The CEO of Northbeam Sees $31B in Ad Spend - Here’s What Actually Grows a Brand

Austin Harrison is the CEO of Northbeam, the marketing analytics platform that measures over $31 billion in ad spend across the top DTC brands in the world. He doesn't see what works for one brand. He sees what works across the entire industry.In this episode he breaks down:- What the brands that explode do to grow this fast- The one metric most operators completely ignore (and why it predicts your next three months)- How small founders can beat big ad budgets with authentic contentIf you run or want to build an e-commerce brand, this is the closest you'll get to seeing the whole game from above.Connect with Austin & Northbeam:Northbeam: https://www.northbeam.io/ Austin on X: https://x.com/MAustinHarrison Austin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maustinharrison/Follow Elevator:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ElevatorgoodsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatorgoodsX: https://x.com/elevatorgoodsSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1fCirPyNlzTxT4hOOH0tVCApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elevator-talks/Website: https://elevatorgoods.com/Chapters:00:00 Intro01:10 What Northbeam actually does04:30 The origin story06:08 Building with AI before ChatGPT11:10 Has AI killed the moat?16:46 The tailwind behind clean data24:47 What winning brands do differently29:31 How small brands can win too31:28 Spending big on ads without going broke35:44 The metric most operators ignore43:00 Early signs of a slowdown46:00 The new breed of founder55:04 The most overrated metric in e-commerce57:35 Why hiring fast is a trap59:10 The channel everyone underrates1:02:14 The truth about being a founder1:03:58 The real job of a CEO#ecommerce #elevatorgoods #dtc