Operators

"You will not be happier at nine figures. I’ll just tell you that right now."  What does an operator do after building an 8-figure brand entirely on one dog breed?  Help an Operator Out (HAOO) is a new series where real business owners join the podcast with live questions. In this episode, Garrett Yamasaki (Founder & CEO, We Love Doodles) brings his crossroads: a bootstrapped, Amazon...

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth   Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://9ops.co/applovin-referral “You are not trying if you’re not getting sued.”  How did IQBAR go from a $...

Should you open your own stores, or let the big retailers do the heavy lifting?  Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) go head to head on one of the biggest channel decisions a consumer brand will face.  Curtis went from a spite-signed lease to 16 owned stores, while Mike turned a $9 million Sam’s Club bet into...

“Whoever can spend the most money is going to win.” Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) audit the first half of 2026. The focus is a sound ecommerce growth strategy for Q3 and Q4. No guests, no fluff. Just what worked, what blew up, and where they’re placing their bets.   Amazon leads the conve...

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth   Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://applovin.com/9operators “We built our iPhone before we built our Apple.” How do you scale a hardware...

What does Ridge’s annual revenue growth 2025–2026 look like when you launch three new categories at once?  Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) joins Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to get into what it looks like when a founder goes all-in on ecommerce product expansion while navigating new fatherhood, a tough M&A market, and a company that had to reinvent it...

Is owning your own warehouse worth the headache? Or is it a siren song that will slow your growth?  Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) dig into two of the most expensive decisions in ecommerce. Should you own your warehouse or outsource fulfillment to a 3PL? Can a founder ever truly step back from the company...

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators   “We’ve never had anyone do four deals in 60 days.” How do you build two nine-fi...

Is your incrementality testing giving you accurate data or are you burning budget on a broken signal? Austin Harrison (CEO, Northbeam) joins Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Katy Mimari (CEO, Caden Lane) to challenge the most repeated advice in ecommerce measurement: that longer tests are always better, holdouts are interchangeable, and incrementality alone is enough to make media decisions. They break...

“The obtaining of money is a lot easier than stewarding that money well.” Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) dig into one of the most-requested topics from listeners: how do owner-operators pay themselves? And what should they be aiming for? The hosts walkthrough salary benchmarks, distribution strategies, and the honest math b...

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth   Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://applovin.com/9operators How do you build a DTC telehealth platform from scratch and play the long gam...

“The right person does nothing but print money.”  Sean Frank, Matt Bertulli, Curtis Matsko, and Katy Mimari get into a heated debate on the hardest roles to hire in ecommerce. Nobody agrees. And that’s exactly the point.  The conversation tears through five make-or-break positions: (1) head of product, (2) head of growth, (3) head of Amazon, (4) creative strategist, and (5) head of influencer. Alo...

What happens in ecommerce when obesity is cured? Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO of Pela Case x Lomi) dig into one of the biggest health-and-wellness trends they’ve seen in their careers: the GLP-1 wave and how it’s rewiring consumers. They cover who’s about to get crushed and who’s sitting on a gold mine.   From the collapse of plus-size apparel and the slow death of junk food to...

Could one bad supplier decision bring your entire ecommerce brand down? Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) joins hosts Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to pull back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood decisions in consumer goods: vertical integration. Curtis built North America’s largest leather bag manufacturer in Mexico not by gran...

“Marketing’s job gets a lot easier when they have new products to sell.” Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) and Katy Mimari (CEO, Caden Lane) join Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi) to tackle one of our most requested topics. How to create and launch new ecommerce products. Each host brings a unique perspective. Curtis runs a 280k square-foot production facility and releases fresh pr...

What happens when your bank promises you $20 million, strings you along for a year, and then rips it all away the same week you need it most?   Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) sit down with Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) for a raw conversation about how ecommerce brands fund growth.  Curtis shares one of the most gut-punch founder stories in Opera...

What do you do when you’ve already won, and still can’t stop building?   Sean Frank and Matthew Bertulli sit down with Mike Beckham, (CEO of Simple Modern and Simple Ventures), to unpack what happens after you climb the mountain. Mike shares how Simple Modern grew from a bootstrapped “Yeti knockoff” to nearly $200M in annual revenue, paid off all its debt, and suddenly found itself generating more...

Special episode on what billions in recent ecommerce exits, raises, and M&A mean for your brand.  Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) joins hosts Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to dig into the wave of consumer deals. They debate whether strategic buyers and PE firms are truly back, why physical consumer brands are suddenly looking like t...

“If you become really good at harnessing that data, AI can let you not only predict the future, but create it.” Jenna Habayeb (President of Posh Peanut) sits down with Jason Panzer (President of HexClad) and honorary Operator’s co-host Cherene Aubert. Together, they unpack what modern ecommerce leadership looks like at every stage. Jenna brings a rare arc — from Ogilvy to Chief Brand Officer at Ip...

“We had no cash, no supply chain, high product market fit, and low CAC. There was this giant button flashing: hyper growth.”   What does it take to build a profitable pet brand from a studio apartment to a nine-figure business with its own factory?   Russell Breuer (Co-Founder and CEO, Spot & Tango) joins hosts Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to trace the full arc...

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth   Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://applovin.com/9operators Can you build a beloved consumer brand around the joy of making something wit...

What happens when the founder of a software company admits his own product is a sinking ship — and doubles down anyway? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) sit down with Amit RG (CEO, RichPanel) for a conversation about AI agents, the death of traditional SaaS, and what it means for ecommerce operators building teams right now. Amit doesn’t sugarcoat it. He’s walk...

“The difference between authentic money and inauthentic money is that it has some kind of inherent meaning to it.”  Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO of Pela Case and Lomi) sit down with Matt Orlić — Co-Founder of Qure Skincare and founder of Ecomm Architects. Together, they trace one of the most unconventional paths in ecommerce. From losing 80% of his net worth at 25 to reverse-en...

Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, joins Mike Beckham and Sean Frank for an emergency briefing on the tariff landscape after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling. Specifically, what ecommerce owners need to do right now. They break down how to file for tariff refunds before entries hit liquidation, including the secondary market where brands are selling claims for cents on the dollar. Then the convers...

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://applovin.com/9operators What does it take to create a billion-dollar brand from scratch — homeless at 1...