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The Modern DTC Brand Playbook: Less Risk, More Growth
How to launch with more confidence and less risk in 2025
Hey everyone,
Welcome back for another bite to chew on.
Not too long ago, launching a brand took a lot of guts and resources.
Forget the months of market research and supplier sourcing, just having enough capital to put down on product development and inventory would stop a lot of projects before they began.
Things are changing, though.
Launching a brand in 2025 doesn't have to mean betting big on inventory before you even know if people want your product. The market has evolved, and there are now smarter ways to test and build without taking on massive upfront risk.
We recently sat down with Rihards Piks, co-founder of Supliful, for a deep dive into how modern brands are being built. What we learned completely changed our perspective on brand building (and made us wish this existed when we started Obvi).
On the Menu:
Why the "old way" of building brands is dead
The new playbook for modern brand building
What actually works in 2025's market
Interested in the whole discussion of how to create a personalized supplement brand in 1 hour?
Check out the full episode with Rihards here:
Every morning do you check your metrics and face the same dilemma?
🔪 Slash prices to drive volume
OR
📉 Hold firm and watch conversion rates drop?
We did for a while. The problem is we were either killing our margins or hurting our growth rate.
Neither felt great.
Then we found a better way. Instead of upfront discounts and constant sales, we used Aftersell to optimize our checkout flow with personalized offers and upsells at the moment of purchase.
The math worked out beautifully.
We're seeing $7.50 higher AOV, plus an extra $0.50 incremental profit per transaction through their network offers. That little bit extra = $10K flowing right to our bottom line each month. 💰
Best part? Our core product prices stayed intact. We're giving customers the value they want, just in a smarter way that doesn’t hurt our margins or train them to wait for the next sale.
Want to see how we did it? Check out our case study with Aftersell and then schedule your January strategy call with them to outline similar success strategies.
The Problem with "Old School" Brand Building
As Rihards put it: "The old way would be emailing every manufacturer supplier you can find. Do some back-and-forth communication until you find out the pricing, the terms, and all that stuff. So that's already several weeks of your time."
When we started Obvi, we had to commit significant capital upfront just to get inventory. The majority of our initial investment went straight to product, leaving minimal resources for actually getting those first crucial sales.
In 2025, this level of upfront investment and risk isn't necessary anymore if you're strategic about how you start.
The old playbook looked like this…
1. Find a manufacturer
2. Place a (massive) minimum order
3. Send to 3PL/warehouse (or your garage if you don’t have a 3PL)
4. Hope your product sells
5. Deal with endless operational headaches
The challenge with this approach? By the time you figure out if people actually want your product, you've already committed significant capital. That's what we call "inventory risk" - and it's a major barrier for promising brands trying to enter the market.
But here's the good news: There's a smarter way to build in 2025.
The New Brand Building Playbook
Here's what we're seeing successful modern brands do instead →
They're treating brand building like a lean startup:
Test fast
Fail cheap
Double down on what works
As Rihards emphasized: "It's really important to get to the first sale as fast as possible. You need to keep the momentum going and you need some kind of validation, proof that it works. Even if it's just one sale, it gives so much energy."
This startup mindset is revolutionizing how brands launch and scale. Instead of betting big on inventory, modern brands are taking a more calculated approach:
1. Start With Market Research
Survey potential customers before creating products
Build an audience on social media to validate demand
Test messaging and positioning with minimal ad spend
Identify specific pain points you can solve better than competitors
2. Launch MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Begin with a single SKU instead of a full line
Use platforms that don't require massive MOQs
Test different price points and offers
Get real customer feedback before scaling
3. Iterate Based on Feedback
Track which marketing messages resonate
Monitor customer feedback and reviews
Analyze purchase patterns and behaviors
Use these insights to guide product development
4. Scale Strategically
Only increase inventory when demand is proven
Expand product line based on customer requests
Reinvest profits instead of taking on debt
Keep operations lean and outsourced
The key difference? New brands these days aren't trying to get everything perfect before launch. They're starting small, learning fast, and letting real market feedback guide their growth.
As one founder in our network put it: "We spent three months testing messages and audiences with a single product. Once we found what worked, scaling was almost the easy part."
What Actually Works in 2025
Let's break down some specific tactics we're seeing work →
Get hyper-specific
Test & learn fast
Focus on sales, not ops
1. Get Hyper-Specific
As Richard’s notes:
"If you want to compete in the market and capture a piece of the pie, you need to differentiate yourself. You will not win against these big brands on their terms. So you need to be very focused on a specific market segment and niche."
Instead of "just another protein powder," we're seeing brands win by targeting specific segments like:
Sleep supplements for night shift workers
Beauty products for specific skin conditions
Wellness products for particular lifestyles
The key? Build or join a community around your specific niche up front.
2. Test Fast, Learn Faster
You can go from 0 to 7-figures by:
Starting with a single product
Testing different angles/messaging
Finding what resonated
THEN expanding the product line
You don’t need massive inventory or a full catalog to do this. You just need to find an angle and audience first.
3. Focus on Sales, Not Operations
What can kill a new brand is spending too much time on ops and not enough on sales and growth.
Think about where your time goes:
Dealing with manufacturers
Managing inventory
Handling fulfillment
Putting out fires
That's all the time you're NOT spending on needl movers like marketing, community building, and product dev.
Modern brands are also able to outsource operations from day one so they can focus 100% on growth.
This shift is possible because of three key changes in the market:
1. New Infrastructure
The emergence of platforms that handle:
Manufacturing without MOQs
Inventory management
Order fulfillment
Quality control
Shipping and logistics
2. Better Economics
These platforms have changed the math of launching a brand:
No upfront inventory costs
Pay-as-you-go fulfillment
Lower operational overhead
Ability to test multiple products
3. AI & Modern Tools
Technology is making operations more efficient:
AI tools for customer service and content creation
Smart marketing optimization
Project management and workflow automation
Analytics and reporting automation
4. Easy outsourcing
Leverage platforms to find global talent
Get startup team members with all the skills and 1/5th the cost of US talent
Test freelance and fractional options to supplement your weak areas
As Rihards pointed out: "Instead of focusing on growth, traditional brands are all the time putting out fires and just dealing with all the backend operational stuff."
The Future of Brand Building
Having spent seven years in China, Rihards has seen where e-commerce is headed.
"Social selling is really developed there. There are literally people just live streaming all the time from studio and selling something. Maybe it's like a radical example. There are cultural differences. What works there not necessarily will work the same way here. But I think to some degree it will also come to the Western world."
We're seeing three major trends that are changing everything:
1. Social Commerce Revolution
The way people discover and buy products is shifting dramatically. Brands that win are building for:
TikTok Shop / social affiliate commerce
Live streaming
Social-first discovery
2. Influencer-Led Brands
More creators are realizing their attention is valuable currency. Instead of just promoting other brands, they're launching their own.
3. Mass Personalization
The future isn't just custom labels or etching - it's custom formulations based on individual needs.
Think: personalized health supplements based on your health data.
Sum It Up
The old way of building brands (big inventory, big risk) makes less and less sense these days.
The new playbook is all about:
✅ Testing fast and cheap
✅ Finding your niche
✅ Outsourcing & fractional ops
✅ Focusing on growth first
The barriers to entry for building a real brand have never been lower.
When we started Obvi, we had to risk a lot just to get started. Today's founders can test their ideas for a fraction and get traction at a fraction of the cost.
That doesn't mean it's easy. But it does mean you can focus your time and money on what actually matters - building something people want.
As Rihards emphasized in our conversation: "Do proper research. Spend days, weeks if needed until you feel like you really found something valuable, a market niche clearly defined customer, and then go after it."
Don’t forget to check out our latest podcast here.
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All the best,
Ron & Ash