
Jason Panzer
4.5K posts

Jason Panzer
@JasonPanzer
President @hexclad - Recovering Tech Investment Banker and M&A Lawyer - building a best in class consumer brand. Ecom Grandpa on @9operators podcast.


Mars Men hit +$100M and 400k customers in 18 months bootstrapped. L Catterton wrote them a $27.5M check. Who’s behind it? @zachmstuck NEW OPERATORS TITANS ↓ @Seanfrank + @mbertulli Dropped out of college Built a top DTC agency Helped HexClad to $150M 7 brands of his own Shut down 5 of them Nearly lost everything Bet it all on socks Then … testosterone 2026, 4 deals in 60 days “I could go back to zero and I would be just fine because I love the game.”

AI OPERATORS LIVES! E001 The weekly AI show for consumer brands w/ @FoldesCraig + @BenFlohrOG Is AI shopping a fad? AI marketing playbook. 10% OpEx era? RIP OpenClaw? Full episode ↓ AI Shopping Fad or Future 0:47 GEO Is Already the New SEO 7:43 Anthropics 1-Person Team 9:47 Enter the 10% OpEx Era 14:09 3 Things to Make It Work 17:16 Building Your AI Stack 19:51 How Scale Rolled Out AI 21:14 Notebook LM Explained 25:58 OpenClaw v Claude Cowork 29:44 AI That Acts and Thinks 35:22 Context, Hidden Advantage 38:49 Making Your Brand Brain 41:08 Platform to Start With 44:20 Closing and What’s Next 45:54











I started a little marketing agency 7 years ago called Homestead, named after the street I grew up on. I had the vision to build something special and looking back now, I think we did exactly that. Today I’m excited to announce that Homestead has been acquired by Verndale (also recently acquired VAAN Group) in an effort to create a DTC growth platform built to support brands across the entire commerce lifecycle. I’m extremely grateful to my business partner @_RileyTrotter for all of the time he’s given this company and all the incredible work that he’s done. Riley took over as CEO a few years ago and Homestead wouldn’t be where we are today without his leadership and pursuit of greatness. I can’t say enough about my other partners @kellybird__ and @jsappington. These two have shown a level of commitment to building this company that is unmatched. Watching them both grow as leaders over the last few years has been nothing short of inspiring. To all our current and past team members, thank you for always giving Homestead and our clients 100% effort. Will forever be grateful to you all for helping us get to where we are today. To all of our clients, thank you for trusting in us to help grow your businesses. This is not an easy task and we have never taken it lightly. As for me, I’m officially stepping out of the agency business, but as most of you know I haven’t been involved in the company for some time as Riley/Kelly/Jacob have been and will continue to lead Homestead for years to come. Expect to see more updates on the brands I’ve been building in weeks to come.










