In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG

Fifty years in business. Zero unprofitable years. Is that still possible for a consumer brand starting today?Andrew Faris, founder of AJF Growth, returns to In The Money for round two, landing right as BFCM season kicks off, with the tactical holiday playbook and a much bigger question about what kind of consumer business is still available to build.Andrew runs one of the most respected growth agencies in eCommerce with a media buying point of view built in public across hundreds of episodes of the Andrew Faris Podcast.We cover:The “economy is cooked” take making the rounds, and why Andrew thinks the data says otherwise heading into the holidaysThe BFCM playbook: spend aggressively now, adjust ROAS targets down, and why October cohorts rebuy 80-100% more often in month oneGifting creative, offer-forward messaging, and why “it’s discounted” is the most compelling ad message of the seasonLaunch your sale very early or very late, never in the middle, and the share-of-wallet problem that punishes the second and third weeks of NovemberDaily and hourly spend forecasts for Black Friday and Cyber MondayThe fifty-year company with zero unprofitable years: what Andrew saw inside the business and the mentality that built itWhy they refuse to fetishize inventory turns and see opportunity cost in not being able to sell, not in holding stockLoyalty to vendors over price shopping, and growth plans chosen for durability over maximum speedThe X plan versus the 2X plan: why the fifty-year operator took the slower one without hesitationIs the steady compounder still available with ten million Shopify stores and flattened Amazon distribution, or was that a golden age?Why almost everyone spending under $50K a month should manage their own ads, and the agency math that guarantees bad service below that lineThe agency carousel: why founders without a first-principles point of view on media buying keep getting burnedTop quartile versus bottom quartile clients: brand tailwinds, unit economics, and the operator problem agencies don’t like namingWhy brand is not the brand book, it’s where the product fits in someone’s life, reinforced by everything you doIf you’re heading into BFCM, evaluating an agency, or asking yourself what kind of business you’re actually trying to build, this episode covers the tactical and the existential in one conversation.

Three years stuck at $1.4 million in revenue. A warehouse and tech build that cost double the projections. A Stripe loan, a B2B check, and a family bridge loan landing back-to-back just to survive.Michael Robinov, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm to People, joins In The Money to tell one of the most honest bootstrapped stories in food, thirteen years building a Brooklyn-based online farmers market that delivers fresh, seasonal groceries from over 200 farms and producers within 300 miles of New York City to more than 13,000 customers across the tri-state.Today the business is at mid-eight figures, growing nearly 100% year over year and just announced its first outside capital ever, a $5 million round led by New Fare Partners, complete with a full New York Times feature.But this is the opposite of an overnight success story.We cover:Dropping out of NYU at twenty-one and paying himself $20K a year, for yearsThe three years of stagnation at $1.4M and what kept him going through the doldrumsFunding holiday inventory on zero-APR credit cards and the end-of-2019 ultimatum: if 2020 doesn't work, I made a mistakeThe pandemic surge: growing the modern CSA from 500 to 2,500 weekly customers while bidding against hospitals for refrigerated shipping containersGrowing 500% in 2020 with a tiny team and becoming suddenly, unexpectedly profitableThe 2021 over-investment: a new Bushwick warehouse and custom technology, both costing double projectionsThe three checks that had to land back-to-back for the company to survive, Stripe Capital, a B2B deal, and a family bridge loanWhy he went further into the darkness: customers kept reordering, and the retention told him the engine workedThe growth unlock: fundamentals that were quietly there all along, plus a growth marketer and a $10K monthly ad budgetBuilding the supply chain and technology that shortens the distance between regional farms and city kitchensThe mission underneath it all: proving regional food systems can workThe New Fare round, the new warehouse, and what's next down the Eastern SeaboardIf you're a founder sitting in your own version of the $1.4M plateau and wondering whether to keep going, this episode is the most useful framework you'll hear: grit on top of good fundamentals builds a Farm to People. The retention and margins tell you which one you have.

The meal delivery industry lost $20 billion last year. Feast & Fettle is profitable, growing 40%+, and just launched in Manhattan.Carlos Ventura, CEO of Feast & Fettle, joins In The Money to break down how a $200K personal chef service in Providence, Rhode Island became one of the only profitable players in the most capital-destructive category in consumer, through full vertical integration, patient family office capital, and an obsessive refusal to compromise on product.Carlos came from Goldman Sachs and Deliveroo with no plans to stay in food delivery. Then he tried the product, saw retention curves like nothing he'd ever seen, and joined as professional CEO alongside founder Maggie Mulvena Pearson. Five years later: 25x revenue growth, high single-digit EBITDA margins, and seventy sprinter vans covering the Northeast corridor.We cover:Why Carlos left Wall Street and what sold him on a $200K personal chef serviceThe case for vertical integration: owning the kitchens, the vans, and the custom tech stackWhy the asset-light playbook fails in hospitality, you're not delivering socksRecipe scaling: why going from 100 servings to 1,000 means starting from scratch$8-9M raised with 75% going to CapEx, and why those step-function investments were non-negotiableMarketing at just 5-6% of revenue: how product quality and word of mouth carry acquisitionMembers spending $2,000+ per year with 30-60 day payback, and why that was too conservativeWhat Blue Apron and the meal kit graveyard got wrong: suspect contribution margin math and products nobody lovedThe K-shaped economy: skewing premium and why the middle is the worst place to beThe habit activation rate: why three orders in 30 days predicts 400% higher retentionThe pre-launch playbook: hyper-local Meta down to the zip code level, 720 ad variants, all in-houseThe 70-van flywheel: why branded sprinters in affluent neighborhoods are a statistically significant acquisition channelThe retail experiment they pulled out of, and the grocery partnership thesis that came from itAOV from $120 to $185: bundles, upper-tier plans, and building the ticketIf you're building in food, operationally complex consumer, or any category where the playbook says stay asset light, this episode is the clearest counterargument you'll hear.

What if your next customer acquisition channel isn't a platform, it's a licensing catalog?David Born, brand licensing consultant, joins In The Money to demystify one of the most overlooked growth levers available to consumer brands in the $5M to $30M range: licensing world-famous IP like John Deere, Peanuts, Disney, Batman, and Toy Story.The proof point that anchors the whole conversation: 80% of the customers who bought Everyman Jack's John Deere collection had never bought Everyman Jack before. We cover:How brand licensing actually works: royalty rates, minimum guarantees, marketing commitments, and territory restrictionsThe Everyman Jack x John Deere case study and why 80% net-new customers is the number that should make every DTC founder pay attentionWhy licensing functions as a customer acquisition channel borrowing trust instead of renting attention at rising CACsWhat IP actually costs at the $5-30M brand level — and how the economics pencilWhat makes a brand ready for licensing and the warning signs that a brand isn'tWhy licensing amplifies what's already there: it can make a good business better and a bad business worseHow the big IP houses think, long innovation cycles, brand protection, and what they need to see from a partnerWhy the window for digitally-native brands is wide open right now, and why most founders don't know the door existsHow to approach an IP holder when you're a $10 million brand, not Procter & GambleCategory fit: which IP works for which products, and how to think about audience overlapThe Plum Deluxe example and what smaller brands can realistically accessCommon deal structure mistakes founders make in their first licensing negotiationIf you're building a consumer brand and fighting rising acquisition costs, this episode opens up a channel most of your competitors have never seriously considered.