Nicheology

Nicheology is where seasoned leaders build the systems that turn their deep expertise into a high-value practice.

We provide the strategic framework and high-touch partnership for accomplished professionals transitioning from successful corporate careers to profitable independent businesses.

What we do:

• Deconstruct decades of corporate experience to engineer a potent, defensible market position (your Niche of One).
• Architect that expertise into a premium offer. Whether it's a signature program, a fractional role, or a consulting package.
• Build a simple, effective go-to-market plan and client acquisition system to attract and enroll your first high-ticket clients.
• Establish your personal brand as a trusted authority in your new space.

Our new high-touch program, The Nicheology Accelerator, is launching soon. The best way to receive exclusive details and weekly strategies for seasoned leaders is by subscribing to the newsletter.

► Subscribe for program updates and weekly strategy here: nicheology.co/newsletter

Founder

Popup

Ever felt trapped by rigid e-commerce platforms? So did we. That's why we built Popup. We raised $3.5 million from top-tier investors to reinvent how online stores are built. Our mission was to give power back to the entrepreneurs.

Popup isn't just another e-commerce platform. It's a no-code revolution. We created a system where anyone could build powerful sales funnels and unique shopping experiences without writing a single line of code.

As COO, I built our team and systems from the ground up. We grew to 35 people across multiple countries, all working remotely. I learned more about hiring, culture-building, global operations, customer development, software sales, corporate finance, and international law in three years than most people learn in a decade.

Our product lets you visually control the customer journey. Think of it as Lego for e-commerce - flexible, modular, and limited only by your imagination. We made it possible to build and launch a Popup Store to sell anything, anywhere in the world, in minutes. No coding required.

The future of e-commerce isn't about technology. It's about empowering entrepreneurs to bring their unique visions to life, without barriers.

COO & Co-Founder

Viceroy Group

Business Advisor

We started Viceroy with a laptop and a vision. No funding, no office, just pure hustle. In less than two years, we scaled to mid 8-figures in revenue. Here's the real story:

I built our operations from scratch. We're talking OKRs, SOPs, workflows - the whole nine yards. Turned a chaotic startup into a well-oiled machine. All while fully remote.

Our customer success team? Grew it from 1 to 15 multi-lingual agents in 6 months. Established a Product Success Network that bridged the gap between marketing, product, and customer needs. Result? 5/5 star feedback across the board.

Managed an international supply chain spanning 5 fulfillment centers. Learned more about logistics than I ever thought I'd need to know.

But here's the thing. We did all this while building a culture that attracted top talent and kept them engaged. No ping pong tables or free lunches - just a shared mission and the freedom to do great work.

What I learned: Building a successful remote company isn't about fancy tools or perks. It's about creating systems that empower people to excel, no matter where they are. That's how you turn a startup into a multi-million dollar operation.

Co-Founder & COO

The Fragile Club

Before mental health became a buzzword, we built The Fragile Club. Our mission was to turn mental health awareness into a movement through socially conscious apparel.

We didn't just sell t-shirts. We created a brand that spoke to people's struggles and hopes. Our Ambassador program turned customers into advocates overnight. Why? Because they believed in what we stood for. We leveraged influencers not for their reach, but for their stories. Each collaboration supported our message: it's okay not to be okay.

Partnerships with Mental Health Organizations weren't just for show. We funneled profits into real support systems, creating tangible impact. 

And our social media wasn't about likes. It was a community hub where people felt heard and supported. Sure, we ran targeted FB ads and retargeting campaigns. But our growth came from something deeper - a shared purpose.

Here's what I learned: A compelling mission isn't just good karma, it's good business. We proved you can drive profit while driving change. That's the power of purpose-driven entrepreneurship.

In the end, The Fragile Club wasn't just a brand. It was a movement. And it showed me that when you align business with purpose, magic happens.

Co-Founder

Leave Comfort

Ever wonder how luxury brands tell their stories? That's where Leave Comfort came in.

My husband and I started this content creation agency on a wild idea: quit our jobs, travel the world, and create stunning content for high-end brands. Sounds crazy, right? It was.

We traded our comfortable Vancouver apartment for Bali beaches and Asian metropolises. Our office was anywhere with WiFi. 

Our mission was to transform how luxury brands connect with their audience. We didn't just take pretty pictures. We crafted narratives that made people want experiences they didn't even know existed. 

But why did it work? We provided real value that resorts wanted. We didn't have a social media following at the time, but because our offer was 10x the value any influencer provided, we got the gigs. 

We helped forward-thinking, innovative brands stand out in a saturated market by offering them reports on how to improve and key insights into the experiences their competitors were providing. 

Key takeaway: In the world of content creation, providing more value than your competitors wins every time.

Shopify

Worked with workforce planning software including Teleopti, Salesforce, and Workday. My role emphasized data analysis, capacity planning, and forecasting. My role also included planning and creating schedule plans for Shopify Retail LA, and other programs and teams across Shopify - mainly focused on the support department.

Workforce Analyst

In this role, I educated entrepreneurs about the world of e-commerce and how to use the platform, including and not limited to product sourcing & supply chain, shipping, fulfillment, inventory, theme customization, domains, social media integration, social media marketing, payment processors, branding, SEO, and company growth.

Merchant Success Manager

ShopClass Calgary: August 19th-20th, 2017
ShopClass Vancouver:  August 1st-3rd, 2017
Gateway '17 Alibaba Detroit:  June 21st-22nd, 2017

Shopify Events IRL, Merchant Success

Graft Sport | Pro Slacklines

My first real business. Imagine two twenty-somethings in a tiny apartment. That was me and my husband when we started our first online business selling on Amazon. 

We created a top-tier slackline kit and started learning e-commerce from the ground up. Product design, Chinese manufacturing, international logistics - you name it, we figured it out.
Hustled for a few weeks until we hit Amazon's first page. Started seeing daily sales roll in and felt invincible!

Then one negative review from a competitor ruined the party. Amazon couldn’t do anything about it and our listing tanked. So we pivoted to direct sales and learned the hard way that heavy products and shipping don't mix.

Ultimately sold to a California buyer. Not a huge exit, but the lessons were invaluable.
Graft Sport was my crash course in entrepreneurship. It taught me resilience, problem-solving, and laid the foundation for every business venture that followed.

Key takeaway: Your first business probably won't make you rich, but the experience is priceless. It's all about the long game.

Co-Founder (Acquired)

kate spade new york

Retail Merchandiser

Retail Specialist

lululemon

Fit Model

Retail Merchandiser & Educator

ROXANNE NIKKI

Ever wonder what it's like behind the scenes of a fashion brand? I got a front-row seat interning for Roxanne Nikki, a Vancouver designer with 30 years in the game. This wasn't your typical coffee-fetching internship. I was in the trenches, scissors in hand, cutting everything from faux fur to leather. 

Learned real quick that different fabrics demand different techniques. Prepped fabric bundles for sample sewing. Sounds simple, right? Well, It's an art form. Got my hands on industrial sewing machines and picked up hand-stitching techniques. Basting seams became my new party trick.

But the real gold was sitting in on design and strategy meetings. Watching a seasoned pro navigate the business side of fashion was eye-opening and I ate it up.

Key lesson: Fashion isn't just about beautiful clothes. It's a business, and a tough one at that. This internship taught me the grit required to build something real — a lesson I've carried into every venture since.

Fashion Design Internship

After a successful corporate career, you’ve reached the point where you’re ready to build something of your own. 

You have the deep expertise, the reputation, and the drive. 

But you've likely discovered the skills that made you a brilliant executive aren't the same skills required to launch a profitable independent business from scratch.

I understand this transition because I've lived it from every angle—from the inside of a major corporation, from the trenches of a bootstrapped startup, and from the boardroom of a VC-backed company. 

I’ve co-founded and scaled businesses to 7 and 8-figures, generating over $20M in revenue. 

As Co-Founder and COO of a portfolio of e-commerce brands, I built the operational engine that allowed us to scale. This included growing our customer success team from 1 to 15 agents in just 6 months and managing a global supply chain shipping to over 120 countries—all while maintaining a 4.8/5 Trustpilot score.

As the COO of a VC-backed tech company that raised $3.5M from top-tier investors like Accel and Seedcamp, I built the operational systems—recruiting, HR, culture, finance, customer experience, and business operations—from the ground up. 

And at Shopify, I guided over 900 founders through the complexities of building a profitable online business.

Through these experiences, I discovered a fundamental truth: successful ventures aren't built on passion alone. They are built on a strategically engineered market position. 

The most successful founders don't just pick a niche. They deconstruct their deepest experience and build a potent Niche of One that is impossible to copy.

That's why I created Nicheology. It’s the strategic framework I developed over a decade of building companies and the methodology I've used to guide hundreds of others. 

It’s designed to help you translate your decades of hard-won corporate experience into a premium signature program and a go-to-market plan that gives you the clarity and financial return you deserve.

Ready to turn your expertise into a high-value business?

My new high-touch program, The Nicheology Accelerator, is launching soon.

The best way to receive exclusive details and be the first to know when applications open is by subscribing to my weekly newsletter for seasoned leaders.

► Subscribe for strategies and program updates here: nicheology.co/newsletter

Cait Holmes

YOCTO

Founder & CEO of YOCTO — a full-service retention marketing agency trusted by Heights, BetterMe, Kilo Health, Healf, and others. We build full-funnel CRM programs that increase LTV, reduce churn, and scale subscription revenue. Invited to Klaviyo’s Partner Advisory Council and Yotpo’s Advisory Board in our first year

CEO AFTER DARK

Host of CEO AFTER DARK — a candid podcast where high-performing founders share the real stories behind their biggest wins, toughest moments, and what no one talks about in DTC and online business, full of raw lessons from the operators building what's next.

Founder & Host

Reforge

Member of Reforge’s Retention + Engagement and Growth Series programs, with a focus on scaling LTV-first brands through behavioral triggers, segmentation strategy, and monetization loops.

Member

Kilo Health

Led conversion content strategy at one of Europe’s fastest-growing healthtech companies. Owned retention messaging, monetization flows, and content-driven acquisition across multiple brands. Also built the internal onboarding and training system for Kilo’s next generation of conversion copywriters.

Conversion Content Lead

George Kapernaros

I consulted small, mid-sized, and large companies on how to improve customer life value and user monetization. Projects ranged from user onboarding and lifecycle optimization to acquisition funnels, pricing, upsells, and product-market fit clarity.

The Atomic Garden Vilnius

Delivered guest lectures on advanced conversion messaging and user behavior at Lithuania’s top advertising school, The Atomic Garden Vilnius — focused on helping young creatives learn how turn messaging into measurable performance.

Guest Lecturer

divbrands

When the company broke the 100+ employee mark (in less than 3 years), I was promoted to marketing director. During that time my responsibilities grew to include the brand strategy for every new product or store, a new CRM and email marketing department, and an ever-growing marketing team, which now also included a fully fleshed CRO arm and a market research team. 

In parallel, I was also responsible for liaising with the company's agency and other creative partners, including performance agencies and content producers, spread in 3 continents.

When I decided to leave to pursue my entrepreneurial journey, the company was at a record high financial performance and expanding aggressively.

Marketing Director

As the company started growing, I was promoted to lead copywriter and almost immediately to general marketing manager. During that time, I led the entire creative content production team, including 3 copywriters, 3 video editors, and 1 photographer. 

I also established the foundations of CRO (conversion rate optimization) in the company and developed an advertising creative framework that would become the basis of new product and store launches. 

Overall, I was involved in or directly led 200+ e-commerce product launches in European markets (often launching multiple stores per week).

Marketing Manager / Head Copywriter

Got offered a full-time position after an advertising campaign I produced as a freelancer scaled to high 6-figures in Facebook ads revenue. 

During my role, I brainstormed marketing campaign angles and produced a variety of conversion assets (sales pages, advertorials, email sequences, Facebook ads, and more) which helped generate massive growth in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Japan.

As the company's third full-time employee, I was there since the beginning and helped build the processes and systems that would later support 100+ employees and contractors.

Copywriter

Independent Consultant

I've been living and breathing direct response for many years. Here are some nice things people said about me, when I was starting:

"George is more than capable of turning even the most abstract idea into solid, highly compelling copy. Very professional, extraordinarily talented - he is definitely an asset to your team."

"I am amazed by George’s ability to turn any of our e-commerce projects into an exciting, unique and profitable story. He is highly knowledgeable in the field of marketing and sales, and besides copywriting, he is always curious, helpful and available to think together about performance, tactics, strategy, leadership or any of the creative steps of our projects in order to reach our common goals as a team."

"Amazing experience would highly recommend George anytime! He's a talented copywriter and has a great sense for persuasion and marketing."

"Thank you, George, for your professionalism and excellent writing skill. You helped rescue our project when it was needed the most. A++++ would love to work with him again!"

"George is an excellent copywriter and all-around great person. He went above and beyond the call of duty for my project to make sure it was what I was looking for. His communication was excellent and he even delivered ahead of an already tight deadline. I will certainly be working with him again soon."

"George has had a key role in the growth of our international e-commerce business. He's extremely competent, full of positive energy and a true self-starter. My team and I really enjoy working with him, because he always brings excellent knowledge about marketing and sales to the table and a great attitude! His sales copywriting helped us generate multiple six figures in sales over the past months. I highly recommend George for any leadership role involving an in-depth understanding of sales, marketing, and copywriting in your organization."

Direct-Response Copywriter & Strategist

Smarterchains

I helped refine and develop SmarterChains' communication and content marketing strategy, collaborated with the design and development team, and executed the day-to-day content production and content promotion.

I discussed marketing strategy and content tactics directly with the CEO & Co-Founders (top-ranked senior executives & P&G alumni).

Content Marketing

ReGeneration | Global Shapers Athens Hub

Out of 6000 candidates, finished as a top 100 finalist. Scored at the top percentile for both abstract reasoning and numerical reasoning. Received 56+ hours of business and softs skills training by industry experts and a placement in a Greek tech startup.

Finalist

Owner @ YOCTO | 传奇 | CXL Instructor | Reforge Member

I run YOCTO, a retention marketing agency trusted by brands like Healf, Heights, BetterMe, and Kilo Health. We help DTC teams solve complex CRM problems and break through their acquisition ceiling.

Quick Bio:
- CEO & Founder of YOCTO, the #1 retention marketing agency for health & wellness brands
- Powered CRM for 100+ clients incl. Heights, BetterMe, Kilo Health, Elo, Miracare, Healf and others
- Advisor to Klaviyo (Partner Council) & Yotpo (Email Advisory Board)
- Host of CEO AFTER DARK, a candid podcast for high-performing founders
- MBA, Reforge member, CXL instructor, guest lecturer @ The Atomic Garden

WE DO NOT PROVIDE 'AUDITS' FOR A VERY GOOD REASON

Transparently, you don’t need another teardown that says,

- “Your welcome flow is missing a text.”
- “You should A/B test your popup.”
- “Send more segments.”

You already know that. What you need is a plan. A real, outcome-driven plan that gets you closer to your retention goal - whether that’s increasing LTV, fixing drop-off between orders one and two, reducing churn, or improving CAC payback.

That’s why YOCTO doesn’t do audits. We do Strategy Activations.™

A STRATEGY ACTIVATION™ IS A GAMEPLAN

This isn’t a templated teardown or a list of flaws in your lifecycle setup. It’s a fully mapped, high-leverage strategy designed to help you hit your retention targets *this quarter.* Specific moves. Clear priorities.

You’ll walk away with:

- A diagnosis of what’s actually hurting retention (backed by cancel behavior and flow data)
-  A focused roadmap to increase LTV, improve AOV, or hit any retention KPI that matters right now
- LTV:CAC modeling that shows how the plan could pay off
- Built by people who live and breathe CRM, not best-practice blogs

If you’re serious about scaling through retention... find a time here:
https://calendly.com/george-kapernaros/socratic-interview

I didn’t plan to share this publicly, but since competitors are asking their agency coaches behind the scenes... YOCTO is closing 2025 at around €1M EBITDA. That alone tells me 2026 is going to be a knife fight. 

In the last few months: 

1. One of our top U.S. competitors just pivoted into subscriptions.

2. Friends in the UK are suddenly repositioning directly into our lane.

3. And quietly, behind the curtain, we're increasingly becoming the benchmark other agencies compare themselves to.

"Why is this Greek guy's company out-earning, out-positioning, and out-thinking us... in half the time we've been doing business... when they're not even living in our country?" 

In other words: Competition is about to go CRAZY. So let me be brutally honest about where we actually stand.

Our disadvantages: 

1. We're building the plane while flying it. A lot of this year has been rebuilding foundations that should've been set earlier. 

We grew decently well, but it was messy, stressful as hell, and expensive.

Founders love to glamorize chaos. I don't. This year wasn't fun at all.

2. We hired too late, too often. I’ve historically run the team to the absolute limit before adding headcount - which means we’ve always hired too late.

And hiring late has a cost:

- We lost opportunity.
- We burned good people out.
- We onboarded into chaos.
- Our churn increased.
- And our growth slowed when it didn’t need to.

Hiring fast is chaotic. Hiring slow is smooth. Fixing this in 2026.

3. I've been carrying too much of the weight myself. Founders don't talk about this publicly, but I will. 

In many ways, YOCTO is strong because I am strong - that is both an asset and a liability. When I see a problem, my default move is always:

"I have to fix it."

But when you don’t have a documented escalation protocol.. and your founder instinct is to take over and fix it... People learn to wait for you to take lead instead of solving things. 

I suck at this. Need to get better fast. 

Why we'll win anyway:

1. We're bringing in help. Our management team expands in January. And we've brought in Prosana to strengthen our hiring.

2. Out network is absurdly strong. We're getting tons of referrals from clients, agencies, tech partners, consultants, etc. 

It's compounding. 

3. Competitors can copy our ICP, they can copy our positioning, website, audit decks.

They can even name their agency "OKTO" instead of YOCTO (which actually happened - sorry for the callout Rammin 😂).

But they can’t copy original thinking.

Most agencies think within the limits of the platforms they use. Their “strategy” is whatever Klaviyo, Recharge, or the guru of the month told them.

We think from first principles. That’s the part you can’t steal.

In my opinion, competitors don't beat you. Your internal problems do. And 2025 forced us to confront all of ours, directly. 2026 will be brutal. This post may age poorly.

But based on everything I'm seeing...

I really like our chances. 🍻

CEO at YOCTO | Klaviyo Elite Partner + Advisory Council Member | #1 Lifecycle Agency for Health & Wellness | Clients: Kilo.health, BetterMe, Healf, Evereden, Frøya Organics, Heights, Miracare, Elo.health +100 Others

Last week I accidentally started a holy war on LinkedIn. I wrote: "Give me ONE good reason to use Omnisend instead of Klaviyo and I’ll believe you."

The replies were interesting:

- "For 99.99% of brands they do the same thing."
- "One is cheaper."
- "Omnisend has better support."
- "Klaviyo is for the big guys."

IMO, this is like saying:

"I prefer riding a donkey instead of a sports car because I save on fuel."

And this is where I’m going to be blunt:

"Tech doesn't matter" is one of the most profitable lies in ecommerce. It spreads because:

1. Most vendors NEED you to believe everything is a commodity so they can compete and sell their product. 
2. Many (not most) service providers just promote whatever gives them the biggest affiliate payout.

The software you use absolutely matters. Here are some examples: 

- Klaviyo can extend its tracking ID for 365 days, which means you can identify users for 365 days instead of 7.

- You have multi-channel cooperative attribution between email and SMS right out of the box.

- You have channels like push and Whatsapp, that other platforms simply don't have at all, far stronger segmentation, flows, analytics and many other things out of the box.

And that’s before we talk about the AI / predictive stack and Service layer Klaviyo has launched in the last 12 months.

But to be clear, this is not a "Klaviyo vs. Omnisend" issue. It's much more toxic and widespread across the entire Shopify stack.

Let's take subscriptions. 

1. There are platforms that let you A/B test your cancelation flow... and platforms that don't. 

2. There are platforms that allow you to upsell subscription in cart, checkout, and post-purchase... and platforms that don't.

If you do not understand the significance of this, then you need to educate yourself because you're likely being led in the wrong direction. 

"But we can't afford the more expensive software..."

If paying a bit more for a software that is STRICTLY BETTER breaks your business, then your core problem is not software. It's that your unit economics don't make sense. 

For context, this BFCM, we cut an SMS bill from ~$100K/month to ~$30K on one project by consolidating into Klaviyo… and kept performance the same.

So spare me the “Klaviyo is only for the big guys” story.

It’s just wrong.

The truth is that many (most?) brands are not equipped to select vendors, so they inherit whatever their agency, or friend in a Slack/Whatsapp group is pushing this quarter.

So here's my actual advice:

If the person advising you on tech can’t explain, in plain English, why they recommend the platform they do and what you’d lose by switching, they are not qualified to advise you.

Technology doesn't replace strategy.

But the wrong tools GUARANTEE your strategy will never reach its ceiling.

Peace out - and genuinely, nothing but love to the Omnisend team.
It is a good product, and I love Lithuania in more ways than one. 

But saying it’s on parity with Klaviyo?

That’s wild.

I thought I was dreaming. A friend introduced me to this cold outreach provider. I took the call mostly as a courtesy. They asked for our ICP. 

I shared it.

And then they sent me this email:

“CPG is hard. I’ve tried it. It didn’t go well. And because we’re selling email marketing on top of a tough ICP… I don’t know if you’d make your money back with me.”

They essentially rejected working with us without any hype.

 No “25–30 guaranteed appointments per month.”

 No fake case studies.
 
Just a brutally honest “We’re probably not the right fit.” 

(Who would have thought, an honest cold outreach provider, haha). 

But here’s the strange part: I trusted this guy more than all of the others who promised me the moon and told me they've "cracked cold email." 

There's a lesson in that. 

Disqualification builds more trust than exaggeration ever will. 

If you can say “no” when it’s not the right fit… you’ll get more “yes” than the clowns who say yes to everything, then tarnish their firm's reputation in the process.

Wishing y'all a profitable, low-CPM, Black Friday. LET'S GO! 🔥

Get out of spam FAST. This is what Klaviyo won't tell you about deliverability: https://lnkd.in/dxK3Ra6K

Everyday Dose  just ran the most *INSANE* BFCM offer stack I’ve ever seen: 61% off, free creamer, VIP starter kit, random $100 cash in boxes AND 100 full refunds. 

I tore apart every step of the funnel and broke down what you can steal from them in this short YouTube video.

Question for you: do you want me to go “full nerd” and buy the product so I can reverse-engineer their onboarding, billing reminders, and churn prevention flows, too?

Video here: https://lnkd.in/dEZPcWYe 

👇 Drop a YES in the comments if you want the retention breakdown next.

I have significantly less respect for lifecycle specialists who move from agency to brand than lifecycle specialists who move from brand to agency. Brand-side is easy mode! Where's the fun in going for "easy mode"!???! Only someone who's done both can recognize this.

We know (definitively) that every time a billing reminder is sent, churn goes up. We also know it's illegal not to send one. The conventional response is to optimize the billing reminder itself.

Stronger copy, clear skip/pause options, etc. 

There's value there. Our friends over at Zaymo (YC W24) have done great work to make the process smoother and more effective through their technology.

Yet, if you reason through first principles, the better solution isn't to optimize reminders.

It's to reduce how often they happen.

Because mathematically speaking - fewer billing moments will lead to fewer churn opportunities. 

Which means the most powerful churn-reduction tactic isn’t lifecycle-related or creative - it’s structural, and it starts with your selling plan or offer.

Sell greater quantities upfront. Quarterly. Semiannual. Annual.

Do you think it’s an accident that telco companies lock you into 24-month contracts?

:)

Glad to contribute to Klaviyo’s latest blog as a subject-matter expert: https://lnkd.in/dN6QG8ht If you take 10 minutes to apply the tip I share, you’ll see your conversion rates, and AOV go up. 

Thanks for the collab Steph Darrah, Omar Lovert, and Stefan Milicevic - and the golden nuggets y'all shared!

taplio

The Battle

Cait Holmes

George Kapernaros

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The Battle

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George Kapernaros

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}George Kapernaros's LinkedIn Performance

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