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“Everyone who said I was too early, they got on my investor updates.” Can product market fit be created, or can you only position yourself to catch it? William Hicks (Co-Founder & CEO, Magic Mind) joins Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) to unpack how a Silicon Valley spreadsheet of nootropics became a national retail brand. This episode gets into the real mechanics of product market fit at scale. Raising a seed round took dozens of rejections. Hicks kept those investor relationships warm for years afterward. From there, DTC gave way to national…

Operators

by Sean Frank, Mike Beckham, Matt Bertulli, and Jason Panzer · English · Business

In the world of ecommerce, a legendary text group is rumored to hold the secrets to unimaginable success. The catch? You must have nine figures in revenue to gain entry. The world’s biggest brands have denied its existence for years, until now. Four titans known as the “Operators” are leaking the se

More from Operators

  1. E180 · 26 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 6 min

    10 Best AI Use Cases for Ecommerce in 2026: Ranked by CEOs

    Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) rank the ten highest impact ways ecommerce brands are using AI in 2026. The four disagree loudly before landing on a group ranking none of them expected going in. Sean says AI chatbots now handle nearly every routine support ticket. Mike takes it further with a model that predicts each customer’s next purchase and updates hourly.The pattern repeats in content, where generative AI now handles static images at Ridge and Pela for a fraction of the old cost.…

  2. 24 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 18 min

    Every Step to Start an Ecommerce Business Revealed: Operators Build (E1)

    “We’ve done it before. Can we do it again?” Five executives put half a million dollars on the line to start a new ecommerce brand. Operators Build follows every step, in public. You get the math, the disagreements, and the cost of launching an online business in 2026. This is not dropshipping. We bought inventory, formed an LLC, and registered our domain name: https://getwinks.com The plan? Shopify and paid social (Meta) with online marketplaces like Amazon and new channels like TikTok added as the numbers earn it. Powered By Skio https://9ops.co/skio-9operators Aftersell…

  3. E179 · 19 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

    Building Solo Past $1M in Only Year One: Help an Operator Out

    Help an Operator Out (HAOO) is a series where real business owners join the podcast with live questions. In this episode, Christopher Francis (Founder & CEO, Home Plunge) brings the hardest problem in year one: growing without doing every job himself. He turned a personal need into a $1.4 million business in a year and a half. The conversation covers pricing and offer strategy. It also gets into Amazon, TikTok Shop affiliates, and AI support. Sean pushes for a sale structure built for a high-consideration purchase. Mike frames the manual support work as margin compression Christopher isn’t…

  4. E178 · 12 Aug 2026 · 50 min

    Why People Buy: A Practical Guide to Consumer Behavior in Ecommerce

    “People buy things to fill gaps in their life.” Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) unpack consumer behavior in ecommerce. They cover the emotional triggers behind buying, the offers that convert, and the buying journeys online shopping takes today. The real driver of your marketing strategies is the offer itself, not the checkout experience. People buy out of convenience, fear of loss, identity, and scarcity … long before logic enters the picture. Ridge’s expansion from wallets into rings shows how one brand layered new customer angles onto a single product.…

  5. E177 · 5 Aug 2026 · 1 hr

    How Ecommerce Founders Get Rich: Exits, Dividends, Debt & Salary

    What are the five ways ecommerce owners actually get paid? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Curtis Mastko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) break down five real ways ecommerce operators get paid. Each path trades speed for risk, and none of them is easy money. Valuation sets the ceiling, and buyers lean on EBITDA multiples to get there. Distributions are where most operators get paid, if they resist reinvesting too much. Debt speeds that timeline up, though it comes loaded with risk. The episode ends on salary, pitting one…

  6. E20 · 30 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 22 min

    Inside the Affiliate Marketing Strategy Behind BK Beauty’s Growth

    “We ended up selling twenty-two thousand units that day.” How did two founders build a multi-million-dollar brush brand without outside investors? Lisa Jauregui and Paul Jauregui, Co-Founders of BK Beauty, join Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi) and Katy Mimiari (CEO, Caden Lane) to break down the affiliate marketing strategy that took a makeup brush brand from a living room operation to millions in sales. No outside funding. No paid influencer deals. Lisa built a beauty audience on YouTube for five years before BK Beauty launched. A brand focused entirely on brushes for years before…

  7. S2 · E25 · 8 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 29 minNew

    Away’s CEO & New DTC Playbook: Amazon, TikTok Shop, and 300% Over Plan

    “It’s about closing the imagination gap, not what it can do.” Jessica Schinazi (CEO, Away) joins Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) to break down how she took the reins of a decade-old DTC pioneer and opened it to new channels in 18 months. Away builds luggage to last 7 to 10 years, which Jessica calls a horrible business model. She chases new buyers: Up to 9% of her Amazon category and a $400 suitcase sold out on TikTok Shop. Now she has to bring each customer home before a day-one startup steals them. Powered by Podqi…

  8. E186 · 7 Oct 2026 · 1 hrNew

    How to Raise Capital for Your Brand: TJ Bongiorno (Founder Outgoing Co)

    “You can have anything you want, but you can’t have it all at once.” Should you raise money when your only problem is working capital? Help an Operator Out (HAOO) is a series where real business owners join the podcast with live questions. In this episode, TJ Bongiorno (Founder, The Outgoing Co) brings two questions: when to raise capital and how to price the round. As a solo founder, he 4X’d the business to nearly $4M in a year. Nearly 90% of TJ’s revenue comes from powder, yet his cans perform 100X better on TikTok Shop. The hosts push him to choose which product leads his pitch. Matt…

  9. S3 · E7 · 5 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

    Every AI Tool We’re Using & 4 Pillars to Guide You: Operators Build (E7)

    “They’re the most capable ever, but not trained on your business.” What pillars should every AI-first brand build, and which one comes first? Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) open up the playbook behind Winks, a brand where AI does the grunt work and humans make the calls. Piece by piece, they break down the four components that make that split work. 1. Company brain: Context, memory, skills 2. Operating system (OS): Human interface 3. Software and tools: Existing tech, SaaS 4. Agents: Researcher, writer, analyst, etc. The era…

  10. E185 · 30 Sep 2026 · 54 min

    How to Create Buying Moments: Give People a Reason to Buy All Year

    “You’re never gonna make a big impact on Black Friday.” Should you worry if frequent promotions will hurt your brand equity? Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case and Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) break down how Ridge manufactures demand instead of waiting for it. A slow summer becomes an 8-figure-plus sales season, anchored by a Lamborghini sweepstakes with Tony Hawk. Sean walks through how the campaign evolved from a $100K MVP into a five year, celebrity backed giveaway with a grand prize built in. He explains why a 45-day window beats trying to own a single…

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