DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

Zach Abbott maker of the world's 1st genetically engineered probiotics. Purpose-built to help our bodies handle the diets and environments of modern life joins Ramon & Blaine to discuss the science behind ZBiotics, the challenges of educating consumers on a genetically engineered probiotic, and how to lean it to being genetically engineered registered with customers.   2:02 - 8:24 Idea for ZBiotic...

While Aspen is still in its early days, we’re excited to have Keta Burke-Williams on the pod to discuss the logistics of building a fragrance company. In this episode of DTC pod, you’ll hear Blaine & Ramon talk with Keta about creating a scent, finding a manufacturer,  finding her voice when pitching to VCs, optimizing for online and offline sales, being smart with your resources, and tapping into...

We’re thrilled to have Kristin Toth join Blaine & Ramon on DTC Pod where she walks us through her career trajectory and how she narrowed in on supply chain & ops, being an advisor to multiple startups, why building a circular furniture company is challenging, how Fernish strategically launched in two cities to test product-market, and how Fernish has evolved over time.   1:51 - 5:49 What is Fernis...

Paul Voge speaks with Blaine & Ramon about how creating DIY flavors with his soda stream led to a full-fledge sparkling water business. Paul discusses the challenges of building a CPG brand, being on Sharktank during the height of COVID, Aura Bora’s path into retail stores, why he prefers retail over DTC orders, and more. 4:17- 6:06 Starting a CPG brand 9:08 - 15:34 Co-packers and distributor 15:5...

Stix makes women’s at-home health essentials like fertility, pregnancy, UTI, and yeast infection products. In today’s episode, Stix cofounder Cynthia Plotch chats with Ramon & Blaine about building Stix, finding investors, talking to customers about difficult subjects, and how her prior experience at Harmless Harvest gave her the confidence to create Stix.   1:10 - 5:52 Story behind Stix 8:08 - 8:...

Emily Elyse Miller talks to Blaine & Ramon about building OffLimits and how her creative background has informed the brand. OffLimits is also one of the early adopters of Web3, and Emily dives into how they’re currently using NFTs, what excites her about Web3, challenges with Web3, and what other brands need to consider before jumping into this.   3:16 - 7:42 Emily’s Breakfast Club Series 8:06 - 1...

Geoffrey Woo joins Blaine & Ramon on DTC POD to discuss why he started Anti Fund with Jake Paul, what they look for in founders when investing, and where he sees opportunity in Web 3. Geoff also dives into why Anti Fund is not your traditional VC, managing founders’ expectations when a celebrity investor is involved, and why they prefer investing in infrastructure over pure consumer startups.   1:...

On this episode of DTC Pod, Sam Madani chats with Ramon Berrios & Blaine Bolus to discuss how he built Bomani and the ups-and-downs of the entrepreneurial journey. The road to success for Bomani wasn’t easy. They faced a ton of rejection from local brewers, but they persevered and decided to pitch their concept to the biggest brewer in the country, and it worked! But that was just the first step....

Tabs Chocolate is a sexually enhancing dark chocolate founded by two University of Michigan undergrads Jake and Oliver. Blaine and Ramon are excited to have Jake Lewin and Oliver Brocato on DTC Pod to discuss how they designed  specifically for TikTok, negotiating and working with influencers, creating viral videos, and making 90K in revenue in just 3.5 weeks after launch.   2:05 - 8:24 Entreprene...

Mid-Day Squares is the healthy chocolate bar company that’s built a name for itself through its bold content. Today on the pod, Ramon and Blaine are joined by the architect of Mid-Day’s brand voice & content strategy, Jake Karls , better known as the “Rainmaker” at MDS. As a Rainmaker, Jake is out there developing critical relationships with multiple stakeholders (i.e., press, investors, customers...

Chris Bernard AKA “Bernie” joins Blaine and Ramon to discuss Mindright and working with Rob Dyrdek, learning from previous business mistakes of growing too fast, the importance of building your brand’s community before utilizing celebrity ambassadors, how TikTok is helping Mindright grow, and more.   Buff Bake 2:07 -3:03 Story behind Mindright 6:44 - 10:12 Pitching to Rob Dyrdek 11:03 - 14:12 Cele...

Lindsay McCormick , CEO and co-founder of Bite, chats with Blaine and Ramon about her zero-waste company that makes personal care & hygiene products. Lindsay started Bite with $6,000 dollars and originally hand-made and packaged Bite's toothpaste tablet from her living room in L.A. In 2019, Lindsay went on Shark Tank and turned down offers from Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary. Bite has experienced tr...

Better & Better recently raised a $4M seed round, Blaine and Ramon got the chance to talk to Vlad in-depth about his entrepreneurial journey, the difficulty of pitching a DTC product in a trend-driven VC climate (note: many investors are interested in investing crypto, NFTs, traditional SaaS, etc), competing against legacy brands like Colgate, using customer feedback to relaunch SKUs, and more! Ro...

Rob Fraser, CEO of Endur, chats with Blaine and Ramon about how his career as an athlete enabled him to succeed as an entrepreneur and taught him the value of persistence, determination, and the ability to overcome failure. As an entrepreneur of a multi-million dollar brand, Rob discusses the power of bootstrapping & being scrappy (i.e., hitting the pavement & selling directly to customers, gettin...

David Gaylord has had a multifaceted career in ecommerce. He started at Shopify in 2015 as a customer success agent, became an Ops Lead in the Office of the COO in 2020, and a Permanent Merchant in Residence in 2021 where he uses his knowledge & experience founding Bushbalm - a natural skincare brand focused solely on the bikini line - to inspire and advise aspiring entrepreneurs. David joins Blai...

Shaun Brandt , co-founder of Oddit, is a designer and brand builder who is an expert at perfecting the customer journey and reducing friction points. His extensive agency experience (Shaun co-founded a product design agency that grew to 80 employees) helping brands grow enabled him to create Oddit. This first-of-its-kind CRO platform helps DTC brands boost conversion & strengthen loyalty. Shaun ch...

Matt Mullenax , CEO of Huron , chats with Blaine & Ramon about his men's care brand offering A+ body care products for guys everywhere. This is Matt’s second time on the DTC Pod. The first time we spoke to Matt was during Huron’s launch, and a lot has happened since, including a global pandemic. Matt discusses how Huron evaluates their supply chain on a super granular level and how this informs th...

Kal Freese , co-founder of Taika chats with Blaine & Ramon about launching the functional coffee brand & how Taika leverages opportunities in Web3 to power brand, community, & product growth. Kal is a lifelong entrepreneur, YC alum, and multiple time VC backed founder who has always had a deep passion & appreciation for coffee. When he was 21, Kal opened a coffee shop in Helsinki and became a cham...

Episode brought to you by Trend & Finaloop . Ariel Vaisbort is the Influencer Coordinator at OLIPOP. After starting off as a part-time employee, Ariel quickly transitioned into running influencer coordination with OLIPOP full-time. Previously Ariel has developed social media for a number of companies including Her Campus Media, BANGS Shoes, and the Heritage School of Interior Design. She is also p...

  Colton Macaulay (@Coltyy), sits down with Blaine & Ramon to detail how he grew his audience to over 10 Million fans on TikTok , 3 Million+ on Youtube, and the creator's perspective on working with DTC brands. For Coltyy, becoming a TikTok star began with a passion for art, photography, and the outdoors. His wildlife photos were getting good attention on Instagram, but the engagement performed mu...

Greg entered the tech scene early in his career thanks to a friend who tipped him off on a sales job at a New York startup. He started out by literally sleeping in the office by night and making 150 cold calls per day. Unfortunately, his busy schedule and city lifestyle quickly led to burnout. After buying a one-way ticket to Thailand to decompress, Greg came back to the states and got a job at Tw...

Sean Frank was working at a local Los Angeles ad shop in his early 20’s when he and his friend Connor decided to start an agency of their own. The plan was to focus on a small team and high-touch client relationships. It worked so well that one of their clients, The Ridge Wallet, ended up absorbing their talented team entirely. At the time, Ridge was making a couple million dollars a year off Shop...

Caroline McCarthy is the Co-Founder at Starday Foods. She started her career at Google in the AdWords arena, worked with clients like ClassPass on marketing strategy, and helped build out the performance marketing function at Slack. She also worked for a data science firm that worked for the Obama campaign, followed by working for the banking app One Finance that has since merged under the umbrell...

Brandon Blahnik served as Made In’s Director of Customer Experience from 2020 until early 2022. His role at Made In included overseeing all customer-facing teams such as phone, chat, email, and social, and working strategically with business partners to improve products and solve problems. Prior to Made In, Brandon worked for over a decade in service roles. His career began with the Orlando Magic,...

Ashvin Melwani is Co-Founder & CMO of Obvi, one of the world’s fastest growing health & nutrition brands. Since launching in 2019, Obvi has become a pioneering brand in the collagen space, shattering 8 figures in sales with distribution all over the globe. Before Obvi, Ash co-founded Ghost3Media, a digital advertising & growth agency managing over $15M of adspend. 09:55 - Form a supportive communi...