🤑 Sean Frank shows you how to prep your brand for a sale in the next 2 years

😍 Connor MacDonald breaks down how Ridge cut its SaaS bill in half (one shift)

🤯 Derek Lauermann reveals 5 brands that busted through ”paper walls“ + won

🤖 Jason Panzer explains why your next hire might not be human, for data’s sake

And, a sneak peek at our newest podcast about using AI to cut costs, expand margins, and scale faster.

Connor MacDonald CMO, Ridge

How We Cut Our Customer Service SaaS Bill in Half

Ridge signed up for Richpanel a year ago and we just renewed.

Why?

How? Their software allows us to …

• Reduce tickets with self-service
• Unify support in one inbox
• Turn conversations into revenue

Last year, Sean told Amit (Richpanel’s CEO): “You should do the same thing for returns.”

They did. Richpanel now has a returns portal. Built to cut down even more tickets and convert refunds into exchanges.

Because accounts sync automatically with Shopify and Rivo, customers can access their previous orders, check warranties or submit returns, and even get exclusive offers.

Right now, we’re running our anniversary sale, but returning customers get an extra 13% off. It shows in their portal and in a dynamically updated site banner.

One login, access to anything they need from Richpanel’s self-help — orders, shipping updates, warranties, returns.

Plus, they do the heavy lifting to onboard:

• Data import
• Self-service
• Retention flows
• Team training
• Go live in 2 weeks

If you want to cut your SaaS bill in half and make your customers happy, book a free demo to learn more.

Sean Frank CEO, Ridge

Everything You Need to Know to Sell Your Brand

In the next 24 months, ecom valuations will go up.

A bunch of brands will exit.
But only if you are ready.

the windows are open 2 years every 6 years.

Here is everything you need to know if you want to make money during this window.

1- Valuations will go up, TEMPORARILY

Why?

- Interest rates are coming down.
- SAAS is being crushed.
- Ecom has been suppressed.

During Covid highs we saw apparel brands sell for 10-14x EBITDA.

In 2022-2025, the lows got as bad as 4x.

We have recovered a lot, but are still 50% off the peak.

20x EBITDA deals again?
3x revenue deals?

No.

But the asset class is underpriced.

A green candle is imminent-

2- PE will buy profit, not revenue

Your brand will not trade on REVENUE.

If someone told you that, they lied to you or are old.

Private equity buys profit.

The only things trading on revenue will be beverage or the most elite CPG.

If you are small, you will use “seller discretionary earnings.”

That is the money you as an owner can take every year.

If you are bigger, it will be a multiple of EBITDA.

Right now, a mid growth brand (20% YoY) in an average category (clothing) with $10M trailing 12-month EBITDA could get 8x-10x.

That means they will sell for 80 to 100m

What makes that multiple go up?

- Product mix (multiple heroes)
- Diversified revenue (omni)
- Best-in-class margin
- Strong LTV
- HIGH MER

What makes that multiple go down?

- Not at all-time-high revenue
- Weak margin / discount focused
- Over-indexed on Amazon / wholesale
- Platform risk (TikTok Shop)
- Tariff risk (all China)

3- You do not have to sell to get paid

You own an asset (your business). Selling is just one of five ways to extract cash from what you’ve built.

Here are your options:

Dividends (or distributions)

You run the business (or you hire a CEO to run it) and the business returns profit to shareholders.

This is how you pay yourself now.

A dividend recap

If you don’t want to sell, a bank will lend you money today against future dividends.

That apparel brand with $10M in EBITDA could borrow $30 million, pay it all out to owners as a dividend, and the business (NOT YOU!) is on the hook for the debt.

You take future profit today.
You pay a price for it. But it is common.

Sell a % to PE

Private equity has money and they want to deploy it.

The pros are they will buy anything that can deliver their target IRR.

There are 1000 firms and it is THEIR JOB to do deals.

Cons?

They do a LOT of deals.
They are better at deals than you.
They will bankrupt you to hit their target.

Sell to a strategic

A strategic is a large company in your category that buys smaller brands.

Unlike PE, there aren’t 1000.
Maybe 3-10 per industry.

And it is not their fulltime job to do deals.

PE has 20+ people on staff JUST to wine and dine you.

Most strategics have one.

You can’t really pick this.
It’s up to them if they want to buy you.

IPO

There were 20+ IPOs in the DTC era. 90% tanked.

Still …

Solo Stove did it.
Olaplex did it.

Maybe Hexclad can do it, most cannot.
To IPO you basically need 100M in EBITDA.

4- Messy books kill deals

If you want to sell, you need an audit.

You go to an accounting firm not the one that does your books. You give them 50k-250k to audit your financials.

Sales tax is a FOREVER liability.

If you do it wrong, it sticks with your company for years.

Buyers do not want a ticking time bomb.

This is the minimum they will expect to see in your data room:

- 3 years of audited financials
- Monthly P&L and cash flow
- Customer data: LTV, retention, CAC
- Sales channel breakdown
- Cap table and ownership structure
- Existing contracts: suppliers, leases
- Sales tax filings (5+ years)

Buyers will tear this apart.

Anything messy, missing, or inconsistent can kill a deal.

Get it clean before anyone asks for it.

5- A bad process will cost you

Most founders think a deal takes 90 days.

The reality is 6-18 months from first conversation to close.

- Prepare (2-4 months).
- Collect offers (2-3 months).
- Due diligence (3-6 months).
- Negotiate and close (30-90 days).

And that is if everything goes smoothly.
Most deals hit at least one wall.

Here’s how to smooth the process and strengthen your position:

First, hire help early.

If you are small, use a broker or a lawyer.

If you are bigger (3-5M in EBITDA and up) hire a banker.

They will charge 1-5% of the entire deal-
But they will pay for themselves.

They will find more buyers, tighten the screws, and guarantee a deal closes.

Second, run a bake-off.

You will want to sell to one person.

That person will know that, and will string you along, bully you, and try to get a good deal.

To avoid this, add more suitors.

Build a deck (CIM).
Create FOMO.

This is what the banker is best at.

Third, play the forward numbers.

The past 4 years every deal was done on trailing 12 months.

I suspect more deals will be done on forward or current year numbers.

That means doing a deal in June, but getting credit for the projected EBITDA for the entire fiscal year.

6- Ask who, not how much

In my career I have bought or sold 5+ brands directly. Advised on 10+ deals. Heard the details on 100+.

Let me tell you a secret:

90% of the time, earnouts are fake.
The second bite at the apple never happens.

Half the time it is because of the economy, performance, etc.

The other half?
Someone screws someone over.

In the past 4 years most deals have been very predatory.

Buyers were sneaking in

- Hidden protections
- Guaranteed payouts
- Priority dividends

I saw deals being done at 10x EBITDA, where the buyer is basically guaranteed a 4x on their money.

Someone would buy 25% but get protections like they owned the whole thing.

My point is, deals are more than just purchase price.

Terms matter.
The buyer matters.

It is better to take a 20% lower valuation from a partner with a good track record.

A 5+ fund PE group, with 3+ founders from each fund willing to back them up, is worth taking less money from.

They care about the longterm.
They have their reputation to lose.

Go blue chip when you can.

Most founders spend years building a brand and only 90 days trying to sell it.

That is where they lose.

The operators who win will be the ones who start preparing now.

Clean financials.
Hired help.
Clear process.

The window is opening. But it will not stay open.

This is part 1 of my “how to sell a million (or billion) dollar brand” series. There are more coming.

Send Aaron your questions. He will have me answer them.

Jason Panzer President, HexClad

Why Your Next Hire Might Not Be Human

Historically, hiring humans has been the solution to a multitude of challenges … and it still is. But your next hire might not be a human. It might be an AI agent.

Specifically, one that uses your data to:

• Answer questions
• Monitor margins
• Flag anomalies
• Draft weekly reports

This isn’t hypothetical. At HexClad, we’ve already implemented Saras Analytics as a data warehouse that provides our team with one source of truth.

Before this, we were pulling from five different tools. Different numbers. Different definitions. Constant back-and-forth. Now everything lives in one place.

Our growth team uses it. Ops uses it. So does leadership. But the biggest shift isn’t the dashboards, it’s the instant clarity.

When everyone is working off the same data, decisions get faster — and better. If you’re still trying to solve data problems by adding headcount, it might be time to rethink the workflow.

Derek Lauermann Director of Paid Media, Grüns

Ad Snack 🍬 5 Brands That Busted Through Paper Walls

Every once in a while, we see a brand test a fundamental assumption of its category, prove incumbents wrong, and unlock asymmetric upside.

Constraints that feel permanent because nobody’s tested them.

The best operators don’t accept walls, they push on them until they break through!

Here are five brands that proved it.

 1. Grüns 

Paper Wall: You need years of DTC before you earn retail.

Grüns launched August 2023. 24 months later …

• Sprouts
• Target
• Walmart
• Sam’s Club

6,300 brick-and-mortar doors. That’s faster than AG1 and faster than Bloom Nutrition. They didn’t wait to “earn” it. They cast their vision and took action.

Snack 🍬

Timelines are one of the most common paper walls. If you think it can’t be done faster (or sooner), you’re almost certainly wrong.

 2. Comfrt ​
​
​Paper Wall: You have to pay upfront to get attention.

Many brands will chase one big creator, pay $50K, and hope it converts.

Hudson Leogrande (the founder of Comfrt) built an army of creators and only offered commission on sales.

He even ran a challenge:

• Make 1,000 videos
• Earn $5K

Over 50 creators did it. And some of those videos are still running today. Hudson syndicates that content everywhere. TikTok is typically the origin. Then Meta, Snap, AppLovin, and Pinterest follow. One creator, five channels.

Comfrt is on pace for $1B in under 4 years, bootstrapped.

Snack 🍬

Paying for attention is not the only way to grow. You can pay for results instead.

 3. Olipop 

Paper Wall: You can’t make soda healthy.

Olipop didn’t make a health product that tasted like soda. They made soda functional.

• $400M revenue in 2024
• $1.85B valuation

Coca-Cola launched Simply Pop to chase them.

Snack 🍬

Don’t accept the fundamental tradeoffs of your category. Challenge them.

 4. Liquid Death ​
​
​Paper Wall: Water is a commodity. You can’t brand it.

It’s water. In a can. With a skull on it.

Mike Cessario’s first marketing video cost $1,500, built on the premise that treating water like a heavy metal band could create demand in a category driven by price.

The result?

• $333M in sales in 2024
• $1.4B valuation
• 133,000+ retail doors
• 122% CAGR since 2019

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestlé all watched a canned water brand eat their lunch.

Snack 🍬

The most crowded category might contain the biggest opportunity if you’re willing to reject how the category is “supposed” to behave.

 5. Athletic Brewing 

Paper Wall: Non-alcoholic beer will never be cool.

Athletic ignored the stigma.

They brewed for people who love the ritual of beer but want to perform, train, and feel good the next morning. Now they’re the #1 NA beer brand in America with 19% market share, and they’re in every major retailer.

Snack 🍬

Categories with the worst stigma sometimes have the highest upside. Stigma suppresses competition far more than it suppresses demand.

 TL;DR 

Paper walls look solid, until you push.

• Retail timelines
• Playbooks
• Category formats
• Commodities
• Product stigma

The history of ecom proves it’s all just waiting to be challenged.

Stop asking for permission, test assumptions, and go where others won’t (before they realize they can).

THE FEED

​Founder Matt Orlić on “Authentic Vs Inauthentic” Money​

​The Three-Step Incrementality Playbook Every Ecommerce Marketer Needs​

The Trends

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

1. Ferrero Group Acquires BOLD Snacks: PR Newswire​

Italian candy giant Ferrero Group has acquired BOLD Snacks, a fast-growing protein bar brand in Brazil. Founded in 2018 by Gabriel Ferreira, BOLD Snacks grew fast from the beginning thanks to its novel protein bars and eye-catching packaging.

By 2022, BOLD was reportedly generating over $15M in revenue. Though best known for its iconic candy portfolio, Ferrero Group has been busy acquiring functional snack brands like BOLD, Power Crunch, and FULFIL Nutrition.

2. Little Spoon Expands Offering: Modern Retail​

Little Spoon, the organic baby food brand that surpassed $150M in DTC revenue before launching nationwide at Target last year, just expanded into newborn nutrition with its infant formula.

With the launch of infant formula, Little Spoon is now an end-to-end nutrition platform for babies, toddlers, and children up to age 6. Little Spoon’s infant formula uses grass-fed whole milk from New Zealand and undergoes rigorous third-party testing.

3. Unilever Explores McCormick Deal: Food Navigator​

Unilever is in talks to carve out its food division and merge it with McCormick, the owner of Cholula, Frank’s Red Hot, French’s, and several other brands. The potential all-stock transaction would enable Unilever to focus on more desirable categories like beauty, personal care, and wellness. Unilever also held talks with Kraft Heinz regarding a potential strategic transaction.

4. DryWater Approaches $100M: Twitter (X)​

DryWater, a Southern California-based clean hydration brand, is set to add 41,000 new retail doors this year as the company approaches $100M in sales.

Founded in 2024 by Bryan Appio, DryWater carved out a niche in the crowded hydration category with its clean formulations and increased functionality. In addition to electrolytes, DryWater’s drink mixes also contain vitamins and real whole fruit.

5. Lineage Launches Protein Bars: Fitt Insider​

Lineage Provisions, a clean supplement & snack brand co-founded by Paul Saladino and Anthony Gustin, launched a 100% real food protein bar line.

The bars are made with on-trend ingredients like grass-fed beef tallow, raw honey, and organic cacao. Prior to launching Lineage Provisions, Gustin founded Equip Foods which HighPost Capital acquired last year. Saladino, on the other hand, is a former psychiatrist with several million followers on social media.

Weekly episodes on how top brands use AI to cut costs, expand margins, and move faster — plus best-in-class operators and recent breakthroughs.

Craig Foldes, former Head of AI at Crocs, now founder of ChatWalrus, helping $50M+ brands implement it.

Ben Flohr, Co-Founder of Scale, a 150-person team that’s built 5 brands to $1B+ in sales, now deploying AI for DTC.

Just reply with a screenshot.

With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff 🤓 Executive Editor

P.S. (Disclaimer): Special thanks to Richpanel and Saras Analytics for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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