Ecom Growth Insider

About Ecom Growth Insider

If you're a DTC brand founder, CMO, growth marketer, or operator trying to scale your e-commerce business profitably, this podcast is for you. Hosted by Andrej Tumachowitsch — founder of the growth agency HoloGrowth — this show goes deep on what actually works to grow online brands in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. We go way beyond generic advice. Every episode gives you practical, battle-tested insights directly from 7-, 8-, and 9-figure brand founders, top-tier marketers, and agency operators actively working in the trenches. You’ll learn: - What separates breakout ecom brands from the ones that plateau - Paid media strategies that scale on Meta, Google & beyond - How to use UGC, email, landing pages, and CRO to increase LTV & AOV - Creative testing frameworks & campaign breakdowns that actually perform - Smart ways to grow without sacrificing profit margins - Founder mindsets, systems, and hiring practices that lead to longevity - And the biggest mistakes brands are making right now (and how to avoid them) Expect a mix of founder interviews, expert roundtables, solo lessons, and deep dives into what’s working right now in paid acquisition, conversion, and retention. No fluff. No recycled advice. Just proven strategies to grow your ecommerce brand. If you're tired of surface-level podcasts and want unfiltered access to the tactics and lessons real brands are using to scale — hit subscribe and join us inside the Ecom Growth Insider.

Publisher

Andrej Tumachowitsch

Category

business · business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 May 2025

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

27 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Brand Licensing: Rent A Fanbase, Not More Clicks | David Born, Born Licensing

   Most ecommerce brands compete for attention on the same two platforms, against the same competitors, at the same rising cost. Brand licensing is the other way in: you borrow a fanbase somebody else spent decades building, put it on the product, and pay for it out of sales. David Born has worked in licensing for about twenty years. He was inside Warner Bros. Consumer Products and at Cartoon Network, on the side of the table that decides which brands get a license. For the last twelve years he has run his own licensing agency, and a growing share of that work is now ecommerce brands. This episode is the practical version. What a first license costs, line by line. How long it takes before anything can be sold. And why the character on the mood board is almost always the wrong one to start with. What we get into: - The minimum guarantee, and why it is owed whether or not a single unit sells - The royalty rate he says an ecommerce brand pays on average, and the worked example behind it - The two sales-forecast mistakes that kill a deal before it is drafted - Why the hottest IP in the world is the worst possible first license - Twelve months from first email to first sale, and where that time goes - The ten working days every approval takes, and what resets the clock - What a license does to the value of a company on the day it is sold - The reason a licensing agent tells people licensing is a non-starter The anchor case is Plum Deluxe, a loose leaf tea brand his agency works with. David relays what founder Andy Hayes told him: ten years in business, never licensed anything, then a Peanuts collection at Christmas that sold out in twelve days, with less ad spend than a normal launch. Those are Andy's numbers as David reports them. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro and what licensing actually covers 03:45 What a first license actually costs 04:38 Minimum guarantee and royalty, defined 05:37 The worked example on a Hello Kitty deal 10:52 Never make the hottest IP the first one 12:45 Who says yes to a brand with no track record 18:49 Twelve months from first email to first sale 19:56 The 10-day approval clock that resets 26:38 What has to be true before a license helps 27:17 Licensing does not save a struggling brand 28:06 A ten-year-old tea brand's first license 30:15 The second collection and the basket effect 34:43 Cash flow, margin and absorbing the royalty 40:02 The most expensive mistake he has seen 41:00 What a license does to a sale of the company 42:22 Overrated or underrated, five calls 45:29 The first move for an operator next week FIND DAVID Born Licensing: https://bornlicensing.com Born to License: https://borntolicense.com Learn to License: https://www.learntolicense.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidborn1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidb0rn Ecom Growth Insider: https://ecomgrowthinsider.com Figures are David's own, or his clients' as he reports them. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.

2. 

   29 Sept 2026

   No Ads: Seven Figures Without Meta Or Amazon | Kate Assaraf

   Her store locator tells you to go buy from a shop she does not own. If that shop is out of stock, you email her the store's name and she sends you a free shipping code as a thank you for trying. She built a seven-figure haircare brand on that instinct and never bought an ad to do it. Kate Assaraf founded Dip in 2021 — plastic-free shampoo and conditioner bars, now in a little more than 500 independent stores. She spent the first year not building but watching: standing in drugstores, supermarkets, salons and Sephora, quietly observing what people actually do when they pick up a bottle. What she saw decided the product. Her argument in this episode is that sustainability is the third reason someone buys from her, behind "it works" and "it's worth the money" — and she has a Warby Parker survey to explain why leading with the mission loses. She built the brand so the plastic-free part never had to do the selling. One thing the intro does not say: she is running paid ads now. She hired an agency and fired them two weeks later, and she tells that story here for the first time, at 29:31. This one is for operators whose brand has a mission — clean ingredients, sustainability, ethics, a founder story — and who are currently leading with it. In this episode: • The first thing a shopper does with a bottle, at every price point in every store • What men actually do on the women's shelf, which is not what she expected • Where the mission ranks among the reasons people buy, and the survey behind it • One distribution channel, picked deliberately, and the line she used to open it • The page on her own site that routes buyers to a shop she does not own • How the business grows when the product lasts a year and nobody needs to reorder • The ads agency she hired and fired in two weeks, told here for the first time • What she would build instead of another ad account Chapters: 00:00 Seven figures, no ads, no Amazon 01:20 A year spent watching people shop 03:48 Smell decides it before anyone reads 04:40 Men shop the women's shelf the same way 05:16 The sustainable shopper who does not exist 06:48 Sustainability is the third reason to buy 07:08 Warby Parker surveyed, and the mission lost 11:14 The people who care are in refill stores 14:06 Five hundred doors, one did $200,000 15:14 A store locator that costs her the sale 20:56 Revenue is not profit on a marketplace 21:55 The Amazon carrot she calls moldy 24:15 Where AI is an equalizer, and where it is slop 29:31 Hiring an ads agency, firing it in two weeks 33:23 When the repeat purchase is a gift 36:45 Clean beauty and subscriptions, overrated 39:23 Build a community before another ad Dip: https://dipalready.com https://dipalready.com/pages/store-locator https://www.instagram.com/dipalready https://www.tiktok.com/@dipalready Kate on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-assaraf-b25a741a7/ Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tuma. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrejTuma Running a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/audit

3. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Retail: The Easy Part Is Getting On The Shelf | Bruce Langer

   The same product does not behave the same way in two places. Langer's blood orange sparkling water is the number one seller on a supermarket shelf; on Amazon it is ginger. Their zero-sugar cola outsells the regular roughly ten to one on Amazon, and closer to 60/40 in grocery. Same brand, different winner — because browsing a fixed shelf and searching a marketplace are not the same behavior. Bruce Langer is the president of Langer Juice, the company his father started in 1960 and which now runs more than 200 products through Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Albertsons, Bristol Farms and Amazon. Two generations, sixty-five years, and a launch-and-kill engine that has outlived several fads. A note on the opening: Bruce's father, Nathan Langer, survived the Holocaust, came to the United States after the war, and started this company in 1960. Bruce tells it in about a minute and then moves on, which is how he wanted it. We spent the rest of the hour on the work. This one is for operators who sell physical product — whether that is a first retail account, a better-run Amazon listing, or a Shopify catalog you have never split by channel. In this episode: • The signal a retailer gives long before orders drop, and why it is not the shelf • Why his drink in the biggest new category in beverage has zero grams of protein • How he tells a megatrend from a fad, and the 99-truckload order that taught him • What a buyer is actually solving for in a first meeting, and why something has to come out • Find the retailer that wants to be first, and what that is worth • The same product, two channels, two completely different best-sellers • What he told a founder who wanted to quietly cheapen the formula • Why out-of-stocks cost you twice Chapters: 00:00 One Kmart order, then the fad died 01:38 A celery juice route to a national brand 05:15 The zero-protein bet in the biggest category 09:56 The 1980s seltzer fad and 99 truckloads 11:06 Display space is the canary, not shelf space 13:53 Swapping corn syrup for cane sugar 16:41 The founder who wanted to cut the formula 18:39 Cut cost anywhere except the ingredients 19:22 What actually makes a retail buyer say yes 20:35 On a shelf, something has to come out 22:16 Budget to promote, or the shelf does nothing 23:36 Getting on the shelf is the easy part 24:31 Blood orange on the shelf, ginger on Amazon 25:27 Zero sugar outsells regular ten to one on Amazon 26:32 Running one catalog across every channel 28:09 Keeping founder taste at 400 employees 32:34 The category he thinks gets big next Langer Juice: https://www.langers.com/ https://www.instagram.com/langersjuice https://www.tiktok.com/@langersjuice Bruce on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-langer-9135004/ Ecom Growth Insider is hosted by Andrej Tuma. Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrejTuma Running a DTC brand between $100K and $1M a month and want the profit side looked at properly, not the traffic side? https://hologrowth.com/audit

Who has been a guest on Ecom Growth Insider

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jeff Park
• Michael Rathman
• Camilo Castañeda
• Mario Lanzarotti

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

13,784

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Podcast Authority Score: 31 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

33

Social presence

0

YouTube

72

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.