DTC news, ecommerce headlines, and two founder interviews: Orlando Rios of Raised by Coyotes and Dropkick Ads, plus Kip Roland of Lounge Edit and the Live Selling Academy on scaling to $300K+ on Whatnot.
TODAY'S DTC AND ECOMMERCE NEWSCreate Gummies gets sued and founder Dan McCormick fires back publicly on X, with Robert Freund and Taylor Sicard weighing in on the brand's legal fight. David Herrmann is tired: the Meta ads veteran sparks a full DTC Twitter debate on the state of performance marketing, with reactions from DTC Prophet, Bryan Cano, and Eric Bandholz of Beardbrand. Meta is reportedly banning accounts that use auto-reply comment tools — a direct hit on the Manychat and DM automation playbook. Walmart's Great Value private label brand is getting a full rebrand and facelift, and we debate yay or nay. The Prego pasta sauce listening device story goes viral on X. Creatine salt is apparently a real product category now, courtesy of The Strong Stuff. Netflix short-form video is officially real and coming for TikTok and YouTube Shorts. California's Attorney General accuses Amazon of price fixing against Walmart and Target.
FOUNDER INTERVIEW: ORLANDO RIOS, RAISED BY COYOTES AND DROPKICK ADS
Orlando Rios is the founder of Raised by Coyotes, a western performance apparel brand built to go from the golf course to the dance floor. Before RBC he ran online marketing at Onnit through its startup-to-200-employee growth run and eventual Unilever acquisition. He also founded Dropkick Ads, a DTC digital marketing agency. Raised by Coyotes crossed 6,000 orders in year one and now sells through western retailers including Cowboy Headquarters, NRS World, Outpost Western Store, and Maverick Fine Western Wear.
We cover how his customers forced him to pivot RBC from a golf brand (only) into a western-culture brand, why flat-lay photography outperforms models for apparel, the Onnit marketing lessons he kept and the ones he threw out, the cash flow reality behind a 6,000-order first year, balancing an agency and a brand without cannibalizing either, building a wholesale flywheel.
FOUNDER INTERVIEW: KIP ROLAND, LOUNGE EDIT AND LIVE SELLING ACADEMY
Kip Roland is one of the clearest voices in live shopping commerce. His YouTube breakdown "From Amazon to $300K on Whatnot" documented how he scaled a reselling business off his Amazon foundation, and he's been publicly unpacking Whatnot's 2026 outlook.
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