High Stakes Growth

Hari Ranganathan: Why Growth Is a Machine, Not a Single Star Hire or Lever

Hari Ranganathan is the Chief Digital Officer at KilgourMD, a dermatologist-founded brand tackling hormonal hair loss in women. Previously, he held senior roles at celebrity-backed brands like Haus Labs and The Honest Company. Expect to hear about: – Engineer to Marketer: How a Dartmouth mechanical engineer fell in love with the world of ecommerce and analytics. – Lean and Hybrid: Why 60+ person teams in Ecom circa 2012 are giving way to agile in-house leads plus agency support. – Love the Game: Hari's take that since growth marketing changes so fast, you have to love the game to stay on the cutting edge. – Leading the Team: His lesson that senior marketing leaders have to maiximize each team member's strengths instead of stretching star players too thin. – A False Dichotomy: Why he stopped believing brand and performance marketing are separate. Find Hari on: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/harinarayanan-ranganathan-9387961b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/harinarayanan-ranganathan-9387961b/]

Jess Hauff: Scaling PrettyLitter From Its DTC Roots Into a Household Name

Jess Hauff is the General Manager of PrettyLitter, a cat litter brand acquired by Mars in 2021 that uses silica crystals that change color to flag early signs of health issues in cats.  Expect to hear about:  – A Decade in Madrid: Why Jess spent 10 years in Spain before returning to the U.S., and the work culture differences she noticed.  – Leading the Merger: How Jess steered PrettyLitter's integration with Mars, and how she got the "soft tissue" of culture right.  – Becoming a Household Name: How PrettyLitter is expanding into retail and why being on physical shelves builds trust that DTC alone could not.  – Building the Leadership Team: The key hires Jess has made – CMO, head of retail sales, R&D leader – to take PrettyLitter to the next level.  – There's No Playbook: What Jess changed her mind on after 20 years in ecom, and why she's learning to trust her instincts more.  Find Jess on:  LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicahauff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicahauff/]

Daniel Brady: The Neuroscientist Building AI Segmentation for DTC Brands

Daniel Brady (DB) is the co-founder and co-CEO of Orita, an AI segmentation platform that helps DTC brands target their maximally addressable audience across email, SMS, and direct mail.  Expect to hear about:  – From Neuro to AI: Why DB left a career in neurobiology after graduating Harvard after realizing he enjoyed the faster pace of startup work.  – Consulting to Product: How DB ran Orita as an ecom consulting shop for years to find the AI-related services worth productizing.  – No Shortcut at Scale: Why brands with multi-million-profile CRM lists can't replace real human CRM expertise with plug-and-play LLMs.  – Evaluating AI Vendors: DB suggests don't focus on AI to start. Focus on the most painful problem you have to solve anyway, then ask if AI can help.  – Where AI Hits Hardest Next: Why DB sees inventory, demand planning, and fraud prevention as Ecom's biggest near-term AI opportunities.  Find DB on:  LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmbrady01/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmbrady01/]

Will Nitze: Building IQBAR to $125M+ in Sales With a 15-Person Team

Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a functional health CPG brand built around protein bars, electrolyte mixes, mushroom coffee, and more. Expect to hear about: – Harvard Connections: Why Will scraped Harvard's red book to send thousands of alumni his first fundraising emails. – Value Over Premium: Why Will optimizes for units sold over revenue, and how value pricing unlocked Walmart, Costco, and Sam's Club. – The Hub and Spoke Model: How a flat 15-person team and agency partnerships scale revenue without scaling the team. – Marriage and Business: What it takes to run IQBAR alongside his wife Jessica, who serves as CMO. – Built to Sell: Why hitting profitability mattered more than any milestone, and how exiting brands now must have $100M+ in sales. Find Will on: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/]

Marnie Rabinovitch: Building Thigh Society from Side Hustle to 3M Pairs Sold

Marnie Rabinovitch is the founder and CEO of Thigh Society, a Toronto-based brand making slip shorts that prevent thigh chafing for women. Expect to hear about: – The Baby Powder Moment: How a hot Toronto day in 2008 convinced Marnie to invent her own slip short solution. – Quitting at 40: Why she applied for backup corporate jobs, set a $1M sales goal, and only went all-in with a real safety net. – One Hero Product: Why she resisted pressure to expand into camisoles and bralettes and stayed in the slip-short lane. – Lean and Remote: How she built a team of FTEs and freelancers and the agency lessons that shaped her hiring playbook. – Health Is Wealth: Marnie's guiding principle for 17 years: make the business work for you, not the other way around. Find Marnie on: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marnieconsky/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marnieconsky/]