How I Made $150M in eCommerce | Cody Wittick

From $0 to $40M in 4 years — that’s the growth Cody and his team unlocked at Kalo, the silicone wedding ring brand that pioneered influencer marketing before it became mainstream.

In this episode, Cody shares the exact influencer seeding playbook that helped land names like Steph Curry and LeBron James, why small creators outperform big celebrities in 2025, and how his agency Kinship now helps 7–8 figure ecommerce brands scale with creative systems, forecasting, and cost-controlled ad buying.

We break down:

✅ The real ROI of influencer marketing in ecommerce

✅ How to turn free product seeding into 100+ ad assets every month

✅ Why micro influencers drive more revenue than celebrities

✅ Cody’s system for forecasting P&Ls and setting realistic growth targets

✅ How to scale creative volume while keeping costs down

✅ Offer testing, landing pages & why simplicity converts

✅ The new balance between profitability vs. growth for DTC brands in 2025

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

00:05 – From Qalo to $40M: Cody’s Background

01:05 – Starting With Product Seeding

02:02 – Building Up to Big Names

02:33 – DMs vs Agents for Influencers

03:05 – Why Outreach Should Stay Human

03:59 – Mistakes Brands Make With Influencers

05:12 – The Power of Giving First

05:37 – Small Creators vs Celebrities

06:33 – How Influencer Marketing Has Evolved

07:25 – Paying for Posts vs Seeding

08:03 – Kinship’s Approach Today

09:12 – Seeding as a Content Engine

10:25 – The Numbers Behind Seeding

10:57 – Why Raw Content Outperforms AI

11:31 – Branded vs Whitelisted Ads

12:17 – Choosing the Right Influencers

12:50 – Kinship’s Growth System

15:00 – P&L Mistakes Brands Make

17:52 – Why Forecasting Monthly Matters

18:13 – Balancing Growth and Profit

22:00 – Thoughts on Funding & Capital

22:37 – UGC vs CGC Content

25:36 – Video-First Content

25:54 – Static Ads & AI Tools

27:00 – Mixing Creative Pipelines

27:30 – Ad Spend vs Creative Volume

28:52 – Why More Creative Wins

29:58 – Using Cost Controls in Ads

30:58 – Search vs Social Ads

31:51 – TikTok Ads Today

32:15 – How to Build Winning Offers

33:14 – What an Offer Really Is

33:40 – Examples of Strong Offers

34:30 – Measuring Offer Performance

35:00 – Optimising Landing Pages

35:52 – Do Small Tweaks Matter?

35:57 – Wrap Up & How to Connect

Whether you’re running a $3M brand or pushing past $75M, Cody reveals the system, not services approach that keeps Kinship’s clients profitable while scaling across Meta, Google, TikTok, and beyond.

If you want to grow your DTC brand with smarter influencer marketing, UGC pipelines, and real financial discipline — this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.