Offcuts

We discuss moving from Kickstarter to Amazon to DTC, the keys to assessing CPG product-market fit (TAM, ship friendliness, shelf life and repeatability), launching new categories and product lines, under indexing on the product, the importance of brand experience in a retail environment and how Will’s LinkedIn shower thoughts are created. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here a...

We discuss pivoting from SaaS to agency, being early adopters of Headless, the importance of goal alignment between client and agency, the advantages of starting a brand as agency founders, why Shopify is incredibly hard to beat and the pros and cons of sharing a bed with your co founder. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here and learn more about Recharge here ⚡️ Enjoy ✌️

We discuss the early days of shopify, transitioning from platform to agency, the ins and outs of the Able sense deal, agency M&A opportunities, why it’s better to buy than build and the broader headless composable market. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here and learn more about Recharge here ⚡️ Enjoy ✌️

Instead of our normal broadcast, we’re doing something a little different. Will and Tim spend 30 mins chatting about the past week’s most interesting eComm (and beyond) news. Think Pivot meets Morning Brew pod meets The Rest Is History. We discuss Threadup’s resale report and the general state of circular platforms, Gymshark’s approach to retail and where omnichannel is at, Vice’s demise, KIKI the...

We discuss Tash’s transition from journalism to agency world, opportunities for brands in the current economic climate, why getting back to basics is and always will be a good strategy, building and fostering a community, the challenges of sweat equity and why one needs to take responsibility for their own personal brand. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here and learn more abo...

We discuss the advantages of starting a brand with agency experience, balancing DTC and retail, why being on draught is the holy grail, the challenges and advantages of finding early adopters, the value prop to pubs for non alc options and why focussing on the boring stuff is a key ingredient to startup success. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here and learn more about Recharg...

We discuss why Shopify POS was an important service in the early days at Kubix, a day in the life of an agency Ops Director, why brands are likely already using AI but don’t know it, navigating the tech partner landscape and the most challenging aspect of the current economic climate; hiring. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here and learn more about Recharge here ⚡️ Enjoy ✌️

We discuss the beauty of building and selling something you enjoy, the pros and cons of bootstrapping, the similarity in challenges at each stage of the agency life cycle, value-based pricing, the best uses of AI in an agency context, the importance of cultural fit between a buyer and seller and what life looks like after an exit 🚀 …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here and lea...

We discuss how a challenging personal period and extensive experience in the FMCG space led to the creation of the brand, the power of combining beauty and emotional well-being, why barriers to entry in the DTC space are both a blessing and a curse, the pros and cons of celebrity-backed brands and what Namrata is most excited about in 2023. …………. Sign up to the Your Basket Is Empty newsletter here...

We discuss what skills he acquired after the Peoplevox acquisition, why becoming a trusted advisor is an excellent sales tactic, what a dark stack it is and why it’s important, the power of eCommerce tech curation, why software sales experience is an advantage when advising eCommerce brands, balancing work and life and Ollie’s secret business book recommendation 🤫 …………. Sign up to the Your Basket...

We discuss how a last flight out of London at the start of the COVID lockdown kick-started the brand, the advantages of crowd-sourced product development, why embracing a COVID-enforced D2C strategy was so powerful, the process of moving from D2C only to a multi-channel player, using D2C data to inform your retail strategy, why not spending any money on acquisition until the eComm basics were in p...

We discuss why being exposed to her family fashion business was a stepping stone to a corporate career, the importance of personal values alignment when making career choices, the untapped potential of Web3, Sprint’s investment criteria and process, the current state of financial markets and central bank strategy and advice to anybody considering a pre seed, seed or Series A investment raise. …………...

We discuss the print services origins of Wiro, pivoting from a platform-agnostic model to Shopify only, his take on Commerce Components and why this additional enterprise layer is useful from a pricing perspective, the similarities of brand expectations and caution between COVID and now, using the current market volatility to their advantage when hiring, why partnerships with bigger agencies is a...

We discuss building the Lizz Truss of Shopify apps, the advantages of being non-developer founders, approaching the agency business from a fist principles perspective, the keys to hiring great people, why the best partnerships are based on client needs not the best technical solution, the advantages of having a wide partner network including VCs and branding agencies, why adding quality to the con...

We discuss getting approached by an agency group in 2019 sparked the idea of an exit, how COVID derailed the exit plans, the key milestones of the Born deal; the initial conversation, due diligence and SPA negotiations, the advantages of having one person focusing on the deal, the importance of the business being able to run in parallel to the exit plan, the challenges of due diligence, specifical...

I sit down with Gavin Ballard, founder of Disco Labs and Submarine.    We discuss how a love of Shopify led to the creation of Disco Labs, why they decided to pivot from an agency to a product, the challenges of process transition when pivoting, why being at the coal face of client issues helps with product development, Submarine’s GMT through their existing agency partner network, the i...

I sit down Lauren Kleinman, founder of Dreamday and co-founder of The Quality Edit and we discuss why being brand side helped shape the agency model, the impact key hires can have on a business, how a passion project turned into a separate business in The Quality Edit, why gut and intuition are so important for decision making, why hiring for culture and vetting clients reduces the chances of work...

I sit down with Harry Willis , Director of Partnerships and Business Development at Relo . We go deep on the recent Blueprint and Klaviyo deal, the power of a consultative product approach, James White’s infamous and trad marked follow the energy principle, the importance of giving in a partner relationship, why the time to value in a partnership requires patience, the pros and cons of being a rem...

I sit down with Dan Partridge, CEO at Swanky . We go deep on transitioning from an entrepreneurial corporate lawyer to the agency world, Shopify’s Commerce Components rollout and it’s impact on the wider market (especially on Commerce Tools), what it’s like working with £100 GMV brands, being cautiously optimistic about the eComm landscape in 2023, the advantages of being vertically agnostic and f...

I sit down with Oliver Duffy-Lee, Founder of Authority Agency and we discuss why building authority is key to any services business, how to pivot away from referrals as your key lead generation source, the incredible power of positioning, why being a thinker is better than being a doer, how to produce consistently good content, why differentiation is the biggest challenge for agencies in 2023, AI’...

I sit down with Jim, Chris and Andy from Rotate° agency. We explore the origins of the agency, why the tech stack is secondary to solving client business problems, the evolution and future of headless and composable commerce, working with brands like Seedlip and Chilly’s at the early stages of their growth, why being a fractional digital team is a great way to work with clients, the advantages of...

I sit down with Matt Kennedy , CEO & founder of Fussy . We explore why working in advertising is a great foundation for starting a business, launching a product on kickstarter, being relentlessly focussed on the costumer and product. why growth equals marketing AND ops, their Dragons den experience (spoiler alert, the lift is fake), why everything is a creative opportunity and acquisition oppo...

I sit down with Georgie Carter , founder of Pepped . We explore creating an agency by accident, the importance of lifecycle marketing and creating relevant customer experiences, how to optimise your retention strategies, the power of high-value content emails, finding opportunities in the current macro climate, the value of creating a niche position and why SMS is going to be a key strategy for br...

I sit down with Adison Clark , Co-Founder of P&Co . We explore how a love of music and motorbike-coffee-tattoo culture led to the creation of the brand, the power of community building and DIY content for early stages of growth, why they focussed on psychographics not demographics, why we need to rebrand the term influencer, pivoting from a brand to an agency and the best piece of advice if yo...

Tim Masek, founder of 1-800-D2C . We explore how a passion for eComm and a spreadsheet turned into 1-800-D2C, the process of curating the most exciting D2C brands and tech, the power of differentiation through branding, why D2C is NOT dead, rethinking traditional events that focus human connection, why Shopify will continue to dominate and what’s next for 1-800-D2C.   This episode is proudly...