DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

Sahand chats with Blaine and Ramon about the idea behind Terra Kaffe and building a hardware company. He also discusses decision making frameworks, leveraging market trends, how Terra Kaffe had to pivot from B2B sales to DTC, raising capital, his philosophy on leading and growing a team, and much more (listen in for a surprise!). 11:29 - 11:48The Essential Trait Every Entrepreneur Needs...If there’s one thing I can impart on new founder it is equanimity. Equanimity through it all. Like you’re going to have highs and you’re going to have lows. And I think having that balance is incredibly important. It’s a little Scott Galowayian in a way.. I don't know if that's the right way to refer to that but nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems.38:50 - 39:18Why EQ Is So Valuable For StartupsCompetence is not thinking or infallible, it's knowing you're not and holding yourself in high regard. I think that's an insanely valuable headspace to live in for everybody that's going into a startup and it connects back to that equanimity. Hold your head up, communicate effectively, communicate early, communicate often, be self aware, have that IQ and have that EQ you really need to have that EQ when it comes to a start up. And I think you're gonna do your best work. 19:59 - 20:33Knock On DoorsI still remember you know getting the first two prototypes, and I just actually moved back to the US got to New York, and never lived in New York didn't know much about it, and was just told that cool stores are in Soho. So I had two prototypes, and I knocked on 100 doors inn Soho and said can I serve coffee to weekend crowds? And you knock on 100 doors and 5 people say yeah, and that's how it started and frankly I’m actually weirdly appreciative of that moment. I felt like I was living the pursuit of happiness in reverse, you know he starts off schlepping machines on the subway. 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 TikTok Sahand Dilmaghani - Co-Founder & CEO of Terra KaffeRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

Sami Clarke is a certified health, wellness, & fitness trainer who built a large following for her workout videos and holistic approach to wellness. With millions of followers and hundreds of millions of views across Youtube, Instagram, & TikTok, Sami cultivated a strong community before deciding to start her own fitness & wellness platform, FORM. FORM not only offers digital fitness training and community access, but focuses on developing physical products that fit Sami's holistic approach to wellness.Sami Bernstein is Partner in FORM and previously served as SVP of Influencer marketing at Markett and is CMO of Kickback, a social shopping app that incentivizes sharing the brands you love. Sami has collaborated on influencer campaigns with some of the largest brands including Nike, Sephora, Apple Music and worked with thousands of influencers across her roles. 39:56Building Community? Save This.We love love love our community and talk with them all the time. So first and foremost starting the facebook group - literally before launch. Do people still use facebook? Do people still use facebook because I don't, BUT.. facebook is the only place where you can converse back and forth. And our biggest thing is this isn't about me communicating with them but it's more about them communicating together. Because that's going to grow then they're going to meet amazing people that are likeminded - so we're like we have to go to facebook.. AND IT WORKED! 46:45 - 47:20For Brands: Why Scripts ≠ StorytellingThere's a journey into what needs to happen before pressing, you know, complete purchase. And there have been so many different instances for influencer campaigns where all that matters is the ROI and I really encourage brands and founders to take a step back from that and lean into their storytelling through influencers and the way that influencers cannot read a script but really tell their own story on that brands behalf. I really think that brands that can do that well will convert so well.47:26Tell Your StoryAnd have the brand tell their story. People LOVE to know how they got to where they're at, they love the process rather than "hey we made it" and "try our product".. I mean tik-tok get raw with it, share the story!48:34-48:58 How TikTok Saved A Businesses CRISISThey were like "I'll take the crooked".. and i was like "you will?". Thousands of people liked it saying they'll take it. We were so upset we wasted all this money, everything was crooked, here comes tik tok "we LOVE the crooked" "give me the crooked".. so i made a tik tok wearing the crooked and i said "these are live right now, they are crooked, but go get em". We called them the tik tok special. I only put them on tik tok. They sold out in 5 minutes. 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 TikTok Sami Clarke - Founder of FORMSami Bernstein- Partner of FORMRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

Cherene Aubert is the Director of Growth at Bobbie, the first European style organic infant formula that meets FDA standards. Bobbie has raised over $50M to take the soon to be 100B+ formula market by storm. Cherene honed her craft and expertise in growth & ecommerce while working for agencies like Human Marketing and Common Thread Collective. In 2021 Cherene joined Bobbie as their key growth director and built Bobbie's growth playbook from the ground up. 13:49 - 14:41The Reason Customer Personas are KEYIt's the least impulsive purchase you can make is infant formula. You actually need to have an infant and you actually need to feed it formula. And there's only a short window of time in an infant's life where it consumes formula, it's the first 12 months. So for us, it's really,  so much different than DTC acquisition in other industries, like so many purchases or impulse purchases, and there's ways that you can incentivize and motivate someone to purchase. So much of our purchasing journey revolves around research. I mean, it's a high AOV product, it's high stakes, you need to know what's in it. So when we think about growth, we think about educating people around why this option is the right option for them.An Overlooked Hack for Growth Marketers22:46 - 23:05I will say like for the growth marketers out there, media is such a massive growth channel that you know, PR and media, I feel like it's a little bit underrated by growth marketers, but it you can get spikes in traffic that you will never see with paid advertisingWhy You Need A UGC Strategy27:55 - 28:16it's the UGC that comes from real customers that always does the best. So when we turn back on again, it's I know exactly how we're going to turn the machine on. It's going to be taking that UGC and creating a production house to push it out and continue iterating on 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 TikTok Cherene Aubert- Director of Growth of BobbieRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

Paul Michaux is the co-founder & head of product at Prose, the DTC customized hair care brand. Michaux founded Prose in 2017 but he built up his expertise and knowledge of product, branding, & consumer goods working at P&G, Christian Dior, and L’Oréal. Prose has achieved immense success and is a leader in hyper-personalization consumer goods. They’re backed by the some of the biggest names in VC like Insight Partners, Forerunner Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. The Unique Strategy That Fueled Prose’s Growth20:38And it was like “No, no, it’s actually great to create friction. And some friction is sometimes useful, this is how we make a sale. And this is how we think of the time to actually close on the sale. As opposed to just click here, you didn’t understand anything about the product, but hopefully you’re going to buy it. So we spend a lot of time creating this funnel and creating the tech stack to, to make it workThe 2 Things Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know22:48 - 23:16And if I have advice for any entrepreneur or anyone thinking about who their consumer is. Like my first is not to listen to advice. That’s my first advice to everyone. But the second one is thinking about the channels and how you want to use It. Like maybe you’re not a direct-to consumer brand. Maybe you’re just like a very cool CPG brand, but you’re not direct-to-consumer. And maybe that’s okay.How This Famous Brand Pulled off The IMPOSSIBLE26:45 - 27:03I think a lot of CPG brands actually outsource their uniqueness. And then it’s hard to experience what makes you unique it’s just like, we all use the same lab, creating more or less the same product, we change the fragrance and the packaging but no, It’s our own chemist, it’s our own lab, it’s all our own tech platform. Again, not because we want it to be that but because we had to come up with a tech platform to create these customized products. And then overall it’s our own platform, our own data too.The Trick To Building Businesses That Last38:35 - 39:01The importance of a direct to consumer brand is not to sell one product and run away, right? Like no one can create a sustainable direct consumer brand with just one sale. It’s the LTV. And if you’re serious about the LTV, of course, you have the retention team. And of course, it’s what we have. And we think about like lifecycle marketing and all these things. But also like just really using the feedback that you have from your customer into the product is so important. 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. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereHave 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.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Paul Michaux - Co-Founder & Product ProseRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

Alex Plugaru is the CTO & cofounder of Gorgias, the customer service tool born from Techstars NYC program. Gorgias now has 9K+ customers (including some of the most well-known brands), $25M ARR, a global team of 230+ people, and $75M in fundraising. Before starting Gorgias in 2015, Alex worked as a web developer at various companies. 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.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates! DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Alex Plugaru - Co-Founder & CTO GorgiasRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

Jeff Nobbs is the co-founder & CEO of Zero Acre Farm, an environmentally-focused food company. Nobbs has been an entrepreneur from day 1. As a teenager in 2006, he cofounded cashback shopping website Extrabux. It was acquired by ebates in 2014. In 2015, Nobbs jumped into the food scene and started a healthy, fast-casual restaurant Kitava — which he still owns today. When COVID hit, he co-founded HelpKitchen to combat food insecurity. HelpKitchen  has since served millions of free meals to people in need. And in 2020 he decided it was time enter the oil business. At the same time, he cofounded Zero Acre Farms to remove destructive vegetable oils from the food system. 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. Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokJeff Nobbs - Co- Founder & CEO of Zero Acre FarmsRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

In this episode of DTC Pod, Oren has a candid conversation with Blaine and Ramon about the social strategy behind the FYRE Festival, why he’s tired of talking about the festival, and how he’s reinvented himself since then. As an expert in branding & social media, Oren also gives us some tips on how to create a solid social strategy and also shares his personal opinion on the state of social media. 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.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Oren Aks - Founder of Atomic Milk MediaRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

In this episode of DTC Pod, we cover a lot like the best way to cook a steak, why serving up ads to customers is pointless, the idea of finding a calling, and more. For the students tuning in, Khosravi also talks about his personal experience and why you should never let grades or your past define you. This is an episode you don’t want to miss. 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.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Darian Khosravi - Founder & CEO of Kosmo’s QRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

In this episode of DTC Pod, Tom discusses the evolution of advertising and why OOH advertising is ripe for disruption. We also dive into how he came up with the idea for Adgile, the revolutionary technology supporting this truck-side advertising, and why DTC & challenger brands are gravitating towards Adgile. Tom also gives us an inside look into how he thinks about sales and why trust is the foundation of any successful relationship. 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.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Thomas  Shea - Founder & CEO of AdgileRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

In this episode of DTC Pod, Kasey discusses the art of storytelling on social media platforms, specifically TikTok. We talk about what makes a great TikTok video, a great TikTok hook, and why voiceovers are more important than visuals. Kasey also explains how he’s used TikTok  to create brand awareness, attract Shark Tank casting directors, and create retail opportunities -  without spending a penny.The Vacation That Changed His Life Forever3:45 - 4:04So when I went to go do this travel part of what I wanted to do, instead of it just being like, Hey, let’s go do this for fun. I wanted to come back with a skill set. And that skill set was to be able to shoot and to edit. So I bought my first camera. And for the first 100 days I shot every day, I edited a video, and I uploaded it to YouTube documenting my travel.This Brand Got 300M Views, Without Spending A Dollar18:29 - 19:01We did finally, I think crack the code of TikTok to what people connect with. And that was what enabled us to grow so fast, so quick. And yeah, it’s been our biggest. Especially now like you’re talking about the troubles that are happening in paid social, like everybody cutting budgets and the CAC to get people now  is so high, but we haven’t had to do any paid so far. And so our CAC is like zero, and TikTok  has been driven everything from Shark Tank reaching out within the first five days wanting us to come on the show to retailers reaching out. The Framework for Building Viral Organic Content23:26 - 24:09It’s all about there’s this formula. You have a hook. I mean, you have 2 to 3 seconds to get somebody to stay there. You have a hook. You have a conflict that happens. And then you have a resolution or a call to action to that. And so every single video since then has been some sort of a hook. “This is how we failed.” “17 minutes to know if our product was going to make it or not” “The worst phone call since we started our business.” All these things.  Not  that they’re  all bad. But to be honest, some of the negative ones are the ones that seem to perform the best. And then you just talk about that conflict, what happened.  Boxes came and we had an a ship but lollipops were broken. And this is the resolution, we stayed up all night, we checked one by one every single lollipop and threw away their broken ones. And we’re going to be able to make it to launch. 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.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Kasey Stewart - Founder & CEO of SuckerzRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel