The Orita Podcast

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Peter Dering, Founder & CEO at Peak Design. Peter built Peak Design for 14 years on instinct alone, then nearly lost it all in a single financial review. • How a Kickstarter accident became Peak Design's most powerful go-to-market strategy and community-building tool • The moment Peter realized gut instinct alone couldn&#3...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Sergio Tache, CEO at Dossier. Sergio shut down a skincare company, nearly deleted an email from Walmart, and built Dossier into the number one perfume brand there anyway. His advice: boring works, basics work, and if you don't make money it's a hobby. • Why Sergio went from banking to hair extensions to a failed skincare b...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Howie Busch, Founder at DudeRobe, that launched on Kickstarter in June 2017. One week later, the head of casting at Shark Tank slid into his DMs. His website went live at 7:30pm the night they aired. • How a career in sports law, NFL representation, and product licensing gave Howie an unfair advantage when athletes started wearing...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Ian MacGregor, CEO at Skratch Labs. Pro cyclists kept complaining about their sponsored drink mix, so Ian and his partner Alan started making something better in secret. Fifteen years later they still haven't raised a dollar of outside money, and Ian thinks that's exactly why the brand still means something. • How a career...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Sam Moorhead, Director of Customer Growth at Klaviyo. Sam has spent 15 years learning what separates a seller who closes from one who just checks boxes, and his answer has nothing to do with scripts. • What a PE-backed turnaround taught Sam about radical transparency that HubSpot never could, and how he brought it to Klaviyo • Why...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Val Geisler, VP, Partner Programs at Digioh. Val has worked agency side, vendor side, and brand side, and she thinks that makes her exactly the kind of person AI cannot replace. • How Val followed a nonlinear career from theater to Klaviyo to CPG brand to Digioh, and what the through line always was • Why the gap between a persona...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Sean Wendt, Founder at dtcmvp to find out why cold email stopped working and how he had a hunch that honest feedback conversations would outlast any outbound playbook. • How go-to-market changed between the Postscript era and today, and why partnerships now carry weight that BDR teams used to • Why dtcmvp frames every vendor call...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Philippe Roireau, Co-Founder and CEO of Consio, spent a decade operating eight-figure brands and leading partnerships at Gorgias, Northbeam, and ShipBob before betting that voice was the most underbuilt channel in ecommerce. This episode is the story of why he made that bet, how he found his first customer on a spreadsheet with a...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Lou Mintzer, Founder & CEO of Grid & Pixel, to talk about the collision of AI, lifecycle marketing, and the massive shift happening inside ecommerce execution right now. Lou previously built and exited HomeSnap, one of the most successful proptech platforms in the country, before taking the same “data to action” playbook i...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Nate Warden, former product leader at Google, OpenStore, and Jack Archer, for a deeply practical conversation about what AI is already changing inside ecommerce companies and what’s still mostly hype. Nate has spent his career at the intersection of data, media, product, and operations, from analyzing marketing ROI at Nielsen to b...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Sarah Ganzenmuller, Co-Founder of rediem, to talk about why the future of loyalty has almost nothing to do with points and everything to do with identity, community, and owning the customer relationship before AI platforms take it away. Sarah started her career in performance marketing and retention strategy, working with major br...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Melissa Daniels, Special Projects Editor at Modern Retail, for a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, storytelling, ecommerce, and the evolving relationship between brands, media, and technology. From covering local politics and federal courts to becoming one of the most respected voices in retail media, Melissa shares how...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Jennifer Peters, Director of D2C Marketing Technology & Digital Compliance at Olly, and Avani Oswal, Head of Digital at Elizée & Founder of Catalyst, to unpack what it actually looks like to build and scale a modern commerce brand in the age of AI, whether you're a category-leading CPG or an emerging luxury label findi...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Amy Carr, Co-Founder of Wine by hOurs. Amy is a former CMO & CDO at ThirdLove, ex-Sephora and Gap Inc. who blends operator experience, financial discipline, and a deeply human approach to building brands. Amy’s career isn’t a ladder, it’s “a jungle gym across multiple playgrounds,” spanning finance, ecommerce, CRM, and brand-b...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Roman Yoffe, Founder & CEO of Absolute Web, for a candid, unfiltered conversation about what it really takes to build and scale a long-lasting ecommerce agency, from the early days of Yellow Pages to powering modern Shopify brands. Roman’s journey started as a 19-year-old immigrant with no roadmap, no experience, and no backup...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Chase Clymer, Co-Founder of Electric Eye and host of Honest Ecommerce, to break down a truth most brands ignore: optimization isn’t about pretty pages, it’s about getting closer to the money. Chase didn’t start in ecommerce with some grand strategy. From touring in a pop-punk band to hacking together early Shopify projects, his jo...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Daniel Brady, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Orita.ai, for a rare inside look at how a neuroscientist accidentally became a startup operator and why the future of marketing belongs to teams who understand data, not just dashboards. Daniel didn’t set out to build in ecommerce. He started in neurobiology at Harvard, studying how the bra...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Casey Armstrong, CMO at ShipBob, for a deep dive into one of the most overlooked but mission-critical parts of ecommerce: fulfillment, logistics, and the systems that quietly determine whether a brand actually works. Casey brings a rare perspective, having operated on both sides of the table: helping scale a high-AOV DTC brand and...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Zak Cassady-Dorion, Founder & CEO of ECD Digital, to talk about what it really takes to drive revenue in modern ecommerce and why most brands are still leaving money on the table. Zak’s path to building a 30+ person agency wasn’t traditional: from running a mountain bike tour company in Costa Rica, to sailing across the ocean,...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Taylor Holiday, Founder & CEO of Common Thread Collective, to talk about the hardest and most important shift in ecommerce right now: moving from chasing growth at all costs to engineering profitable, predictable outcomes. Taylor has spent 14+ years inside ecommerce, watching the industry swing from “spend more to grow” to “ev...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Max Wallace (Senior Director of Customer Experience at Tommy John) and Jamie Smith (Account Executive at Rivo) to unpack a side of ecommerce most brands say they care about but rarely prioritize… retention. Max has spent over a decade building CX at Tommy John, helping scale the brand from early startup days to a category leader....

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Stephen Campbell, Co-Founder & CEO of Revamp AI, to talk about what happens to marketing, software, and entire industries when AI stops being a tool and starts being the system. Stephen has been building in AI since he was 14, from self-driving go-karts to YC-backed startups. Now, through Revamp and the AI Collective, he’s ope...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Ben Zises, Founder and GP of SuperAngel. Fund, to unpack what it really takes to win in modern commerce from the earliest angel check to building billion-dollar brands. Ben shares how he went from hustling DJ gigs and running a water cooler business in college to becoming one of the most active and respected early-stage investors...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Ivory Razor, Director of CRM at BARK, for a deep dive into what modern retention really looks like when you stop thinking in channels and start thinking in systems. Ivory has built across fashion, subscription, ecommerce, marketplace, and now pet, with stops at Calvin Klein, Dressbarn, Gwynnie Bee, littleBits, Scentbird, Resident,...

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Aaron Orendorff, Chief Content Officer at The Operators Network, for a conversation about what great content still requires in the age of AI: judgment, taste, reps, and a point of view. Aaron has spent more than a decade writing, editing, and shaping ecommerce content at the highest level, from Shopify Plus to Common Thread Collec...