How Commerce, Creator, & Consumer Brands Are Built

Jonah Reider is the founder and CEO of Pzaz, an energy mist spray.

Welcome to episode 200. In this episode Blaine and Ramon get together in the studio in Miami to share key learnings and tactics from guests, a breakdown of the current commerce, creator, and consumer landscape, and where the pod is headed next. Make sure to follow us on social where we share all the gems our guests drop and leave us a review if you like the content.

Mélanie Masarin is the co-founder & CEO of Ghia, the acclaimed non-alcoholic apértif beverage. Prior to starting Ghia, she served as Glossier’s Head of Retail & Offline Experiences, where she led experiential strategy and brought life to physical showrooms, permanent spaces, and pop-ups. Before Glossier, she served as Creative Director and Head of Brand & Marketing at Dig Inn.

Darrin Willingham is the creator & host of DNA SHOW, a YouTube channel with 215K subscribers where he talks about lifestyle around sneakers, finance, sports and travel.

Kevin Wong is the cofounder of Lunar, an award-winner hard seltzer brand inspired by Asian flavors. But Kevin’s path to becoming the founder of an alcohol brand wasn’t linear. Kevin studied computer science at University of Virginia

Terry Lee is the cofounder of Rosaluna, an all-natural mezcal thats made in Oaxaca, Mexico. It has quickly grown into the mezcal of choice for Soho House, Carbone, and several world famous restaurants.

Awful Cloth was founded by Chaz Zayed and Emmit Flynn while they were in college at Indiana University and Fordham. Awful Cloth blew up on TikTok after Charli D’Amelio was seen wearing it in several of her videos. Since then Awful Cloth has become an influencer and celebrity favorite and has been worn by Dave Portnoy (Barstool founder), DJ Dillon Francis, Avani Gregg, and Bryce Hall.

Tono Mandly is the co-founder of Riogrande, a Y-Combinator startup building local e-commerce brands, through acquisition and incubation, for the emerging middle class of Latin American consumers.

Zach Abbott is the CEO and cofounder of ZBiotics, the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic for consumer. ZBiotics first product is engineered to break down acid aldehyde, which is the toxic metabolic byproduct of drinking alcohol, that causes hangovers. Zach has a PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Michigan. Prior to founding ZBiotics in 2016, Zach worked at Biorasi ( a global clinical research organization) where he designed clinical trials for big pharmaceutical companies.

While Aspen is still in its early days, we’re excited to have Keta Burke-Williams on the pod to discuss the logistics of building a fragrance company. In this episode of DTC pod, you’ll hear Blaine&Ramon talk with Keta about creating a scent, finding a manufacturer, finding her voice when pitching to VCs, optimizing for online and offline sales, being smart with your resources, and tapping into your network.