• X: ⁠Leo Sadeq⁠
• LinkedIn: ⁠Leo Sadeq⁠
• Want to 2X-5X your ROI in 90 days? Let us help you: ⁠Ascend AI⁠

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Episode Summary:

Your gross margin is probably a lie.

Most D2C founders think their COGS is the number on their manufacturer's invoice. But when you add the real costs, packaging, quality control, shrinkage, damage, spoilage, and warehousing, your true COGS is 25–50% higher than you think.

That means your actual margin is 8–15 points lower than the number in your head. And every decision you've made about pricing, ad spend, and growth has been built on that wrong number.

In this episode of the No-Code Founder Podcast, we break down the complete anatomy of Cost of Goods Sold for D2C brands in a way youve neven done or heard about before.

Its a conversation about the number that quietly determines whether your business thrives or bleeds out slowly.

This isn't a surface-level overview. This is the episode you'll come back to every quarter when you're auditing your numbers and looking for the next margin improvement.

Whether you're doing $200K or $5M, your COGS is either your biggest competitive advantage or your biggest hidden liability. After this episode, you'll know exactly which one it is and what to do about it.

Too many notes and insights that will take your store to being more profitable. Happy listening :)

Episode Summary:

Are you drowning in AI noise? Every founder is being bombarded with tools promising the world, but 90% of them are burning cash. In this episode of the No-Code Founder Podcast, we cut through the hype to reveal the exact “Winning Stack” for 2026. Its a specific setup designed to take D2C brands from high six-figures to multiple seven-figures without hiring an army.

We break down the case study of a skincare brand that went from $420,000/year to pacing $2.4M in under 12 months using this exact strategy.

They did it with only three full-time employees, no new ad platforms, and no VC money, Its all about the execution of the 10% of tools that actually move the needle.

We also issue a "Reality Check" on what you need to stop doing immediately: stop building custom GPT wrappers, stop using generic AI copywriters that hurt conversion, and stop relying on commoditized Midjourney product photos.

What You’ll Learn:

• The Profit Engine: Why the attribution trio of Triple Whale, Northbeam, and Hyros is the only stack that survives the data landscape to give you real ROAS.
• Conversion Rate Explosion: How to use Rebuy and the 2026 Klaviyo Flow Builder to increase post-purchase attachment rates from 2.9% to 19.4% using a specific “free gift” trick.
• Margin Recovery: How to use ReturnLogic or Loop Returns with AI clustering to cut refund rates by up to 29%.
• The "Company Brain": How to replace 0.8 headcount by loading your SOPs into ChatGPT Enterprise and Dust.tt, saving founders 11+ hours a week.
• Customer Service Automation: How to resolve 91% of tickets instantly using Gorgias and Synthesia avatars without sounding like a robot.
• Content Velocity: The exact prompt chain using ChatGPT-4o and Perplexity to generate 52 ranking blog posts a year and drive massive organic traffic.

Thoughts Mentioned:

• The $420k to $2.4M Case Study: No VC, No Hype.
• The "Dead" Tech List: Why custom GPTs and AI Influencers are killing your ROI.
• Pillar 1: The Profit Engine & The Attribution Trio.
• Pillar 2: The Conversion Explosion & The Rebuy "Free Gift" Trick.
• Pillar 3: Margin Recovery & The "Company Brain" (Dust.tt).
• Pillar 4: The Content Velocity Machine & UGC Engine.
• The 90-Day Implementation Roadmap.
• The Monthly cost of these tools and how long it takes to recoup.

DM -STACK- And we will send you the notes for these tools within 24 hours. No optins required.

• X: ⁠Leo Sadeq⁠
• LinkedIn: ⁠Leo Sadeq⁠
• Want to 2X-5X your ROI in 90 days? Let us help you: ⁠Ascend AI⁠

Episode Description

SMS has a 98% open rate but an open isn't a sale.

In this episode of The No-Code Founder Pod, we will move past the hype and build an SMS program that drives incremental revenue without getting filtered, fined, or burning your list.

You'll learn:

• The 70/30 rule (why 70% of revenue should come from flows, not blasts)
• The "Double-Tap Capture" strategy (email first, then SMS, so you never lose both)
• The Emoji Tax (how one emoji can double your message cost)
• 10DLC registration (what it is, why it matters, how long it takes)
• TCPA compliance (the exact disclosure language to avoid $500–$1,500 per message fines)
• The SHAFT rule (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, don't go near these)
• Attribution truth (why 30-day windows lie, how to measure real incremental lift with holdouts)
• The 90-day rollout (foundations → efficiency → optimization)

By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap to build a compliant, profitable SMS channel that respects your customers and your margins.

Key Topics

• The 70/30 rule (flows vs. campaigns revenue mix)
• Double-Tap Capture (email first, then SMS)
• High-intent opt-in triggers (waitlists, back-in-stock, VIP access vs. discounts)
• The Emoji Tax (GSM-7 vs. Unicode encoding, 160 vs. 70 characters)
• 10DLC registration (brand and campaign vetting, throughput, trust scores)
• TCPA compliance (prior express written consent, quiet hours, disclosure language)
• The SHAFT rule (prohibited content categories)
• Attribution windows (30-day vs. 24-hour, holdout testing for incrementality)
• SMS vs. MMS (cost vs. CTR, when to use which)
• Two-way SMS (conversation vs. broadcast)

Connect with Leo:

• X: ⁠Leo Sadeq⁠
• LinkedIn: ⁠Leo Sadeq⁠
• Want to 2X-5X your ROI in 90 days? Let us help you >>> ⁠Ascend AI⁠
• DM me for any resources or checklists mentioned in the episode and Ill forward them your way.

Target Audience: Small–mid D2C founders & operators