Manny Sidhu

Madari Group

Fast, timely, and AI-enabled country-wide sales of home appliances

Founder and Managing Director

RevGenius

RevGenius is a group of revenue-generating sales and marketing professionals brought together to learn, share, support, and grow with each other.

Ambassador

Epic Inspections

UniSuper

Senior Solutions Architect

Informed

- Marketing collateral (technical enablement, roadshows and blogs)
- NSX and microsegmentation architectural design
- AWS solutions design (AWS RDS on Oracle, cloud bursting and migrations)
- SDWAN architectural design (Silver Peak)
- Private cloud to hybrid cloud migration strategies

Solutions Architect

VMware

- VMware SDDC design and deployment (vSphere, vRealize)
- NSX design and deployment
- VMware VSAN design and deployment

Design and delivery - NSX

- Xbricks design and implementation
- Citrix VDI move from Vblock 700 to 720
- Worldwide Hyper-V design and roll-out
- VDI optimization

Virtualization architecture and design

NEC Corporation

- VMware vSphere 5 design
- System Center 2012 design and implementation
- Commvault design and implementation
- Data Protector remediation

Virtualization design

Melbourne Water (Kinetic IT)

Systems Engineer at a 300+ server multi-domain environment with a 3000+ user base spread over multiple sites. Functioned as the Backups, VMware and Storage engineer, managed backups and restores, multiple ESX clusters and EMC SAN.

Systems engineering

ExxonMobil

Systems administration

Employee-focused business owner. I'm not an employer, I'm a builder of people. Everyone at Epic Inspections, Madari Group, and PowwerUp is an extension of me.

Epic Inspections was created after I was told of highway robbery costs of compliance checks being charged by a dinosaur of a provider in 2020. I thought, why shouldn't I create a business where A1 service levels are provided at reasonable costs so more money remains in pockets where it belongs.

PowwerUp seeks to erase mediocrity ingrained into most people by the 'system' which pounds you into being average. With PowwerUp, you learn from us so you don't make the same errors. While it's okay to make mistakes, it'll hell be great to leapfrog them, right? The goal is to send your rocket into orbit, fast.

Epic Inspections and PowwerUp are incubators of ideas and realizers of dreams. We are dreamers, too.

I have scaled two eCommerce brands from $3m → $30m, 2,000 → 15,000 products, 20 → 110 brands and without external funding. 

I am most proud that we built these eCommerce brands sustainably and profitably. Our team grew with us and many stayed with us from day 1 → day 4,015. 

ABOUT ME:

👩🏻‍💼 Mum to two gorgeous kids who I want to inspire to achieve their goals in life. 

🚀 CEO for 10+ years with a team in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur. Our eCommerce brands were no1 and no2 according to the independant voice of Australian consumers on ProductReview for our category. 

🤝 Acquired by Kitchen Warehouse in 2023 to create the largest Kitchenware player in Australia. 

⛰️ Founder of Profit Peak, an operating system for profitable commerce businesses.

Carla Penn-Kahn

I always welcome a healthy debate when it comes to strategy. 

What I don’t welcome is seeing a slide I created intended to help our community understand how a discount affects contribution profit, pulled out of context, added to Instagram to imply that I don’t know what I’m talking about or to sell a coaching programme.

If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ll know my focus is on profit education. 

Part of this involves helping people understand how to decide what level of discount matches their business’s margin profile and CAC; how to balance CAC and discounting; and how to use smart tactics to shift ageing inventory while doubling down on what’s performing well.

Contrary to Jay Wright’s claims, I do not push an anti-discounting narrative. 

In his words I was “on stage shitting on discounting”. 

I’ve posted countless times about strategic, sensible approaches to discounting and the importance of having a clear reason for running a sale, such as capturing customers during high-intent shopping periods like BFCM, clearing end-of-season or ageing inventory, or supporting cash flow when needed. 

There are many more reasons.

Jay Wright also states that sales are the most profitable time for all his clients. 

I truly wish this were always the case. 

Sure, BFCM may be highly profitable because customer intent is at its peak and CAC tends to fall. 

But the reality is that this doesn’t hold true all the time or outside of high-intent periods.

If your top-line revenue doesn’t grow more than the hit your discount delivers to gross margin and CAC doesn’t fall because it’s the first week of January and shopping intent is low, your sale is unlikely to be your most profitable trading period.

We won’t always see eye to eye, Jay. I don’t subscribe to the idea that all agencies are problematic, nor that discounting is a cure-all for every brand. And when it comes to building a nine-figure business, a blanket strategy simply doesn’t cut it.

I also have no doubt that there is lots I say, you don’t believe in, but let’s keep it in context. 

Context is what makes everything relevant.

Co-Founder & CEO @ ProfitPeak | Profit Optimisation for Retail | 2 x eCommerce Exits

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It’s Black Friday and no one probably has time to read this - so I’ll keep it short.

Wishing you all the very best of luck today: strong trade, smooth order processing through the warehouse, freight arriving on time, and exceptional post-purchase experiences that turn first-time shoppers into lifelong brand advocates.

Go get ’em!

Thank you to The Sydney Morning Herald and Jessica Yun for featuring my content in its true form.

Some of the brands I’ve seen doing an exceptional job with rotating offers so far this month include Princess Polly, Muscle Nation, DISSH and Pace Athletic.

Who else has impressed you with a smart, well-executed discounting strategy?

Don’t drop the ball.

Only 16% of customers acquired in November 2024 came back to shop again. 

I put a lot of that down to poor customer experiences.

As the warehouse heats up, delays start stacking, and your customer service team feels the strain… now is not the time to fumble.

Start with proactive communication — let customers know how their order is progressing in the backlog, reassure them you’re on track to meet Australia Post’s pre-Christmas deadlines, and keep them updated before they have to ask.

Now is not the time to go quiet.

No future discount or loyalty scheme will win back a customer who’s had a terrible first experience.

From my own experience, I know that how you handle a problem can actually build loyalty — but proactive communication is the key.

Henne is a great local example of a thriving fashion brand, driven by two advantages many competitors don’t have:

A founder who is an influencer, and three bricks-and-mortar stores (and growing).

Together, these strategies have helped Henne scale rapidly over the past six years, and in just the last 12 months the AFR reported an incredible 123% growth.

As a Henne customer, I strongly believe this growth could be even higher. 

I often find myself unable to purchase the styles I want due to out-of-stocks or long queues at my local store. 

Sometimes I wait for a ‘back in stock’ notification; other times, I need something sooner and shop elsewhere.

It’s a powerful reminder of how critical product availability is. 

Product truly sits at the heart of everything. 

When you combine strong product with a founder-led influencer brand and a thoughtful omnichannel retail strategy, the result is remarkable  and, I’d assume, highly profitable growth. 

Meta is not their only channel driving demand (yes it drives demand but not all of it). 

I also love their ‘rarely discount’ approach, which protects margins and brand equity.

You never catch me waiting for a Henne sale, when my size is in stock, I know I need to buy it now!

When the problem isn’t what you think – a lesson from The Aje Collective
 
In retail, it’s tempting to see a P&L and fixate on customer acquisition cost or marketing spend. 

After all that's what a lot of time is spent obsessing over.

But sometimes the real issue lies further upstream, before contribution profit.

For Aje, the crunch is in gross margin in my opinion. 

As the recent article in the Australian Financial Review puts it: “Not back to fashionable black, but Aje is looking up”. 

With reported gross margin at approximately 54%, this is too low for meaningful profits to flow to the EBITDA line.

From my experience looking at a lot of data across retail businesses, a fashion-brand margin in the 70%+ range is what allows for genuine scalability and profit, not just growth. 

If gross margin is too thin, no matter how strong marketing or brand awareness is, downstream profit will suffer.

Now, you might argue CAC is the issue. 

But when you consider Aje’s brand recognition and strong store network (for example the combined Aje, Aje Athletica & Aje Studio format in Bondi Junction – I can speak as a shopper) this seems less likely. 

With CAC at around 13% of sales (which is not excessive) the brand awareness and physical footprint look to be in place.

The real issue: low margin → high cost base → weaker profitability.

That new store concept (one rent, one team across three in-house brands) is a smart step towards cost consolidation as well as improved customer experience, and that’s the kind of operational move that supports margin recovery.

✅ Key takeaway for retail executives and investors:

 Focus first on the gross margin foundation. 

Once margin is solid, then you can scale acquisition and growth with confidence. 

Without that, you’re just amplifying volume over value.

Nothing kills gross margin quite like discounting to drive cash flow into products that were over bought or under marketed!

I love spotting examples of brilliant brands valuing community out in the wild. 

On Saturday, I arrived at my favourite KX Pilates Maroubra studio to see fantastic community activations from both Elite Supplements and LSKD.

I also couldn’t help noticing my favourite Pilates socks from MoveActive in the background. 

How do I know these activations work? 

Because I walked into the studio wearing LSKD, Move Active socks *and* drinking protein water from Elite Supps.

This is how you find new customers at a low CAC, reward your existing customer base, and build real loyalty. 

In my opinion, this approach wins over points-based tactics day in and day out.

Let’s talk market dynamics in supporting Australian founders and brands in commerce.

There are a number of excellent coaching groups out there - from Iain Calvert’s Boom Commerce to Paul Waddy coaching group and Ecommerce Equation, to name just a few. 

Then you have the highly capable consultants and fractional operators such as Mal Chia, Bryan Cleary, Ryan Martin, Nathan Bush and Anna Samkova.

When you’re starting out, it makes absolute sense to work with a coaching group as you scale. 

As you grow further, bringing in fractional support can be a smart way to reach the next level or to provide outside advice especially when reviewing internal strategy.

But let’s be honest: at some point, you must scale your marketing and digital capability beyond the founder, a single headcount, or fractional support. 

You will eventually need to invest in either an in-house team or an agency.

The anti-agency narrative is, frankly, a market scare tactic and one that should be ignored. 

The majority of brands leading the way in Australia, and globally, are working with agencies. 

Ironically, many of the founders being discouraged from partnering with agencies are looking up to these same brands and wondering how they achieved their scale in the first place.

What has your experience been?

It’s widely suggested that marketing funnels for BFCM are built as early as August. 

But what does it actually mean when you say your BFCM trade is your “most profitable”?

You’re ignoring all the sunk marketing investment made in the months leading up to it and focusing on one small, high-intent buying period in isolation.

What does this also mean for future customer LTV? 

Not only that, but as Mal Chia has pointed out, a healthy brand with a strong product shouldn’t be doing its best trade during a sale. In my view, the best performance should come from full-price, high sell-through product drops. 

That’s what demonstrates true product–market fit.

On this basis, you should also be looking at quarterly rolling profitability to ensure you’re not making unwise marketing investments that don’t balance out once you factor in your discounting.

There is nothing wrong with discounting to be clear if the strategy is fit for purpose. 

So if your strongest trading moment is during a discount period, what does that say about your pricing strategy or the value proposition you’re offering to the market?

⚠️ Beware of accidental discount stacking.

A retailer launched their Black Friday sale yesterday with a sitewide 20% reduction. 

All good, until you head to checkout and discover another 20% automatically applied in the cart.

That’s not a promotion. 

That’s a margin leak.

In peak trading periods, these mistakes are costly. 

Double-stacking discounts can wipe out contribution profit, distort reporting, and set damaging customer expectations.

Check your promo rules.

Check your logic stacks.

Check your checkout.

Because errors like this don’t just reduce margin, they destroy it.

This will hurt.

I get genuinely excited when I receive an email that’s smart, especially from a brand that’s part of the ProfitPeak tribe.

One of the biggest challenges with discounting during BFCM is that our data shows only 16% of these customers ever return. 

Outside of BFCM, we see up to 28% of customers returning.

So what does this mean for customer lifetime value?

 =A heavy BFCM discounting strategy can have a very negative impact on LTV, which is particularly important for brands like Chief Nutrition, who offer an incredibly delicious consumable product range.

That’s why an offer like this, which encourages a second purchase within a short timeframe is a brilliant example of smart discounting. 

It rewards loyal customers and drives not just quick revenue, but repeat purchases that lift LTV.

The beauty of this approach is that it can even create new buying habits. 

The following month a customer might think, “I need more collagen bars” or, in my son’s case, more biltong.

True story: he has actually asked me before, while ordering Uber Eats, whether Chief Biltong can be delivered… and whether it counts as dinner!

Feeling like you need a post BFCM workout and a breakfast with peers to share war stories? 

Request to join us for pilates and breakfast on the 4th December in Surry Hills before you head into the office. 

Looking forward to hosting this one with Jess Vassallo from Evocative Media, Alysha Bodman from Wayflyer. 

Let me know if you would like the link to register in the comments ⬇️

"I did a recent restructure of the campaigns using dynamic tagging and so far our advertising efficiency is looking phenomenal month to date." 12/11/2025

"ProfitPeak's product tagging really shifted performance for us. It’s made our advertising incredibly dynamic and profit-led, and honestly feels like a very advanced and scalable way to approach bidding and allocation. That structure has had the most material impact so far." 31/10/2025

Here is a real life example:

What would it mean for your business to turn aging inventory, previously considered dead into your second most profitable advertising campaign outside of branded terms?

On average we were able to generate an additional $2 of PROFIT (not revenue) for every $1 invested in advertising on Google with no human intervention. 

Start thinking about profitability at the bottom of your funnel especially now when your funnels should have already been built months ago...

For years, there has been much commentary around whether Australia’s relatively small population really supports two major department stores such as Myer and David Jones. 

Not to mention that we also have Big W, Target and Kmart vying for the more affordable end of the market.

There is no denying that while I may buy fashion at David Jones, the more budget-friendly Big W and Kmart still command a large share of wallet when it comes to my children’s needs.

But it seems there may be a new option emerging under the Country Road banner — one stepping into an already crowded retail landscape.

The retailer, like many other mid-market Australian brands, has had a difficult few years. 

Accounts filed with the corporate regulator this week show its pre-tax losses have blown out to $161 million in the last financial year, tripling its losses from the prior year, while sales revenues fell 6.5 per cent.

Now with a fourth chief executive of Country Road in 12 years, the strategy is expanding Country Road beyond its own brands through a new digital marketplace.

The intention is to curate the best in beauty and home, complementing Country Road’s existing offer without adding inventory risk, with products shipped directly to customers.

I feel almost bad saying this, but isn’t this exactly what Mosaic Brands tried to do before collapsing? 

It will be interesting to see whether this pivot helps the brand regain momentum or simply adds another player to an already saturated space.

Three listed retailers released results recently, with three different outcomes and one clear message. 

Recent updates from Kogan.com, Baby Bunting and KMD Brands Limited show just how differently retailers can perform when growth isn’t backed by profit, brand strength and disciplined inventory management.

Kogan is learning this the hard way. 

Despite chasing new revenue streams - marketplaces, subscriptions and even media, its share price is down sharply YTD. 

Margin pressure, costly customer acquisition and underperforming acquisitions reveal a simple truth: revenue growth without profitability or clear brand positioning doesn’t sustain value.

Baby Bunting, meanwhile, is nudging margins up and driving healthier comparable sales. 

It’s not flashy growth, it’s disciplined. 

Stronger gross margin, better inventory control and a clear, defensible brand position in a needs-based category are paying dividends.

KMD Brands sits somewhere in between, with analysts still cautious. 

Years of weak margin performance, heavy cost structures and brand relevance challenges highlight how hard a turnaround becomes when inventory, pricing power and brand clarity aren’t aligned.

 In today’s retail environment, profit beats volume, brand beats noise, and inventory discipline beats expansion for its own sake. 

Sustainable retail performance comes from clarity of position, control of costs and margins, and the courage to prioritise profitability over top-line headlines.

Who still has a bunch of tabs open with products sitting in their baskets, just waiting for Black Friday sales to begin?

I certainly do.

So don’t tell me discounting doesn’t change buying behaviour, it absolutely does.

And if anything, it’s proof that even your most loyal customers will wait for you to go on sale, so don’t panic about wallet share when your competition goes on sale. 

Who are you waiting for to go on sale? LSKD, Elka Collective for me...

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The Battle

Manny Sidhu

Carla Penn-Kahn

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The Battle

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Carla Penn-Kahn

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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);}Carla Penn-Kahn's LinkedIn Performance

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