Roman Khan | Buying $10-50m DTC brands
@RomanEcom
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I buy & operate DTC brands (@rayconglobal, @linjerco etc). I bootstrapped myself to 9 figures of revenue profitably.
Hong Kong
Joined July 2014
We sold $200,000,000+ worth of earbuds in 3.5 years. All bootstrapped with zero funding. Here’s how we did it. 🧵.
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We will buy close to $30,000,000 worth of goods from China this year with an average of 85 day payment terms blended. These are 9 frequent mistakes I see founders make when sourcing from China 🧵.
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Just talked to a 21 year old kid via @mentorpass . He’s doing $110K a month with $30K in profit drop-shipping something from China. Mono-product store with an off the shelf @Shopify template that cost $20 and an attractive BOGO offer. Takeaways:. 1. @Shopify is an insane.
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I unfriend people who cheat on their wives / GFs. A lot of my (financially successful) friends are big cheaters now. Entering that age of mid life crisis and red Ferraris. These friends expect me to act all normal when i meet their wives at BBQs on the weekends 😂. Probably.
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This view is the reason Flexport quotes always come in higher than what we source ourselves 😂.
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How to turn $5m into $100m+ in a few months:. What Copycat King Oliver Samwer taught me during my early days at Rocket Internet. Trust me, the story is crazy. 🧵:.
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We pay on average $450 per Virtual Assistant (and no recruitment fees). We have more than 100+ VA's around the globe. I have never understood why people pay more than $1K on Twitter. Below I'm sharing our 5 step process for hiring Virtual Assistants at scale. I hope this.
@obviceo We pay on average $450 per VA. We have more than 100 across all our companies. Never understood why people pay more than $1K on Twitter. If you’re looking for a VA - then your screening exercise will be key. We have some templates and processes. Then you just post it on the.
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How a 22 year old kid scaled from $5K to $100K in Meta spend per day:. The guy booked me on @MentorPass in August. He wanted me to review his Meta account. What he was doing:.- 1 x ABO for testing .- 1 x CBO for scaling.- All ads were VSL. What we decided to do:.- Increase.
Just talked to a 21 year old kid via @mentorpass . He’s doing $110K a month with $30K in profit drop-shipping something from China. Mono-product store with an off the shelf @Shopify template that cost $20 and an attractive BOGO offer. Takeaways:. 1. @Shopify is an insane.
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@ecommercefuel Our playbook:. Year 1: Google Ads + Facebook Ads.Year 2: Google Ads + Facebook Ads + influencer marketing.Year 3: Optimize the above and blitzscale.
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I talked to a $40M D2C brand spending <10% of budget on Meta and >75% on YouTube ads - growing 100%+ a year. All VSLs. Big focus for me next year. If you’re big on YouTube ads:.Please DM. I’d love to exchange learnings. Happy to share what we do on YouTube influencers to.
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Building in public:. At Peak 21 we're about to acquire a very large asset. I am contemplating building in public:. - Share numbers pre-acquisition.- Provide quarterly updates post-acquisition.- Provide transparency on fuck ups and things that go well. Is this something my.
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@ecommercefuel My main takeaways?. 1. Start with the right product. 2. Be like Ray. Do your homework. 🤓 😈 . Now, want to know exactly how we scaled our influencer marketing?. Reply with INFLUENCER, and I’ll write a thread.
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Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge Brad Jacobs fan. Re-reading this for a 2nd time this week (bought it 2.5 weeks ago approx) . Highly recommend it to anyone wanting to think big
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Back in SF for the first time in 5+ years and I forgot how bad a lot of vc funded companies are at ads. wtf is clickup
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Oh btw his product images were AI generated 😂.
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I stopped listening to podcasts 6 months ago and revenue and profits are both up 😂.
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You get to wear up to 6 hats in life:. 1. Father .2. Husband .3. Son.4. Brother.5. Friends.6. Operator. I am turning 39 this year. Divorces are spiking like crazy in my friend circles right now. It was pretty obvious who was gonna get divorced from day 1. Usually it is the mans.
I’m about to be a father!!! 🤯. What’s your BEST piece of parenting advice?
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@ecommercefuel Our sales grew from $100 to $20,000 a day in less than two weeks. 200x sales with just one product. Wireless earbuds.
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Forget website CRO. The most important CRO workstream in 2024:. Garner a continuous stream of product reviews on YouTube. If you’re sub <$10M but > $5M:.5 to 10 reviews a month. Above $10m:.1 new review per day. Post purchase surveys tell us that 4 out of 10 customers watch.
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In the past two weeks, I’ve had calls with two founders from @MentorPass who are doing 7 figures a month <6 months into their businesses. What they have in common:. 1. Target customer is old.2. 95%+ spend on Meta.3. VSL ads only average length being 7 to 10 min.4. Both selling.
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@obviceo We pay on average $450 per VA. We have more than 100 across all our companies. Never understood why people pay more than $1K on Twitter. If you’re looking for a VA - then your screening exercise will be key. We have some templates and processes. Then you just post it on the.
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I am an angel investor in a unicorn. Got in a <$10M pre-money. Not sure if I’ll make any money due to liquidity preferences and the crazy amount of debt + equity they raised the past 3+ years. Pretty wild. Also 99% sure the founders won’t make anything meaningful upon an IPO.
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Making the most of this trip to NYC! Stayed in Manhattan (close to meetings: time = money), hosted dinner with eCommerce friends, and met new people. Most importantly, trip was short & sweet, so I can get home to my kids*. *budget = 40 days away from my kids per year
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Cost Cap Update #6:.I was lucky enough to have @DaveRekuc swing by our office in NYC 10 days ago. He audited 1 of my ad accounts that is 100% cost cap (we run another account for non cost cap for the same brand). He convinced me to switch all of the campaigns from 1 DC + 7DV to.
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I just spent 1.5 days in Austin. Met with 25+ D2C founders. 1 person doing $1B+ a year (omni).2 people doing $100M+ a year.5 people doing $50M+ . Crazy. 🤯. Surprised by how many high quality D2C companies there are in the city. I’ll definitely be back. Thank you to
Hosting a brunch in Austin on the 9th of March. I hope to see you there. Founders only. No service providers.
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@ecommercefuel Our sales skyrocketed over the next few years. 2018: $7 million.2019: $32 million.2020: $72 million. All bootstrapped. All profitable. How did we do it?.
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Our youngest one spotted with Peak 21 merch
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@ecommercefuel I looked through their product categories to identify the most promising one. The CAGR for wireless earbuds was insane. And Google Trends, keyword volume… everything pointed in the right direction. Earbuds should be the focus.
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META COST CAP UPDATE:.1st of January we made an extreme pivot. We moved 100% of @linjerco Meta spend to cost cap only. Our thesis:.Running cost cap ONLY would lead to MORE spend at the same if not HIGHER ROAS. Before this test:.- 85% of spend ASC / ABOs.- 15% cost cap
The Twitter D2C Cost Cap Mafia finally got to me. This week we turned off all campaigns and are running cost cap only. 24 hours in and its yielding decent results. Pray for us. I'll share our post mortem here.
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Oddity IPO seemed to have been mispriced. Stocks jumped 40% on opening. They have two brands Il Makiage and Spoiled Child. Insane company. I'm shocked by the numbers:. 2020: $110.6m sales @ $11.7m net income.2021: $226.6m sales @ $13.9m net income.2022: $324.5m sales @.
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The most frequently asked question I get:. "What category would you go after if you had to start from scratch in D2C? - and what attributes would you look for?" . (Watch the clip at 1.5x the speed as I talk too slowly).
This 5-minute clip from @RomanEcom will teach you more about starting a business than most semester-long MBA courses.
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@ecommercefuel On Monday, I gave Ray some homework. Produce 3 landing pages and 20 ad creatives for a wireless audio brand. Due Friday. Meanwhile, I went into his ad accounts to set up pixels and prep campaigns.
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I’m in NYC this week. Most of my followers think I live here, but I actually live in Hong Kong!. ❤️🇭🇰 Why I love living in HK:. - I have two young kids, and it's easy and affordable to get support at home with nannies. - Extremely safe. No random shootings, thefts, etc. Never
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Prediction:. In 5 years someone will build a brand as large as Gymshark focused on exercise gear made of natural materials (non synthetics). Go to market might be female focused to start - i.e more Lululemon focused audience with leggings etc.
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I often find agency people to be great hires. They’re used to neurotic clients who are never satisfied - and every week they are at the edge of being fired by their client. Makes me come across as an angel when they do join my team 😂.
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@ecommercefuel Why earbuds?. Because Apple had just removed the headphone jack from iPhones and introduced AirPods. So I had an idea:. Earbuds at HALF the price of Apple’s. Kill the e-bikes and other random shit and become a premium wireless audio brand.
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Here’s how losing 24 pounds led me to $24 million in revenue. It’s also a story about why I buy “transformative” businesses at Peak 21. A very personal thread 🧵:
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Just closed the biggest transaction we’ve ever done. Super hesitant about building in public given the responses here lol. I think our CEO and CFO will shoot me.
Building in public:. At Peak 21 we're about to acquire a very large asset. I am contemplating building in public:. - Share numbers pre-acquisition.- Provide quarterly updates post-acquisition.- Provide transparency on fuck ups and things that go well. Is this something my.
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2. Founders don’t visit their factories frequently enough . You’ve found PMF. You’re growing. Your factory is your most important partner . Focus on meeting them at trade shows in addition to at least 2 factory visits per year. You’ll achieve three things:. A. You build.
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Unspoken truth:. Your personal liquid net worth dictates the quality of your decision making as a founder. Especially if you’re a bootstrapped. I became a better founder when I passed >$2.5M in liquid networth (net all liabilities). What is your magic number?.
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The best CEOs in consumer are the CMOs.
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The reason it’s so hard to replace a D2C founder for a growth role is because the founder is allowed to make gut based decisions and an employee is not. When an employee fails at an experiment - founders have a tendency to say: “but what did the data say?”. When a founder does.
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I am a huge fan of @DenneyDara YouTube channel. My team learns a ton watching her videos and I highly recommend subscribing to it.
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I stopped listening to podcasts 5-6 weeks ago and I’m way more productive. I’ll listen certain episodes occasionally but vast majority of pods are a waste of time or hustleporn / distraction from getting shit done.
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👀👀👀
How much did the Thrasio founders take out in secondaries ?. Reading the chapter 11 filings now. Very juicy - reads like WeWork.
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@thesamparr 3,500 sqft is too big. You want to wake up to the sound of your kids. Life is too short not to. 600 sqft per child x 4 kids (your KPI) = 2,400 sqft.
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Just had a call with a eCom SaaS founder who just told me he wanted to start a D2C brand. I told him - that's like me saying I want to start an airline - the quickest way to loose money 😂. The grass always seems greener my friends.
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@ecommercefuel Why did I advise him not to sell shoes?. I’d also tried to start a shoe biz a few years earlier. SKU, colors, size, styles… too complicated. Too much working capital needed. We failed quickly. I wanted Ray to learn from our failure.
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If you liked this thread: please follow and share. I am trying to grow my following this year. I buy grow and sell D2C companies for a living. If you know a D2C brand I should buy: please refer me. I pay up to $100K for any things the leads to an acquisition.
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D2C Rule at Peak 21:.Never dip below $1M in revenue per FTE p.a (run rate) for more than 6 months. We’re at $1.5M+ for most of our companies (ex VAs). When Alibaba acquired Lazada (ex employer) I had already left the company. I heard though, from ex-colleagues that when Jack.
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When people waiting on your downfall but you a goat
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Cost Cap Update:. We’ve cracked it 🥳. Higher efficiency at much higher spend 💪. 1. We fixed our OOS issues . 2. We’ve figured out how to line up cost caps with merchandising events. I think if it was not for the OOS issues we’d crack this in 8 weeks or so.
META COST CAP UPDATE:.1st of January we made an extreme pivot. We moved 100% of @linjerco Meta spend to cost cap only. Our thesis:.Running cost cap ONLY would lead to MORE spend at the same if not HIGHER ROAS. Before this test:.- 85% of spend ASC / ABOs.- 15% cost cap
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I just hit 10,000 followers🙏🙏🙏.Thank you for following me. About me:.I’ve been in D2C the past 10 years and now focus on buying D2C companies that do $5-50M in revenue. DM me if you’re thinking of selling your company. If you know a founder looking to sell - I’ll pay you.
I am 330 followers away from hitting 10K goal for Q1. 14 days to go.
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I was at Meta’s office yesterday talking about how big WhatsApp is as a channel is for Linjer and Nutrition Kitchen. It’s by far our fastest growing channel. In 6 months:. - gone from 0 to 150,000+ subscribers.- gone from 0% of revenue to up to 40% of revenue . A large part of
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We have 150+ virtual assistants globally. Half work in CX. The other half are ad ops (influencer marketing etc) . The latest OpenAI update will probably eliminate half of these jobs in the next 18 to 24 months. It’s insane. Thinking hard about how we re-train / re-purpose.
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This book that you probably never heard of is one of my favorites. I actually find myself re-reading it at start of each year (just finished it again). It's been instrumental in my thinking and I find myself gifting it to founders who are contemplating selling to Peak 21 or
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8. Hire a reputable QC agency until you have scale. It pays for itself. QC every shipment. Don’t trust anyone. One bad shipment and you’re in the red for the year. In eCom you live or die in the decimals. Once you achieve scale take QC in-house and recruit the most.
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3. Buy some chopsticks off Amazon for $2 . It’s 2024 learn to eat with chopsticks. $2 investment that will make you look less like a fish out of water.
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I’m now on @MentorPass to share my expertise from growing brands like @rayconglobal and @LinjerCo. If you book a call with me, 100% of the proceeds will go to the charity of your choice (thanks to Ben Cogan for the inspiration). 📄 Details:. My rate starts at $200 per hour.
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Building in public yay or nay?. Opening our first physical store for @LinjerCo in H2. Not sure if people are interested. If this gets 500 likes or follows I'll probably do it. Current roadmap of what I am thinking of sharing on X. Probably subject to change as I am a n00b when.
We’re going to open our first pop-up for @LinjerCo next year in Hong Kong. The plan is to learn how to build retail stores : process, people and systems. 1. What books should I read on the topic ?.2. Who should I talk to about opening stores? I need a mentor.
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$500M idea:. Equinox level gyms and saunas at airports globally . I’d pay $100 an hour.
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Thank you for having me on. This was so much fun.
Operators E048.Roman Khan: Buying and Growing DTC Companies. @RomanEcom @SeanEcom @mikebeckhamsm @JasonPanzer @mbertulli
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In 2017, Ray Lee contacted me on @ecommercefuel (a platform for ecommerce pros). Ray wanted to start a shoe business. I told him not to. That was the end of our interaction.
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The Twitter D2C Cost Cap Mafia finally got to me. This week we turned off all campaigns and are running cost cap only. 24 hours in and its yielding decent results. Pray for us. I'll share our post mortem here.
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Founder to follow:. @pauljauregui made a killer presentation on how he scaled Tik Tok for BK Beauty at @ecommercefuel live. Mandatory homework for anyone who wants to learn: not necessarily how to scale TT, but how relentless focus pays off big time. Diversification is for the.
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The reason D2C assets below <$50M revenue are unsellable IMO is because:. 1. You have to be maniacal about the details - you live or die in the decimals - ROAS goes from 2.X to 2.X you loose money. 2. There is in no world, as a buyer you can go into "cruise" mode post acquisition.
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Started Tweeting in April this year. It's been fantastic. I've made so many new friends. Resolution for 2024 is to Tweet more. Thank you the people who follow me and the love. Hope to make more friends next year.
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Every week the M&A team at Peak 21 will present 1 or 2 brands that are having extreme growth (Raycon style) - because of product market fit and impeccable timing of launch. Usually the products have a cool set of features or a unique spin to something old. Whenever people say.
We sold $200,000,000+ worth of earbuds in 3.5 years. All bootstrapped with zero funding. Here’s how we did it. 🧵.
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10 year anniversary for @ecommercefuel Live. Congrats to @youderian for building the most vibrant eCom community in the world
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Life hack: no meetings Monday and Friday.
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100 ads live vs 1,000 with a 100% cost cap structure does not result in a linear scale in spend but an exponential one. Ads = Fuel.Brand = Car.Creative Team = Lewis Hamilton
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Just wrapped up my first @prenuvo scan. What a money printing business 😅🤯. Prenuvo offers full body MRIs. Doing full body MRIs help with pre-emptive care (i.e catch cancer early). High level numbers:.- $2,500 for full body scan.- 90% of people do a full body scan.- NYC.
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@AutismCapital I don’t see the entertainment in going after Barron in any way or form. This post is not malicious - but I would fucking hate if there was a bunch of x accounts tweeting me during my college years. I was an under developed human with severe deficiencies that needed privacy to.
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9. Lastly: negotiate hard but be fair. Make sure to negotiate a fixed factory margin so your factory does not suffer with a BOM led approach. They need to eat. A starving partner is a liability, not an asset.
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AMAZON AGGREGATOR RUMOURS:.Thrasio merging with someone else.Perch going under . The beginning of the end of an era ? . Im hearing most listings are going for 1.5 to 2x SDE. I’d love to hear the reality of it if anyone can share what they are seeing.
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Our fastest growing marketing channel grew 1,000%+ last year and fueled more than $5,000,000+ in revenue at an insane ROAS. We think it will fuel more than $10M+ this year. I bet you'd never guess what channel it was. Hint:.It was NOT:.- Meta.- Google.- Tik Tok.- Email.- SMS.
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I'll be in the US from the 3rd to the 13th of March this year. Please DM if you'd like to meet. I am a founder of Peak 21 and we buy D2C companies. Itinerary:. 3rd - 5th: NYC. 5th to 8th: New Orleans (speaking at eCommerceFuel). 8th to 9th: Austin. 9th to 13th: NYC. Looking.
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6 POWERFUL ways to manage your ENVY. Last week I spent time with an ex-colleague who missed out on joining a unicorn as a co-founder because he said no to the opportunity when it was at the "garage" stage. The FOMO passed the fine line into envy and jealousy. He kept trashing.
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Meta has been really rough in March. I wonder how April will be. Jan & Feb were so so strong. Got my hopes up for the year lol.
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2024 will be an insane year for D2C imo. 1/ Meta is back.2/ We’re not in a recession.3/ Dumb VC ad dollars are gone .4/ and: meta is back.
ecom investment fell hard. harder than even crypto. This is ecom bottom. I think the great dying is over. Lack of funding will lead to the last little squeeze of shutdowns in q1. Q2 2024 starts the cycle over. 8 YEARS OF UP!. Stay in stock. Stay in business. LETS GO.
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The easiest $100,000 USD you’ll ever make:. Read below👇then like and share 🙏. -. I just wrapped up @AWConferences Bangkok for @Peak21_ as a headline speaker. This is the first time I do public speaking since I left Rocket Internet a decade ago. The goal is to get in front of
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Another level of going all in on building when you’ve already made it:
@RomanEcom @naval I sent you an invite.
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BFCM recap: ~flat Y-o-Y. Profits are up, not out of choice but because we could not scale at acceptable CAC levels . My main takeaways this Q4:.- Meta is back thanks to ASC. We underinvested.- TT sucked balls for scaling during Q4 for our brands.
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4. Negotiate payment terms, margin and lead times with transparency . Instead of going in hot headed throwing random numbers around, focus on common ground. E.g this year @LinjerCo will grow quite a bit so we outlined the COGS growth potential. We told our core supplier in.
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1. Don’t be an obnoxious foreigner. Don’t discuss politics, religion or state of affairs. You’re not there to win hearts and minds. You’re there to make money.
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"When things are going well, be calm. Don't think you're on top of the world.". Wish I'd had De Niro in my ear when I made my first million in 2017. I let success go to my head and went blitzscaling too early too fast without the fundamentals in place. Nearly went bankrupt 🥲
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If you found this thread interesting:. 1. Follow me @RomanEcom for anecdotes and insights about DTC, entrepreneurship, and investing. 2. RT the tweet below to share this story with your followers.
We sold $200,000,000+ worth of earbuds in 3.5 years. All bootstrapped with zero funding. Here’s how we did it. 🧵.
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Much easier to build an audience on LinkedIn than X
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Hot take: Real men don't play video games.
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“Instead of complaining, maybe you should just work harder” - my mom 2001.
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This is the #1 HACK for D2C brands sourcing from China:. I am just about to borrow HKD$9M (US$1.15M) at 3.625% APR (floating) pegged to HK prime rates. This is for a company that will do US$25-30M this year. AMA.
We will buy close to $30,000,000 worth of goods from China this year with an average of 85 day payment terms blended. These are 9 frequent mistakes I see founders make when sourcing from China 🧵.
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Woke up to this today (I'm in Bali right now)🤯.Thank you for all the love Twitter. 11 days into the year and my resolution was to build an audience. So glad to see that my content is resonating. This is the energy shot I needed to keep going. More to come.
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7 figure idea that requires $0 start up capital: . Help 7 and low 8 figure @ShopifyPlus stores geo localise their store experiences. I’d pay $500 per month per country (sub store) for:. - Maintaining translations (you can charge for new words). - Maintaining product catalogues.
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@ecommercefuel I told him I wouldn’t work with him if he wasn’t serious and didn’t do the homework. On Friday, he turned in the homework. We were off to the races.
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