The early days of e-commerce were chaotic. No Shopify, no Klaviyo, no attribution dashboards. In this conversation, Jennifer turns the tables and interviews Mark about the path that began with a phone call from a man selling hammocks in Washington and eventually led to Hayneedle’s sale for hundreds of millions. Their story was built inside a Barnes & Noble, fueled by instinct, trial-and-error, and a long list of decisions that shaped modern online retail.

Mark shares what it felt like to scale from a single product site to more than 300 niche stores, how customer curiosity became the catalyst for entire categories, and the moments where listening to his gut would have saved millions.

If you’re building, scaling, or thinking about your next chapter, this conversation offers the kind of clarity only lived experience can give.

Connect with us:

• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

FrostBuddy didn’t start with a pitch deck or a perfect plan. It started with two brothers in a small Illinois town who were curious enough to chase an idea and resilient enough to keep going when the market got crowded.

In this conversation, Brock and Mitch Mammoser walk through the early days, the decisions that shaped their momentum, the people they trusted along the way, and the mindset that helped them scale from a few samples to a business approaching $70 million this year.

Their honesty about growth, pressure, community, and identity makes this one of the most grounded founder stories we’ve shared, and a powerful look at what it actually takes to build a modern e-commerce business without losing yourself in the process.

Connect with us:

• Brock Mammoser on LinkedIn
• Mitch Mammoser on LinkedIn
• FrostBuddy
• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

When Julie Cole left the courtroom to start making waterproof name labels in her basement with three other moms, she didn’t know she was building a category-defining brand. Twenty years later, Mabel’s Labels has become a household name, helping millions of families stay organized and inspiring countless entrepreneurs along the way.

In this conversation, Julie shares how a simple frustration in her kitchen turned into a thriving business, how she balanced entrepreneurship with raising six kids, and why she believes community is the greatest antidote to the isolation founders often face. From bootstrapping and co-founder dynamics to selling her company to Avery, Julie’s story is a masterclass in grit, growth, and staying grounded through every season of building a business.

Connect with us:

• Julie Cole on LinkedIn
• Mabel’s Labels
• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners:

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

When Amy & JJ Stone founded GURU Pet Company in 2023, it was like stepping out from behind the curtain to take center stage in a play. After more than a decade inventing pet products for some of the biggest pet brands in the world, the Stones decided it was time to step into the spotlight.

GURU was a hit almost immediately, but their growth journey was not without its mistakes. From too much inventory to an oversized product line, they learned the hard way that sustainable growth is hard to maintain.

In this episode, we sit down with Amy Stone as she shares the story of how and why GURU Pet Company began, where she gets her ideas for new products, why she recommends everyone start a company with their spouse, and the lessons that have helped her find success as a founder.

Connect with us:

• Amy Stone on LinkedIn
• GURU Pet Store
• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

Founders fail for a variety of reasons, and it’s almost never because of a bad product. Over the years, Mark and Jennifer have had front-row seats to a multitude of startups, and they’ve spotted patterns that separate the successes from the failures.

From poor cash flow management to hiring mistakes to overestimating marketing, in this episode, we walk through the five most common reasons founders fail – and how you can keep your startup on the path to long-term success.

Connect with us:

• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

Cash is king. No one knows the truth of that statement better than a startup founder who suddenly finds himself owing his suppliers, his employees and his landlord all within a week of each other. Growth is exciting, but it’s easy to lose sight of your cash flow and end up “growing yourself into a hole.”

In this episode, Mark shares the hard stories from his time at GiftCertificates.com and Hayneedle that taught him valuable lessons of cash management. We discuss the importance of relationships, how to minimize dilution in the critical early stages, and how to connect with the right investors for your company. Tune in for the whole conversation!

Connect with us:

• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s a common saying in the business world, and it’s also one of the most important truths that the most successful startups understand. Too many founders think that culture is as simple as putting a ping pong table in the breakroom or taking the team out for drinks once a quarter, but it’s so much more than that.

In this episode, we discuss the role culture played in the success of companies like Hammocks.com (which would later become Hayneedle), Sports Authority, and Office Depot. Plus, we get into how culture and employee engagement are directly tied to the most important business results. The great news is that investing in culture doesn’t require you to do anything big. Tune in for the whole conversation!

Connect with us:

• Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
• Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners

Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

• Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website

More often than not, when we ask founders how they’re implementing AI in their day-to-day, we’re met with blank stares. Artificial intelligence is changing the landscape for businesses everywhere, so why aren’t more founders leveraging it to make their companies more scalable and profitable?

In today’s episode, we’re sharing our favorite ways business leaders can use AI. Whether it’s gaining small insights from mountains of data, figuring out how your business can be faster and better, empowering employees to think at a higher level, or creating agents that help you analyze your business every day, AI is here to stay – and it’s here to help!

If you’re still wondering what all the AI fuss is about – or you’re just looking for a way to up your AI game – you won’t want to miss this one!

Resources mentioned in this episode:
Shopify Magic

Connect with us:
Jennifer DiMotta on LinkedIn
Mark Hasebroock on LinkedIn

About Dundee Growth Partners:
Dundee Growth Partners provides E-commerce leaders with the strategy, systems, and tools they need to face growth challenges and scale with confidence. With deep industry experience and AI-powered platforms, we help leadership teams scale in a sustainable way. Interested in learning more? Click the link below to get started.

Visit the Dundee Growth Partners website