$10k in 36hrs, Jai Dolwani Launches The Starters, and Must-See DTC Events

Welcome back DTC fam,

More brands, more TikTok shopping, and more growth in DTC.

This is the way.

Shall we?

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Every paid ads team hits the same question on Monday: what do we make next?

Cue the case of the Mondays, Office Space edition: your dashboard shows which ad won, not what to make next or why. So the call’s a hunch, the winner fades, and lessons get buried (probably in a Slack thread). Expensive, with Black Friday five weeks out.

Cuttable makes ads that learn. Connect Meta, TikTok, Shopify and Klaviyo, and:

• Reads what every ad earned and works out why winners won
• Suggests what to make next, shows its reasoning
• Builds those ads in seconds, on-brand from your footage, products and reviews
• Your team edits anything and approves every ad before publishing
• Results feed the next round, so it starts from what already worked

After moving to Cuttable, Conserving Beauty’s click-through rate nearly doubled and CPMs fell at least 30%. Names you love, like Lululemon, July, and Cotton On, run on Cuttable.

This week Cuttable announced a $20M Series A, led by Airtree. Just more proof the team’s doing something right, so we recommend connecting to see it on your ads.

[ founder highlight ]

How does a brand selling dry shampoo for clothes make $10k in the first 36 hours?

“You can do everything right on the marketing side, but if one tiny packaging component doesn’t work, the entire operation can come to a halt.”

- Maria Cabral Menezes, Founder at WASHWISE

Read the full story here →

Send this to the next DTC founder we should highlight.

[ in the news ]

The Starters: The Human Layer Behind Your Business

Jai Dolwani just made a big announcement:

Jai Dolwani@JaiDolwani

[AI is making your brand mediocre.

That’s why I’m launching @TheStartersHQ: the human layer behind your business.

We give you direct access to the people who have built category-defining brands so you can:

➔ Learn from their expertise ➔ Consult 1 with them ➔ Hire them to …]

5 PM · Oct 20, 2026 · 14K Views

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59 Replies · 41 Reposts · 133 Likes

He says, “Because as AI makes execution cheaper... human brilliance becomes priceless.”

And we agree, especially in the DTC industry.

To celebrate their launch, you can get your first week on The Starters for just $1.

Check it out and join here →

Ramen Bae Launches Nationwide in Target

Ramen Bae is coming into Target with 2 things:

• Protein-Packed Ramen → with a whopping 28 grams of protein per serving. This protein line launch december of last year and it’s holding strong.
• Dried Ramen Toppings → Founder and CEO Jon Lam started the company because he wanted more toppings on his ramen. Instead of looking, he decided to create his own.

And now after serving 400,000 ramen lovers, they’re launching nationwide in Target.

How this helps you get ahead:

When you hear customers say, “I’ve tried multiple protein ramen companies and this one is by far the best… repeat customer for sure”, you’ve got something. The retail game can be a tough one to crack, but with a loyal audience, you have momentum on your side.

TikTok Newsroom: Holiday Shopping Enters Its LIVE Era

TikTok Newsroom just released some interesting stats:

“During the 2025 four-day Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, TikTok Shop’s sales surpassed $500 million, and sellers hosting livestreams saw 84% year-over-year sales growth across more than 760,000 sessions and 1.6 billion views…”

“Spend per livestream buyer will rise 23.2% to $339.27 in 2026, per eMarketer forecasts. On TikTok Shop in the U.S., LIVE Shopping sales**** more than doubled in the first half of 2026, year-over-year. This season, we expect LIVE Shopping to play an even bigger role in turning discovery into a shopping experience that consumers can spend time with and return to.”

All to say, get ready for a crazy holiday shopping season.

In TikTok’s announcement, they go deep into holiday spending trends and what to expect.

Read the full newsroom breakdown here →

[ get connected IRL ]

The SoCom Momentum Continues (NYC)

The energy during SoCom LA proved that when brands, creators, platforms, and operators get in the room together, social commerce moves faster. The conversations and connections are heading to SoCom NYC on November 10th at Sony Hall.

Beyond the live events, brands and builders have year-round access to the SoCom Digital Hub, the SoCom Research Series, VERIFIED: The SoCom Podcast, and you can join the waitlist for the Membership & Mentor Program launching this November.

Grab your pass. Brands attend FREE👉 Register Here

UGLY TALK: BUILDING FANDOMS IN 2027 (NYC)

Loaded event for brands that want to build true fandom heading into 2027.

​Why you should be in this room:

• ​Learn why Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t move through your funnel and what gets them from discovery to advocacy
• ​Hear why the brands with the most devoted online communities are the ones who showed up offline first
• ​Hear what brand owners use as early signals of loyalty
• ​Learn what to keep doing when the community goes quiet (and everything is telling you to pivot)

Register here →

BFCM War Room: A Hands-On Workshop for Shopify Operators - Brands Only (NYC)

Buckle up because this is a bring-your-laptop event for Shopify founders and marketers.

You’ll sit at small tables run by experienced operators, swap what worked (and what blew up) last year, pressure-test each other’s plans, and leave with a BFCM plan to crush these next two months.

Register here →

[ DTC notes ]

I spent 3 JAM-packed days in LA. But what would a trip be if it wasn’t that way?

Here’s what went down:

• Caught up with Drew Barrett
• Checked out Lyve and finally met Troy irl
• Made the obligatory Erewhon stop & checked out Laurel Supply for the 1st time
• met Cat Goetze a year in the making
• stopped by The Lighthouse
• had lunch w Jeremy
• morning miles in with Zarek Raunam and hit THE YARD GYM as we prep for HYROX next month
• hosted 2 killer 1800DTC events at Reserve Venice
• joined an incredible DTC dinner with the Kinect AI crew (s/o Kratik)
• made it over to SoCom, huge thanks to Tracey for having me out

This is the stuff I love most about what we’re building at 1800DTC.

Everything we do is rooted in people, connection, and intentionality.

We’re building what we believe will be the BEST data platform in DTC, and we’re bringing it to market next month.

And trust me, we’re thinking WAY bigger than just tech stacks…

And as AI continues to change everything, I believe one thing more than ever:

People have never mattered more.

That’s what we’re building around and we’re excited to have you here.

See you Tuesday,

Zach and 1800DTC Team 1800DTC.com

P.S Read this asap if you’re a DTC operator getting a lil’ stressed about BFCM →