DTC Unboxed

Ryan Walton
  • 5.0 (1)
  • MARKETING

The growth podcast unboxing the strategies behind the world’s fastest-growing DTC brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

  1. Smalls: Unboxed - "They Literally Repackage Dog Food and Sell It to Cats." How Smalls Is Dismantling Big Pet with Will Youm

    MAY 6

    Smalls: Unboxed - "They Literally Repackage Dog Food and Sell It to Cats." How Smalls Is Dismantling Big Pet with Will Youm

    Smalls is one of the fastest-growing fresh cat food brands in the US, with over $100M in annual revenue and 200% year-on-year acquisition growth. Will Youm is Senior Growth Manager at Smalls, leading the growth strategy behind a brand that is actively trying to dismantle a century of pet food industry misinformation. In this episode Ryan sits down with Will to unpack the full Smalls growth playbook. How they are closing a 77-point brand awareness gap on Fancy Feast. Why brand is treated as a company department rather than a marketing function. And the "pink and shrink" analogy that explains why the entire pet food industry has been failing cats for a hundred years. If you are a DTC founder, growth marketer or brand builder operating in a category dominated by legacy incumbents, subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. 00:00 Introduction 00:54 What Smalls actually is: fresh food you would recognise as a human 01:34 The founding story: cats, humans, and 10,000 years of symbiosis 02:47 What "Big Pet" really means and why Smalls is built to dismantle it 04:56 The three growth levers: brand, product diversification, customer-led growth 05:51 When to diversify product, and the risk of doing it too early 08:00 The marginal CAC trap most DTC brands fall into 09:12 Increasing TAM through new SKUs vs deepening existing cohorts 09:55 Why brand building is the strongest LTV lever 11:51 Why podcast and affiliate channels lead Smalls' top of funnel 13:01 The contrarian view on TV: go big or go home 14:26 Brand isn't a marketing function, it's a company department 16:26 Why AI slop is killing DTC creative and Smalls' response 17:58 Adapting strategy for Andromeda and the new Meta era 18:59 Field research and the customer-led growth pillar 19:54 Neophobic vs neophilic cats: insights only the quiz funnel reveals 22:09 How retail is becoming a credibility play, not just a sales channel 24:59 Why pet food brands are leaning so hard into brand differentiation 26:24 The biggest challenge: changing pet owner beliefs and habits 29:53 How Smalls justifies a premium price in a price-sensitive category 30:57 The one growth lever Will would keep if he had to pick one 31:22 Why people don't buy with logic, they buy with emotion Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    33 min
  2. AG1: Unboxed - How AG1 Leveraged Podcast Advertising To Grow From $10M to $600M

    APR 15

    AG1: Unboxed - How AG1 Leveraged Podcast Advertising To Grow From $10M to $600M

    AG1 grew from $10M to $600M in revenue over seven years, entirely customer funded with zero VC money until 2021. Jon Corne was Global CMO for most of that journey, building the podcast advertising and creator economy strategy that the entire DTC industry has spent the last five years trying to reverse engineer. In this episode Ryan sits down with Jon, now 12 months out of the business, to unpack the full playbook for the first time. From landing Joe Rogan before anyone knew what podcast advertising was worth, to signing Huberman before his first episode aired, to cutting Amazon when it was 25% of the business, this is the most detailed breakdown of AG1's growth strategy ever recorded. If you are a DTC founder, growth marketer or brand builder, subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. 00:00 Introduction 02:08 How Jon joined AG1 with no marketing experience 03:12 What AG1 looked like in 2017: 10 people, one product, $11M run rate 06:02 Why podcasts beat every other channel for supplements 06:08 The single product strategy and why it created a brand moat 21:04 The almond croissant analogy: focus as competitive advantage 24:09 Building the creator economy playbook before the term existed 24:19 "We will be the number one audio brand in the world" 27:02 The runners thesis: using creators as live market research 33:49 The Google Sheet that managed 8 figures and delivered 9 36:34 Why AG1 cut Amazon when it was 25% of the business 37:47 Why Meta was only 15% of AG1's ad spend 41:27 Day trading is Meta. Value investing is creators. 43:38 How AG1 structured creator deals and why they paid fairly 49:25 The COVID moment that halved their customer acquisition cost 53:00 The Joe Rogan story: almost cancelled after episode three 54:06 The Elon Musk episode and what it taught Jon about context 58:03 Why Jon paid above market rate for Joe Rogan impressions 1:00:48 Signing Huberman before his first episode aired 1:13:09 How AG1 thought about retention and why it starts with acquisition 1:17:44 The data infrastructure problem that held them back 1:22:56 Gummies, competitors and the future of the category 1:28:22 What Jon would tell his younger self Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 31m
  3. DTC Unboxed: Breakdown - How Gruns Hit $300M ARR in 2.5 Years (And Why the Model Is Genius)

    APR 1

    DTC Unboxed: Breakdown - How Gruns Hit $300M ARR in 2.5 Years (And Why the Model Is Genius)

    Grüns went from zero to $300M ARR in 2.5 years. They ship 4 million gummies per day, just raised a $35M Series B at a $500M valuation, and have 10 new products launching in 2026. This isn't luck. It's an intelligently architected DTC model - and in this solo breakdown episode, Ryan Walton tears it apart piece by piece. This episode is a different format to our usual guest interviews. Ryan runs through the full Gruns growth funnel - product strategy, pricing mechanics, landing pages, creative strategy and unit economics - to show exactly why this model is scaling so fast and what DTC operators can learn from it. 00:00 — Intro: Why Gruns is the holy grail of DTC growth right now 01:00 — What Gruns actually is and who built it 03:00 — The AG1 problem: taste and value as the two biggest objections in the category 06:00 — How Gruns solved both problems and redesigned the category 10:00 — The wellness market opportunity: energy, gut health and immunity 12:00 — Landing page breakdown: why 80% of traffic goes to blog-style pages 16:00 — The GLP-1 angle and why it's smarter than it looks 20:00 — Creative strategy: visual diversity, conceptual diversity and the squint test 22:00 — Persona breakdown: gym bros, menopausal women, parents and GLP-1 users 28:00 — Whitelisting and why Gruns maps creator pages to target personas 32:00 — Reverse engineering the full TAM strategy 35:00 — Unit economics: AOV, LTV and why they're probably losing money on first purchase on purpose **37:00** — Why a high LTV model lets you hammer spend and scale fast Website: https:// dtcunboxed.com DTC Unboxed is the growth podcast for DTC operators - unpacking the tools, tactics and principles behind the world's fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    38 min
  4. Tushy: Unboxed - How Tushy Convinced 3 Million Americans to Ditch Toilet Paper with Jerel Blades

    MAR 18

    Tushy: Unboxed - How Tushy Convinced 3 Million Americans to Ditch Toilet Paper with Jerel Blades

    Tushy has convinced 3 million+ Americans to ditch toilet paper, challenging bathroom habits that have gone unchanged for 170 years. In this episode, Ryan sits down with Jerel Blades, Head of Growth at Tushy, to unpack the growth playbook behind one of DTC's most recognisable brands. 0:00 Intro 01:35 - Defining Bathroom Wellness: Shifting from "The Bidet Company" to a "from gut to butt to bowl" ecosystem. 04:00 The "Blue Ocean" Challenge: Educating a market where only 6% of households use a bidet compared to 60-70% in Asia. 05:34 Three Pillars of Growth: Jerel’s fundamental framework 08:14 OOH & Awareness: Using unconventional "poop trucks"  10:00 The Consideration Cycle: Analyzing why 40% of new customers known the brand for over a year before buying. 11:11 The Power of Word-of-Mouth: How a remarkable product drives 35-40% of sales through friends and partners. 12:27 Whitelisting & Human Trust: Why creator-led content is 10x more effective than clinical brand advertising. 15:10 The "Andromeda" Era: Moving away from complex lookalikes back to the core principles of emotional, story-driven marketing. 18:58 Strategic Innovation: Using product launches like fiber gummies to re-engage customers who haven't bought since 2021. 21:38 Amazon as a Proxy: Using marketplace data to identify sub-category growth and inform the product roadmap. 25:38 The LTV Unlock: Why Tushy focuses on multi-packs and bundles. 28:01 Retention Nuance: Distinguishing between "repeat" (unpredictable upgrades) and "recurring" (predictable subscription) revenue. 30:45 Innovation vs. Market Penetration: Deciding when to double down on one product based on the Total Addressable Market (TAM). 32:55 Brand as a Performance Lever: How a strong brand presence in culture directly reduces Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). 38:36 Movement-Based Marketing: Building a sense of "cultural movement" (like Caraway) to maintain demand during economic pullbacks. 41:43 Post-Tariff Resilience: How a 140% cost increase forced the team to become more disciplined, creative entrepreneurs. 45:10 The Future of Toileting: Expanding into AI stool tracking (the Hindsight app) and 10 new product launches for 2026. 48:49 Avoiding "Shiny Tool Syndrome": Final advice on ignoring software hype to focus on the human fundamentals of persuasion. Website: https://dtcunboxed.com Follow Jerel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerel-blades-89407412b/ DTC Unboxed is the growth podcast for DTC operators - unpacking the tools, tactics and principles behind the world's fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    52 min
  • 4 Episodes

About

The growth podcast unboxing the strategies behind the world’s fastest-growing DTC brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Ryan Walton
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Ryan Walton
  • Show Website
    DTC Unboxed

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