This will be our last email of 2025.

You know what that means.

Before the ball drops, we’ve got just enough time for the best-of-the-absolute-best …

10 newsletters you chose as our most valuable — by voting with your opens, clicks & replies.

1️⃣ Private Equity (PE) Revealed
2️⃣ How to Reshape Your Year
3️⃣ From $0 to $100M: 10 Steps
4️⃣ Secrets to Run DTC Sweepstakes
5️⃣ 10 Lessons on Hard Things
6️⃣ More Product, More People, That’s It
7️⃣ The State of DTC in 2025
8️⃣ Taking Your Holiday Work Home
9️⃣ How a $100M+ Brand Plans Growth
🔟 5 Ways to Make More Profit

Plus, three last-minute fixes, five biggest headlines, and a  bonus  dedicated to our person of the year.

Cody Plofker CEO, Jones Road Beauty

Three Fixes Before Everyone Comes Back Online

“Dead week” is the best time to get ahead. No meetings, no Slack pings, no fire drills.

Nothing but open space to fix things that move margin.

Here are three fast wins for operators.

At Jones Road Beauty, Aftersell by Rokt makes one and two basically plug-and-play.

Right now it’s running an extended 60-day trial for Operators’ readers. Or, activate Rokt monetization to get the entire Aftersell post-purchase suite free for a full year.

• No dev work
• No cost
• And no risk

Sean Frank CEO, Ridge

#1. Private Equity (PE) Revealed​

After speed dating 14 private equity firms in a single day, Sean came back with a behind-the-scenes playbook.

How PE makes money. The IRR games they play. Why some deals zombify businesses.

Plus, he shares his personal roster of buyers and bankers.

The result? Our most-read email ever.

Mike Beckham President, Simple Modern

#2. How to Reshape Your Year​

Mike’s annual review drove Simple Modern’s biggest breakthroughs in 2025.

He asked himself four questions on Jan 1st. What do I want to …

• Stop doing?
• Keep doing?
• Double down on?
• Start doing?

For Mike, it meant doubling down on culture and shifting to qualitative judgment.

Sean Frank CEO, Ridge

#3. From $0 to $100M: 10 Steps​

The most valuable email we’ve ever sent.

Then Sean unloaded 10 steps:

1. Don’t make money your why
2. Pick the right category cycle
3. Accept the capital requirements
4. Stop overthinking, sell more
5. Expand products ruthlessly
6. Use agencies, hire for growth
7. Find partners who complete you
8. Leverage free distribution
9. Think in decades, not years
10. Avoid stupid mistakes

Connor MacDonald CMO, Ridge

#4. Secrets to Running DTC Sweepstakes​

Ironically, our newsletter with the most giveaways, also revealed how to pull off profitable sweepstakes.

After running Ridge’s summer promo four times and hitting their biggest Q3 in company history, Connor shared:

Goal: Why should you run one?
​Prizes: What will you offer?
​Design: How will you brand it?
​Platform: Where will you gamify?
​Funnel: Who should you activate?

Jason Panzer President, Hexclad

#5. 10 Lessons on Hard Things​

HexClad added 92 FTEs last year. The growing pains were real.

He shared ten lessons:

1. People management is priority one
2. Communication is the linchpin
3. Your network is your net worth
4. Be careful what you commit to
5. Question everything at all times
6. Knowledge is common; wisdom isn’t
7. Excellence over people pleasing
8. DTC is hard — so accept it
9. Building a consumer brand is harder
10. Golf is the most beautiful game

Matthew Bertulli CEO, Lomi & Pela Case

#6. More Product, More People, That’s It​

“Product is the place most brands are underinvesting,” wrote Matthew Bertulli, “probably by quite a margin, too.”

After an abysmal first half last year, Pela Case went all in.

This powered 40% YoY growth.

Matthew reminds us this doesn’t need to be complicated. Then, provides four levers to play with:

1. Materials
2. Style
3. Experience
4. Value

Sean Frank CEO, Ridge

#7. The State of DTC in 2025​

Sean’s honest take on recent chaos.

“It’s been 5 years of rollercoaster … COVID. iOS 14. The credit crunch. Inflation. Tariffs.”

If you’ve had a hard year, you’re not alone.

Ten ways to not get cooked:

1. Accept that rapid growth is GONE
2. Build relationships with suppliers
3. Focus on products, not ads
4. Make content, get organic
5. Fix your margins
6. Build a low-growth business
7. Go omnichannel or die
8. Find free leverage points
9. Focus on what you do best
10. Stay in the game

Katy Mimari Founder & CEO, Caden Lane

#8. Taking Your Holiday Work Home​

Easily our most heartfelt newsletter, Katy’s ode to not being OOO smashed.

Since few of us truly get away during Black Friday to Cyber Monday, the CEO of baby-brand juggernaut shared how to bring the best of our holiday work home.

• Communication
• Gratitude
• Grace

Connor MacDonald CMO, Ridge

#9. How a $100M+ Brand Plans Growth​

Ridge released 112 GTM items last year. That was a big leap. Five years ago, they introduced fewer than ten.

He shared five priorities for building on that foundation:

1. Investing in top-of-funnel channels
2. Reducing inefficiencies across paid
3. Expanding products & distribution
4. Testing & experimenting with offers
5. Personalizing onsite for retention

Mehtab Bhogal Karta Ventures

#10. 5 Ways to Make More Profit​

Perhaps our most brutally tactical newsletter of the year; 5 simple ways to make any DTC business more profitable:

1️⃣ Supply Chain ​
Find redundant vendors. Understand costs.

2️⃣ Price Increases
Raise prices, reduce quantity, ship less free.

3️⃣ Sense of Urgency ​
Set short deadlines. Delete low-value tasks.

4️⃣ Wasteful Marketing ​
Stop branded search. Don’t trust defaults.

5️⃣ Send More Emails ​
Sending once a week? Ramp up to daily.

THE FEED

​Setting 2026 Goals, Incrementality Lessons from BFCM and Amazon Brand Bidding​

​From Affiliate Hustler to Hydration Empire: Inside Instant Hydration’s Growth Engine​

​Operators Titans E007: Utopia Deals (With CEO Jabran Niaz)​

The Trends

Curated by the editor of CPG Wire, the five top stories in commerce and DTC.

1. Vacation Hires Bankers: Beauty Independent​

Fast-growing suncare brand Vacation has enlisted Raymond James to explore a minority stake sale. The brand launched in 2021 and expects sales to hit $80M this year.

Vacation is best known for its viral suncare range, but the company has successfully expanded into adjacent categories like fragrance and lip care — very desirable features for prospective buyers.

2. Jason Kelce Bets on Hot Sauce: GlobeNewswire​

Podcaster and former NFL lineman Jason Kelce just invested in Hank Sauce, a beloved hot sauce maker from Sea Isle City, New Jersey. In addition to making an equity investment, Kelce will also raise awareness for Hank Sauce via original content and ongoing brand strategy.

In 2024, Jason & Travis Kelce backed Garage Beer, one of the fastest-growing beer brands in the United States.

3. Squared Circles Teases New Brand: Twitter​

Squared Circles, the consumer brand incubator behind Algae Cooking Club and Freaks of Nature, is launching a new brand, Amulet, in 2026.

It’s a clinically-backed performance supplement for women that’s designed to support all phases of one’s cycle. In 2024, Squared Circles closed a $40M Series A led by L Catterton.

4. Swishables Closes Seed Round: Instagram​

Swishables, a novel on-the-go oral care brand, closed a nearly 7-figure seed funding round. Investors include Jason Cohen, Nik Sharma, Ben Soffer, Claudia Oshry, and Aurum Partners, a family office affiliated with the San Francisco 49ers.

Swishables, which is available online at Target and at 22 major airports throughout the US, was co-founded by Gulshan Kumar and Harry Meng.

5. Cizzle Brands Acquires Manufacturer: Business Wire​

Cizzle Brands, the owner of CWENCH Hydration and Spoken Nutrition, is bringing manufacturing in-house by acquiring Flow Water’s co-manufacturing arm for $83.75 million.

By acquiring Flow Water’s manufacturing arm, Cizzle Brands secures additional capacity for CWENCH Hydration while also creating significant procurement and logistics efficiencies. The manufacturing business is expected to contribute $21.5 million of revenue in the second half of ‘26.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you.

It’s because you keep listening, reading, and showing up to our events that I can keep doing what I love for a whole ‘nother year (and beyond).

But that’s not the only thank you. And it definitely isn’t the bonus I mentioned at the beginning.

The best person I know in ecommerce doesn’t run a nine-figure brand. In fact, he doesn’t run a brand at all.

I’ve been following Emmett Naught for somewhere around five years — back when he was an ER nurse dreaming about becoming a full-time developer in the DTC space.

Even then, he was a constant source of encouragement, support, and positivity.

After his first two forays into the world of ecommerce fell through, he landed a position at KnoCommerce. That was 2023. He and I connected one-on-one in 2025 for the first time.

Why?

Because I was literally building the Operators Newsletter’s onsite form … smashing my face into a janky CMS.

I tweeted a plea for help. Emmett responded, he let me call him at 8:30am on a Saturday, and showed me how to make the CSS not look like trash + work right.

After the newsletter launched, every Monday (without fail) he either writes back or texts me kind words.

A few months ago — when I couldn’t figure out how to animate the Operators Guide to Channels — he built a web app to scroll and record PDFs. Again, on a random Saturday.

Emmett is my friend. He is also a father and husband trying to make ends meet both for his family + his extended family.

Yesterday, he posted a year-end article.

It’s brimming with everything I love about Emmett.

• ​Affirmation Dashboard​
• ​Slider to Fix Your Problems​
• ​PDF Scroll-Capture Tool​

All that and more is why Emmett Naught is our Operators Person of the Year.

If you have your own end-of-year reflections, whether an article, social post, or video …

I would love to share it and celebrate.

With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff 🤓 Executive Editor

PS (Disclaimer): Special thanks to Aftersell for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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