Ecom Growth Insider

Her store locator tells you to go buy from a shop she does not own. If that shop is out of stock, you email her the store's name and she sends you a free shipping code as a thank you for trying. She built a seven-figure haircare brand on that instinct and never bought an ad to do it.Kate Assaraf founded Dip in 2021 — plastic-free shampoo and conditioner bars, now in a little more than 500 independent stores. She spent the first year not building but watching: standing in drugstores, supermarkets, salons and Sephora, quietly observing what people actually do when they pick up a bottle. What she saw decided the product.Her argument in this episode is that sustainability is the third reason someone buys from her, behind "it works" and "it's worth the money" — and she has a Warby Parker survey to explain why leading with the mission loses. She built the brand so the plastic-free part never had to do the selling.One thing the intro does not say: she is running paid ads now. She hired an agency and fired them two weeks later, and she tells that story here for the first time, at 29:31.This one is for operators whose brand has a mission — clean ingredients, sustainability, ethics, a founder story — and who are currently leading with it.In this episode:• The first thing a shopper does with a bottle, at every price point in every store• What men actually do on the women's shelf, which is not what she expected• Where the mission ranks among the reasons people buy, and the survey behind it• One distribution channel, picked deliberately, and the line she used to open it• The page on her own site that routes buyers to a shop she does not own• How the business grows when the product lasts a year and nobody needs to reorder• The ads agency she hired and fired in two weeks, told here for the first time• What she would build instead of another ad accountChapters:00:00 Seven figures, no ads, no Amazon01:20 A year spent watching people shop03:48 Smell decides it before anyone reads04:40 Men shop the women's shelf the same way05:16 The sustainable shopper who does not exist06:48 Sustainability is the third reason to buy07:08 Warby Parker surveyed, and the mission lost11:14 The people who care are in refill stores14:06 Five hundred doors, one did $200,00015:14 A store locator that costs her the sale20:56 Revenue is not profit on a marketplace21:55 The Amazon carrot she calls moldy24:15 Where AI is an equalizer, and where it is slop29:31 Hiring an ads agency, firing it in two weeks33:23 When the repeat purchase is a gift36:45 Clean beauty and subscriptions, overrated39:23 Build a community before another adDip:https://dipalready.comhttps://dipalready.com/pages/store-locatorhttps://www.instagram.com/dipalreadyhttps://www.tiktok.com/@dipalreadyKate on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-assaraf-b25a741a7/Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tuma. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrejTumaRunning a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/audit

The same product does not behave the same way in two places. Langer's blood orange sparkling water is the number one seller on a supermarket shelf; on Amazon it is ginger. Their zero-sugar cola outsells the regular roughly ten to one on Amazon, and closer to 60/40 in grocery. Same brand, different winner — because browsing a fixed shelf and searching a marketplace are not the same behavior.Bruce Langer is the president of Langer Juice, the company his father started in 1960 and which now runs more than 200 products through Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Albertsons, Bristol Farms and Amazon. Two generations, sixty-five years, and a launch-and-kill engine that has outlived several fads.A note on the opening: Bruce's father, Nathan Langer, survived the Holocaust, came to the United States after the war, and started this company in 1960. Bruce tells it in about a minute and then moves on, which is how he wanted it. We spent the rest of the hour on the work.This one is for operators who sell physical product — whether that is a first retail account, a better-run Amazon listing, or a Shopify catalog you have never split by channel.In this episode:• The signal a retailer gives long before orders drop, and why it is not the shelf• Why his drink in the biggest new category in beverage has zero grams of protein• How he tells a megatrend from a fad, and the 99-truckload order that taught him• What a buyer is actually solving for in a first meeting, and why something has to come out• Find the retailer that wants to be first, and what that is worth• The same product, two channels, two completely different best-sellers• What he told a founder who wanted to quietly cheapen the formula• Why out-of-stocks cost you twiceChapters:00:00 One Kmart order, then the fad died01:38 A celery juice route to a national brand05:15 The zero-protein bet in the biggest category09:56 The 1980s seltzer fad and 99 truckloads11:06 Display space is the canary, not shelf space13:53 Swapping corn syrup for cane sugar16:41 The founder who wanted to cut the formula18:39 Cut cost anywhere except the ingredients19:22 What actually makes a retail buyer say yes20:35 On a shelf, something has to come out22:16 Budget to promote, or the shelf does nothing23:36 Getting on the shelf is the easy part24:31 Blood orange on the shelf, ginger on Amazon25:27 Zero sugar outsells regular ten to one on Amazon26:32 Running one catalog across every channel28:09 Keeping founder taste at 400 employees32:34 The category he thinks gets big nextLanger Juice:https://www.langers.com/https://www.instagram.com/langersjuicehttps://www.tiktok.com/@langersjuiceBruce on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-langer-9135004/Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tuma. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrejTumaRunning a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/audit

A buyer is not trying to work out what a brand is worth. He is trying to find a reason to pay less for it. That is the half of due diligence nobody explains, and it is where most founders lose money they had already earned.Dave Guttman has bought, run and sold companies for most of his career. He was President of First Stop Health, a telemedicine company that made the Inc. 500 in back-to-back years — No. 276 in 2018 and No. 375 in 2019 — and he now mentors founders through their own exits.This one is for operators who have ever thought "I'd sell at the right number." Andrej and Dave get into what an acquirer is actually doing during diligence, the three numbers that set a multiple, why polishing every last opportunity before a sale costs you money rather than making you more, and the one deal Dave says he should never have done.In this episode:• The second reason buyers run due diligence, and how it shows up in the final price• The three numbers an acquirer checks before bidding, and the floor Dave puts on each• Why maxing out every opportunity attracts a worse buyer, not a better one• How being the face of the brand quietly caps what it is worth• The handshake rule he learned across 18 months of depositions• Why he walked from a deal with 70% of revenue in a single client• The timing move he credits for holding his price through the 2008 crash• What he does first with a struggling $5M brand and 90 daysChapters:00:00 The half of due diligence nobody explains04:59 The first meeting, and what drops his offer05:29 Lifestyle business or exit business, pick one07:12 Make every month they wait cost them more09:31 Being the face of the brand makes it hard to sell14:02 Diligence exists to cut the price, not to check it14:46 He timed the exit to his three best months ever19:47 A big cash payment at close spooks buyers22:54 Stop looking at CAC and LTV blended25:05 The three numbers that set the multiple27:42 The cold plunge brand that added a subscription29:30 Two identical $3M brands, 4x versus 7x30:09 Leave the acquirer some low-hanging fruit31:53 Max out the upside and you attract a worse buyer34:23 Start planning the sale 18 to 36 months out35:43 The deal he should never have done38:05 70% of revenue from one client, and he walked41:59 What an acquirer wants the key employees paid45:27 A struggling $5M brand and 90 daysDave Guttman:https://www.guttmanmedia.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/drguttman/https://www.instagram.com/realdaveguttman/ Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tumachowitsch. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL785J5b_VfDG4PrhJ0OVdkDlUioSkb-tfRunning a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/apply/

Adam Hotchkiss runs a bootstrapped telehealth brand doing over $1.7 million a month with a team of four. Net margins above 30%, no outside investment, and he threw out the entire brand six months in to get there.Six months of purchase data told him who was actually buying: young athletic men. So he killed the clinical, stock-photo look and rebuilt AlgoRX around the people already paying. Revenue almost doubled inside two weeks.Full disclosure: AlgoRX is a HoloGrowth client. You will hear what we built together discussed from the inside, including the parts that did not work.He describes the arc as $70,000 a month at the beginning of last year, $1.4 million for the last completed month at the time we recorded, and $1.7 to $2 million projected for the month itself. They have since passed $1.7 million a month. Every figure is his.In this episode:- What six months of purchase data told him about who was really buying, and the rebrand that followed- Why he ran zero ads for six months, and what changed when he turned them on- Why the uglier ad usually wins, and why that was the hardest thing for him to accept- The 6,000-follower affiliate outselling accounts with millions, and the case for an army of small ones- How four people hold net margins above 30% on a stack they built instead of rented- What checkout friction really costs when the customer pays a doctor fee and shipping on top- Losing the ad account five or six times while fully compliant, at $50-60K a day- Why he no longer thinks the software is the asset, and what an acquirer would actually be buying- His honest answer on selling, and why an earnout means you effectively bought yourself a bossChapters:00:00 "You're a company for no one"00:23 $70K a month to $1.7M a month, on a team of four01:09 The surgeon who walked out of the operating room02:55 The $700 wall before anyone gets treated07:11 "I wanted to make the Honda for healthcare"10:24 The rebrand that nearly doubled revenue in 2 weeks11:55 He ran zero ads for six months, then turned Meta on18:40 The uglier ad usually wins21:01 A 6,000-follower affiliate outselling mega accounts25:59 How four people hold 30%+ net margins28:13 64% cart abandonment, and why he says only31:02 Building a cult on a pharmacy, and the tattoo test43:30 Losing the Meta account five times at $50K a day48:37 Would he sell, and the honest answer54:11 The tech moat is gone. The brand is the asset now57:07 The one lever he'd pull at $100-300K a month1:00:46 Where to find Adam and AlgoRXFull chapter list and transcript: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com/episode/adam-hotchkiss-algorx-bootstrapped-telehealth-team-of-fourConnect with Adam:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drhotch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrHotchX: https://x.com/drahotchAlgoRX: https://algorx.aiAlgoRX on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/algorx/This episode is a business conversation, not medical advice. Nothing in it is a recommendation to take any medication.Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. Subscribe for episodes on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and the operating systems behind brands that actually grow.More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.comWork with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com

Most brands say creative is the biggest lever they have, then spend almost nothing on it. Matthew Gattozzi's answer is that the P&L already tells you the truth.Matthew spent over a decade in ballet and danced professionally with Ballet Austin. A back injury ended it at 21. He took the standard that came with it and built Goodo Studios, a creative studio producing ads for e-commerce brands.Spend roughly 10% of ad spend on creative production, sliding down as you scale.Work out how many new ads you actually need, which is almost always fewer than you think.Then make those ads different from each other, not just more of them.In this episode:- The P&L test that exposes what a brand actually prioritises- The 10% rule for creative production budgets, and when it slides to 5% and 1%- The math for how many new ads you need each month- Why "make me 60 ads" reliably gets you 60 versions of the same ad- Why diversity beats volume, and why more follows different- What a plateau in the ad account usually says about decisions made months earlier- Why he stays tool agnostic across cinema cameras, creators and statics- The standard he brought from ballet: "we do not tolerate mistakes"- Rapid fire: the best ad he saw this year, an underrated copywriting book, and his hottest takeChapters:00:00 "I've never met somebody overspending on creative"00:46 Why this episode starts with ballet01:01 A decade of ballet, ended by a back injury at 2102:53 The gap between camera people and advertising people03:38 Building Goodo Studios04:48 Losing an identity, not just a career05:43 Eight years sober08:09 Harmony beats balance10:59 What ballet taught him about creative standards16:45 Is there such a thing as a perfect ad?18:17 "We do not tolerate mistakes"19:39 When the client disagrees with the creative22:30 Lo-fi versus high production24:41 Tool agnostic: only winning ads count26:13 The P&L test for what a brand really prioritises27:40 The $100K example: cut ad spend, fund creative30:08 "I've never met somebody overspending on creative"30:31 Two brands, two decisions, two outcomes39:15 The 10% rule, and when it slides to 5% and 1%43:15 Why plateaus are an under-investment problem44:10 Diversity or just quantity45:39 Why "make me 60 ads" gets you 60 of the same ad48:25 Focus on different, and more takes care of itself49:34 The math for how many new ads you actually need51:27 Twenty thought-out ads beat sixty guesses52:16 Rapid fire: best ad, best book, hottest take58:07 Where to find MatthewConnect with Matthew:X: https://x.com/matthewgattozziLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgattozzi/Goodo Studios: https://www.goodostudios.comNewsletter, weekly: https://www.goodostudios.com/newsletterEcom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. Subscribe for episodes on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and the operating systems behind brands that actually grow.More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.comWork with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com