Shows / DTC Podcast
DTC Podcast
Weekly discussions between disruptive direct to consumer ecommerce brands and our amazing team about marketing, funnels, and everything scaling related. Subscribe to our newsletter for highlights and step by step tactical insights 👉🏻 📦
Episodes
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Cutting Ad Spend on December 2nd Is the Most Expensive Mistake of Q4 | AKNF
Should DTC brands cut ad spend after Cyber Monday? Jacob says no. Black Friday customers often come back to buy gifts, the big retailers pull back so CPMs tend…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Don’t Go Dark: How DTC Brands Should Plan 2027 Marketing Budgets | Harness the Halo 6/6
Should a DTC brand cut its marketing budget for 2027? Greg Dolan, CEO of Keen Decision Systems, says cutting is the biggest mistake he expects to see, because…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | What Investors Look For in a DTC Brand: Norwest’s 10-Point Framework
What do investors look for in a DTC brand before they fund it? Norwest partner Lisa Wu, an early investor in Jet, Ritual, and Remedy, walks through the 10…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | How DTC Brands Should Prep for Amazon Black Friday After Prime Day
How should DTC brands prep for Black Friday on Amazon? This year’s Prime Day events show where ecommerce growth is coming from: shoppers stocked up on…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | How to Build a Creative Flywheel for Your DTC Brand for Free
Do influencer partnership ads lower customer acquisition costs for DTC brands, or just move them? They lower CAC on Meta, but rev-share creator deals send a…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | DTC Customer Acquisition: How O Positiv Scaled TikTok Shop to $70K a Day
How do you lower customer acquisition costs for a DTC brand? Bobby Bitton, co-founder and CEO of O Positiv, says TikTok Shop did more for his CAC than any…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Founder Story Ads: How DTC Brands Win on Meta Without an Obvious Product Edge
What’s the best DTC marketing strategy on Meta when every competitor makes the same claims? Liam Robinson, co-founder of Marlbank, says to stop arguing…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | How to Get Your CFO to Approve a Bigger Marketing Budget: CAC, Meta and Brand Spend | Harness the Halo 5/6
How do you get your CFO to approve a bigger marketing budget for a DTC brand? Drew Fallon, former CFO of Mad Rabbit, says finance is watching one number, CAC…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | DTC to Retail: How Flex Reached 30,000 Stores After Turning Down Target Twice
When should a DTC brand move into retail? Flex founder Lauren Schulte Wang said no to Target twice, and retail is now over 60% of revenue. She waited until her…
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DTC Podcast | AI Agents for Ad Creative: The Workflow Saving a Pilothouse Strategist 5.5 Hours a Week
How can AI agents speed up ad creative for a DTC brand? Braydon, a creative strategist at Pilothouse, has agents build his swipe file every Monday and Claude…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | The New Fundamentals of Brand Strategy (While Shipping Hundreds of Ads a Week), With Eugene Healey
Brand strategist Eugene Healey on DTC marketing at high creative volume: why creative is the new targeting, why brand books fail with creators, and how teams…
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DTC Podcast | Black Friday Discount Strategy for DTC Brands Hooked on 30% Off | AKNF
How do you run Black Friday when your DTC brand is already hooked on discounts? Split your customers into new and repeat, keep the coupon-trained cohorts on…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | How to Test Connected TV for a DTC Brand: $20K a Month for 60 Days | Harness the Halo 4/6
Carve Designs gave connected TV 60 days at a $20K monthly minimum before deciding it worked, which is about as clean a test as a DTC brand runs on a new…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | How Terra Kaffe Pre-Sold 10,000 Espresso Machines With No Reviews
How do you grow a DTC brand without a big brand awareness budget? Terra Kaffe founder Sahand Dilmaghani pre-sold 10,000 espresso machines from a single page…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Meta Partnership Ads Now Make Up 30 to 50% of the Ads on Our Biggest Accounts
What are Meta partnership ads, and how should a DTC brand test them before Q4? They run through a creator’s handle with your brand tagged, so Meta…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Raising Prices in DTC: How Last Crumb Sells a $140 Cookie Box
How do you raise prices on a DTC brand without killing demand? Derek Jaeger founded Last Crumb in 2020, priced a box of cookies at $110, then moved it to $140…
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DTC Podcast | Google Ads Brand Keywords: Cut 80% of Brand Spend, Buy New Customers Instead
How much of your Google Ads budget goes to your own brand name? Most DTC marketing teams cannot answer that, and the brands defending an ambiguous brand term…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Under $50M: Half the Trade Budget Goes to Retail Media | Harness the Halo 3/6
To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup A brand doing under $50 million a year is putting roughly half of its combined retail media…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Bonus: Send Less, Earn More: What Brevo’s Data Says About Email Volume and Conversion
To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Most ecommerce brands are paying for every contact in the database, including the tens of…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 646: Neil Patel: Why Your Leads Are Down 40% and Your Revenue Is Up
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-646&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 645: DTC Rundown: “Don’t Run Ads Until $10M?,” Evergreen vs Campaigns, and Sites Built for the Wrong Customer
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-645&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 644: 77% of AI Shoppers Want a Recommendation: Phillip Jackson on the New Bottom of the Funnel
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-644&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 643: Amazon Fees Hit 40%: How to Claw Back Margin and Stop Wasting Ad Spend (Pilothouse)
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-643&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | How Once Upon a Farm’s DTC Ads Grew Its Retail Business | Harness the Halo 2/6
To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Once Upon a Farm did $85.4 million in Q2, up 42% year over year, and reached 6.2% of US…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 642: Kick or Keep These Trends with DÔEN’s Ashley Kick: AI Creative, TikTok Shop, Amazon, and Branded Resale
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-642&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 641: Creator-Handle Ads Ran 70% More Efficient: Aves on Creative Coverage and Hyper Relevant Ads
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-641&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Bonus: $65M Exit, Zero Employees: How Olauto Automates Everything Except Customer Service
To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Tyler Handley sold Inkbox to BIC for $65 million. His new company, Olauto, sells a $33 car…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 640: 2x LTV From Loyalty Without Discounting: Carve Designs on Retention, Direct Mail, and CTV
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-640&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 639: “The Creative Is the Brief”: Pilothouse on AI Storefronts and a 20-21% Conversion Rate Lift
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-639&utm_medium=podcast To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter –…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | What Brands Really Spend on Marketing: 15% at $10M, 2% at $1B | Harness the Halo 1/6
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup A brand doing $10 to $15 million a year puts 15 to 20 percent of revenue back into marketing…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 638: Life After the $260M Exit: Hiya’s Adam Gillman on USANA, Target, and Going Global
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-636&utm_medium=podcast Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 637: “Find Them Now, Sell Them in November”: Pilothouse’s 8-Week Black Friday Prep Playbook
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-637&utm_medium=podcast Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 636: Inside Kiyoko Beauty’s Organic Content Machine: 15 Videos a Day, Sub-$1 CPMs, 8 Figures in Sales
https://directtoconsumer.typeform.com/DTC-Brand?utm_source=podcast-636&utm_medium=podcast Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 635: “Sit With the Panic”: Meta Volatility, Pausing Ads, and AI Cognitive Debt with Pilothouse (After Hours)
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup pilothouse.co Meta has been up and down since the outage a few weeks back, and the timeline is…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 634: 10,000 Orders in 6 Months Selling Protein Couscous: Bar Bruhis on Launching Boostcous
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Bar Bruhis spent ten years building SaaS for Shopify brands. He helped start one of the first…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 633: Why Your Winning Meta Ad Dies in 8 Days, and What to Test Instead
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Liam Robinson and Nate Vankoughnet were two of Pilothouse’s first employees and spent…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 632: SheFit on TikTok Shop’s Hidden Costs and Why Your New Customer Numbers Are Wrong
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Melissa Dusendang ran a summer contract at SheFit to “manage the chaos” for one…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 631: Cracking Profitable, Incremental Scale on Applovin with Pilothouse
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup AppLovin just opened to everyone, and most DTC operators still do not know how it actually…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Bonus: How One Brand Recovered $1.5M in Amazon Sales From Unauthorized Sellers
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Most brands treat unauthorized sellers and copycats as a cost of doing business. Mario Simonyan…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 630: “The Best Ads Say Nothing” | Ari Murray, Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Ari Murray runs DTC, Amazon and customer experience at Salt & Stone. She came from Sharma…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 629: 85% of Your Email Revenue Comes From One Segment (And You’re Ignoring It)
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Jordan Gordon runs CRO and retention at Pilothouse and hosts TWBERP, The World’s Best…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Bonus: The CTV Blueprint for DTC Brands: Build in Summer, Convert in Q4 (Paramount Ads Manager)
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Most DTC brands put the bulk of their paid budget where attention is thinnest. Viewers spend…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 628: How Unbound Merino Bootstrapped to Nine Figures Selling $90 T-Shirts
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Dan bootstrapped Unbound Merino from a Reddit-fueled obsession with merino wool into a brand…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 627: Why Nick Shackelford’s Personal Brand Saved His Cash Flow | Agency Confidential Preview
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup This week on All Killer No Filler, we’re giving you a preview of Agency Confidential, the…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 626: How Wolfe Sells Gifting to Everyone: Top of Funnel Testing, CTV, and AI
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Gifting is one of the biggest reasons people buy online, and most brands never build for it on…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 625: Brand Salience for DTC: Turning Creative Into Your Targeting Layer
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Meta used to let you pick your customer in the backend. Those days are over. Post-Andromeda…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 624: How Cove Soda Builds an Email and SMS List With No DTC, Trading Full Cans for Signups at Events
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Most list-growth advice assumes you have a website people visit. Cove Soda doesn’t. They…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 623: Your Google Product Feed Is the Most Overlooked Lever in AI Shopping (with Pilothouse)
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Google search is changing under everyone’s feet. AI overviews are eating the top of the…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 622: How Outway Runs Canada and the US as Two Separate Businesses
Most brands expand into the US and treat it like the same business with a different shipping label. Outway learned it is not. Taylor Fraser is the Chief Growth…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 621: Anything is possible now – The AI Creative Stack
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Braydon from Pilothouse joins for a fast AI check-in on what the team is actually shipping…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Bonus: Top of Funnel Collapse: How AI & AEO Are Changing Consumer Behavior & How Marketers Can Adapt
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup This episode, Kemberly Gong, VP of Marketing at Contentful, joins Eric to walk through what…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Ep 620: How Origin Runs E-Commerce With AI Agents, From Media Buying to Diagnosing Defects
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Origin owns its entire supply chain. The thread, the brass, the leather, the denim, all of it…
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DTC Podcast | Ep 619: Stop Growth Hacking Your Brand to Death with Duncan From Pilothouse | AKNF
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Most brands are quietly killing themselves with growth hacks. Swapping button colors, chasing…
DTC PodcastDTC Podcast | Bonus: How DÔEN, Origin & Universal Ads Actually Implement AI w/o Losing Their Brand | Whalies Panel
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Recorded live at The Whalies. Enterprise brands are past the prompt-and-generate phase of AI…