Ep 576: How Silk & Snow Scaled to 10 Retail Stores by Focusing on Profitable CAC
DTC Podcast
People, culture and remote teams
Albert reflects on team spread due to retail growth and prioritizing culture while expanding geographically.
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Albert Chow built Silk & Snow in the shadow of the DTC mattress wars—but instead of racing to burn VC cash, he played the long game. Today, Silk & Snow has grown into a full home brand with 10 retail stores, a thriving Canadian customer base, and a strong U.S. expansion roadmap.
For DTC founders scaling from $5M to $50M...
- Why they skipped the mattress arms race and leaned into vertical integration
- How bundling less (and planting trees instead) saved $1.3M
- What they learned scaling from 1 to 10 retail stores in a year
- The metrics they track now that ROAS is irrelevant
- Why launching a sofa was more about customer affinity than furniture
Who this is for: Operators scaling past one SKU or one channel—and looking for a sustainable path to growth.
What to steal:
- Bundling with purpose (optional tree planting vs. free stuff)
- Bottom-up brand building: low-funnel mastery first
- How to use DTC data to drive brick-and-mortar strategy
Timestamps
00:00 Organic growth and surviving the DTC mattress crash
02:00 Entering the crowded mattress market in 2017
04:00 Why Silk and Snow became a full home brand
06:00 Factory-first supply chain and Canadian manufacturing
08:00 Launching with Kickstarter and early traction
10:00 The 2019 DTC apocalypse and sustainable growth
12:00 Expanding beyond mattresses into sleep accessories
14:00 Functional vs aspirational buying in home goods
16:00 Becoming a multi-channel retailer
18:00 Using customer data to choose store locations
20:00 Canada vs US growth strategy
22:00 Building brand from the bottom of the funnel
24:00 Replacing bundles with tree planting
26:00 Performance marketing roots and early Google
28:00 Shifting into awareness and brand media
30:00 Why ROAS isn’t the real growth signal
32:00 Retail partnerships and staying DTC
34:00 Black Friday for big-ticket home products
36:00 Fulfillment, returns, and sustainability
38:00 Repeat customers and long-term LTV
40:00 Sleep Country acquisition and retail scale
42:00 Vancouver store and physical retail strategy
Hashtags
#DTC #EcommercePodcast #SilkAndSnow #AlbertChow #DTCBrands #HomeGoods #MattressIndustry #BrandBuilding #RetailStrategy #DirectToConsumer #EcommerceGrowth #StartupPodcast #FounderStory #CanadianBrands #PerformanceMarketing #Omnichannel #RetailExpansion #DTCpodcast
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