Commerce Untold goes beyond the headlines to uncover the real stories shaping eCommerce and retail today. Hosted by Eitan Koter, founder and CEO of Expanio, the show focuses on one of the hardest problems in commerce: how brands and retail-tech companies break into and scale in the U.S. market. Each episode gets into what that actually takes, from channel strategy and marketplaces to retail media, brand building, social commerce, live shopping, customer experience, and the technologies changing how people buy. You'll hear from founders, CMOs, retail and eCommerce leaders, and operators who have done it, sharing what really drives U.S. growth behind the scenes. The wins, the missteps, the expensive lessons, and the insights you won't hear anywhere else. If you care about how products get built, marketed, sold, and scaled in the U.S. and beyond, this one's for you.
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August 21, 202649 min
218. How to Stop Losing Money on Amazon with Andrew Morgans
Andrew Morgans is founder and CEO of Marknology, an Amazon brand accelerator in Kansas City. In fifteen years in e-commerce he has managed over two billion dollars in revenue across 300 brands, launched his own warehouse, and built an AI platform for profitability, PPC, and inventory. This episode explores why most brand owners still do not know their real numbers on Amazon, and why the platform needs to be managed as a P&L, not just a sales channel. Andrew breaks down how storage fees, returns, and blended ad spend across Meta and TikTok quietly eat margin, and shares how shifting from branded search to broader targeting cut one brand's cost per acquisition from forty dollars to eleven. He also discusses building a family run agency and launching his own AI software. Listeners will leave with a sharper framework for finding where their margin is actually going, and why chasing top line revenue without profitability is a losing game. Our podcast is listed in Feedspot's 100 Best E-Commerce Podcasts: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ecommerce_podcasts/ Website: https://expanio.com/ Podcast website: https://expanio.com/commerce-untold-podcast/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommerceUntold Guest: Andrew Morgans, Founder & CEO, Marknology Andrew Morgans's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/watchdrewwork/ Marknology: https://www.marknology.com/ Key Takeaways: • Most brand owners don't actually know their numbers on Amazon, which makes profitable decisions impossible. • Managing Amazon as a P&L instead of a sales channel is the fastest way to protect margin. • Shifting ad targeting from exact-match branded search to broader terms can cut cost per acquisition dramatically, even when ROAS drops. • Vertical integration, agency, warehouse, and personal brands, works best when each piece feeds the others. • Trust with clients is built by under promising and over delivering, not by chasing every channel at once. • Viral moments don't build brands. Consistency and knowing your keyword-level margin do. Chapters: [00:16] Introducing Andrew Morgans and Marknology's Vertical Integration [03:32] Building a Family-Owned Agency From the Ground Up [08:17] Managing Amazon as a P&L, Not a Sales Channel [10:46] Where Profit Leaks: Fees, Attribution, and Hidden Costs [13:41] Case Study: Cutting Cost Per Acquisition by Broadening Targeting [17:00] Focus, Priorities, and Entrepreneurial Balance [21:09] Building an AI Platform for PPC, Inventory, and Profitability [27:43] Expanding Into New Markets and Building Client Trust [41:32] Content, Community, and Closing Thoughts on Testing
August 19, 202632 min
217. How to Turn Data Chaos into Growth with Tim Shea
Tim Shea is the founder and CEO of LatticeWork Insights, where he has spent a decade helping DTC and retail brands untangle data spread across dozens of disconnected platforms. Before that, he built a 25 year career across software engineering, data, and advertising, including years selling data solutions into major media agencies. Most brands have data trapped in Meta, Google, TikTok, Shopify, Amazon, QuickBooks, Salesforce, and Klaviyo, and stitching it together every week eats up expensive leadership time. Tim argues this manual reporting cycle is a hidden cost most founders never account for. The conversation covers when a brand is actually ready to invest in analytics, why LTV and CAC are stories rather than single numbers, and why he tells clients to fund analytics the same way they fund ad spend, expecting a real return. Tim also breaks down where AI genuinely helps data teams and where it creates expensive slop instead. Listeners walk away with a clearer framework for knowing when their reporting problem is actually a decision-making problem, and what it costs to keep ignoring it. Website: https://expanio.com/ Podcast website: https://expanio.com/commerce-untold-podcast/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommerceUntold Guest: Tim Shea, Founder and CEO, Latticework Insights Tim Shea's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sheanineseven Milked Media: https://latticeworkinsights.com/ Key Takeaways: Manual reporting across 10-30 disconnected platforms quietly costs brands far more than the software itself LTV and CAC are not single numbers, they're stories shaped by cohort, channel, and buying behavior Analytics should be funded and measured like ad spend, with an expected return above one dollar per dollar spent The biggest unlock often comes from getting a company to agree on one true north metric, not adding more dashboards AI is useful in the hands of people who already know how to architect a solution, and dangerous in the hands of people who don't The right time to invest in data infrastructure is after product-market fit, not before it Chapters: [00:11] Introduction and meeting Tim Shea [00:37] Getting thrown out of a sales pitch and the origin of LatticeWork Insights [03:00] Listening to customer pain over pitching product [04:25] The real cost of data spread across 10-30 platforms [05:03] Manual reporting and the hidden cost to leadership time [08:58] Blending data analytics with intuition [09:32] LatticeWork's process for a new client engagement [13:14] When brands should NOT reach out, and when they should [16:36] Common implementation challenges and getting teams aligned [18:57] Why analytics should be funded like an ad spend [21:44] Where AI actually helps, and where it creates slop [26:40] What brands get wrong when working with agencies [29:49] Tim's ideal customer [31:13] How to find LatticeWork Insights [31:58] Closing thoughts
August 14, 202631 min
216: How Meta Ads Actually Target Now with Krista Karpan
Krista Karpan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Milked Media, a performance marketing agency that has spent nearly a decade helping ecommerce brands scale through paid media, creative strategy, and retention marketing. This episode tackles a shift few marketers have caught up to. Interest based targeting on Meta no longer works, and creative has become the real lever for reaching the right audience. Krista walks through how her agency structures Meta and Google campaigns for new and scaling brands, the metrics that actually indicate a winning ad, and why static images still outperform video in categories like fashion. She also breaks down attribution overlap, marketing efficiency ratio, and the supporting systems, from social proof to email nurture, that determine whether paid traffic ever converts. For founders and marketers relying on ad platforms to carry the business alone, this conversation is a reset on what actually drives profitable growth in 2026. Website: https://expanio.com/ Podcast website: https://expanio.com/commerce-untold-podcast/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommerceUntold Guest: Krista Karpan, CEO and Co-Founder, Milked Media Krista Karpan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristakarpan/ Milked Media: https://www.milkedmedia.com/ Key Takeaways: • Interest-based targeting on Meta no longer works; creative and messaging now determine who sees your ad • Static images still outperform video in categories like fashion, despite the industry's obsession with video content • A brand's Facebook and Instagram profile functions as a landing page and can cost a sale before a visitor ever reaches the website • Marketing efficiency ratio (spend divided by revenue) cuts through inflated platform-reported attribution better than raw ROAS • New ecommerce brands should structure nearly all campaigns around a sales objective rather than brand awareness until spend scales significantly • Meta ads are one piece of an ecosystem; without organic social, email marketing, and a conversion-ready site, ad spend underperforms Chapters: [00:30] The Origin of the Milked Media Name [02:14] A Personal Story: Business Owner and Mom of Four [03:31] Why Interest-Based Targeting Stopped Working [06:18] The Metrics That Signal a Winning Ad [09:39] Static Images vs Video: What Actually Performs [11:02] Meta's Partnership Ads and the UGC Marketplace [12:30] Diagnosing Creative vs Targeting vs Site Issues [15:35] Structuring Campaigns for a New Product Launch [18:06] Why Meta Ads Alone Are Not the Full Solution [21:40] Realistic Conversion Rate Benchmarks for 2026 [22:15] Winning Meta's Performance Campaign of the Year [24:48] Solving the Attribution Puzzle Across Platforms [28:05] Milked Media's Ideal Client and Ad Spend Minimums [30:19] Where to Find Krista and Milked Media
July 9, 202634 min
215. Why Passive Knee Braces Are Failing You with Adoram Leshem
Adoram Leshem is the Chief Executive Officer of Nübrace, an orthopedic aids company he founded after years of knee pain from martial arts, hiking, and dirt biking left him searching for a brace that actually worked. When nothing on the market gave him real support, he spent seven years engineering his own solution. The core problem Adoram uncovered is that traditional knee braces are passive. They stabilize and limit movement, but they do nothing to actively support the leg during everyday actions like standing up, sitting down, or climbing stairs. In this conversation, Adoram breaks down the mechanics behind Nübrace's Power Boost Active System, a spring-based design that absorbs body weight on the way down and releases power on the way up. He also explains why the company is targeting the aging knees demographic first, how mobility loss triggers a broader physical and mental decline, and what changed between the first and second generation of the product. Listeners walk away understanding why an entire industry stayed stagnant for decades, and what it actually takes to turn a passive medical device into an active one. Website: https://expanio.com/ Podcast website: https://expanio.com/commerce-untold-podcast/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommerceUntold/featured Guest: Adoram Leshem, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Nübrace Adoram Leshem's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adoram-leshem-a1a83b/ Nübrace: https://nubraces.com/ Watch the full episode video here: https://youtu.be/hBh_6greJWQ Key Takeaways: • Most knee braces only restrict movement. Nübrace's dual spring system actively absorbs body weight on descent and pushes back on ascent. • Reduced mobility creates a downward spiral: less movement means less blood flow, slower healing, and greater dependence. • The orthopedic aids industry hasn't meaningfully innovated in 60 to 70 years, dominated by a handful of traditional European brands. • Nübrace is HSA/FSA eligible and holds a CE Class 1 medical device mark in Europe, with FDA registration in progress. • The brace doubles as a wearable training device, letting users attach resistance bands to strengthen the quad and hamstring at home. • Nübrace's second generation focused on comfort fixes, lighter materials, adjustable strap length, and a flatter spring housing, based directly on first generation customer feedback. Chapters: [00:26] Introduction and welcome [01:05] Adoram's personal story: sports, injuries, and aging knees [02:01] The injury that led to founding Nübrace [03:24] Why launch another knee brace in a saturated market [04:37] The breakthrough: the Power Boost Active System explained [08:28] Who Nübrace is built for: the aging knees demographic [10:03] Mobility, pain, and avoiding unnecessary surgery [13:34] Certification, testing, and HSA/FSA eligibility [17:43] Product demo: fit, sizing, and what's in the box [21:08] Second generation upgrades, US launch strategy, and what's next [30:10] Closing vision: turning passive braces into active devices
July 2, 202631 min
214. AI Won't Fix a Broken Funnel ft. Jeremy Goldman
Jeremy Goldman is VP Editorial & Insights at RETHINK Retail, a community platform supporting retailers, brand leaders, logistics practitioners, and AI specialists. Before joining RETHINK Retail, he founded and sold the Firebrand Group, spent years as an analyst at eMarketer, and has been building e-commerce properties since 2000. He also runs a podcast called Future Proof. This episode examines the gap between AI hype and business reality. Jeremy argues that agentic commerce attracts far more attention than the near-term use cases justify, and that the brands quietly gaining ground are the ones who never stopped running the fundamentals. The conversation covers where AI is delivering real results today, including enhanced product discovery for high-consideration SKUs, and what is actually shifting in search as LLMs reshape how buyers find products. Jeremy and Eitan work through why Google is more relevant than the current discourse suggests, what the rise of TikTok Shop signals about the pace of social commerce adoption, and why community building has become one of the most underrated growth levers available to brands right now. Listeners will leave with a clearer read on where the real ROI in AI sits in 2026, a sharper sense of which fundamentals are worth doubling down on, and a framework for knowing whether their company is commerce-optimized, marketing-optimized, or falling short on both. Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Jeremy Goldman, VP Editorial & Insights, RETHINK Retail Jeremy Goldman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremygoldman RETHINK Retail: https://rethink.industries/ Key Takeaways: • Agentic commerce is real technology, but the claim that AI will handle all buying decisions within two years is not where the near-term reality lands • AI-driven product discovery is already delivering measurable results for large-catalog, high-consideration SKUs, and that is where brands should focus first • Most companies are either commerce-optimized or marketing-optimized, rarely both, and knowing which one you are determines where the gaps are • Community is the growth lever most brands are underinvesting in: a brand with a genuine community is structurally harder to displace than one relying solely on paid acquisition • When hype cycles hit, the companies that lean back into fundamentals, email, checkout friction, fulfillment speed, and conversion rate, take share from everyone else while they are distracted Chapters: [00:12] Introduction and Inside RETHINK Retail [01:37] From E-Commerce Builder to Editorial Leader: Jeremy's Career Thread [05:44] Agentic Commerce: Real Technology, Outsized Claims [07:34] Where AI Is Delivering Real Results in Retail Today [10:28] Google Is Not Out: AI Search and the LLM Landscape [15:27] Commerce vs. Marketing: Knowing What Kind of Company You Are [18:49] Community Building as the Next Growth Unlock for Brands [21:26] TikTok Shop and Why Social Commerce Is Catching On [23:41] Why the Fundamentals Win When Everyone Else Chases Hype [28:36] Omnichannel Strategy: When and How to Add a New Channel [30:33] What Jeremy Is Focused on in the Second Half of 2026
June 25, 202633 min
213. Your Customer Data Is Lying To You ft. Deneke O'Reilly
Deneke O'Reilly is the founder and principal of Reliq Strategy, bringing 20 years of customer data experience to retailers trying to build durable growth. He spent his career converting customer insights into incremental revenue, starting in email marketing and later managing large scale marketing operations across first, second, and third party data sources. The core problem this episode tackles is simple to ask and brutally hard to answer: do you actually know who your customers are. Most retailers think they do until they ask their own marketing team and get silence back. Deneke breaks down his framework of identification, activation, and attribution, three connected pillars that determine whether a business can scale profitably or stays stuck guessing which channels actually drive revenue. He explains why messy or duplicated customer data quietly destroys engagement, why omnichannel journeys make attribution harder than ever, and why capturing customer identity at the point of sale, online and offline, is the unlock most retailers are missing. Listeners walk away with a clear mental model for diagnosing their own data maturity, practical KPIs to track progress, and a reminder that no AI tool fixes a broken identification problem. It starts and ends with knowing who your customer really is. Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Deneke O'Reilly, Founder & Principal, Reliq Strategy Deneke O'Reilly's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denekeoreilly/ Reliq Strategy: https://www.reliqstrategy.com Key Takeaways: • Most retailers cannot answer who their most profitable customers are or where they came from, and that gap is the clearest sign of a data problem. • Identification, activation, and attribution are not separate projects, they are one connected system, and all three trace back to knowing who the customer actually is. • Capturing customer identity at the point of sale is the weak link in most online-to-offline journeys, and capture rates of 10 to 30 percent are nowhere near good enough. • Customer data platforms are not interchangeable, some excel at identity resolution while others are stronger at activation, so the right setup often requires a two-partner approach. • AI can write content and personalize at scale, but it cannot fix bad identification, and the human edge still matters for understanding what a customer truly wants. • Real-time product data discipline, like syncing price changes the moment they happen, is what separates clean campaigns from ones that trigger customer complaints. Chapters: [00:12] Introduction and meet Deneke O'Reilly [00:52] What Reliq Strategy does and who it serves [01:43] Why attribution is harder than ever in complex customer journeys [02:53] Identification, activation, attribution: the three connected pillars [05:57] Why "do we know this" stops marketing teams cold [09:08] The rise and limits of customer data platforms [12:09] Durable growth vs. incremental growth, and building journeys around your best customers [17:04] Capturing identity at the point of sale for online-to-offline attribution [20:50] Why Deneke launched Reliq Strategy, and the KPIs that prove it's working [27:36] Crafting relevant content and the limits of AI in personalization
June 18, 202633 min
212. The Retention Playbook Most DTC Brands Ignore ft. Vira Sadlak
Vira Sadlak is a Retention Marketing Strategist at Flowium, a retention-focused agency and Klaviyo Platinum Partner specializing in email, SMS, and lifecycle marketing for e-commerce brands. She works with DTC brands across categories to build the automated systems that turn one-time buyers into long-term customers. Most brands pour their budget into acquisition and go quiet the moment a customer converts. That silence is expensive. This episode gets into exactly what brands are leaving on the table and how to fix it. Eitan and Vira cover the nine foundational flows every brand should have in place, why segmented lists often outperform full sends revenue-wise, and how to build customer journeys that branch based on behavior rather than treating every buyer the same. They also get into the mechanics of growing and identifying your subscriber list, including identity resolution tools and zero-party data collection through quizzes. The conversation goes deep on KPIs that actually matter (open rates are no longer one of them), when and how to layer in SMS, the deliverability mistakes that land you in spam, and where AI fits into retention strategy today. Listeners will walk away with a clear framework for building retention programs that generate consistent revenue without relying on one-off campaigns. Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Vira Sadlak, Retention Marketing Strategist, Flowium Vira Sadlak's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virasadlak/ Flowium: https://flowium.com Key Takeaways: • A significant share of second purchases happen within 24 to 48 hours of the first order, before the package even arrives. Not messaging customers in that window is one of the most common and costly retention mistakes. • Open rates are no longer a reliable performance signal. Click rates and conversion by segment tell you far more about whether your emails are actually working. • Sending the same message to your entire list hurts deliverability. Segmented sends consistently produce equal or better revenue while protecting your sender reputation. • Plain text emails outperform designed HTML templates on engagement and inbox placement because email providers do not flag them as promotional material. • Klaviyo and similar platforms function as data collection and analytics tools, not just communication channels. The segment-level insights they produce can inform your broader marketing strategy across every channel. • Identity resolution tools can identify anonymous website visitors and add them to your flows, but they require healthy deliverability and meaningful traffic volume (50,000 or more monthly visits) to be effective. Chapters: [01:20] About Vira Sadlak and Flowium [02:40] The Nine Foundational Retention Flows [07:27] Segmentation and Branching: Why 50 Journeys Is Not Too Many [10:04] What Retention Actually Means [11:05] Growing Your Subscriber List and Identity Resolution [14:11] How to Nurture Leads Who Have Not Purchased Yet [16:05] Why Email and SMS Still Drive 25-30% of Shopify Revenue [17:53] The KPIs That Actually Matter (Open Rates Are Not One of Them) [21:11] Email Cadence, Educational vs. Sales Content, and Preference Pages [24:25] When to Add SMS and How Often to Send [25:34] WhatsApp, Telegram, and RCS: Emerging Channels [27:36] Deliverability: How to Stay Out of Spam [29:26] How Flowium Serves Clients and Where AI Fits In
June 11, 202629 min
211. Stop Optimizing for Revenue. Optimize for Profit ft. Cem Atik
Cem Atik is the co-founder and CMO of Harucon Ventures, a firm that acquires minority and majority equity stakes in e-commerce and SaaS businesses doing between one and ten million in annual revenue. Rather than operating as an agency or consultancy, Cem and his team get in with capital, take operational control of marketing and finance, and work to make the businesses they partner with structurally profitable. Most e-commerce brands that come to Harucon Ventures have the same underlying problem: they are optimizing for the wrong things. Revenue looks healthy. ROAS looks acceptable. But unit economics are broken, overhead is bloated, and the margin structure makes scaling impossible. In this conversation, Cem walks through exactly how his team diagnoses and fixes that. From cutting ad spend by 1.7 million euros in a single month to replacing a fulfillment provider that was silently overcharging a brand shipping 25,000 packages a day, the fixes are rarely glamorous but consistently high-impact. The conversation also covers his four-engine growth framework: acquisition, retention, conversion, and profit-first optimization, and why founders who lead with ROAS are measuring the wrong thing entirely. Cem also breaks down channel mix strategy, including why Pinterest and Bing Ads are consistently underused, why TikTok affiliate is one of the highest-leverage growth levers available right now, and why the real money in e-commerce is almost always made in retention, not acquisition. Founders who are scaling but not compounding, or growing revenue while watching margins compress, will find this episode unusually direct and useful. Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Cem Atik, Co-Founder & CMO, Harucon Ventures Cem Atik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cem-atik Harucon-Ventures: https://harucon-ventures.com/ Key Takeaways: • If a founder cannot state their customer acquisition cost in under 15 seconds, the business does not have a real financial foundation yet. • ROAS tells you how much revenue you generated per dollar spent. It tells you nothing about whether that dollar was profitable. Optimizing for profit on ad spend (POAS) gives you actual control. • Gross margin under 65% makes scaling structurally difficult in the US and UK markets. The margin problem cannot be fixed with better ads. • Agencies are typically three times cheaper than hiring in-house at early stages. Outsource acquisition first, learn from the partner, then bring it in-house once systems are proven. • TikTok affiliate is one of the most capital-efficient acquisition channels available: commission-based, creator-generated content, and scalable without a large internal team. • Pinterest is consistently overlooked despite an audience skewing 25 to 45 years old with average household incomes above $100K, and ROAS between four and six even at modest spend levels. Chapters: [00:00] Introduction: Cem Atik and the Harucon Ventures Model [01:27] The Founders Harucon Typically Partners With [03:45] The Post-Acquisition Audit: First 72 Hours [07:45] Cutting 1.7M Euros in Ad Spend: A Case Study [09:16] Why Gross Margin Under 65% Makes Scaling Nearly Impossible [13:51] The KPIs That Actually Matter: CAC, CLV, MER, EBITDA [18:35] The Four Engines: Acquisition, Retention, Conversion, Profit [24:00] Why ROAS Misleads and POAS Gives Real Control [25:41] Channel Mix: TikTok, Pinterest, Bing, and What Gets Overlooked
June 5, 202631 min
210. Building Seven Figures Without Running a Single Ad ft. Kate Assaraf
Kate Assaraf is the CEO and founder of dip sustainable, a plastic-free haircare brand she launched in 2021 that hit seven figures within 18 months without running a single paid ad. Before starting dip, she spent 20 years inside the beauty industry, long enough to see the deceptive marketing practices that eventually pushed her to build something completely different. Most DTC beauty brands launch with paid social, influencer seeding, and a race to acquire customers fast. Kate did the opposite. She cold-called refill stores, traveled across the country to meet sustainable retailers face to face, and built distribution through brick-and-mortar before she ever thought about digital advertising. Today, dip is carried in all 50 states and has sold over 300,000 bars by word of mouth alone. The conversation covers why Kate chose physical retail over digital-first, how she thinks about authentic customer marketing in a category overrun by sponsored content and AI-generated testimonials, and why she built her own factory after her contract manufacturer went bankrupt. That last decision, vertically integrating manufacturing and fulfillment under one roof, turned out to be the most consequential call she made as a founder. Kate also takes on the sustainability conversation directly, pushing back on the moralizing that she believes drives people away from the movement rather than toward it. Her version of sustainability is inclusive, economics-driven, and grounded in saving customers money, not lecturing them. She explains why the dip conditioner bar, at $32 and lasting close to a year, is a stronger pitch than the environmental argument alone. Founders in CPG, beauty, and retail will come away with a rare perspective: what it actually looks like to build a consumer brand slowly, deliberately, and without the typical playbook. Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Kate Assaraf, CEO & Founder, dip sustainable Kate Assaraf's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-assaraf-b25a741a7 dip sustainable: https://dipalready.com Watch the full Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/c9hCsejvcX8 Key Takeaways: • Seven figures in 18 months, zero paid ads. If the product solves a real problem and you understand the customer from the inside, distribution follows • Real paying customers outperform influencers in haircare and skincare because results are too easy to fake • Moralizing drives people away from sustainability. Framing it as inclusive and economically smart converts more people than shame ever will • The $32 conditioner bar saves customers up to $500 a year. The environmental pitch is secondary to the financial one • Gifting product builds a hollow first wave. Real retention only comes from people who spent their own money • When her contract manufacturer went bankrupt, Kate built her own factory. It removed 3PL costs, protected the formula, and became the best decision she ever made • Returns largely end up in landfills. Local retail reduces return rates and creates accountability that e-commerce cannot replicate Chapters: 00:00 Seven figures, zero ads 00:16 Introducing Kate Assaraf 00:54 Values beyond work 03:09 Why Kate left the beauty industry 04:22 Dip's marketing: real customers only 07:59 Fast beauty, sustainability, and unlearning consumerism 14:24 Seven figures without a single ad 15:36 How Dip launched: refill stores and road trips 21:51 Giving back and reinvesting profits 25:41 When the contract manufacturer went bankrupt 27:51 Advice for founders 29:54 Where to find Dip
May 27, 202632 min
209. The M&A Window You Can’t Afford to Miss ft. Ilya Mikin
Ilya Mikin is Vice President of Technology M&A at Corum Group, one of the leading technology M&A advisory firms globally. His background spans more than two decades across enterprise marketing at Intel and Unilever, executive and CEO roles at companies including iHerb, multiple founder exits across AdTech, MarTech, and FinTech, and now advising founders through acquisitions. He has been on every side of the M&A table, which makes his perspective unusually grounded. This episode gets into what has fundamentally changed about how technology and e-commerce companies are built, valued, and sold. The old playbook of raising VC money, growing at all costs, and gunning for IPO has largely collapsed. What replaced it is a market where M&A has become the primary liquidity event for founders, and where the rules for what makes a company attractive have shifted significantly. Eitan and Ilya dig into what acquirers actually look at today: why NRR, GRR, and low churn have become the cornerstones of valuation, why private equity now represents up to 40-50% of buyers in some sectors, and what it means to be an AI-native company versus an AI-enabled one. They also cover the mechanics of the M&A process itself — the four to eight week preparation phase, how Corum builds competitive tension among buyers, why the narrative around a business often matters more than the financials, and the internal deal killers that founders rarely talk about openly. Ilya also shares his take on where shoppable video sits in a world increasingly shaped by agentic AI, why he believes emotional product categories are protected from agent-driven purchasing, and what he is personally watching in the space. Founders who are building toward an exit, or who have never seriously thought about timing one, will find this conversation both practical and clarifying. Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Commerce Untold: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Ilya Mikin, Vice President Technology M&A, Corum Group, Ltd. Ilya Mikin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilyamikin/ Corum Group, Ltd.: https://www.corumgroup.com/ Watch the full Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/2lFD9JXIjIg Key Takeaways: VC investment in D2C e-commerce collapsed more than 90% from its 2021 peak, while M&A deals in that same sector grew 47% in 2025 — the exit path has fundamentally shifted IPO is no longer the default liquidity event for most founders; M&A is now the primary outcome to plan around Acquirers today prioritize NRR, GRR, and low churn over raw growth rate — the stickiness and profitability of your customer base drives valuation more than top-line momentum Private equity now represents up to 40-50% of buyers in some sectors, and PE buyers lead with EBITDA, not vision — a minimum of $2-3M ARR and $500K EBITDA is roughly where serious interest starts Being an AI-native company can increase your valuation by 20-30% or more; for true AI-native businesses, multiples can reach up to 20x EV For AI companies, proprietary data sets matter more than the technology itself — the model is the moat Market consolidation follows a cycle: the first quartile of a consolidation window has the most buyers, the most competition, and the highest multiples. Waiting too long means the music stops The narrative you build around your company matters more than your financials in the early stages of a buyer conversation — buyers need to feel fear of missing out Running a competitive process with multiple interested buyers is the single most powerful lever a founder has in an M&A negotiation — inbound interest from one buyer puts the founder in a weak position Deal fatigue and co-founder misalignment are the two most common internal reasons M&A deals collapse before closing Agentic AI will likely commoditize purchasing for basic, emotionally neutral products — but shoppable video remains essential for fashion, luxury, and any category where emotional decision-making drives the purchase More than 20% of WallID's customers now come through AI search channels like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, with zero marketing spend — a real signal of how discovery is changing Chapters: [00:00] Introduction and Guest Background [00:57] Ilya's Path from Intel and Unilever to E-Commerce and M&A [02:07] How the Approach to Building and Exiting Startups Has Changed [03:29] Why VC Investment Collapsed and M&A Deals Are Rising [04:40] What Acquirers Actually Look at Today: NRR, GRR, and Profitability [05:58] The Rise of Private Equity as a Buyer and What PE Wants [07:20] How AI-Native Companies Command a Valuation Premium [08:47] Where E-Commerce Multiples Stand Today [10:32] The Sell-Side Process: Preparation, Positioning, and Narrative [12:06] The Consolidation Window and Why Timing Your Exit Matters [13:38] How Corum Prepares Founders for Market [14:17] Technology Evaluation: AI vs. Non-AI Companies [17:00] Building the Story, Outreach, and Creating Competitive Tension [20:02] How Long a Typical M&A Process Takes [21:44] Deal Fatigue and Co-Founder Misalignment as Internal Deal Killers [23:28] Shoppable Video and Agentic Commerce: Where Emotion Still Wins [26:09] WallID: Solving Checkout Friction and Fraud at Scale [28:13] Managing Multiple Ventures and the Side-Hustle Mindset [29:44] What Ilya Is Watching in E-Commerce Right Now: Know Your Agent [31:04] How to Connect with Ilya and Corum Group
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