eCommerce Conversations

Chris Harrison says it all started with a single pot on a stove. He and two high school buddies launched Liber & Co., a manufacturer of premium cocktail syrups, with that tiny test batch in 2011 in Austin, Texas. Fast forward to 2026, and batches are now in 1,500-gallon tanks and sold worldwide to restaurants,...

In his previous appearance on the podcast, in November 2022, Jai Dolwani was the CMO of a wine subscription company that would shortly declare bankruptcy. It was his third struggling startup, he says, prompting “serious self-reflection.” He pivoted to entrepreneurship and launched The Starters, a marketplace for fractional ecommerce talent, in late 2023. The company...

Please enjoy this repeat of a popular episode first aired in January 24, 2025. According to Will Nitze, founder and CEO of IQBAR, success in a competitive market requires finding its uncompetitive niches. He did that with his flagship protein bar, which is plant-based, low-sugar, and plainly labeled. That was seven years ago when he...

In this episode, host Eric Bandholz reflects on his business and life at year-end. He reviews what worked for Beardbrand in 2025, what didn't, what was painful, and what made it all worth it. It's a reminder, he says, to take stock of our own priorities — how we allocate time, energy, attention — and...

In “How to Leave the U.S.A.,” the venerable New Yorker magazine recently addressed what many residents have apparently considered. Yet Mikkel Thorup has lived outside of his native Canada for 25 years. He's visited 120 countries and resided in nine of them. His business, Expat Money, helps others do the same while protecting assets and...

Abir Syed is an accountant turned marketer turned chief financial officer. He says ecommerce marketing success largely depends on creative volume, and few merchants have exhausted any channel, much less Meta. Abir is co-founder of UpCounting, an accounting and fractional CFO firm in Montréal, Canada. In this episode, he shares common financial mistakes of merchants,...

Jeff Oxford is our go-to interview for ecommerce SEO. The founder of Oregon-based 180 Marketing, an agency, Jeff first appeared on the podcast in 2022 when he addressed SEO's “four buckets.” We invited him back late last year to explain AI's impact on search traffic and how merchants can adapt. In this our latest interview,...

Chris Elrod is a renewable power entrepreneur. His company, Treaty Oak Clean Energy, builds massive solar projects that provide electricity for large corporations and utility firms. It's boom times for electricity generators as the likes of Google, ChatGPT, and Amazon scramble for reliable sources. How, exactly, does a company build a solar-generating plant and then...

Seth Spears is a Colorado-based entrepreneur who once taught consumers how to make their own non-toxic personal care products. He says customers valued the results but not the actual production process. “They kept asking us for ready-made versions,” he told me. So he launched Wellnesse, a direct-to-consumer brand producing all-natural self-care goods, in 2020. Toothpaste...

Kevlyn Walsh is a Denver-based art teacher turned entrepreneur. She launched Festive Gal, an Etsy shop, in 2019 after her handmade headband was a hit among Christmas party attendees. Fast forward to 2025, and Festive Gal is thriving, selling custom gifts and party supplies. A new second site, Bake It Fancy, on Shopify, sells cooking...