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Matthew Gohl took over the family business, Santevia, and turned it into a DTC powerhouse. In this episode, he breaks down how they scaled Amazon 2X, rebuilt their Meta ads strategy from the ground up, and landed a killer deal on Dragon’s Den.

For DTC operators scaling beyond $5M and navigating Meta + Amazon growth channels:

Why switching from Vendor Central to Seller Central was worth the 16-month headache
How a $25 hero product failed on Meta, and why their $320 glass system now crushes
The role of creative strategy in hitting $100K+ weekly spend without tanking ROAS
How they prepped their brand for Dragon’s Den—and doubled baseline sales after
The case for launching refillable, eco-focused SKUs in 2026

Who this is for: DTC operators, marketers, and founders looking to scale with lean teams and high-margin SKUs.

What to steal:

Creative briefing process that reduces wasted ad spend
Why Meta sees "different creators" as "same ad" (and how to fix it)
How to make a high-ticket product actually work in cold acquisition

Timestamps:

00:00 Why creative diversity (not campaign complexity) is the real Meta unlock

03:05 Buying the family business and shifting from retail-first to DTC

06:48 Revenue dips, imposter syndrome, and trusting the long-term strategy

09:15 From 1 video every 2 weeks to 60 creatives by Friday (creative velocity shift)

13:02 Why hero products with higher AOV unlock profitable Meta spend

16:19 Meta’s Andromeda explained: aggregation + creative volume wins

30:34 Dragon’s Den moment: “I own that one” and why endorsements change everything

Hashtags:

#DTC #Ecommerce #MetaAds #CreativeStrategy #BrandBuilding #PerformanceMarketing #DirectToConsumer #PaidSocial #AdCreative #MarketingPodcast #EcommerceGrowth #ScalingBrands #FounderStory #Dragon’sDen #BFCM #RetailStrategy

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Ep 570: Inside the Dragon's Den with Santevia and How they 2Xed Amazon Revenue by Taking Back Control

DTC Podcast