Welcome to the Lock-In - a podcast where we lock the doors of our favourite pub to bring you an unfiltered chat with some of the world’s top E-Commerce Founders...
Dan Nugent - Starting From Scratch After Scaling To Seven Figures
Dan Nugent is no stranger to the world of building brands. Back in 2017, fresh off the birth of their first child, he founded Ambr Eyewear alongside his wife Sacha. The couple built the blue light eyewear brand to 7 figures from their kitchen, winning a host of awards and sealing some lucrative retail partnerships along the way. The Post-Covid ecom collapse left Ambr Eyewear in turmoil, like so many others in the DTC space. After pausing to reassess the business and mistakes made along the way, Dan relaunched the brand as Everambr, a performance-focused eyewear brand in 2024. In our chat, Dan dives into some hilarious stories from his time building Ambr, from ‘almost’ getting sued by Specsavers, through to his son Theo’s birth on Black Friday as they experienced their biggest ever 24 hours. The learnings he’s taking into his new journey with Everambr are immensely valuable to anybody building a DTC business in 2025.Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 When Customer Support Goes Wrong03:55 Lightbulb Moment: Starting Ambr From The Couch07:18 Retail Brings Credibility: How Ambr Got Into Brown Thomas10:00 How Jack Met Dan12:39 Approach Pricing With Retail In Mind From Day One15:05 'Almost' Sued By Specsavers18:11 Lessons From Failure: Importance Of Product Diversification24:10 Everambr: Moving From Eyewear Towards Performance28:40 Know Your Financials!!32:41 Growth Tactics: Gifting Works36:00 UGC Is Essential In 202537:48 Marketing Failures: Avoid TV Ads40:25 How AI Is Changing The Content Game45:36 Authenticity Is Key When Building A Brand47:50 The Appetite To Go Again Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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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.Timestamps00:00 Intro02:00 Success With Greats - The First Digitally Native Sneaker Brand04:01 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 Business14:47 Ryan's Framework For Starting A Successful Brand17:17 The Importance Of Smart Product Positioning19:34 Staying Focused To Build A $50m Brand23:31 Growth Hack: The Water Report26:12 How To Test Your Market Before Building Your Product29:44 The Data Problem: We've Prioritized Measurement Over Performance33:38 How Jolie Scaled To $50m With Three Employees37:09 Is Software Replacing People in E-Commerce?40:41 How To Price Your Product48:41 What's Next For Jolie? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Matt Kelly - Scaling Spacegoods from Zero to £12 Million in 2 Years
Here we go, Episode One of Lock-In - and it's a cracker! Our guest this week is Matt Kelly, the founder of Spacegoods - Europe's fastest growing all-in-one Mushroom Coffee blend. His journey through e-commerce has been an absolute rollercoaster, from dropshipping ripped jeans, to building two 8-figure brands before both ultimately entered administration in 2021. It's the learnings he took from these that have helped him build Spacegoods into one of the UK's fastest growing food brands.Our conversation with Matt is raw and honest. You'll hear everything from his thoughts on VC funding vs bootstrapping, through to his ongoing struggles with hiring. Matt's a marketing genius, and today he dives into his playbook for success, sharing real insight into what's working and what isn't for Spacegoods.Timestamps:00:00: Intro00:45: How Matt Stumbled Into Entrepreneurship06:30: From Bedroom Brand to $50m - Simple Shit Scales15:25: Moving Into Retail - Does It Move The Dial For Brands?17:35: Building A Team - You Should Be Able To Do £20M Per Year With 20 People21:28: Should DTC Brands Raise VC Money?25:57: Building A Process When Raising Money29:45: Good Angels Add More Value Than VC's31:55: What Are The Biggest Challenges Spacegood's Faces?35:55: Starting A Business With An Influencer - The Key To Fast Growth40:12: When Influencer Marketing Goes Wrong42:27: Learning From Failure - What Went Wrong With Neon Beach50:53: What Do The Next 12 Months Look Like For Spacegoods?54:24: What's The Biggest Opportunity In E-Commerce Right Now? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to the Lock-In - a podcast where we lock the doors of our favourite pub to bring you an unfiltered chat with some of the world’s top E-Commerce Founders. Each episode our hosts Jack, Jamie, Joe and Dan sit down with some of the biggest and best minds in entrepreneurship - pulling back the curtain to share the stories, playbooks and mistakes they’ve experienced while building 8 & 9 figure brands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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