Amaze Holdings is quietly becoming one of the more interesting GTM stories in the creator economy. With 14 million users who have launched stores and 3,000–4,000 new ones joining daily at near-zero acquisition cost, CEO Aaron Day has built a social commerce platform that lets anyone start selling inside YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and Discord — no inventory, no upfront investment required. In this episode of BUILDERS, Aaron breaks down the exact thinking behind Amaze's acquisition strategy, how he carried Canva's partnership-led growth model into a new company, and why the shift from 3% affiliate cuts to 20% direct creator commissions is the model disruption nobody is talking about loudly enough. Topics Discussed: Scaling to 14M users with minimal marketing spend — what's actually driving it The Canva partnership playbook: why embedded distribution beats paid acquisition How every integration target Aaron approached ended up becoming an acquisition When and why to consolidate a multi-brand portfolio into a single unified brand TikTok Shop's affiliate acceleration algorithm and its structural implications for brands GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Distressed market conditions turn partnership targets into acquisition opportunities. Aaron's original plan was straightforward: find high-volume distribution partners and integrate Amaze's engine into their ecosystems — the same playbook he ran at Canva. But every company he approached, including Teespring, was coming out of Covid in a weakened position, sitting on valuable distribution but needing a new model. Rather than walking away, he bought them. The lesson isn't "always acquire." It's that when a company holds exactly the distribution you need and the market has compressed their options, the acquisition math can be dramatically more favorable than a long partnership negotiation — and you capture the asset permanently rather than renting access to it. Embedded distribution compounds in ways paid acquisition cannot. At Canva, the team didn't build brand awareness through paid media or SEO in the traditional sense. They embedded Canva directly inside FedEx, Office Depot, and Staples — platforms where 65 million small business users were already working. The partnership paid Canva, exposed the product to users who would never have searched for it, and built habitual usage. Aaron brought that same logic to Amaze. When you're early and capital-constrained, finding a single high-volume integration that puts your product in front of the right behavior beats spending on channels that require you to interrupt people. Brand consolidation after M&A is a compounding GTM event, not just a cleanup project. Running acquired brands as separate entities — each with their own SEO footprint, paid media budget, and partnership surface area — caps your efficiency at every layer. Aaron's decision to collapse Amaze's acquisitions into features under a single brand (Amaze Commerce) doesn't just simplify the org. It concentrates domain authority, focuses partnership conversations, and lets every marketing dollar work harder. If you've grown through acquisition, the consolidation moment deserves the same strategic attention as a product launch. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM
