The Story of a Brand Show

In Part 2 of this feature Griffin Thall, CEO & Co-Founder of Pura Vida Bracelets continues telling the story this hand-crafted bracelet and jewelry brand that supports 800 plus artisans worldwide.   In Part 2, Griffin discusses The Pura Vida Moat, Why storytelling makes them different, Why Storytelling helps people align with the brand, Why the customer experience is different for everyone, Why you find mastermind group of entrepreneurs, Why to achieve product innovation you have to take risks, Why their merger meant more resources to achieve their vision, The Pura Vida Demographic, What to do was your demo matures, What skillsets Griffin used to succeed (and you can too), a Message for everyone during the COVID crisis, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Griffin in Part 2 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of his startup.   For more on Pura Vida Bracelets visit: https://www.puravidabracelets.com/     Justuno -  justuno.com/ramon Tinuiti - https://tinuiti.com/ramon Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

Hey everyone, please note I recorded this episode in my closet. Some of the Audio is spotty but the wisdom is real.    For Griffin Thall, CEO & Co Founder of Pura Vida Bracelets, this brand was his first job out of college. He started it with $200 with his Co Founder Paul Goodman. At the time their only goal was to sell enough bracelets. Oh, how things have changed.    In Part 1 of this feature, Griffin discusses The early days of Pura Vida, What they did to build community, The moment they knew they'd succeed, How they decided their roles as Co-founders, How a brand bounces back from hard times, How a founder stays sane in a crisis, The most important thing about a brand, How Pura Vida has responded to the COVID crisis, Why it's important to share a positive vibe with people around you, Advice for entrepreneurs and brand owners, Where you should focus if you manage a brand, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Griffin in Part 1 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of his startup.   For more on Pura Vida Bracelets visit: https://www.puravidabracelets.com/     Justuno -  justuno.com/ramon Tinuiti - https://tinuiti.com/ramon Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

In Part 2 of this Feature, Benjamin Smith, Founder of Disco, continues telling the story of this clean ingredient Men's skincare brand that's designed to fight dull, dry, and aging skin with natural ingredients.   In this episode, Ben discusses The larger societal trends affecting Disco, Why the brand values are a manifestation of Ben's personal values, Why skincare products are commodities, What really differentiates skincare products, What is the Disco Moat, How Disco builds loyalty and community, Who makes up the Disco demographics, How to best to survive COVID-19 business environment and so much more.   Join us while Ramon Vela interview Ben in Part 2 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of a brand.   For more on Disco visit:  https://letsdisco.co/     The Shoppy Awards: https://theshoppyawards.com/ (20% discount use SOB20) MarketerHire -  https://marketerhire.com/ (code: SOB) Enquire Labs - https://www.enquirelabs.com/commercefocused Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

For Benjamin Smith, Founder of Disco, one of the goals of starting his brand was to de-stigmatize skincare for men. Essentially, educating and giving men the okay to care about their skin in ways they may have not done before. But there was more to it as well. He wanted his brand to be aligned with his personal beliefs of health, wellness, clean ingredients, and combining those elements into products that work. Here's his story.    In Part 1 of this episode, Ben discusses Why he launched Disco, The call to control your destiny, How he was inspired by his family doctor, How his research study was used to launch the brand and raise funds, What creative agency help him, How one New York partner saved him money and led him to success, Advice for Entrepreneurs, Hs biggest Challenge, How COVID has affected his business, His post-COVID predictions, Why regardless of your cash position hard decisions need to be made, How he's positioning Disco to win post-COVID, and so much more.   Join us while Ramon Vela interview Ben in Part 1 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of a brand.   For more on Disco visit:  https://letsdisco.co/   The Shoppy Awards: https://theshoppyawards.com/ (20% discount use SOB20) MarketerHire -  https://marketerhire.com/ (code: SOB) Enquire Labs - https://www.enquirelabs.com/commercefocused Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

In Part 2 of this Feature, R. J. Talyor, CEO & Founder of Pattern89, continues telling the story of this unique AI-based platform that explores billions of data points in the paid social universe and helps you discover winning patterns in your own social ad data.   In part 2, RJ discusses How they mostly work on your Paid Channels, Why they created a Do it For Me button, Who Pattern89 works with, Why it was important to make the platform Plug and Play, The Lids.com case study, Why creativity is at the center of their technology, How COVID has created a pattern interrupt, How they solve the Cold Start problem, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews RJ in Part 2 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of his startup.   For more on Pattern89 visit: https://www.pattern89.com/     Justuno -  justuno.com/ramon Pattern89 - pattern89.com/pod Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

For R. J. Talyor, CEO & Founder of Pattern89, starting a new company was riskier than usual. He had a family, a mortgage, and kids. But he knew that if he didn't try to make his idea come to life, he'd regret it. What was his idea? Use Artificial intelligence to predict what Ads work on Facebook & Instagram. So you can reduce marketing waste and increase your ability to win more often. Here's the story of RJ and Pattern89.   In part 1 of this feature, RJ discusses How he pitched a VC over coffee and got funded, His process for making big decisions, Why he was convinced that AI could predict how your Ad creative was going to win or lose, What data Pattern89 uses to make its predictions, Advice for startup entrepreneurs, Why COVID-19 has increased usage of Pattern89's platform,  How AI can detect patterns and outliers that Human's can't spot yet, Why instead of testing your Paid Ads, Pattern89 can simulate it instead, How the platform has achieved 95 percent accuracy, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews RJ in Part 1 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of his startup.   For more on Pattern89 visit: https://www.pattern89.com/   Justuno -  justuno.com/ramon Pattern89 - pattern89.com/pod Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

It was 2009 and Bret Rasmussen, Founder of KURU Footwear thought his brand was dead in the water. Their retail strategy was failing. They had no cash, unsold inventory, no way to sell it. They had $400,000 in payables and no way to pay. Worse, they had only $2,300 in the bank. It's what I refer to as the "standing at the gates of hell" scenario. But 10 months later, they were nearly debt-free and bringing in roughly $39,000 in revenue.  In this episode, you'll hear the inside story of this amazing shoe brand.   In part 2, Bret discusses How they were at the doorsteps of failure and survived, Why you must believe in the future that you're creating, How most entrepreneurs pivot 2-3 times in the life of the business, Why you should start a brand that helps, Why being of service and being a DTC brand saved his company, Why you should talk to your customers daily, What is the best way to build a MOAT around your brand, Finding product-market fit, What's Ramen Profitability, Why you must iterate, improve, tweak, and repeat and Other entrepreneurial advice, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Bret in Part 2 of this episode and gets the inside story of this killer brand.   For more on KURU Footwear visit: https://www.kurufootwear.com/     Gorgias -  Gorgias.link/story Fenix Commerce - https://www.fenixcommerce.com/ Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

When Bret Rasmussen, Founder of KURU Footwear was a kid, he wanted to be a shoe designer (he has the sketches to prove it). But somewhere along the way, like many of us, he became convinced that he had to grow up and that meant doing something practical that earns money versus following his dream. So he got a degree in Finance and started working for startups. Then he got laid off. This proved to be a catalyst for him. He asked himself, why not follow my dreams. Why not be a shoe designer?  Why not be passionate about what you do. Why not create! And so he did and the rest, as they say, is history.    In part 1 of this feature, Bret discusses His entrepreneurial journey, Building a footwear brand for people with foot pain and for those who want to avoid it,  How what you wear could affect your performance, Why for him being an entrepreneur means being authentic, Why being an entrepreneur allows you to be childlike with Wonder, How he went from zero experience in making shoes to having a patent, How to network, What happened when he entered a biz plan competition, Why KURU tech works, Why he had to work side hustles even after raising funds, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Bret in Part 1 of this episode and gets the inside story f this killer brand.   For more on KURU Footwear visit: https://www.kurufootwear.com/     Gorgias -  Gorgias.link/story Fenix Commerce - https://www.fenixcommerce.com/ Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

In Part 2 of this feature, Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, continues sharing the inside story of building the world's leader in recovery and movement enhancement technology, utilizing ice, heat, percussion, and vibration.   In part 2, Jim discusses What makes Hyperice different than competitors, Why they use Aerospace concepts in their Engineering, What questions they ask themselves when designing products, How they marry sophisticated technology with simplicity, Why Jim feels they are just at the beginning of this market, Why the recent acquisition was like two great industry giants joining forces, Why he wants Hyperice to be remembered as an innovator, Why they don't sell products but a movement, How they dealt with Tariffs, How they dealt with COVID-19, How they build the Hyperice culture, Why Jim is learning Mandarin, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Jim in Part 2 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of a brand.   For more on Hyperice visit: https://hyperice.com/   Justuno -  justuno.com/ramon Pattern89 - pattern89.com/pod Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

If it was up to Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, he'd want people to think of Hyperice as a tech company more akin to Tesla, Dyson, or Apple. If you look at the company's intuitive, almost effortless design and usability of its products matched with sophisticated technology, you'd see why he feels that way. It's also easy to see why he's gained the following of some of the best athletes on earth including Kobe Bryant (RIP), Lebron James, and others. Now, Jim is on a new mission. He won't be happy until he's able to enhance the mobility, recovery, maintenance of every human on earth.    In part 1 of this feature, Jim discusses His entrepreneurial journey, Why he thinks you can train less and still optimize performance, Success tips for college graduates, His Networking Guidelines, Why Networking is part of his DNA, How Kobe's feedback helped improve the original product, How he took the story to markets outside of sports, Why early on athletes used the product authentically, How they raised funds on Kickstarter, and the entrepreneurial roots including how Anthony Katz, used to sell products out of his car, and so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Jim in Part 1 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of a brand.   For more on Hyperice visit: https://hyperice.com/   Justuno -  justuno.com/ramon Pattern89 - pattern89.com/pod Retention Science - RetentionScience.com