There’s more news for founders and operators this week than you can fit into even the most stacked and loaded first-day-of-school lunch box. (With a heart-shaped note that says “Have a great day, sweetie, I’m so proud of your potential to become someone's customer acquisition strategy.”)
Speaking of the biggest seasonal shopping moments of the year, chances are you know someone who’s already talking about Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Besides us. Q4’s just a stone’s throw away, after all. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, scroll down and sign up for the LA DTC networking event where we’ll connect over this tie that binds us all.
Take a gander below for what's working, what's breaking, and the founders presenting to the whole class.
Squeaky-clean product data is the new gorgeous PDP imagery, according to a new IDC study. If the agent can't parse it, the customer never sees it.
ShopMy is accused of getting retailers to stiff rival platforms on commissions. Running affiliate in more than one place? Maybe peek at who's collecting.
AG1's Kat Cole is blunt about the gummy launch: fewer than 10% of subscribers use them. This acquisition play is the name of the game.
Target built a simulator for its own supply chain so it can glitch out in the sandbox instead of on the shelf. Think practice runs, but for pallets.
Wait until you see how many clicks LinkedIn's "seems like AI slop" button got in its first two weeks. Bonus points: Flagged posts take a 40% visibility hit.
Nate Rosen clocked that Starbucks is becoming a CPG launchpad. Floura and Chomps went in this week, joining Khloud, Olipop, Koia, and Perfect Bar.
That 20%-off perma-badge? Fast Company has a name for it: your actual price. Read this before firming up your Q4 pricing.
Miranda Shanahan dissected how ex-Rhode CEO Melanie Bender is launching fragrance brand Lore, and the world-building teardown is a masterclass.
HallPass, the new candy brand from the David Protein founders, launched with typo-ridden AI packaging shots as rage bait.
Target is putting $994M in banked tariff refunds toward price cuts. Ditto Walmart and BJ’s. Flip side: Amazon’s refunding it directly. Penny for your thoughts?
Join us at the LA DTC Happy Hour in Santa Monica on September 9 from 6-9 p.m.
Another opportunity to come say hi to us in person, yay! If you're in the area, we'd love to see you — but let us know soon, spots are already filling up.
The question of the hour: what actually makes a customer stick after BFCM?
Sign up here, and see you there.
Sagar Patel spent 22 years in tech before joining Yucca Fins, the Costa Mesa brand making swim and bodysurf fins that California lifeguards trust in the water. His friends Sean Starky and Mike Marshall started it with one idea: build a better fin than the one the old guard had been stuck with for decades.
We get into what changes when you bring real operating discipline to an industry that, in Sagar’s words, still “runs like a surf shop.” If you’re an enterprise-builder with a passion for threading the needle, this one’s for you.
