Minds of Ecommerce Podcast

The podcast where founders and executives of million-dollar ecommerce businesses share in detail 1 key growth strategy that was critical for their success. No BS, no fluff. Actionable insights only.

With Raphael Paulin-Daigle, Founder of SplitBase

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Latest Episodes

Growth Through Brick & Mortar for Ecommerce Brands

Ben Sehl is the Senior Product Lead of Hydrogen, Shopify’s new framework for building next-generation custom storefronts; as well as the Co-founder of Kotn, a sustainable lifestyle brand; and Margin, a new men’s grooming brand. In this episode, Ben shares how his company Kotn is using Brick and Mortar stores as a growth strategy. He shares the do's and don'ts, how to calculate ROI on physical stores, as well as plenty of other actionable tips for DTC execs, brand owners, and marketers.

How Understanding Their Customers Led to 1400% Growth

Ben Smith is the founder of Disco, a DTC skincare brand for men. They've grown significantly over the past years, and Ben credits much of this growth to customer research. By carefully listening to their customers, Disco has been able to use those insights to improve their performance marketing, their website, and overall marketing strategy. In this episode, Ben shares how they do customer research, and how they apply those insights to grow the brands and continuously improve marketing performance.

How to Scale a DTC Brand Using Freelancers

Chris Meade is the co-founder and CMO of CROSSNET, the world's first four-way volleyball game. The brand has had solid growth over the years, and they've also worked really to deploy their capital in the most efficient ways possible as they scale. One way they're doing that is by primarily hiring freelancers instead of full-time employees. How can any DTC brand replicate the success they've had with freelancers? What mistakes are brands doing when hiring them? And how do you keep freelancers as accountable as full-time staff? The answers, and more, will be found in this episode.

Actionable Tips for a Highly Effective Referral Program

Jason Wong is the Founder of Wonghaus Ventures and Doe Lashes, a DTC brand that he managed to scale to millions in just one year. He credits a lot of that growth to their referral program, and that's exactly what we'll talk about in this super actionable episode. Get ready to learn why he thinks most referral programs are a waste, what most brands are doing wrong, and what they've done differently at Doe to make their program one of their most valuable customer acquisition assets.

How Snow Made SMS One of Their Most Profitable Customer Acquisition Channels

Josh Snow, is the founder and CEO of $100M+ DTC oral care brand, Snow. In this episode, we talk about the best ways for ecommerce brands to use SMS to grow their customer base, extend LTV, and scale profitably. Josh shares how they're doing it at Snow, and his top advice for brands looking to get serious with SMS. You don't want to miss this one.

How Saatva Mattress Reached $250m+ in Revenue Through Differentiation (with Ricky Joshi)

In this episode, you'll hear from Ricky Joshi who's co-founder of Saatva, one of the first and biggest direct-to-consumer mattress brands to emerge. In an industry where competition is tight, they've managed to grow exponentially over the years, now generating over $250M in annual revenue. We talk about how to differentiate in a crowded industry and how to shape your brand's messaging to be able to compete against other giants.

Unbound Merino's Strategy for Growing Into a Multi-Million Dollar Brand Through Crowdfunding, Dan Demsky

Dan Demsky is co-founder of DTC apparel brand Unbound Merino. They've successfully used crowdfunding to get the brand started, and still use it to this day as a growth strategy. In this episode we talk about storytelling in marketing, dive deep into Dan's strategy for launching through crowdfunding, some actionable tricks for a successful campaign, and how million-dollar brands can still use crowdfunding as a marketing channel.

Scaling a Food & Beverage DTC Brand: Tips to Grow Through Grocery Stores and Amazon - Wilson Hung

Wilson Hung is director of growth at Kettle and Fire, the fastest growing bone broth brand. He was employee #2 at the company, and in only 2 years grew revenues from 5 to 8 figures. In this episode we talk about when’s the right time for a DTC Food & Beverage company to start selling in physical retail stores, Wilson's top tips and tricks for a successful product launch in Whole Foods and other grocery stores, and a few tips for selling on Amazon.

How to Build an Emotionally Charged DTC Brand and Get Into Department Stores

In this first episode of the 2nd season of the podcast, Andreas Palm, co-founder of CDLP Underwear shares how they got featured in major publications such as Vogue and GQ, and got into Mr Porter, SSENSE, Barney’s and Selfridges right from the early days of the brand. He tells us why they chose to get into department stores early, HOW they did it, and how they’ve built a brand that’s emotionally charged. You don’t want to miss this one.

Under-Utilized Growth Opportunities, Selling on Amazon, and SMS Marketing with Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel

Andrew Youderian built and sold numerous eCommerce stores. He now runs eCommerceFuel, a highly curated community of 7-figure+ eCommerce merchants. Over the years, he’s seen what works, and what doesn’t in terms of growth strategies, and what opportunities lie ahead for merchants in the coming year. He's also recently released his State of the Merchant Report, and he'll share with us the top insights. In this episode, you'll learn who should sell on Amazon (and why you may not want to), the top marketing opportunities for the coming year, and much more.

A Hiring Process to Create the Best Ecommerce Marketing Team - with Brad Pedersen

Brad Pedersen is a serial entrepreneur who's built companies with revenues ranging from 7 to 9 figures, and with up to 130 employees. Recently, he co-founded a direct-to-consumer ecommerce company called Pela Case, which has been growing 4000% since its inception 2 years ago. They've also ranked #20, amongst the Growth 500 in Canada. Brad is an all-star at hiring and operations, and in this episode he'll share actionable strategies on how to hire the right team members for your team, starting with how to format the job posting to maximize success, all the way to the structure of the job interviews. His hiring process is one of the key aspects of Pela's astronomical growth, and you'll learn it all in this episode.

1.3M YouTube Subscribers to 7 Figures in Revenue: Beardbrand’s Content Marketing Strategy Revealed

In episode #13, Eric Bandholz, the founder of Beardbrand, a men’s grooming ecommerce company that achieved 1.3 million YouTube subscribers and credits most of it’s 7-figure growth to their content strategy. He shares their YouTube strategy, including how they find topics for their content, how they use customer feedback for better videos, and also how they convert YouTube viewers into paying customers.

The Engagement-Driven Email Marketing Strategy That Grew BombTech Golf to $7M (with Tyler “Sully” Sullivan)

In episode #12, Tyler “Sully” Sullivan, founder of BombTech Golf and Ecom Growers, shares how he built BombTech Golf to over $7M mostly through email marketing by building relationships with customers, and validates new products, and achieves super successful product launches.

The Product Experience Strategy Athletic Greens Used to Double Sales (with Adam Trouncer)

In episode #11, Adam Trouncer, CEO of Athletic Greens, an 8-figure DTC ecommerce brand selling an all-in-one supplement, shares how they’ve doubled the business by focusing on creating a better brand and product experience for customers, how to calculate the ROI of customer experience activities, strategies to communicate to your different customer personas, and so much more.

How to Run a 7 Figure Ecommerce Business With No Employees (with Abby Walker)

In episode #10, Abby Walker, CEO & Founder of Vivian Lou, will share how she works with agencies, makes decisions, and runs a million-dollar ecommerce store with no employees.

Growing to $15M/year With A Customer Service Strategy (with Jeff Cayley)

In episode #9, Jeff Cayley, CEO of Worldwide Cyclery shares how he created a customer service strategy that is the backbone of their ecommerce growth to nearly $15 million a year in sales. He also shares how they go above and beyond for customers to keep them loyal to the brand while creating a word of mouth marketing strategy.

Growing to 100k+ Orders/Year Through a Viral Video & Thoughtful Branding (with Jack Haldrup)

In episode #8, Jack Haldrup, founder of Dr. Squatch, will share how they managed to get 40 million views for one of their viral videos, and how they get over 100,000 orders a year with a brand personality that convert customers through relatability and humor. He’ll also explain how he manages to preserve a brand identity as the company scales significantly.

How to Use Quizzes to Acquire and Convert Customers at Scale (with Phil Kyprianou)

In episode #7, Phil Kyprianou, founder of GothRider, shares how he’s been using quizzes as a traffic acquisition conversion strategy that has been adding millions of dollars to his ecommerce company’s bottom line.

How to Run Ultra-Profitable Ads Using Margins, Lifetime Value, and Customer Acquisition Costs (with Gareth Everard)

In episode #6, Gareth Everard, co-founder of Rockwell Razors, Keyto, and a few other eCommerce brands, will share how he calculates and utilizes the lifetime value of his customers to make paid ads ultra profitable and a key driver of profit for his business.

A Facebook Ad Strategy Used Grow The Biggest DTC Ecommerce Brands, Explained Step-by-Step (with Nik Sharma)

In episode #5, Nik Sharma, former director of direct to consumer ecommerce at Hint Water and VaynerMedia will share step by step an online ad strategy that helped Hint Water become $100 million business, according to Forbes.

How Haute Hijab Uses Data To Create A/B Tests and Make Better Web Design Decisions (with Ahmed Zedan)

In episode #4, Ahmed Zedan, co-founder of Haute Hijab, will share how they manage to scale fast, using data to make better web design decisions, how they use customer insights to drive their AB testing program, and how they’ve built a culture with experimentation, within the company.

How Wholesome Culture Followed “The Rule of One” to Achieve Rapid Growth In Ecommerce Sales (with Audrey Castonguay)

In episode #3, Audrey Castonguay founder and CEO of Wholesome Culture, an online store selling clothing and items promoting vegan and environment-related messages, will share how she tests new products, doubles sales with existing ones, and uses her ‘rule of one’ to keep growing past 7 figures in sales a month.

How to Use User-Generated Content to Disarm Customer Objections (with Cathryn Lavery)

On episode #2 of the Minds of Ecommerce Podcast, Cathryn Lavery, co-founder of BestSelf Co., which she launched in 2015 with her co-founder Allen Brouwer, shares how she utilizes user-generated content to disarm objections, drive engagement, and build an eight-figure eCommerce brand.

Scaling an Ecommerce Store to $40M/year by Building Strategic Social Media Assets (with Gary Nealon)

On the very first episode of Minds of Ecommerce entrepreneur Gary Nealon, founder of RTA Cabinet Store, that he now sold, walked us through a social media strategy that allowed him to scale ecommerce sales to over 40 million dollars a year. That’s quite a feat considering cabinets are likely some of the hardest things you could sell online. We also learn how he was able to convert and acquire customers for products so large, complex, and expensive as cabinets.