For years EcomFuel has surveyed its community of ecommerce merchants about their growth, margins, tactics, and more. The company released this year's findings last week. In this episode, founder Andrew Youderian recaps the report, addressing the state of ecommerce among 300 participating businesses — mostly seven, eight, and nine-figure brands. For an edited and condensed…
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Subscribe to DTC Newsletter – https://dtcnews.link/signup Jordan Gordon from Pilothouse comes back to the DTC Podcast with a sharp warning for brands buying into AI-powered customer segmentation. The promise sounds good: send to the “best” people, cut waste, let the machine find hidden revenue. The problem is what happens after that. Jordan breaks down why…
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On today’s episode, we welcome David Rabie, Founder and CEO of Tovala — the smart oven and chef-prepared meal service transforming how people cook and eat at home. What started as an idea while David was earning his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business has grown into a category-defining business that combines food, software, and hardware to make fresh meals easier than ever. With a simple scan of a QR code, Tovala’s countertop smart oven automatically cooks chef-prepared meals using thousands of tested cook combinations — eliminating the need for planning, chopping, or cleanup.
Inspired by the everyday challenge of finding time to cook fresh meals at home, David combined his passion for food and technology to build a completely new model for modern home cooking. Since launching in 2017, Tovala has sold more than 40 million meals nationwide and built one of the most loyal customer bases in the meal delivery category. By vertically integrating the oven, software, and food experience, the company has been able to deliver consistency, convenience, and quality at scale.
In this episode, David shares the early inspiration behind Tovala, how he thought about margins and business fundamentals from the very beginning, and why vertical integration became the key to unlocking the company’s success. We discuss navigating near financial collapse in 2020, the leadership lessons that shaped him as a founder, and why cooking at home still matters in a world dominated by delivery apps. From building smarter with limited capital to creating a culture that promotes talent from within, this conversation offers a candid look at what it takes to build and scale a truly differentiated consumer business.
If you’re interested in the future of food technology, building capital-efficient companies, or how founders navigate the toughest moments of scaling a startup — this episode is for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show.
Are you interested in sponsoring and advertising on The Kara Goldin Show, which is now in the Top 1% of Entrepreneur podcasts in the world? Let me know by contacting me at karagoldin@gmail.com. You can also find me @KaraGoldin on all networks.
To learn more about David Rabie and Tovala:
https://www.tovala.com
https://www.instagram.com/tovalafood/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-rabie/
Sponsored By:
Pebl – Manage your global workforce in one place. Go to Hipebl.ai to get a free estimate.
AT&T Business – Switch to AT&T Business at business.att.com
Warby Parker – Get 15% off + Free Shipping when they buy 2 or more pairs of prescription glasses at WarbyParker.com/KARAGOLDIN
Check out our website to view this episode’s show notes: https://karagoldin.com/podcast/824
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What are the fastest-growing eCommerce brands actually doing behind the scenes, and how do you know if your business is on the right track? In this episode, I’m breaking down insights from a massive industry trends report built from 300 seven- and eight-figure brands. You’ll learn what’s working, what’s not, and the benchmarks you should…
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OpenAI is making moves to try and court more developers and vibe coders (those who build software using AI models and natural language) away from rivals like Anthropic. Today, the firm arguably most synonymous with the generative AI boom announced it will begin offering a new, more mid-range subscription tier — a $100 ChatGPT Pro…
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FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: podcast@ajfgrowth.com Work With AJF Growth: https://ajfgrowth.com BEHIND THE SCENES STUDIO Work with the same Meta Ads creative production team that Andrew does with Behind The Scenes Studio, a More Staffing sister company: https://www.btsstudio.co/. WASTENOT WasteNot filters out past buyers so your ads only reach new customers—lowering CAC and…
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A 27-year-old bug sat inside OpenBSD’s TCP stack while auditors reviewed the code, fuzzers ran against it, and the operating system earned its reputation as one of the most security-hardened platforms on earth. Two packets could crash any server running it. Finding that bug cost a single Anthropic discovery campaign approximately $20,000. The specific model…
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Scaling an eCommerce brand isn’t just about ads, creatives, or new channels. Often, the biggest growth unlock comes from how you treat customers after the purchase. In this episode of eCommerce Evolution, Brett sits down with Kristin Keys, VP of Customer Experience at Baseball Lifestyle 101, to break down how CX can become a true…
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AI is changing how ecommerce brands produce creative. But most brands are using it wrong. They’re generating entire ads with AI and wondering why performance drops. Or they’re ignoring it entirely and falling behind on volume. In this episode, we break down how to actually use AI in your creative workflow without sacrificing the authenticity…
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Meta has been one of the most interesting companies of the generative AI era — initially gaining a loyal and huge following of users for the release of its mostly open source Llama family of large language models (LLMs) beginning in early 2023 but coming to screeching halt last year after Llama 4 debuted to…
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