Ecom Growth Insider

Andrej Tumachowitsch
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If you're a DTC brand founder, CMO, growth marketer, or operator trying to scale your e-commerce business profitably, this podcast is for you. Hosted by Andrej Tumachowitsch — founder of the growth agency HoloGrowth — this show goes deep on what actually works to grow online brands in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. We go way beyond generic advice. Every episode gives you practical, battle-tested insights directly from 7-, 8-, and 9-figure brand founders, top-tier marketers, and agency operators actively working in the trenches. You’ll learn: - What separates breakout ecom brands from the ones that plateau - Paid media strategies that scale on Meta, Google & beyond - How to use UGC, email, landing pages, and CRO to increase LTV & AOV - Creative testing frameworks & campaign breakdowns that actually perform - Smart ways to grow without sacrificing profit margins - Founder mindsets, systems, and hiring practices that lead to longevity - And the biggest mistakes brands are making right now (and how to avoid them) Expect a mix of founder interviews, expert roundtables, solo lessons, and deep dives into what’s working right now in paid acquisition, conversion, and retention. No fluff. No recycled advice. Just proven strategies to grow your ecommerce brand. If you're tired of surface-level podcasts and want unfiltered access to the tactics and lessons real brands are using to scale — hit subscribe and join us inside the Ecom Growth Insider.

  1. 1h ago

    Brand Licensing: Rent A Fanbase, Not More Clicks | David Born, Born Licensing

    Most ecommerce brands compete for attention on the same two platforms, against the same competitors, at the same rising cost. Brand licensing is the other way in: you borrow a fanbase somebody else spent decades building, put it on the product, and pay for it out of sales. David Born has worked in licensing for about twenty years. He was inside Warner Bros. Consumer Products and at Cartoon Network, on the side of the table that decides which brands get a license. For the last twelve years he has run his own licensing agency, and a growing share of that work is now ecommerce brands. This episode is the practical version. What a first license costs, line by line. How long it takes before anything can be sold. And why the character on the mood board is almost always the wrong one to start with. What we get into: - The minimum guarantee, and why it is owed whether or not a single unit sells - The royalty rate he says an ecommerce brand pays on average, and the worked example behind it - The two sales-forecast mistakes that kill a deal before it is drafted - Why the hottest IP in the world is the worst possible first license - Twelve months from first email to first sale, and where that time goes - The ten working days every approval takes, and what resets the clock - What a license does to the value of a company on the day it is sold - The reason a licensing agent tells people licensing is a non-starter The anchor case is Plum Deluxe, a loose leaf tea brand his agency works with. David relays what founder Andy Hayes told him: ten years in business, never licensed anything, then a Peanuts collection at Christmas that sold out in twelve days, with less ad spend than a normal launch. Those are Andy's numbers as David reports them. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro and what licensing actually covers 03:45 What a first license actually costs 04:38 Minimum guarantee and royalty, defined 05:37 The worked example on a Hello Kitty deal 10:52 Never make the hottest IP the first one 12:45 Who says yes to a brand with no track record 18:49 Twelve months from first email to first sale 19:56 The 10-day approval clock that resets 26:38 What has to be true before a license helps 27:17 Licensing does not save a struggling brand 28:06 A ten-year-old tea brand's first license 30:15 The second collection and the basket effect 34:43 Cash flow, margin and absorbing the royalty 40:02 The most expensive mistake he has seen 41:00 What a license does to a sale of the company 42:22 Overrated or underrated, five calls 45:29 The first move for an operator next week FIND DAVID Born Licensing: https://bornlicensing.com Born to License: https://borntolicense.com Learn to License: https://www.learntolicense.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidborn1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidb0rn Ecom Growth Insider: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com Figures are David's own, or his clients' as he reports them. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.

    Brand Licensing: Rent A Fanbase, Not More Clicks | David Born, Born Licensing

  2. Sep 29

    No Ads: Seven Figures Without Meta Or Amazon | Kate Assaraf

    Her store locator tells you to go buy from a shop she does not own. If that shop is out of stock, you email her the store's name and she sends you a free shipping code as a thank you for trying. She built a seven-figure haircare brand on that instinct and never bought an ad to do it. Kate Assaraf founded Dip in 2021 — plastic-free shampoo and conditioner bars, now in a little more than 500 independent stores. She spent the first year not building but watching: standing in drugstores, supermarkets, salons and Sephora, quietly observing what people actually do when they pick up a bottle. What she saw decided the product. Her argument in this episode is that sustainability is the third reason someone buys from her, behind "it works" and "it's worth the money" — and she has a Warby Parker survey to explain why leading with the mission loses. She built the brand so the plastic-free part never had to do the selling. One thing the intro does not say: she is running paid ads now. She hired an agency and fired them two weeks later, and she tells that story here for the first time, at 29:31. This one is for operators whose brand has a mission — clean ingredients, sustainability, ethics, a founder story — and who are currently leading with it. In this episode: • The first thing a shopper does with a bottle, at every price point in every store • What men actually do on the women's shelf, which is not what she expected • Where the mission ranks among the reasons people buy, and the survey behind it • One distribution channel, picked deliberately, and the line she used to open it • The page on her own site that routes buyers to a shop she does not own • How the business grows when the product lasts a year and nobody needs to reorder • The ads agency she hired and fired in two weeks, told here for the first time • What she would build instead of another ad account Chapters: 00:00 Seven figures, no ads, no Amazon 01:20 A year spent watching people shop 03:48 Smell decides it before anyone reads 04:40 Men shop the women's shelf the same way 05:16 The sustainable shopper who does not exist 06:48 Sustainability is the third reason to buy 07:08 Warby Parker surveyed, and the mission lost 11:14 The people who care are in refill stores 14:06 Five hundred doors, one did $200,000 15:14 A store locator that costs her the sale 20:56 Revenue is not profit on a marketplace 21:55 The Amazon carrot she calls moldy 24:15 Where AI is an equalizer, and where it is slop 29:31 Hiring an ads agency, firing it in two weeks 33:23 When the repeat purchase is a gift 36:45 Clean beauty and subscriptions, overrated 39:23 Build a community before another ad Dip: https://dipalready.com https://dipalready.com/pages/store-locator https://www.instagram.com/dipalready https://www.tiktok.com/@dipalready Kate on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-assaraf-b25a741a7/ Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tuma. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrejTuma Running a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/audit

    No Ads: Seven Figures Without Meta Or Amazon | Kate Assaraf

  3. Sep 22

    Retail: The Easy Part Is Getting On The Shelf | Bruce Langer

    The same product does not behave the same way in two places. Langer's blood orange sparkling water is the number one seller on a supermarket shelf; on Amazon it is ginger. Their zero-sugar cola outsells the regular roughly ten to one on Amazon, and closer to 60/40 in grocery. Same brand, different winner — because browsing a fixed shelf and searching a marketplace are not the same behavior. Bruce Langer is the president of Langer Juice, the company his father started in 1960 and which now runs more than 200 products through Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Albertsons, Bristol Farms and Amazon. Two generations, sixty-five years, and a launch-and-kill engine that has outlived several fads. A note on the opening: Bruce's father, Nathan Langer, survived the Holocaust, came to the United States after the war, and started this company in 1960. Bruce tells it in about a minute and then moves on, which is how he wanted it. We spent the rest of the hour on the work. This one is for operators who sell physical product — whether that is a first retail account, a better-run Amazon listing, or a Shopify catalog you have never split by channel. In this episode: • The signal a retailer gives long before orders drop, and why it is not the shelf • Why his drink in the biggest new category in beverage has zero grams of protein • How he tells a megatrend from a fad, and the 99-truckload order that taught him • What a buyer is actually solving for in a first meeting, and why something has to come out • Find the retailer that wants to be first, and what that is worth • The same product, two channels, two completely different best-sellers • What he told a founder who wanted to quietly cheapen the formula • Why out-of-stocks cost you twice Chapters: 00:00 One Kmart order, then the fad died 01:38 A celery juice route to a national brand 05:15 The zero-protein bet in the biggest category 09:56 The 1980s seltzer fad and 99 truckloads 11:06 Display space is the canary, not shelf space 13:53 Swapping corn syrup for cane sugar 16:41 The founder who wanted to cut the formula 18:39 Cut cost anywhere except the ingredients 19:22 What actually makes a retail buyer say yes 20:35 On a shelf, something has to come out 22:16 Budget to promote, or the shelf does nothing 23:36 Getting on the shelf is the easy part 24:31 Blood orange on the shelf, ginger on Amazon 25:27 Zero sugar outsells regular ten to one on Amazon 26:32 Running one catalog across every channel 28:09 Keeping founder taste at 400 employees 32:34 The category he thinks gets big next Langer Juice: https://www.langers.com/ https://www.instagram.com/langersjuice https://www.tiktok.com/@langersjuice Bruce on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-langer-9135004/ Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tuma. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrejTuma Running a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/audit

  4. Sep 15

    Exits: Buyers Run Diligence To Cut The Price | Dave Guttman

    A buyer is not trying to work out what a brand is worth. He is trying to find a reason to pay less for it. That is the half of due diligence nobody explains, and it is where most founders lose money they had already earned. Dave Guttman has bought, run and sold companies for most of his career. He was President of First Stop Health, a telemedicine company that made the Inc. 500 in back-to-back years — No. 276 in 2018 and No. 375 in 2019 — and he now mentors founders through their own exits. This one is for operators who have ever thought "I'd sell at the right number." Andrej and Dave get into what an acquirer is actually doing during diligence, the three numbers that set a multiple, why polishing every last opportunity before a sale costs you money rather than making you more, and the one deal Dave says he should never have done. In this episode: • The second reason buyers run due diligence, and how it shows up in the final price • The three numbers an acquirer checks before bidding, and the floor Dave puts on each • Why maxing out every opportunity attracts a worse buyer, not a better one • How being the face of the brand quietly caps what it is worth • The handshake rule he learned across 18 months of depositions • Why he walked from a deal with 70% of revenue in a single client • The timing move he credits for holding his price through the 2008 crash • What he does first with a struggling $5M brand and 90 days Chapters: 00:00 The half of due diligence nobody explains 04:59 The first meeting, and what drops his offer 05:29 Lifestyle business or exit business, pick one 07:12 Make every month they wait cost them more 09:31 Being the face of the brand makes it hard to sell 14:02 Diligence exists to cut the price, not to check it 14:46 He timed the exit to his three best months ever 19:47 A big cash payment at close spooks buyers 22:54 Stop looking at CAC and LTV blended 25:05 The three numbers that set the multiple 27:42 The cold plunge brand that added a subscription 29:30 Two identical $3M brands, 4x versus 7x 30:09 Leave the acquirer some low-hanging fruit 31:53 Max out the upside and you attract a worse buyer 34:23 Start planning the sale 18 to 36 months out 35:43 The deal he should never have done 38:05 70% of revenue from one client, and he walked 41:59 What an acquirer wants the key employees paid 45:27 A struggling $5M brand and 90 days Dave Guttman: https://www.guttmanmedia.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drguttman/ https://www.instagram.com/realdaveguttman/ Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tumachowitsch. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL785J5b_VfDG4PrhJ0OVdkDlUioSkb-tf Running a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/apply/

    Exits: Buyers Run Diligence To Cut The Price | Dave Guttman

  5. Aug 18

    30% Net Margins on a Team of 4: How AlgoRX Hit $1.7M a Month | Dr. Adam Hotchkiss

    Adam Hotchkiss runs a bootstrapped telehealth brand doing over $1.7 million a month with a team of four. Net margins above 30%, no outside investment, and he threw out the entire brand six months in to get there. Six months of purchase data told him who was actually buying: young athletic men. So he killed the clinical, stock-photo look and rebuilt AlgoRX around the people already paying. Revenue almost doubled inside two weeks. Full disclosure: AlgoRX is a HoloGrowth client. You will hear what we built together discussed from the inside, including the parts that did not work. He describes the arc as $70,000 a month at the beginning of last year, $1.4 million for the last completed month at the time we recorded, and $1.7 to $2 million projected for the month itself. They have since passed $1.7 million a month. Every figure is his. In this episode: - What six months of purchase data told him about who was really buying, and the rebrand that followed - Why he ran zero ads for six months, and what changed when he turned them on - Why the uglier ad usually wins, and why that was the hardest thing for him to accept - The 6,000-follower affiliate outselling accounts with millions, and the case for an army of small ones - How four people hold net margins above 30% on a stack they built instead of rented - What checkout friction really costs when the customer pays a doctor fee and shipping on top - Losing the ad account five or six times while fully compliant, at $50-60K a day - Why he no longer thinks the software is the asset, and what an acquirer would actually be buying - His honest answer on selling, and why an earnout means you effectively bought yourself a boss Chapters: 00:00 "You're a company for no one" 00:23 $70K a month to $1.7M a month, on a team of four 01:09 The surgeon who walked out of the operating room 02:55 The $700 wall before anyone gets treated 07:11 "I wanted to make the Honda for healthcare" 10:24 The rebrand that nearly doubled revenue in 2 weeks 11:55 He ran zero ads for six months, then turned Meta on 18:40 The uglier ad usually wins 21:01 A 6,000-follower affiliate outselling mega accounts 25:59 How four people hold 30%+ net margins 28:13 64% cart abandonment, and why he says only 31:02 Building a cult on a pharmacy, and the tattoo test 43:30 Losing the Meta account five times at $50K a day 48:37 Would he sell, and the honest answer 54:11 The tech moat is gone. The brand is the asset now 57:07 The one lever he'd pull at $100-300K a month 1:00:46 Where to find Adam and AlgoRX Full chapter list and transcript: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com/episode/adam-hotchkiss-algorx-bootstrapped-telehealth-team-of-four Connect with Adam: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drhotch/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrHotch X: https://x.com/drahotch AlgoRX: https://algorx.ai AlgoRX on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/algorx/ This episode is a business conversation, not medical advice. Nothing in it is a recommendation to take any medication. Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. Subscribe for episodes on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and the operating systems behind brands that actually grow. More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com Work with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com

  6. Aug 11

    Ad Creative Budgets: The 10% Rule Most Brands Ignore | Matthew Gattozzi

    Most brands say creative is the biggest lever they have, then spend almost nothing on it. Matthew Gattozzi's answer is that the P&L already tells you the truth. Matthew spent over a decade in ballet and danced professionally with Ballet Austin. A back injury ended it at 21. He took the standard that came with it and built Goodo Studios, a creative studio producing ads for e-commerce brands. Spend roughly 10% of ad spend on creative production, sliding down as you scale. Work out how many new ads you actually need, which is almost always fewer than you think. Then make those ads different from each other, not just more of them. In this episode: - The P&L test that exposes what a brand actually prioritises - The 10% rule for creative production budgets, and when it slides to 5% and 1% - The math for how many new ads you need each month - Why "make me 60 ads" reliably gets you 60 versions of the same ad - Why diversity beats volume, and why more follows different - What a plateau in the ad account usually says about decisions made months earlier - Why he stays tool agnostic across cinema cameras, creators and statics - The standard he brought from ballet: "we do not tolerate mistakes" - Rapid fire: the best ad he saw this year, an underrated copywriting book, and his hottest take Chapters: 00:00 "I've never met somebody overspending on creative" 00:46 Why this episode starts with ballet 01:01 A decade of ballet, ended by a back injury at 21 02:53 The gap between camera people and advertising people 03:38 Building Goodo Studios 04:48 Losing an identity, not just a career 05:43 Eight years sober 08:09 Harmony beats balance 10:59 What ballet taught him about creative standards 16:45 Is there such a thing as a perfect ad? 18:17 "We do not tolerate mistakes" 19:39 When the client disagrees with the creative 22:30 Lo-fi versus high production 24:41 Tool agnostic: only winning ads count 26:13 The P&L test for what a brand really prioritises 27:40 The $100K example: cut ad spend, fund creative 30:08 "I've never met somebody overspending on creative" 30:31 Two brands, two decisions, two outcomes 39:15 The 10% rule, and when it slides to 5% and 1% 43:15 Why plateaus are an under-investment problem 44:10 Diversity or just quantity 45:39 Why "make me 60 ads" gets you 60 of the same ad 48:25 Focus on different, and more takes care of itself 49:34 The math for how many new ads you actually need 51:27 Twenty thought-out ads beat sixty guesses 52:16 Rapid fire: best ad, best book, hottest take 58:07 Where to find Matthew Connect with Matthew: X: https://x.com/matthewgattozzi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgattozzi/ Goodo Studios: https://www.goodostudios.com Newsletter, weekly: https://www.goodostudios.com/newsletter Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. Subscribe for episodes on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and the operating systems behind brands that actually grow. More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com Work with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com

  7. Aug 4

    AI Ad Creative That Works: The 3 Analyses Before Any Prompt | Will Sartorius

    Most brands using AI for ads start with the prompt. Will Sartorius says that's the last thing you should touch. Will runs SelfMade, a New York agency that raised around $19 million as an Instagram posting app, nearly went under after a bad acquisition, and got rebuilt into an AI creative engine when Will took it over at 28. His clients don't get creative brainstorms. They get three analyses that decide what gets made before anyone opens a tool. Social listening on your own reviews. A gap analysis on what your competitors run that you don't. A time series on your own Meta account to resurface winners you killed and forgot. Then the split: 80% AI-generated creative for volume and bottom of funnel, 20% fully human for the top, because that's where connection still does the work. In this episode: - The 3 analyses Will runs before a single ad gets made - Why the prompt is the very last part of the equation - The 80/20 rule for AI creative volume - The persona, angle, emotion tree that replaces the creative brainstorm - How to run the whole system from zero in a day with Claude and a folder of reviews - Why Will refuses to run AI UGC even though he sells AI creative - Authority, equal, or aspiration: the three positions every ad takes - Why Grüns ran 45 separate landing pages, one per angle - How team structure changes when AI does the analysis - The most overrated thing brands do with their winning ads Chapters: 00:00 Grüns ran 45 landing pages, one was about pooping 01:22 From Deutsche Bank to a DTC shoe brand 05:21 SelfMade: $19 million raised, then nearly dead 07:27 The ChatGPT moment that turned the agency around 09:13 The 3 analyses behind every great ad 12:01 Why "generate 100 ads with AI" is not a system 12:31 The prompt is the very last part of the equation 12:54 Why AI still needs a human in the loop 17:22 Can you train AI to have taste? 19:07 The AI stigma that shows up on sales calls 21:33 The 80/20 rule for AI creative 22:10 The free tool that finds the holes in your creative 23:23 Why people are starved for human connection 25:17 Why Will refuses to run AI UGC 26:27 Authority, equal, or aspiration: pick one 27:38 Top of funnel human, bottom of funnel AI 28:11 Message match from ad to landing page to email 29:40 Grüns: 45 angles, 45 landing pages 32:27 Starting from zero: the first three things to do 33:01 Step 1: your reviews folder plus Claude 34:49 Step 2: find the gaps in what you're running 35:12 Step 3: connect Meta and tag every ad you've run 37:13 How team structure changes 39:44 Rapid fire: the most overrated thing in creative 42:16 Where to find Will Connect with Will: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willsartorius/ SelfMade: https://selfmade.co/ Ad Lib, his free creative gap analysis tool: https://adlib.getskipper.ai X: https://x.com/will_sartorius Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. Subscribe for episodes on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and the operating systems behind brands that actually grow. More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com Work with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com

  8. Jun 24

    The Pricing Lever Every DTC Brand Ignores | Drew Marconi (Intelligems)

    When did you last actually change your price? Not the ad creative, not the landing page. The price itself. If you are like most founders, you set it once on a spreadsheet and never touched it again. Drew Marconi is the co-founder and CEO of Intelligems, the profit optimization platform behind a thousand-plus A/B tests and more than $600M in DTC transactions. Before this he was chief of staff to McKinsey's global managing director, then built the dynamic pricing engine for half a million rides a day at the ride-sharing company Via. He is one of the most rigorous pricing thinkers in ecommerce, and this one is packed with frameworks you can use this week. His core case: Raise price before you touch conversion rate. A $10 increase on a $100 product can double your profit per order. You can lose half your conversion and still come out the same. In this episode: - Why a $10 price increase can double profit per order - How to find your free shipping threshold from your order value distribution - The first question to answer before you price anything: what are you pricing for - Why the right price is a mirage that changes by market and season - Profit per visitor, the metric that should replace ROAS obsession - The pricing mistakes Drew spots in seconds - How Intelligems uses AI to design, build, and read your tests - Where dynamic pricing crosses the line, and where it just makes you money Chapters: 00:00 The pricing lever almost everyone ignores 01:43 From McKinsey to pricing 500K rides a day 05:45 The pivot: from mobile games to Shopify pricing 11:14 Why most ecommerce brands still price on gut feeling 15:34 What Gruns gets right: a storefront for every customer 18:02 Why founders optimize ads 10x more than price 21:46 The math: how a $10 price bump can double profit 24:25 The pricing mistakes that quietly cost you money 26:47 How to actually find your free shipping threshold 31:22 Why the right price is a mirage 34:25 How Intelligems uses AI to run your tests 37:46 The future of personalization and dynamic pricing 41:56 Is dynamic pricing fair to customers? 44:43 Lightning round and where to find Drew Connect with Drew: Intelligems: https://intelligems.io Intelligems AI: https://intelligems.ai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmarconi/ X: https://x.com/drewmarc Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for ecommerce founders who want to scale profitably. New episodes on paid media, CRO, offers, pricing, and the operating systems that actually move the needle. More episodes and newsletter: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com Work with HoloGrowth: https://hologrowth.com

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About

If you're a DTC brand founder, CMO, growth marketer, or operator trying to scale your e-commerce business profitably, this podcast is for you. Hosted by Andrej Tumachowitsch — founder of the growth agency HoloGrowth — this show goes deep on what actually works to grow online brands in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. We go way beyond generic advice. Every episode gives you practical, battle-tested insights directly from 7-, 8-, and 9-figure brand founders, top-tier marketers, and agency operators actively working in the trenches. You’ll learn: - What separates breakout ecom brands from the ones that plateau - Paid media strategies that scale on Meta, Google & beyond - How to use UGC, email, landing pages, and CRO to increase LTV & AOV - Creative testing frameworks & campaign breakdowns that actually perform - Smart ways to grow without sacrificing profit margins - Founder mindsets, systems, and hiring practices that lead to longevity - And the biggest mistakes brands are making right now (and how to avoid them) Expect a mix of founder interviews, expert roundtables, solo lessons, and deep dives into what’s working right now in paid acquisition, conversion, and retention. No fluff. No recycled advice. Just proven strategies to grow your ecommerce brand. If you're tired of surface-level podcasts and want unfiltered access to the tactics and lessons real brands are using to scale — hit subscribe and join us inside the Ecom Growth Insider.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrej Tumachowitsch
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Andrej Tumachowitsch
  • Show Website
    Ecom Growth Insider