Operators

Why lower AOV and a disciplined P&L saved this brand from the brink.
Steven Borrelli (Founder & CEO, Cuts), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) unpack how Cuts reached $60M without outside money, then nearly went under when tariffs hit 145%. Steven walks through the layoffs, the first raise, and the comeback that followed. 
Selling 50K joggers sight unseen gave Cuts confidence it hadn’t earned. Steven explains how a lower AOV cut customer acquisition costs by 65%. Now Cuts is betting on elevated menswear priced below luxury labels, where winning products draw copycats. 
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How do you create a company culture that’s a competitive advantage?
Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) build culture through deliberate choices, while most brands leave it to chance. They work through it in five hard questions: 
1. Who should you let go? 
2. How close should you get? 
3. What won’t you tolerate? 
4. Why are values a “trade”? 
5. Where do leaders go next? 
Matt has hired and fired hundreds, and no two exits looked alike. Mike surveyed his entire team, and 80% praised the same quality in him: transparency. As AI takes over the busywork, trust becomes the real advantage. 
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“It’s very easy to scrape an ad library, pull out concepts and then literally just duplicate the ad. That’s just a race to the bottom.” 
How do you learn from other brands without copying them? 
Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) share their screens to walk through six consumables brands they’re learning from while building Winks. Each picked three, plus one bonus from outside DTC. 
1. Nutrition Geeks: UK single-ingredient 
2. Norse Organics: Natural acne care 
3. Elavate: UK collagen for women 
4. MarsMen: Testosterone support 
5. Spoiled Child: Oddity’s brand 
6. Boostcous: Gluten-free couscous 
(Bonus) Wispr Flow: AI voice app 
Matt and Cody trace each brand’s ads, landers and offers, including why long pages still convert. Some brands force subscriptions, others offer a choice, and a few lead with one-time bundles. Meanwhile, Winks is testing a no-subscription bundle of its own. 
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“If you don’t sell on Amazon, somebody else is gonna sell it.” 
When should a DTC brand stop treating Amazon as an afterthought? 
Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), Jason Panzer (President, HexClad), Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi), and Katy Mimari (CEO, Caden Lane) break down the five things DTC brands must get right to scale on Amazon. 
1. Always stay in stock
2. Executive ownership
3. Tailor your catalog
4. Protect your reviews
5. Pricing and promotion
Amazon drives over half of Simple Modern’s contribution profit, yet Matt and Katy admit neglecting it. Mike’s fix covers five fronts: inventory, ownership, catalog, reviews, and pricing. Even HexClad is still learning, after underinvesting cost it millions this year. 
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Saras Analytics 
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Postscript 
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Operators Portal 
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Operators Newsletter 
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“Creative supply chain is the essential ingredient of demand.” 
Get all the resources from this episode: https://9ops.co/abchwj
★ 6-step framework
★ Brief template
★ Hook training guide
Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) launched Winks with more ads than lessons. Now they walk through the six steps every ad faces, starting with the message. 
1. Message 
2. Source 
3. Media Formats 
4. Creative Approach 
5. Funnel Role 
6. Production Checks 
More ads went live, but Cody still didn’t know what was working. The fix is research by hand, down to an Instagram feed trained to think like the buyer. With AI editing and uploading their ads, taste is the job left for people. 
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