Pore Over the Data: Running Ecommerce at Dermalogica in the AI Era

Pore Over the Data: Running Ecommerce at Dermalogica in the AI Era

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Courtney Wallace, Head of Ecommerce at Dermalogica. Courtney has held almost every marketing title that exists across brands as different as Hot Topic, Unique Vintage, Too Faced, Pink Lily, and now Dermalogica. She has thoughts on what that actually teaches you. • Why being a generalist is a leadership strategy, not a liability, and how knowing every job on your team changes the way you lead it • The Harry Potter scavenger hunt that tanked conversion rate and what it taught her about channel alignment and shared goals • How Dermalogica runs hundreds of experiments across six global sites and how they decide which friction points are worth testing first • Why incrementality is non-negotiable at Dermalogica and how their CEO runs cohort analysis for fun • The build versus buy calculus at a brand with its own digital disruption department, and the bar a vendor now has to clear to earn a yes • How Dermalogica is trying to bring the personalization of the treatment room to the website, and where they are still figuring it out 👥 Meet the guest Courtney Wallace, Head of Ecommerce at Dermalogica 🎙 Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Orita.ai 🎧 Chapters [00:00] Friends Who Keep Running Into Each Other at Ecommerce Events [00:32] From Hot Topic to Dermalogica: The Career No One Plans [01:28] Did You Meet Tom From MySpace? Paramore, Bruno Mars, and Social Before Social [03:45] How a Facebook Message to a Brand CEO Became a Career Defining Role [05:25] Being a Generalist Is a Leadership Strategy Not a Fallback [07:06] Data Are the Tea Leaves: How Courtney Actually Reads the Numbers [09:10] Making Any Spreadsheet Dance and Why That Is the Problem [13:24] The Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt That Tanked Conversion Rate [15:00] How Do You Fund a Bet That Has No Proof Yet [18:37] Flexibility Has Always Been Needed. AI Just Made It Urgent. [21:34] Testing Budgets, Experimental Buckets, and Breaking Things on Purpose [25:35] Head of Marketing and Head of Ecom Should Be Best Friends [29:58] Build Versus Buy: The Bar a Vendor Has to Clear at Dermalogica [42:26] Customer Expectations Keep Going Up and the Treatment Room Has to Come Online [47:20] The Marketing Engineer Role and Why Pure Analysts Are at Risk 🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when. 🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita, turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple 📩 Subscribe for more founder‑grade retention intel

Carry On, Naturally: Peak Design's craft, community, and climate-minded commerce

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Peter Dering, Founder & CEO at Peak Design. Peter built Peak Design for 14 years on instinct alone, then nearly lost it all in a single financial review. • How a Kickstarter accident became Peak Design's most powerful go-to-market strategy and community-building tool • The moment Peter realized gut instinct alone couldn't run a company past a certain scale and what he calls the Numbers Era • Why Peak Design expanded from camera gear into everyday carry without losing the core audience that made the brand credible • How climate impact went from a side initiative to a core operating decision, including the rebrand from Climate Neutral to The Climate Label • What contribution margin visibility unlocked for a 900-SKU business that had been flying blind on profitability • Why Peak Design retains people for decades and what Peter thinks actually keeps the band together 👥 Meet the guest Peter Dering, Founder and CEO at Peak Design 🎙 Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Orita.ai 🎧 Chapters [00:00] From Construction Engineer to Camera Clip Inventor [02:19] Burning the Boats: $20K, No Plan, and a Baby on the Way [03:35] Why Kickstarter Was Dumb Luck at the Perfect Moment [04:57] Community Over Capital: What Kickstarter Really Unlocked [06:32] Building Word of Mouth Today vs Fifteen Years Ago [07:49] Sustainability Before It Was a Strategy: The Origin Story [13:14] Climate Neutral Is Now The Climate Label: What Changed and Why [16:25] From Camera Clip to Everyday Carry: Expanding Without Losing the Core [21:07] The Intuition Era Ends: Heading for a Loss in Year Fourteen [25:00] The Numbers Era: Contribution Margin, Monthly Close, and Cleaning House [29:32] Balancing Intuition and Data: The Juice to Squeeze Machine [32:22] Customer Journey, Email Performance, and What Orita Found [39:09] Why Peak Design Keeps People for Decades [41:19] Where to Find Peak Design and Final Reflections 🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when. 🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita, turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple 📩 Subscribe for more founder‑grade retention intel

Same Scent, Different Story: Building Dossier for a New Era of Fragrance

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Sergio Tache, CEO at Dossier. Sergio shut down a skincare company, nearly deleted an email from Walmart, and built Dossier into the number one perfume brand there anyway. His advice: boring works, basics work, and if you don't make money it's a hobby. • Why Sergio went from banking to hair extensions to a failed skincare brand before landing on fragrance, and what the quick failure taught him about knowing when to stop • How a $45 AOV almost killed Dossier and why a buy-more-save-more test that moved it to $75 saved the company • The Walmart email that almost got deleted and every wholesale mistake a DTC brand can make, including packaging that does nothing on a shelf • Why selling fragrance online is really a question of trust, not smell, and what a 30-day no-questions return policy did for early conversion • The difference between individual AI and enterprise AI, and why your output is still your output no matter what generated it • Why Sergio opens his bank account every single day and thinks cash management is 80% of a CEO's job 👥 Meet the guest Sergio Tache, CEO at Dossier 🎙 Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Orita.ai 🎧 Chapters [00:00] From Banking to Beauty: How Sergio Got Into Entrepreneurship [02:46] The Skincare Failure and How to Know When to Stop [06:34] The Aha Moment: Why Fragrance Made Sense [09:06] Launching Fast vs. Launching Perfect [11:13] How Dossier Kept Speed as It Scaled [13:56] The Basics That Still Work: Unit Economics and AOV [16:59] Price Testing Was the Unlock Nobody Talks About [20:04] Same Bottle, 150 Perfumes: The COGS Logic Behind the Decision [21:33] The Walmart Email That Almost Got Deleted [23:06] Every Wholesale Mistake a DTC Brand Can Make [27:05] DTC vs. Wholesale: Where the Channels Reinforce Each Other [29:56] Selling Scent Online: Trust Over Smell [34:32] How Dossier Handles Complex Customer Questions at Scale [39:17] Individual AI vs. Enterprise AI: A Framework That Actually Holds Up [46:35] Cash Is Not a Finance Team Problem. Its a CEO Problem. 🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when. 🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita, turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple 📩 Subscribe for more founder‑grade retention intel

Beyond the Belt: Turning DudeRobe From Shark Tank Into a Lasting Brand

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Howie Busch, Founder at DudeRobe, that launched on Kickstarter in June 2017. One week later, the head of casting at Shark Tank slid into his DMs. His website went live at 7:30pm the night they aired. • How a career in sports law, NFL representation, and product licensing gave Howie an unfair advantage when athletes started wearing his robe for free • Why the robe turned out to be nearly impossible to knock off, and how that happened completely by accident • The iOS 14 summer that almost broke the business, what a 70% revenue drop taught him about pricing, and why raising prices 50% saved the company • How Howie structured his exit to a billion-dollar apparel company while staying in the seat, and what changed when he finally bought back his time • Why ROAS was the wrong north star and contribution margin was the metric he wishes he had watched from day one • How a customer survey of 600 responses shaped every decision on the She Robe launch, from colors to features 👥 Meet the guest Howie Busch, Founder of DudeRobe 🎙 Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Orita.ai 🎧 Chapters [00:00] From Law School to NFL Agent to Idea Man [03:44] How Kickstarter Led to a Shark Tank DM in One Week [08:26] What Howie's Legal and Licensing Background Actually Gave Him [10:44] Building a Brand With No Website and No Product [16:17] What He Would Do Differently Starting a Brand Today [19:47] Why Nobody Knocked Off DudeRobe and It Wasn't Strategy [22:17] The She Robe and the 600-Response Survey That Shaped It [24:08] How to Decide What Products Belong Under Your Brand [27:12] Website vs Amazon vs TikTok Shop: How Howie Thinks About Channels [32:22] The Metrics Trap: Why ROAS Was the Wrong North Star [35:06] iOS 14, 70% Revenue Drop, and the Summer That Almost Broke Everything [39:41] How Howie Structured the Exit and What Made It a Win-Win [42:23] Buying Back Your Time: What Changed After the Sale [44:48] What It Actually Takes to Build a Brand Worth Acquiring 🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when. 🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita, turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple 📩 Subscribe for more founder‑grade retention intel

Built From Skratch: Leading an Athlete-first Brand Through its Next Chapter

In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Ian MacGregor, CEO at Skratch Labs. Pro cyclists kept complaining about their sponsored drink mix, so Ian and his partner Alan started making something better in secret. Fifteen years later they still haven't raised a dollar of outside money, and Ian thinks that's exactly why the brand still means something. • How a career-ending injury led Ian from the peloton to a company built around a water bottle with a sponsor logo on the outside and a homemade formula on the inside • Why Skratch has said no to major grocery distribution deals and what the cost of that discipline actually looks like in practice • The open book management philosophy Ian uses so every person on the team understands the P&L, not just their own KPIs • Why Ian is pushing his team to use AI as a tool to think better, not a shortcut to skip the thinking, and what he worries gets lost when the learning loops disappear • How Skratch thinks about building capabilities in-house versus partnering, and why the long-term view only works because they never took outside money • What Ian believes is coming for authentic brands as consumers get better at filtering out bullshit product innovation 👥 Meet the guest Ian MacGregor, CEO at Skratch Labs 🎙 Hosted by Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Orita.ai 🎧 Chapters [00:00] Secret Drink Mix: How Skratch Started in the Peloton [05:52] Staying Athlete-First When the Market Pulls You Wider [08:48] The Booster Problem: When Your Best Product Isn't Your Top Seller [10:43] Channel Strategy: Being Where Your Customer Buys [12:29] Going International Too Early and What It Cost [14:12] Food vs. Supplements: Why Transparency Has a Price [17:38] R&D as a Separate Line Item: How Skratch Protects Long-Term Bets [20:25] How Consumer Expectations Have Shifted Over 15 Years [26:27] Open Book Management: Why Every Person Sees the P&L [29:53] Using AI Without Outsourcing Your Thinking [33:38] The Rendering Problem: How Finished Output Narrows Thinking [36:22] Build In-House or Partner: How Skratch Decides [38:25] Why Authentic Brands Win as Consumers Get Smarter [43:40] Aaron and Ian Flip the Mic: Empathy, Compass, and What Enough Looks Like 🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when. 🚀 Get your free email audit from Orita, turn segments into superpowers: https://orita.ai 🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple 📩 Subscribe for more founder‑grade retention intel