Matthew Bertulli

For those of you just coming across my account, I’m planning to share a lot more here in 2026 … My name is Matt Bertulli. I learned how to code before most people had access to the internet. - Started working with computers at 11 - Started coding as a teenager - First job: Engineering company at 17 - Got deep into software and the internet in the mid-90s, before eCommerce really existed That technical foundation shaped everything that came next. - Joined NetSuite in 2005, before they went public - Worked as a sales engineer in pre-sales - Spent years talking directly to companies deciding whether to buy - Learned how businesses actually make buying decisions Then the financial crisis hit. - Left NetSuite during the downturn - Started a software services company on Magento, pre-Shopify - Bootstrapped the business for 10 years - Sold it to private equity in 2018 That exit was the moment my wife and I realized we didn’t have to work anymore. But I didn’t take time off. - Became the first outside investor in Pila before it had revenue - Helped scale the business into a complex consumer operation - Backed the company based on the product, the material, and my belief in how to build and sell on the internet Since then: Raised $50M+ in venture capital, largely for R&D and material science Built and operate owned manufacturing facilities in Canada and the US Scaled very quickly Watched the business fall apart Rebuilt it. It’s healthy & growing again. So I’ve lived the full spectrum. - Bootstrapped and sold a company - Worked with VCs and private equity - Scaled fast - Failed publicly and privately - Rebuilt from the damage What I’ll be writing about on my page: - What it actually takes to build durable consumer companies - Why product-market fit is often misunderstood in consumer - How markets, culture, and positioning really evolve over time - The difference between short-term success and long-term businesses - What only CEOs can do, and what they shouldn’t touch - Lessons from building, stalling, rebuilding, and doing it again I don’t believe great companies are built in 2 or 3 years. They’re built over decades. Through cycles. Through mistakes. Through collapse and rebuild. That long-term lens is how I think about everything. If that resonates, follow and stick around.

@codyplof LFG!

There will always be room for better. (Rando Saturday night thought)

@jordanmenard Yessir.

I just wanna do big stuff with my friends.

@PrestonRuther10 @DUDEwipes So fun talking to Sean on this ep.

The GOAT Sean Riley, founder of @DUDEwipes waxes poetic on the right way to think about brand Dr. Riley speaks: "And so that's what people don't understand on brand. Oh, you went viral. What does that do to your sales? ****I'm building memory, not sales.**** If I run a CPC ad, yes, I have to track the sales on that. That's a direct response ad. Where people get tripped up on brand is they try and treat them the same, and then you end up getting a bunch of quants involved who aren't happy with the performance, who don't understand long-term memory structures and brand relevance and how that plays out way over time. And that's how you bake it into the system of a company: you just dedicate a budget toward it, and you guys leave the budget alone. It's there to build brand. You've given it to me. We've all agreed it's important. And so that's how I encourage some people to systematize it. Create a budget. Do interesting things. But just say, guys, we've all agreed this is a budget to build a brand. And hopefully you should be talking to people smart enough who agree that building a brand is a good thing. But you pull the “how do we track the efficacy?” bullsh*t out of it, and then you just loosen everybody up and let the playbook run." Thanks to @9operators , @Seanfrank , and @mbertulli for putting out great content for the community.

@danielwallock @9operators @RomanEcom @Seanfrank 🙏🙏🙏

Stellar @9operators episode with @RomanEcom @Seanfrank @mbertulli Especially interesting to think about the AI-first, ultra-lean OPEX brands that are scaling insanely fast — I've seen a few examples of this myself over the last few months and it's been wild to see Roman's take on sub-5% OPEX for a brand doing $100M/year isn't surprising but it still likely very aggressive compared to where most brands operate today Interesting to hear some brands finding 6-figure spend a day success on AppLovin. AppLovin being 5% to 10% of spend is more the norm from what I've also heard from others Really liked thinking about this quote from @Seanfrank: "The end state of commerce is whoever can spend the most on attention will win... and that is why OPEX is being cut... and you're removing warehouses... you're removing creators... every single dollar needs to go to marketing" Highly recommend listening to this episode. youtube.com/watch?v=lxWPHS…

@Seanfrank You’re being generous at 95%…

It feels like people are living at different spots in the timeline. Im interviewing a bunch of people for open roles at ridge. - 50% of people STILL havent used ai for more than a google search replacement. - 20% Some people are running their lives in it, but haven't downloaded a harness- browser only - A small group are fully loaded. Ai agents for everything. automating everything. And then you read the comments on instagram, and 20% of people want to burn down data centers like it's Frankenstein The future is here. Just depends on where you are on the timeline. I think within 2 years, using a browser on desktop will be optional and clunky. The harness is the new window to the world. Desktop computers with local software got replaced by the internet and the cloud. Now, webapps will just be database layers for agents. Why would I log into notion and click buttons? Agents will just do it. Why would I sort through my email and look for important stuff? Agents will do it. Why would I make a google doc and share it? Agents will do it. This might be a big DUH to everyone reading this. But Im telling you- to 95% of people this sounds like gibberish. They are at a different spot on the timeline. The level of change management coming to orgs will be as big as the internet was. The future is here; it's just not evenly distributed.

@JasonJh1319 Yah. Don’t need free here. But def don’t want to pay more in shipping than the product is priced.

@mbertulli I realized after offering free shipping that Canadian customers actually don't seem to care. Seems like they're used to it.

Life in Canada when shopping many...MANY brands.

@Rpaulindaigle This is why I just don't order...

@mbertulli The worst is when you pay that amount, then you get mailed an extra duty bill by Fedex a few weeks later...

Watch/Listen.... YouTube: 9ops.co/eztd2o Apple: 9ops.co/czkd5k Spotify: 9ops.co/oz3flv youtube.com/watch?v=X4NsST…

This might piss some of you off but I'm going to say it anyway... I think Facebook ads has made most of us really bad marketers. There's been such an insane focus on making this one platform work (I get why...truly), that many people have forgotten what marketing actually is. Instead of working on original ideas that serve our customers, we major in the minors (i.e. - iterating on shitty creative). I think AI is going to force us all to become better marketers over the long haul. In the short term, it probably means more slop. But long term...I'm bullish. I think Sunil is a breath of fresh air in the DTC community. He focuses on the basics. Does a lot of things most of us would never consider because they are hard (ahem - live tv shopping). He runs a massive company in a lot of markets. He employees thousands. He gives so much back to the causes he cares about (feeding kids). And he's been doing it for decades. Something we can all aspire to be. Just...better.

Roman is one of the few people I will always make time for. I have never had a conversation with him where I didn’t learn something.

@9operators @RomanEcom @mbertulli @Seanfrank Few people give more and operate more openly than Roman. Great episode.

@MattParkin20 @9operators @Seanfrank @JasonPanzer It's honestly insane.

We partnered with @9operators to make 4.7 million words of real ecommerce strategy searchable. 367 episodes. 168 speakers. Exact-timestamp citations. Now you can bounce your problems 24/7 off the collective knowledge of: - @Seanfrank, CEO at Ridge - @JasonPanzer, President & CFO at HexClad - @mikebeckhamsm, Co-Founder & CEO at Simple Modern - @mbertulli, Co-Founder at Pela & Lomi - @codyplof, Former CEO at Jones Road Beauty - @connorrolain, Head of Global Growth Marketing at HexClad - @couuor, CMO of Ridge And previous podcast guests like - @chadjanis, Founder & CEO at Grüns - Freddy Ward, Co-Founder & CEO at Wild - @MattOrlic, CEO & Founder at Qure Skincare - @zachmstuck, Co-Founder at Mars Men - @willnitze, Founder & CEO at IQBAR - @CurtisMatsko, CEO & Founder at Portland Leather Goods - @KatyMimari, CEO & Founder at Caden Lane - @itshudsonblake, Founder at Comfrt - @stevenborrelli, Founder & CEO at Cuts The Operators Portal in partnership with @fulfilio is live: portal.9operators.com

@theisaacmed @AaronOrendorff Right ?!?

@AaronOrendorff Criminal that this is free

OPERATORS PORTAL IS LIVE AI-answers + searchable from … - Every episode - Every newsletter - Every event 4.7m words. 3 yrs of content. 168 operators. With receipts: Direct citations, dates, and timestamps. Link below. But if you want Cody’s playbooks … comment on his post.

Kind of love this. I’m actually using it !!

Some podcasts beat us on packaging. Some on production quality and polish. Nobody on content quality and value. (Round 2 of me trying to be less Canadian)

@jordanmenard @zachmstuck @Seanfrank Let’s set it up.

one day @zachmstuck and I have to get on a podcast and tell a story about how mars men cracked the model and went to the moon. it's a good story, and I have a lot of people asking me similiar questions in chat. if zach's up for it, would @Seanfrank be down to host?

@BillDA Soooo much better.