“I would definitely recommend starting small with your product line. You can always add but you can’t always take away.” @jazyfent #DTCPOD “You don't need 30 different products. It's so much more than that. You only need a few that customers use very consistently.” @jazyfent #DTCPOD “The main thing is just listening to our customers, who already love your products and asking them what they want to see next.” @jazyfent #DTCPOD “As long as you're communicating your rebranding process, your custome...
Feb 25, 2021•28 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast We’re changing things up this week with an introduction to the DTC POD’s new DTCers community - an invite-only community for DTC and eCommerce founders, marketers, and more. Most of the Trend team (the operators of the DTC POD) is based out of Austin. Last week’s snowstorm in Texas left most of the team without power (so no podcasts). So we figured this would be the perfect time to jump back into the podcast fresh and make two big announcements. First, our DTCers community is officially live! Yo...
Feb 23, 2021•4 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast “Design is so core to telling your story, and that's really what building a great brand is all about.” @LukasThoms #DTCPOD “There's no longer going to be a single channel business. Everyone is multi-channel, everything is multi-channel, and increasingly everything is more experimental.” @LukasThoms #DTCPOD “As it becomes easier and easier to create products or offer classes or sell content, the relationship that you build with your customer is going to be the biggest key.” @LukasThoms #DTCPOD “I...
Feb 12, 2021•30 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast This isn’t your ordinary chicken nugget We’re covering one of the hottest brands in DTC - NUGGS, a plant-based chicken brand. NUGGS was founded by Ben Pasternak, who started as a young, but successful iPhone app creator before starting NUGGS. NUGGS is targeting millennials and Gen Z people, using irreverent, witty, unapologetically tech-forward branding. NUGGS are continuously being updated, like software, by food scientists and engineers. NUGGS uniquely describe themselves as the “Tesla of Chic...
Feb 09, 2021•15 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast “My aha moment was when there was a middleman who was not really providing value. So we thought if we could find a way to go directly to the consumer, then we have a business.” @OscarAdelman #DTCPOD “I think we have the idea that if we're doing well now, we're really going to be able to crush it on the other side of this.” @OscarAdelman #DTCPOD “What sets you apart is the relationship that you build with the customer. And while we can't have the customer here in our office like the dentist does,...
Feb 04, 2021•33 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast “Paid advertising should be complementary to organic efforts instead of being the main driver.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “If you’re able to acquire customers for 50% less, you can put that money back into your brand to grow your product line, do more research, or use it to support your community.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “You should work on decreasing customer acquisition cost and increasing AOV.” @ramongberrios #DTCPOD “Feedback that you get for your product is so critical that if you're acquiring custome...
Feb 02, 2021•16 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast “When I think about go-to-market strategy, there are two ways of doing it. Top-down where you get as many eyeballs on your brand as possible or bottoms up where you try to turn early adopters into loyalists.” @AmandaMGoetz #DTCPOD “I believe in brand marketing where you create a community first that understands you and is a part of your brand.” @AmandaMGoetz #DTCPOD “I like thinking about my influencer strategy with the micro-influencers mostly, and then plugging in a few strategic macros that w...
Jan 27, 2021•36 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast “If your target audience is experiencing ad fatigue, they aren’t going to be responding well to your ads.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Ad fatigue can cause your conversions to go down and your costs to go up.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “AdEspresso reversed an image and saw a 10% decrease in CPC.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Make sure that your ad campaigns are not creating an overwhelming experience if a customer is also receiving emails post-purchase.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “If you need to create new content, consider u...
Jan 26, 2021•8 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast “The bridal industry is mostly set up for brick and mortar and wholesale. Because we don’t have a store, we're able to pass savings directly to the customer and keep healthy margins.” @graceleew #DTCPOD “I love creative, I love visuals. I love copy. And so I think just being able to do all of that myself really helped. I didn't have to hire anyone in the early days.” @graceleew #DTCPOD “In the early days, we only used Instagram and I did that very intentionally. I had a limited budget and I knew...
Jan 21, 2021•31 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast “By blending the line between media and commerce, you can lower customer acquisition cost and increase lifetime value.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “There are five different way that you can use to launch your direct to consumer brand according to Web Smith’s concept of linear commerce.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “You should focus heavily on acquiring your audience.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Launching with either a PR strategy or a go-to-market strategy with a well-received media push are usually the more predictabl...
Jan 19, 2021•7 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast “One of the reasons why TBC-Capital is education first is because we're trying to democratize all the information that's stuck in these corporate boardrooms.” @shondradanielle #DTCPOD “One of my goals in helping underrepresented founders is to help remove as many barriers as I can.” @shondradanielle #DTCPOD “The whole point of live crowdfunding is really for the people in the audience to be able to democratize the investing process and doing that using crowdfunding.” @shondradanielle #DTCPOD “Cr...
Jan 14, 2021•32 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast “It took McDonald’s over 10 years to launch 700 locations but Mrbeast was able to launch 300 locations almost overnight.” @ramongberrios #DTCPOD “Mrbeast and his team were approached by Earl Enterprises many times to build a virtual restaurant concept his team turned them down many times.” @ramongberrios #DTCPOD “Mrbeast Burger is just the tip of creator collaborations. The app they created had over 1 million downloads so we could be in for more collabs like this.” @ramongberrios #DTCPOD “What’s...
Jan 12, 2021•13 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast “The cost of acquiring a customer is higher than its ever been.” @JulianaJaxx #DTCPOD “Your current customers are much more likely to make another purchase from you and when they do, they often spend more money than the first time buyers.” @JulianaJaxx #DTCPOD “If your customer doesn't feel special, ultimately, he's not going to buy from you again” @JulianaJaxx #DTCPOD “By analyzing historical data, you can actually predict when people are ready to purchase again.” @JulianaJaxx #DTCPOD “Our rese...
Jan 07, 2021•34 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast “When working with creators and influencers, you want to have a really structured and optimized process for content creation.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Most campaigns should look to drive brand awareness and create content. Those are the only things that are guaranteed.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Lifestyle content is great because it allows an audience to make the connection that they can see themselves using the product.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Consider creating content for different stages of your customer ...
Jan 05, 2021•9 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast “Apple’s new update on iOS 14 will make users opt-in for advertising data rather than opting out.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “With Apple’s change, if some adds to a cart and purchases, you will only see the purchase conversion if the purchase is prioritized.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Make sure you're adding simple elements to your creative like price overlays, discount call outs, shipping call outs, product benefit call-outs.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Make sure you have the Facebook Conversions API installed on ...
Dec 24, 2020•11 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast “Brands that are doing partnerships well think about partnerships put a lot of thought into building authentic relationships with partner brands.” @connersherline #DTCPOD “We haven't necessarily seen the highest cross-selling metrics on products alone. It's so much more psychographic.” @connersherline #DTCPOD “The best partnerships really are like a win-win on both sides.” @connersherline #DTCPOD “I see consumers being able to personalize their experience and cut through the noise in a better wa...
Dec 22, 2020•35 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast “We waited until feedback said 90% of our customers loved our product and found it useful before deciding to launch.” @aishacee #DTCPOD “We decided to switch to pre-orders when we ran out of inventory and were clear in communicating when customers could expect their product.” @jennygao #DTCPOD “People don’t want to just buy stuff they want to feel like they are a part of something and feel a connection.” #theverticale #DTCPOD “For a brand that’s sub-$10M in revenue, there has to be some kind of ...
Dec 17, 2020•10 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast “Influencer marketing and creator marketing is a lot more than just sending creators product and having them post.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “The fastest way to level up your content is by delivering creators a strong creative brief.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “In your creative brief, you want to include three to four brand values and three to four product benefits that you want the creator influencer to mention.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “If the content didn’t meet your expectations, it’s okay to provide feedback...
Dec 15, 2020•9 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast “Even if it’s just one or two degrees of innovation, being slightly innovative allows a brand to connect with people in a different, unique, and authentic way.” @goodwipes #DTCPOD “Any category that you go into is going to be competitive, whether that's online or in brick and mortar. Most likely, there will be something that exists that’s somewhat similar to what you are trying to achieve.” @goodwipes #DTCPOD “What made us most productive in our conversations with retailers was having a strong f...
Dec 10, 2020•31 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast Being an early employee at Daily Harvest and getting a front-row seat to Daily Harvest’s growth was incredibly helpful in understanding how to grow a business.” @mayssa_c #DTCPOD “Something that I really love about the CPG world is that the best products rise to the top. It’s not always the ones with the biggest PR team or coolest brand.” @mayssa_c #DTCPOD “We think a lot about brand and how do we make consumers in our community know that we are a brand about eating more candy, not less candy.” ...
Dec 08, 2020•39 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast “The initial seed capital that you need to go from zero to one is usually something you will have to raise on your own.” @DanielRodic #DTCPOD “The most important thing is not the dollar amount or the valuation tied to funding, but that every single line in a contract technically has some cost related to it.” @DanielRodic #DTCPOD “At Clearbanc, we don’t make founders give personal guarantees or make liens on assets. We just charge a flat fee.” @DanielRodic #DTCPOD “Clearbanc funding is built to f...
Dec 03, 2020•36 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast “If you’re looking to scale user-generated content and influencer-generated content, Trend can help you do it at $100 per creator.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “To run a successful creator or influencer campaign, you want to make sure you pick creators and influencers that fit your brand.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “The reason creator and influencer content works so well is that it often looks native to the platform. It doesn’t look like it’s coming from a brand.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “By using custom brand conte...
Dec 01, 2020•11 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast “When you find good people keep them close, even if you don’t know yet how you might work with them.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD “Once you take venture capital funding, the pressure to grow is on and you have to commit to a certain timeline for growing, a certain rate of growth, and a certain rate of spend.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD “Even if your unit economics don’t show growth right now, there has to be reason to believe at scale you will get there.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD “You have to have some sor...
Nov 26, 2020•33 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast “If you want to get even more mileage out of influencer and creator partnerships, you should try whitelisting and dark posting.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Return on ad spend can go up by 20% when using whitelisting and dark posting.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “A big benefit of whitelisting and dark posting is that you are essentially adding new audiences you can use in ads.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Receiving access to an influencer’s business manager on Facebook also allows you to create lookalike audiences from...
Nov 24, 2020•14 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast “The most important thing for digitally native brands is that they stand for something beyond just the product.” #theverticale #DTCPOD “People don’t want to just buy stuff they want to feel like they are a part of something and feel a connection.” #theverticale #DTCPOD “We really want to be an authentic third-party voice that customers can trust and trust purchasing from.” #theverticale #DTCPOD “Every single brand we work with we want to make sure we’re providing value back to them.” #thevertica...
Nov 19, 2020•30 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast “If you’re sourcing and creating high-quality user-generated or influencer-generated content, throw it on your product page.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Using Trend can help guarantee that your brand consistently generates high-quality custom brand content.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “You don’t always have to talk about product features. In fact, you should try to sell benefits or outcomes whenever possible.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Sprinkling in things like an FAQ or upsell opportunity can not only help seal the...
Nov 17, 2020•10 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast “I remember walking the halls of EXPO West and not really seeing any multicultural food brands. That was my ‘aha’ moment to build this brand.” @jennygao #DTCPOD “I spent years sourcing the best quality ingredients all across China for my restaurants, my private dining concept, and knew that great flavors were universal.” @jennygao #DTCPOD “The fact that we small-batch craft the sauces in my hometown and we use extremely specific ingredients helps set our product apart.” @jennygao #DTCPOD “We dec...
Nov 12, 2020•36 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast “Black Friday sales in the US have increased by over $1B every year since 2017.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Let consumers know when your deals are so they don’t have any reason to hesitate on purchase and holdout for a better deal” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Discount bundles can help you get rid of slow-moving stock, allow consumers to sample less popular offers, and increase AOV.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD “Don’t run the same deal on Black Friday through Cyber Monday. If consumers miss out on a deal, offer the disc...
Nov 10, 2020•15 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast “To get meaningful results from focus groups in CPG, you need to know who your target customer is, conduct blind product testing, and A/B test.” @aishacee #DTCPOD “The amount of product research you need to conduct is going to depend on your industry and your experience in your space.” @aishacee #DTCPOD “We waited until feedback said 90% of our customers loved our product and found it useful before deciding to launch.” @aishacee #DTCPOD “When customers share their thoughts over email, I’ll often...
Nov 05, 2020•30 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast “The recovery rate for cart abandonment is almost 2.5x greater using texts than email.” @yotpo #DTCPOD “If you don’t have brand right, you’re going to be starting with a rocky foundation. Make sure to do this in-house and don’t outsource it.” @jjeremycai #DTCPOD “Having a clean list has helped us get really high open-rates. We automatically unsubscribe anyone who hasn’t engaged with an email in 120 days.” @nomadgoods #DTCPOD “Take things from culture that already exist and put them into your bra...
Nov 03, 2020•10 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast 
