Minds of Ecommerce

Alec Avedissian is the Co-founder and CEO of RAREFORM, an innovative brand that recycles vinyl billboards into one-of-a-kind bags, backpacks, and accessories. With over a decade of experience in entrepreneurship, Alec has led RAREFORM from its roots as a surf bag company to a thriving eight-figure ecommerce business, recycling 80% of billboard materials in the US. He is passionate about sustainability, creative product design, and building purpose-driven brands that adapt to market needs.

Pivoting too late can be fatal, and moving too fast can derail a growing brand. For ecommerce founders, knowing when and how to shift product lines or business models is a constant challenge — especially at scale. How can established brands embrace strategic pivots without alienating customers or sacrificing momentum?

For Alec Avedissian, an expert in sustainable product development and vertical brand growth, tuning into market signals helped RAREFORM drive major strategic decisions. Alec explains that rather than forcing underperforming products to work, brands must lean into data, customer behavior, and gut instinct to identify scalable opportunities. He also reveals how building multiple business segments — including B2C, B2B, and recycling services — enabled the brand's diversification and resilience. Product iterations, he emphasizes, should be informed by timeless design trends while remaining flexible to let go of what doesn't work.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Alec Avedissian, Co-founder and CEO of RAREFORM, about the art of timely pivots in ecommerce. Alec discusses how diversifying revenue streams sustains growth, the importance of knowing when to abandon a product, and why timeless design outweighs trend-chasing. He also delves into gut instinct in leadership, business evolution over revolution, and the lessons he'd apply if starting over.

Liza Roeser is the Founder and CEO of FiftyFlowers, an innovative online floral retailer that delivers farm-fresh flowers directly to customers across the US. Her journey began in the early 1990s with the Peace Corps in Ecuador, where she developed a passion for the floral industry and later spent over a decade building relationships with sustainable farms worldwide. Under her leadership, FiftyFlowers has grown into a multimillion-dollar business with over a million orders delivered. A serial entrepreneur, Liza also founded Flower Fix, Farm Exports, Inc., and The Flower CEO, where she shares insights on entrepreneurship, ecommerce, and the floral industry.

Hiring the right people is hard — keeping them in the right roles as your company scales is even harder. When a business evolves from startup to eight and nine figures, the team that got you there might not be the team to take you further. How do you reassess your structure without disrupting momentum or compromising your culture?

Liza Roeser, a leader in the floral ecommerce space, offers hard-won lessons on navigating team restructuring during rapid growth. Liza emphasizes the power of the "right people, right seats" philosophy from Jim Collins and how using tools like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) framework and the GWC analysis can help leaders make data-backed decisions about personnel. She also highlights the importance of onboarding rigor, cultural alignment, and frequent evaluations to catch misalignments early. Through constant, value-driven contact across all stages of the customer journey, brands can improve customer engagement, especially when the product experience is deeply emotional or tied to milestone events.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Liza Roeser, Founder and CEO of FiftyFlowers, about building high-performing teams while scaling. Liza shares how she uses EOS to evaluate team alignment, why founder-led marketing builds deeper trust, and how expectation management creates lifelong customer advocates.

Kareem Elgendy is the Chief Executive Officer of Veiled, an eight-figure fashion brand for Muslim women. Under his leadership, Veiled has achieved impressive growth, with consistent revenue increases and a strong emphasis on analytics to optimize the company's ecommerce strategy. Kareem previously served as a Senior Marketing Strategist at Baked Bouquet and held project management roles at Frank Seta & Associates. His multifaceted background, including roles as a sustainability expert, software engineer, and unit manager in banking, adds a unique perspective to his approach in the fashion industry.

Ecommerce founders often face mounting pressure to make quick decisions without clear data, leading to stalled growth and missed opportunities. From inconsistent revenues to underperforming SKUs, using analytics to guide merchandising and marketing plans can make a huge impact on profitability. What if you could cut through the noise and confidently steer your brand using data-driven insights tailored to your business?

Kareem Elgendy, an expert in ecommerce analytics and merchandising, shares how a strategic focus on data dashboards and inventory insights has helped his brand grow consistently — surpassing 70% year-over-year growth. Kareem emphasizes the importance of understanding every metric inside and out, using internal scripts, Google Cloud tools, and custom dashboards to analyze traffic, stock velocity, and product demand. He outlines a practical merchandising framework that breaks down collections by category, style, color, and size, ensuring supply aligns with proven demand. Kareem's approach emphasizes the importance of founders remaining curious and optimistic about what their numbers reveal.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Kareem Elgendy, CEO of Veiled, about leveraging analytics to drive fashion ecommerce growth. Kareem shares how data-informed merchandising decisions lead to more consistent revenue and dives into daily performance tracking, marketing efficiency, and forecasting demand using internal algorithms.

Justin Soleimani is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Tumble, a Los Angeles-based company specializing in machine-washable, spillproof rugs designed for modern living. Before establishing Tumble in 2021, he worked as a consultant at Bain & Company, advising clients across various industries. Justin holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Emory University, where he met his Co-founder, Zach Dannett. Under their leadership, Tumble has grown significantly, scaling to high eight-figures in revenue within four years.

Zach Dannett is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Tumble. Before Tumble, he served as the General Merchandise Manager and Buyer & Merchandiser for Outdoor Furniture at Noble House Home Furnishings, LLC and as an Investment Management Associate at BBR Partners. Zach earned his BBA in Finance from Emory University's Goizueta Business School in 2011, where he met his Co-founder, Justin Soleimani.

Breaking into the ecommerce ecosystem with a physical product — especially a large one like rugs — comes with unique logistical and financial hurdles. From expensive shipping costs to supply chain inefficiencies, many startups fail to develop a sustainable model. How did a product-focused, bootstrapped brand scale successfully without sacrificing profitability?

Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett, experts in DTC product development and operations, tackled this challenge head-on by designing a modular, collapsible rug that's easier and less expensive to ship. Justin and Zach spent over 15 months perfecting their design before launching, focusing on optimizing everything from the product's dimensions to its warehousing footprint. They emphasize the value of focusing on profitability from day one by cutting out unnecessary SKUs, refining your supply chain, and tailoring offerings to fit consumer needs and carrier constraints.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of Tumble, about building a nearly nine-figure DTC brand. They share how product-first thinking drove early success using the value of modular design, shipping optimization, and bootstrapping strategies. Tune in for insights on crowdfunding, curated product assortments, and manufacturing challenges.

Matt Johnson is the Co-founder and CEO of Omnia Fishing, an innovative ecommerce platform that personalizes tackle shopping through map-based technology and community engagement. In 2010, he co-founded Contour Innovations, developing the lake mapping platform Insight Genesis, which was acquired by Lowrance in 2014. Matt also co-founded Able Seedhouse and Brewery in Northeast Minneapolis. An avid angler, he has fished globally, from lake trout in Lake Superior's Apostle Islands to yellowtail kingfish in New Zealand.

Choosing the right product online can feel overwhelming — especially when selection depends on real-time local conditions. Shoppers want confidence in their purchases, but traditional ecommerce sites rarely offer personalized guidance. How can brands use data and technology to craft intelligent shopping experiences that encourage customer loyalty and keep shoppers returning?

Matt Johnson, a technology-focused entrepreneur with a passion for fishing and consumer behavior, offers a deep dive into how his team solved this exact challenge. Matt shares how leveraging spatial data, community-sourced fishing reports, and real-time environmental conditions can create a highly personalized customer journey. By prioritizing the user experience through features like AI-powered recommendations, location-specific data, and a content-to-commerce loop, Matt explains how other brands can think beyond the product to create meaningful, loyalty-driving experiences.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin Daigle interviews Matt Johnson, Co-founder and CEO of Omnia Fishing, about creating a tech-powered, customer-centric ecommerce platform. Matt discusses how to scale a data-first MVP, why a subscription model complements the shopping experience, and how mapping tools increase repeat purchase rates.

William Goodall is the Founder of Bay Smokes, a national cannabis company specializing in high-quality smokable hemp products. Under his leadership, Bay Smokes has expanded its product line to include THC, CBD, Delta-8, and other plant-based medicines, gaining a significant following on social media platforms. William studied biomedical engineering at Arizona State University before leaving to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. His innovative approach to marketing and product development has positioned Bay Smokes as a prominent brand in the evolving cannabis industry.

How do you grow a brand when traditional marketing channels are off-limits? For companies in highly regulated industries, scaling without access to Meta Ads, Google, or standard influencer strategies can feel nearly impossible. What's the secret to building momentum — and maintaining it — when your best growth tools keep getting shut down?

William Goodall, an expert in social-first marketing strategies, uses his cannabis venture as a compelling case study for navigating and succeeding in a restrictive advertising environment. William began by creating viral, humorous video content and distributing it through meme pages during a time of lax social media moderation. When platforms cracked down and accounts were deleted, he pivoted — experimenting with new social trends, empowering team members to own acquisition channels, and forming profit-sharing partnerships with celebrities to access fresh audiences. William emphasizes the value of rapid testing, staying agile as rules shift, and the need for tight budget oversight when scaling rapidly.

In this episode of the Minds of Ecommerce podcast, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews William Goodall, Founder of Bay Smokes, about growing a cannabis brand without relying on traditional advertising. William explores alternative acquisition strategies, building "closed-loop" systems, and learning from marketing missteps. Tune in for insights on managing influencer partnerships, leveraging social trends, aligning team structure with growth, and keeping business partners motivated.

Kyle Ewing is the Founder and CEO of TerraSlate Paper, a company specializing in high-quality waterproof and rip-proof paper products. After leaving the corporate world in 2014, he launched Guerrilla Tags ID Systems, which experienced rapid growth and was acquired in 2015. Building on his entrepreneurial success, Kyle established TerraSlate in 2015, growing it into a multimillion-dollar company serving clients in over 85 countries. A serial entrepreneur with ventures across multiple industries, he is also the Chairman of Windward Equity and Owner of Big Island Honey Co.

Many entrepreneurs struggle to scale unconventional products online, especially when traditional ecommerce strategies don't apply. Without a clear target audience, a defined marketing approach, or a way to showcase the product's unique value, reaching new customers can be unattainable. So how can businesses selling niche products break through the noise and achieve significant growth?

Serial entrepreneur Kyle Ewing shares his journey from cold-calling in his living room to scaling a multimillion-dollar business. He emphasizes the importance of direct customer conversations, using cold outreach to refine messaging and validate demand before investing in paid ads. Kyle also highlights the necessity of visual storytelling, explaining why mock-ups and video demonstrations outperform traditional product photography for complex or unconventional products. Additionally, he shares how integrating tools like "Buy with Prime" can increase customer trust and conversions.

In this episode of Minds of Ecommerce, Raphael Paulin Daigle interviews Kyle Ewing, Founder and CEO of TerraSlate Paper, about scaling niche products through ecommerce and B2B sales. Kyle discusses how early customer outreach shaped his growth strategy, why visual branding matters for non-traditional products, and the importance of hiring top talent early. He also shares insights on leveraging Amazon's checkout system, balancing direct sales with online orders, and optimizing website conversions.

Myriam Belzile-Maguire is the Founder and Designer at Maguire Shoes, an independent fashion footwear and accessories brand based in Montreal, Canada. Co-owned by Myriam and her sister, Romy, the award-winning brand has built a strategic presence in digital and physical marketplaces. Under Myriam's leadership, Maguire Shoes operates boutiques in Montreal, Toronto, and New York and was honored with the Emerging Talent Award in Accessories at the 2022 Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards. Before founding Maguire, Myriam designed for dozens of renowned brands, such as Opening Ceremony, and held creative positions at United Colors of Benetton in Italy and Aldo Group in Montreal.

Expanding an ecommerce brand can be challenging, especially when online sales plateau and customer acquisition costs rise. Many brands struggle to find ways to scale beyond digital advertising and wonder if brick-and-mortar stores are worth the investment. How can physical retail locations drive online growth instead of competing with it?

With experience growing a thriving fashion brand, Myriam Belzile-Maguire has navigated the challenges of blending retail and ecommerce to fuel her brand's expansion. Initially starting with a Shopify website, Myriam realized that participating in local markets and opening physical stores significantly boosted online traffic and sales. The strategy involved a mix of pop-up events and permanent retail locations, allowing customers to experience the brand first-hand, which in turn drove them to shop online. Myriam demonstrates how creating a seamless customer experience across all channels, engaging local communities, and using data-driven strategies like using pop-ups to test new markets can boost online conversions.

In this episode of Minds of Ecommerce, Raphael Paulin-Daigle interviews Myriam Belzile-Maguire, Founder and Designer at Maguire Shoes, about how retail stores can supercharge ecommerce growth. Myriam discusses the balance between physical and digital sales channels, the strategy behind pop-up shops, and her unique "wardrobe system" that converts in-store visitors into repeat online customers. Tune in to discover how strategic retail moves can elevate your brand's online presence.

Cherene Aubert is the VP of Digital and Ecommerce at ILIA Beauty, an LA-based cosmetics brand, where she leads the charge in digital innovation and sales transformation. With a history of driving growth for over 100 DTC brands and managing nearly $300 million in media spend, Cherene's expertise spans from Series A startups to established companies post-acquisition. Her strategic mind was pivotal at Bobby, a DTC brand that soared to nine figures in revenue in just two years. Specializing in offer testing, Cherene's approach to marketing is data-driven, customer-focused, and geared toward maximizing ROI.

Are you looking to scale your online presence and sales but unsure where to start? What truly drives an ecommerce business from modest sales to astronomical revenue figures? What if the answer lies in the subtle art of offer testing?

Cherene Aubert, a veteran who has scaled over 100 DTC ecommerce businesses, delves deep into the strategy of offer testing. Cherene explains how an offer, not marketing alone, can dramatically slice through market noise, seizing customer interest like a magnet. From infant formula to beauty products, she illustrates how understanding customer psychology and crafting tailored entry-level offers can reduce acquisition costs and skyrocket sales. Cherene underscores the need for meticulous planning, cross-functional collaboration, and prioritizing testing within business operations, all woven together by her extensive experience and vivid real-world examples.

Tune in to this episode of Minds of Ecommerce as Raphael Paulin-Daigle welcomes Cherene Aubert, the VP of Digital and Ecommerce at ILIA Beauty, about leveraging offer testing strategies. Cherene uncovers the thought process and methods behind creating compelling offers that intrigue and convert new customers into loyal patrons. She dives into strategies for exponential growth and how to prioritize and systematically approach offer testing to find your winning formula.

Chris Gallant is the CEO of Chamberlain Coffee, a thriving coffee, matcha, and tea brand founded by renowned YouTube influencer Emma Chamberlain. Launched in 2019, Chamberlain Coffee has expanded from an online DTC brand to rapidly branching out to over 10,000 stores nationwide. With over 15 years of experience in commercial beverage management, Chris spearheads the brand's growth strategy and expansion. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, bringing insights into growing brands with a focus on product quality and consumer behaviors for sustained growth.

Can celebrity appeal translate into exponential growth for a brand? With the right marketing strategy and engaging presence, a celebrity-backed product can move from revered status to regular purchase, sustaining itself in the highly competitive retail environment. However, how do you draw the line between leveraging influencer fame and establishing an independent brand identity?

Beverage growth strategist Chris Gallant takes listeners through Chamberlain Coffee's birth during the pandemic and the brand's monumental expansion within four years. Highlighting the impact of Founder Emma Chamberlain's genuine connection to the brand, he maintains the value of aligning with your target audience to stay ahead of competitors. Additionally, he emphasizes the importance of having a well-planned expansion to retail, secure funding, and an adaptive supply chain while maintaining individuality from the celebrity founder. Chris' approach prioritizes developing a compelling marketing plan to drive product velocity in retail stores, adopting an omnichannel strategy, and catering to diverse shopping behaviors to maximize reach.

In his episode of Minds of Ecommerce, Raphael Paulin-Daigle chats with Chris Gallant, the CEO of Chamberlain Coffee, to explore the complexities of scaling a celebrity-backed DTC brand. Chris analyzes critical marketing strategies and growth channels for retail and DTC sales, hones in on consumer engagement, and shares how to balance celebrity influence and marketing drive to build a reliable, independent brand identity that resonates with a broader audience.