Ecommerce Conversations

Patrick Coddou’s entrepreneurial journey is impressive. In 2015 he launched Supply, a direct-to-consumer seller of razors and shaving goods, and then sold the business in 2022. He conceived the idea, hired staff, scaled revenue, and exited profitably. His journey is incomplete, however. His talents apply to seemingly any industry, but his identity for years was tied to Supply. He’s now adjusting a...

To Dean Pohlman, long-term business success stems from a purpose. His is to help men improve their health and fulfillment through fitness and personal connections. That's the mission of Man Flow Yoga, the company he founded in 2012, which offers memberships to workout programs and a paid community. Pohlman, a former college lacrosse player, is an authority on yoga instruction for men and a pu...

In late 2020, host Eric Bandholz interviewed  a developer who had launched a Shopify app for sending manual text messages to cart abandoners. Eighteen months later, they spoke again , this time to discuss his sale of that company and purchase of another, an app that offered upsells in a Shopify checkout. By early 2023 he had sold the second company and launched a third one, an app to recover coupo...

Host Eric Bandholz has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs for this podcast. Most are problem solvers and optimists, confident in their ability to fulfill a need. Take Lloyd Armbrust. He's an editor turned software founder, having launched OwnLocal, a Y Combinator-backed portal for local newspapers. When the pandemic hit, he observed doctors and nurses struggling to obtain protective masks...

Scaling down a business is less fun than scaling up. The issues might be similar, but the process is different. In this week's episode, host Eric Bandholz addresses the recent experience of Beardbrand, his company, changing 3PLs — third-party logistics providers.  He describes the need to reduce warehouse and fulfillment costs, having lost a large wholesale customer. He explains why he chose...

To Nik Sharma, companies that pursue short-term profits at the expense of branding face long-term hurdles. They often rely on advertising to gain sales and then struggle when the cost becomes prohibitive. His agency, Sharma Brands, counsels the opposite: Create a positive name identity first. Affordable acquisition and retention follow. In this episode, he addresses brand strategies, successful co...

Mark Berkowitz is an attorney and partner at Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP in New York who works extensively with ecommerce merchants, including Amazon sellers, handling various forms of litigation. Last year, host Eric Bandholz's company, Beardbrand, was sued for alleged violations of New York laws similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The claim was frivolous. Bandholz hired Berk...

Jacob Posel is a software engineer with Common Thread Collective, the ecommerce agency. He focuses on strategies for integrating artificial intelligence into a business. The best use, he says, is to streamline operational processes, those that might otherwise go to virtual assistants or inexpensive labor. In this episode, he addresses AI versus human creativity, commercial uses, image generation,...

David Heinemeier Hansson is the creator of the Ruby on Rails software framework, the co-founder of Basecamp, an investor in multiple tech startups, a race car driver, and a family man with children. He's a modern-day polymath. Yet his workday calendar is not full of appointments and meetings. He abhors managing employees and attending meetings. His is a maker's schedule, he says, with mu...

Resilience comes to mind when describing Hunter Durham. In eight years, he went from a college graduate to a Facebook employee to a company owner to bankruptcy. Fortunately, he’s willing to share his experience in this episode. It’s a helpful case study on borrowing money, riding an ecommerce boom, and relying on a single client. For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: htt...

Nathan Chan seemingly had it all. His business, Foundr, is hugely successful, combining media with entrepreneurship training. He interacts with prominent global founders. Then came burnout. "I experienced burnout earlier this year for the first time ever," he told me. "It wasn't good. I realized I had just ground myself out." For an edited and condensed transcript with emb...

Lauren Johnson says high-performing entrepreneurs have similar characteristics as professional athletes. Both have mental traits that lead to inevitable success. She first observed those qualities when working for the New York Yankees, teaching mental performance to accomplished baseball players. For an edited and condensed transcript of this episode with embedded audio, see: https://pec-ly.com/?4...

Katrina McKinnon owns CopySmiths, a global blog-writing agency for ecommerce companies. Once wary of artificial intelligence-powered writing tools, she now embraces them. Moreover, she sees a coming sea change where storytellers — liberal arts folks — are the AI "prompt engineers" that drive much of marketing. She discusses the evolution of her business, working with Kenya-based writers,...

Mike Tecku first appeared on this podcast in 2019 as an Amazon marketplace seller. He then sold that business, a maker of floormats, shortly afterward. He retired, became bored, and in 2022 launched Momentum, a direct-to-consumer nutritional shake producer. He and I discussed that venture last year in his second appearance. He's back. Momentum Shake is flourishing, as is Tecku. He's evol...

Eric Bandholz hosts "Ecommerce Conversations" while running Beardbrand, his direct-to-consumer provider of men's grooming supplies. Periodically he diverts an episode to share the details of his business, hoping it helps others. He's done that three times in the last year, a challenging period for many ecommerce companies, including his own. He's addressed Beardbrand'...

Braxton Manley first appeared on the podcast in 2021. As a college student, he had launched Braxley Bands, a maker of Apple Watch bands. Last year he returned with an update on that business after operational and sales challenges. He's back, having launched his latest company, Mystic, a direct-to-consumer maker of health-focused chewing gum. In this episode, he shares the origins of Mystic, m...

The reality of post-pandemic ecommerce has been tough for many direct-to-consumer merchants. Take Molson Hart. His company, Viahart, makes innovative educational toys and sells them on Amazon, Walmart, and other marketplaces. The last two years have been challenging for Viahart. What worked before and during Covid doesn't apply now, Hart says. Host Eric Bandholz shares those sentiments, as Be...

Barry Hott is a longtime Facebook advertising consultant. He says first reactions to an ad largely determine its performance. He advises merchants to create ugly ads, those that people won't skip over. "I'm the Ugly Ads Guy," he stated. In this episode, Hott addresses key Facebook ad metrics, budgeting, testing, and, yes, ugly creative. For an edited and condensed transcript wi...

Lukas Tanasiuk once paid a firm to redesign his Shopify site, a seller of electric scooters. The result was slow page loads and his efforts to improve them. What he found, he says, was a lot of false claims. "I discovered corruption among folks who say they are page-speed optimizers," he says. Page-speed optimization became Tanasiuk's next opportunity. In 2023 he launched The Nice A...

Corey Wilks is a clinical psychologist turned business coach. He helps entrepreneurs and creators improve their mindset and overcome self-imposed obstacles. He says a common obstacle is overthinking a problem. Others involve perfectionism, doubt, and even fear. In this episode, he addresses those mental hurdles and more. For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://pec-...

Natalie Mounter is a stay-at-home mom and entrepreneur. Her company, Totally Dazzled, sells craft supplies for weddings and creative projects. She says the business has prospered due to other stay-at-home moms — her employees and affiliates. "Being a stay-at-home mom and hiring other stay-at-home moms has been key to our success," she stated. In this episode, she shared Totally Dazzled&a...

Bill D'Alessandro is a 14-year ecommerce owner. Natural Dog Company, an omnichannel seller of canine health products, is his eighth brand. "My niche is acquisition entrepreneurship," he stated. 'll buy a small brand, grow it, improve it, and eventually sell it." Along the way, he's learned lessons such as focus, industry selection, and product pricing. He shares those...

Shahzad Chagani runs operations for PE Energy, a Houston, Texas-based supplier of industrial equipment and supplies. The company collects leads online from worldwide B2B buyers and relies on its Colombia-based sales team to convert them into sales. "Colombia is pretty Westernized," Chagani stated. "We find a lot of college-educated talent there." In this episode, Chagani addres...

For years Brandon Eley's online shoe company, 2BigFeet, prospered by reselling prominent brands. But the profit margins slowly narrowed as did the sources for large footwear sizes, Eley's niche. The solution is Michael Ellis Footwear, Eley's direct-to-consumer brand, launched in 2021. "We finally decided to take matters into our own hands," he said. In this second appearan...

Mickey Friedman co-launched Flair.ai in 2022, a year after graduating from the University of Chicago. The company, which has raised $5 million in seed funding, deploys artificial intelligence to perfect product photos, providing entire virtual scenes and setups. The process, Friedman says, dramatically lowers the cost of photo shoots while improving quality. In this episode, she addresses the rise...