Verified: The Social Commerce Podcast

Finding the right agency, technology platform or fulfillment partner can take longer than the project itself. When the fit is wrong, brands lose valuable time and momentum. In this episode of Verified, hosts David Vanderveen and Peter Griscom introduce the SOCOM Digital Hub, a free, searchable destination designed to connect social commerce brands with relevant vendors and service providers. With more than 1,000 organizations represented, the hub brings partner discovery, community feedback and industry expertise into one place. David and Peter also preview MentorPass, an upcoming program designed to turn curated social commerce insights into personalized 90-day plans with support from real people.

  A crowded category can still leave room for a brand with a clear promise. For Truvani, that promise started with ingredient transparency and became the foundation for a business spanning DTC, Amazon and major retail shelves. On this episode of Verified: The Social Commerce Podcast, Devin and Melanie Duncan trace Truvani's journey from an early turmeric presale that exceeded its goal by more than tenfold to a protein business with a footprint in 12,000 retail stores. They explain why their clean-ingredient standards made manufacturing harder, how protein became their hero product and what finally unlocked demand in a competitive market. They also unpack the channel decisions behind Truvani's next stage of growth: rebuilding a Meta advertising engine, seeing online awareness lift retail sales and choosing to pause TikTok Shop while the team focused on what was working.

Jeff Durham is the Founder & CEO of Durham Brands, the family company behind Gimme Beauty. In this episode of Verified, Jeff joins David Vanderveen and Peter Griscom to break down how Gimme Beauty differentiated a familiar category, built credibility through creators and expanded to 36,000 stores nationwide. Jeff explains the "science of hair type," Gimme Beauty's approach to creating products specifically for fine, medium and thick hair. He shares why the company spent years engineering its thick-hair tie, how visual product proof made creator marketing a natural fit and why the brand has worked with thousands of creators across macro, micro and nano levels. The conversation then moves from social discovery to retail execution. Jeff explains why ecommerce-only brands should think seriously about diversification, what founders need to understand before entering major retail and why packaging, buyer relationships, pricing and channel strategy can determine whether a product stays on the shelf.

Agentic commerce has moved through a full hype cycle in less than a year. The opportunity is real, but the numbers, adoption and consumer behavior tell a more complicated story than the headlines suggest. On this episode of Verified: The Social Commerce Podcast, David Vanderveen and Peter Griscom revisit agentic commerce with a sharper operating thesis: discover in AI, buy on site. They break down why massive growth percentages can be misleading without a meaningful base, where AI is actually influencing commerce today and why retailer agents like Amazon Rufus and Walmart Sparky may matter more to many brands than standalone AI assistants. The conversation moves from hype to execution, including machine-readable product data, GEO, reviews, schema, AI-referred traffic, retail-agent visibility and the weekly testing operators can start without a major technology investment.

Susan Petersen built Freshly Picked from the ground up, starting with Etsy, leather she bought with money from scrapped aluminum window frames and a belief that the right product could become a real company. On this episode of Verified, Susan joins David Vanderveen and Peter Griscom to unpack what she learned building Freshly Picked into a lasting brand and what she is doing differently as she builds again. The conversation moves from her early bet on Instagram and preparing for the exposure of Shark Tank to Edith's Mary, her newest venture in needlepoint, where she is testing demand, rethinking a traditional category and finding unexpected traction through a low-cost vending machine concept. Susan also gets candid about the parts of entrepreneurship that do not get easier: forecasting, knowing when growth changes the business, learning from failure and getting back to work when something goes wrong.