DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

Mark Samuel is the founder & CEO of IWON Organics, a plant-based food company that makes bold, flavor-infused snacks and cereal made from plant proteins like peas, beans and brown rice. IWON's healthy snacks can be found in over 5,000 stores nationwide, including Kroger's, Wegmans, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Vitamin Shoppe, Safeway, Ralphs, Brookshire’s, and online at iwonorganics.com, Amazon and Thriv...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Oriel joins Blaine to discuss the role of creative direction in launching a new brand. They talk about brand formation and topics including coming up with a name, defining your brand's purpose, the power of copywriting, merchandise as a medium, language as a product, how to find your brand's voice, ways to minimize inventory costs, launching and testing new products qui...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Sofia & Carolyn join Blaine & Ramon to talk about company building, product marketing, brand marketing, finding product market fit, guidelines for each funding round, syncing marketing & inventory, building a resilient supply chain, building community, & more. 9:46 Product Market Fit 🎯 It was a 90 degree day in Prospect park in Brooklyn. And we literally had a hundred...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Brian joins Blaine & Ramon to talk about his career in digital commerce, media, and venture capital which has spanned 4 decades. Brian is a seasoned operator and investor, having led investments in companies including Everlane, Snif, Feastables, Caraway, Afterpay, Archive, Disco, & Tydo to name a few. This episode covers topics including the overlap of web3 and commerce...

Sahand chats with Blaine and Ramon about the idea behind Terra Kaffe and building a hardware company. He also discusses decision making frameworks, leveraging market trends, how Terra Kaffe had to pivot from B2B sales to DTC, raising capital, his philosophy on leading and growing a team, and much more (listen in for a surprise!).   11:29 - 11:48 The Essential Trait Every Entrepreneur Needs... If t...

Sami Clarke is a certified health, wellness, & fitness trainer who built a large following for her workout videos and holistic approach to wellness. With millions of followers and hundreds of millions of views across Youtube, Instagram, & TikTok, Sami cultivated a strong community before deciding to start her own fitness & wellness platform, FORM. FORM not only offers digital fitness training and...

Cherene Aubert is the Director of Growth at Bobbie, the first European style organic infant formula that meets FDA standards. Bobbie has raised over $50M to take the soon to be 100B+ formula market by storm. Cherene honed her craft and expertise in growth & ecommerce while working for agencies like Human Marketing and Common Thread Collective. In 2021 Cherene joined Bobbie as their key growth dire...

Paul Michaux is the co-founder & head of product at Prose, the DTC customized hair care brand. Michaux founded Prose in 2017 but he built up his expertise and knowledge of product, branding, & consumer goods working at P&G, Christian Dior, and L’Oréal. Prose has achieved immense success and is a leader in hyper-personalization consumer goods. They’re backed by the some of the biggest names in VC l...

Alex Plugaru is the CTO & cofounder of Gorgias , the customer service tool born from Techstars NYC program. Gorgias now has 9K+ customers (including some of the most well-known brands), $25M ARR, a global team of 230+ people, and $75M in fundraising. Before starting Gorgias in 2015, Alex worked as a web developer at various companies.   This episode is brought to you by OpenStore:   Visit https://...

Jeff Nobbs is the co-founder & CEO of Zero Acre Farm, an environmentally-focused food company. Nobbs has been an entrepreneur from day 1. As a teenager in 2006, he cofounded cashback shopping website Extrabux. It was acquired by ebates in 2014. In 2015, Nobbs jumped into the food scene and started a healthy, fast-casual restaurant Kitava — which he still owns today. When COVID hit, he co-founded H...

In this episode of DTC Pod, Oren has a candid conversation with Blaine and Ramon about the social strategy behind the FYRE Festival, why he’s tired of talking about the festival, and how he’s reinvented himself since then. As an expert in branding & social media, Oren also gives us some tips on how to create a solid social strategy and also shares his personal opinion on the state of social media....

In this episode of DTC Pod, we cover a lot like the best way to cook a steak, why serving up ads to customers is pointless, the idea of finding a calling, and more. For the students tuning in, Khosravi also talks about his personal experience and why you should never let grades or your past define you. This is an episode you don’t want to miss.   This episode is brought to you by OpenStore: Visit...

In this episode of DTC Pod, Tom discusses the evolution of advertising and why OOH advertising is ripe for disruption. We also dive into how he came up with the idea for Adgile, the revolutionary technology supporting this truck-side advertising, and why DTC & challenger brands are gravitating towards Adgile. Tom also gives us an inside look into how he thinks about sales and why trust is the foun...

In this episode of DTC Pod, Kasey discusses the art of storytelling on social media platforms, specifically TikTok. We talk about what makes a great TikTok video, a great TikTok hook, and why voiceovers are more important than visuals. Kasey also explains how he’s used TikTok  to create brand awareness, attract Shark Tank casting directors, and create retail opportunities -  without spending a pen...

Nick joins Blaine & Ramon on DTC Pod to give the audience an inside look into the world of Growth Marketing & eCommerce. Nick talks about he created Every Man Jack’s digital marketing program, the strategy and logistics behind omnichannel commerce, attracting consumers to Every Man Jack’s DTC channel, how he approaches advertising, and the different advertising channels he is excited to experiment...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Brosnan and Heckman join Blaine & Ramon to discuss the process of creating, scaling, and selling an e-commerce business. They cover topics including how to start an online store, how to validate before investing in inventory, getting started with print on demand options, tapping into sourcing agent networks, what makes a viable partnership with a manufacturer, options f...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Nish joins Blaine to talk about how he started Arrae with his wife, Siffat Haider. They discuss how to build a DTC brand with a product lens, what it took to get to the first 17K orders, personal touches to drive early sales, how they transitioned into scaling, how they got Hailey Beiber as a mega fan of Arrae, the tech stack that powers their growth, how they think abo...

Jonah Reider is an NYC based chef, entrepreneur, and writer for Food & Wine. Prior to starting Pzaz, Jonah made a name for himself cooking meals in his dorm room at Columbia which turned into famed supper club and boutique condiments brand, Pith. Jonah hosts the bi-monthly column “Supper Club” at Food & Wine magazine, and has contributed to GQ, Vice, the Food Network, and more around the food & ho...

Follow Along on Social DTC Pod on Instagram DTC Pod on LinkedIn DTC Pod on Twitter DTC Pod on TikTok Don’t hesitate to reach out to us on socials or directly to Blaine & Ramon if you have a guest you’d like to recommend, or specific topics you’d like to learn more about in the consumer, creator, and commerce landscape which we can explore with future guests. How did the pod start and where are we...

Mélanie chats with Blaine & Ramon about building Ghia. Some topics include how to create a new beverage category, production considerations for a new beverage type, early-stage funding advice and key supporters along the way, customer-led product iteration, building a culinary first brand, design and branding insight, leveraging restaurants and retail as a distribution strategy, Ghia’s focus on re...

Growing up, Darrin Willingham dreamed of playing in the NFL. But then he discovered his love for creating content. Darrin discusses how he found himself in the world of YouTube, making videos, monetizing his passion for sneakers, and coming full circle by working with pro-athletes off the field. Darrin also gives some tips on building a strong social media foundation and personal brand. 3:59 - 8:1...

Blaine & Ramon are thrilled to have Kevin Wong as a guest on DTC Pod and dive into building the first Asian American craft hard seltzer alcohol brand - Lunar .  Kevin talks about the early days of home brewing, perfecting the formula, and learning from failed batches and supply chain. He also gets into the business side and talks about selling to restaurants and becoming one of the most in-demand...

Terry Lee stopped by the DTC POD studio to talk to Blaine & Ramon about building Rosaluna and specifically how he’s established Rosaluna’s culture and values (ex: moving with intention versus just moving fast). Terry also discusses visiting Oaxaca, Mexico,  learning about how mezcal is made, and meeting the multi-generational family of farmers who make it.   2:41 - 6:21 Terry’s background 8:42 - 1...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Blaine & Ramon chat with Chaz Zayed and Emmit Flynn about how they started Awful Cloth in their dorm room and grew it into a viral brand, collaborating with Barstool on a hoodie, why they’ve seen so much success with influencers (side note: they’ve never paid any influencer to wear their hoodie!), and their plans to grow the brand.   2:06 - 7:59 The Start of Awful Cloth...

Tono Mandly stopped by DTC Pod's Miami studio to discuss the current consumer landscape in Latin America and how Riogrande is filling a gap in the consumer market, the startup scene in LatAm, the challenges of building DTC Brands in Latin America, and the incredible potential for this $100 billion e-commerce market. 3:47 - 10:22 Tono's background 10:36 - 14:22 Ecommerce landscape in LatAm 14:28 -...