On this episode of DTC POD, we discuss the key factors that investors look for in a business, such as product excellence, differentiation and the ability to manage capital responsibly. We cover benchmarks for what it takes to be successful at each stage of raising capital for your brand. We discuss the best types of businesses to launch, what VCs look for in a crowded space, and the importance of retail margins and unit economics when launching a business. Timestamps[00:03:58] Networking and pattern recognition in CPG industry vital for success in BD; takes 6 years to know if VC is successful.[00:08:47] Austin is an excellent city for CPG, supportive culture, helpful community, and over a third of portfolio companies are based there.[00:11:11] Portfolio companies doing well; 15x markup, 300%-200% growth, 98% retention rate, 8-9x growth[00:17:24] Investing in pre-revenue businesses requires special conditions such as high retention rate, LTV to CAC ratio, high AOV, and other metrics.[00:23:04] Founders need to manage capital responsibly, focus on break even and not overhire; gaps between funding rounds are getting longer.[00:26:04] Need resources, plan, and know-how to succeed; don't forget freight costs; raise money sooner; treat retailers like laboratories.[00:31:55] Valuations have been compressed, but there are still some companies that can get high valuations if they have strong metrics and a compelling founder. Some companies are being undervalued and some are being overvalued.[00:36:52] Exploring a variety of categories, looking for something special and unique.[00:45:31] Get advice from experts and understand your product's channel and unit economics to find the path of least resistance. VC Investments are Paying Off:"Within 18 months, one of our portfolio companies just had a 15x markup, another is growing 300-200% every year, and Jolie Skincare is doing unbelievable on a monthly basis." — Ryan Springer 11:11Metrics for Pre Revenue Success:"If you're under 20% on retention and customers order twice or more in a year, it's going to be tough for us to get interested. You have to be like a couch that's a little outside of where we would normally invest." — Ryan Springer 21:43Valuation Compression:"We've seen valuation compression. It's definitely real, but it's not the same. We use projections to see whether or not you have a realistic understanding of how the business works, not what weight to value a company. We don't do trailing twelve months either, necessarily."— Ryan Springer 31:57Shownotes powered by www.castmagic.io Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----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 TikTokRyan Springer - Founding partner of MidnightVP & Founder of High Desert Cactus VodkaRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, CMO Julia Perez chats with Blaine about everything related to OmniChannel growth. They talk about the importance of understanding the customer on a deeper level, the attention to detail of the Red Bull team, and the need for solid processes. They also cover topics like content marketing, retail strategy, unified brand messaging, field marketing, positioning, creator briefs, finding ad arbitrages, building new product lines, and more. [00:01:00] Plant-based nutrition company, known for ready-to-drink protein shakes, top 8-allergy free, mission to clean up protein space, transparency and healthier products.[00:04:10] Addressing medical needs and cultural space simultaneously with cool, delicious flavors.[00:07:17] Career journey in beverage, CPG, digital, wellness, and fitness marketing, culminating in successful business exit.[00:12:41] Have a team that understands the brand. Stay focused and understand your customer. Building team and understanding brand, customer, and strengths; focus and not adapting to competitors.[00:21:37] Focus on brand mission, understand customer needs and habits, invest in retail and train sales associates.[00:26:26] Red Bull gear was restricted to Wings team members and education pamphlets were required with every can. Two team members were required on a mission and gifts had to be given with one hand in the pamphlet and one hand in the bottle.[00:34:18] Testing field marketing programs in New York and South Florida.[00:38:38] Switch influencer budget to TikTok for more impressions and reach right customer with right message.[00:43:13] Approved by registered dietitian; empowering consumers; unified messaging.[00:47:49] Innovating new product line, investing in medical marketing and retail, growing subscription base.Building Something from Nothing:"Creating a brand and a personality out of this beautiful water bottle and telling a story"— Julia Perez 00:07:17Team and Understanding Are Paramount:"Right away I'm thinking about the team. It's really all about the team and understanding. It's really important to have someone in the content position who deeply understands the brand and the lifestyle you're trying to convey. Know your strengths as a CMO and build a team that can fill the things you're not so good at. Focus on your own brand and how your customers use it, rather than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole."— Julia Perez 00:12:41Staying Focused on Your Brand:"Going back to staying focused on what your brand is delivering and what your brand's mission and purpose is, because it's really easy to see what other peers are doing in the space that might be more D to C or might be more Amazon, and you might want to try things and test things out. But again, going back to the customer's position is that we are not a deed to C exclusive brand, and nor is that where the majority of our growth is coming from. So while it might be fun to do all these fun D to See tech implementations all the time, it's not necessarily what Owen needs to be doing. So, again, like, staying focused on what's driving your business and not getting distracted with what competitors are doing is key."— Julia Perez 00:21:37Data-Driven Field Marketing:"We're very data driven. We're still a startup, so we're not just going to build out a whole field marketing team and go from there. We have a DTC business, we have an Amazon business. We have so many other focuses we need to focus on. So we're going to be doing testing over time."— Julia Perez 00:34:18Leveraging Nano Influencers on TikTok:"We decided, well, I looked at it. I said, let's just switch all of our influencer budget to TikTok, everything, and let's just spend there and we can get a lot more for our money. And we can work with Nano influencers and have you know, for an example, instead of having three influencers talk about you for the month of February, you could have 30 for the same price and you still have the same number of impressions. Make more impressions."— Julia Perez 00:38:38Shownotes powered by CastmagicPast guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----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 TikTokJulia Perez - CMO of OWYNRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC POD, Pontus joins Blaine to take an in-depth look at the world of ecommerce platforms and the players driving these marketplaces. We discuss the pros and cons of starting a brand, solving for inventory management, distributed sales and more. We also explore the potential of creating a platform-agnostic approach to creator led commerce, existing infrastructure, legacy solutions, opportunities for brands to leverage creator distribution, simplifying collaborations for creators, and more on where the industry is headed.Timestamps[00:02:39] Creator commerce rapidly growing; enablers of starting own brands; marketplace builders and enablers; decentralization, social curation, transparency, financial rewards.[00:07:20] Social-centric commerce enabled through Shopify, dropshipping of modern retail products.[00:11:08] Drop shipping, marketplaces, and curated marketplaces are terms used to describe online retailing.[00:13:35] Pontus started with interest in retail, studied Business and Business of Fashion, then worked in management consulting and start up accelerator incubator, Anther, leading to current project, Offscript.[00:16:06] Started with scrappy ecommerce for influencers, built integrations for ecommerce platforms, focused on working with creators to build marketplaces.[00:21:13] Build marketplace with decentralized user acquisition and existing integration to supply side or brands for network effects; single platform for storefront and marketplace technology for virality.[00:23:07] Marketplace Connectors: connect brands to other ecommerce platforms, such as Miracle and Walmart, or building one platform with checkout powered by Stripe.[00:28:37] Shopify and enablers enabling marketplace and distributed salesforce for creators, brands, and collaborative conversations.[00:35:17] Onboarding relevant brands for creators to sell through multiple creators using a simple app.[00:39:42] Creators with a niche can use their existing traffic to increase their revenue by introducing readers to a curated marketplace.Quotes00:07:20-00:10:19 The Rise of Decentralized, Social-Centric CommerceThe end customer is kind of struggling to say, find the product that someone has recommended and just as you're on to here, you can obviously use affiliate links and then you're directed away. But then that product gets out of stock or the link dies or the tracking has some issues and whatever it might be, So then the insight was like, why can't I just basically buy this product from the person that has inspired me to buy the product?"00:02:39- 00:05:49 Creator CommerceI think that ecommerce has still some innovation to tap into, especially in the west. If you compare to how the behaviors look in east, in the Asia and so on, it's much more catered around kind of individuals curation and trusting other peoples and recommendations and so on.Some Key takeaways from the show:1/ Starting out as a scrappy operation, Off Script has become a sophisticated platform that allows influencers to build their own marketplaces and sell products from brands they already have relationships with. The platform supports many of the world's most prominent ecommerce platforms and makes it easy for entrepreneurs, creators, curators and other communities to sell relevant products. Offscript has a niche focus, allowing them to work closely with creators and build the marketplaces for them. They also have a unique go to market approach to acquiring brands and creators for their platform.2/ Creator commerce is a rapidly growing industry, with enablers such as Pietra helping people to start their own brands. Poosh and Goop have paved the way for creating strong, community-centric ecommerce destinations. In the future, shopping is expected to be more decentralized and social, with shorter conversion funnels so customers can buy products they see on social media platforms quickly. Additionally, creators will likely receive more financial rewards, and customers will be able to find brands that match their values and preferences.Shownotes powered by castmagic---Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----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 TikTokPontus Karlsson - Co-founder and CEO of Off ScriptRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Stefany joins us to dive deep into the world of commerce, content, regulation, and go to market as it pertains to the functional mushroom and psychedelic space. They cover the details of their formula which does not contain psilocybin, the patenting process, tailwinds around psychedelics, promising academic studies, the roadmap towards potential decriminalization, how things are unfolding globally, building infrastructure ahead of regulation, the overlap between the two lines and the distinct differences, brand voice, taking mojo into retail, and much more.[00:02:04] Psychedelic Renaissance spurred by pandemic leading to popularity of functional mushrooms which improve health and immunity.[00:03:34] Stefany found new purpose in career in psychedelics after pandemic hit and previous work in greenhouses in Arctic.[00:06:27] Psychedelics gaining research and attention; legalization uncertain; cautious optimism.[00:08:52] Many creative people using psychedelics to improve health, lifestyle and consumer brands.[00:11:14] Gwella and Mojo created to provide guides and tools for exploring psychedelics and microdosing, and to make it more accessible.[00:14:00] Psychedelics are hallucinogenics such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, etc. with different strengths and experiences, and can be bred similarly to fruits or vegetables.[00:17:11] Mojo is legal, contains no psilocybin, and includes functional ingredients, nootropics and adaptogens.[00:18:42] Different retail locations require different verbiage depending on consumer understanding. Use of "microdose" versus "brain boosting" may be better suited for different stores.[00:21:17] Patenting formula to protect product from copying; focus on building brand and community to deter copying.[00:28:44] Psychedelics to be used medically, with potential for personal use, to help with mental health; brands to create micro doses for recurring revenue; offshoots like guides, clinicians, clinics, events, retreats to grow with or without legalization.powered by castmagic---Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more. Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokStefany Nieto - Founder & COO of GwellaRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Zawwar joins Blaine & Ramon to talk about the intersection of creators and commerce and how the most successful creator brands are built. We cover brand management at P&G, developing brand strategies, the three types of creator archetypes, how each creator type lends it self to brand creation, aligning products with a creator, how to create buzz around a product, different outlets for creators to monetize, creator owned brands versus endorsements, successful outcomes, where the creator economy is moving, hot takes, predictions for 2023, and more. Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more. Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokZawwar Khan - Founder of Rel BrandsRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Anders and Andy join Blaine & Ramon to discuss the next wave of creators and commerce. They talk about social commerce, creators as a performance channel, innovation happening in the space, what personalized storefronts mean, the opportunity for creators as key brand affiliates, the current funding landscape, when to bootstrap versus raise venture, and more.[00:01:37] Andy and Anders have co-founded companies previously, with experience in building in both the bootstrapping and vc frameworks.[00:03:40] Commerce merchant needs assessed and personalized landing page created with custom features; minimal customer/creator work needed.[00:20:37] Both paths of bootstrapping and fundraising can be beneficial depending on business, market, timing and other factors.[00:23:51] Evaluate exit potential and acquirers to determine future success.[00:26:34] Engage with brand, understand community, incentivize customers and creators, focus on performance, recruit, activate and educate customers and creators, focus on top 5-20%.[00:29:59] Social commerce is affiliate links to product pages and microcommerce experiences, with fully contextualized experiences tailored to traffic source.[00:36:22] Shift to service-based ecommerce, embedding commerce into organic posts, medium shift to AR needed for new social commerce platform.[00:41:54] Merchants define subcategories, hire in-house; ideal customer >$5 million, shareable product, find champion, 300-500 influencers to double down on 10-20.[00:45:02] Merchants build basic landing page and add content from Trend, influencers, creators. Customers and creators select content, upload own content. Merchants recommend doing most of the work. Activation levers to get more success.[00:47:55] Create best mobile video storefronts for marketers to test and find their top customers/creators.  Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more. Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokAndy Cloyd - Co-founder of SuperfiliateAnders Bill - Co-founder of SuperfiliateRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Megan joins Blaine and Ramon to talk about how brands can better leverage consumer insights to validate ideas, develop new products, build more powerful brands, increase revenue and purchases, build better wholistic customer experiences, mitigate risk, find exciting opportunities, build off flagship products, and much more. Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokMegan O'Brien - Founder of Arch InsightsRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Adam joins Blaine to discuss building and formulating products from the ground up. They talk about identifying a problem, coming up with a unique formulation, what you need to take the product to market, navigating restrictions and FDA, positioning yourself to sell in other markets downstream, patents, ingredient licensing, launching Paris Hilton's line, the pros, and cons of working with celebrity talent, navigating managers and other involved parties, leveraging talent for retail distribution, and much more. 35:48 - The Formulation Behind Paris Hilton's Skincare LineLaunching a product line with a celebrity, it's just exciting because you can immediately get an interested consumer. There's instant, recognition of your brand because you're tying it to and someone like Paris, I think you said it earlier, she did a lot of things first. And being a celebrity that wanted her own skincare line yeah, she was one of the first. And the way she wanted to do it was different, I think, than most celebrities. She wanted to own it.40:30 - The Reality of Partnering With Celebrity TalentEspecially when you get into bigger influencers or bigger celebrities. And that's the challenge. Developing a working relationship and a business structure that satisfies everybody. You have to take into consideration maybe not a lot of celebrities understand the difference between royalties and owning a business. Maybe a business manager has never done a deal where there's equity in a company. Maybe they're only used to royalty checks.27:00 - Save These Q's For Your Next BrandYou have to decide your brand position in the market. Are you the cost leader? Are you prestige? How are you going to price it? what is your brand position? What's on the box? What colors are we going to use for not just the logo, but everything to develop the brand feel. Is this going to look clinical, or should we take it the other way and make it look super high end? Like you'd buy in a, blue Mercury or a Sephora? Where are we going to put this? Is it ultimately going to be in a drugstore? Or are we going to sell it in Nordstrom? Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokAdam Xavier - President of XG FormulationsRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Jack joins Blaine to talk about how to build a brand in today's landscape. They talk about identifying a problem, bootstrapping, which channels to start on, how to think about capital, working with suppliers, building at the right pace for your business, speeding up cash conversion, subscription & retention from the customer's pov, the importance of unified data, the power of layering brand at the right time, and much more. More info on  the Duradry brand here. Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokJack Benzaquen - Founder & CEO of DuradryRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

On this episode of DTC Pod, Victoria joins Blaine to talk about building marketplaces from the ground up. They explore topics like getting your first customers, how to build out the supply side of the marketplace, building early demand, challenges matching supply to demand, how to launch new markets, starting a marketplace in NYC, keeping the flywheel going, transformation through company growth, and much more. Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands----- 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 TikTokVictoria Eisner - Co-founder of GlamsquadRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated