How Commerce, Creator, & Consumer Brands Are Built

Meghana Dhar is a tech advisor and investor passionate about creators, brands, social media, and commerce. With a background in big tech, she worked at Ebay where she discovered her love for e-commerce, marketplaces, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) business models. Meghana's strategic expertise led her to become an advisor to the CEO during the spin-off of PayPal. She later served as the head of shopping partnerships at Instagram, witnessing its growth from inception. Recently, she held the position of global head of partnerships at Snap, accumulating valuable experiences in social commerce.

Victor Guardiola and Jordan Hicks are the co-founders of Bawi. With a passion for entrepreneurship, they turned their vision of creating ready-to-drink agua frescas into a reality. From testing their products at farmers markets to securing distribution in over 600 stores nationally, Victor and Jordan continue to grow their brand and bring refreshing beverages to consumers nationwide.

Meghan Higney is the founder of Message, a innovative slide sandal brand. With a background in private equity investing, Meghan then served as President & COO of True Botanicals. She is advisor to several brands is extremely versed at all levels of operation within consumer brands.

On this episode of DTC pod, Blaine & Ramon break the latest news and analysis in the consumer & commerce space, with some in depth breakdowns.

Mike Xhaxho, an Albanian-American entrepreneur, started his career in finance and investment banking. After leaving finance, he created one of the first creator led fitness app business, which he scaled and sold, before finding his way into e-commerce and importing rattan bags. In 2020, he noticed a whitespace in the market around hydration products, and Waterboy was born.

Jordan West is a successful entrepreneur, owner of multiple brands, agency owner at upGrowth Commerce, and host of fellow e-commerce podcast Secrets To Scaling Your E-commerce Brand . With his expertise in digital advertising and e-commerce, Jordan has a background in growing brands, navigating advertising platforms, and understanding customer psychology.

Liz Giorgi is the co-founder and CEO of soona, a platform that specializes in creating visual content for Ecommerce. With a background in television editing for networks like CNN and PBS, Liz transitioned into the world of digital video content creation in 2013. After successfully running her own production company, she sold it in 2019 to focus on the opportunity with soona. Liz recognized the need for affordable and high-quality product photography in the Ecommerce industry and has since helped shoot 5 million Ecommerce assets and onboarded 15,000 merchants onto the soona platform.

Robbie Salter is the co-CEO and co-founder of Jupiter, a scalp health brand that has revolutionized the hair care industry. Robbie and his team have successfully developed top-notch scalp care products that are free of harmful chemicals and safe for color-treated and chemically treated hair. Before Jupiter, Robbie worked in the film and television industry and received his JD and MBA from Northwestern University.

Blaine & Ramon break the latest news and analysis in the consumer & commerce space.

Adam Robinson, the founder & CEO of Retention.com. A Rice University graduate and former credit default swap trader, started building in the email marketing space until he found a way to get website visitors' email addresses. He rebranded the company as Retention.com and now has 50 employees and an ARR of almost $20 million.