
Castmagic - AI Workspace for Content

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Rob Schutz - Co-Founder of Ro and Founder of Snagged.com
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic
Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic