OPERATORS

What does it take to go from high-school dropout to building a $100M+ brand with David Beckham?

Brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits (terms apply).

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Matt Bertulli and Sean Frank sit down with Danny Yeung, co-founder and CEO of IM8. Danny shares his journey from immigrating to San Francisco at age five, to telemarketing at fifteen, to partnering with one of the world’s most famous athletes and building the fastest-growing supplement brand in history.

The conversation covers Danny’s scrappy early ventures in dessert franchises and hotel furniture, his bold move to Hong Kong to build a Groupon competitor that sold within six months, taking Prenetics public as Hong Kong’s largest COVID testing provider, the gut-wrenching decision to cut 2,000 employees down to under 100, and finally landing David Beckham as a co-founder to launch IM8.

What do the real numbers from 1,000+ DTC brands reveal about who actually won? Find out by downloading the full report.

https://www.northbeam.io/ebook/2025-year-in-review-data-report

Sean Frank and Mike Beckham sit down with Austin Harrison, CEO of Northbeam, and Andrew Kaszuba, Northbeam’s media strategist, to break down exclusive 2025 ecommerce data that nobody else has access to.

Spend trends, revenue growth, and efficiency metrics across every major advertising platform as well as by business category. The data tells a stark story about winners and losers. Small brands under $5 million saw revenue decline while $100M+ companies grew 15%. AppLovin spend exploded 176% year over year while Snapchat collapsed 46%. AI search traffic grew 1,000% but still represents a tiny fraction of total visits.

Austin and the hosts also share predictions for 2026 and explains why infinite AI-generated creative will separate the winners from everyone else.

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Sean, Mike, Matt, and Jason share their bull and bear cases for 2026, debating the economic shifts reshaping ecommerce — from a potential AI bubble to the frozen housing market to consumer pullback in a hidden recession.

Discover why this moment might be the most pivotal in history for small businesses while threatening large institutions. The hosts cover the deflationary power of AI, macro trends in consumer, and the specific levers each is pulling to win in an uncertain economy: (1) pricing strategies, (2) new product launches, (3) TikTok Shops, and (4) AI-generated creative.

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Fulfil.io
https://bit.ly/3pAp2vu
The Only Cloud ERP Designed to Efficiently Scale 8 and 9-Figure Brands.

Northbeam
https://www.northbeam.io/

Richpanel
https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=9O&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc

Saras Analytics
https://bit.ly/9OP-Ytdesc

Rivo
https://www.rivo.io/operators

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“I’m building memories, not sales.” What if everything you thought you knew about creating a consumer brand was wrong?

Matt Bertulli and Sean Frank sit down with Sean Riley, Co-Founder and Chief DUDE (CEO) of DUDE Wipes, to discuss how he and his co-founders grew to hundreds of millions in revenue — without relying on traditional ads.

From going viral through gorilla marketing to landing a deal with Mark Cuban on Shark Tank to being students of culture, Sean reveals why doing what’s fun can be your competitive advantage.

Brought to you by Fulfil, the only cloud ERP designed to efficiently scale 8–9 figure DTC brands: https://bit.ly/3pAp2vu

“What do you do when you stop winning?”
In this episode, Sean and Matt drop the highlight reel and talk candidly about what it actually feels like when a once high-flying brand stalls, hits flat revenue, or even starts shrinking.

They unpack why every business has a “natural size,” why top-line obsession is the laziest definition of winning, and how to think more clearly about margin compression, momentum, and your own financial security as a founder.

From redefining success beyond horsepower-style revenue numbers, to product, channel, and positioning pivots, to doing the brutal “Fog of War” cuts instead of slow bleeding out, this is a tactical, psychologically honest roadmap for operators trying to diagnose stalled growth and decide whether to push for the next level or intentionally right-size the business and finally take money off the table.

Chapters

00:00 – Cold open: what it feels like when winning stops

02:20 – Why this episode matters: growth stalls, failure, and the messy middle

04:06 – Defining “winning”: growth vs profit, lifestyle, and the natural size of a business

07:18 – Survival first: financial security, changing goals, and evolving definitions of success

12:51 – Diagnosing stalled growth: macro forces, misalignment, and internal blind spots

17:42 – Tactical vs strategic stalls: product, category limits, and being in the wrong vehicle

23:48 – Playing by the rules of the game: CAC, channels, and market realities

33:13 – Diversification as defense: why building on rented land is dangerous

39:00 – When winning tactics stop working: SEO hits, waves crashing, and preparing for stall-outs

44:00 – Operating paranoid: assuming stalls, diversifying early, and the tradeoff of leaving money on the table

50:00 – Changing the business: adding new product lines, multiple business units, and hedging inside your own brand

56:00 – Rented land warning: Facebook media, platform dependency, and why omnichannel is non-negotiable

Powered By

Fulfil.io
https://bit.ly/3pAp2vu
The Only Cloud ERP Designed to Efficiently Scale 8 and 9-Figure Brands.

Northbeam
https://www.northbeam.io/

Richpanel
https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=9O&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc

Saras
https://bit.ly/9OP-Ytdesc

Rivo
https://www.rivo.io/operators

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