Ecom || Co-Founder & CRO at @happystackhq 🥞 || Ex-CRO at @wayflyerapp || DTC Advisor
Dublin. Ireland
Joined August 2010
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It's Dry January. You want to go for a couple of Thursday drinks with your mates, but you can't.
Instead, cosy up at home and throw on the first episode of the new @happystackhq podcast 'Lock-In'.
@matthucius is the first guest up and doesn't disappoint.
Links below 👇
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
After a couple of months off the pints, we're back talking customer acquisition with a few ecom heavyweights 🍻
Tune in to watch @JackRubin1, @matthucius and @oliverwhudson debate Meta over some of London's finest stout
youtu.be/DlXyoEEtO9c?si=bjHG…
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
They say back the jockey, not the horse. In this instance both are worldclass!
We're excited to lead out @superfiliate's latest round at @happystackhq. Looking forward to growing the business with you lads in the months/years to come
bit.ly/4k2Sq3B
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
I'm stoked to announce @superfiliate 's $2M strategic growth round led by @JackPierse and the great folks over at @happystackhq
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
What an absolute legend @SpencerMatthews is!
He’s our latest guest on the @happystackhq podcast to chat about his journey with sobriety, building @cleanco and his recent world-record attempts!
Link to watch is in the thread..
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
From mixing perfumes in his bedroom, to running the UK’s biggest DTC fragrance brand.
@connor_m journey of scaling The Essence Vault to £50m / year is wild! Check out the latest episode of the Lock-In pod at the links below 🔥
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
We sent the sales team to Vegas for @shoptalk to meet some brands and close some deals. Here’s what they really got up to…
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
I'm a big believer that traditional SaaS GTM functions can add huge value to old school industries that don't traditionally use them.
Some of you might know I own a pub in Dublin called The Storyteller. Last summer, for the craic and to test this theory, we ran cold outbound campaigns for the pub. We emailed hundreds of people working within a 2km radius of the pub to see if they fancied 'pints this Thursday' or 'making a corporate booking'.
The result? Corporate bookings increased by more than 100%, and lots and lots of people were showing up for pints on Thursdays.
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
Hot take from @jolieskinco's Ryan Bab..
If you're a brand spending the majority of your marketing budget on Meta, it's unlikely you're going to be profitable 💣
With rising costs across all ad platforms, we're finally at a point where CTR's on Meta live in the .03-.04% range
Dan O'Brien 🥞 retweeted
The latest guest on the Lock-In pod is arguably the smartest founder in ecom. Ryan Babenzien has built @jolieskinco to $50mn in three years with just four employees, including him!!
Not one to be missed, link is in the comments 🥞
Back in 2017 when myself and Bryan Addeman were building Worklilly, we were trying to raise funding from IBM Canada to build out the product.
By some miracle, we managed to blag our way into a meeting with the CEO, which in hindsight still shocks me. The problem? I had no experience pitching a Fortune 500 CEO for millions of dollars.
We weren’t polished investment bankers, or second-time founders. We didn’t have a slick pitch deck or a polished financial model. I was wearing a suit about two sizes too big for me which looked like I borrowed it from my dad, and the pitch I delivered was honestly terrible. But somehow, it worked!
Looking back on it eight years later, I learned a few things from that experience:
⭕️ Pitching isn’t about showmanship—it’s about giving them a reason to say yes. I wasn’t the most experienced person in the room, but I knew exactly how Worklilly fit into IBM’s broader goals. My suit certainly didn’t impress him, but the deal made sense and this is the most important thing.
⭕️ You don’t need to be the best talker in the room—you need to be the one with the best offer. We had something IBM needed, and once that became clear, the rest didn’t matter.
⭕️ Most people overcomplicate pitches. They stress over the slides and the delivery. In reality what actually matters is alignment. Fair enough, a bit of polish on your slides won’t hurt (ours would keep any designer up at night) - but the most important thing is to ensure your offering is clear, not a fancy pitch deck.
I always do my best thinking over Christmas, and looking back on 2024, it was a year of challenges, learning and rewarding progress - especially with the launch of @happystackhq
Here are some of my reflections and learnings from 2024 👇
Finally, I’m grateful for the people around me - @JackPierse, @joebollard_, @JamieCKhan, @CharlieGleeson2, @Sean_mch21, @AndrewPierse, @vallen_day, Seoid, Stephen and Freddie. Everyone has really bought into the mission and have given it everything over the last few months.
To all our amazing partners, thanks for trusting us with such an important area of your business early days.
And a huge thanks to all the eCommerce founders who've allowed us to play a part in their 2024 growth.
Looking ahead
As we head into 2025, I’m more motivated than ever to keep building, learning, and staying true to what matters most: creating real value for customers, empowering teams, and having a bit of fun along the way.
To everyone I’ve worked with, learned from, or shared a conversation with this year: thank you. Here’s to a great 2025!