The Growth Theory - Grow your ecommerce or DTC brand.: Recent Episodes
Andrei Negrau @ Cartloop
Welcome to The Growth Theory, where you will learn insights, strategies, and the stories behind the fastest-growing ecommerce brands. In this podcast, Andrei Negrau interviews top ecommerce and DTC founders and operators who share playbooks and strategies used for scaling their companies.
A must-listen if you're building your own ecommerce or DTC company or working for a growth team at an ecommerce company.
Add me on Linkedin to start the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/negrau/
This show is brought to you by Cartloop.
Launched in 2016, Powerdot is disrupting the EMS industry. The vision of Eric Glader, founder and CEO of Powerdot, is to give people easy and affordable access to world-class muscular therapy, right in the comfort of their homes, in the gym, or on the field.
In this episode, Eric shares insights on how he seized the opportunity to innovate an industry dominated by global corporations. His story goes beyond building a product which generated over one million dollars in sales in the first 6 months of operation. Listen to this episode to learn how resilience and great execution combined with building a team of A-players turned Powerdot into an 8-figure global brand in just 4 years.
Eric explains, “We feel we can make a change in the way healthcare is delivered. And, more importantly, our focus has always been ‘How do we deliver more healthcare to more people at a better price?’”
Today’s actionable podcast brings topics like:
- Key learnings from growing a company from 0 to an 8-figure revenue
- Pre-launch product marketing tactics
- How focusing on authentic organic growth can lead you to your first $1M
- Coming out on top from challenges threatening business survival
- Building a team that cares about your product as much as you do
- Retaining talent and fostering a supportive growth environment for the team
Today’s actionable podcast brings topics like:
- How to prove your worth & getting investors to say yes
- Pitch perfect: how to craft your message in order to communicate clearly
- Starting up a business as a one-man team
- Getting initial traction through leveraging your existing networks
- Generating large quantity orders through community outreach
Links
- ShineOn Profits On Demand
- ShineOn.com
- EricToz.com
- Eric on Facebook
- Eric on LinkedIn
- Cartloop
Today’s podcast brings actionable topics like
- Indiegogo challenges, tips & tricks
- Getting early traction for your product
- Creating a community around your brand
- Post-launch challenges and getting the product out into the market
- Scaling your business to support global delivery
Today’s podcast brings actionable topics like:
- Validating your idea to check for market fit
- Creating patents and trademarks for a new product
- Leveraging Facebook ads to check customers’ interest and drive price decisions
- How a million-dollar, non-employer business turns to freelancers and contractors for expert advice
- Extending your business network through social media (LinkedIn)
In this episode Andrei and Aaron talked about:
- Growing Hush Blankets to 8-figure revenue in less than 3 years
- How their appearance on Dragon's Den (Canadian version of Shark Tank) helped them scale and expand their business
- The Pros and Cons of a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $1M
- Saving $1M a year through running your own fulfilment center
- Using advertising platforms responsibly
Aaron Spivak on LinkedIn
Aaron Spivak on Instagram
Hush Blankets
Cartloop
In this episode we covered topics like:
- Strategies for building a leading DTC brand
- Engineering a successful product-market fit
- The psychology of acquisitions: why people buy the product they do and how to differentiate yourself with so many options available
- The 6 pillars of a successful product market fit:
- Product. Finding a quality product and ensuring there is a need for it in the market
- Brand. The creative process behind building a leading brand is paramount - from product photography to the look and feel of your online store
- Community: building a community around your brand and finding supporters
- Experience: Amazon is dominating customer service
- Values: what are the values your brand stands for? Is it Fair trade or eco-friendly? Find what makes you unique and implement it in all areas
- Culture: The way you scale your team and the culture you promote internally
In this episode, we covered topics like:
- Strategies for planning and building an MVP
- How to leverage TV and media to boost initial traction
- Pros and cons of building a unique product from scratch
- The must-have checklist of every manufacturer
- How to protect your IP rights without spending a fortune
Links
- Kirpal Bharaj’s Linkedin
- StaySixty.com
- Cartloop
Read the episode blog post here.
In this episode, we talked with Will Critcher, Director of eCommerce for Death Wish Coffee Company: the world’s strongest coffee. We sit down with Will to find out the secrets behind what makes Death Wish one of the fastest-growing consumer brands in the US and why the community of supporters they built is so engaged and committed. We talked about building a legacy brand, growth hacks and Amazon sales, but also – we heard some fun behind the scenes stories!
Today’s podcast brings actionable topics like:
- Strategies for finding the right communications channel at the right time – and letting go of those that do not bring results
- Marketing to multiple age groups and keeping your customers loyal throughout the years
- How brands build communities without complex resources or high budgets
- What is a legacy brand
- How Death Wish Coffee Company became the #1 best-selling ground coffee on Amazon for the past 5 years and the #5 best-selling grocery product on Amazon in 2019
- How the 3rd highest revenue day the company has ever had (6 figures within a few hours) happened during a pandemic
Links
- Will Critcher’s Linkedin
- Deathwish Coffee
- Cartloop
Building video content that converts it’s (still) a challenge for most DTC brands. In this episode, Lewis Fausett, the COO of Patrick Adair Designs shares his insights and techniques which helped the exotic luxury ring brand go from 20K to 750K Youtube subscribers in just a couple of years. You’ll find out why creating fresh content is better than creating “perfect content”, how to build a content strategy for a DTC brand, how to launch video ads on a budget and much more.
Episode notesToday’s actionable podcast brings topics like:
- Building a massive Youtube subscriber base
- Challenges and benefits of selling hand-crafted products
- How to get inspiration for creating video content
- How to launch MVP videos that convert
- Scaling video ads on Youtube, Facebook, and Tik Tok
This is a must-listen for those who want to build a content machine for their DTC brand.
Links
- Patrick Adair Designs
- Patrick Adair Supplies
- Patrick Adair Designs Youtube Channel
- Lewis Fausett’s Linkedin
- Lewis’ DTC Newsletter
- Stone Coat Countertops
- Adobe Premiere
- Cartloop
What do the fastest growing DTC brands have in common? They all look at marketing as a 3-step process: awareness, nurturing and trust-building. In this episode, Erik Huberman, the Founder of Hawke Media shares his approach to building a holistic marketing strategy that turns shoppers into long-term brand advocates.
Today’s podcast brings actionable topics like:
- Why most brands fail at nurturing and building trust with customers
- How to craft a marketing strategy that turns shoppers into brand advocates
- Choosing between social vs. intent-based ads
- Why brands fail to understand the “Consideration Period”
- How to leverage word of mouth as a marketing channel
This is a must-listen for those who want to build a solid marketing foundation for their DTC brand.
Links
- Hawke Media
- Erik Huberman’s Linkedin
- Erik Huberman’s Twitter
- Cartloop
Today’s actionable podcast brings topics like:
- Validating your idea before launching a DTC brand
- Developing a content marketing strategy
- Innovating by creating new digital experiences
- The importance of understanding consumer trends
- Why reverse engineering high-growth brands is essential
This is a must-listen for those who want to build a fast-growing organic DTC brand.
Links
- Mallama Skincare
- Rishi Sharma’s Linkedin
- Descript
- StoryChief
- Hello Woofy
- Later
- Cartloop
- PageFly
Today’s actionable podcast brings topics like:
- The best way to launch a DTC brand today
- Creating scroll-stopping Instagram content
- The advantages of a building a complex supply chain
- Building a DTC brand vs. dropshipping
- Planning an exit strategy for your brand
This is a must-listen for those who want to build or scale a fast-growing brand today.
Links
- NeonBeach
- MidnightCity
- Matthew Kelly Instagram
- Unfiltered Podcast
- Cartloop
Today’s actionable podcast brings topics like:
- One-to-many marketing vs one-to-one marketing
- The risks and challenges of over-communicating as a brand and how to avoid it
- Selecting the marketing channels based on demographics
- How to use Direct Mail as part of your marketing strategy
- How to ensure email, SMS and direct mail are working together to augment results
- Building the foundation for email & SMS marketing success
- How to choose the right digital marketing agency for your brand.
This is a must-listen for those who want to drive growth by not relying on a single channel —but by using a holistic approach.
Links
- Tinuiti.com
- Ryan McGuire LinkedIn
- Cartloop
In this episode, our guest is Joe Parenteau, the Co-founder and CEO of Fable. Fable is a Direct-to-Consumer brand that makes it easy for people to set a beautiful table at home. Their artisan-crafted dinnerware, including ceramics and flatware, is not only Instagram like, but also ethically crafted and sustainably made. In this episode Andrei and Joe talk about finding and validating a business idea, storytelling to differentiate the brand, building a supply chain of artisans across the world and the role Techstars played in building and scaling Fable.
Links
- https://fablehome.co
- https://cartloop.io