Ari Murray: Getting Brand-Agency Partnerships Right, From Someone Who's Done Both

Ari Murray: Getting Brand-Agency Partnerships Right, From Someone Who's Done Both

Ari Murray is the Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone, the premium personal care brand reinventing the deodorant category. Previously, she was Chief Growth Officer at Sharma Brands, where she led growth across dozens of consumer brands. Expect to hear about: – Law School to Ecom: Why she dropped out of law school, then found her footing at an ecom brand. – Working With Celebrity Brands: What working at Kourtney Kardashian's and Halsey's beauty brands taught her. – Agency or In-House: Her take that growth marketers should start brand-side first, and how kindness to agencies pays off. – BFCM Sprint: What it was like joining Salt & Stone just weeks before the biggest sales weekend of the year. – Top-of-Funnel Bet: Why she's pushing past a Meta-heavy mix into new channels and taking a longer view of the customer. Find Ari on: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/arimurray/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/arimurray/]

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/]