They ran their best vitamin ad on Grindr; they launch 4,000 ads every month, and they routinely push compliance to find the edges, all while turning losses into lessons. Join us in this SubSummit episode as Direct Meds’ Adam Pivko reveals how risky creative, relentless testing, and an AI‑driven engine of experiments deliver massive growth in healthcare, and why playing it safe might be the riskiest move of all.

In this episode, Doug and Adam Pivko discuss:

• Performance marketing as data acquisition, not just revenue generation
• High-velocity creative testing: 4,000+ ads monthly for insights
• Balancing provocative creative with compliance in healthcare advertising
• Full-funnel optimization: CPA vs LTV and last-click attribution focus
• AI and internal tooling powering creative scale and customer experience

 Key Takeaways:

• Treat media buying as data acquisition and learn more from failed ads than occasional early successes.
• Run thousands of inexpensive static ad variants rapidly across platforms to identify winning creative angles before investing in expensive productions and scaling.
• Balance bold creative with legal collaboration to push boundaries while staying compliant safely and ethically.
• Focus on CPA relative to LTV using last click attribution for immediate performance signals while investing in customer service, product delivery, operational excellence, and retention strategies to convert acquisitions into patients who maximize lifetime value.
• Build internal AI tooling and orchestration to scale creative production and insights while retaining human agents for empathetic, high-complexity healthcare customer care interactions.

“One of our best performing ad campaigns of all time for a personalized vitamin brand was on Grindr. We ran: “put something healthy in your mouth for once,” and it like blew up.” - Adam Pivko

About the guest, Adam Pivko, and Direct Meds:

Adam Pivko is the Chief Marketing Officer at Direct Meds and a long-time operator in the recurring revenue and subscription space. At Direct Meds, he focuses on building and scaling high-volume, high-value creative engines, leveraging a “creative ladder” framework to systematically test and improve ad performance. His company is Direct Meds.

Adam’s company, Direct Meds LLC, bridges the gap between customers and affordable, convenient telemedicine prescriptions. Their streamlined platform offers access to a robust network of board-certified doctors and a dedicated nursing layer, providing personalized support to help you achieve your health goals.

Complete a quick medical questionnaire, receive approval from Direct Meds’ healthcare team, and have your prescriptions shipped directly to your door—all without the need for insurance.

Connect with Adam Pivko:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adampivko/ 

Company: https://www.tryautumn.com/ |  https://directmeds.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Want to know how Dollar Shave Club turned a one-product gimmick into a multi-product routine that sticks? Tune in as Melanie Fox spills the lifecycle playbook, recency–frequency–monetary flows, churn scoring, trial swaps, and the exact moments they nudge customers from blades to a full bathroom routine.

In this episode, Doug Sandler and Melanie Fox discuss:

• Full grooming routine expansion
• Platform migrations and scaling
• Data-driven personalization and split testing
• Email-led retention and one-click actions
• Recency–frequency–monetary flows and churn scoring for segmentation

 Key Takeaways:

• Dollar Shave Club evolved from a single-product razor delivery into a multi-category brand by expanding product lines, targeting household adoption, and emphasizing routines to boost loyalty and lifetime value sustainably.
• Email remains the fastest channel for testing and learning customer behaviors at scale.
• Implementing recency–frequency–monetary flows and churn scoring enables precise lifecycle segmentation, letting teams tailor retention tactics and avoid gifting promotions to at-risk customers.
• Trial sizes and surprise samples drive trials, lowering friction to adoption and increasing chances of subscription add-ons.
• Full Story and behavioral analytics reveal real customer journeys, uncovering friction points and informing targeted product placement on account pages.

“Something that brands should look more into is additive subscriptions... if you have someone that has two or more products with you, they've developed some type of routine.” - Melanie Fox

About Melanie Fox and Dollar Shave Club:

Melanie Fox is the director of lifecycle marketing at Dollar Shave Club, bringing hands-on experience scaling retention programs, lifecycle strategy, and multi-channel messaging for a category-defining subscription brand. At Dollar Shave Club, she leads email and text messaging initiatives, drives personalization through behavioral data and split testing, and uses recency, frequency, and monetary flows along with churn scoring to precisely segment and retain subscribers. 

Under Melanie’s guidance, Dollar Shave Club evolved from a single-product razor delivery into a multi-category routine brand focused on household adoption and additive subscriptions. Melanie’s playbook emphasizes understanding real customer journeys with tools like FullStory, minimizing churn with targeted lifecycle flows, and leveraging product trials and household-focused assortment, including a new women’s line and an electric razor line, to deepen routines and increase long-term retention.

Dollar Shave Club website: https://us.dollarshaveclub.com/

Connect with Melanie Fox:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-fox-15494511b/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Bill McHenry breaks down why modern brands must treat operations as a growth lever, not just marketing, while navigating tariffs, cash-flow pressure, and the lightning-fast demands of social commerce. Expect practical lessons on vendor relationships, inventory strategy, and moving faster without breaking the business.

In this episode, Doug Sandler and Bill McHenry discuss:

• Tariffs, duties, and upfront cash impact
• Vendor relationships and communication
• Inventory strategy and demand validation
• Social commerce (TikTok) and product velocity
• E‑commerce costs and packaging/fulfillment realities

 Key Takeaways:

• Upfront tariffs and duties can drain working capital, thus only import inventory with confirmed demand or built-in financing to avoid crippling cash-flow gaps.
• Deep, proactive vendor relationships and direct communication unlock flexible terms, prioritized production, and collaborative problem-solving when supply shocks hit.
• Viral social commerce can produce sudden, massive demand that outpaces lead times and cash cycles.
• Rising per-order costs for shipping, packaging, and fulfillment are compressing margins, requiring immediate unit-economics recalculations and tests of pricing, bundling, or minimum-order thresholds.
• Integrity turns service recovery into a competitive advantage that preserves retailer trust and long-term revenue.

“The only other promise I'll make is I have integrity, and we'll follow up and follow through.” - Bill McHenry

About Bill McHenry and Widgeteer Inc:

Bill McHenry is an innovative leader in the world of sales and marketing with over 25 years of extensive corporate and entrepreneurial experience.  As a creative and energetic problem solver, Bill has helped launch a number of exciting new products and companies, building them from the ground up, including Widgeteer.  As the founder and President of Widgeteer,  Bill uses his comprehensive industry experience to bring innovative European housewares brands to North America.  As the company has grown, he has been able to grow the logistics part of the business, creating a bridge between international factories and retailers in North America. 

Throughout his noteworthy career, Bill has served in key capacities for a number of varied and high-profile companies, including Carnation, a division of Nestle Corporation, 3M, and North American Philips in upper executive positions in sales, marketing, and business development sectors. 

Widgeteer Inc website: https://www.audible.com/about 

Connect with Bill McHenry:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billmchenry/ 

Email: [email protected] 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Bolong Li explains how AI slashes time-to-market for international launches while arguing that human judgment and local relevance remain the decisive advantages for building trust in new markets. Learn the three-phase playbook Audible used to expand globally and practical guidance on when to automate and when to localize.

In this episode, Doug Sandler and Bolong Li discuss:

• AI-driven efficiency vs. human judgment
• Localization vs. globalization trade-offs
• Market entry sequencing (phase-based approach)
• Cultural behavior and channel differences
• Pricing, offers, and willingness-to-pay variations

 Key Takeaways:

• AI helps with repetitive tasks, but rarely replaces brand-level taste and judgment.
• Treat market entry as phased experiments: start with similar markets, then add language localization, then tackle fundamentally different markets.
• Local channels, partners, and trust mechanisms (e.g., KOLs, messaging apps) determine how customers discover and adopt brands.
• Offers and pricing must reflect market maturity and customer familiarity.
• Use AI for synthesis and insight (e.g., reviews, SEO, app store optimization) to prioritize fixes, then apply local human oversight to craft culturally relevant campaigns.

“AI is actually raising the floor for a lot of the operations, but it doesn't necessarily raise the ceiling.” - Bolong Li

About Bolong Li and Amazon Audible:

Bolong Li is Amazon Audible's Head of Global Acquisition and Core Retention, leading the company's end-to-end membership growth strategy. Audible, an Amazon company, is a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, offering audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals to millions of listeners worldwide.

Since joining Audible in 2013, Bolong has built expertise across customer retention and acquisition, helping shape how audiences discover and enjoy audio content. Recognized by Forbes as one of the Outstanding Chinese leaders in North America, he believes great leadership is measured not only by business results, but also by continuous learning, compassion, and personal growth.

Amazon Audible website: https://www.audible.com/about 

Connect with Bolong Li:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolongli/ 

Audible Profile: https://www.audiblecareers.com/Meet-Bolong-Li 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Building a product people love isn't always enough, especially if they never need to buy it again. Eric shares why he shifted from durable grooming tools to replenishable oral care, and how embracing constant experimentation helped him uncover bigger opportunities.

In this episode, Host of E-Commerce Conversations Eric Bandholz and CEO of Ollie Eric Steckling discuss:

• Building durable vs. essential consumable product businesses
• The "at-bats" approach to product innovation
• Recognizing distractions versus real opportunities
• Using customer behavior to validate ideas
• Scaling through subscriptions, content, and retail

 Key Takeaways:

• A durable product can become a growth challenge when customers rarely need to buy it again.
• Treat every product launch as an affordable experiment, giving yourself more chances to discover what truly resonates with customers.
• Customer opinions are valuable, but purchases are the ultimate measure of demand.
• Knowing when to walk away from an idea can be just as important as knowing when to keep improving it.
• The strongest brands don't rely on a single growth channel; they build momentum by combining great products, compelling content, subscriptions, paid acquisition, and eventually retail.

“As long as you're making changes, as long as you know what to do next, then I think you need to keep going.” - Eric Steckling

About Eric Steckling and Ollie:

Eric Steckling is a bootstrapped direct-to-consumer founder behind Brio, a men’s grooming brand known for durable trimmers, and Ollie, an oral care brand focused on high-performance, everyday essentials like toothpaste, mouthwash, and whitening strips. He’s obsessed with product development, creative marketing (especially short-form video), and using constant “at-bats” to turn ideas into hero products that drive real customer lifetime value.

Connect with Eric Steckling and Ollie:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-steckling-95955131/ 

Website: https://olliesmile.com/

Connect with Eric Bandholz, host of ECommerce Conversations:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbandholz/?hl=en 

Website: https://www.bandholz.com 

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ecommerce-conversations/id874457373 

Join our newsletter: https://wwspodcast.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Startup CPG founder Daniel Scharff sits down with former Brightland CEO Todd Hoffman to unpack how a simple pantry staple became a premium DTC phenomenon. They break down emotional branding, gifting flywheels, subscription behavior, and the hard truths of e-commerce unit economics.

In this episode, Startup CPG Podcast founder Daniel Scharff and Former CEO of Brightland Todd Hoffman discuss:

• Daniel Scharff’s perspective on DTC vs retail in food and beverage
• Todd Hoffman’s journey from Chloe’s to Brightland
• How Brightland became a premium, giftable pantry brand
• Subscription behavior and “habit-forming” CPG products
• Channel roles, unit economics, and scaling from DTC into retail

 Key Takeaways:

• Pairing a strong community voice (like Startup CPG) with an experienced operator creates a powerful lens on what actually works in modern CPG.
• Each channel- Amazon, DTC site, B2B, retail- must have a clearly defined job.
• Subscription models only sustain when the product naturally fits into a recurring, predictable habit in the customer’s life.
• Scaling from early adopters to the broader market increases acquisition costs and operational complexity, demanding disciplined financial thinking alongside founder ambition.

“We used to joke around that our marketing budget was smaller than the mayonnaise fund that Unilever had.”  - Daniel Scharff

About Daniel Scharff and Startup CPG Podcast:

Daniel Scharff is the Founder and CEO of Startup CPG, the world’s largest community of emerging consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. Through Startup CPG, he helps entrepreneurs with free resources, media coverage, and events across 20 cities. He also hosts The Startup CPG Podcast, a top 0.5% globally ranked podcast featuring brand stories, grocery buyers, and industry experts. 

Connect with Daniel Scharff:

Website: https://startupcpg.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danscharff/ 

About Todd Hoffman and Brightland:

As COO of Brightland, Todd Hoffman partnered with the Founder & CEO to define and execute the company’s next phase of growth. He rebuilt the operating model to support scale, led cross-functional planning across S&OP, finance, and commercialization, and improved unit economics through supplier restructuring, packaging and logistics optimization, and manufacturing changes. 

Connect with Todd Hoffman and Brightland:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-hoffman-97aa6a4/   

Website: https://brightland.co/ 

Connect with Nick Trueman:

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/winning-with-shopify/id1373351568 

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winningwithshopify 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@winningwithshopify 

Join our newsletter: https://wwspodcast.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

With payment failures, most businesses see lost revenue—Payway sees a hidden opportunity. In this episode, you’ll learn how to turn declines into recovered revenue, stronger subscriber retention, and a smarter payment strategy powered by data.

In this episode, Payway EVP Kim Miller and CTO Dan Nadeau discuss:

• Anatomy of a card-not-present transaction
• Types of declines and what “do not honor” really means
• Account updater and maintaining clean card data
• Smart retry strategies and payment recovery partners
• Balancing fraud prevention, interchange fees, and revenue growth

 Key Takeaways:

• Declined payments aren’t just a nuisance; they can be a rich source of revenue recovery, customer insight, and improved subscriber experience.
• Understanding which declines are genuinely retriable versus permanent is critical to building an effective recovery strategy.
• Proactive tools exist to reduce recurring declines and protect revenue.
• Blindly retrying failed payments is outdated; structured, data-driven retry strategies with specialized recovery partners deliver better results, faster.
• Payment performance directly impacts acquisition costs, churn, and interchange rates; treating payments as a strategic data asset, not just an expense line, unlocks meaningful growth. 

“Every decline is a churn, and that's a lost customer.” - Kim Miller

“If you are not doing account updater, then you need to do it, because it's just absolutely mandatory for a recurring payment system.” - Dan Nadeau

About Kim Miller, Dan Nadeau, and Payway:

Kim Miller is a seasoned professional with experience in strategy, leadership, management, team building, marketing, sales, and customer success. My career began in advertising, evolved to marketing, which led to business development, which resulted in my current role as an executive. She is always looking to learn something new, whether it's industry-related, work-related, or otherwise. This way, she is never bored and gets to talk and engage with interesting people from all walks of life.

Dan Nadeau is the Chief Technical Officer at Payway, a payments SaaS company focused on subscription and card-not-present transactions. In the Sub Summit Podcast, he explains how payment flows, decline codes, fraud signals, and tools like account updater and payment recovery can significantly improve authorization rates and reduce revenue loss in recurring billing systems. He also highlights how better payment data and analytics help merchants increase approvals and customer retention.

Payway offers a SaaS platform that processes payments for businesses that rely on recurring payments. With advanced fraud protection, payment recovery, and seamless WooCommerce integration, Payway optimizes transactions while ensuring security and efficiency.

Connect with Kim, Dan, and Payway:

Website: https://www.payway.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisiskimmiller/ & https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-nadeau-2997429/ 

Connect with Nick Trueman:

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/winning-with-shopify/id1373351568 

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winningwithshopify 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@winningwithshopify 

Join our newsletter: https://wwspodcast.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

A live virtual travel company went from a single Zoom walk for one lonely mom to nearly 3 million participants worldwide—powered by just three full-time humans and a stack of AI tools. In this episode, you’ll hear how a lean team, authentic experiences, and smart automation turned a COVID catalyst into a thriving global community.

In this episode, Nick and Wowzitude Founder Susan Black discuss:

• Origin story of the virtual travel platform
• COVID as a catalyst for tour guides and audiences
• Building authentic, interactive live travel experiences at scale
• Using AI to personalize onboarding, support, and engagement
• Running a lean team and constantly experimenting with AI tools

Key Takeaways:

• A deeply personal problem, like helping an isolated parent during lockdown, can become the spark for a scalable business model that serves millions.
• Live experiences with real human guides can create a powerful community.
• Strategic use of AI for onboarding, conversational support, and content workflows can enable a very small team to operate at a massive scale.
• Treating AI as a true collaborator unlocks more value than treating it like a simple search engine.

“I didn't do it because I saw that there was a market need or a niche. I did it because during Covid, my mother was in lockdown and was going a little crazy as an older adult…” - Susan Black

About the guest, Susan Black and her company, Wowzitude:

Susan Black is the visionary behind Wowzitude, where she’s transforming how we experience travel. With over 40 years of leadership in the travel industry, Susan has fused her passion for exploration with cutting-edge technology to create live, interactive tours that connect people to the world in extraordinary ways.

Under Susan’s leadership, Wowzitude has grown into a global platform reaching 1.2 million subscribers through partnerships with museums, alumni associations, travel agents, and more. Her innovative approach not only inspires travel but also fosters community and cultural connection, proving that virtual experiences can lead to real-world journeys.

Connect with Susan and Wowzitude:

Website: https://wowzitude.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanblackassociates/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susansocial/?hl=en 

Connect with Nick Trueman:

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/winning-with-shopify/id1373351568 

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winningwithshopify 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@winningwithshopify 

Join our newsletter: https://wwspodcast.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Most “fraud” on your statement isn’t a hacker; it’s your own customers hitting the dispute button. In this episode, you’ll learn how a veteran merchant‑turned‑founder built a company to stop chargebacks at the source and keep subscription and e‑commerce brands from losing their ability to process payments.

In this episode, Doug and Fraud Deflect CEO Scott Adams discuss:

• What chargebacks are and how the dispute ecosystem works
• Friendly fraud, first‑party misuse, and subscription businesses
• Building Fraud Deflect from real merchant pain points
• Working with Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and alternative payments
• Entrepreneurship, co‑founder marriage, and avoiding burnout

Key Takeaways:

• The chargeback system is heavily weighted toward the cardholder, so merchants must proactively defend their revenue instead of reacting after money disappears.
• “Friendly fraud” and first‑party misuse are often more dangerous than classic stolen‑card fraud because they’re harder to detect and easier for customers to justify.
• Deep understanding of chargeback rules, thresholds, and card‑brand programs can save you from suddenly losing your merchant account.
• Listening to merchants will help solve profitable problems and build tools that actually get adopted.
• Clear communication, defined roles, and intentional boundaries are critical when your co‑founder is also your spouse, and just as important for any startup team.

“What my co-founder and I started Fraud Deflect around was to bring solutions together and create our own solutions that help the merchant not only beat those chargebacks but ideally save the sale before it even gets to that point.” - Scott Adams

About the guest, Scott Adams and his company, Fraud Deflect:

Scott E. Adams, Fraud Deflect’s co-founder, is well known and respected in the online business community, the card-not-present payment community, and the affiliate and Internet marketing community. He successfully combines exceptional IT skills and cutting-edge anti-fraud mechanics to solve problems and quickly improve a company’s ROI.

Scott learned he was an entrepreneur and fraud fighter when, early in his career, he grew a small $5M direct response company that was losing their merchant account to a company with revenue of $25M annually and a healthy chargeback rate of 0.7%. During his decade leading that company, He created one of the earliest affiliate metrics tracking systems and developed his own proprietary anti-fraud software.

Connect with Scott and Fraud Deflect:

Website: https://frauddeflect.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/speakerscotteadams/ 

Join our newsletter: https://wwspodcast.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville  City Center from June 21- 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Two very different brands—survival gear and premium meat—used the same playbook to build massive subscription businesses: obsessive focus on quality, ruthless clarity on their ideal customer, and relentless work on retention. In this episode, they unpack the real levers behind 60k+ subscribers, multi‑million dollar recurring revenue, and long-term loyalty that survives rising costs and shifting ad platforms.

In this episode, Nick, Ben Spell (Good Ranchers CEO), and John Roman (Battlbox CEO) discuss:

• Launching and evolving subscription-first business models
• Quality is the foundation for retention and LTV
• Finding and focusing on the right customer persona
• Churn prevention, win-back strategies, and feedback loops
• Tech stack choices, A/B testing, and subscription infrastructure

Key Takeaways:

• Starting with a single, subscription-only product can force clarity on positioning and economics before expanding into one-time purchases and new channels.
• When the product quality is truly superior, retention marketing becomes far more effective than discount-driven tactics.
• Treat subscription platforms as revenue enablers, not just expenses.
• Proactive churn management, through timing, outreach, and listening to cancellation reasons, can be more powerful than pouring budget into acquisition.
• Clearly defined customer personas drive better ad choices, partnership strategies, and a healthier lifetime value.

“You can trick people into buying things, but if you don't have a quality product, they're not going to subscribe, and they're not going to keep buying.” -Ben Spell

About Ben Spell and Good Ranchers: Founded by Ben and Corley Spell to connect people to honest, quality food. By sourcing all meat from local, independent U.S. farms, they bring remarkable quality and real community back to the American table.

Connect with Ben:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benspell 

Website: https://www.goodranchers.com/ 

About John Roman and BattlBox: John Roman is an experienced D2C and B2B strategist currently serving as CEO at BattlBox. Battlbox is your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and cool gear chosen for you to carry, use, or add to your emergency stash.

Connect with John:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-roman 

Website: https://www.battlbox.com/ 

Connect with Nick Trueman:

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/winning-with-shopify/id1373351568 

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winningwithshopify 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@winningwithshopify 

Join our newsletter: https://wwspodcast.com/ 

SubSummit will be at Nashville City Center from June 21 - 23, 2027. Join the waitlist HERE: https://subsummit.com/#waitlist

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61

About SubSummit: SubSummit brings together thousands of subscription, membership, and recurring revenue enterprises, direct-to-consumer startups, and active investors. Leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.