What happens when your bank promises you $20 million, strings you along for a year, and then rips it all away the same week you need it most? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) sit down with Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) for a raw conversation about how ecommerce brands fund growth. Curtis shares one of the most gut-punch founder stories in Operators history. Wells Fargo promised him a $20–25M line of credit, demanded $2M back overnight, and nearl...
Apr 22, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 162
What do you do when you’ve already won, and still can’t stop building? Sean Frank and Matthew Bertulli sit down with Mike Beckham, (CEO of Simple Modern and Simple Ventures), to unpack what happens after you climb the mountain. Mike shares how Simple Modern grew from a bootstrapped “Yeti knockoff” to nearly $200M in annual revenue, paid off all its debt, and suddenly found itself generating more cash than it could reinvest — and what he decided to do about it. The conversation covers Mike’s fram...
Apr 15, 2026•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 161
Special episode on what billions in recent ecommerce exits, raises, and M&A mean for your brand. Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) joins hosts Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to dig into the wave of consumer deals. They debate whether strategic buyers and PE firms are truly back, why physical consumer brands are suddenly looking like the safest asset class, and what it takes to build something worth acquiring. The conversation covers ...
Apr 13, 2026•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 161
“If you become really good at harnessing that data, AI can let you not only predict the future, but create it.” Jenna Habayeb (President of Posh Peanut) sits down with Jason Panzer (President of HexClad) and honorary Operator’s co-host Cherene Aubert. Together, they unpack what modern ecommerce leadership looks like at every stage. Jenna brings a rare arc — from Ogilvy to Chief Brand Officer at Ipsy, where she helped grow the business from $300M to $1B, through a CRO role at Ruggable, and now he...
Apr 08, 2026•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 160
“We had no cash, no supply chain, high product market fit, and low CAC. There was this giant button flashing: hyper growth.” What does it take to build a profitable pet brand from a studio apartment to a nine-figure business with its own factory? Russell Breuer (Co-Founder and CEO, Spot & Tango) joins hosts Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to trace the full arc of building one of DTC’s most quietly dominant pet brands. Russell shares how Spot & Tango launched...
Apr 01, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 159
Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators Can you build a beloved consumer brand around the joy of making something with your hands? Matt Bertulli and Mike Beckham sit down with Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang, Co-Founders of ...
Mar 26, 2026•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 14
What happens when the founder of a software company admits his own product is a sinking ship — and doubles down anyway? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) sit down with Amit RG (CEO, RichPanel) for a conversation about AI agents, the death of traditional SaaS, and what it means for ecommerce operators building teams right now. Amit doesn’t sugarcoat it. He’s walked through the five stages of grief about his own business, come out the other side, and is now bett...
Mar 25, 2026•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 158
“The difference between authentic money and inauthentic money is that it has some kind of inherent meaning to it.” Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO of Pela Case and Lomi) sit down with Matt Orlić — Co-Founder of Qure Skincare and founder of Ecomm Architects. Together, they trace one of the most unconventional paths in ecommerce. From losing 80% of his net worth at 25 to reverse-engineering the habits of successful founders, Orlić’s story is a masterclass in resilience and reinven...
Mar 18, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 157
Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, joins Mike Beckham and Sean Frank for an emergency briefing on the tariff landscape after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling. Specifically, what ecommerce owners need to do right now. They break down how to file for tariff refunds before entries hit liquidation, including the secondary market where brands are selling claims for cents on the dollar. Then the conversation shifts to the Iran conflict and what a closed Strait of Hormuz means for container shipping, a...
Mar 13, 2026•1 hr 2 min
Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators What does it take to create a billion-dollar brand from scratch — homeless at 16, no investors, no safety net? Hudson Leogrande, founder of Comfrt, joins Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) a...
Mar 12, 2026•1 hr 17 min
Are you running your ecommerce brand on gut instinct while your competitors build AI-powered data machines? Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) and Jason Panzer (President of HexClad) sit down with Krishna Poda, the CEO of Saras Analytics, to unpack why a clean data foundation isn’t optional. And what you can build on top of it with AI right now. They cover the rise of agentic workflows and what it means to replace repetitive human tasks with agents that work around the clock, why every stakeholder in a b...
Mar 11, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 156
“95% of AI pilots fail. I lived that, full stop.” Craig Foldes (Founder of ChatWalrus, fmr. Global Head of AI at Crocs) and Matt Kruer (CIO at Bissell) join host Sean Frank to explore the state of AI within enterprise versus DTC brands. The conversation covers how to find + celebrate the 10% of employees who are AI power users, what it looks like when adoption works, and why this is “for the rebels.” They debate whether AI is the great equalizer or a quiet advantage, unpack which parts of the AI...
Mar 04, 2026•58 min•Ep. 155
How did a married couple with $30k in savings and no business plan build one of the biggest beauty and accessories brands in America? Cassandra Thurswell (Founder & CEO of Kitsch) and Jeremy Thurswell (COO), join hosts Mike Beckham and Matt Bertulli for their first-ever joint podcast interview. Together, they unpack the full story of building a bootstrapped empire from a living room apartment to over 30,000 retail doors and more than 10 million ecommerce orders. Cassandra and Jeremy open up ...
Mar 03, 2026•1 hr 36 min
Brought to you by Applovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits. https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators Matt Bertulli, CEO of Pela Case and Lomi, and Mike Beckham, CEO of Simple Modern, sit down with Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, to trace one of the most unconventional executive careers in consumer. From hostess at H...
Feb 26, 2026•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 12
Is your brand built to survive the next five years or just the next quarter? Sean Frank, CEO of Ridge, and co-host Katy Mimari, Founder and CEO of Caden Lane, sit down with Taylor Holiday, CEO of Common Thread Collective, to reflect on the wild ride from 2020 to 2025 and what it means for the road ahead. Together, they unpack what worked, what failed, and what they'd do differently as operators who've built and scaled brands through one of the most volatile decades in e-commerce history. The con...
Feb 25, 2026•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 154
Leadership isn’t about being liked. It’s about making hard decisions, living with the consequences, and still winning. Mike Beckham, Matt Bertulli, and Jason Panzer sit down to talk honestly about what leadership really costs when the stakes are high. They dig into hiring and firing decisions, culture trade-offs, growth versus profitability, and the personal pressure that comes with running large, successful businesses. The conversation avoids motivational clichés and focuses on what actually wo...
Feb 18, 2026•54 min•Ep. 153
How does a bootstrapped brand go from $0 to $600 million in three years — without raising a single dollar? Sean Frank, CEO of Ridge, and Matt Bertulli, CEO of Pela Case, break down the explosive rise of COMFRT, the anti-anxiety travel brand founded by Hudson Leogrande that has shattered every assumption about what’s possible in ecommerce. They unpack the tactics, the mindset, and the cashflow mechanics behind one of the fastest-scaling bootstrapped brands in history. The conversation dives into ...
Feb 11, 2026•1 hr
More than the incredible (true) story of one founder’s journey to turn around the company he created, this is a public coaching session on what it takes to win as a 6–7 figure brand. Sean Frank and Matt Bertulli sit down with Ben Leonard, founder of Beast Gear, a strength and conditioning brand he built from scratch in Scotland, sold to Thrasio in 2019, and bought back after watching it decline for years. Together, they dig into what went wrong, what Ben is doing to resurrect it, and why he’s la...
Feb 04, 2026•59 min•Ep. 151
Brought to you by Applovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits. https://www.9operators.com/applovin What does it take to build a ~$300M apparel brand from scratch? Matt Bertulli and Mike Beckham sit down with Ryan Bartlett, Co-Founder, and Ben Diamond, CEO of True Classic, for their first-ever joint interview. Together, they unpack how a professional poker player and a Meta executive became one of the most formidable partnershi...
Jan 29, 2026•1 hr 47 min
What separates billion-dollar celebrity brands from total flops Sean, Matt, and Katy Mimari (CEO of Caden Lane) break down why some partnerships become massive exits like Rhode and Skims, while others like The Honest Company and Kylie Cosmetics struggle to survive. They dive deep into deal structures, red flags to watch for, and the real math behind putting famous names into your brand. The crew debates whether fame equals influence (spoiler: it doesn’t), why alcohol brands have an unfair advant...
Jan 28, 2026•1 hr 3 min
What’s the one thing holding your business back? Sean Frank, Jason Panzer, Mike Beckham, and Matt Bertulli reunite for part two of their 2026 predictions to deliver actionable money-making tips for ecommerce brands. The full squad shares why entrepreneurs have more opportunity than ever, then dives into tactics you can implement today: a corporate gifting platform generating thousands in daily passive revenue, the case for getting off Meta sooner than you think, why plain text founder emails cru...
Jan 21, 2026•1 hr 3 min
What does it take to go from high-school dropout to building a $100M+ brand with David Beckham? Brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits (terms apply). https://9operators.com/applovin Matt Bertulli and Sean Frank sit down with Danny Yeung, co-founder and CEO of IM8. Danny shares his journey from immigrating to San Francisco at age five, to telemarketing at fifteen, to partnering with one of the world’s mos...
Jan 15, 2026•1 hr 20 min
What do the real numbers from 1,000+ DTC brands reveal about who actually won? Find out by downloading the full report. https://www.northbeam.io/ebook/2025-year-in-review-data-report Sean Frank and Mike Beckham sit down with Austin Harrison, CEO of Northbeam, and Andrew Kaszuba, Northbeam’s media strategist, to break down exclusive 2025 ecommerce data that nobody else has access to. Spend trends, revenue growth, and efficiency metrics across every major advertising platform as well as by busines...
Jan 14, 2026•1 hr 8 min
Sean, Mike, Matt, and Jason share their bull and bear cases for 2026, debating the economic shifts reshaping ecommerce — from a potential AI bubble to the frozen housing market to consumer pullback in a hidden recession. Discover why this moment might be the most pivotal in history for small businesses while threatening large institutions. The hosts cover the deflationary power of AI, macro trends in consumer, and the specific levers each is pulling to win in an uncertain economy: (1) pricing st...
Jan 07, 2026•1 hr 1 min
“I’m building memories, not sales.” What if everything you thought you knew about creating a consumer brand was wrong? Matt Bertulli and Sean Frank sit down with Sean Riley, Co-Founder and Chief DUDE (CEO) of DUDE Wipes, to discuss how he and his co-founders grew to hundreds of millions in revenue — without relying on traditional ads. From going viral through gorilla marketing to landing a deal with Mark Cuban on Shark Tank to being students of culture, Sean reveals why doing what’s fun can be y...
Jan 01, 2026•1 hr 37 min
“What do you do when you stop winning?” In this episode, Sean and Matt drop the highlight reel and talk candidly about what it actually feels like when a once high-flying brand stalls, hits flat revenue, or even starts shrinking. They unpack why every business has a “natural size,” why top-line obsession is the laziest definition of winning, and how to think more clearly about margin compression, momentum, and your own financial security as a founder. From redefining success beyond horsepower-st...
Dec 31, 2025•1 hr 4 min
How do you build one of the top-five Amazon businesses in the world? Matt and Mike sit down with Jabran Niaz, co-founder of Utopia Deals and Utopia Industries. From packing boxes by hand for less than $15 an hour to running a global manufacturing operation with $770M in annual revenue and +15k employees, all without outside capital or taking on debt. This is the largest brand we’ve ever had on the show. They get into the early days of Amazon, why Utopia focused on value instead of premium pricin...
Dec 26, 2025•1 hr 37 min
“You make your money on the customer, not the acquisition.” In this episode, Sean sits down with Jordan, the media-buyer-turned-founder behind Instant Hydration, to unpack how he went from affiliate marketer—only eating what he killed—to helping scale multiple 8‑figure CPG brands into 9‑figure powerhouses using Meta ads, tight payback models, and a true growth engine mindset. They talk about why red‑ocean markets like electrolytes are actually a signal of demand, how to think about LTV, subscrip...
Dec 24, 2025•1 hr 9 min
The operators discuss the critical balance between executing a high-stakes Q4 and planning for the upcoming fiscal year. They debate structured versus unstructured planning methodologies, with Sean and Matt favoring quarterly rocks and 18-month outlooks, while Jason relies on continuous, fluid strategic discussions driven by financial models. The conversation covers the specific role of the CEO during peak season, moving from the field to the budget office, and how to identify non-obvious growth...
Dec 17, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 144
In this episode the operators break down their actual results from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, analyzing why some brands experienced record growth while others saw shifts in consumer behavior between the US and Canadian markets. They debate critical holiday strategies, such as the benefits of starting sales early versus maximizing profit during high-intent windows, and explore the theory that inflation is driving consumers back toward durable goods over expensive experiences. The discussion a...
Dec 10, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 143
