OPERATORS

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here:
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https://axon.ai/en/9operators 
What does it take to create a billion-dollar brand from scratch — homeless at 16, no investors, no safety net? 
Hudson Leogrande, founder of Comfrt, joins Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) and Matt Bertulli (CEO of Pela & Lomi), to trace the story behind one of the fastest-growing ecommerce brands ever built. Hudson started with $1,000 in his mom’s basement, spent five years grinding through an oral care brand, and bootstrapped Comfrt to what will soon be a billion dollars in annual revenue. 
The conversation covers how Hudson cracked the creator economy, why Comfrt runs 500 commission-based content creators as mini-CMOs, and how the brand survived going broke seven times. Hudson also pulls back the curtain on dynamic pricing, the pre-order strategy that saved the business, and the product innovations that he believes will make everything the brand has done so far look small.

Are you running your ecommerce brand on gut instinct while your competitors build AI-powered data machines? 
Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge) and Jason Panzer (President of HexClad) sit down with Krishna Poda, the CEO of Saras Analytics, to unpack why a clean data foundation isn’t optional. And what you can build on top of it with AI right now. 
They cover the rise of agentic workflows and what it means to replace repetitive human tasks with agents that work around the clock, why every stakeholder in a business should be able to query their own data without waiting on an analyst, how Saras IQ is built as a vertically specialized layer on top of Claude to deliver consistent and governed answers, and what the near future looks like when your brand’s central agent is negotiating with Meta’s agent, Northbeam’s agent, and every other platform fighting for your budget. 

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https://www.northbeam.io/

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“95% of AI pilots fail. I lived that, full stop.” Craig Foldes (Founder of ChatWalrus, fmr. Global Head of AI at Crocs) and Matt Kruer (CIO at Bissell) join host Sean Frank to explore the state of AI within enterprise versus DTC brands. 
The conversation covers how to find + celebrate the 10% of employees who are AI power users, what it looks like when adoption works, and why this is “for the rebels.” 
They debate whether AI is the great equalizer or a quiet advantage, unpack which parts of the AI hype cycle are overblown, and make the case that the people who learn to master these tools now are the ones who will win, in their careers and in their companies. 

Craig Foldes 
https://www.chatwalrus.com/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-foldes-1b949b96/ 
Matt Kruer 
https://x.com/matthew_kruer 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-kruer-9a90b716/ 

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Saras Analytics 
https://bit.ly/9OP-Ytdesc 
Postscript 
https://9ops.co/postscript 
Operators Newsletter 
https://9operators.com/

How did a married couple with $30k in savings and no business plan build one of the biggest beauty and accessories brands in America? 

Cassandra Thurswell (Founder & CEO of Kitsch) and Jeremy Thurswell (COO), join hosts Mike Beckham and Matt Bertulli for their first-ever joint podcast interview. 

Together, they unpack the full story of building a bootstrapped empire from a living room apartment to over 30,000 retail doors and more than 10 million ecommerce orders. 

Cassandra and Jeremy open up about eight failed businesses before Kitsch, catching their manufacturer stealing IP on their “honeymoon” in China, and navigating a terrifying pivot that led to 70 million face masks. They share how they’ve protected their marriage while running a company together, the reality of balancing motherhood with being a CEO, and why scarcity — not funding — created the focus that made Kitsch unstoppable. 

Learn more about Latinas in Beauty, where Cassandra serves on the Advisory Board: https://latinasinbeauty.org 

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the our channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://9ops.co/channels

Brought to you by Applovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits. https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth
Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators
Matt Bertulli, CEO of Pela Case and Lomi, and Mike Beckham, CEO of Simple Modern, sit down with Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, to trace one of the most unconventional executive careers in consumer. From hostess at Hooters at 17 to vice president by 26, to leading a multi-billion dollar restaurant empire through the pandemic, Kat's path defies every traditional playbook. 
The conversation covers how crisis sharpens leadership into an arrow, why Kat’s “Hotshot Rule” has been a weekly practice for nearly two decades, and how AG1 quietly spent two years shoring up operations and clinical science before unleashing a wave of launches — new products, new flavors, a Costco debut, and Hugh Jackman — in a single six-month run. They also dig into the Athletic Greens to AG1 rebrand, what it really means to stay close to your customer when you're fully remote, and why Kat believes product quality is the most underrated growth strategy in the game.