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Amazon & Marketplaces
Fed-up Toy Company Responds to Knock-offs
May 20, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Viahart is a manufacturer of educational toys. Having experienced repeated intellectual property theft, its owner, Molson Hart, responded with a new company, Edison Litigation Financing.
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Staffing
Efficiency Pro: Happy People Are More Productive
May 13, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Thanh Pham is the founder of Asian Efficiency, a productivity training company. He believes building in-person connections and nurturing relationships naturally enhances productivity.
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Business
Needing Deodorant, Curie Founder Made Her Own
May 6, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
In 2018 Sarah Moret, an accountant and athlete, couldn't find a suitable aluminum-free deodorant. So she made her own. Fast forward to 2022 and that deodorant business is now Curie, a thriving direct-to-consumer seller.
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Business
For Supply.co, EOS Is A-OK
April 29, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
By late 2021, Patrick Coddou, the founder of Supply.co, was exhausted and burned out, having endured a harsh year for the business and himself. He turned to the Entrepreneurial Operating System.
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Staffing
‘Embrace Growth’ Is Core to Atlas Staffing
April 22, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Joshua McKee founded Atlas Staffing 11 years ago. The company has grown. He advocates core values and communicates them to employees. "Embrace growth" is his favorite.
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Business
Direct Mail Replaces Facebook for Barbeque Seller
April 15, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Lea Richards launched Pig of the Month, a direct-to-consumer seller of barbeque, in 2010. The company has thrived, with dozens of meat products and outsourced logistics for other merchants.
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Business
Ecommerce Copywriter on Tactics, Tools, More
April 8, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
High-converting ecommerce copywriting starts with research. That's according to Christopher Silvestri, the founder of Conversion Alchemy, an agency.
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Business
Sutro Pivots from Drinking Water to Swimming Pools
April 1, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Ravi Kurani is an engineer who launched Sutro, a water sensor manufacturer, in 2012. His initial go-to-market strategy failed. So he pivoted.
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Staffing
‘People Development’ Drives AppSumo to $80 Million in Revenue
March 25, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Ayman Al-Abdullah was CEO of AppSumo from 2015 to 2021. Annual revenue grew from $3 million to $80 million. How, exactly, did he do it?
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Business
For Fragrance One, It’s Selling without Smelling
March 18, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Fragrance One is a direct-to-consumer seller of colognes and perfumes — entirely online. Sales are booming despite buyers never smelling the fragrances.
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Business
Fox Rocks on LinkedIn
March 11, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Judi Fox began networking on LinkedIn in 2009. She now, in 2022, has 39,000 followers and advises companies and professionals on marketing strategies for that platform.
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Business
Stryx, a DTC Brand, Prepares Rollout in Target Stores
March 4, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Stryx is a pioneering direct-to-consumer seller of men's cosmetics. The company is soon to launch its products in 950 Target stores. The decision comes with risks.
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Business
Consumers in a Pandemic Need Murphy Beds
February 25, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Lori Wall Beds launched 10 years ago in a garage. Annual revenue now exceeds $10 million. Owner Brenden Marquardt describes going from a side hustle to a thriving direct-to-consumer company.
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Business
BK Beauty, Avoiding Facebook, Thrives with Affiliate Marketing
February 18, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Paul Jauregui launched BK Beauty, a direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand, with Lisa, his wife, in 2019. Unlike many DTC brands, BK Beauty does not rely on Facebook advertising.
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Business
Solo Brands Founder, Now Wealthy, Reflects
February 11, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Having sold Solo Stove, a company he co-launched in 2010, Spencer Jan reflects on finding meaning amid financial freedom, among other topics.
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Business
LiveRecover Founder Sells Company, Buys OrderBump
February 4, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Dennis Hegstad co-founded LiveRecover, an SMS app, in 2018. He sold the company in 2021. "I became bored," he said. So he purchased OrderBump, a Shopify app for product upsells.
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Business
Former Ecommerce CEO Asks, ‘What’s Next?’
January 28, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Entrepreneurs can find themselves looking for work rather than hiring it. That's the case of Andrew Faris, a successful digital marketer and ecommerce aggregator.
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Business
Paid Search Drives Kuru Footwear to 2021 Success
January 21, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Sean McGinnis arrived at Kuru Footwear, a direct-to-consumer brand, in 2020 as chief marketing officer. One year later, he's president of the company, and sales are booming.
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Business
TikTok Marketing Is Hard Work
January 14, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Ryan Magin founded Viral Edits, an agency, roughly two years ago. He creates original and repurposed videos for brands and influencers, focusing on TikTok and Instagram. The process is much more difficult than it appears, he says, requiring hours of video watching and editing.
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Business
‘I Like Starting Things,’ Says Serial Entrepreneur
January 7, 2022 • Eric Bandholz
Having arrived from Estonia 14 years ago, Peep Laja has launched three companies: CXL for e-learning, Speero for conversion consulting, and Wynter for B2B customer intelligence. He shares his journey in this week's "Ecommerce Conversation" episode.
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Staffing
MarketerHire Exec on Freelancers, Content, SEO
December 31, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
Tracey Wallace is a writer turned content marketer turned SEO pro. She was the head of BigCommerce's content team and now serves a similar role for MarketerHire, a marketplace for freelance marketers, which launched in 2019.
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Customer Retention
Subscriptions, Books Drive Man Flow Yoga
December 17, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
Dean Pohlman is a global authority on yoga instruction for men. He's written best-selling books on the topic and conducted hundreds of in-person classes. His company, Man Flow Yoga, is thriving with an on-demand instructional program driven by paid subscriptions.
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Business
‘Modern Wisdom’ Is a Media Sensation
December 10, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
Chris Williamson is a modern-day polymath with a fitting podcast. It's called "Modern Wisdom." Launched in 2018, it has experienced a whopping 30 million downloads across 400 episodes. He told me, "We talk about human nature, marketing, philosophy, life, life hacks, biohacking, fitness, health, pretty much everything."
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Business
Barbell Logic Rides Shift to Online Fitness
December 3, 2021 • Eric Bandholz
The pandemic has upended the fitness industry. Having no access to public gyms, millions of folks turned to at-home workouts. According to Matt Reynolds, the founder of Barbell Logic, an online strength coaching company, the shift is permanent.
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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.
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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.
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Customer Retention
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.
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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.
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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."
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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.