How Nick Shackelford Picks Products After $200M on Meta Ads

Nick Shackelford has spent over $200M on Meta ads and runs paid for 7 DTC brands that all share one thing: a subscription engine underneath them. His agency, Structured, spends north of $15M a month. He flew to Hong Kong and sat down with us to break down how he actually picks products and runs brands in 2026.We’ve consolidated everything from this episode, into one playbook. Download it for free: https://www.elevatorgoods.com/talks/nick-shackelfordIn this episode you will learn:- How to know if a product is worth backing before you spend a dollar, and the five traits that make scaling easy- Why the best products sell themselves on repeat, and the simple math that tells you if your business will ever flow- How to run ad tests that teach you something even when they fail, and why patience is what most founders run out of first- Why anyone can copy your entire brand overnight now, and the only two things that still protect you- How to decide what to keep and what to walk away from, using the framework Nick runs across 7 brands- Why equity is usually the wrong trade early in your career, and what actually keeps great people aroundFollow Elevator:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatorgoodsX: https://x.com/elevatorgoodsWebsite: https://www.elevatorgoods.comFollow Monish Sabnani (Host):Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msabnani93/X: https://x.com/msabnani93Follow Nick Shackelford:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamnickshackelfordX: https://x.com/iamshackelfordLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickshackelfordChapters:00:00 Intro01:00 From soccer coach to $100M on Facebook ads04:00 Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and getting close to the manufacturer08:30 The state of e-commerce in 202613:00 Smoke testing and the bath bomb that flipped overnight23:00 The Easy-Win product filter24:00 The seasons of subscription30:00 The real moat in e-commerce40:00 Reasons, seasons, lifetimes44:00 Hire the young gun, Batman and Robin teams52:00 Why equity is a trap58:00 Telehealth, GLP-1, and the next wave1:18:00 Recession-proof DTC#ecommerce #dtc #paidmedia #subscription #shackelford