Happy (almost) Memorial Day Weekend.
Today’s Squad
Aaron Rivadeneyra (Head of Ecommerce, Frost Buddy) → 12:40PM CT
Nathan Cooper (Founder & Managing Partner, Barrel Venture) → 1:10PM CT
Chris Ruder (Founder & CEO, Spikeball) → 1:45PM CT
Top Stories
David Protein's "Cod 2" - Peter Rahal's brand just dropped Cod 2 — a $39 four-pack of canned wild-caught Atlantic cod from Greenland, two ingredients (99% cod, 1% salt), 18g of protein per can. Follow-up to last summer's viral frozen-cod stunt, and proof that polarizing branding still moves more product than another flavor launch ever could.
Northbeam's weekly Media Buyer Index - AppLovin's Axon ROAS keeps climbing (+3.04% this week), meanwhile TikTok CVR dropped 11.79% in a single week, Snapchat -10.07%, and Meta is still eating 52% of every paid dollar tracked even with downward trending return.
ClickUp layoffs - ClickUp cut 22% of staff Thursday while being more profitable than ever — and CEO Zeb Evans thesis: engineers don't write code anymore, they direct agents that write it, and the "100x org" needs fewer people on bigger checks.
The Recharge–Skio deal is a bet on continued subscription dominance in DTC.
By Colin Dougherty // 1 min. read
Oisin O’Connor (CEO, Recharge) had a line that stuck with me. Look at who actually advertises on TV. CPG, insurance, cars, alcohol. Maybe four categories total.
Why those four? Only brands with the highest LTV can afford it.
That filter is creeping into every channel now. CAC keeps going up, Meta is plateauing. The brands that can keep buying ad inventory are the ones whose LTV math makes it work. Mostly subscription brands.
His prediction was direct: ecommerce in five to ten years has less variety, not more. High-LTV brands take the channels. Everyone else gets squeezed out.
Recharge acquiring Skio means they sit on data from over 100 million US shoppers. Real cancel rates in supplements, creatine, green powder, fish oil, and more. The actual order-two churn nobody else can see.
You can vibe-code a billing flow over a weekend. You cannot replicate that data set. That's what they actually bought.
Gruns, Marsmen, Create Gummies, Everyday Dose, Neuro Gum — these brands aren't winning because their creative is sharper. They're winning because the math lets them outbid you in every Meta auction that matters.
If you're a one-and-done brand fighting for the same impressions as a subscription brand, you already lost the auction.
Highlight Reel: Jared Gutstadt (CEO, RebelAudio) - “Fish where the pond is empty.”
Timeline: Town Square
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Made Possible By:
Axon by AppLovin - Reach 1B+ new customers; advertise on mobile games.
Seguno - the Shopify-native marketing suite for brands that run it themselves.
Insense - The all-in-one UGC and influencer marketing platform.
Postscript - Make more money from every SMS message.
Proxima - Use real conversion data to power your creative briefs.
Northbeam - Measure the “unmeasurable,” make your marketing profitable.
Rokt Aftersell - More profit from the orders you’re already getting.
Universal Ads - TV ads that deliver for performance marketers.
See you live,
Ecomm Cowboy Team