Episode Details

Brian bought 5 different mattresses and lives to tell the story. Phillip reviews DTC candle brands. Yes, really. ALSO: the guys sit down for an amazing interview with Megan Whitman, the Chief Digital Officer at Kopari Beauty, who joined us to talk about her experience growing the digital channel from "absolute zero". Kopari today is available everywhere from sample boxes to Ulta and is partnering with the likes of Drybar to reach even more customers.

Show Notes

Main Takeaways:

• In today's episode (in a new format by the way), Brian and Phillip interview Chief Digital Officer at Kopari, Megan Whitman at Klaviyo: BOS.

• Once a brand reaches a certain level of success, what are the benchmarks for measuring that success past standard KPIs?

• Buying a bed online can sometimes not be a smooth process.

• Brian and Phillip don't understand the online candle business or how people buy scents without first experiencing them.

Coconuts and Asymptotes: A Brief Introduction and a Fated Meeting:

• Brian has a theory about asymptotes and was riffing on this idea with Phillip when he was overheard by Megan who joined in the conversation.

• Megan was the first employee at Kopari, a coconut-based beauty company that has been around for about three and a half years that sells mainly on their direct-to-consumer site.

• Kopari still mainly focuses on its direct-to-consumer business despite being in large beauty retailers because they care about what their customers want and want to create real relationships with them.

• It all started around coconut oil and how this miracle ingredient can enhance various beauty products, but as the company grew, more parts of the coconut began to be used in Kopari's products.

From Nothing To Game-Changer: A Keynote-Worthy Journey:

• Megan was one of the keynotes at Klaviyo: BOS and gave a great talk about how to fool your brand's growth one stage at a time.

• When Kopari first launched, starting from nothing and bootstrapping everything became the best learning experience for Megan as she had a hands-on connection with all of the technologies used to grow the company.

• Tools like Klaviyo have become so good that it makes it possible for brands to go to market quickly and provide great experiences for your customers.

• Megan used to work at an agency before she joined Kopari and recounts how tools like Optimizely allowed marketers to create customer experiences easily and on their own.

Two Different Approaches: Nostalgia Brands vs. Modern Brands:

• Phillip comments that nostalgia or legacy brands typically approach innovation with a lot of thought and deliberation while planning an intricate series of things, but more modern brands are executing on the fly and learning as they go.

• Megan admits to doing things on the fly and the expectation of doing things on the fly is ingrained in the culture.

• There has to be a healthy balance of doing things quickly and not doing too many things at one time that might result in conflicting messages to your customers.

• Brian points out that technology has set the stage for the expectation of things to be done quickly.

Timing is Key: What Makes Modern Brands Different?: