How Commerce, Creator, & Consumer Brands Are Built

Vlad Vukicevic is a seasoned entrepreneur who knows his way around the startup scene. He previously founded Meural (acq. by Netgear) and RocketHub (acq. by EFactor). His latest venture is Better & Better, a better-for-you vitamin infused toothpaste.

Endur, an athletic-wear brand that makes performance socks, was founded by Rob Fraser (former professional mountain biker) in 2016. Endur is a proud, boot-strapped brand that has grown into $10M brand.

David Gaylord has had a multifaceted career in ecommerce. He started at Shopify in 2015 as a customer success agent, became an Ops Lead in the Office of the COO in 2020, and a Permanent Merchant in Residence in 2021 where he uses his knowledge & experience founding Bushbalm - a natural skincare brand focused solely on the bikini line - to inspire and advise aspiring entrepreneurs. David joins Blaine Bolus and Ramon Berrios at the DTC Pod and tells us what it’s like navigating the world of ecommerce.

Shaun Brandt, co-founder of Oddit, is a designer and brand builder who is an expert at perfecting the customer journey and reducing friction points. His extensive agency experience (Shaun co-founded a product design agency that grew to 80 employees) helping brands grow enabled him to create Oddit. This first-of-its-kind CRO platform helps DTC brands boost conversion & strengthen loyalty.

Huron was co-founded by Matt Mullenax and Matt Terry. Both Matt’s have their own relationship with skincare. When Mullenax was growing up, he had bad skin and the only product that worked for him was extraordinarily overpriced. Matt Terry spent 25 years developing product for Estee Lauder leading corporate innovation & product development.

Kal Freese, co-founder of Taika chats with Blaine & Ramon about launching the functional coffee brand & how Taika leverages opportunities in Web3 to power brand, community, & product growth.

Ariel Vaisbort, Influencer Coordinator at OLIPOP, has plenty of firsthand knowledge on using influencers to grow a brand. In this episode of DTC POD, Ariel explains the best ways to collaborate with influencers and how influencers can pitch their services to a brand.

Colton Macaulay jumped on the TikTok bandwagon in 2018 and has since grown his audience to 10 Million+ fans. Today, he creates content for a number of brand partnerships—but it’s always the act of creating that comes first, and the monetary side second.

The concept for NooWave was brewing in Greg Frontiero’s head for six years before he was inspired to launch his nootropic coffee brand. 100% bootstrapped, Greg has succeeded by going into constant learning mode and learning from DTC founders who are several years ahead of him.

In this episode, CEO Sean Frank explains how Ridge purchased his boutique agency in order to jumpstart its growth. By diversifying in ad strategies and prioritizing content creation, their team is now poised to exceed 80 employees by the end of 2022.