Operators

“Better is probably the worst word you could use in marketing.” 

How can a DTC brand stand out in a category full of identical promises? 

Matt Orlić (Co-Founder, Qure Skincare) joins Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) and Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) to break down why brand positioning beats a better product. Each story shows how a brand can win a crowded category without inventing anything new. 

Qure’s water filters beat Jolie’s on technology and patents, yet Orlić can’t out-position them. Mike explains how Yeti took Thermos’s 1800s vacuum insulation and sold it for cold drinks. Once a position works, competitors move in, and the founders debate how to hold it. 

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Fulfil 

https://9ops.co/fulfil 

Northbeam 

https://9ops.co/northbeam 

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“We know how to run ads. This is a playbook.” 

How should you market a new DTC brand in its first six weeks? 

Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Curtis Christopherson (Chief Growth Officer, Ammortal) hold the Winks marketing plan up against the results since launch. 

They built the brand for moms, yet men keep showing up to buy. Meta CPMs hit $800 until a free account fix and a smaller budget turned them around. Now creators and credible doctors have to bring CAC down to $100 before they scale. 

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https://9ops.co/outersignal 

Richpanel 

https://9ops.co/richpanel 

Runneth 

https://9ops.co/motion-runneth 

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“It’s about closing the imagination gap, not what it can do.” 

Jessica Schinazi (CEO, Away) joins Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) to break down how she took the reins of a decade-old DTC pioneer and opened it to new channels in 18 months. 

Away builds luggage to last 7 to 10 years, which Jessica calls a horrible business model. She chases new buyers: Up to 9% of her Amazon category and a $400 suitcase sold out on TikTok Shop. Now she has to bring each customer home before a day-one startup steals them. 

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Shoplift 

https://shoplift.ai/operators 

Shiphero 

https://9ops.co/shiphero-titans 

“You can have anything you want, but you can’t have it all at once.” 

Should you raise money when your only problem is working capital? 

Help an Operator Out (HAOO) is a series where real business owners join the podcast with live questions. In this episode, TJ Bongiorno (Founder, The Outgoing Co) brings two questions: when to raise capital and how to price the round. As a solo founder, he 4X’d the business to nearly $4M in a year. 

Nearly 90% of TJ’s revenue comes from powder, yet his cans perform 100X better on TikTok Shop. The hosts push him to choose which product leads his pitch. Matt makes the case for a price where investors win easily. Caught between seed funds and VCs, TJ needs a deal the right investors will take. 

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Richpanel 

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Northbeam 

https://9ops.co/northbeam 

Saras Analytics 

https://9ops.co/saras 

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“They’re the most capable ever, but not trained on your business.”

What pillars should every AI-first brand build, and which one comes first? 

Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) open up the playbook behind Winks, a brand where AI does the grunt work and humans make the calls. Piece by piece, they break down the four components that make that split work. 

1. Company brain: Context, memory, skills 

2. Operating system (OS): Human interface 

3. Software and tools: Existing tech, SaaS 

4. Agents: Researcher, writer, analyst, etc. 

The era of “prompt engineering” is over. Company context lets agents upload ads and match landing pages without being told twice. Yet AI tools still misread research, which leaves one question: How much can you trust them? 

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https://9ops.co/tbarpartners 

OuterSignal 

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“You’re never gonna make a big impact on Black Friday.”

Should you worry if frequent promotions will hurt your brand equity?

Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) break down how Ridge manufactures demand instead of waiting for it. A slow summer becomes an 8-figure-plus sales season, anchored by a Lamborghini sweepstakes with Tony Hawk. 

Sean walks through how the campaign evolved from a $100K MVP into a five year, celebrity backed giveaway with a grand prize built in. He explains why a 45-day window beats trying to own a single day like Black Friday. The hosts continue to cover why a wider product catalog creates more natural sales peaks throughout the year. 

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“You almost feel stupid buying the product as a one-time customer.”

Why do some subscription brands retain customers and stack LTV while others lose them?

Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) sit down with Aidan Thibodeaux (CEO, Skio) and Bernard Meyer (AI Operations Manager, Omnisend) to ask the questions every subscription brand needs answered.

Aidan argues that the offer matters more than anything else. He pushes quarterly plans and free gifts over discounts. Discounts train customers to wait for deals. He sets targets of 65% or higher for subscription take rate, 80–90% retention into the second order, and 35% at six months.

Bernard lays out the post-purchase basics, including a welcome email that sets expectations and check-ins after delivery. The group also debates when to ask for reviews, roasts Winks’ current buy box, then closes with quick skip buttons, subject line tests, and win back emails built on cancel flow data.

The question every subscription company needs to answer: What exactly are you promising a subscriber with recurring orders?

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How did First Day raise $1M and then build a 9-figure brand?

Alice Li (Founder & CEO, First Day) joins Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Jason Panzer (President, HexClad) to unpack how she has sold over half a billion gummies and built a family wellness empire around kids’ vitamins.

After years of turning down retailers, First Day launched nationwide and became the number one kids vitamin in the country.

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Shiphero 

https://9ops.co/shiphero-titans 

SARAL 

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“The best Black Friday offers don’t just increase orders, they increase AOV.”

Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case x Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) share the Black Friday & Cyber Monday tips they rely on every year. Every tactic comes from hard-won experience over decades of combined holiday wins and losses.

They break down why every Black Friday deal needs a backup, sometimes even a worse one, ready to launch. Mike explains why spotlight bias makes old creative beat anything new. Matt shares the upsell that added a million dollars. Small moves like these are what separate a good quarter from a record one. 

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Saras Analytics 

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“The amount of effort that we put in to start does not have any meaningful correlation with the success at the end.” 

When you get delayed and deprioritized by your co-manufacturer, your timeline slips by almost a year, and you still have zero sales, what do you have to show for 18 months of work? 

Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela & Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Curtis Christopherson (Chief Growth Officer, Ammortal), and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) reunite one month from launch to close the loop on everything that went wrong. 

Physical product is in hand. Five thousand units for their very first purchase order. Now, the hard part. 

Sean raises the question nobody wants to answer: is powder still the right format in 2026? Mike does the math on what 14,000 families means for a nine-figure exit. Cody challenges the team to hit $200 CAC in month one. Then drop it to $100. 

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Runneth 

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Omnisend 

⁠https://9ops.co/omnisend⁠ 

Richpanel 

⁠https://9ops.co/richpanel⁠ 

Operators Portal 

⁠https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard⁠ 

Operators Newsletter 

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