On today’s episode, Ali Rose, Co-Founder & CEO of Genusee, a sustainable and economic eyewear brand and eyeglass frame manufacturer. Ali Rose worked for a body-positive brand in New York City, designing clothes for women. It was a dream come true until she found out how the fashion industry is slowly killing our planet. Wanting to use fashion for good, she went to India and volunteered in an NGO helping domestically-abused women. Come Christmas 2015 and a water crisis in Michigan, she realized that making an impact doesn’t need the right place but the right way of doing things that benefits not only one, but all. Ali Rose had a total turnaround from being a designer of fast fashion to becoming a certified B Corp and named as 1 of 56 brands changing the face of American fashion by Vogue. From its suppliers to the board of directors and employees, Genusee reaches out to women, at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated people, homeless individuals and people from minority groups. With the impact of Genusee’s product to the environment and to its community, Genusee is leaving no stone unturned. It’s a compelling episode as you’d hear Ali Rose talk more about the impact of fast fashion on our planet, building a business that is good for humans and the environment alike, what a B Corp is and what it stands for, how Genusee set up its company to qualify as a B Corp, and concrete plans and steps to implementing a social and environment-friendly changes to your own organization. ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. Tidio This episode is sponsored by Tidio, the highest-rated live chat app on Shopify. Tidio is a versatile platform that offers personalized shopping experiences, boosts customer satisfaction, and manages all communication channels on one dashboard. It can automate up to 47% of recurring questions with its deep Shopify integration. With the budget-friendly Tidio Plus Plan, you get a dedicated customer success manager, personalized training sessions, and more. Tidio powers over 300,000 brand websites, including Shell, Wellbots, and Valyou Furniture. Head to Tidio.com/2X to take control of your customer relationships and supercharge your growth. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Kristel de Groot, Co-Founder & CMO of Your Super, a plant-based brand  Kristel and Michael, her partner in life and business, met as young athletes, playing tennis. With their vibrant energy and youth, they were able to get scholarships and travel to play. However, this changed when Michael was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 24. With her knowledge in nutrition and inspired by a movie, Kristel went on to learn more about plants and how they can help our bodies fight off the cancer gene and reduce the risk of having one. Knowing only a little about eCommerce and the market, Kristel and Michael joined a summit in Ireland and were able to get the attention of an investor who would usually invest in tech brands but became interested in their products. With an upcoming book, Kristel aims to share how we can change our lives by eating superfoods and integrating them into our lifestyles. It’s an inspiring episode as you’d hear Kunle and Kristel talk more about their journey starting Your Super, product sourcing, Kristel’s new and upcoming book, supporting women, and getting into D2C and retail.----------- SPONSORS:This episode is brought to you by:Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. Tidio This episode is sponsored by Tidio, the highest-rated live chat app on Shopify. Tidio is a versatile platform that offers personalized shopping experiences, boosts customer satisfaction, and manages all communication channels on one dashboard. It can automate up to 47% of recurring questions with its deep Shopify integration. With the budget-friendly Tidio Plus Plan, you get a dedicated customer success manager, personalized training sessions, and more. Tidio powers over 300,000 brand websites, including Shell, Wellbots, and Valyou Furniture. Head to Tidio.com/2X to take control of your customer relationships and supercharge your growth. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Parker Olson, Founder of Forij, a healthy and sustainable granola and meal bar infused with mushroom’s brain and body benefits. Parker Olson’s love for how the brain works led him to love neuroscience and became a self-proclaimed biohacker. His curiosity about his nutrition made him experiment with different nutrition regimens until he found mushrooms. Parker tried different products like mushroom tea alternatives, mushroom coffee, liquid extracts, etc., but none made him love to take it every day because of their taste so he did his own decoctions. He researched, joined their local mycological society, and worked with a chef until he created something that he loved. After finding himself joining a startup conference, Parker found himself an investor but challenges do not end after getting funding. As he mentioned, they are “taking it day by day.” He also identified three challenges with customer subscriptions, one of which is very interesting. It’s an insightful episode as you’d hear Kunle and Parker talk more about Forij’s successes and challenges, the importance of customer feedback and running market tests, as well as making sure to get the packaging, pricing, and placement right.-----------SPONSORS:This episode is brought to you by: Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. Tidio This episode is sponsored by Tidio, the highest-rated live chat app on Shopify. Tidio is a versatile platform that offers personalized shopping experiences, boosts customer satisfaction, and manages all communication channels on one dashboard. It can automate up to 47% of recurring questions with its deep Shopify integration. With the budget-friendly Tidio Plus Plan, you get a dedicated customer success manager, personalized training sessions, and more. Tidio powers over 300,000 brand websites, including Shell, Wellbots, and Valyou Furniture. Head to Tidio.com/2X to take control of your customer relationships and supercharge your growth. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode is Kunle, Co-Founder of Octillion, an acquisition platform company of “clean” skincare, food, and beverage brands.On his another solo podcast, Kunle reflects on things he had learned from September 2022, when his partner in Octillion, Ayo Disu came to the podcast as a guest. Kunle and Ayo talked about their plans for Octillion and their newly acquired brands at the time, Lean Caffeine and Clean & Pure. Kunle bares the good, the bad, and the ugly in the process of growing a business or a company, from an investment that didn’t come through and to knowing more about their own company. They did process analysis, customer research, and finance which is building a good relationship with their banks and suppliers. It’s an interesting episode as you’d hear Kunle talk more about what Octillion has been doing to grow, their in-depth look into Octillion and their acquired companies as well as its customer research and finance perspectives.-----------SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. Tidio This episode is sponsored by Tidio, the highest-rated live chat app on Shopify. Tidio is a versatile platform that offers personalized shopping experiences, boosts customer satisfaction, and manages all communication channels on one dashboard. It can automate up to 47% of recurring questions with its deep Shopify integration.  With the budget-friendly Tidio Plus Plan, you get a dedicated customer success manager, personalized training sessions, and more. Tidio powers over 300,000 brand websites, including Shell, Wellbots, and Valyou Furniture. Head to Tidio.com/2X to take control of your customer relationships and supercharge your growth.  ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Marius Laza, the CCO (Chief Customer Officer) at Tidio, a customer experience platform that serves over 300,000 eCommerce merchants globally, most of which are on the Shopify platform. Marius shares insights on how eCommerce businesses can leverage live chat and chatbots to improve their customer experience, drive sales, and increase customer loyalty. The conversation starts with Marius discussing how Tidio's live chat and chatbot software can help eCommerce businesses improve their customer service by freeing up time for their customer support teams. This, in turn, allows them to focus on more complex queries and increase customer satisfaction. Marius also highlights how Tidio's Magic Wand feature can normalize any customer service tone of voice, which is especially helpful for companies with offshore resources. The discussion then moves on to how live chat can help with lead generation. Marius shares how Tidio's support team has been able to identify leads and send them to the sales team, resulting in increased sales. He also emphasizes that live chat is one of the most underrated customer acquisition channels and that eCommerce brands should not delay instant gratification for customers who are ready to buy. Kunle then asks Marius for his advice on how eCommerce brands can navigate growth through customer success in 2023. Marius recommends that companies focus on turning high-intent traffic into buyers by triggering the right chatbot at the right time. He notes that it's not about bringing more people to your website, but rather bringing the right people and leveraging technology in the right way to get the job done. Overall, this episode is a must-listen for eCommerce business owners and marketers who want to improve their customer service, increase sales, and build customer loyalty. Whether you're new to live chat or an experienced user, Marius's insights and recommendations will provide valuable takeaways for your business.----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Yong-Soo Chung, Founder of Urban Every Day Carry, a business and community supporting creative makers and designers of knives from all over the world. Inspired by the families of his high school classmates whose parents were C-level executives working in big companies and being a South Korean immigrant in a white-dominated private school, Yong-Soo was driven to start a company one day. A few years later, he built not just one but four ventures or businesses. He did not just build a money-making business but also built a community that brings people with a certain passion. Yong-Soo’s first company is Urban Everyday Carry, a company that helps small-time knife makers and designers all over the world which brought together a community of people with a passion of collecting knives, and sharing stories with each other. GrowthJet is a climate-neutral 3PL that was primarily just a solution to a troublesome order fulfillment for Urban EDC.  The third one, Spotted by Humphrey, an online dog products boutique, was an unexpected venture after Yong-Soo and his wife’s French Bulldog suddenly became an Instagram sensation. Lastly, First Class Founders, Yong-Soo’s podcast where he shares his experiences on a podcast in hopes to inspire and prevent business owners to commit mistakes that he had made while he was still starting his own. It’s an awe-inspiring episode as you’d hear Kunle and Yong-Soo talk more about Urban EDC’s core values, operations, and growth, GrowthJet’s First and Class Founders’ advocacies, and Spotted by Humphrey’s story. ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Mike Abadi, Co-Founder & CEO of Sunday Citizen, a home textile brand that designs and manufactures luxury blankets, towels, robes, and other home goods. Mike shares his journey into entrepreneurship and how he grew Sunday Citizen from a small Amazon-based brand to a profitable business with a thriving community. Mike talks about the importance of building relationships with factories, managing supply chain risks, and aligning short-term and long-term finances. He explains how Sunday Citizen diversified its supply chain by shifting a large chunk of its production to Mexico and Turkey, which helped the brand to de-risk its exposure to China. Mike also shares how Sunday Citizen collects customer data in its brick-and-mortar stores and online, and the importance of creating a seamless shopping experience for customers. Listeners will learn about the challenges of scaling a business, building a team, and finding the right partners to work with. Mike shares his best mistake to date and how it helped him become a better entrepreneur. Finally, he offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and encourages them to focus on building a strong brand and community.----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Peter Beckman, Co-Founder & CEO of Treyd, a Fintech startup that provides supplier financing to small and fast-growing companies that trade internationally. The company's solution enables UK and Nordic-based businesses to pay their suppliers in advance, which solves a major problem faced by many businesses that sell products but struggle to purchase enough inventory due to cash flow constraints. Peter explains that the idea for Treyd came from his own experience as an entrepreneur and his co-founder's background in Fintech and crypto. The company was incubated in an accelerator program and took around four months to go to market. The interview also covers Treyd's expansion plans, its target market, and how it differentiates itself from other Fintech startups in the same space. Peter also discusses the interest rates charged by Treyd and how they vary depending on the individual customer's needs and financial standing.  And also cover Treyd’s supplier vetting process, which includes KYC and background checks on every supplier, as well as a quality inspection option for new suppliers.  Finally, they emphasize the importance of optimizing cash conversion cycles for eCommerce brands, as it determines how fast they can grow. In terms of industry trends, the CEO notes that the global supply chain is starting to improve after a challenging period, and having multiple channels (D2C and wholesale) is proving to be beneficial for many eCommerce brands.----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode of the 2X eCommerce Podcast, Kunle interviews William Harris, a successful Ohio-based eCommerce performance marketing and Founder of eCommerce growth agency, Elumynt. William has helped 13 companies get acquired, including one that sold to GoDaddy and one that fetched nearly $800M. His agency, Elumynt was recently featured as an Inc. 5000 winner as well as an Inc. Best Workplaces winner. William has authored over 200 articles about eCommerce, advertising, and leadership on Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Shopify, TNW, Social Media Today, and many other places. In this episode, we go deep into William’s childhood that was filled with hard work and challenges. How he got into the world of commerce and digital marketing; and his juicy eCommerce growth tactics, including geographic holdups, brand name search, account simplicity in Facebook advertising campaigns, mistakes and red flags on badly set up ad campaigns, bottom of the funnel advertising, automation, and M&A. The most important takeaway you will learn from this conversation is why ROAS or return on advertising spend is the wrong metric to focus on. You will find learn exactly what your north star success metric for paid marketing campaign should be. If you’re prepping up for an M&A exit, William also has you covered on optimization for acquisitions.-----------SPONSORS:This episode is brought to you by:KlaviyoThis episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. ★ Support this podcast ★

This episode features a special guest, Jake Karls, co-founder and face of the fast-growing good-for-you CPG confectionary brand, Mid-Day Squares. Jake, along with his sister Lezlie Karls and brother-in-law Nick Saltarelli, are known for sharing their entrepreneurial journey on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, giving customers a unique behind-the-scenes look at building a business.With sales on track to hit $17 million by the end of their fiscal year in May 2023, more than double what they did in 2021, Mid-Day Squares aims to be a modern chocolate company with functional ingredients, a challenger brand, AND a disruptor to the 140 Billion dollar chocolate industry.Listen in as we discuss Jake's journey from overcoming low grades, business failures, and rejection upon rejection to building a 96% automated factory and raising $16.7 million in investment to set the foundation for Mid-Day Squares' rapid growth trajectory.Mid-Day Squares is on a mission to be a modern chocolate company with functional ingredients. More than that, they’re on a mission to build a community of fans rather than just customers, and it’s having powerful results for their business. Stay tuned to learn how Jake and his Co-Founders at Mid-Day Squares are doing it, and uncover insights direct from their multi-million dollar brand playbook that you can use to build your own authentic challenger brand – even in a hyper-competitive billion-dollar industry.One thing that is evident about Jake is he's not afraid to fail, and even when his first business didn't work out, he kept pushing forward – and he puts it all out there for the world to see. From studying to be an actuary to dropping out and starting a fitness business to ultimately co-founding Mid-Day Squares – Jake’s story is a fascinating and unorthodox one that you won’t want to miss. It’s a story, and the authenticity behind it, that Jake, along with his sister and brother-in-law, have used to build a media empire around Mid-Day Squares. There are some powerful lessons here for Founders and eCommerce professionals about the impact storytelling, and social media can have on your brand if you can have the courage to stand out and set yourself apart. All this comes down to the powerful ways of thinking and mindsets that Jake has developed through the good times and the bad. You will notice that the mindset of an eCommerce professional will be a key theme not only in this podcast but in the 2x eCommerce podcast throughout 2023. Mindset is what makes the tactics that we cover here in the 2x eCommerce podcast every episode work in what is a cross-functional and sometimes rowdy retail environment. It is the foundation, the driving force behind an entrepreneur's ability to create, innovate, and commit to bold, industry-disrupting visions. And Jake has it in spades. I have no doubt that you'll leave this episode feeling inspired and fired up to bring the same ingredients that Jake brings to Mid-Day Squares to your own business. So without further ado, let’s get started!-----------SPONSORS:This episode is brought to you by:Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Gorgias This episode is brought to you by Gorgias, the leading helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce merchants. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, live chat, and phone into one platform. This saves your team hours per day & makes managing customer orders a breeze. It also integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack, so you can access customer information and even edit, return, refund, or create an order right from your helpdesk. Go to Gorgias.com and mention 2x eCommerce Podcast for two months free. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x. ★ Support this podcast ★