In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG

Chris Wichert, co-founder of Koio, joins the show to share the full story behind Koio’s transformation — from overextended DTC brand to lean, focused luxury business. In this episode, we cover: 🧵 How Koio doubled down on Made-in-Italy quality (despite pressure to offshore) 📉 Why they slashed SKUs and shut stores to regain margin and focus 🤝 The economics behind their Rose Anvil and La Marzocco...

What if you built a breakout apparel brand without relying on Meta ads? Connor Hitchcock did just that with Homefield, a cult-loved collegiate brand now licensed with over 200 schools and doing 8-figures in revenue. In this episode, we dig into: - Why only 5% of their revenue goes to Meta and how word-of-mouth does the rest - How recreating tailgates in college bars became their marketing moat - T...

This week on In The Money, I sat down with Asher Hochberg, Partner at Rootspring Ventures and former GP at CircleUp, to break down the state of early-stage investing and brand building in 2025. 💥 What’s changed? • No more vibe rounds. Investors are trading buzz for margin discipline. • Being “cool” isn’t enough. Brands need a reason to exist and a loyal repeat customer. • Growth equity is back—bu...

In this week’s In the Money podcast, we chat with Matt Jung, CEO of Goodonya, about his multifaceted career in the CPG world—from his early days as a founder to his role as an investor, executive, and now acquirer. 🛠️💼 💡 Highlights: From Founder to Executive : Matt shares what it was like founding multiple brands before taking on leadership roles at CPG startups. The Power of Investment & Ac...

We sat down with Anna Whiteman of Coefficient Capital to unpack how institutional investors are thinking in 2025. Key takeaways: Venture funding starts a clock. Founders underestimate how quickly VCs need to return capital. Ask yourself: does your model actually require venture dollars? Operate from strength, not scarcity. Don’t raise to feel safe — raise when you have retention, gross margin, and...

In this wide-ranging conversation, Ashwin shares hot takes on the real economics of agencies vs. eCommerce brands. He argues that software is ultimately the best way to build wealth , while agencies offer better cash flow and brands offer scale but require much more upfront capital and risk. Ashwin walks through his "learn one, do one, teach one" philosophy—where the agency is where he l...

From Socks to Scale: How Outway Doubled Revenue and Cracked U.S. Growth Rob Fraser, founder of Outway, joined In the Money to break down how a $20 sock brand became a fast-growing eight-figure business. Key takeaways: AOV & LTV Optimization : Though socks are a low-price product, Outway lifts average order value through multi-pair purchases and creative upsells (like $10 mystery pairs). LTV is...

Connor Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Thursday Boot, joins us   to share how the brand grew from a lean DTC startup into a long-lasting, multi-category business. He digs into what it takes to scale with pricing discipline, own your manufacturing, expand into retail the right way, and keep product at the center—no matter how complex things get. A must-listen for anyone building a brand with convicti...

Dave Rekuc joins In the Money to share how Bambu Earth scaled 30x post-acquisition—not by chasing growth at all costs, but by prioritizing revenue quality. He explains why memberships beat subscriptions, how good friction drives better conversion, and what makes a DTC brand truly valuable in today’s market. From tight product strategy to pro channel expansion, this episode is packed with actionabl...

In this episode of In the Money , Fan Bi sits down with Debbie Way Mullin, founder of Copper Cow Coffee, to talk about building a CPG brand in a volatile market. They cover navigating tariffs, scaling from DTC into retail, cutting SKU complexity, and why staying mission-aligned matters more than ever. Debbie shares what’s changed in consumer behavior post-COVID, how Copper Cow rethought its produc...

This week, I’m joined by Kelcey Lehrich, CEO of 365 Holdings, to talk about what actually works in DTC today and how real operators are surviving in a post-aggregator world. Thanks to sponsors: More Staffing - ⁠⁠https://morestaffing.co/mt/ ⁠⁠ Numeral - ⁠⁠https://numeralhq.com/⁠⁠ Parker - ⁠⁠https://www.getparker.com/⁠