HiStrips launched in summer 2024 with one product and no creator budget. Eighteen months later, their affiliate channel is bigger than paid media. 1,500+ creators. $0 upfront spend. One person whose only job is managing the army.

Sam Posthuma breaks down the full system: how they built it, how it feeds the ad account with 100-200 pieces of creative per week, and how it unlocked a partnership with Juan LeBron, the #1 padel player in the world, without a pitch deck or a budget.

Get the free playbook for this episode here: https://www.elevatorgoods.com/talks/sam-posthuma

In this episode:

- How HiStrips recruited 1,500 creators without paying anyone upfront

- The three-bucket system: proactive seeding, inbound interest, direct outreach

- Why they never script their creators and what happens when you do

- How organic UGC becomes paid ad creative and how the weekly feedback loop works

- Why their AI creative performed well on every metric and sold nothing

- How social proof at scale brought Juan LeBron's team to them

Follow Elevator:

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Website: https://www.elevatorgoods.com

Follow Monish (Host):

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/[MonishHandle]

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Follow Sam Posthuma:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samposthuma/

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Chapters:

00:00 - Intro

01:00 - What HiStrips is today and where it's going

03:00 - Why creative sits above media buying

05:30 - Keeping creative inside the founding team

08:00 - How the creator army was built from day one

09:40 - The army structure and how it actually runs

13:00 - The three-bucket creator outreach system

17:00 - Why HiStrips never pays creators upfront

21:00 - From organic UGC to paid ad creative

24:00 - The weekly feedback loop between media buying and creative

27:00 - AI UGC: what the data said vs. what the comments showed

30:00 - What the creator army has unlocked beyond paid ads

34:00 - The two moats in e-commerce in 2026

38:00 - Rapid fire

#ecommerce #dtc #contentmarketing #creatoreconomy #histrips #brandbuilding

Vince Nijhof co-founded OOAK Brands. In this episode he sits down with Monish at Elevator Talks and breaks down every system behind it.

If you sell online - whether you're just starting out or already scaling - this is the most practical conversation on ecom we've ever recorded.

Download the free Vince Nijhof operator playbook here: https://links.elevatorgoods.com/episodes/vince-nijhof

Connect with Vince:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincevn/
X: https://x.com/VinceNijhof

Monish Sabnani (Host):
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msabnani93/
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Elevator Talks:
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! 

Work with the founders of OOAK Brands: https://ooakbrands.com/advisory

Subscribe for bi-weekly conversations with operators building real brands.

What we cover:

00:02:52 - Intro
00:03:32 - Who is Vince Nijhof and OOAK Brands
00:07:59 - The $20M/month reveal
00:11:01 - How to pick a product
00:14:48 - The 9-figure product filter
00:16:00 - Unit economics and ROAS targets
00:23:45 - Creative strategy and awareness stages
00:28:54 - The 7-pod creative team and leaderboard
00:32:37 - Intent over volume: the one-shot-kill doctrine
00:35:04 - Ad channel breakdown: Meta, Google/YouTube, TikTok
00:37:21 - The Amazon effect: how channels feed each other
00:41:13 - Funnel strategy: pre-landers and listicles
00:47:00 - Upsells and AOV
00:50:36 - Brand building vs performance marketing
00:54:07 - Long-term brand building and R&D
00:55:59 - Cash flow and scaling infrastructure
00:59:07 - Where ecom is heading
01:01:00 - Emotional marketing: angles as emotions
01:04:45 - The AI stack
01:10:57 - Omnichannel strategy
01:17:33 - Building a brand holding: the long-term vision
01:23:49 - The real moat in ecom
01:28:34 - The foundation for scale

📘 Full playbook from this episode (free): https://links.elevatorgoods.com/episodes/notorious-foodie 

Every framework Notorious broke down - the 6 revenue streams, the creator-to-brand launch sequence, the content flywheel behind Notorious Cookware. Bookmark it.

20M+ followers. Instead of maxing out brand deals, he built a real business. Monish sits down with Notorious Foodie to break down how.

00:00 Intro
00:47 The anonymous food diary — 5 years, zero monetization
04:38 Steak 101: the TikTok video that hit 10M overnight
10:49 When the first brand deals came in
20:22 One-man-band era: editing, negotiating, pricing on intuition
22:11 The 6 pillars of a creator business
27:28 The delegation mistake every creator makes
32:05 Notorious Cookware: why start with a chopping board
35:42 Designing the chef's knife in Japan
37:36 The affiliate-driven content flywheel
39:07 Why creator product launches flop — and why his didn't
42:03 Zero paid ads, zero CAC
44:52 Short-term drop vs. long-term brand
52:21 The fastest way to kill your creator brand
01:02:44 The face reveal
01:06:44 How creators should actually use AI in 2026
01:18:22 The 6 pillars, recapped

🔗 ELEVATOR
Website: https://links.elevatorgoods.com/
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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0mXtIpIq4driEruAccEqkL

🎙️ GUEST
Notorious Foodie: https://www.instagram.com/notorious_foodie/

MODERATOR
Monish Sabnani is a Managing Partner at Elevator Goods. 
X: https://x.com/msabnani93
LinkedIn:   / monishsabnani  

#ElevatorTalks #NotoriousFoodie #CreatorEconomy #dtc

Danny Yeung turned a dinner with David Beckham into the fastest-growing supplement brand on record. In 12 months. We break down exactly how - the product, the partnerships, the unit economics, and what most DTC brands get completely wrong.

—
0:00 Intro
0:03 The David Beckham dinner
3:31 Building the formula
13:53 Month one: $581K
15:46 Why 98% D2C
20:38 Paid ads at scale
25:18 The unit economics
34:54 Operations at hypergrowth
42:13 Running a public company
45:36 Stock drop from $1B to $50M
53:37 Eating problems for breakfast
58:00 The moment that stands out
1:02:13 Advice for founders

About Elevator Goods:
Elevator Goods is the home for modern DTC. We build brands, back creators, and bring founders together through capital, free education, and community.

Learn More: https://links.elevatorgoods.com/

About the Moderator:
Monish Sabnani is a Managing Partner at Elevator Goods. 

X: https://x.com/msabnani93
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monishsabnani/

Roman Khan runs $200M+/year in ecommerce across multiple brands.

In 2018, he nearly went bankrupt. That moment changed everything. In this conversation, he shares:
→ The supplier framework that protects your cash flow
→ Why world-class operators run single digit opex
→ His hiring philosophy (and why he avoids US talent)
→ The micromanagement system he swears by
→ How to budget when you can't predict supply chain
→ Where he's putting his time and money in 2025

No surface-level advice. We share the frameworks that scale.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:30 Q4 Learnings and What Went Wrong
6:51 Building for Exit vs Quick Cash
11:55 Planning the Next 5 Years
20:03 Origin Story
31:01 From Rocket Internet to Peak 21
38:00 Inventory Management Framework
53:29 Day in the Life at $200M/Year
1:04:17 The Micromanagement System
1:10:04 Why You Should Avoid Hiring in America
1:18:41 Company Culture and Retention
1:26:00 Investment Strategy
1:31:13 Where the Alpha is Going: SEO, Reddit, TikTok
1:35:42 Rapid Fire Questions

About Elevator Goods:
Elevator Goods is the home for modern DTC. We build brands, back creators, and bring founders together through capital, free education, and community.

Learn More: https://elevatorgoods.com/

About the Moderator:
Monish Sabnani is a Managing Partner at Elevator Goods. 

X: https://x.com/msabnani93
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monishsabnani/