Figure just signed a deal with Catalyst Brands to deploy humanoid robots — and the timeline is processing what it means for retail and ops at every scale. We break it down. Plus three stacked guest interviews. ON TODAY'S EPISODE OF ECOMM COWBOY Leandro Cabrini (Founder and CEO, Proppel) — The Argentine-born, UK-based founder placing vetted LATAM remote operators, marketers, and creatives into US and UK ecommerce teams. Clients include Jones Road Beauty, Pvolve, Cheers, and Mugsy. 100+ brands, 300+ candidates in a year. We get into the 20%-of-salary flat-fee model with no recurring markup, the Jones Road build (saving $500K+/year), the line clients shouldn't cross when offshoring creative, the case for human LATAM teams beating AI in the next 12 to 18 months, and the contrarian argument for why LATAM is structurally different from the Philippines wave. Will Nitze (Founder and CEO, IQBAR) — Harvard neuroscience grad running IQBAR, IQMIX, and IQJOE. Deliberately omnichannel (~55% wholesale), running lean at ~9 employees. On pace for $125M revenue at 17% EBITDA in 2025, up from $59M at 13% in 2024. We dig into what he deliberately doesn't spend on, whether the Kickstarter "$1 eBook" playbook is still alive, whether the 3,000-store CVS deal was an unambiguous win, the "brain hook is the closer, not the opener" insight, and when a brand should start cannibalizing its DTC moat with Amazon and wholesale. Tal Bar-Or (Founder and CEO, Altina) — Coining "hearing eyewear" as a new wearable category. AI-powered glasses with hearing enhancement embedded in the temples. Previously led product on Amazon's Echo Frames. Emerged from stealth May 1, 2026, built with Cubitts and backed by a Danish audio R&D center. We get into whether the real barrier is stigma or denial, the FDA hearing-aid line, what Echo Frames got wrong, and whether the bigger competitor on day one is Oticon or Apple's AirPods. ALSO ON THE SHOW - The Eli Lilly vaccine path - Hooters family rebrand - Ghost Protein Drink x Yoo-hoo - Meta layoff in King County, Washington - Watch and react: 284% AppLovin incrementals from -Common Thread Collective -Watch and react: the ICP for reselling shoes -Shopify x Perplexity - TB12 in the ATX _____________________________________ Welcome to DTC's daily — what's now and next in ecommerce so founders, marketers, and operators can survive and thrive. Weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.ecommcowboy.com/ Made possible by: Postscript https://postscript.io/sms-benchmarks?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+Cowboy Seguno https://www.seguno.com/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+Cowboy Follow Ecomm Cowboy: X https://x.com/ecommcowboy LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecommcowboy Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/0q1Pp0rW8j6cehXToNTeJc Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ecomm-cowboy/id1761749693