Selling online has never been more expensive. Cheap channels are saturated, factory and freight costs have climbed, and ad platforms keep getting better at extracting margin from brands. For a lean DTC brand in 2026, the old math simply doesn’t math.

Ecommerce economics are broken. Dave Stickland, Co-Founder and President of Popsmith, joins Phillip and Brian to share how he rebuilt Popsmith’s marketing from the garage up. Dave explains how agentic AI tools take his ad creative from concept to live in 24 hours, why AI slop is a skill issue, and why the next generation of agencies and creative strategists will be paid for vision, not execution.

Chasing A Frontierless Future

Key takeaways:

There’s no more frontier for DTC brands. A decade ago, subsidized Amazon fees, direct access to overseas factories, and cheap paid social made healthy margins easy. Now factories sell against brands on Amazon, factory wages have doubled, freight costs have soared since COVID, and Meta keeps getting better at extracting ad spend.
Contribution margin pays for everything below the line, including agencies, freelancers, and new hires. When that margin disappears, so does the budget to grow.
AI creative is still not fully autonomous, but only works with scaffolding: product renders, brand context, and a clear process.
It’s time for brands to extract new value from the creative library they’ve already paid for.
Agencies will be paid to advise and build SOPs, not to execute inside the software.
“You either own the software or the software will own what you do.” — Dave Stickland
“What AI will never be is relational.” — Dave Stickland
“The data set itself is what you are paying for, not the tool.” — Dave Stickland

In-Show Mentions:

Dave on X: The Math Doesn’t Math
Shop the popcorn popper at popsmith.com
Runneth by Motion
Jamey Gannon’s The AI Creative Director course
Future Commerce’s LORE
Get tickets to VISIONS Summit, February 10, 2027 at MoMA

Associated Links:

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How to Grow an eCommerce Business When the Math Doesn’t Math

Future Commerce

How to Grow an eCommerce Business When the Math Doesn’t Math