Trouble finding good talent? Welcome to the club. The whole freelancer concept is incredibly powerful in it's flexibility and potential but finding the right person who can actually do what they say they can is no easy feat. The amount of markup on those freelancer's fees can also mean that brands end up being misled on the level of knowledge of said freelancer. Needless to say, there is room for improvement. Jai Dolwani, CEO of The Starters, a curated freelancer marketplace with vetted ecommerce talent, knows the pain of this process and is out to right the wrongs he experienced as the CMO at Winc, the well known internet based wine club. Pour some wine, swirl your glass, and open up your pallete to new ways to solve problems in the world of ecommerce.

By now it should be clear that running a brand is not an easy task. And brands sometimes make it harder on themselves. They think short term. What is my RoAS? Can I get away with basic creative? The problem is those short term fixes prevent them from seeing the long term growth they really desire. Agencies can help but when they can't deliver on the promises they make in the sales process, it makes it even harder for those brands to really win. Co-Founder and CMO of Webtopia, Jessie Healy, joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to share her insights from the brand side that led to her moving agency side, creating the "anti-agency." Does this strike your curiosity? Press play and let's begin.

Being an ecommerce business at $5M and $500M are very different. And the path there isn't always possible for every brand. In ecommerce, there are very specifics parts of your businesses DNA that are required to really grow exponentially and not every brand will have the right pieces to grow super large. You should also ask yourself, do you even want to grow that big? Andrew Faris, Founder of AJF Growth, joins me to share his wisdom and insight on all these topics. After working brand side, moving to an aggregator, back to brand, and now living in agency life, Andrew has seen a lot and this episode doesn't even capture it all. Let's get started, so grab a drink and hold on.

Amazon Aggregators have started to fail in a challenging economic climate with changing consumer behavior and people are piling on. Were some of us expecting failure? Sure. But majority of new businesses fail. So how is that different? Well Nathan Sieminski, formerly of Perch, one of the largest aggregators raising just over $900M, shares his experience working there and sheds line on the reality of that environment. Spoiler alert, it's different than you expected. We chat about how Walmart is bringing the heat and how the battle for ecommerce dominance is shaping up. Grab a seat, get a drink, and settle in for a conversation between two humans who want to see people win.

Do you know what Trade Spend is? Do you know why that $200,000 charge from Whole Foods just got deducted from your account? Well Nikki McNeil, Co-Founder and Head of Deduction Management Services at Vividly, is here to set the record straight. Trade Spend goes deeper than you think and it affects every single aspect of the business for CPG companies. You can't get around it. You can't get under it. But you certainly can misuse it so who better to learn about it from than someone who has worked in CPG companies like Justin's Nut Butter and Lilys? Born out of necessity, hear this Entrepreneur's journey into the unsexy but crucial parts of business and how to succeed through the hardship.