Eric Bandholz

Articles by: Eric Bandholz

Eric Bandholz

Eric Bandholz is the host of "Ecommerce Conversations," Practical Ecommerce's weekly podcast, and co-founder of Beardbrand, a leading men’s grooming company that focuses on beard care. With the help of his co-founders, he’s bootstrapped Beardbrand from zero sales to a multi-million dollar business.

Eric is an ecommerce authority, having spoken at dozens of industry conferences and meetups.

Email Eric.

Business
The Right Answer to ‘What Do You Do?’

November 26, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Clay Hebert once attended a conference in San Diego. He sat next to a fellow who inquired about his work. "What do you do?" the fellow asked. Describing the encounter, Herbert told me, "That question stumped me." Hebert had fumbled his introduction to Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress.
Business
The Beauty of Bootstrapping a Business

November 19, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

"Ecommerce Conversions" is my weekly podcast interview with an entrepreneur. I've spoken with merchants, vendors to merchants, wealthy former merchants, and more. But this episode is different. I'm interviewing no one. Instead, I'm addressing a singular topic: bootstrapping.
Business
Subscriptions Power Disco Past iOS 14.5, Amazon

November 12, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

The year 2021 has been a doozy for Ben Smith. In March, he celebrated an investment round for Disco, his direct-to-consumer skincare company. In April, Disco's customer acquisition cost increased by a whopping 300% with the release of iOS 14.5. In May, he began selling a top item on Amazon.
Business
eCommerceFuel Founder on Work-Life Balance, Priorities

November 5, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Andrew Youderian is the founder and CEO of eCommerceFuel, a leading online community of established store owners. He oversees a diverse team and manages a growing business with worldwide members. Surely, one would think, he works long hours with little downtime.
Business
21 Years In, 2BigFeet Charts Opportunities, Growth

October 29, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Where can you find a size 24 men's shoe? At 2BigFeet.com. Brandon Eley co-launched the business in 2000, before Google AdWords and long before Facebook and Shopify. "We've seen a lot of changes in 21 years," he told me. "Keyword stuffing was legitimate search engine optimization back then."
Business
Gas Station Coffee Spurs Golden Ratio Founder

October 22, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Solving a personal hardship may be the most common motivator for starting a business. Clark Nowlin's hardship was acidity in coffee. It wrecked his stomach. Golden Ratio Coffee is Nowlin's answer. It's a producer of low-acid coffee.
Business
Amid Facebook Ad Turmoil, Supply.co Retrenches

October 15, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Patrick Coddou is a direct-to-consumer pioneer, having launched Supply.co in 2015. The company designs, manufactures, and sells premium shaving products — all to great success. Until April 2021. That's when Apple launched iOS 14.5, upending Facebook's ability to hyper-target ads. Coddou's company relied on sales from those ads.
Business
Mental Conditioning Is Vital for Entrepreneurs

October 8, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Lauren Johnson says high-performing entrepreneurs have similar characteristics as professional athletes. Both have mental traits that lead to inevitable success. She first observed those qualities when working for the New York Yankees, teaching mental performance to accomplished baseball players.
Influencers & Affiliates
PPE Provider Thrives on Influencers (and Hollywood)

October 1, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Roman Zrazhevskiy's company, Mira Safety, sells protective gas masks. It launched in 2018. The masks protect against tear gas, chemicals, and, yes, viruses. Still, reaching prospects was a challenge.
Business
Lessons from Bankruptcy Drive Ecom Agency Founder

September 24, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Josh Durham knows the downside of entrepreneurship. He founded an ecommerce company in 2015 and quickly grew revenue. Then it went out of business. Fast forward to 2021, and Durham has bounced back. He launched a successful marketing agency, Aligned Growth Management, that builds on his own early-day lessons.
Business
Should DTC Brands Sell to Mass Merchandisers?

September 17, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Beardbrand's products are in all 2,000 Target stores. Lindsey Reinders, my business partner, drove that project in 2018. Selling products to mass merchandisers is a goal of many direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands. Has selling to Target worked out for Beardbrand? I asked Lindsey that question and more.
Business
Software Exec Shifts to Bicycle Components, and Thrives

September 10, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Brian De Groodt launched Dispatch Custom Cycling Components in 2018 after a long career in enterprise software. The company sells bicycle headset caps, which sit atop the stem connecting handlebars to the frame. Customers can customize the caps, adding uniqueness to their bikes.
Staffing
Foundr Owner on Burnout, Recovery, Priorities

September 3, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Nathan Chan seemingly had it all. His business, Foundr, is hugely successful, combining media with entrepreneurship training. He interacts with prominent global founders. Then came burnout.
Business
Hyve Founder: Bacteria Is Helpful for Home Cleaning

August 27, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Shreya Patel is a biologist and healthcare administrator who seeks to change how folks clean their homes. Products that kill bacteria do more harm than good, she says. And that's why she launched Hyve, a direct-to-consumer seller of household cleaning goods.
Business
Apparel Merchant Is the ‘Godfather of Memewear’

August 20, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Ardon Lukas wore a shirt to this interview from his online apparel store, Shirtwascash. It was a velvet tank top with a photo of Elon Musk smoking marijuana during a podcast. "I see my role as broadening people's perspectives," he told me.
Business
‘Intrepreneurship’ Has Rewards, Says Company Founder

August 13, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Bryan DeLuca has a name for folks who build brands within large corporations. He calls them "intrepreneurs." He should know. Having co-founded and then sold a successful ecommerce business, DeLuca worked for a traditional retailer, creating brands within the company.
Business
Greenbelly Thrives with Backpacking Meals

August 6, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Chris Cage founded Greenbelly, a maker of high-nutrition meal bars for backpackers, after leaving his accounting job and traveling the world. That was in 2014. Fast forward to 2021, and the business is thriving.
Business
Entrepreneur Loses $6 Million, Bounces Back

July 30, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Shakil Prasla recently made a big mistake. An astute ecommerce operator and owner, Prasla purchased in late 2020 Covid-related protective gloves at roughly twice the ultimate selling price. His company, Gloves.com, lost $6 million.
Business
Keyword Sleuthing Propels Niche Publisher

July 23, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Merchants know that content marketing can engage and retain customers. However, identifying a topic that prospects want to consume — read, watch, listen — is often difficult. But not for Kyle Boureston.
Business
Hustle Exec: Ecommerce Firms Should Acquire Content Providers

July 16, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Adam Ryan joined The Hustle in August 2016, four months after its launch, as a part-time advertising salesman. By February 2021, when HubSpot acquired it, he was president. Ryan is now an investor and consultant, advising companies on content strategies that engage prospects.
Business
Happiness, not Profit, Drives Grasshopper Founder

July 9, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Having sold Grasshopper, the virtual phone service, for $175 million in 2015, David Hauser assessed his priorities. Grasshopper was his third launch and exit, following ReturnPath (email services) and Chargify (subscription management).
Business
Entrepreneur’s Eczema Inspires New Skincare Company

July 2, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Felipe Correa is a pro at product development, custom manufacturing, and logistics. He also knows much about skin lotions, as he had eczema when young. And it's his frustrations with eczema that inspired Goodspread, a direct-to-consumer seller of skincare products that launched on June 7.
Business
Vitaman.com Seeks Real Men for Hair, Skin Care

June 25, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

On his website, Antonio Centeno lists the businesses he owns. They include Real Men Real Style, a blog and YouTube channel with millions of readers and subscribers. Menfluential Media is an influencer ad network. And there's Vitaman, a direct-to-consumer online seller of organic skin and hair products for men.
Business
Girlfriend’s Eyelashes Spur DTC Entrepreneur

June 18, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

What prompts an entrepreneur to enter the eyelash industry? For Jason Wong, it was watching his girlfriend apply makeup. Just 23, Wong is a Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneur and consultant. His latest company, Doe Lashes, launched two years ago as a direct-to-consumer seller of comfortable, lightweight eyelashes.
Business
Berlin Brands’ Exec on Ecommerce Acquisitions, Technology, More

June 11, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Berlin Brands Group started on eBay 15 years ago. It is now a global ecommerce powerhouse, with over $300 million in annual revenue across a dozen or more brands. Managing Director Christian Salza addresses the company's acquisition process, its focus on technology, and more.
Business
Form Nutrition Finds Opportunity in a Crowded Market

June 4, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Is there a more competitive consumer market than nutritional supplements? I asked that question to Damian Soong, the co-founder of Form Nutrition, a maker and seller of plant-based proteins and food products, which launched in 2017. "Certainly it was a crowded space," he told me. "But the sellers were all doing the same thing."
Business
BOOM! Founder: Spend 30% of Revenue on Ads

May 28, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Ezra Firestone launched his first ecommerce business in 2007. It sold wigs. He has since owned multiple brands. BOOM!, which sells cosmetics, he co-founded in 2010. He focuses on key management metrics, such as spending 30% of ecommerce revenue on advertising.
Platforms
Drupal Commerce Founder on Collaborative Code, Software Freedom, More

May 21, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

The viability of open-source ecommerce platforms may seem limited given the rise of SaaS providers such as Shopify and many others. Not so, says Ryan Szrama. He's the founder of Drupal Commerce. He wrote the code in 2005 as an addition to the open-source Drupal content management system.
Business
Chord.co Founders: Future of DTC Platforms Is Headless

May 14, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Henry Davis and Bryan Mahoney anticipated in 2018 an avalanche of direct-to-consumer companies that served smaller, niche audiences. Chord, a DTC-first ecommerce platform, is their answer to bringing sophisticated, "headless" technology to smaller firms. "We like to call Chord the first headless platform with a brain," Davis told me.
Business
The Magic of Fringe Sport? Improving Lives

May 7, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Peter Keller launched Fringe Sport in 2010 to help folks assemble home-based gyms. He also wanted to make a lot of money. "I was very financially motivated," he told me. Then he attended a seminar a few years ago that focused on a company's purpose, its mission.