Fiona Lee

I recently discovered a game-changing tool for DTC founders drowning in creator management... If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent hours searching for creators, combing through email threads, and trying to track down assets and deliverables from creators… Check out Insense | TikTok & Meta Partner if this all sounds too familiar. What caught my eye: - 20,000+ vetted creators  - All-in-one platform for management - Automated contracts & payments - Direct whitelisting for Meta/TikTok For DTC brands trying to scale influencer without massive teams - this could be your answer. The timing is right, too. Right now, they're offering a $200 platform credit for first-time users until Dec 6. Book a demo with the link in the comments to claim your offer 👇

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Running a profitable, bootstrapped business over 5+ years and having a lot of fun is replacing the VC growth model. Here’s how: To do so, here’s what you need: 📈 Categories with high consumer demand. 🔄 Products with high purchase frequency (once per week is best, at least once per month). 😋 Focus on taste first and simplicity second. ❤️ Solving a problem you care about so you can create authentic content as the founder. 💰 High contribution margin. 🛒 A go-to-market strategy that profitably reaches customers and generates good cashflow. The zeitgeist is changing, and if you can get this right you can pay yourself a great salary, eventually Millions of dollars per year that goes to your personal bank account. Oh, and if you build this business, people may come knocking on your door to buy out your business, but only on your terms. And no, it’s not “easy” but use these as criteria to have the best start possible. What do you think? #startup

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I run a small Slack group for DTC founders, ranging from sub-$1M brands to $100M+ powerhouses. We call it "The Braintrust," and it’s filled with some of what I consider to be the best minds in the industry. This group was entrusted to me a few years back, and I’ve kept it low-key—most people don’t even know I manage it. My goal has always been to maintain a tight-knit, high-value community that doesn’t spiral into chaos like so many other groups. Here are the simple rules we live by: 1. Referral-only: Every member is interviewed by me personally to keep the quality high. 2. Founders-only: Strictly for DTC/Retail founders—no selling allowed. 3. No fees: Members must stay active monthly, maintain confidentiality, and keep things drama-free. I've never done this before, but I am gauging interest to see if around 3–5 others would like to join this group. 👉 If I don’t personally know you, comment “DM me” or tag your friend below for consideration. 👉 If we do personally know each other and you—or someone you know—would be a great fit, please send an intro to my email.

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Whole Foods is a product positioning master. They put health #CPG products on a special backlit shelf. Shining like the light of the heavens coming through. It's no mistake. When you're looking for health & you see a product that is literally glowing off the shelf, it just activates something in you. Makes me feel like I'm about to buy something MAGIC. 🔮 A holy elixir to cure all ailments. Coincidentally some of the most high margin products in the store too. 🤔 Where you put your product is just as important as what it is. Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. Of course Convi.io makes software, so we can't exactly package it w/ shiny light & premium cardboard. But it's still important to show up in the right places in the right way, even online. Will be doing my best to incorporate more magic positioning into our brand going forward. I truly feel that Convi.io is a magic product. I use it every day and each time I'm consistently surprised by our ability to generate realistic speech & lip movement. When I watch back videos & I don't remember which is which, I literally can’t tell which ones are AI or original. Shoutout to my co-founder Daniel for that! 🙌 It's nuts. 🥜 I hope I can convey that sense of wonder to other people, before they use it. Right now our customers don't get that understanding until after. Hard part is getting to “wow” before “start”. Stay tuned, I have some ideas in the works . 🧠

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💸 Here are the 1️⃣3️⃣ #FoodTech news you should know for the past week: 🇺🇸 🍔 Wonder, a US-based startup offering delivery and dine-in with quality meals, acquired Grubhub, a restaurant delivery app, for $650M. That’s to be compared with the $7.3B that its previous owner, Just Eat Takeaway.com, paid three years ago to acquire it. 🇩🇪🍫 KoRo, a German startup, raised €35M to expand its healthy snacks. It is one of the fastest-growing food DTC brands in Europe, with more than 2 million customers across the continent. 🇺🇸🌿 Plantible, an American startup, raised $30M to scale up production of its duckweed-derived protein for plant-based meat and baked goods. Compared with other sources of protein, duckweed has some major benefits beyond being highly nutritional: it is one of the fastest-growing plants, and it is already authorised for human consumption in most regions. 🇺🇸🍓 Oishii, a US-based startup, raised $16M to expand its production of luxury strawberries grown through vertical farming. 🇧🇪 🦠 BiocSol, a Belgian startup, secured €5.2M for its microbial-based biopesticides, providing sustainable crop protection solutions for farmers. 🇮🇳💊 HealthKart, an Indian startup, raised $153M for its omnichannel sports nutrition and wellness brand. 🇯🇵 🥬 Secai Marche, a Japanese startup, raised $2.1M to expand its B2B fresh food e-commerce platform that connects producers with restaurants and retailers across Asia. 🇮🇳 💸 Swiggy, one of India’s food delivery giants, successfully completed its IPO with a $12B valuation while raising about $1.34B 🇺🇸 🍽️ Permanent, an American startup, raised $6M for its food procurement platform, connecting buyers directly with local producers. 🇬🇧🌱 Naturbeads, a British startup, raised £7.8M for its biodegradable and sustainable alternatives to plastic microbeads. 🇨🇦🍷 InVintory, a Canadian startup, raised $2.3M to expand into its wine-management platform for the hospitality industry. 👉 All the links and more insights on the first comment! #startup #foodtech #agtech #deal #fundraising

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Incredible to see The Rounds raise $24m in their Series B funding round! Exactly the positive news the refill movement needs. Few thoughts on what they are doing brilliantly: - Built a powerful AI-powered algorithm to provide smarter predictions on when customers' products need to be restocked - avoids losing the customer to an in-store single-use packaged product, this will be further improved by additional delivery days. - Focused messaging on convenience and product quality over doomsday climate messaging - very clean but still aesthetically pleasing branding too! - Simple packaging, that will look good in the home but not too good that you won't return - Broad mix of established and trendy brands and a huge SKU...post my two years at Milk&More will be interesting to see how they manage this across multiple hubs. - Whilst my initial thought was that their monthly subscription would be a deterrent, it works out at £2.50 for a weekly delivery and there is no min order which is much cheaper when compared to Amazon Fresh who charge $10 per delivery when under $50. - Love their acquisition strategy on focusing in cities and via buildings/apartment blocks - local acquisition is central to making these models work. I also absolutely love that they also use their delivery logistics to pick up customers' food compost, recycling, and charitable donations. Bravo! Has anyone from the US tried them? Thoughts? Now to try and find a US visa to get a job with them 😂

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PSA: To all of the 1800+ early stage founders on our platform: If you want the clearest, fastest, cheapest path to growing your brand, get into the stores and demo. I understand that you are super busy building and running a company, and I get it, that this isn’t scalable once you are big. But an actual founder demoing their OWN product in a store is 100x more powerful than a bib tag, a shelf talker, or retailer training. Shanyi’s Co-founder Elise Popped into Fresh Thyme yesterday and promptly sold the store out of every last unit on their innovation endcap. The store has already reordered and there are 8 more cases on the way. In 2002 I saw Vitamin Water demoed almost every single day at my store in WFM, and product flying off the shelves one store at a time. 5 years later, they sold to Coca Cola for $4.1BN. My recommendation to all of the emerging local coffee/cheese/beer/bakery vendors that I approved into my stores was to follow in those footsteps. The ones that took that advice were MUCH more successful. Remember: The #1 KPI a retail CM is being evaluated on is YoY comp sales. If their comp is below the company average, that is bad for them, and therefore bad for you. If your SKUs are selling 3-5 units per week, it means you are INCREASING their comp compared to some other replacement product on the shelf, and you will stick around. if you get into a few stores every month and blow them out of their inventory while connecting with a few hundred consumers, you will move the needle. Pod Foods #innovation #grassroots #nobadfood Fresh Thyme Market

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We are making more money that we ever have DTC. And it hasn’t taken a second of my time. As I shared a couple days ago, we started to implement a few key tools into our DTC strategy and they are proving to be two of the most valuable things we’ve done to date. I posted about the first tool a couple days ago, but the second key piece of our short-stack has been Chargeflow. A true gift from the DTC gods above. For a refresher, it’s essentially an automation process for all chargebacks, and no it’s not too good to be true. It’s quite literally that good, and that simple. Here’s the thing with our DTC strategy- we’re a small team. We have 4 full time employees managing 2000+ retail doors, marketing, ops, sales, etc- so we try to keep things as simple as possible, and not just add a fancy new tool unless its an absolute no brainer. Thus far, they’ve won 100% of the chargebacks we’ve had from sneaky customers trying to claim they "never received product", and it’s working on autopilot. If your team is anything like me/Toto (aka small and mighty lol), and you’re looking for a no-brainer tool to make more money with 0 work required, this might just be a perfect solution. Look- I know there is no rulebook or guide to “how to build a successful business”, but I as always, I will continue to share what’s working/not working on my own journey— because I genuinely believe its how we get better together. One little tool, one honest piece of advice at a time. If you have any questions or want an intro to their team- shoot me a note. If this helps one person, it’s a win in my book. ❤️ #leadership #entrepreneurship #dtc

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The best ideas are the SIMPLE ones

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How we created industry-topping TikTok Ads for Free People 📈 (part of the URBN collection of brands: Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie Group, Free People & Nuuly) Yeah you read that right…. We turbocharged Free People’s ad creative using years of rigorous test & learn processes and a team who eat sleeps and breathes fashion on TikTok. The result was huge reductions in CPA’s while achieving industry-topping CTR’s and conversion rates 🚀 Here’s how we did it: 👉🏼 We work with thousands of creators weekly, continuously testing and analysing trends of not only WHAT is working on TikTok that week, but also WHO - which creators are resonating most with their audiences and a client's target audience each week. 👉🏼 We then use a combination of AI and our dedicated team of TikTok Specialist account managers to pair high-performing influencers perfectly suited to the client with briefs that utilise what is trending RIGHT NOW (not last month, not last week…..) 👉🏼 We act FAST. Turning campaigns around in record time while delivering quality that made the Free People brand team swoon is something most agencies could only ever dream of, but is essential to successful TikTok ad campaigns. REMEMBER! What worked this week won’t be what works next week. The only way to keep on top of the shifting landscape is to be testing at scale 🚀 I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - TikTok ads success is ALL about the quality of your creative and the agility of your ads team….. And Free People saw this correlation first-hand 💪🏼 John, it was a pleasure working with you on this campaign - hopefully one of many more successful ones for Free People #TikTokAds #TikTokAdSpecialist #AdCreative #AdContent 'We Know Social' 🐐. We have a proven track record of building brands through comprehensive creator marketing strategies and then scaling through paid social adverts. Currently have availability in 2025 for brands looking to win on TikTok 🥊

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I think more DTC brands should be taking notes on Death Wish Coffee. There are a few things that stand out to me (that most DTC brands aren't doing): 1. Obsession with the product and the "look." 2. A truly stacked subscription offer. 3. Site copy that makes you look twice. Here, I break down why these three tactics from Death Wish Coffee Company should be on every DTC brand's radar:

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Cost-efficient moves don’t always pay off ❌ A well-timed cash sink can be the difference between crushing your sales goals for the year and simply keeping pace with the competition. Take Oats Overnight as an example. They needed a larger facility for their delicious, nutrient-packed breakfasts but were hesitant to pull the trigger due to looming upfront costs. To identify the perfect time for this high-return investment, they partnered with Drivepoint 🤝 Drivepoint’s data-driven forecasts revealed the expansion would help the brand take advantage of the upcoming Q4 peak season. The team was on their way to realizing a massive $4M EBITDA increase overnight. The team proceeded with investing in the new facility and was able to scale production just in time for Q4. They saw their margins soar, which quickly covered the costs of fast-tracking their expansion. Plus, Drivepoint helped them achieve these results: ✅ 98% forecasting accuracy ✅ $20M Series A Round fundraise Check out the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/gPhbxHHD

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I hate to break it to you but your growth efforts won’t amount to much if you’re not taking this important step: Imagine a high-performing product-led growth team as a Michelin star restaurant. You’ve got your restaurant managers (growth product managers), your chefs (growth engineers), your sous-chefs (product designers), and your servers (growth marketers), all working in harmony to create a five-star experience. But who helps you decide what to cook? And who finds out how many customers enjoyed the food and which meals keep the restaurant alive? Enter the data analyst – our restaurant’s hosts and tasters! What magic does a data analyst perform in a growth team? 🔍 The Sherlock Holmes of the Team A data analyst deciphers clues from a sea of numbers. They find patterns and insights that aren’t immediately obvious, helping the team make better decisions. Remember, it’s not just about finding a needle in a haystack; it’s about finding the right needle in the right haystack! Some awesome things growth data analysts do include: - Digging through the data to help the team create better hypothesis for their experiments. - Building dashboards that help you visualize the customer’s journey especially through problematic areas - Turning data into stories that anyone can understand easily. - Looking for trends, anomalies and any patterns that could help you learn more about your users. How have you seen data analysts and scientists contribute to growth in your organization? #GrowthWithHazel #GrowthTeamSeries #GrowthMarketing

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We just helped one of our Faire Manage clients hit $25k in sales...in one week. Here's how... Two weeks ago, Faire held its semiannual Faire Market—AKA the Prime Days of Faire. Here's a sneak peek behind the curtain at our playbook for higher sales: 1️⃣ Tiered promotions: 5% off $50+, 10% off $350+, 20% off $700+. Why? To incentivize larger orders. 2️⃣ A curated "Faire Market Faves" collection: We highlighted holiday pre-orders, overstocked items, and best-sellers. This guided buyers to our priority products. 3️⃣ Strategic profile optimization: We refreshed keywords, updated imagery, and reorganized listings to boost visibility. 4️⃣ Daily personalized outreach: We sent tailored abandoned cart messages every day. Time-consuming? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. 5️⃣ Countdown email campaign: We built anticipation with a series of emails leading up to and during the event. ✅ The real game-changer for higher Faire sales? Doing the stuff that doesn't scale. Personalized messages take time, but they move the needle. I've detailed our full process in this week's Product & Prosper newsletter. If you're curious about the nitty-gritty, check it out (link in comments). What was your Faire Market experience? Any tactics that worked particularly well for you? Good, bad, ugly? I want to hear how it went! 👇

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Here are 60 High Potential A/B-Tests Ideas for brands making over $50,000,000/year ⚡ And I'm allowing you to steal them from me... Over the past 4 years, we have done CRO for Germany's top 1% D2C brands, including HelloFresh, SNOCKS, Giesswein, Purelei, and 102+ more. One thing I wished for when I was starting out with testing was that more people shared their ideas and thought process. 💡 So, I spent over 150 hours doing analysis for these brands. Coming up with high potential tests for them, sending out free advice. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝟲𝟬 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: - Fully designed Mobile Prototypes - Predicted success rate based on our data - Detailed hypotheses behind the tests 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺: 1. Like this post 2. Comment “Sharing is caring” 3. Copy your comment link (you'll need it for verification). 4. Click this link for instant access: https://lnkd.in/gBMBg8r5 And I'll send them to you ✨ #ecommerce #shopify #conversions P.S. if you repost this, I will send you our ultimate conversion psychology playbook as well.

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As a VC investing in DTC in 2024 - there's one thing that I always look for when investing: A very high percentage of organic revenue. In other words, you have to be able to consistently manufacture customer demand without paid ads. Throwing some ads up on Meta for a new brand just won't work long-term. There's no moat. There has to be a reason that you are the best person in the world to create your product. So, how are the best founders doing it? 1. Building in public on TikTok to create virality (Haley Pavone 1m+ followers for Pashion Footwear: https://lnkd.in/e8HKWUvH) 2.Creating an exclusive community w/ premium offering (Raad Michael Mobrem with Intro) 3. Driving insane repeat rates w/ "habit-forming" products (James Beshara with Magic Mind) Leveraging a paid-first strategy, you'll never reach first-order profitably. Which will drive you to take out short-term Clearco/Shopify/Wayflyer loans or constantly get distracted trying to raise capital to keep your business afloat. Both will blow up your company eventually. Instead: 1) Negotiate harder w/ suppliers to keep unit economics low. 2) Reduce costs w/ contract team members where possible.  3) Unlock organic growth outside of traditional paid media (social / influencer / partnerships). 3) Launch a product you are uniquely suited to sell, don't be a commodity. What am I missing here? Let me know in the comments.

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This is why bootstrapping a business is so difficult. Sweetgreen has raised almost half a billion dollars since 2006. That kind of cash has given them the ability to open a ton of beautiful restaurants. It hasn't forced them to create a business model that deserved to scale. If you're bootstrapping your D2C business, don't get caught up in the trap of comparing yourself to other "startup" businesses. Not all startups are built the same. Just stay on your path. Run your race.

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"Hooked" by Nir Eyal is a groundbreaking book that explores the psychology behind habit-forming products and offers practical strategies for designing and building products that create user engagement and long-term customer loyalty. Eyal introduces the "Hook Model" framework, which consists of four stages - trigger, action, variable reward, and investment - that can be leveraged to create habit-forming experiences. Here are lessons from the book: 1. Understanding the Hook Model: Eyal introduces the Hook Model as a framework for understanding how habits are formed. He explains the four stages - trigger, action, variable reward, and investment - and shows how they work together to create repetitive behavior. 2. The Power of External and Internal Triggers: The book explores the different types of triggers that prompt users to take action. Eyal discusses external triggers (such as notifications) and internal triggers (such as emotions or thoughts) and how they can be used to drive user engagement. 3. Designing a Smooth Action Phase: Eyal emphasizes the importance of reducing friction in the user experience to make it easy for people to take action. He discusses the role of simplicity, usability, and removing barriers to streamline the user journey. 4. The Variable Reward System: The book delves into the concept of variable rewards and their impact on user behavior. Eyal explains how intermittent and unpredictable rewards create anticipation and increase the likelihood of repeated engagement. 5. Building User Investment: Eyal discusses the importance of creating a sense of investment in the user. He explains how users who have invested time, effort, or personal data are more likely to continue using a product or service. 6. Ethical Considerations: The book addresses the ethical implications of designing habit-forming products. Eyal emphasizes the responsibility of product designers to prioritize user well-being and avoid exploiting vulnerabilities or creating addictive experiences. 7. Understanding User Triggers and Desires: Eyal highlights the importance of understanding users' underlying motivations and desires. He explains how identifying and addressing these desires can help create products that fulfill genuine needs and drive sustained engagement. 8. The Role of Feedback and Progress: The book explores the significance of feedback and progress tracking in creating habit-forming experiences. Eyal discusses how providing users with a sense of progress and accomplishment can increase their motivation and loyalty. 9. The Impact of Social Influence: Eyal examines the power of social influence in shaping user behavior. He explains how incorporating social elements, such as social proof or social rewards, can enhance user engagement and create a sense of community. 10. Designing for Long-Term Behavior Change: The book concludes with insights on designing products that facilitate long-term behavior change. #ceoclubpakistan #worldceoforum

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I’ve run multiple 9-figure #DTC turnarounds. My 6 biggest struggles as a new DTC PE-backed CEO were: 1. Cutting costs aggressively (>50%) within the first week after an acquisition 2. Having no domain expertise in whatever the company was selling. Streetwear? I wore khakis. Automotive? I Ubered everywhere. 3. Wrestling with a costly legacy tech stack and developing the confidence to bet the business on a migration. 4. Board management, especially educating financially-focused PE partners on how DTC works. 5. Balancing the board’s desire for cash flow with my heart’s desire for growth. 6. Figuring out how to grow a mature, 100M-revenue business when all channels are tapped. 🤔 Anyone reading this who has the same struggles, here's my advice: 1. Bite the bullet. You’ll never be perfect, but cash flow is oxygen: you need to cut. Go once and go deeper than you think you need to . . . if you gradually do this over time it destroys culture. Start with a blank sheet of paper and sketch out your ideal sized lean org, then go figure out who you need on the bus. 2. Admit this to the team day 1, never fake it. “Listen, I as you can tell, I don’t know streetwear—but I do know ecommerce. Educate me on what we sell.” It will build trust and get the team involved in the rebuild. 3. Probably the hardest because if you ask anyone in the org, it’s suicide to migrate to anything. You’ll need to skunkworks this outside the company. Allocate some budget to get a migration agency in there to prototype an off-the-shelf stack rapidly. Shopify unless you have a damn good reason not to be there. Goal should be 80% of the functionality and edge cases of the legacy stack . . . it’s the last 20% that always kick your ass. 4. Learn to love board meetings. Spend a couple slides each quarter on education: “this is what email marketing is” or “here’s how Meta ads work.” My boards loved this and eventually they got the nuances of why we can’t just do things like pay Meta into eternity and maintain the same ROAS. 5. Tough one, but cash flow is oxygen. Start by overhauling retention via lifecycle marketing (email marketing + direct mail). You’ll boost profitability immediately, bank some cash, and build trust with the board. Then, once you are rolling in it, you can jam the board to let you spend on growth experiments. 6. Welcome to the club, right? Optimization only goes so far. To grow a mature business—to take 100M to 200M in a short period of time—I learned to love growth through acquisitions. Identify competitors you could run with your existing team and stack. Network to their boards and pitch them on the increased profitability that would come from a combination. At AutoAnything, we acquired Morris4x4, LeonardAccessories, and Wheelwell all with little to no cash up front. CEOs: What else do you struggle with? I will advise as best I can from my experience. https://lnkd.in/erjwCtv6 #CEO #CMO

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