Advertise to 38,656 E-Commerce Businesses
Promote your tool, service or upcoming event - Reach Founders
Good morning!
In today’s newsletter,
How Sugar Me Smooth increased repeat customers by 27%
What Meta recommends for 2026
Why some DTC brands sell for 10x and others only get 2x
Decision speed matters more than decision perfection in startups
This issue takes 2 minutes to read.
Let’s dive into it👇
Loyalty
1. How Sugar Me Smooth increased repeat customers by 27%
Sugar Me Smooth ran the exact same July 4th promotion two years in a row. Same discount, same messaging, same everything.
In year one, their repeat customer rate was 25.82%. In year two, it jumped to 32.84%.
The only thing they changed was installing Galanta Rewards.
That 27% increase in returning buyers is pure margin. No extra ad spend, no bidding wars with competitors. Just customers coming back because they had points waiting for them.
What I like about Galanta is the pricing model. It's a flat $29/mo instead of taking a percentage of your sales. Most rewards apps quietly eat 2-3% of your revenue as you scale, which defeats the whole purpose of improving margins.
If you've been looking for a way to get more out of customers you've already paid to acquire, this is worth checking out.
Campaign Command Center
2. What Meta recommends for 2026
Meta recently shared its clearest explanation yet on how ads scale in 2026.
It no longer treats small design tweaks as new ideas.
Ads that look or sound too similar are grouped together and limited.
Why you should care
If your ads feel stuck, this is likely why.
When Meta sees the same idea repeated, it reduces reach and performance over time.
That leads to rising costs, faster fatigue, and the false conclusion that your offer is the problem.
How to implement it
Start by building variety.
Use multiple formats such as short videos, customer-style clips, static images, testimonials, and founder or expert videos.
Next, build ads around different types of buyers.
Speak differently to younger audiences, parents, professionals, or older buyers instead of forcing one message to work for everyone.
Then, match the message to the format.
Use simple, direct images for quick decisions and story-driven videos for trust and education.
Finally, watch for signs of repetition and fatigue.
Introduce a new angle, a new format, or a new voice if ads are starting to feel too similar.
👉The full breakdown is worth reading if you haven’t already.
It is one of the clearest signals of where Meta ads are heading next.
Credit: Olly Hudson
Guru Spotlight
3. Why some DTC brands sell for 10x and others only get 2x
Drew Sanocki spent 8 years buying and selling direct-to-consumer brands.
Over time, he noticed something confusing.
Two brands could make the same amount of money, yet one would sell for a huge price while the other struggled to get a decent offer.
Some brands sold for 10x EBITDA. Others barely reached 2x.
(EBITDA is a way buyers measure how much profit a business makes from its core operations, before things like taxes, loans, or accounting adjustments.)
At first glance, you would think the higher-priced brands had better products, stronger marketing, or higher profits. But that was not the case.
The real difference was their customer data.
When someone buys a DTC brand, they are not just buying a website or a product.
They are buying access to real customers. Things like email addresses, phone numbers, shipping details, what people bought, how often they buy, and how much they spend over time.
This matters because a buyer can take that customer data, plug it into their own systems, and quickly estimate how much more money they can make. They can forecast repeat purchases, improve email and SMS performance, launch new products to existing buyers, and increase retention.
That is why customer databases drive valuation.
What to do today:
Create basic customer profiles so you understand who is buying.
Test new marketing channels before peak seasons when mistakes are expensive.
Track where customers come from and what it costs to acquire them.
Group customers by behavior instead of assumptions.
Focus on getting customers to buy again, not just once.
Credit: Drew Sanocki
Decisions That Matter
4. Decision speed matters more than decision perfection in startups
Peter Jung has built multiple startups. He's noticed the difference between winners and losers often isn't who makes the best decisions, but it's who makes them fastest.
Here's the thing: one startup day equals one corporate month. Time is expensive and numbered.
But most founders delay with reasonable-sounding phrases:
"Let's talk about it next week."
"I'll give it some thought."
"Let's revisit this later."
These kill momentum.
Jung's Rule:
Most startup decisions aren't high-stake or irreversible. Be slow only when stakes are high AND it's irreversible. Everything else? Decide now.
Why? At early stage, being slow costs more than being wrong.
His Framework:
Ask 3 questions:
What decisions need to be made?
What's stopping us?
Is this reversible?
If it's reversible and low-stake (most decisions are), just decide.
Perfection is a mirage. "Good enough, fast enough" wins.
Credit: Peter Jung
Have questions or feedback? You can write to [email protected]