The Free to Grow CFO Podcast

Jon Blair
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Entrepreneurship

Welcome to The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, where we dive deep into conversations about scaling a profitable DTC brand. Join us as we talk with DTC and Ecommerce experts, operators, and brand founders to uncover the strategies, financial insights, and real-world lessons behind sustainable growth. Whether you’re building toward your first million or scaling beyond eight figures, each episode is packed with practical advice to help you grow smarter and more profitably.

  1. 1d ago

    How to Scale a Business Without Building a Huge Team

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO AUDIT https://freetogrowcfo.com/audit 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary Most founders assume scaling to eight figures means building a big team fast. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down with Jacob Willis, CEO of We Heart Nutrition and a Free to Grow CFO client, to talk about scaling a supplement brand fast through eight figures with a lean team. Jacob went from 15 years as a wedding photographer to launching a faith-driven supplement brand that gives 10% of every purchase back to pregnancy care centers. He explains his rule for hiring only when a pain point becomes major, and how moving his 3PL from Missouri to California cut customer service needs by 30% without adding headcount. Jacob also shares why he still personally answers 30 to 40 customer emails a day and how that drives LTV, why the cost of marketing was the biggest shock of going into ecommerce, and how his ad agency and fractional CFO work together to pressure test growth. Jon and Jacob get into what moving from cash to accrual accounting revealed about cash trapped in inventory, and close with how faith and family shape the way Jacob runs the business. This one is for founders who want to scale fast without letting headcount and overhead run away. Key Takeaways -Hire only when a pain point becomes major, not when you expect one. -Bucket your support inquiries and fix the root cause before adding headcount. -Founder-level customer service can drive LTV and build real brand loyalty. -Marketing costs rise as you scale, so factor them in before margins look good on paper. -Accrual accounting shows how much cash is sitting in inventory. Transcript ~~~ 00:40 Introduction to We Heart Nutrition 01:57 The Journey from Photography to Supplements 03:13 Quality Over Quantity in Supplements 06:32 Building a Lean Team 10:05 Customer Engagement and Personal Touch 12:54 Navigating E-commerce Challenges 14:58 The Role of Financial Guidance 17:48 Transitioning to Accrual Accounting 21:03 Balancing Family and Business 24:53 Integrating Faith into Business 26:39 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

  2. Oct 1

    Why Growing Sales Can Actually Hurt Your Profit

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO AUDIT https://freetogrowcfo.com/audit 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary If you think shipping and fulfillment costs during BFCM are just a fixed cost of doing business, this episode will show you how much control you actually have. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down again with Tony Runyan of Red Stag Fulfillment to break down how brands can control shipping and fulfillment costs heading into Black Friday Cyber Monday 2026. Tony explains why proactive, continuous communication with your 3PL — not perfect forecasting — is the real lever for cost control, from year-over-year volume comparisons to flagging hot SKUs and bundles early enough to pre-kit them. Jon and Tony dig into the hidden costs of bundling, like location load balancing across warehouses turning a single order into two shipments in different carrier zones, and the customer experience risk of split shipments during an already tense holiday season. Tony also breaks down exactly how carrier peak surcharges work in 2026 — both the flat per-package demand fee and the volume-based multiplier fee that stacks on top of it — and why diversifying carriers, even at a worse rate, can be worth it as a margin-protecting backup plan. If you're planning your BFCM shipping and fulfillment strategy and want to control costs instead of getting surprised by them, this one's for you. Key Takeaways -Proactive, continuous communication with your 3PL is the single biggest lever for controlling peak season shipping costs. -Diversifying carriers, even at a less favorable rate, can be worth it as a margin-protecting backup plan if your primary carrier has issues during peak. -Carrier peak surcharges in 2026 include both a flat per-package demand fee and a separate volume-based multiplier fee, both worth modeling into unit economics ahead of time. Transcript ~~~ 00:36 Intro 01:18 Proactive 3PL planning: best practices for peak season 03:47 Why your forecast should be a living, continuously updated plan 05:23 How bundling and kitting change fulfillment workflows 06:03 Location load balancing across warehouses 08:12 The margin trade-offs of promotions, ad spend, and shipping 09:32 Hidden costs: refunds, customer experience, and repeat purchase risk 10:22 Carrier diversification and setting customer delivery expectations 12:38 Treating your 3PL as a true strategic partner 16:00 Why proactive, continuous communication is the biggest lever 16:25 2026 carrier peak surcharges explained 20:06 Final thoughts

  3. Sep 24

    How to Calculate CAC to LTV Across Shopify and Amazon

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO ANALYSIS https://freetogrowcfo.com/free-cfo-analysis 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary Most brands selling on Shopify and Amazon treat them as two separate businesses to optimize. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down again with Shinghi Detlefsen of ExpandFi to go deeper on multi-channel CAC to LTV optimization for brands with significant Shopify and Amazon sales. They break down why Shopify and Amazon customers behave completely differently — different subscription rates, different repurchase behavior, different AOV — and why blending the two into one combined cohort model is the only way to see the true impact of top-of-funnel spend like Meta, since a meaningful share of that spend is actually converting on Amazon for free. Shinghi walks through ExpandFi's "spend curve" methodology for deciding where to spend more or less at the ASIN and keyword level, and Jon shares a real client example where digging into channel-specific LTV data revealed their best-converting subscription product was completely different on Amazon versus Shopify — a shift that meaningfully increased profitability once they acted on it. If you're scaling a brand across Shopify and Amazon and want a real framework for optimizing CAC to LTV across both, not just guessing at a blended number, this one's for you. Key Takeaways -Shopify ad spend often drives "free" Amazon sales through cross-channel spillover, so brands who only look at Shopify CAC are underestimating their true acquisition efficiency. -A combined Shopify plus Amazon cohort model is necessary to set an accurate blended CAC to LTV target and payback period. -Digging into channel-specific, even product-specific, LTV data can reveal that different products drive LTV on Amazon versus Shopify. Transcript ~~~ 00:33 Introduction 02:13 Why combined CAC to LTV data matters across channels 05:11 Subscription vs. non-subscription dynamics on each channel 09:26 Setting up cohort data and calculating blended CAC 11:13 Spend curves and response rates for smarter ad allocation 14:22 Case study: aligning tactical moves to business outcomes 16:46 Why this analysis has to be continuous, not one-time 18:52 Churn, retention, and why growth never stops 21:24 What's next for ExpandFi 26:22 – Final thoughts and call to action

  4. Sep 17

    The Black Friday Cyber Monday Playbook for Profitable DTC Growth

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO ANALYSIS https://freetogrowcfo.com/free-cfo-analysis 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary If you think Black Friday Cyber Monday is the moment to swing for the fences on LTV, this episode will change your BFCM playbook. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down with Dylan Byers, co-founder of Aplo Group and his co-host on the Ecom Scaling Show, to break down how brands should actually think about CAC to LTV during the holiday shopping season. They challenge the common misconception that BFCM is prime time to chase LTV, walk through why shipping and fulfillment costs alone can run 10-20% higher during the holidays and quietly widen your payback period, why gifting customers acquired during this window often carry far worse lifetime value, and why apparel brands especially need to treat BFCM as a profit-realization moment rather than an excuse to acquire even deeper in the red. Jon and Dylan also get into a subscription-only offer strategy for high-LTV brands with low subscribe-and-save take rates, and why every brand, regardless of which growth marketing game they're playing, should set separate new and returning customer profitability targets rather than changing the rules just because it's the holidays. If you're planning your Black Friday Cyber Monday strategy and want to protect profitability instead of guessing, this one's for you. Key Takeaways -For high-LTV brands with low subscribe-and-save take rates, running a subscription-only offer in December can drive a meaningfully higher opt-in rate than a blanket discount. -BFCM is primarily a CAC game, not an LTV game, for most brands — with food/bev and other high-LTV categories being a notable exception. -Regardless of which growth marketing game you play, set separate profitability targets for new and returning customers rather than changing your rules just because it's BFCM. Transcript ~~~ 00:40 Summer Reflections and Holiday Preparations 01:20 Understanding CAC and LTV During BFCM 05:54 Strategies for High LTV Brands 11:39 Navigating Apparel Brand Challenges 16:13 Final Thoughts on Profitability and Offers

  5. Sep 10

    How to Calculate CAC to LTV for a High LTV DTC Brand

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO ANALYSIS https://freetogrowcfo.com/free-cfo-analysis 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary If you sell a consumable product and think you're "playing the CAC to LTV game" without actually knowing how to measure it, this episode fixes that. In this mini episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair walks through the exact six-step process Free to Grow CFO uses to analyze CAC to LTV for high-LTV, consumable brands. He breaks down the common mistake of confusing average revenue per customer (lifetime revenue) with true LTV, how to convert that revenue figure into real margin dollars, how to calculate CAC per cohort, and how to line the two up to find each cohort's actual payback period. Jon closes with the strategic goal: keep scaling ad spend while holding payback period inside a 3-4 month window, and repeat the process every single month. If you're scaling a consumables or subscription brand and want a real, repeatable method for tracking CAC to LTV instead of a vague sense that you're "doing fine," this one's for you. Key Takeaways -Average revenue per customer is lifetime revenue, not LTV — don't confuse the two. -True LTV comes from converting that revenue figure into margin dollars, excluding ad spend. -The goal is scaling ad spend while holding payback period within 3-4 months, and repeating this analysis every month. Transcript ~~~ 00:31 Understanding CAC to LTV Analysis 04:40 The Six-Step Process for High LTV Brands

  6. Sep 3

    How to Bootstrap a DTC Brand From $3,500 to $20 Million

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO ANALYSIS https://freetogrowcfo.com/free-cfo-analysis 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary If you think scaling to $20M requires venture funding, a big team, or expensive agencies, this episode will challenge that. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down with Anton Krecic, founder and CEO of Seven Weeks Coffee — a pro-life, faith-driven coffee brand Anton bootstrapped from $3,500 in a business account to nearly $20M in revenue, all while donating close to $2M along the way. Anton breaks down how staying scrappy and founder-funded shaped every decision, from piecing together part-time and fractional help before ever hiring full-time, to targeting fixed overhead near 10% of revenue, to pushing first-order subscription take rate from 30% to nearly 70%. Jon and Anton also get into why Seven Weeks can run thin first-order margins and still scale aggressively, because retention does the heavy lifting, and why keeping ad spend as the one variable lever in the business makes growth far more controllable and sustainable. If you're a bootstrapped founder trying to figure out when to hire, how to think about CAC and retention together, and how far discipline can actually take you, this one's for you. Key Takeaways -Target fixed overhead near 10% of revenue as a modern DTC brand, regardless of company size. -A subscription brand doesn't need great first-order margin and elite retention — strong retention alone can offset thin first-order economics. -Keeping ad spend as the single lever you flex, while holding other costs fixed, makes a subscription brand's growth far more controllable. Transcript ~~~ 00:42 Introduction 01:29 The Journey of Bootstrapping a Business 05:03 The Importance of Curiosity in E-commerce 10:42 Strategic Team Growth and Hiring Principles 13:32 The Role of a Fractional CFO in Scaling 19:14 Understanding Customer Retention and Subscription Models

  7. Aug 27

    How to Hire A-Players Who Actually Grow Your Business

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO ANALYSIS https://freetogrowcfo.com/free-cfo-analysis 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary If you're staffing up a lean e-commerce team and quietly hoping you can develop a mediocre hire into something better, this episode will make you rethink that plan. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down with Agustin Morrone — CEO and co-founder of Vintti, a staffing firm serving over 40 US e-commerce and finance teams — to break down why hiring strong talent might be the most underrated profitability lever in your business. They dig into Jon's framework for grading talent in financial terms: A players make you money, B players cost you time, C players cost you both. Agustin lays out what actually defines an A player — autonomy, urgency, and business acumen — and why "hire fast, fire faster" is only half right. They also get into a practical system for deciding whether a borderline B player is worth developing, using effort KPIs as a leading indicator before the results show up. If you're building or rebuilding your team this year and want a real framework for who to hire, who to cut, and who's worth investing in, this one's for you. Key Takeaways -A players make you money, B players cost you time to manage, and C players cost you both time and money. -You can't define the A player you need until you first design the seat, which is the specific responsibilities and accountability the role requires. -"Hire fast, fire faster" is dangerous advice without a proper process — the real mistake is hiring reactively just to solve a problem. Transcript ~~~ 00:39 Introduction to A Players and Business Growth 03:15 Defining A Players: Characteristics and Importance 05:47 The Role of Culture in Hiring A Players 08:24 The Impact of A, B, and C Players on Business 10:47 Hiring Strategies: Avoiding Common Mistakes 13:18 Final Thoughts on Building a High-Performance Team

  8. Aug 20

    The Inventory Mistake That Can Kill a Growing DTC Brand

    www.FreeToGrowCFO.com 👇 GET A COPY OF OUR FREE DTC DEBT PLAYBOOK https://freetogrowcfo.com/debt 👇 GET ACCESS TO OUR FREE CASH FLOW 101 COURSE https://mailchi.mp/freetogrowcfo.com/ftg-cash-flow-course-sign-up 👇 GET A FREE CFO ANALYSIS https://freetogrowcfo.com/free-cfo-analysis 📧 JOIN OUR WEEKLY FREE TO GROW CFO NEWSLETTER https://freetogrowcfo.com/newsletter 🧔‍♂️ WHO IS FREE TO GROW CFO Fractional CFO and bookkeeping services designed to scale your brand from $10M to $50M+ Managing fast and profitable DTC growth is stressful. Without an expert DTC finance team you run the risk of... -Scaling ad spend unprofitably -Buying too much inventory -Hiring too quickly -Running out of cash And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don't want that for you. Get the expert DTC finance team you need to scale from $10M to $50M+ Fast. Profitable. Cash Rich. The only fractional CFO firm with a proprietary DTC growth marketing framework — built to tell you exactly how aggressively to scale ad spend at every stage. 📈 READY TO SCALE FROM $10M TO $50M? Book a Call Now → https://freetogrowcfo.com/book-a-call 🤝 CONNECT WITH JON BLAIR ON LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair/ 🎥 FOLLOW FREE TO GROW CFO ON YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/@FreetoGrowCFO 🎤 EPISODE DESCRIPTION Episode Summary If you think inventory planning is basically the same problem no matter what kind of brand you run, this episode will change your mind. In this episode of The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, Jon Blair sits down with Dylan Byers — co-founder of Aplo Group and his co-host on the Ecom Scaling Show — to break down how inventory risk shows up completely differently across FTG's three growth marketing games. They dig into why new-customer-dominant brands need to place smaller, more cautious inventory bets due to volatile acquisition channels and stacked "single points of failure," why apparel brands can be profitable on paper while quietly building up a cash-killing pile of slow-moving SKUs, and why high-LTV subscription brands can actually afford to be the most aggressive with debt-financed inventory purchases. Dylan also walks through how tools like Allan's product feeds let apparel brands trigger targeted email campaigns to liquidate overstocked SKUs before they become a cash flow problem. If you're trying to figure out how aggressive you can really be with your next inventory PO, this episode gives you the framework. Key Takeaways - Product-level, not just brand-level, targets are needed to keep apparel inventory from outpacing what cash flow can support. - High-LTV subscription brands can generally be the most aggressive with debt-financed inventory, since overstocking there rarely turns into a permanent loss. - New-customer-dominant brands should place smaller, more cautious inventory bets since a shrinking acquisition channel can leave years of unsellable stock. Transcript ~~~ 00:36 Intro & the three growth marketing games 02:36 Inventory planning in the New Customer Dominant game 05:17 Single points of failure to watch for 07:15 Inventory planning in the Apparel (High SKU Count) game 10:13 Proactive liquidation strategy & seasonality risk 13:52 Inventory planning in the Subscription (High LTV) game 15:57 Why high LTV brands can be more aggressive with debt-financed inventory 16:48 Comparing inventory risk across all three games 18:31 What is Allan? Aplo Group's product feed tool 20:06 Where Allan gets used most across the three games 21:19 Where to find Aplo Group and Allan

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Welcome to The Free to Grow CFO Podcast, where we dive deep into conversations about scaling a profitable DTC brand. Join us as we talk with DTC and Ecommerce experts, operators, and brand founders to uncover the strategies, financial insights, and real-world lessons behind sustainable growth. Whether you’re building toward your first million or scaling beyond eight figures, each episode is packed with practical advice to help you grow smarter and more profitably.

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