“We had no cash, no supply chain, high product market fit, and low CAC. There was this giant button flashing: hyper growth.”

What does it take to build a profitable pet brand from a studio apartment to a nine-figure business with its own factory?

Russell Breuer (Co-Founder and CEO, Spot & Tango) joins hosts Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to trace the full arc of building one of DTC’s most quietly dominant pet brands. Russell shares how Spot & Tango launched Unkibble days into COVID with nearly no cash, sold out in three days, and then had to resist pressing the hyper-growth button without inventory to back it up.

The conversation gets deep into the math of subscription growth — payback windows, LTV by channel, contribution margin, and why Russell’s kids know what a CAC is. They cover the contrarian decision to build a dedicated factory, how vertical integration added 30-plus margin points and created a competitive moat, the trade-offs of going omnichannel when you’re profitable DTC, and why discipline is what separates brands that last.

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Can you build a beloved consumer brand around the joy of making something with your hands?

Matt Bertulli and Mike Beckham sit down with Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang, Co-Founders of The Woobles — a crochet kit brand born from a personal journey through burnout, self-discovery, and a Brooklyn apartment full of hand-stamped packaging. What started as a side hobby became a business with Super Bowl airtime, a McDonald’s Monopoly partnership, and a spot on Shark Tank … where they walked away from every deal.

The conversation covers the concept of “fiero” — the feeling of doing something you once thought was impossible — and why that idea sits at the core of everything The Woobles makes. Justine and Adrian discuss the brutal lessons of being listed as Joann Fabrics’ largest unsecured creditor, how iOS 14 forced them to rethink channel strategy, why product obsession beats marketing strategy, and what it’s like to build a company, a marriage, and a family all at the same time.

What happens when the founder of a software company admits his own product is a sinking ship — and doubles down anyway?

Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) sit down with Amit RG (CEO, RichPanel) for a conversation about AI agents, the death of traditional SaaS, and what it means for ecommerce operators building teams right now.

Amit doesn’t sugarcoat it. He’s walked through the five stages of grief about his own business, come out the other side, and is now betting that moving faster than the disruption is the only play.

The three dig into Dario’s AI phases and what they mean for your tech stack, why customer service reps will be the first wave of AI-driven displacement, and how Sean frames every job — from Philippines call centers to legal firms — as a token problem waiting to be solved cheaper. They debate token-based pricing versus per-ticket models, explore what happens to platforms like Klaviyo in an agent-to-agent economy, and make the case that consumer brands may be the last ones standing while SaaS and services absorb the first hit.

Amit closes with RichPanel’s new returns portal, already live with 31 brands, and Sean puts $10,000 on the line in a charity bet.

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Postscript

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Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel

Operators Newsletter

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