Operators

“We need to think of ourselves as a media company.”  What does it take to turn an ecommerce brand into a content engine?  Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), Katy Mimari (CEO, Caden Lane), and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) show why paid ads only rent attention, and how owning your content builds a brand customers line up for.  HexClad fil...

“You’re going to set some money on fire before you ever get to flip these cards over.”  How much can you spend on a customer when the first order loses money?  Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) walks Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) and Curtis Christopherson (Chief Growth Officer, Ammortal) through the profit model behind consu...

Why lower AOV and a disciplined P&L saved this brand from the brink. Steven Borrelli (Founder & CEO, Cuts), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) unpack how Cuts reached $60M without outside money, then nearly went under when tariffs hit 145%. Steven walks through the layoffs, the first raise, and the comeback that followed.  Selling 50K jogge...

How do you create a company culture that’s a competitive advantage? Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) build culture through deliberate choices, while most brands leave it to chance. They work through it in five hard questions:  1. Who should you let go?  2. How close should you get?  3. What won’t you tolerate?  4. Why are values a “trade”?  5. Whe...

“It’s very easy to scrape an ad library, pull out concepts and then literally just duplicate the ad. That’s just a race to the bottom.”  How do you learn from other brands without copying them?  Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) share their screens to walk through six consumables brands they’re learning from while building Wi...

“If you don’t sell on Amazon, somebody else is gonna sell it.”  When should a DTC brand stop treating Amazon as an afterthought?  Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), and Katy Mimari (CEO, Caden Lane) break down the five things DTC brands must get right to scale on Amazon.  1. Always stay in stock 2. Executive ownershi...

“Creative supply chain is the essential ingredient of demand.”  Get all the resources from this episode: https://9ops.co/abchwj ★ 6-step framework ★ Brief template ★ Hook training guide Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) launched Winks with more ads than lessons. Now they walk through the six steps every ad faces, starting with the m...

“We didn’t actually choose them. They chose us.” Can a bootstrapped brand enter Target and Costco while still growing DTC?  Alex Schinasi (Co-Founder & President, Hulken) joins Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to unpack how a two-time SaaS founder built a ~$50M rolling tote brand without raising money.  She had raised $3M for a new SaaS when H...

“Some businesses aren’t ready for great CMOs.”  What do CMOs need from their CEOs but never say out loud?  MacCoy Merkley (CMO, Portland Leather Goods), Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) unpack 5 truths CMOs won’t say to the boss’s face, and what CEOs lose by ignoring them.  MacCoy took a $13K-a-year job off Crai...

“A great offer makes the customer feel stupid for saying no.”  How do you know your offer is wrong before the market tells you?  Jordan Menard (Co-Founder, Instant Hydration) and Lina Fahizul (Chief Ovary Officer, Freelance) join this episode to put Winks’ pricing, promotion, and pitch on trial. The payoff is a 10-element offer playbook any DTC brand can steal.  1. Not just price or discounts  2....

“Better is probably the worst word you could use in marketing.”  How can a DTC brand stand out in a category full of identical promises?  Matt Orlić (Co-Founder, Qure Skincare) joins Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) and Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) to break down why brand positioning beats a better product. Each story shows how a brand can win a crowded category without inventing...

“We know how to run ads. This is a playbook.”  How should you market a new DTC brand in its first six weeks?  Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Curtis Christopherson (Chief Growth Officer, Ammortal) hold the Winks marketing plan up against the results since launch.  They built the brand for moms, yet men keep showing up to...

“It’s about closing the imagination gap, not what it can do.”  Jessica Schinazi (CEO, Away) joins Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) to break down how she took the reins of a decade-old DTC pioneer and opened it to new channels in 18 months.  Away builds luggage to last 7 to 10 years, which Jessica calls a horrible business model. She chas...

“You can have anything you want, but you can’t have it all at once.”  Should you raise money when your only problem is working capital?  Help an Operator Out (HAOO) is a series where real business owners join the podcast with live questions. In this episode, TJ Bongiorno (Founder, The Outgoing Co) brings two questions: when to raise capital and how to price the round. As a solo founder, he 4X’d th...

“They’re the most capable ever, but not trained on your business.” What pillars should every AI-first brand build, and which one comes first?  Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) open up the playbook behind Winks, a brand where AI does the grunt work and humans make the calls. Piece by piece, they break down the four components...

“You’re never gonna make a big impact on Black Friday.” Should you worry if frequent promotions will hurt your brand equity? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) break down how Ridge manufactures demand instead of waiting for it. A slow summer becomes an 8-figure-plus sales season, anchored by a Lamborghini sweepstakes with Tony Ha...

“You almost feel stupid buying the product as a one-time customer.” Why do some subscription brands retain customers and stack LTV while others lose them? Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) sit down with Aidan Thibodeaux (CEO, Skio) and Bernard Meyer (AI Operations Manager, Omnisend) to ask the questions every subscription brand needs answere...

How did First Day raise $1M and then build a 9-figure brand? Alice Li (Founder & CEO, First Day) joins Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Jason Panzer (President, HexClad) to unpack how she has sold over half a billion gummies and built a family wellness empire around kids’ vitamins. After years of turning down retailers, First Day launched nationwide and became the number one kids...

“The best Black Friday offers don’t just increase orders, they increase AOV.” Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case x Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) share the Black Friday & Cyber Monday tips they rely on every year. Every tactic comes from hard-won experience over decades of combined holiday wins and losses. They break down...

“The amount of effort that we put in to start does not have any meaningful correlation with the success at the end.”  When you get delayed and deprioritized by your co-manufacturer, your timeline slips by almost a year, and you still have zero sales, what do you have to show for 18 months of work?  Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela & Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Cu...

“We were not going to make payroll next week.”  How did three ecommerce CEOs turn rock bottom into their biggest lesson?  Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) each share the darkest moment of their ecommerce careers. What came after built the self-awareness that changed how they lead.  Curtis walks through the...

“They have just shown how packaging can be so much of a differentiator.”  What does a professional DTC packaging design process look like in practice?  Chris Ganz (Senior Creative Director, Trevi) sits down with the Winks team to tackle one of packaging’s hardest problems: standing out on a crowded shelf. The group debates naming, mascots, and color palettes before testing real designs on real fam...

What does it take for a married couple to build a $200 million brand together?  Betsie Larkin (Founder & CEO, Honeylove) and Igor Lebovic (Co-CEO, Honeylove) sit down with Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Jason Panzer (President, HexClad). The conversation traces an accidental idea, the crowdfunding math, and the founder instincts that shaped every expansion.  Kickstarter only ent...

“I’ve always hated it. This year I made the decision to shut it down.” Can three nine-figure CEOs open up about their priorities, passions, and doubts? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) sit down for an honest conversation about the pressure of scaling ecommerce brands. They cover decision making, staying passionate, and the wh...

What separates a real supplement company from just a good idea?  Dr. Todd A. Born (Chief Science Officer, 4POTENTIA) pulls back the curtain on how to enter the supplement industry, showing the Winks team what product development, private label, contract manufacturers, and regulatory compliance (FDA) look like in practice.  More than a deep dive into custom formulation, hosts Sean Frank, Matt Bertu...