Why lower AOV and a disciplined P&L saved this brand from the brink.

Steven Borrelli (Founder & CEO, Cuts), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), and Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) unpack how Cuts reached $60M without outside money, then nearly went under when tariffs hit 145%. Steven walks through the layoffs, the first raise, and the comeback that followed.

Selling 50K joggers sight unseen gave Cuts confidence it hadn’t earned. Steven explains how a lower AOV cut customer acquisition costs by 65%. Now Cuts is betting on elevated menswear priced below luxury labels, where winning products draw copycats.

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AfterShip

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How do you create a company culture that’s a competitive advantage?
Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) build culture through deliberate choices, while most brands leave it to chance. They work through it in five hard questions:

1. Who should you let go?

2. How close should you get?

3. What won’t you tolerate?

4. Why are values a “trade”?

5. Where do leaders go next?

Matt has hired and fired hundreds, and no two exits looked alike. Mike surveyed his entire team, and 80% praised the same quality in him: transparency. As AI takes over the busywork, trust becomes the real advantage.

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“It’s very easy to scrape an ad library, pull out concepts and then literally just duplicate the ad. That’s just a race to the bottom.”

How do you learn from other brands without copying them?

Matt Bertulli (Founder, Pela Case & Lomi) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty) share their screens to walk through six consumables brands they’re learning from while building Winks. Each picked three, plus one bonus from outside DTC.

1. Nutrition Geeks: UK single-ingredient

2. Norse Organics: Natural acne care

3. Elavate: UK collagen for women

4. MarsMen: Testosterone support

5. Spoiled Child: Oddity’s brand

6. Boostcous: Gluten-free couscous

(Bonus) Wispr Flow: AI voice app

Matt and Cody trace each brand’s ads, landers and offers, including why long pages still convert. Some brands force subscriptions, others offer a choice, and a few lead with one-time bundles. Meanwhile, Winks is testing a no-subscription bundle of its own.

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Skio

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Omnisend

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