Episodit
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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 Intro
01:00 When Customer Support Goes Wrong
03:55 Lightbulb Moment: Starting Ambr From The Couch
07:18 Retail Brings Credibility: How Ambr Got Into Brown Thomas
10:00 How Jack Met Dan
12:39 Approach Pricing With Retail In Mind From Day One
15:05 'Almost' Sued By Specsavers
18:11 Lessons From Failure: Importance Of Product Diversification
24:10 Everambr: Moving From Eyewear Towards Performance
28:40 Know Your Financials!!
32:41 Growth Tactics: Gifting Works
36:00 UGC Is Essential In 2025
37:48 Marketing Failures: Avoid TV Ads
40:25 How AI Is Changing The Content Game
45:36 Authenticity Is Key When Building A Brand
47:50 The Appetite To Go Again
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Ryan Babenzien doesn't just follow e-commerce trends - he invents them!
A veteran of the footwear and streetwear industry, Ryan has a long-history with brand building and e-commerce. In 2014 he founded the first digitally-native sneaker brand, Greats - a brand which he exited to fashion giant Steve Madden in 2019. Not one to chill on the beach and bask in his own success, Ryan immediately started Jolie - now one of the fastest brands in the DTC space!
Ryan's journey with Jolie has seen him scale the brand to $50mn in revenue in a three year period, all while maintaining a lean team of just four full-time staff. In our chat he dives into his framework to build a successful DTC business, his not-so-subtle dislike of Meta, his experience exiting an eight-figure brand and how he's using AI to scale his business as leanly as possible.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:00 Success With Greats - The First Digitally Native Sneaker Brand
04:01 If Meta Is So Great, Why Are Brands Losing Money?
06:59 Has It Gotten Easier Or Harder To Start A DTC Brand?
10:12 Think About Your Exit Before Starting A Business
14:47 Ryan's Framework For Starting A Successful Brand
17:17 The Importance Of Smart Product Positioning
19:34 Staying Focused To Build A $50m Brand
23:31 Growth Hack: The Water Report
26:12 How To Test Your Market Before Building Your Product
29:44 The Data Problem: We've Prioritized Measurement Over Performance
33:38 How Jolie Scaled To $50m With Three Employees
37:09 Is Software Replacing People in E-Commerce?
40:41 How To Price Your Product
48:41 What's Next For Jolie?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Puuttuva jakso?
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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: Intro
00:45: How Matt Stumbled Into Entrepreneurship
06:30: From Bedroom Brand to $50m - Simple Shit Scales
15:25: 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 People
21:28: Should DTC Brands Raise VC Money?
25:57: Building A Process When Raising Money
29:45: Good Angels Add More Value Than VC's
31:55: What Are The Biggest Challenges Spacegood's Faces?
35:55: Starting A Business With An Influencer - The Key To Fast Growth
40:12: When Influencer Marketing Goes Wrong
42:27: Learning From Failure - What Went Wrong With Neon Beach
50:53: 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.
