Operators

Sean Frank, Mike Beckham, Matt Bertulli, and Jason Panzer
  • 4.3 (54)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

In the world of ecommerce, a legendary text group is rumored to hold the secrets to unimaginable success. The catch? You must have nine figures in revenue to gain entry. The world’s biggest brands have denied its existence for years, until now. Four titans known as the “Operators” are leaking the secret contents in an effort to share its wealth of knowledge with people like you. Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) & Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case x Lomi).

  1. 1d ago

    $450M, 6 Brands & 4 Countries: Why Sunil Agrawal Refuses to Stop

    “I feel this is bigger than dot com.”  How does a $450 million publicly traded jewelry brand build a live shopping empire that predates TikTok by nearly two decades?  Sunil Agrawal (Founder, ShopLC & VGL Group) sits down with Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi) and Katy Mimari (CEO, Caden Lane) to pull back the curtain on 46 years of building one of the most vertically integrated businesses in the world. He started as a gemstone lapidary and grew six retail brands without ever once considering an exit.  Sunil runs a live shopping operation most DTC operators have never seen. He launches 100 new products every day. His top customers generate $20,000 in lifetime value. He fired his robots when the ROI math didn’t hold. He moved four brands to Shopify in five months because AI did most of the coding. And he still measures the business not in dollars but in meals delivered.  Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin and Fulfil.  Fulfil: The ERP built specifically for DTC and ecommerce brands, integrated with over 400 3PLs so your inventory, purchasing, and financials never fall out of sync. Ridge runs its entire operation on it. See why here: https://9ops.co/fulfil  AppLovin: Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth. Or skip the waitlist and launch your ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: http://applovin.com/9operators.

  2. Jul 8

    Help an Operator Out: 8-Figure Dog Brand That Needs a New Growth

    "You will not be happier at nine figures. I’ll just tell you that right now."  What does an operator do after building an 8-figure brand entirely on one dog breed?  Help an Operator Out (HAOO) is a new series where real business owners join the podcast with live questions. In this episode, Garrett Yamasaki (Founder & CEO, We Love Doodles) brings his crossroads: a bootstrapped, Amazon-heavy pet brand that crossed eight figures and needs to decide whether to go deeper in its niche or wider into new dog breeds. The answer is less obvious than it sounds. The conversation covers capital allocation, the difference between product-channel fit versus product-market fit, and why consumables change the LTV math entirely. Mike makes the case that moated niche distribution builds more durable enterprise value than any paid channel. And everyone lands on the same uncomfortable truth. The business you already built is the one most worth protecting.  Powered By Fulfil ⁠https://9ops.co/fulfil⁠  Aftersell ⁠https://9ops.co/4i3bb5⁠ Richpanel ⁠https://9ops.co/richpanel⁠ Northbeam ⁠https://www.northbeam.io/⁠ Saras Analytics ⁠https://bit.ly/4a3gzVv⁠ Postscript ⁠https://9ops.co/postscript⁠ Operators Newsletter ⁠https://9operators.com/⁠

  3. Jul 2

    100% Growth for 8 Years: IQBAR’s Will Nitze & Jess Greenwood

    Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth  Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://9ops.co/applovin-referral “You are not trying if you’re not getting sued.”  How did IQBAR go from a $90k Kickstarter to a nine-figure retail, DTC, and Amazon giant?  Will Nitze (Founder & CEO) and Jessica Greenwood (CMO) join Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern). This is the product launch strategy and CPG marketing playbook they wish existed when they started.  Will and Jessica detail their early tactics and walk through every funding round: from $625K at a $4M valuation to $5.5M at $50M. They doubled revenue every year for eight years, kept the team at 15 people, and never dropped below 50% ownership. Mike and Matt close on what killed dozens of competing bar brands in 2022 and why IQ BAR survived.

  4. Jul 1

    Opening Retail Stores vs. Going Wholesale: What the Numbers Say

    Should you open your own stores, or let the big retailers do the heavy lifting?  Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) go head to head on one of the biggest channel decisions a consumer brand will face.  Curtis went from a spite-signed lease to 16 owned stores, while Mike turned a $9 million Sam’s Club bet into 10,000 wholesale doors. This episode breaks down these two different paths and what each model actually costs you in competency, capital, and control, why the wrong channel for your product category is almost impossible to recover from, and what private equity is really looking for when they come knocking on an omnichannel brand.  Powered By  Fulfil  https://9ops.co/fulfil  Saras Analytics  https://bit.ly/9OP-Ytdesc  Postscript  https://9ops.co/postscript  Richpanel  https://9ops.co/richpanel  Northbeam  https://www.northbeam.io/  Aftersell  https://9ops.co/4i3bb5  Operators Newsletter  https://9operators.com/

  5. Jun 24

    Our 2026 Ecommerce Audit: Wins, Mistakes, Lessons & What’s Next

    “Whoever can spend the most money is going to win.” Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) audit the first half of 2026. The focus is a sound ecommerce growth strategy for Q3 and Q4. No guests, no fluff. Just what worked, what blew up, and where they’re placing their bets.   Amazon leads the conversation, with Sean up over 100% year over year on full assortment parity and Mike beating Liquid IV on a $4 blended CAC. Wholesale gets a harder look, with Sean holding a big-three PO and an 18-month runway to shelf. The group then pulls apart margin profile as a competitive weapon, why most consumable brands are quietly heading toward a reckoning, and what it takes to set a spending floor competitors cannot match.   Powered By Fulfil https://9ops.co/fulfil  Aftersell https://9ops.co/4i3bb5 Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel Northbeam https://www.northbeam.io/ Saras Analytics https://bit.ly/4a3gzVv Postscript https://9ops.co/postscript Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/

  6. Jun 18

    How a $1.5B Pet Brand Wins at Ecommerce Marketing: Whisker’s CEO

    Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth  Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://applovin.com/9operators “We built our iPhone before we built our Apple.” How do you scale a hardware brand from $7M to $1.5B without chasing cheap CPMs?   Jacob Zuppke (CEO, Whisker) joins Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to break down how a self-cleaning litter box company became a $1.5B brand through US manufacturing, big creative swings, and a deliberate omnichannel strategy. Jacob breaks down the marketing that fueled a decade of growth, including how TV outperformed Meta for years, and why Whisker held off Amazon until branded search volume made the case impossible to ignore. He also gets into the Whisker app, which logs 4.7 million cat weigh-ins per day, and why that software layer is where the brand’s omnichannel strategy gets its deepest competitive teeth.

  7. Jun 17

    How Ridge’s Annual Revenue Hit +$250M & Sean Became a Dad

    What does Ridge’s annual revenue growth 2025–2026 look like when you launch three new categories at once?  Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) joins Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to get into what it looks like when a founder goes all-in on ecommerce product expansion while navigating new fatherhood, a tough M&A market, and a company that had to reinvent its growth story.  Sean breaks down the Shark Ninja model. Ship fast, cut losers, never wait on a five-year roadmap. He walks through what made the Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) partnership succeed where a $4 million celebrity deal would have failed. Finally, he gets candid about fatherhood and the DTC acquisition market, where over 70% of deals since 2022 drew zero bids.  Powered By Fulfil https://9ops.co/fulfil  Saras Analytics https://bit.ly/4a3gzVv Aftersell https://9ops.co/4i3bb5 Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel Northbeam https://www.northbeam.io/ Postscript https://9ops.co/postscript Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/

  8. Jun 10

    How to Pick a 3PL Without Getting Burned: Red Flags, Green Flags

    Is owning your own warehouse worth the headache? Or is it a siren song that will slow your growth?  Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) dig into two of the most expensive decisions in ecommerce. Should you own your warehouse or outsource fulfillment to a 3PL? Can a founder ever truly step back from the company they built?  They break down the owned warehouse versus 3PL debate, covering when flexibility beats cost savings, and why high-growth brands get burned by leases. From there, the conversation shifts to founder identity and succession, what Tim Cook’s Apple exit and Doug McMillon’s Walmart departure reveal about leadership transitions, and why the skills that built your company can quietly become the thing holding it back.  Powered By Fulfil https://9ops.co/fulfil  Saras Analytics https://bit.ly/4a3gzVv Postscript https://9ops.co/postscript Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel Northbeam https://www.northbeam.io/ Aftersell https://9ops.co/4i3bb5 Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/

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Trailer

4.3
out of 5
54 Ratings

About

In the world of ecommerce, a legendary text group is rumored to hold the secrets to unimaginable success. The catch? You must have nine figures in revenue to gain entry. The world’s biggest brands have denied its existence for years, until now. Four titans known as the “Operators” are leaking the secret contents in an effort to share its wealth of knowledge with people like you. Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) & Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case x Lomi).

Information

  • Creator
    Sean Frank, Mike Beckham, Matt Bertulli, and Jason Panzer
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    195
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sean Frank, Mike Beckham, Matt Bertulli, and Jason Panzer
  • Show Website
    Operators

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