Whose advice is most useful to grow …

• $0 → $1M
• $1M → $10M
• $10M → $100M

Those who’ve done it? Or those who are doing it right now?

😵 Matthew Bertulli argues that you shouldn’t listen to billionaires (look closer)

🤑 Avi Moskowitz shares how to optimize your checkout for conversion and margin

🏆 Mike Beckham reveals 4 leadership lessons from a hostess turned CEO of AG1

Plus, the top-five headlines in consumer and an invitation to spend more … profitably.

Matthew Bertulli CEO, Lomi & Pela Case

Stop Listening to Billionaires

Most of us spend too much time listening to the wrong people. Household names. Famous founders. 10-figure exits.

It’s not entirely our fault; aspiration is a powerful drug.

People in “your orbit.” They’re the ones who can speak to where you are, relate to your most urgent problems, and hand you actionable solutions.

The billionaires are just too far removed. Let me explain.

 Why Billionaires are Overrated 

I can’t count on one hand the number of operators I’ve seen look up at a $10B brand for answers to a $10M problem.

Heck, I’m guilty, too.

Most of those billion-dollar brands were launched decades ago, under fundamentally different:

• Capital
• CAC
• Competition

Their inception is abstract. Their current playbook, irrelevant. The rules they played by then, and the rules they play by today, don’t apply to us.

Still, we consume their content like we’re trying to read the stars.

The best operators to learn from? Your peers.

• Behind you
• Next to you
• Or a little ahead

Here’s why.

 The Milky Way 

I’ve been building businesses for 16+ years at this point.

I’m not building the next Apple, Tesla, or massive tech company. Probably not even building the next Hermès, Rolex, or Lululemon.

The best learnings come from people and brands who are single-digit years away from where you are — ahead and behind.

If you’re at $1M, look to $10M brands. If you’re at $10M, look to $100M brands.

Then learn from your peers ... even look behind you.

Why? First, while there’s plenty to learn from the brands you aspire to ... those same brands have already shed many of their early growth tactics that got it where it is today.

Second, the market moves fast. Someone who started after you might already see something you’re missing.

Personally, I’ve had the privilege of learning from many amazing operators and founders.

It’s had a huge impact on how I run my businesses.

 This is Why We Made Titans 

We recently launched a new recording for the Operators podcast, Titans.

The show is a cross between How I Built This and Acquired ... except it’s entirely focused on consumer brands.

We bring operators to tell their story. As of late, we’ve brought on and learned from …

The Founder of Dude Wipes taught me that building memory is often more important than making sales.

“I’m building memory, not sales. You have to create memory structures in people’s brains, and the next time they’re interested in entering that category — which could be six months from now — they’re grabbing you over the competition.”

The CEO of IM8 showed me that scrappiness and resourcefulness are critical in the early days.

“Starbucks rejected me. So I just bought 500 Starbucks vouchers at full retail and resold them at half price to fake the deal. Customers were like, ‘How did you get Starbucks?’ — then Pete’s Coffee did a real deal with us. You just have to do whatever it takes to get traction.”

The Founder and CEO of True Classic reminded me that ruthless focus on one thing beats doing ten things adequately.

“We obsessed over fit more than any other clothing company probably in the history of time. We are never satisfied with it. We asked so many guys what it means to have that perfect fit. We obsessed over that problem more than any other company.”

That’s only a small sample.

I’ve been wanting to do a show like this for years. Because I think this is important content that needs to exist.

Most podcasts aim to bring on the biggest names possible.

I want to learn from founders who are too busy building to write books, and dig into how they do things while they’re still doing it, not decades after the fact.

 Your Orbit is The Secret 

Here’s the point.

The best brands to learn from aren’t household names.

They’re a few years ahead of you, a few years behind you, or even right beside you, building in the same conditions, solving the same problems, navigating the same constraints.

It’s about proximity.

The mistakes they made last year are mistakes you can still avoid. What should you do about it?

Build relationships. Invest in conversations. Pay attention to what’s working for brands in your orbit.

Also, be careful what you retain.

Every brand has moments that don’t transfer.

The campaign that went viral, the press hit that came out of nowhere, the partnership that fell into their lap.

Those outliers make for great stories. But they’re impossible to replicate. What’s worth studying is the repeatable stuff underneath — the daily habits, the hard decisions, the systems they built before anyone was watching.

Your immediate orbit has more answers than any bestseller or billionaire ever will.

That is true for the day-to-day tactics that grow a brand ... as well as the leadership that nurtures one.

Avi Moskowitz Founder, PrettyDamnQuick

Your CVR Went Up. Your Profit Didn’t.

You ship a test. Conversion climbs 12%.

The tool sends a congratulations notification. The team Slacks each other. Dashboard looks great.

Then you check margin per order. Then repeat purchase rate 90 days out. Then the economics of who you just acquired.

Nobody sends a “nice one” gif for that.

Most checkout optimization is margin-blind by design.

Free shipping thresholds set for conversion, not your shipping economics. Upsells tested for click rate, not product margin.

Post-purchase offers that juice this month’s revenue while hollowing out next month’s LTV. Discounts that close carts that would have converted at full price anyway.

Every one of those moves the CVR needle up. Every one of them can bleed you dry.

The number that matters is revenue per checkout … net of product cost, shipping, acquisition, and what that customer does in the 90 days after.

Not just CVR. Not just AOV.

The number your P&L tracks.

That’s what most audits miss. It’s also what most tools aren’t built to fix. That’s why we built Checkout Index.

No install. Just a URL. Hit “Analyze Free.”

In 60 seconds, you get a score comp’d against 500+ top stores. It catches friction, lazy defaults, and margin leaks that CVR-focused tools aren’t built to find.

The full audit goes inside:

• Product costs
• Shipping economics
• Segmentation logic
• Pre-checkout
• Delivery confirmation

That’s where the real margin lives. And where most operators are leaving it.

Try it on your own store. Run it on your top three competitors.

You’ll see exactly who’s optimizing for dashboards versus who’s optimizing for their business.

Find out where you’re leaking margin.

After that, tune into the latest Marketing Operators, where I got to share more about PrettyDamn Quick alongside one of my favorite people — Mina Zandbar, VP Global eCommerce & Digital Growth at Mattel.

THE FEED

​How to Fix Your Checkout With Mattel & PrettyDamnQuick​

​How to Make AI Work for Your Brand With Two (Enterprise) Insiders​

​Category Expansion via Paid: When to Launch, What to Test & How to Scale​

Mike Beckham CEO, Simple Modern

4 Lessons on Leadership From the CEO of AG1

A hostess at 17. By 26, a VP running an $800M business. Today she’s the CEO of AG1, doing well past $500M in annual revenue.

Over the last two decades, Kat has run consumer brands at impressive scale:

• Restaurants
• CPG
• DTC

Multiple times.

Here were my four biggest takeaways from the 91-min conversation.

1. The Biggest Risk is Standing Still

“It looks like I’m so pro-risk ... It’s the opposite. In the cases where it looks like my team or my company or I have taken a big leap — I have gotten very clear-eyed that not taking that leap is a bigger risk.”

Kat doesn’t see herself as a risk-taker. Rather, she sees inaction as the gamble.

That’s fundamentally different from how leaders typically think, and I believe it explains why she’s been able to reinvent companies over and over again.

• Rebranding to AG1
• Single to multi-product
• DTC-only to Costco

Every one of those looked like a big swing from the outside. From Kat’s perspective, not swinging was the risk.

2. Your Team Wants to be Seen

“There are many areas where I don’t need to be, but I might be with them for a moment either for visibility or for showing the team that the CEO of the company knows and respects what they do ... sometimes it’s involvement for culture versus impact.”

I know this one well from personal experience.

People in your organization spend a lot of time asking themselves: Does the CEO …

• Know what I do?
• Care about it?
• See me in a positive light?

As leaders, it’s easy to miss this because we’re so focused on driving results. But it matters to your team.

Kat talked about going into labs for tastings, being present with co-manufacturers. Not because she needs to make those decisions, but because showing up tells the team their work matters.

Presence itself is an act of leadership.

3. Answers Expire, Curiosity Doesn’t

“Questions scale. Answers don’t. Answers get dated. Beliefs and playbooks get dated.”

This might be the single best line from the interview.

Every operator has had the experience of a tactic or framework that worked brilliantly for a season ... and then just stopped working.

That’s because answers expire. But the right questions:

• What matters to the customer?
• What are we really seeing?
• What’s standing out?

Those compound over time. The leaders who ask better questions make better decisions. Period.

4. Be Humbly Courageous

“If you’re only courageous and confident, you’re a bull in a porcelain shop. If you’re just humble and curious, you’re just a student. It’s the two together.”

It’s a thread that runs through everything Kat does.

Humility is the mindset, curiosity is the action. Confidence is the mindset, courage is the action.

The magic is in combining them.

Being willing to say “I don’t know” while also being willing to act decisively on what you learn. That balance is what separates operators from everyone else.

What I respect about Kat is she’s not performing leadership. She’s living it. As a CEO, a mom, a wife, a daughter.
​
This one is worth your time. I guarantee it.

The Trends

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

1. Unilever Ventures Backs Novos Labs: LinkedIn​

Unilever Ventures announced a minority investment in Novos Labs, a New York-based longevity startup. Founded in 2019 by Chris Mirabile, Novos leverages the best available science + clinical data to create nutraceuticals to extend human lifespan.

Unilever Ventures has recently backed a number of VMS brands, including Create, Perelel, and Plant People.

2. Bain Releases Insurgent Brands Report: Bain & Company​

Bain & Company just released its 10th annual Insurgent Brands list. This year’s list recognizes 113 insurgent brands, including 31 newcomers, that are driving disproportionate category growth and outpacing traditional competitors.

The newcomers include Fruit Riot, Joyride, Force of Nature, NuTrail, Garage Beer, Surfside, and several others.

3. Freestyle Secures $10M: Twitter​

Freestyle, a modern, high-performance baby care company, closed a $10M Series A round led by Silas Capital. ECP Growth and a number of existing investors also participated.

Founded by Russ Wallace and Mike Constantiner, Freestyle is best known for its EWG Verified diapers and baby wipes. Though originally a digitally native brand, Freestyle recently debuted at Walmart and Target.

4. Vital Proteins Launches More RTDs: PR Newswire​

Vital Proteins, a leading collagen brand that Nestle acquired in 2020, is doubling down on RTD beverages with its Collagen Sparkling Water line. The beverage is formulated with VERISOL collagen peptides and vitamin C to support skin, hair, and nails.

Three flavors are currently available: Strawberry Blossom, Blood Orange, and Lemon Lime. Vital Proteins released a Collagen & Protein Shake last August.

5. David Protein Teases Ice Cream Line: Stack3d​

After surpassing $100M in sales in its first full year of business, David is apparently expanding into the functional ice cream category. Unsurprisingly, their protein ice cream has impressive macros: 30g of protein, 2g of sugar, and 260 calories.

It’ll be interesting to see if David succeeds in this category. It’s not as competitive as the protein bar category, but there’s a fraction of the shelf space.

 “How Do I Spend More, Profitably?” 

That’s the number one question we get.

So on Mar 18th, over 25 ecommerce leaders — with a combined media budget bigger than any European country’s GDP — are coming together to give you the answer …

At the Operators Paid Growth Masterclass.

Only miss this if you hate spending more money, more profitably, to acquire more customers.

Otherwise …

With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff 🤓 Executive Editor

P.S. (Disclaimer): Special thanks to PrettyDamnQuick for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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