Ryan Babenzien - Jolie's Framework to Building a DTC Unicorn

Ryan Babenzien doesn't just follow e-commerce trends - he invents them!

A veteran of the footwear and streetwear industry, Ryan has a long-history with brand building and e-commerce. In 2014 he founded the first digitally-native sneaker brand, Greats - a brand which he exited to fashion giant Steve Madden in 2019. Not one to chill on the beach and bask in his own success, Ryan immediately started Jolie - now one of the fastest brands in the DTC space!

Ryan's journey with Jolie has seen him scale the brand to $50mn in revenue in a three year period, all while maintaining a lean team of just four full-time staff. In our chat he dives into his framework to build a successful DTC business, his not-so-subtle dislike of Meta, his experience exiting an eight-figure brand and how he's using AI to scale his business as leanly as possible.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

02:00 Success With Greats - The First Digitally Native Sneaker Brand

04:01 If Meta Is So Great, Why Are Brands Losing Money?

06:59 Has It Gotten Easier Or Harder To Start A DTC Brand?

10:12 Think About Your Exit Before Starting A Business

14:47 Ryan's Framework For Starting A Successful Brand

17:17 The Importance Of Smart Product Positioning

19:34 Staying Focused To Build A $50m Brand

23:31 Growth Hack: The Water Report

26:12 How To Test Your Market Before Building Your Product

29:44 The Data Problem: We've Prioritized Measurement Over Performance

33:38 How Jolie Scaled To $50m With Three Employees

37:09 Is Software Replacing People in E-Commerce?

40:41 How To Price Your Product

48:41 What's Next For Jolie?

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