Ari Murray is the Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone, the premium personal care brand reinventing the deodorant category. Previously, she was Chief Growth Officer at Sharma Brands, where she led growth across dozens of consumer brands.

Expect to hear about:

– Law School to Ecom: Why she dropped out of law school, then found her footing at an ecom brand.

– Working With Celebrity Brands: What working at Kourtney Kardashian's and Halsey's beauty brands taught her.

– Agency or In-House: Her take that growth marketers should start brand-side first, and how kindness to agencies pays off.

– BFCM Sprint: What it was like joining Salt & Stone just weeks before the biggest sales weekend of the year.

– Top-of-Funnel Bet: Why she's pushing past a Meta-heavy mix into new channels and taking a longer view of the customer.

Find Ari on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/arimurray/ 

Hari Ranganathan is the Chief Digital Officer at KilgourMD, a dermatologist-founded brand tackling hormonal hair loss in women. Previously, he held senior roles at celebrity-backed brands like Haus Labs and The Honest Company.

Expect to hear about:

– Engineer to Marketer: How a Dartmouth mechanical engineer fell in love with the world of ecommerce and analytics.

– Lean and Hybrid: Why 60+ person teams in Ecom circa 2012 are giving way to agile in-house leads plus agency support.

– Love the Game: Hari's take that since growth marketing changes so fast, you have to love the game to stay on the cutting edge.

– Leading the Team: His lesson that senior marketing leaders have to maiximize each team member's strengths instead of stretching star players too thin.

– A False Dichotomy: Why he stopped believing brand and performance marketing are separate.

Find Hari on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/harinarayanan-ranganathan-9387961b/ 

Jess Hauff is the General Manager of PrettyLitter, a cat litter brand acquired by Mars in 2021 that uses silica crystals that change color to flag early signs of health issues in cats. 

Expect to hear about: 

– A Decade in Madrid: Why Jess spent 10 years in Spain before returning to the U.S., and the work culture differences she noticed. 

– Leading the Merger: How Jess steered PrettyLitter's integration with Mars, and how she got the "soft tissue" of culture right. 

– Becoming a Household Name: How PrettyLitter is expanding into retail and why being on physical shelves builds trust that DTC alone could not. 

– Building the Leadership Team: The key hires Jess has made – CMO, head of retail sales, R&D leader – to take PrettyLitter to the next level. 

– There's No Playbook: What Jess changed her mind on after 20 years in ecom, and why she's learning to trust her instincts more. 

Find Jess on: 
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicahauff/

Daniel Brady (DB) is the co-founder and co-CEO of Orita, an AI segmentation platform that helps DTC brands target their maximally addressable audience across email, SMS, and direct mail. 

Expect to hear about: 

– From Neuro to AI: Why DB left a career in neurobiology after graduating Harvard after realizing he enjoyed the faster pace of startup work. 

– Consulting to Product: How DB ran Orita as an ecom consulting shop for years to find the AI-related services worth productizing. 

– No Shortcut at Scale: Why brands with multi-million-profile CRM lists can't replace real human CRM expertise with plug-and-play LLMs. 

– Evaluating AI Vendors: DB suggests don't focus on AI to start. Focus on the most painful problem you have to solve anyway, then ask if AI can help. 

– Where AI Hits Hardest Next: Why DB sees inventory, demand planning, and fraud prevention as Ecom's biggest near-term AI opportunities. 

Find DB on: 
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmbrady01/ 

Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a functional health CPG brand built around protein bars, electrolyte mixes, mushroom coffee, and more.

Expect to hear about:

– Harvard Connections: Why Will scraped Harvard's red book to send thousands of alumni his first fundraising emails.

– Value Over Premium: Why Will optimizes for units sold over revenue, and how value pricing unlocked Walmart, Costco, and Sam's Club.

– The Hub and Spoke Model: How a flat 15-person team and agency partnerships scale revenue without scaling the team.

– Marriage and Business: What it takes to run IQBAR alongside his wife Jessica, who serves as CMO.

– Built to Sell: Why hitting profitability mattered more than any milestone, and how exiting brands now must have $100M+ in sales.

Find Will on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/

Marnie Rabinovitch is the founder and CEO of Thigh Society, a Toronto-based brand making slip shorts that prevent thigh chafing for women.

Expect to hear about:

– The Baby Powder Moment: How a hot Toronto day in 2008 convinced Marnie to invent her own slip short solution.

– Quitting at 40: Why she applied for backup corporate jobs, set a $1M sales goal, and only went all-in with a real safety net.

– One Hero Product: Why she resisted pressure to expand into camisoles and bralettes and stayed in the slip-short lane.

– Lean and Remote: How she built a team of FTEs and freelancers and the agency lessons that shaped her hiring playbook.

– Health Is Wealth: Marnie's guiding principle for 17 years: make the business work for you, not the other way around.

Find Marnie on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marnieconsky/

Shawn LaRowe is the Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Pelican, the 50-year-old brand known for its ultra-durable protective cases. Previously, he spent 17 years at Nike and has also held executive roles at Dakine, KUIU, and Filson. 

Expect to hear about: 

– 74 Product Launches in 2025: How Pelican is expanding past its protective case core into categories like travel while protecting the values that built the brand.

– Broadening the Base: Why Pelican's professional-grade reputation signals quality but can feel intimidating, and how they're making the brand accessible to a wider audience.

– Listening Becomes Product: How years of requests for in-case lighting turned into ModLight, a launch that's blowing up on social.

– Modernizing the Stack: The Shopify and Klaviyo migration that unlocked a 360 consumer view and new retention possibilities.

– Product Plus Marketing: What marketers can learn from product managers, and how living in both worlds gave Shawn an edge in his career.

Find Shawn on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnlarowe/ 

Melissa Mash is the co-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover, a New York-based performance bag brand creating functional bags for work, travel, parenting, and everything in between.

Expect to hear about:

– A 14-Year Partnership: How three co-founders built a lasting business together by putting their egos to the side and showing up as their full selves.

– Product Over Paid: Why Melissa bet on making higher quality bags instead of bigger ad budgets, driving 50% organic site traffic through word of mouth.

– Tariffs as a Reset: How tariffs forced price increases, supply chain renegotiations, and a 50% cut in ad spend (without losing demand).

– Women's Sports Bet: Why Dagne Dover secured sponsorships with LOVB Volleyball and the US women's national volleyball team.

– Going Global: How Melissa's time at Coach taught her to never rush international expansion, and their plan to become a global brand.

Find Melissa on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissashinmash/ 

Isaac Mertens is the co-founder and CEO of Flux Footwear, a minimalist shoe brand that focuses on style and performance doing mid-8-figure annual revenue. 

Expect to hear about: 

– Etsy to Ecom: How Isaac scaled a furniture brand to 7 figures on Etsy, and why not owning demand pushed him to start Flux. 

– Financial Discipline: How his accounting background shaped a zero-debt, no-VC business with a focus on contribution margin and cash flow. 

– Amazon Breakout: The playbook behind going from $0 to $10M on Amazon in 2025. 

– Finding Hidden Growth: How niche personas (from Disney-goers to truck drivers) unlocked new Meta scale in a crowded ad landscape.  

– The Mission Behind Flux: Why Isaac cares more about creating genuine value for customers than selling the next trendy item. 

Find Isaac on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-mertens-5b107964/

Hector Hughes is the co-founder and CEO of Unplugged, a company offering tech-free cabin stays that help people disconnect from their phones and reset in nature. 

Expect to hear about:

– Origin Moment: How a 10-day silent retreat in the Himalayas in 2019 pushed Hector to quit his job and start Unplugged just weeks later.

– The Hard Part: Why it took 5 years to truly figure out the unit economics and revenue model, and his lessons from asset-heavy scaling.

– Who It’s Really For: Why 80% of guests are couples, and how three days offline can reshape (or end) relationships.

– Betting on Brand: How betting on brand marketing in 2025 created "brand heat" and cut CAC by 30-40% in a matter of months.

– Founder Evolution: Hector’s shift from fear-driven hustle to a more sustainable, long-term approach to leadership and life.

Find Hector on:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hector-hughes-10082195/