In this episode of The Orita Podcast, Aaron Schwartz sits down with Howie Busch, Founder at DudeRobe, that launched on Kickstarter in June 2017. One week later, the head of casting at Shark Tank slid into his DMs. His website went live at 7:30pm the night they aired.

• How a career in sports law, NFL representation, and product licensing gave Howie an unfair advantage when athletes started wearing his robe for free

• Why the robe turned out to be nearly impossible to knock off, and how that happened completely by accident

• The iOS 14 summer that almost broke the business, what a 70% revenue drop taught him about pricing, and why raising prices 50% saved the company

• How Howie structured his exit to a billion-dollar apparel company while staying in the seat, and what changed when he finally bought back his time

• Why ROAS was the wrong north star and contribution margin was the metric he wishes he had watched from day one

• How a customer survey of 600 responses shaped every decision on the She Robe launch, from colors to features

👥 Meet the guest

Howie Busch, Founder of DudeRobe

🎙 Hosted by

Aaron Schwartz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Orita.ai

🎧 Chapters

[00:00] From Law School to NFL Agent to Idea Man

[03:44] How Kickstarter Led to a Shark Tank DM in One Week

[08:26] What Howie's Legal and Licensing Background Actually Gave Him

[10:44] Building a Brand With No Website and No Product

[16:17] What He Would Do Differently Starting a Brand Today

[19:47] Why Nobody Knocked Off DudeRobe and It Wasn't Strategy

[22:17] The She Robe and the 600-Response Survey That Shaped It

[24:08] How to Decide What Products Belong Under Your Brand

[27:12] Website vs Amazon vs TikTok Shop: How Howie Thinks About Channels

[32:22] The Metrics Trap: Why ROAS Was the Wrong North Star

[35:06] iOS 14, 70% Revenue Drop, and the Summer That Almost Broke Everything

[39:41] How Howie Structured the Exit and What Made It a Win-Win

[42:23] Buying Back Your Time: What Changed After the Sale

[44:48] What It Actually Takes to Build a Brand Worth Acquiring

🌐 Check out Orita.ai for more episodes of The Orita Podcast, where we sit down with the most interesting operators, marketers, and founders in e-commerce to talk about what’s working right now. Hosted by the Orita team. Orita uses machine learning to help brands send smarter, more profitable marketing, by figuring out who actually wants to hear from you and when.

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