The Story of a Brand Show

This episode is brought to you by Mercury.

Consumers want to be in the driver's seat of their health. That's the goal of Base, a brand that offers blood testing, creates nutrition and lifestyle plans, and even creates weekly grocery lists for its customers, says Lola Priego, Founder and CEO.

"There's a really powerful technology that is helping connect people, but then when you look at health and wellness, where is all of that personal personalization?" Lola says.

Base doesn't sell nutritional supplements. Instead, it offers recommendations for the top-ranked items. Because Base is integrated with Amazon, they don't make revenue from that transaction, Lola says.

Lola says the vision for Base came from her personal experience at age 27 when she was experiencing chronic fatigue and brain fog while working as an engineer at Instagram. Because she had a year of medical school under her belt, she asked her doctor to run specific blood tests to see if she could get to the bottom of the problem. The tests revealed she had a severe deficiency in Vitamin B12 and folate.

Ultimately, she developed a nutritional and lifestyle plan to fix those levels. Lola would eventually quit her engineering job to pursue a startup with a medical device company, which gave her a good look at how labs work.

"Pushing lab technology forward in a medical device forward was not solving or bridging that gap that I was seeing between science and consumers," she says. "After realizing that, that's when I went on to found Base."

In Part 1, Lola talks about:

* Gratitude for an acquisition offer she got this week, which showed that others appreciate how she sees the industry and her mission. * An overview of how Base was conceived. * Why Base doesn't sell health supplements but only recommends them. * How her health problems gave her the vision for Base. * The experience she gained at a medical device startup.

Join Ramon Vela and Lola Priego as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Base, visit: https://get-base.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

The episode is brought to you by Mercury.

Mercury is the banking stack for startups & ecommerce.* Get FDIC-insured US accounts, virtual and physical debit cards, currency exchange, and domestic and international wires.

Easily create an account from your laptop, and non-US citizens are welcome to apply.

Connect to payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, etc.) and instantly create virtual debit cards for inventory and ad spend.

Customize the banking experience with features like read & write API access, custom team management, and integrations with the tools your startup uses, like Quickbooks and Xero.

Keep growing with Mercury Raise DTC or with financing options through Mercury Capital. *Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. All banking services provided by Evolve Bank & Trust®️; Member FDIC.

Visit https://mercury.com/partner/storyofabrand 

This episode is brought to you by Ordergroove.

One of the advantages of being both a retail and DTC brand is getting immediate feedback, say, Jen Liao and Caleb Wang, co-founders of XCJ or Xiao Chi Jie, a brick-and-mortar restaurant and DTC purveyor of Chinese street food.

"We take the learnings of the restaurant side and apply it to the DTC side, which I think is fairly unique," Caleb says. "You talk to customers. We actively do that on the DTC side as well."

Still, the change between producing food at a restaurant and preparing food for a customer to cook at home is substantial.

"When you're in a restaurant, you have a trained chef cooking the product ... (but) when you send it to customers' homes, there are varying levels of experience, there are varying levels of equipment," Caleb says. "You have to design a product to withstand those variabilities."

Future plans include a product that would be plant-based or vegetable-forward dumplings. Barbecue skewers will be launched soon.

As for availability, some retailers have reached out to the brand, but with production constraints, that's something that will need to wait.

Offering advice to other entrepreneurs, Jen says adaptability and perseverance remain two essential qualities to embrace. Still, the "guiding star" remains the customer.

"It is about the customer experience and ensuring that they're enjoying it," she says. There's a fit there in terms of product-market fit, and we can deliver a fantastic experience every time to them. I think that's what we are striving for in everything we're doing."

In Part 2, Jen and Caleb talk about:

* The differences and similarities between running retail and DTC sides simultaneously. * The challenges of designing the same product for a restaurant and home chefs. * Shipping and feedback issues. * How to make an authentic product for a new audience. * An explanation of their products and how to prepare them.

Join Ramon Vela, Jen Liao, and Caleb Wang as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Xiao Chi Jie, visit: https://thexcj.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This episode is brought to you by Ordergroove.

It’s time to let your customers enjoy the products they love without the friction of reordering...

That’s why innovative brands like Peet’s Coffee and Il Makiage rely on Ordergroove’s subscription solution to build long-lasting relationships that drive recurring revenue.

From enrollment incentives to churn-fighting AI, Ordergroove gives your business the tools it needs to be a subscription success story.

Book a demo today and receive 2-months off your contract. Visit https://www.ordergroove.com/story/ 

This episode is brought to you by Ordergroove.

Xiao Chi Jie - shortened sometimes to XCJ for convenience - is Chinese for "Street Food Avenue," an apt name for the brand that began as a dumpling restaurant only to expand to e-commerce during COVID, say co-founders Jen Liao and Caleb Wang.

The venture was a brainstorming session about getting the street food they loved in China to the United States.

"The original intention was a larger food hall in either Seattle or San Francisco, where we could have our favorite foods," Jen says. "It was born out of a selfish desire for us to be able to go eat those all the time. ... And not until COVID did we start to do more of the DTC frozen products. And that was born out of COVID circumstances."

Business plummeted 95 percent when COVID hit, Caleb says.

"You don't want to see your passion project go under, or you don't want to furlough employees," Caleb says."So we had the idea, what if we decide to ship soup dumplings locally? This seems like something that people might want. And so, we started setting up the infrastructure. It turns out there was a lot of demand for that, and then kind of one step led to another."

The venture was quite different than the pair - now married - had in the start. Jen was in San Francisco working in health tech; Caleb was in New York working in finance. When the restaurant opened in Seattle, a third partner and the chef were the only day-to-day workers at the store.

The pair says they also understood the risks of how the business relationship could impact their personal relationship.

"Early on, we already had felt like our relationship was long term, and so there was some trust there that this wasn't going to be a total risk going into business together necessarily," Jen says. "It probably also helps that we had other partners involved, so it wasn't just the two of us working on it and accountable to each other."

In Part 1, Jen and Caleb talk about:

* Gratitude for family and friends who helped out at the start of the business when they underestimated the customer volume. * The genesis of the idea for Chinese street food in the U.S. * How the idea expanded to DTC during COVID. * Their original career paths. * How their personal relationship affected the business relationship and vice versa. * How Caleb's family history in restaurants and startups helped ease many anxieties over the venture.

Join Ramon Vela, Jen Liao, and Caleb Wang as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Xiao Chi Jie, visit: https://thexcj.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This episode is brought to you by Ordergroove.

It’s time to let your customers enjoy the products they love without the friction of reordering...

That’s why innovative brands like Peet’s Coffee and Il Makiage rely on Ordergroove’s subscription solution to build long-lasting relationships that drive recurring revenue.

From enrollment incentives to churn-fighting AI, Ordergroove gives your business the tools it needs to be a subscription success story.

Book a demo today and receive 2-months off your contract. Visit https://www.ordergroove.com/story/ 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.

Starting a new brand - particularly a very small brand - can be pretty isolating. So determination and vision are keys to success, says Lily Geiger, founder of Figlia, a non-alcoholic cocktail with no added sugar or preservatives.

"I think by starting small and growing in a healthy and organic way, we are not only able to connect with our consumers and to talk to these customers and answer every message and take the time to meet some of these people in person," Lily says.

Other keys to success: Have a thick skin. Keep going. Believe in yourself. Believe in your messaging.

"Just be selective and kind of put your blinders up sometimes and just like block out the haters and the people with unsolicited advice," she says.

For Figlia, it took about a year to craft the drinks it offers. It needed to look sophisticated and appealing, but also it had to taste like something special.

One of the final missing pieces to the recipe puzzle was clove, generally used as a cooking spice.

Aside from the drinks, Figlia also works with organizations to support families and addicts. Figlia also works with environmentally protective causes such as 1% for the Planet.

Future plans include creating a single-serving drink.

In Part 2, Lily talks about:

* The challenges of creating a startup brand. * The values of vision and determination. * Advice for others starting a brand. * How the drink recipes were concocted. * The brand's charitable efforts. * The background of some Figlia drink recipes. * How to navigate the brand's website.

Join Ramon Vela and Lily Geiger as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Figlia, visit: https://drinkfiglia.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.

If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?

They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.

Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.

Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.

Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.

Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.

Lily Geiger combined an early entrepreneurial spirit with the isolating feeling of having an alcoholic parent to develop her brand of non-alcoholic beverages - Figlia.

The premium non-alcoholic space might be super new and incredibly niche, but it's also trending up - particularly in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.

"I don't see this trend stopping," says Lily, Figlia's founder. "I only see it moving up and expanding and having the market consist of all these options for people who don't drink, not just because they are an addict, but just because they just have chosen not to drink. And I think the health and wellness industry is bigger than life, and this also falls into that. So it's pretty incredible."

Drinking has become a bit of a litmus test when it comes to networking and company hours. Lily says that the reluctance to share a drink can look confusing to some people.

"There's a lot of bonding that goes around drinking," she says. "You're sharing a drink, and if you don't order something and the other person is, I think they start to feel guilty ... I think it's tricky, but I do see that changing."

One way to change the situation is to offer a drink that looks good and tastes great, she says.

The COVID pandemic - and the binge drinking that happened during the shutdown - probably also got people to rethink their drinking habits.

"I think especially with drinking, it affects your mental state," Lily says. "We have so much to rethink in this world with obviously COVID, but with the state of the world and everything going on, why not take a second? I think it's imperative."

In Part 1, Lily talks about:

* Gratitude for a teammate and friend who provides emotional and professional support. * How she was inspired to create a brand in the non-alcoholic drink marketspace. * Why the future of this drink market space looks bright. * The stigma associated with not drinking during social occasions and how to overcome that. * How drinking affects your mental state. * How COVID impacted people's drinking habits.

Join Ramon Vela and Lily Geiger as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Figlia, visit: https://drinkfiglia.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.

If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?

They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.

Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.

Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.

Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.

Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story 

This episode is brought to you by Yotpo.

Entrepreneurs can't be afraid to ask for advice and lean on others, says Lisa Odenweller, CEO of Kroma Wellness, a brand that creates and ships clean-eating foods and wellness products.

"I do ask for help, and I get involved, and I have mentors and advisors, and some people are for business things, some things are on personal things," Lisa says. "I have a walk that I do with one of my advisors, and we don't talk about how to scale the company. We talk about how do I be a leader, a powerful leader, or what are the other challenges that I face?"

As for advice for other entrepreneurs struggling in a crisis or rebuilding from ground zero, Lisa says there's not one specific answer or strategy to get back on your feet.

"I think you have to continue to know where your North Star is," she says. "You have to know what it is that is going to light you up."

Put another way: You don't always know the final result, but you need to know the direction.

"I love it when people ask me, where is your business in five years?" Lisa says. "I don't even like the question. I understand what we're building, but there's so much happening in an accelerated time frame that I can tell you where I think we might be. But I mean, it's that's a long time."

Lisa says she was catapulted into the world of superfoods about 15 years ago after reading about them in "Oprah" magazine.

"I remember the articles vividly because I read them, and I was like, what are these, and how do I learn about them? And it was before they were a thing," she says. "So I just started to like order all of them and try to figure out and learn about them. And I simultaneously was going to nutrition school, so it was already sort of in me that I wanted to learn more about food as medicine. But then, of course, these superfoods took it to the next level, and I started to heal myself and some of my hormonal challenges through these superfoods."

Kroma Wellness launched with 19 products, Lisa says, which wasn't an easy thing to do. For those just getting started, Kroma has a 5-day reset and a 1-day reset.

In Part 2, Lisa talks about:

* The need to ask for help and mentor others. * Advice for those rebuilding from a crisis or ground zero. * The difference between knowing the final result and knowing the right direction. And eventually, you need a plan. * How she discovered and embraced superfoods. * A rundown of the various products and programs.

Join Ramon Vela and Lisa Odenweller as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Kroma Wellness, visit: https://kromawellness.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This podcast is supported by Yotpo, the leading eCommerce marketing platform for brands looking to drive customer loyalty.

As I’m sure many of you know, customer retention is the new acquisition. With Yotpo, brands can provide value through a strategic loyalty program — and ensure shoppers come back time and again.

Want to know more? Visit https://yotpo.com/storyofabrand 

And turn your one-time shoppers into lifelong brand lovers.

This episode is brought to you by Yotpo.

Lisa Odenweller, CEO of Kroma Wellness, has been on a life mission over the past 13 years to simplify the path to wellness with products that make you feel good.

Kroma offers a variety of non-perishable items - lattes, broths, nut butter, porridge - but right now, they're best known for their first-day lifestyle reset.

"We don't use the word cleanse ... it's an opportunity to nourish your body," Lisa says. "Our differentiator is that it's focused on nourishment over deprivation and starvation. It's an abundant amount of beautiful superfoods that just helps you feel and look great."

Kroma aims to take the mystery out of wellness with the philosophy that every new habit builds on itself.

"If you are a big coffee drinker, for example, and you drink eight cups a day, and you convert to having one cup of matcha with all the collagen and stuff, that's a win, right?" Lisa says. "And that leads to another win and another healthier habit."

Lisa's career has included multiple wellness brands, including the Beaming chain of cafes in California. Lisa says that the challenges posed by previous ventures have been a great teacher.

"I've always had this philosophy that even when you're going through tough things, whether it's a divorce, loss of a job, loss of a company injury, whatever it might be, there is a gift in it," she says. "And it's even when you don't know what that may be in the moment."

Fear is a fact with entrepreneurship - it either fuels or cripples you, Lisa says.

"I don't think that entrepreneurship is for most people," she says. "As much as I'm a firm believer in following your dreams, I don't think it's for the faint of heart."

In Part 1, Lisa talks about:

* Gratitude for an encouraging message from Gwyneth Paltrow. * An overview of Korma's products and five-day reset program. * The lessons to be learned from facing obstacles. * The challenges she faces opening a cafe brand while going through a divorce as a mother of three. * Facing the fears of entrepreneurship. * How she had an entrepreneurial mind even earlier working for large companies.

Join Ramon Vela and Lisa Odenweller as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Kroma Wellness, visit: https://kromawellness.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This podcast is supported by Yotpo, the leading eCommerce marketing platform for brands looking to drive customer loyalty.

As I’m sure many of you know, customer retention is the new acquisition. With Yotpo, brands can provide value through a strategic loyalty program — and ensure shoppers come back time and again.

Want to know more? Visit https://yotpo.com/storyofabrand 

And turn your one-time shoppers into lifelong brand lovers.

This episode is brought to you by Mercury.

Ever since he has a teenager, Austin Kelly has been in love with the food industry, says the CEO of Willamette Valley Pie Company, a family- and farmer-owned dessert and pie maker based in Oregon.

"I've always worked in food," Austin says. "My first job when I was 15 was actually out harvesting cherries in a cherry orchard that would eventually go into other products like pies. So that's how I originally got started, got connected with another local farm, and was just fascinated by the industry behind the food. It's not something that people generally talk about when you're going to school. I mean, all you hear about is tech and finance and maybe marketing or apparel, but no one talks about food. And yet it's this trillion-dollar industry that all of us interact with."

There's much more to the pie business than picking berries and baking pastries. Wild swings in the weather can affect harvests, for starters.

"There were a lot of moving pieces to it," Austin says. "Last year, we had a really large heatwave hit the Pacific Northwest, and it wiped out half of the berry crop. And so it was really difficult to source. Berries had a big impact on our blackberries and raspberries here in the Pacific Northwest. And so, we do partner with growers in other regions and try to create contingency plans to mitigate those things as much as we can. But there's a lot of moving factors when you factor in the weather and harvest."

Still, the "purpose" of Willamette Pie drives the company to push through the challenges.

"We live in a culture that's really fast-paced, and everything's moving quickly," Austin says. "To be able to produce and sell and share a product with people that encourage them to pause for a minute and just enjoy. Life is a special thing, and we're blessed to make it here."

That being said, it's essential for brands to continue to innovate, he says. To that end, Willamette has been sitting down with customers and hearing what they want. That led to a rebrand unveiled a few months ago and a new line of items, including the first non-GMO cream pies on the market.

"All that came from listening to our customers and what they want," he says. "But really on a large scale philosophically, we talk about we don't talk about followers and likes and just customers. We refer to it like anybody who consumes our product is part of our family."

In Part 1, Austin talks about:

* Gratitude for his wife's support at home and with his career. * His lifelong dedication to the food industry. * The challenges of a food business based on weather and harvests. * The results of a recent rebranding. * The company's charity and fundraising efforts in the Pacific Northwest.

Join Ramon Vela and Austin Kelly as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Willamette Valley Pie Company, visit: https://www.wvpie.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

The episode is brought to you by Mercury.

Mercury is the banking stack for startups & ecommerce.* Get FDIC-insured US accounts, virtual and physical debit cards, currency exchange, and domestic and international wires.

Easily create an account from your laptop, and non-US citizens are welcome to apply.

Connect to payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, etc.) and instantly create virtual debit cards for inventory and ad spend.

Customize the banking experience with features like read & write API access, custom team management, and integrations with the tools your startup uses, like Quickbooks and Xero.

Keep growing with Mercury Raise DTC or with financing options through Mercury Capital. *Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. All banking services provided by Evolve Bank & Trust®️; Member FDIC.

Visit: https://mercury.com/partner/storyofabrand 

This episode is brought to you by Mercury.

Willamette Valley Pie Company thinks of its products as a "better-for-you dessert, says CEO Austin Kelly.

"We encourage people to enjoy dessert - it's a special moment," Austin says. "But we want to provide the best offering we can. And so we're committed to using only the cleanest label ingredients and non-GMO verified products. ... We've taken the approach that we want to make it as close to homemade as possible."

As for advice to other entrepreneurs starting a brand, Austin says "Do what they love first ... grow a brand and product they really believe in and do it for the long term."

If you focus on the long term instead of growth, you won't sacrifice quality, Austin says.

"I think there's a lot of folks that get caught up in just growing quickly," he says. "But there are trade-offs for that. And so I would just encourage people go with the speed that's right for your brand and your company and enjoy the ride because life's way too short to not enjoy what you're doing."

For those trying Willamette's products for the first time, Austin recommends the fruit pies - the core of the brand. His personal favorite is the caramel apple pie. Cream pies - a newer product - were designed to be removed from the freezer, thawed for a few hours and served. They're meant for those who don't have time to bake a pie at home.

Willamette's future categories include more top-shelf options - essentially becoming an artisan, handcrafted brand.

Austin says he's particularly proud of his brand's workforce and their dedication.

"There's a ton of blood, sweat and tears and hard work that goes into making all of this stuff possible," he says.

In Part 2, Austin talks about:

* The goal of making products as homemade and simple as possible. * Advice for other entrepreneurs. * The trade-off between speed and quality. * A rundown of the desserts offered. * Future categories to be pursued. * Trends in the business, particularly transparency. * Examples of his team's dedication to the brand. * Where you can find Willamette's products.

Join Ramon Vela and Austin Kelly as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Willamette Valley Pie Company, visit: https://www.wvpie.com/ 

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

The episode is brought to you by Mercury.

Mercury is the banking stack for startups & ecommerce.* Get FDIC-insured US accounts, virtual and physical debit cards, currency exchange, and domestic and international wires.

Easily create an account from your laptop, and non-US citizens are welcome to apply.

Connect to payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, etc.) and instantly create virtual debit cards for inventory and ad spend.

Customize the banking experience with features like read & write API access, custom team management, and integrations with the tools your startup uses, like Quickbooks and Xero.

Keep growing with Mercury Raise DTC or with financing options through Mercury Capital. *Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. All banking services provided by Evolve Bank & Trust®️; Member FDIC.

Visit: https://mercury.com/partner/storyofabrand 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.

Betterly is all about marrying two concepts that don't traditionally live together - the marketplace and community, says Alex Bocquet, founder of Betterly, a freelance marketplace for digital marketers in the U.S.

"One of my favorite things about working in an agency was the community - the camaraderie between all of the people who worked with me," Alex says. "And certainly when I started to freelance more and left my old agency job, I lost that sense because I started to distance myself not in the Slack channel anymore."

The ideal customer for Betterly's services is the traditional "bread and butter" e-commerce brand that sells an actual product - a CPG brand, Alex says.

"Now, that's not to say that it's the only thing they're able to do," Alex says. "I think lead generation is also a big one, whether it's directly through a funnel for your sales team to go and close or whether it's an app in-store. It's anything direct to consumer that's trackable. We can make sense of a cost from the freelancer and its marketing versus the tangible return on that investment."

As for the typical revenue of a customer, Alex says it's usually between a pre-revenue startup situation to an eight-figure brand.

"These are the brands that either don't want to sign up for an expensive, long-term commitment agency, or they're simply brands that are also seasonal," he says. "There are seasonal brands that come to the pipeline that just want to use a freelancer for three months without the commitment."

As for trends in the freelance marketing space, Alex says he still sees many e-commerce brands that don't have an SMS funnel setup. Another trend is the proliferation in the use of TikTok. Brands seem unable to repurpose content or use influencers on TikTok effectively.

In Part 2, Alex talks about:

* The joy of community. * What the ideal customer is for Betterly. * Why a company would prefer a short-term freelancer to a full-time staff person. * What onboarding is like. * The current "low-hanging fruit" of the freelance marketing space.

Join Ramon Vela and Alex Bocquet as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.

For more on Betterly, visit: https://betterly.io/

Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.

*

This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.

If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?

They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.

Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.

Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.

Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.

Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story