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.

I sat down with @mikebeckhamsm and @JasonPanzer to talk honestly about what leadership really costs when the stakes are high. Jason Panzer talked about hot dogs. > You know the Costco story > $1.50 hot dogs > Same price for DECADES > One of Jim Sinegal's leaders came to him > Said they couldn't sell at that price anymore > "If you change the price of the hot dogs, I will fucking kill you" Mike took that story and made a point. > To be a really effective leader > you have to know what your hot dogs are > The two or three things where you're completely unreasonable and inflexible > Then you stay open-handed on everything else > You hear feedback > You go with the flow > This is how it's going to be I agreed with that. Every company has to be built around a few non-negotiables and your team needs to know what those are. One of mine: > There's genuinely one fire-able offense in my company > If you see something that is wrong > And you say nothing > And I find out > You're done > You're doing everybody a disservice at that point > There's no room for it Your job in this seat is to say what you believe to be true regardless of how it makes people feel. Speak plainly, never attack people, but attack problems relentlessly. Figure out your hot dogs and be completely unreasonable about them.

Every yes is a no to something else. Most founders say yes too often. Even if you're young and early in your journey. Judgement is a muscle you want to develop early.

@oliviaakory 100000% agreed

@mbertulli i think if this is the approach then leaders must write down a core set of strategic principles and their teams should memorize them. otherwise if I was on your team I would have no idea how to prioritize my time

Scrolling through your feed it seems the most overstated piece of advice is: "Focus." Go narrower. Say no. Protect your time. I believe we should be doing the opposite. This runs counter to even my own thinking. I'm normally an "inch wide, mile deep" kind of guy. But I think now is the time to go really wide, to start building and doing the things we've always wanted to do. We've got such a long-developed muscle of saying no to 99% of ideas that it's probably a good idea to start saying yes more often. The cost of testing ideas is damn near zero now. Just in the last several weeks I've been able to build things we've had in our backlog for years. Ideas we've wanted to test are now entirely viable and no longer a distraction. Want to scale out your product seeding program? That's mostly coordinating messages back and forth, and it's perfect for AI. Want to build more landing pages and test more angles - Done. Want to analyze data from software you pay for but never really pay attention to - Done. Want a daily Slack notification on yesterday's performance without logging into multiple tools - I built that in less than an hour. If what you want to test is digital, it's far more approachable today than it was even a year ago.

The AI slop in my instagram feed is intolerable. AI or not. Please don't make shitty content. It's just asking people to turn these platforms off as they become unusable. And if you thought CPMs were bad now, wait until people literally just hit the off button...

@Joey_Walker82 Last time I said yes this much was in my 20's when I had more time than money.

@mbertulli tbh this is the first time in a while where saying yes more actually feels rational

The factory floor teaches you things the boardroom never will. Get your hands dirty. Regularly.

This conversation with @MattOrlic is worth your time. He's a great operator and super clear thinker. One of my favorite people I get the pleasure of speaking with every couple weeks.

@BryantGarvin oh, I listen to the problems of the top 10% but listening to their product recommendations...way more careful.

@mbertulli Bottom 10% I could see But the top 10% I would do some serious analysis on their suggestions and how many pay off with the rest of your customers buying the product suggestions from the top

I wonder if we should all just ignore the top 10% and bottom 10% of our customers... At least when it comes to product development. I dunno. Am I crazy for thinking this?

Investors want growth + returns. Banks want stability. Customers just want value. Your job is to balance it all.

@NotZainAgain accurate

founder of comfrt and 9operators podcast host

I love spam.

@aaronorendorff and I are pulling together all the questions for tomorrow’s live Q&A. Right. Now. If you want @codyplof, @connorrolain, @mirandpettinger, @RSteveData, and me to answer yours: ADD A COMMENT HERE! 👇👇👇

I've been thinking about pricing a lot lately. Most brands aim high by default. Every founder wants to build a premium brand and charge the most for what they sell. But that might be wrong. I wrote up my current thinking below.

@jordantwestecom best customers...probably but for product development, I'm not quite sure. if I listened to my top 10% customers, we'd be making compostable straws and toothbrushes (terrible product categories)

@mbertulli I would actually lean into your top 10% customers! I've found that listening to them generally brings the rest of your customers along, but maybe I don't understand what you are saying.

@nimasoco It’s pretty special.

@mbertulli I'd go here even if I wasn't getting into the industry

I flew to Italy in October 2024 just to visit the Brunello Cucinelli headquarters. I wanted to see how they merchandised the store, how they designed it, how the staff operated. I wanted to really feel what the brand was in the place it was born. Why? Because… If you're going to be in an industry, you should be ALL THE WAY IN the industry. Every trip I take, there's a portion where I check out a store or an experience. I still like walking malls. Consumer goods is all about the physical. We deal in the real world. Sure, we use digital tools to reach customers and sell them things. But we still ship physical stuff. Stores still have value decades after they were deemed to all be dead. In a world where everything digital is easy to replicate, the things that can't be faked become more valuable than ever. I’m bullish on physical things. In-person.

Category creation is hard mode. Only play it if you have time and money to burn. Most don't.

@landforce We’ve done similar with PDF reporting from retailers. So helpful

@mbertulli Got a 40 door retailer that purchases with a spreadsheet from absolute hell. Built an app that parses it and generates the label files for each case per their spec. Took me an hour to build, saves ~8 hours of tedious detailed work every single week.

What’s the most valuable use of AI in your brand? Seriously. What’s making you more money or cutting costs?