The Startup CEO Show Focus, Cash Flow & Comebacks: Inside EMERGE Commerce with Ghassan Halazon
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What does it take to survive, then thrive, as a public e-commerce CEO? In this episode of Start Up CEO, I sit down with Ghassan Halazon, co-founder and CEO of Emerge Commerce, who has spent 15-plus years buying, building, and turning around brands that together have generated more than one billion dollars in GMV.
We go deep on the shift from a wide roll-up to a focused portfolio in grocery and golf, the reality of timing acquisitions during the pandemic, and how Ghassan led a dramatic debt reduction while getting back to profitable growth. He shares how to handle competitor outreach, how to think about LTV to CAC, and what public market life actually feels like when the cycle turns.
If you are scaling an e-commerce company or considering acquisitions, this is a playbook on focus, discipline, and resilience.