January 16, 2026

The Harsh Truth About Scaling Ecommerce Nobody Warned You About

37 minutes

Schedule a Call here to build and Scale your Ecommerce Brand → https://www.ecomcapital.com/demo/schedule

In this brutally honest episode, Sasha and Hamen break down the harsh realities they've observed across nearly two decades of building and scaling ecommerce businesses. These aren't feel-good motivational talks. These are the specific mistakes that keep founders broke, stuck, and struggling for years longer than they need to. From time allocation to ignoring problems, from over-investing in stock to chasing shiny objects, this episode pulls back the curtain on what's actually killing your business. Some of these realities might sting. But understanding them could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of your life. Listen carefully—especially the last one about retention.

----------------------------------------
Connect with Sasha:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sasha_karabut/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The.Real.Sasha.Karabut/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashakarabut/

----------------------------------------
Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro: 8 Harsh Realities That Keep You Broke
0:55 - Reality #1: Time & Attention Allocation (The Foundation)
2:57 - Why Founders Know What to Do But Don't Do It
3:26 - The Finite Resource Problem
5:44 - Consistency in Allocation (The Game Changer)
6:45 - The Branding Trap (Excuse to Not Measure)
7:56 - Reality #2: Reactive vs. Proactive Problem-Solving
9:57 - The 7-Month Problem (Real Example)
11:43 - The Cost of Ignoring Problems
13:52 - Reality #3: Never Scale a Leaky Bucket
15:29 - Fix Micro First, Then Scale
17:05 - Reality #4: Scaling is Ugly (By Design)
19:23 - What Scaling Feels Like (And Why It's Normal)
20:51 - The Discovery Phase at Every Scale
21:45 - Reality #5: Over-Investment in Stock
23:13 - The Cost of Capital Concept
25:08 - Apple's Pre-Order Model (The Smart Approach)
25:40 - Reality #6: Over-Investment in Websites
27:22 - Website Investment: The Wrong Priority
28:10 - Reality #7: Ignoring the Creator-First Economy
29:39 - Why Stock Images Don't Work Anymore
31:56 - The Harsh Truth About Creatives
33:00 - Reality #8: Ignore Customer, Expect to Be Poor
34:05 - Amazon's Customer-Obsessed Philosophy
35:51 - Retention Over Acquisition (Billionaire Lesson)
36:30 - How Email Revenue Scales ($100 → $10,000)
37:15 - The Closing Message

About This Podcast:
About Ecom Capital Podcast: eCom Capital Podcast is a show about scaling e-commerce businesses. The host Sasha Karabut talks to successful founders, industry experts and shares strategies on how to build, grow and scale profitable eCommerce brands.

#ecommerce #ecom #harsh #reality #founder #business #scaling #profitability #cashflow #marketing #creatives #customer #retention #strategy #entrepreneurship #mistakes #lessons #growth #ecomcapital #truth