D2C Diaries

Join Olly Hudson and Loukas Hambi in a laid-back yet insightful podcast, where we dive into the heart of D2C and e-commerce. With a combined experience of managing over £150 million in ad spend across Meta and TikTok and helping scale over 200 brands, we bring you a digestible blend of performance, operational, and creative wisdom.

D2C Diaries is a business podcast hosted by Loukas Hambi and Olly Hudson, with 81 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Loukas Hambi and Olly Hudson hosts D2C Diaries, a business show with 81 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  D2C Diaries

  Understanding Your True LTV and Company Value | Prof. Daniel McCarthy

  Aug 18, 20261h 4m

  If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://www.soarwithus.co/d2c-diaries-get-in-touch?utm_campaign=191661253-D2C+Diaries&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=d2c_diaries&utm_content=ep_85 Daniel McCarthy is the founder of Theta and an associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland. Private equity firms bring him in to dig through the transaction data before they buy a DTC brand, and he's done it on over 450 companies, from McDonald's to some of the biggest names in ecommerce. He breaks down the "growth report card" that shows whether a brand's growth is real or just manufactured by spend, why discounting a customer's first order drags down what they're worth long after, and why most brands have no idea where they stand when someone asks ChatGPT which brand to buy. Harvard Business Review article: How to Value a Company by Analyzing Its Customers: https://hbr.org/2020/01/how-to-value-a-company-by-analyzing-its-customers This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard. If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback: https://www.incard.com/?fpr=soarwithus Follow Daniel McCarthy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmcc/ Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

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  D2C Diaries

  Carl Weische - CRO Mastermind Behind IM8's $50M/Month, Spills On Funnels, Offers & Post-Click

  Aug 10, 202652 min

  If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://www.soarwithus.co/d2c-diaries-get-in-touch?utm_campaign=191661253-D2C%20Diaries&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=d2c_diaries&utm_content=ep_84 Carl Weische, founder of Accelerated Agency, runs CRO for AG1, Huel, Vessi, The Oodie, Bioniq and IM8. He breaks down why postclick and "the fragmentation of the funnel" are becoming the next big lever as media buying gets more automated and more expensive, why one product page can't sell to every customer avatar, and how he reframes offers around perceived value instead of discounting. He also tells the inside story of building IM8 from zero to over $50m a month using a network of 50 congruent, persona-driven funnels, each built around a specific ad angle. Timestamps : 00:00 Intro 01:58 From Reselling Yeezys to founding Accelerated 05:09 Media buying isn't enough anymore 08:58 Postclick mistakes brands make 15:27 Perceived value over discounting 21:57 The IM8 story: $0 to $50m/month 30:44 When to build a dedicated funnel 33:42 The post-purchase upsell playbook 38:58 The research most brands skip 42:14 Where AI helps (and where it can't) 45:02 In-house software and Claude Code 48:09 The next competitive edge?... This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard. If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback: https://www.incard.com/?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Carl: https://www.youtube.com/@UCIgbiNZFqHZqIQ2Uoxxfu6w https://x.com/CarlWeische

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  D2C Diaries

  How Lapland Turned an In-Person Experience Into a Global $30M+ DTC Empire

  Jul 30, 20261h 6m

  If you're a brand spending £100K/month , we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://www.soarwithus.co/d2c-diaries-get-in-touch?utm_campaign=191661253-D2C%20Diaries&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=d2c_diaries&utm_content=ep_83 Matt, Director of Brand & Product at Lapland UK, took a 20-year live-only Christmas experience business and turned it into a DTC brand that sold 15,000 advent calendars in under 4 hours. He breaks down why Lapland builds every product from the story first, and how they cracked the US market from zero brand awareness, landing a $250 average order value from a completely cold audience. This podcast is proudly sponsored by SATHI SATHI is the affiliate platform built for Shopify brands that want the truth about their program. Cookieless multi-touch attribution shows you which affiliates drove the sale. AI-powered fraud engine catches leaked codes and self-referrals before your payout goes out. Ambassadors climb commission tiers, earn booster rewards, and see exactly what they need to unlock next. Payouts, invoices, and tax forms happen in one click. D2C Diaries listeners get 20% off, free migration from their current setup, and onboarding support from their team. Book a demo: https://www.mysathi.io/demo?utm_source=soarwithus&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=d2c_diaries Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Matt: https://www.instagram.com/mattbatts/

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  D2C Diaries

  £1B Ecom Operator Shares His Best Advice (What e-com founders get wrong)

  Jul 10, 20261h 8m

  Paul Gedman has been in DTC longer than almost anyone we've had on the podcast - from joining The Hut Group in 2009 with 40 employees, and over nine years scaling it to £1 billion in revenue via ten acquisitions (including Look Fantastic), to now running eComplete, where he's building a model that competes directly with private equity for e-commerce acquisitions. Paul breaks down why every DTC era is defined by a different arbitrage opportunity, what actually happens once a founder takes on investment (his "5-a-side to 11-a-side" analogy is a good one), and the brutal real odds of a successful DTC exit - he puts it at 1 in 1,600 founders who get out with more than 50% of the value. We also get into why 80% of exit processes fail, the prep work founders skip that kills deals months later, and how eComplete is trying to build a hybrid model that gives founders a better shot. 🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wQ_DM0 This podcast is proudly sponsored by Sathi. SATHI is the affiliate platform built for Shopify brands that want the truth about their program. Cookieless multi-touch attribution shows you which affiliates drove the sale. AI-powered fraud engine catches leaked codes and self-referrals before your payout goes out. Ambassadors climb commission tiers, earn booster rewards, and see exactly what they need to unlock next. Payouts, invoices, and tax forms happen in one click. D2C Diaries listeners get 20% off, free migration from their current setup, and onboarding support from their team. Book a demo: https://mysathi.io/demo?utm_source=soarwithus&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=d2c_diaries Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-gedman-626b0666/ Follow D2C Diaries https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c_diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

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  D2C Diaries

  What's Working in Meta Ads Right Now with Alex Cooper | AI Animation, Research & Winning Formats

  Jun 29, 20261h 11m

  This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard. If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback https://incard.co?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod --- 12 months ago AI animation wasn't really a thing. Now it's a fourth creative format sitting alongside static, UGC and high production and the brands that figure it out first are going to have a significant edge. We got Alex Cooper back on D2C Diaries this week. And a lot has changed since he was last on. We got into everything. How we've built an AI videographer role into our production process and why you need a specialist not a generalist. Why winning ads right now are either hyper native or elite direct response and why everything in the middle is dying. How the pendulum has swung too far toward AI research and why the best strategists are going back to manual. Why iterations aren't dead post-Andromeda, they just need to mean something. And the brand that scaled from $1M to $45M off the back of one concept. Check out Parker AI here: https://heyparker.ai/ 🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wjzrY0 Follow Alex https://x.com/alexgoughcooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgoughcooper/ https://heyparker.ai/ 00:00 Alex Cooper returns 02:24 Our sponsor Incard 04:01 The biggest shifts in creative strategy in the last 12 months 05:54 How we built the AI videographer role 13:25 AI animations are here to stay 16:02 Meta's persona level delivery 20:04 Gap analysis, learnings and data 26:55 Manual research vs AI automated research 30:07 Our sponsor Incard 31:45 Manual research vs AI automated research 33:39 Iterations post-Andromeda 38:26 Ugly vs high prod 48:37 Positive framing 51:22 Complexity bias in ads 55:20 How Alex is using AI 1:02:17 Parker AI Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

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