DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

On this episode of DTC Pod, Benjamin joins Blaine and Ramon to talk about the future of commerce, how brands can build better customer experiences, why removing friction is key, the challenges of selling online versus in retail, thinking in terms of LTV, brands thriving on TryNow, raising capital, founder perspectives, the technical challenges of building the platform, solving for fraud, financing, complex corner cases, and what's next for Try Now. 16:00 - Brands That Do This WinThe challenging part of e-commerce also the most beautiful part of e-commerce, which is that shoppers are never satisfied, they always want more. And so it's this asymptote relationship where you can always get closer to a perfect customer experience, but you will never arrive there. And if you are, and that's why like the greatest force for driving enterprise value is just focusing on the customer.16:45 - Do It For Your Customer's CustomerMost companies will say that they care about the customer, but very few actually do that at every single step of their process. And so I think like that, that to us was paramount because as we think about our two stakeholders, merchants and shoppers, merchants are our main, who we interact with the most, right? Day, day in, day out, we're constantly focused on driving value from merchants. But at the end of the day, like stoppers are, the most important part to both of our businesses18:50 - What Businesses Need To Know About RiskAll businesses are in the business of de-risking their business, de-risking elements of their business. No matter what stage you're at, as you grow, you have a new set of risks and focus, focus on de-risking, is key. It's actually how we manage our annual planning process, so it's very opportune. 30:10 - This Is Karma In BusinessThere is no separation between what's best for the shopper and what's best for the merchant in the long run, in the very long run. But ultimately customer centricity is how you win.  This episode is brought to you by:OpenStore- Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.Recharge- Visit https://rechargepayments.com/dtcpod to see how over 15,000 commerce brands power their subscriptionsPeel Insights- Visit https://peelinsights.com/dtcpod to uncover actionable data insights to drive your brand's growth Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokBenjamin Davis - Founder & CEO of TryNowRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Kian joins Blaine & Ramon to discuss the playbook for working with manufacturers to bring products to life. They cover identifying manufacturing partners, how to vet a factories quality, how to establish buying credibility, getting product samples, building your spec sheet, negotiating price and volume, building relationships with your manufacturing partner, pre-shipment samples, tips for your manufacturing agreement, sharing costs, production cadence, avoiding shipping disasters, scaling supply chain, and tips & tricks from a life time working with the biggest names in the sourcing and manufacturing world.Highlights:6:35 - Face-To-Face boosts salesAnd like to your point, doing it in person face to face forces you to build relationships. And honestly, like if anyone's listened to much of my content before, I always preach the importance of you get the best results in this business from building relationships, right? Because as a result of a better relationship, you get a better price, you get a better credit terms, they offer you new products that you're working on, they give you good information about what your competitors are doing.7:30 - What not to do when sourcingAnd where people have really made mistakes is if they just go, they're looking for a product, let's say blue light blocking glasses, they go into alibaba.com and on the website all the products look the same and they'll see it for like, $3 and $4 50 and $7 and $1 80. And they're like, what's the difference here? Because this looks like the exact same product. This is $1 80 that was $7, right? Let me go for like the cheaper one. But in actual fact, like when you're using alibaba.com, the purpose of it is to find the best suppliers, not to find the lowest price. And once you find the best suppliers, then you can start to negotiate the price down.This episode is brought to you by:OpenStore- Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.Recharge- Visit https://rechargepayments.com/dtcpod to see how over 15,000 commerce brands power their subscriptionsPeel Insights- Visit https://peelinsights.com/dtcpod to uncover actionable data insights to drive your brand's growth Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokKian Golzari - Global leader in product sourcing & development, manufacturing, and supply chainRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Julie joins Blaine to talk about building one of the fastest growing fitness brands. They talk about starting P.volve in the early days, her background in the entertainment industry and how that experience translated to content development for p.volve, why content is the north star of their brand, building a new market around functional fitness, the first product they took to market (the p.ball), launching products that complement their content, how physical studios play into their growth strategy, scaling studios and programming through franchising, building wholistic customer journeys, and much more. 8:05 - NEVER Get Left In The DustYou have to be able to change with the market. Like, I wasn't gonna be holding onto VHS while the entire industry was moving to DVD and then into digital and talk about a learning curve. But you have to just like stay ahead of all of that8:30 - Content is KING. It Always Has Been.The bigger lesson that I've learned, and it's really helped me here at Pvolve too, is that content is king, period. Like everyone tried to start a streaming service. Everyone, all the major studios, which we're trying to get into it, and at the heart of it, what always wins is content. It's gotta be really great compelling content.28:48 - Marketer? Get Really Good At ThisIt's not easy just to get somebody that's hearing one little snippet about who we are through paid channels, to come in and convert and to understand. I mean, we're really building a brand new modality and so like, we're so proud of it, we're doing it all the right ways. But like, it takes a combination of storytelling and a really, really multi-channel approach.36:00 - Franchising - The Ultimate Hack For ScaleYou have to start sort of slow in franchising because once you're able to make those first seven to 10 locations successful, they become, sort of, this credibility in order to then scale like these guys got it down. So we took the same approach as it related to our own owned and operated. This episode is brought to you by:OpenStore- Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.Recharge- Visit https://rechargepayments.com/dtcpod to see how over 15,000 commerce brands power their subscriptionsPeel Insights- Visit https://peelinsights.com/dtcpod to uncover actionable data insights to drive your brand's growth Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokJulie Cartwright - President of P.volveRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Oren joins Ramon to discuss what it takes to build a product and take it to market. They cover topics including product development, pros and cons of dropshipping, getting started as an entrepreneur, building around niche audiences, testing market demand for products, pre-sale, validating through Tik Tok and IG organic, building vs. buying your business, dealing with manufacturers, nailing unit-economics, and much more. 5:31 - The fastest way to get started in E-CommerceDrop shipping is great for people who first want to get into just general entrepreneurship. Cause you don't have to actually make or develop a product. You take something that already exists and, and you sell it and you don't even have to have the factory that's shipped right from it. That's the name drop shipping.6:00 - The Dark-side of Drop ShippingBut the downside of that is that usually it ends up being pretty low margin cuz you're making something that a hundred other people could also be selling. and then also you're not making anything that has any real future branded value, right?10:00 - Business Hack: Validating your idea on TikTokBut I think the real indicator, this is why I love kind of TikTok for this, and you can also do similar things on reels and YouTube now, at least for the time being, is if you just post variations of a handful of the same videos that will perform that showcase your product kind of again and again, and continue to tweak it. And you'll see accounts like this that have those where it's like 10 very similar video, they're kind of testing to hit it, and you consistently start getting, okay, if I post something like this, I'm getting five figures of TikTok views and then I'm getting, starting to get tens of subscribers per that, then you're, you have a product that I, that I can you, you, you can say is, is validated enough to consider expanding it.14:00 - When you should buy, *not build* a businessMy friend's wife did this and she bought an existing business for I think it was 40 or $50,000, which you could finance and things like that. And it was existing, it was doing a couple thousand dollars a month, and she didn't wanna build it, she just wanted to run something and grow it. She didn't wanna have to have the initial idea and go through what we talked about of validating it. And so they spent that money, that's not a crazy amount of money. And then now it makes significantly more. I think they're doing, nine, 10 k a month off of it. This episode is brought to you by:OpenStore- Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.Recharge- Visit https://rechargepayments.com/dtcpod to see how over 15,000 commerce brands power their subscriptions Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokOren Schauble - DTC Product & Brand Advisor of Consensus HoldingsRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Sanya joins Blaine to talk about what it means to be an effective brand marketer. They discuss frameworks for building ironclad brand, how brand marketing evolves with scale, how to tell an effective brand story, brand purpose, figuring out what you stand for, layering performance on top of brand, building a cohesive funnel, increasing points of connection, content programming & initiatives, partnerships, collabing with Gucci, and much more.5:15I think it's just really about, what types of, not necessarily needs you're trying to solve, but really what types of communications you're, you're putting out into the world and, and what you hope to gain out of your consumer. whether it's really sort of telling them what you're about at the highest level. I sort of see that as, almost like a bit of a speed date with the consumer. Like here's what I'm about as a brand. Here's what I stand for, here's my purpose. And then really leading them, all the way through, and giving them a reason to buy.8:10I personally am a huge fan of Patagonia. I think, they've been around for so many years, but every single piece of brand advertising that they do communicates the value of, of why they exist. So I think that, we, we hear, we hear this so much, but attention economy, we're losing people three second attention span. but I think it's more important than ever to remind people why you exist. So even if you are a household name, even if you are a mainstream, I think giving consumers more, points of connection and, deepening their understanding of what you bring to their life on.11:30You shouldn't be thinking of like, okay, from one campaign, I'm going to go now go to another campaign to do my third or fourth campaign in your, from, from quarter to quarter or for your full year. But it's really sort of thinking like showrunners in terms of like seasons, right. And in what your, the types of stories you're, you're telling your consumers, through, through your campaigns. And I think those messages need not be extremely different.16:00So really understanding, like who are we solving for, right. Whether it's a meeting with the product marketing team meeting with product supply, chain operations, really understanding sort of what is that experience that we're delivering to our end user? and for me, the challenge has been like, not thinking about it, just in terms of like a purchase journey where it's like, okay, this is awareness, this is consideration, this is conversion, but really breaking those silos, and understanding, okay, from a human experience standpoint, like what do we want people to hear at this point? What do they need to, what's going to offer them reassurance, when they're trying to troubleshoot, with customer service, like what's going to offer them reassurance, when they're coming on, coming onto our website and learning more about our features.This episode is brought to you by:OpenStore- Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.Recharge- Visit https://rechargepayments.com/dtcpod to see how over 15,000 commerce brands power their subscriptions Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokSanya Deshpande - Brand Marketing Lead at ŌURARamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Carter joins Blaine to discuss how General Mills is starting to compete in the DTC arena and launch DTC channels for their brand portfolio. They discuss the learnings about what performs well, which brands to prioritize, how they think about building tech stacks, how DTC plays into the bigger strategy, how to think about positioning yourself as a new brands, fighting for retail shelf space, finding scale, and much more. This episode is brought to you by OpenStore: Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours. Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokCarter Jensen - Senior Manager of Global Commerce (DTC) at General MillsRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of the pod, Clayton joins Blaine to discuss everything from starting a newsletter, building a community, getting into menswear, how big retailers approach buying merchandise, the intersection of retail and e-commerce, creator led brands, winning growth strategies in apparel, positioning in fashion, successful collabs & drops, branded community partnerships, and much more. This episode is brought to you by OpenStore: Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours. Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokClayton Chambers - Founder of SprezzaRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Allegra and Shirin join Blaine & Ramon to talk about building one of the first creator led brands, before the recent wave of influencer led brands started to take over. They talk about getting started as a creator, building a community, starting in apparel from the ground up, working together as co-founders, identifying a market gap, tips for sourcing products, optimizing ops, building a brand greater than the individual creator, creative strategy, aesthetic development, and much more. This episode is brought to you by OpenStore: Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours. Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokAllegra Shaw - Creator & CoFounder of Uncle StudiosShirin Soltani - CoFounder of Uncle StudiosRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Patrick joins Blaine & Ramon to talk about frameworks for building successful businesses. We talk about his background, taking the leap to start, evaluating risk, bootstrapping SaaS, developing an MVP, taking a product to market, how customers think about pricing, willingness to pay, pricing strategies, scaling, navigating an exit, and much more. His Lightbulb Moment To Become A Founder (5:00)And then all of a sudden just jumped in and was like, I'm gonna start a company. This was the hardest thing I realized I could always find a job. Like, I had so much insecurity about that, but then I was like, Wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. Worst case, like I'm living poor, I can go get a job as a barista. I can go get a job on a construction crew. Like I, I can find those skills. and that gave me the confidence to be like, Well, let's try this for nine months and see what happens.The Secret To Pricing (8:00)Like what is value based pricing? Oh, it's like figuring out what your customer's willing to pay and then charging that rather than, like most eCommerce people do is they look at their costs and they're like, well the VC said I gotta get to 40% margin, let's just slap 40% margin on top of it, right? And it's like, yeah, but if your customer's only willing to pay like less than your cost, you're don't force it like you have a problem, you have a wrong customer, a wrong product, like something right or bad cost depending on what it is.This Business Sold for $200 MILLION (13:15)Basically started with a little app that you could send a survey to your target customers, your email list, your current customers. And we would say, Great for this group that you surveyed, your price should be a hundred dollars and here's kind of your curve. So if your price went up, like here's how many people you'd expect to lose if your price went down, here's how many people you'd expect to win or lose, and so on and so forth. And that was the mvp. And then we eventually put service on top of it. This episode is brought to you by OpenStore: Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours. Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokPatrick Campbell - CEO of ProfitWell (now Paddle)Ramon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Alexandra joins Blaine and Ramon to talk about company building. They cover the creation of Gilt, building early demand, sourcing supply, creating a marketplace, the evolving commerce landscape, team building, the overlap between commerce and services marketplaces, understanding your ICP and working backward, how she invests, why she loves Miami, and much more.49:00We were not a big company. We were just kind getting going and pulled this off. So I think startups, sometimes I hear founders be like, well, I don't really have budgets to do creative things. And you can be guerilla marketing, tactical, boots on the streets doing clever things with fewer dollars than one thinks they might need.55:00 I smile because I'm like, yeah, I've been there. I I remember when I had migraines every day for six months in the early days of GILT because I was so stressed. Yes, I remember that. it's very, it's very real. And so I think founders appreciate that I've spent more time in my career on their side than the current side. But that also sometimes makes me tougher because I'm like, wait what do you mean you're going on vacation all the time? Or what do you mean you're turning your phone off or you're not hustling?60:00 So I don't know how to do something not as part of a team. I think it's super important where nobody's good at everything, and it's so important to know what are your superpowers? What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? And, and answer that question for every co-founder or your early team members. And one of the reasons Gilt worked really well, and all my partnerships, I think because there was clarity. It was just obvious who does what and, and who's in charge of what. This episode is brought to you by OpenStore: Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours. Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokAlexandra Wilkis Wilson -  Co-founder of the Gilt, GlamSquad, and ClerisyRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated