Inside Obvi's 2024 Tech Stack

December 22, 2024

In partnership with

Hey everyone,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

Today we're doing something a little different - we're opening up our tech stack and showing you all the tools that power Obvi behind the scenes.

Fair warning → this is going to be a long one. We've got a lot of ground to cover.

But before we dive in, let's get real about something: tech stacks are like fingerprints. No two are exactly alike, and what works for one brand might be completely wrong for another.

Seriously, the tools that helped us scale Obvi might not make sense for your business at all. And that's okay! Your tech stack needs to match your specific challenges, goals, and stage of growth.

Want to hear something funny? This list probably won't even match our own stack next year. As your business evolves, your tools will too. We're constantly testing new solutions and retiring others that don't serve us anymore.

But we get asked about our tools ALL THE TIME. So we figured, why not pull back the curtain and show you exactly what we're working with right now?

On the Menu

• Marketing & Creative Arsenal (the tools driving our growth)

• Website & Platform Solutions (how we optimize for conversion)

• Operations & Finance Command Center (what keeps the lights on)

Marketing & Creative Arsenal

Here's the thing about marketing tools - they're not just fancy software collecting dust in your tech stack. Each one needs to solve a problem or unlock real growth.

Let's break down what we’ve been using this year →

Attribution & Analytics

You can't grow what you can't measure, right? Here's what helps us stay sane:

  • TripleWhale has become our source of truth for marketing data. If you're running paid ads at scale, you need to know what's actually working. Triple gives us that clarity across channels.

  • Elevar makes sure our tracking is actually... tracking. Sounds basic, but you'd be surprised how many brands are flying blind with broken pixels and missing data.

Acquisition Engine

This is where the rubber meets the road for growth → 

  • Proxima changed our audience targeting game on Meta. We still “go broad," but we also reach high-intent shoppers with their custom audience tech. They helped us solve a major issue when our Meta pixel got stuck targeting the wrong ICP. 

  • ​​Sendlane drives our email & SMS marketing. We moved over to them last year in an effort to consolidate our retention marketing and reduce our costs. Their dedicated customer service helped as well. 

  • PostPilot lets us do something wild - actually get attention in people's physical mailboxes. Yeah, direct mail in 2024. But when everyone's fighting for inbox space, a well-timed postcard can cut through the noise. They have great targeting and segmentation tools so it’s not “spray and pray”. 

Creative & Content

You need great content to feed those acquisition channels, right? Here's our setup:

  • Refunnel helps us track all our UGC performance in one place. When you’re working with lots and lots of creators at a time - or when you have a ton of organic mentions from customers - you need a way to find and consolidate all of that content.

  • Foreplay helps us stay creative and inspired with our ad concepts. When you're constantly testing new angles and creative approaches, having a tool that helps spark fresh ideas is invaluable.

  • Saral keeps our influencer marketing machine running smoothly. We used to manage creator partnerships with spreadsheets and prayer 😅 Now we can actually track ROI and scale what's working.

Here's something wild we've learned → What matters isn't how many tools you have, but how well they work together. We've tried plenty of "shiny new tools" that just added complexity without moving the needle.

Let's talk about what happens after we get people to our site...

Website & Platform Solutions

If marketing is about getting people to your site, your platform tools are about making sure they actually convert when they get there.

We break this down into three main jobs:

  • Testing

  • Page building/UX

  • CRO

Testing & Optimization

This is where the magic happens →

  • Intelligems powers our A/B testing engine. We've learned that small tweaks to pricing, shipping thresholds, and bundle offers can have massive impacts on profitability. They've helped us find those winning combinations.

  • Heatmap shows us exactly how people interact with our site. Sometimes what you think is obvious... isn't. Watching real user behavior has saved us from countless expensive mistakes.

Page Building & Experience

Building a high-converting store isn't just about having a nice theme →

  • Replo is our go-to for landing pages and custom content. When you need to launch a new campaign or test a sales angle, you can't wait weeks for developer time. Plugs right into our Shopify store and mirrors our brand themes effortlessly.

  • Stay.ai manages our subscription business. Their platform doesn't just handle billing - it uses AI to optimize subscription offers and predict churn before it happens. When subscription revenue is a key growth lever, having AI working 24/7 to maximize lifetime value is huge.

CRO

The moment of truth - getting people to actually buy →

  • Pretty Dam Quick (PDQ) Helps us test and optimize our checkout flow. Specifically around segmenting customers for personalized shipping options and smart delivery promises. Their real-time analytics show us exactly where to reduce friction and boost trust.

  • Aftersell and PDQ work together to make magic happen post-purchase. While PDQ personalizes the checkout/shipping experience, Aftersell takes over right after purchase with smart upsells and offer sequencing. Their Nework Offers product also delivers free, incremental profit for us. 

  • KnoCommerce is the best post-purchase survey platform in the game. Super easy to add to your store and helps us gain valuable insights about where our customers found us, why they buy, and what they care about. 

Mobile & Interactive

Some tools that help us drive engagement and interaction → 

  • Tapcart powers our mobile app experience. When 70%+ of your traffic is mobile, you need to nail this.

  • Typeform helps us gather customer feedback without being annoying about it. You'd be amazed what people will tell you if you just ask the right way.

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Operations & Finance

Let's be real - this might not be the "sexy" part of running a DTC brand, but it's the backbone of everything. You can have the best marketing in the world, but if your ops are a mess... good luck scaling.

Customer Experience

First up, because happy customers = growing business →

  • Gorgias is our customer service hub. When you're running a brand at scale, you need every support agent operating from the same playbook. Plus, the Shopify integration helps lower friction for agents.

  • Brandwise helps us stay on top of social engagement at scale. Their platform handles comment moderation and customer responses across all our social channels from one dashboard. When you're running lots of ads and UGC, having AI automatically hide spam and negative comments while highlighting urgent responses helps. 

Financial Tools

The stuff you need to fund your biz and know your numbers →

  • Parker isn't just another business credit card. It's built specifically for e-commerce, which means our credit limits flex with our business needs. It’s a no-rewards card, but the long payback period with no interest comes in handy. 

  • Ramp helps us keep corporate spending under control. Growing fast is great, but not if you're bleeding cash. They help us keep an eye on our operational expenses.

  • Chargeflow helps us handle the not-so-fun part of ecommerce: chargebacks. Instead of losing revenue to disputes, we can actually prevent and recover them automatically.

Operations & Automation

The tools that keep everything running →

  • Luminous is our "lite ERP" that keeps our operations smooth as we scale. That’s right, we are finally moving away from our manual, all-spreadsheet system. We recently onboarded Luminous because it manages our inventory across warehouses, handles our wholesale channel expansion, and automates our order processing. 

  • Notion has become our company brain. SOPs, meeting notes, project plans - everything lives here. When you're moving fast and adding team members, having a single source of truth is crucial.

  • Zapier is like duct tape for your tech stack. All these fancy tools are great, but someone needs to make them talk to each other. That's where Zapier comes in.

  • OpenBorder helped us crack international expansion this year. They handle everything from local currency and taxes to compliance and returns, plus they've helped us optimize our entire international funnel. 

Sum it up

This is our current tech stack - emphasis on current. It's always evolving as we grow and as new solutions emerge.

A few key takeaways about building your own stack:

→ Start with the problems you need to solve, not the tools that seem cool

→ Make sure tools actually work together

→ Don't be afraid to cut tools that aren't delivering ROI

→ Your stack should grow with your business - what worked at $1M may not work at $10M+

Remember - this is just what works for us right now. Your mileage may vary. The key is finding the right tools that solve YOUR specific challenges and help YOU scale efficiently.

Because at the end of the day, it's not about having the most tools. It's about having the right ones.

All the best,

Ron & Ash