EPISODE · May 22, 2026 · 2H 41M
David Protein's Cod 2 | Media Buyer Index | Aaron Rivadeneyra x Nate Cooper x Chris Ruder
from Ecomm Cowboy · host Chris Hall x Colin Dougherty
David Protein just dropped Cod 2 and the timeline is split — Karine Hsu, Andrea, Alexa Kilroy, and the operator class are all weighing in. We break down the launch and what it means. Plus three stacked guest interviews with one of the sharpest ecommerce operators in licensed CPG, one of the most active early-stage consumer investors in the country.ON TODAY'S EPISODE OF ECOMM COWBOYAaron Rivadeneyra (Ecommerce, Frost Buddy) — Deep DTC operator who built and led ecommerce orgs at Stance Socks (Senior Technical PM, ecommerce, 2018-2021) and Kiva Confections (Director of Ecommerce, 2021+) before joining Frost Buddy — the Shopify-powered universal can-cooler brand that went from "two brothers in Indiana" in 2020 to 50+ licensed collabs (NCAA, MLB, NHL, Coca-Cola, Margaritaville, Realtree, Mossy Oak, Peeps, Ghostbusters, US Army, Hendrick Motorsports)Nate Cooper (Founder and Managing Partner, Barrel Ventures) — Chicago-based seed-stage fund investing in food, food-tech, consumer, retail-tech, DTC infrastructure, and supply chain. Barrel has now made 39 investments — including early checks into OLIPOP (the canonical Barrel case study — $850K in 2019 to $200-250M in 2023).Chris Ruder (Founder and CEO, Spikeball) — Built the Chicago-based company that revived the 1989 toy-aisle game roundnet into a competitive sport with 4M+ players worldwide. Former Microsoft sales rep who ran Spikeball as a side hustle until it hit $1.5M with zero employees. Famously pitched on Shark Tank Season 6 (the deal Mark Cuban calls his all-time "one that got away"). Now in 850+ Dick's Sporting Goods stores, 1.3M TikTok followers, ESPN2 broadcast deals, and a 100% remote team from day one. ALSO ON THE SHOW- Hot jobs board- Weekly Northbeam Media Buyer Index- ClickUp layoffs- Avon, New York pasta-maker major expansion- Figure celebrates 250K packages — robot reaction- Unhinged ads- Nukes before building a company- Watch and react: AskCatGPT's Meta Glasses app- Wemby had an electrolyte beverage?- Save water for chat_____________________________________Welcome to DTC's daily — what's now and next in ecommerce so founders, marketers, and operators can survive and thrive.Weekly newsletter:https://newsletter.ecommcowboy.com/Made possible by:Postscript https://postscript.io/sms-benchmarks?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboySeguno https://www.seguno.com/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyFollow Ecomm Cowboy:X https://x.com/ecommcowboyLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecommcowboyInstagram https://www.instagram.com/ecommcowboy/TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@ecommcowboySpotify https://open.spotify.com/show/0q1Pp0rW8j6cehXToNTeJcApple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ecomm-cowboy/id1761749693
What this episode covers
David Protein just dropped Cod 2 and the timeline is split — Karine Hsu, Andrea, Alexa Kilroy, and the operator class are all weighing in. We break down the launch and what it means. Plus three stacked guest interviews with one of the sharpest ecommerce operators in licensed CPG, one of the most active early-stage consumer investors in the country.ON TODAY'S EPISODE OF ECOMM COWBOYAaron Rivadeneyra (Ecommerce, Frost Buddy) — Deep DTC operator who built and led ecommerce orgs at Stance Socks (Senior Technical PM, ecommerce, 2018-2021) and Kiva Confections (Director of Ecommerce, 2021+) before joining Frost Buddy — the Shopify-powered universal can-cooler brand that went from "two brothers in Indiana" in 2020 to 50+ licensed collabs (NCAA, MLB, NHL, Coca-Cola, Margaritaville, Realtree, Mossy Oak, Peeps, Ghostbusters, US Army, Hendrick Motorsports)Nate Cooper (Founder and Managing Partner, Barrel Ventures) — Chicago-based seed-stage fund investing in food, food-tech, consumer, retail-tech, DTC infrastructure, and supply chain. Barrel has now made 39 investments — including early checks into OLIPOP (the canonical Barrel case study — $850K in 2019 to $200-250M in 2023).Chris Ruder (Founder and CEO, Spikeball) — Built the Chicago-based company that revived the 1989 toy-aisle game roundnet into a competitive sport with 4M+ players worldwide. Former Microsoft sales rep who ran Spikeball as a side hustle until it hit $1.5M with zero employees. Famously pitched on Shark Tank Season 6 (the deal Mark Cuban calls his all-time "one that got away"). Now in 850+ Dick's Sporting Goods stores, 1.3M TikTok followers, ESPN2 broadcast deals, and a 100% remote team from day one. ALSO ON THE SHOW- Hot jobs board- Weekly Northbeam Media Buyer Index- ClickUp layoffs- Avon, New York pasta-maker major expansion- Figure celebrates 250K packages — robot reaction- Unhinged ads- Nukes before building a company- Watch and react: AskCatGPT's Meta Glasses app- Wemby had an electrolyte beverage?- Save water for chat_____________________________________Welcome to DTC's daily — what's now and next in ecommerce so founders, marketers, and operators can survive and thrive.Weekly newsletter:https://newsletter.ecommcowboy.com/Made possible by:Postscript https://postscript.io/sms-benchmarks?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboySeguno https://www.seguno.com/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyFollow Ecomm Cowboy:X https://x.com/ecommcowboyLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecommcowboyInstagram https://www.instagram.com/ecommcowboy/TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@ecommcowboySpotify https://open.spotify.com/show/0q1Pp0rW8j6cehXToNTeJcApple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ecomm-cowboy/id1761749693
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David Protein's Cod 2 | Media Buyer Index | Aaron Rivadeneyra x Nate Cooper x Chris Ruder
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