We just hit a huge milestone at @thegrommet: 100 product launch weeks! Two years ago, we set out to reinvent how people discover truly great products. Today, that idea is the Grommet platform fueling growth for 1,500 DTC brands and serving millions of shoppers who are hungry to support real founders, makers and inventors. In that time, we’ve: – Launched 1,700 new & unique founder-led ecommerce products – Driven 756,000 upvotes from our community – Crowned 99 Product of the Week winners – Sent 190,000 orders directly to small brands – Maintained a 4.9 star rating on both Trustpilot and the Shopify App Store (with nearly 1,000 reviews combined) What I'm most proud of though is that we've done this all with a lean, scrappy, wildly talented team. We haven’t taken any shortcuts or outside funding. We’ve been bootstrapped and profitable since inception, just like GiddyUp (which is insanely challenging, but so f'n worth it.) And we've continued to lock in on fulfilling a mission we truly believe in and a commitment to focused execution every single day. So to celebrate, we’re running something rare: 👉 25% OFF everything on Grommet this weekend. Every single product across the ENTIRE site. If love rooting for the underdog… If you believe real innovation still matters and deserves to be discovered… If you care about where your money goes and who it helps when it gets there… And If you’re tired of buying the same garbage from Amazon that shows up 10 other places with a different logo slapped on it… Now’s the time. Major gratitude to @gregrollett, Tori Tait, @jordandchesney and the whole Grommet crew. Week after week, this team shows up, thinks big, moves fast, and makes magic happen. I’m lucky to be in the trenches with you. 100 launches down and thousands more ahead. #LFGU

Something I’ve been reflecting on lately as a founder… I’ve always been someone that just puts my head down and works. I never really needed praise or recognition to stay motivated. Honestly, too much recognition almost makes me uncomfortable sometimes. In my head it’s always been: “Just do the work. Keep going.” But over the last few months I’ve been pushing at another level and my cofounders have been very vocal about recognizing it. And if I’m being honest… it’s been a little hard for me to fully receive. Not because I don’t appreciate it. I do. I think a lot of founders subconsciously convince themselves recognition doesn’t matter because we’re wired to focus on the next problem, the next fire, the next goal. But I think there actually is something deeper to it. When the people in the trenches with you acknowledge the weight you’re carrying and the effort you’re putting in… it feels different. Especially from people that truly understand what it takes behind the scenes. I’ve realized recognition isn’t really about ego the way I used to think about it. Sometimes it’s fuel or reassurance. And sometimes it’s just a reminder that the sacrifices are actually being seen. I also think a lot of high performing founders are way worse at receiving acknowledgment than giving it.

🚨 RARE OPENING: Performance Marketing Manager at GiddyUp 🚨 We don’t hire PMMs often, because honestly… very few people can actually do this role at a high level. This isn’t a “run some tests and report on lift” type of job. This is one of the highest leverage seats inside GiddyUp. You are directly influencing the economics, scalability, and survivability of offers spending millions of dollars across paid media. At GiddyUp, Performance Marketing Managers are the strategic architects behind the offer. You’re responsible for figuring out: – How to increase AOV without hurting conversion – How to unlock higher CPA payouts affiliates can scale profitably – How to improve margin while increasing perceived value – How to structure bundles, pricing, upsells, discounts, and promotional mechanics that materially change performance – How to identify what’s actually causing scale ceilings and remove them You’re not guessing, you’re designing statistically rigorous experimentation frameworks and making high-stakes decisions using behavioral psychology, conversion data, media economics, and direct-response instincts. The best PMMs know: – Consumer psychology – Direct response marketing – Offer positioning – Conversion mechanics – Pricing psychology – Unit economics – Statistical experimentation – How paid media buyers think – How to balance short-term CVR with long-term profitability And most importantly... they know how to find hidden leverage. At GiddyUp, this role sits at the intersection of strategy, experimentation, creative, analytics, and revenue. You’ll work directly with Campaign Success Managers, Creative Strategists, Media Buyers, Analysts, and Leadership to identify opportunities, launch experiments fast, and scale winners aggressively. This is not a maintenance role, a corporate marketing role, or a “manage agency vendors” role. This is for someone who wants to play at the absolute highest level of direct-response eCommerce. What you get if you’re in: – Access to some of the largest DTC offers and affiliates in the world – Millions in real spend and data to learn from – Full funnel control across pricing, bundles, upsells, landing pages, checkout flows, and post-purchase – Elite operators who move fast and care deeply about performance – Proprietary technology built specifically for high-converting direct response – The ability to materially impact scale, margin, and profitability across major brands What we’re looking for: – Deep direct-response and eCommerce instincts – Strong understanding of pricing psychology and promotional strategy – Proven experimentation and CRO experience – Ability to think strategically while executing quickly – Strong analytical experience and comfort interpreting messy real-world data – Someone highly competitive who genuinely loves figuring out why people buy This role is high-trust, high-autonomy, and high-accountability. If you’re elite at this craft, it’s one of the most exciting seats in the industry. We’re only hiring one and when it’s filled, it’s filled. DM me if you or someone you know is interested.

So many affiliates get scammed by this. A network flaunts a massive payout to make the offer look like a no-brainer to run… then quietly scrubs 20% of conversions on the backend. To make matters worse, platforms like Everflow actually make this incredibly easy for networks to do. We do the exact opposite. Every single week, we manually credit affiliates for legitimate sales that didn’t track due to normal pixel/tracking issues. We go directly into the brand’s CRM, identify attributable sales, and make sure affiliates get paid what they actually earned. We’ve literally been laughed at by sketchy black-hat networks for doing this. Their response was “That’s where all the pure profit is.” What can I say… scammers gonna scam. Meanwhile, we’ll keep playing the long game and doing right by our partners. We’ll see who’s still here and still thriving a decade from now.

I’ll never understand this… A brand will spend $500K/month on ads, obsess over CAC, and test hundreds of creatives a week …and then their abandon flow is 3 basic emails with little to no thought. How does that make any sense? Their optimizing the top of the funnel and LP like crazy… and then completely ignoring the people who already showed intent and left. This the most expensive blind spot and revenue leak in DTC.

One of the main (and most important) jobs of an affiliate network is to make sure affiliates always get paid and done so on time. Unless you can prove they actually committed fraud or broke compliace guidelines… that’s it. No excuses and “we’re waiting on the brand.” Over the last 12 years we’ve wired out hundreds of thousands of dollars from our own pocket to protect affiliates when brands didn’t pay on time. The reason why is simple… Cash flow risk isn’t the affiliate’s job, it’s ours. The moment a network pushes that risk downstream… they’ve already told you who they are. This is why reserves, discipline and reputation matter so much in this industry. Anyone can launch a network in a bull market. You find out who’s real when a brand misses a wire. So please make sure you choose your network like you’re choosing a bank, because that’s basically what most of them are. And the reality is that many of them are way undercapitalized.

This industry is small… uncomfortably small. You’re not burning one bridge, you’re lighting up a whole network. And trust me, it spreads faster than you think. Win the ego battle if you want, just don’t be surprised when it costs you real leverage later.

I’ve watched founders trade control for VC money and then spend years wondering why their company stopped feeling like theirs. When you’re bootstrapped, the pressure is real... but the ability to move fast, pivot instantly, and sleep at night is wildly underrated.

One of the biggest opportunities for GiddyUp over the next few years started with a random cold DM. 5 lessons I’ve taken from it: 1/ Don’t let ego stop you from responding when it makes sense. Thinking you’re “above it” can quietly kill massive upside. 2/ A week earlier, I was talking internally about the exact service this guy offers... then he reached out. You can call that “the universe” or whatever you want, but it’s really about awareness. Opportunities tend to show up quietly and if you’re not paying attention, asking good questions, or staying open.... you’ll move right past them. 3/ The best opportunities aren't always obvious, but tend to show up through good questions and active listening. 4/ When something legitimate and relevant presents itself, give it your full attention. Move too slowly and it dies on the vine. Momentum is a fragile thing, especially when one side is leaning in and the other isn’t. 5/ This DM only happened because I’ve been posting and staying active on X and LI (where he found me). It’s always felt a bit like a chore, but consistency definitely compounds. In under 6 months, the ROI from showing up publicly has been higher than I ever expected. Founders don’t always win because they have better access... many of them win because they’re curious, decisive, and willing to engage where others ignore. So next time you get a cold DM, don’t assume it’s spam. Sometimes it’s a massive opportunity everyone else is too busy or "too important" to notice.

If a network or brand is shady enough to scam shoppers with their funnels, imagine what they're doing with YOUR traffic and commissions behind closed doors. You're not their partner. You're their mark too.

Most new affiliates don’t fail because they lack skill. They fail because they’re afraid. Not surface level fear but deep, identity level fear. I usually see it break down in 3 distinct ways: #1 Fear of losing money They spend months researching and waiting for the "perfect conditions" before deploying any test budget. They focus on protecting a few thousand dollars instead of risking it to buy data. They think it's discipline, when in reality its their body choosing to stay comfortable. #2 Fear of failing publicly Not cracking an offer doesn’t just feel like a loss, it feels like proof, in front of others, that they’re not cut out for this. So they quit early and tell themselves the offer was bad, the timing was wrong, or the platform is dead. Most people don’t fear failure. They fear being seen failing. #3 Fear of success This is usually the quiet killer, because if the offer works, the excuses die. You’re now visible, accountable and responsible for scaling into someone bigger than your old identity. So many people subconsciously cap themselves just below the point where life actually changes. Here's some wisdom I've shared with new affiliates that most of them don't like hearing... Affiliate marketing doesn’t necessarily reward intelligence, effort, or even creativity. It often rewards whoever is willing to sit in uncertainty the longest without flinching. If you’re afraid to lose, afraid to look stupid, or afraid of what happens if the offer actually works… this industry will chew you up. But remember that if you can tolerate the discomfort long enough, the game does tend to bend in your favor. Not because you’re lucky, but because you became the kind of person it rewards.

It’s wild to me how little effort people put in today. If your first message to me about a job is “Interested,” “Send me more info,” or “Tell me more,” you’re getting deleted immediately. We now live in a world with Gen AI, LLMs, unlimited context, and endless examples. It has never been easier to show thought, preparation, and intent. The bar is extremely low and it is now embarrassingly easy to separate yourself. So if your application still looks generic, vague, or copy-paste... or even worse, your first message about a job is “Interested,” “Send me more info,” or “Tell me more,”..... you’re getting deleted immediately because tells me everything I need to know. There's basically only two explanations: lazy or dumb. Not trying to be harsh, its just reality. When standing out is this easy, blending in is self-elimination.

We have another rare Marketing position open where you’ll be 100% focused on building new offers and helping our affiliates crack them. DM me if interested. This one will go FAST.

10 things our top GiddyUp affiliates do that give them a real edge: I’ve watched 1,000 affiliates come through GiddyUp over the years. The ones who consistently win operate very differently than everyone else. This is what actually separates them. 1. They build a real relationship with their affiliate manager. It’s not transactional and they don’t only show up when something breaks. They share data, respond quickly, and treat their AM like a partner. Because of that, they hear about launches, opportunities, trends, and issues early... often before anything is public. 2. They’re always asking what’s launching next. When an offer catches their eye, they don’t wait for it to go live. They prepare ahead of time so they’re ready on day one. First-mover advantage is very real on GiddyUp. 3. They launch fast and test aggressively. They focus on multiple angles and creatives right out of the gate. They’re not looking to be perfect.... they’re looking to get signal and start iterating before everyone else piles in. 4. They focus on conversion before payout. This one is big. They prove they can convert traffic first, then talk money. Once conversion rate is dialed in, we have leverage to secure them an exclusive payout bump. 5. They increase AOV before asking for more per sale. They promote higher bundles, upsells, and better framing to raise cart value. We ensure brands notice when affiliates drive better customers, not just more volume. 6. They don’t rely only on network assets. Most top affiliates build their own advertorials, creatives, and even landing pages. If everyone runs the same assets, there’s no edge. 7. They capture traffic most affiliates waste. Email capture, exit intent, abandon site emails, and retargeting are non negotiable for them. Most affiliate funnels leak money, the best don’t. 8. They share real data with our marketing team. They collaborate with our marketing team to improve the funnel for their traffic and significantly benefit from better performance. 9. They build strong infrastructure. Top affiliates run from the highest-tier agency accounts with better performance, fewer rejections, fewer bans, and less friction. At scale, this compounds fast. 10. They show up in person. They attend the top conferences, meetups, and dinners. Trust is built face to face, and trust creates access most affiliates never get.

One of the hardest parts of growing a fast, complex business like GiddyUp is this: When things break, they usually don’t show up as small, clean mistakes. As headcount grows, partners stack up, money moves faster, and systems lag behind reality, problems show up as angry clients, broken trust, and situations that look malicious or shady from the outside. That part really sucks and I don’t hear founders talk about this much, but it happens way more than people realize. Most of the time, it’s not bad intent, it’s just scale outrunning process. Too many moving parts, handoffs, or decisions happening at once. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the last 12 years building from scratch is this: explaining yourself almost never fixes trust. Doing something does. When issues come up, people don’t really care what happened behind the scenes, they care what you do next. Do you disappear? Get defensive? Start explaining why it’s not really your fault? Or do you step forward, own the mistake, and do the right thing... even when it’s painful, expensive, or feels unfair? That choice matters more than the mistake itself. And unfortunately, there will always be unintentional casualties along the way. Pissed off clients, damaged relationships, and people who leave before they ever see the fix. That’s not something to be bitter about. It’s just part of building something real with real complexity. The lesson isn’t to slow down or pretend problems won’t happen. It’s to learn fast, fix it properly, and make sure the same mistake doesn’t happen twice. Handled the right way, even painful moments like these serve a purpose. They force better systems, clearer thinking, and higher standards. You don’t earn trust by being perfect, you earn it by how you show up when things break. That’s what actually compounds in the long run.

Too many leaders avoid clarity because they’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, sitting in awkward silence, or how they’ll feel saying the thing. So they wait, which does way more damage than the truth ever would. Teams get confused, partners slowly drift apart, resentment builds quietly. Nothing usually explodes, but it definitely decays. Its important to remember that leadership isn’t about being comfortable, it’s about being honest early, when it’s still fixable. If you’re postponing the conversation with someone, you’re not protecting them... you’re actually setting them up to fail. Say the hard thing early.

The biggest affiliates in the world have absolutely dominated using Sales Story VSLs. For years, pulling this off meant either ripping copyrighted footage or spending high five figures to produce one the right way. This VSL below was built 100% with AI, in a fraction of the time and cost. That barrier is gone and there’s literally no excuse left. Now it comes down to this - Do you actually know the story you need to tell, why it should win, and do you have the discipline to actually execute it? Most brands and affiliates are about to find out they don’t.... but the ones that do, won’t just dominate their competition, they're going to completely change the trajectory of their business.

No doubt, affiliates will be the first to dominate.

I was in a meeting at Affiliate Summit and got asked a question I’ve answered a thousand times: “What’s the difference between GiddyUp and every other affiliate network?” Before I could respond, one of our partners at the table asked if he could answer it. He said... "For me it comes down to two words: Quality and Trust." I won’t lie, that was a pretty humbling moment. We’ve been building GiddyUp for 12 years, and those two values are things we’ve leaned into even when it was uncomfortable, slower, or more expensive to do so. Here’s some example of what trust actually means in practice: • Partners know they’ll get paid even if a brand is late or doesn’t pay • Offers are legitimate and won’t put affiliates in legal or platform compliance jeopardy • Sensitive data is shared with us because partners know we won’t leak it, misuse it, or weaponize it • Transparency when things go wrong, not excuses And quality isn’t just some buzzword either: • High-quality brands and real products • 5 figure investments in fully built out performance funnels and creative • Attention to detail most people skip • A tight circle (on the brand and affiliate side), because not everyone belongs in the room. The incredible thing for me though was that the answer came from a partner, not from us and it came when I wasn’t the one doing the talking. That’s the outcome you hope for when you build something the right way. Because if people say the right things about your business without being prompted, you’re probably doing something right.