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Build for Community, Not the Playbook
Description
Don’t sell to your community. Just talk to them.
DadGang founder Bart Szaniewski started with $750, 100 hats and no real business plan. Four years later, the brand has sold more than a million hats and generated over $36 million in revenue.
He’s done it while ignoring a lot of conventional DTC advice: DadGang still uses Shopify’s free Dawn theme, shoots much of its content on an iPhone and runs a private Facebook group for its community. Bart’s philosophy is simple: don’t copy what works for someone else. Build around your customer.
On this episode of Marketing Trends with Stephanie Postles, Bart explains how DadGang keeps its marketing simple at scale, turns customer feedback into real products, and uses email, SMS and AI without overwhelming the people on the other end.
What you'll learn
- Why Bart still uses Shopify’s free Dawn theme after $36M in revenue
- The question that changed how DadGang thinks about community
- How customer feedback turns into real product launches
- Why emails that aren’t trying to sell can still drive revenue
- How DadGang uses email, SMS and AI without adding unnecessary complexity
- Why Bart resists arbitrary growth pressure - even at scale
Connect
Chapters
0:00 From $750 and 100 Hats to DadGang
3:23 The Marketing Years Before DadGang
7:13 Why Fatherhood Content Felt Wrong
10:08 $36M Without Forcing Growth
12:40 Why DadGang Still Uses a Free Shopify Theme
15:34 The Martech Stack Is Shrinking
16:16 AI Replaced the Landing Page Process
17:32 Don't Build Around the Algorithm
19:38 "Where Is Your Community?"
21:04 Why 15,000 Dads Still Use Facebook
25:13 When Customers Design the Product
29:07 How Gary Vee Became a Partner
35:18 Email + SMS for a Million-Hat Brand
37:36 Letting AI Choose the Send Time
38:22 Why Non-Selling Emails Still Drive Revenue
41:29 What Comes After a Million Hats?
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