2026 is shaping up to be a banger.

Not just because we’re perma-bulls on DTC.

💰 Sean Frank fires off 6 reasons why this year is going to “PRINT” for brands

🐻 Derek Lauermann shares 3 steps to diversify channels without losing signal

🚀 Matt Bertulli gives you a peek behind this Wednesday’s Growth Summit

Plus, the top-five headlines in consumer news with executive summaries.

Sean Frank CEO, Ridge

Ignore the Bears: 2026 Will PRINT

Everyone is freaking out.

CACs up. Brutal competition.

Building a brand takes longer-
and costs more.

They are saying, "Ecom is dead"

Even this guy.

Everyone is wrong.
That guy is an idiot. lol

ITS THE BEST TIME EVER TO RUN A BRAND

6 reasons why 2026 will PRINT:

1- Brands are LINDY

The world is being disrupted.

- AI creative
- AI reports
- AI employees

But what IS NOT changing?

People will still buy stuff.

Humans have birthdays. They celebrate Christmas. They need to get gifts.

They love novelty.

How people find products changes.

New ad units.
New platforms.
New customers

(i.e. new opportunities)

But physical goods are LINDY.
They are here forever and ever.

2- The AI Boom Is Built for Us

Yes, AI is disrupting many businesses.

But it is in OUR favor.

We are the end buyers of B2B SaaS.

Every efficiency tool, automation, cost-savings. They are for brands like us.

Use them to get

- Better creative
at lower costs
- more efficient operations
- Faster product dev (we are doing this)
- Lower cac

Small teams can operate like enterprises.
Solo founders can compete with VCs.

We are being given a massive advantage.
TAKE IT.

3- The Storm Has Passed

Remember 2022?

Credit crunch.
Recession fears.

Brands going under left and right.

Then 2023-2024:

- Tariff battles
- Trade uncertainty
- Supply chain chaos

Everyone was hedging, playing defense.
Afraid to deploy capital.

Now, we are back to a 2019 mindset.

We have clarity. We know the game.

The brands that white-knuckled through uncertainty, built infrastructure, refined operations, and survived...

They are about to lap everyone who is sitting on their hands.

4- Death to Dropshippers

In 2024, 1.4 billion shipments crossed the border under de minimis rules.

That number is now effectively zero.

Direct-from-China shipments are
AT A TEN YEAR LOW

Temu is out of the ad auction
Shein’s advantage is toast
Dropshippers cannot compete

We used to fight 10,000 faceless clones.

Scammers. Fly-by-night operations with zero brand equity … stealing our creative, ripping off our products, flooding Meta with garbage.

Now, that attention is up for grabs.

Insane backflip in our favor.

Real brands will win
Real products will win
WE WILL WIN.

5- People Feel Richer

Tech stocks ripped in 2025.

- Nvidia up 41%
- Alphabet up 65%
- Semiconductors up 43%

People who own stocks feel wealthier.

They are not the only ones.

Blue-collar workers welding, wiring, and plumbing the AI boom are cashing in, too.

$611 billion in global AI infrastructure in 25/26.

The US needs 125,000 new data center construction workers in 2026.

More money for workers
more spending power,
​And more juice for brands

6- We Are Eating Legacy’s Lunch

The game we have all been playing for 10+ years … it is now the only game in town.

Legacy players are falling behind.

Bain & Company says insurgent brands with <2% market share ate 39% of category growth in 2024.

That is up from 17% in 2023.

I am talking across categories.

In food, emerging brands drove 27% of growth despite holding <1% market share.

In bev, 32% of growth with less than 3% market share.

In personal care, 45% of growth with 3% market share.

Why?

Because we insurgents are …

- More efficient
- Better at paid
- Smarter with cash
- Can move fast

In 2018 we got laughed at.

Now we are the only ones left standing.

The future belongs to us.

There arent legacy players who are better than us. Their moats arent keeping us out, its trapping them in.

2026 will be the best year ever

Physical goods are LINDY.
The dropshippers are gone.
​
AI is making us more efficient.
People feel richer.

Brands have the experience and infrastructure to dominate.

Do not listen to the doomers.

I was wrong.

We are all going to win.

Derek Lauermann Grüns, Dir. of Paid Media

3 Steps to Diversify Your Media Mix Without Losing Signal

The Connors reminded me, à la this 67-min episode on media mix diversification, that most brands do not scale …

They scatter!

• YouTube
• TikTok
• CTV

Attribution becomes alphabet soup.

Let me save you a few million dollars.

Here are three (snackable!) steps to scale your media mix without losing signal 👇

 Step 1: Earn The Right To Diversify 

You probably have more scale inside your core channel than you think.

Usually, you can unlock additional results through …

• New value props
• New personas
• New offers
• New creative
• New landing pages

The two ads below drive to the same product + same offer, but have different value props.

One targets MTHFR-aware buyers (methylated vitamins); the other targets digestion-conscious shoppers (fiber).

🍬 Snack

Also, as you find new creative angles (even for the same product), match your landing page to the ads themselves.

Here’s what that looks like for the two ads above.

 Step 2: Prioritize Based on Ease 

If you are expanding, choose your next channel based on:

Impact: Will we reach net-new audiences?
​Confidence: Do we have evidence it works?
​Ease: Can it fit current creative + reporting?

Most teams ignore that third part: ease. And that is the most common point of failure.

In our case, much of our content is retailer-specific. Below on the left, a Reels in collaboration with Target; on the right, the same creators with a YouTube Short in support of Sam’s Club.

🍬 Snack

If your best-performing ads are 15-second UGC videos on Meta, your easiest next channel is probably TikTok or YouTube Shorts.

 Step 3: Sequence Expansion 

Do not launch four new channels in one quarter.

Go in order …

1️⃣ Expand within Meta
(new personas, angles, & formats)

2️⃣ Add portable creative channels
(YouTube + TikTok)

3️⃣ Then harder-to-measure channels
(CTV, radio, direct mail)

This is exactly the point Connor Mac makes in the Operators Guide to Channels:

“The majority of attention online currently goes to short-form vertical video. While there are some differences in consumption, much of the same content can work across placements.”

🍬 Snack

MTA → Incrementality → MMM

 🎁 TL;DR 

Don’t just “add channels” …

• Push the core until it squeals
• Prioritize ease
• Sequence expansion

That’s how you unlock channels without imploding attribution.

Matt Bertulli CEO, Lomi & Pela

History Will Be Made on Wednesday!

Feb 18th is our first-ever Online Growth Summit.

Mike called his 18 slides the most important thing he’s delivered in the last decade.

Cody will share how he’s using AI to move at supersonic speed (as a CEO with two kids).

The Connors will show you how to prioritize, align teams, and rethink your growth.

As for myself?

I’ll share what my team and I are learning as we go deep on AI — how we’re using it to make (and keep) more money.

What Sean says in his piece above, we’re finding to be true:

You’ll also hear from ...

• Too many
• Ecommerce
• Heavyweights
• To list them
• All by name

Will this be our best event?

There’s only one way to find out …

THE FEED

​8 Failed Businesses Before Kitsch’s +$500M Beauty Empire​

​“Really Stupid or Genius”: Hitting $600M in 3 Years Bootstrapped​

​New Organic-to-Paid Flywheel, Creator Volume & Product Seeding​

The Trends

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

1. Grüns Continues to Hit Major Milestones: LinkedIn​

According to CEO Chad Janis, Grüns is not only the #1 greens brand on Amazon, but also the #1 greens brand in retail. This is a particularly impressive feat for a few reasons: Grüns has been in business for less than three years and only entered the retail channel a year ago.

With AG1, Bloom, Huel, and several other greens brands in the mix, Grüns’ gummy format is winning hearts and minds.

2. UFC Partners with FoodStory Brands: PR Newswire​

UFC is partnering with FoodStory Brands to develop and launch a high-performance, nutritionist-backed protein bar line. Given FoodStory Brands’ success in scaling consumer brands and UFC’s global brand equity, the new protein bar has a high likelihood of success.

FoodStory Brands is responsible for creating Fresh Cravings, a $100M refrigerated dips brand, and the licensed Yellowstone food brand, which has driven more than $100M in sales.

3. Collab Fund Backs Cambiotics: Athletech News​

Cambiotics, a Danish supplement startup that aims to remove forever chemicals (PFAS) from the body via a precision-formulated probiotic strain, just closed a €4M funding round led by Collaborative Fund.

The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark and True also participated in the round. The Copenhagen-based startup will begin its first clinical trial in the US in the near future.

4. Alex Eubank Acquires Supplement Brand: Stack3d​

Fitness influencer Alex Eubank has acquired Fresh Supps for an undisclosed sum. Fresh Supps was only founded in 2023 by former Musclesport Chief Marketing Officer Greg Helton, and now the brand is trading hands.

Eubank plans to super size the brand via his massive following on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

5. De La Calle Unveils New Look: LinkedIn​

LA-based tepache maker De La Calle just unveiled a refreshed brand identity. The new look features bolder flavor cues, clearer callouts (e.g., 6 grams of fiber), and louder imagery.

These changes might seem minor, but together they make De La Calle more retail-friendly without alienating existing customers.

 I am not a broken record 

But this is a broken line-up …

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.

• It is free on Feb 18th
• Over 25 DTC speakers
• Keynotes, panels + Q&As

Link is ​here​ ↓ your thumb or cursor, there.

With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff 🤓 Executive Editor

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