Ecom Growth Insider

Most founders worry about the wrong person finding their sales tax problem. A tax office rarely comes looking for a foreign ecommerce brand. A buyer checks every time, because it's a standard due diligence item.Gareth Kobrin is the CEO and co-founder of Yonda, based in London. Yonda handles the compliance side of indirect tax for ecommerce brands, so sales tax in the US and VAT and GST everywhere else. He's worked in ecommerce for about ten years.In this episode:- How a single warehouse creates a US obligation on day one- The state thresholds that matter, and where they're far higher than you'd guess- What Amazon and TikTok Shop cover, and the part that still lands back on you- What full compliance costs a month, from one state to all fifty plus Europe- The odds of a tax office finding you, and what a voluntary disclosure does and doesn't wipe- How a $2M liability turned a $10M offer into $7M in his worked example- The fulfillment change that turns a $10 tariff into $2Nothing here is tax advice, and Gareth says so on the recording. Rules vary by state, by country and by supply chain, so get advice on your own facts.CHAPTERS00:00 Intro01:04 Who Gareth is and what Yonda handles01:51 Indirect tax, defined05:26 A $99 product that has to sell at $11506:12 Tax-inclusive pricing vs tax at checkout08:30 Who owns the money before it is filed09:47 Physical nexus, economic nexus and the thresholds16:36 Tax follows where the goods are delivered18:04 Selling on Amazon and TikTok Shop19:17 What full compliance actually costs25:13 Never registered: the odds a tax office finds you29:39 A $10M offer that closed at $7M31:15 What tariffs changed for US and EU sellers33:33 Cutting a tariff bill without changing product38:10 From $1M a month to zero on one missed cost40:03 When a US entity starts to make sense41:30 The first move for an operator next weekGARETH KOBRINYonda: https://yondatax.comFree Shopify app: https://apps.shopify.com/yonda-tax-1LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-kobrinECOM GROWTH INSIDEREvery episode: https://ecomgrowthinsider.comIf you're between $100K and $1M a month and paid is no longer handing you cheaper customers, that's the constraint we work on at HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com

Most ecommerce brands compete for attention on the same two platforms, against the same competitors, at the same rising cost. Brand licensing is the other way in: you borrow a fanbase somebody else spent decades building, put it on the product, and pay for it out of sales.David Born has worked in licensing for about twenty years. He was inside Warner Bros. Consumer Products and at Cartoon Network, on the side of the table that decides which brands get a license. For the last twelve years he has run his own licensing agency, and a growing share of that work is now ecommerce brands.This episode is the practical version. What a first license costs, line by line. How long it takes before anything can be sold. And why the character on the mood board is almost always the wrong one to start with.What we get into:- The minimum guarantee, and why it is owed whether or not a single unit sells- The royalty rate he says an ecommerce brand pays on average, and the worked example behind it- The two sales-forecast mistakes that kill a deal before it is drafted- Why the hottest IP in the world is the worst possible first license- Twelve months from first email to first sale, and where that time goes- The ten working days every approval takes, and what resets the clock- What a license does to the value of a company on the day it is sold- The reason a licensing agent tells people licensing is a non-starterThe anchor case is Plum Deluxe, a loose leaf tea brand his agency works with. David relays what founder Andy Hayes told him: ten years in business, never licensed anything, then a Peanuts collection at Christmas that sold out in twelve days, with less ad spend than a normal launch. Those are Andy's numbers as David reports them.CHAPTERS00:00 Intro and what licensing actually covers03:45 What a first license actually costs04:38 Minimum guarantee and royalty, defined05:37 The worked example on a Hello Kitty deal10:52 Never make the hottest IP the first one12:45 Who says yes to a brand with no track record18:49 Twelve months from first email to first sale19:56 The 10-day approval clock that resets26:38 What has to be true before a license helps27:17 Licensing does not save a struggling brand28:06 A ten-year-old tea brand's first license30:15 The second collection and the basket effect34:43 Cash flow, margin and absorbing the royalty40:02 The most expensive mistake he has seen41:00 What a license does to a sale of the company42:22 Overrated or underrated, five calls45:29 The first move for an operator next weekFIND DAVIDBorn Licensing: https://bornlicensing.comBorn to License: https://borntolicense.comLearn to License: https://www.learntolicense.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidborn1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidb0rnEcom Growth Insider: https://ecomgrowthinsider.comFigures are David's own, or his clients' as he reports them. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.

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/