Ramon Vela

Host of Top Podcast Featuring the Founders of Consumer Brands

Why appear on our show? 

We believe that people want to buy from Brands they love, admire, and feel community with.

Our show attempts to illustrate “Why” people connect to a Brand and how the Brand connects the customer to the world around them.  

If you have had some success, have crazy happy customers, and are passionately obsessed with delivering an amazing customer experience and are interested in appearing on our show, please message me here on LinkedIn.

Host of Top Podcast featuring DTC, CPG, Omnichannel Brands

Interviewed the CEO’s of PAIGE, Sugarfina, Diff Eyewear, Pair of Thieves, HUM Nutrition, The Bouqs, Mighty Audio, Burst Oral Care, Ties.com, Tenzo Tea,  Lola Getts, and many more.

I help DTC brands turn $1 into $43.80 | Scaled Chronos from 0 → 85 team members

Hey! Thanks for stopping by my profile.

I'm Josh 👋, co-founder of Chronos - a retention and lifecycle marketing agency for 7 - 9 figure DTC brands (say that 3 times fast).

In short, we help fast growing brands nail repeat purchases, so they can scale their acquisition efforts with confidence.

Over the past 7+ years, we've worked with over 500+ brands and have generated over $300M in tracked, attributable revenue. Some of the results we're proud of:

👉 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞: 2x-ed email rev in 90 days, $44M in first 12 months

👉 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲: 26% increase in cart recovery AOV

👉 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐌+: 288% increase in total email revenue

👉 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐈𝐂𝐄: 2.53x in customer return rates

👉 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐲: 32% increase in customer AOV

In a sea of retention agencies, choosing the right one can be tough. Here's why brands choose Chronos:

🏷️ 𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬: We've been in the game for 7+ years and focus on building long term relationships by consistently delivering results.

🏷️ 𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐜𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬: We've seen a lot. Having worked with over 500+ brands, we bring a proven playbook of what works - and what doesn't - to get you results faster.

🏷️ 𝐖𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬 No 'yes men' here. Our team actively challenges ideas and collaborates with you to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Making that leap is never easy - but if you're ready to partner with a team that's as invested in your growth as you are, let's chat.

Feel free to DM me, or check us out at: chronos.agency

Joshua Chin

Be me:

> Started running a weekly check-in with my wife 
> Borrowed it from how we run client accounts 
> How are we feeling, what's working, what's not 
> No waiting for problems to pile up 
> No burying things under gifts or distractions 
> Just honest, directional conversation 
> Turns out the best business lesson I learned 
> Was also the best marriage advice I never got 
> Ownership fixes everything

CEO, Chronos Agency | Retention systems that turn $1 into $43+ | $400M+ attributed revenue via Email, SMS, Push | Free Audit Below

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I've been a Whoop subscriber for 5 years. And not because their emails are good.

Wearing it changed how I saw myself. 

Your product needs to make your customer FEEL something.

• A segment 
• A good campaign
• Your win-back sequence

Until your product gives your customer a new identity, emails don’t really matter.

Like me with Whoop.

• I started going to CrossFit
• Started seeing other people with Whoops 

And without anyone saying it out loud, there was this signal between us: We were people who valued our health.

Wearing a Whoop gave me a new identity.

Then the product did something smart. They created habits with an app.

Every morning I answer a short journal in the app. Sleep, recovery, habits. Simple questions. But the data it builds over time is mine. Personal to me. The longer I use it, the more it knows me. Now I’m attached to using their app every single morning.

Two retention loops running at once. Community on the outside. Habit on the inside.

If your product gives the customer a new identity that makes them feel good, you won’t need to constantly battle for attention in the inbox. They’ll be excited to read your emails.

Flows are great for retaining customers. But your customers want a new identity, that’s why they buy your product.

Make them FEEL the identity. That’s what they want.

After 8 years managing email for 500+ DTC brands, here's every retention flow tip I could come up with:

1. If you don't have a pop-up offer on your site, you're leaving the cheapest leads on the table.

2. Aim for a 4-9% pop-up submission rate. If you're under that, your offer or timing is off.

3. 70% of visitors won't scroll past your hero section. If your best offer isn't there, it doesn't exist.

4. Your abandoned checkout flow should convert at 7-10%. If it's not, there's room to tighten up.

5. Max ONE SMS in your abandoned checkout flow. They're still cold. Don't overwhelm them.

6. Browse abandonment is not the same as cart abandonment. The psychology is completely different. Treat it that way.

7. Your browse abandonment email has one job: show them the product they viewed is the solution they're looking for.

8. Abandoned cart visitors are blocked by something. Shipping cost, reviews, comparisons. Answer those objections before they have to ask.

9. Site abandonment visitors aren't ready to buy yet. Don't sell. Just guide them back and let your brand do the work.

10. Failure-to-Launch Flow targets people who signed up in the last 30 days and never engaged. Take one strong swing before they go cold.

11. Your highest open and click rates will always be right after someone buys. Use that window.

12. Most second purchases happen within 30 days of the first. If you're not pushing for that, you're leaving easy revenue behind.

13. Ask new customers "why did you buy?" Offer a small incentive for the reply. It boosts deliverability and tells you exactly what's working.

14. A win-back flow is part reminder, part nudge, part proof. Lead with value, not just a discount.

15. Your sunset flow isn't a failure. End the relationship well. Ask for a referral or review. Leave the door open.

16. A second purchase is a satisfaction signal. That's your best moment to ask for a review and actually get one.

17. VIPs should feel like VIPs. First access to drops, sales, and launches. If they don't feel special, they won't stay loyal.

18. Cross-sell recommendations only work when they're relevant. If it doesn't feel helpful, it feels pushy.

19. Replenishment flows exist for one reason: to catch one-time buyers before their product runs out and they forget about you.

20. Subscriptions aren't just good for retention. They're good for customers too. Lower cost, more convenience. Lead with that.

21. Running all of these at once will usually add 20-30% more revenue from the same list.

22. The list you already have is worth more than you think. You just have to work it properly. Save this and implement it all.

7 retention lessons I learned by questioning everything I was told:

1. The "1–2 emails per week" rule was never tested. It was just repeated enough that everyone stopped asking why.

2. Best practices only work under specific conditions. Most teams inherit them without validating them.

3. First principles means anchoring to real customer behavior. Not the playbook someone else built.

4. Not all rules deserve to be challenged. Test what's recoverable. Protect what's not.

5. Engagement, revenue, and list health tell you when it's safe to push further. Pay attention to the signals.

6. Email forgives slowly. SMS punishes fast. Your experimentation should match the downside.

7. No email or SMS campaign can create demand that doesn't exist. The product is the foundation. Retention is the amplifier.

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Helping DTC Brands Turn $1 into $43.80 | $300M+ Revenue Driven for 500+ Brands | Scaled Chronos from 0 → 85+

Ready to Make Retention Your Growth Engine? Let's Chat!

The Retention Playbook That Scaled 500+ Brands

Me in college feeling lost and empty:

- Flipping random stuff on eBay from my dorm
- Hitting $10K/month and thinking I'd "made it"
- Staring at the dashboard wondering "Wait... this is it?"
- Realizing I wanted to build something bigger than myself

Me 10 years later bootstrapping an 8-fig retention agency feeling more fulfilled than ever:

- $400M+ in attributed revenue via retention systems
- Turning $1 into $43+ for DTC brands
- Leading a team that compounds LTV instead of chasing transactions
- Building systems that scale without me in every decision

The eBay cash was a quick stash of dopamine, but building something that outlasts me feels electric beyond words.

I've spent 8+ years running retention for DTC brands.

Supplements. Fashion. Home goods. Food.

And if you asked me where retention works perfectly?

It's beauty.

Beauty hits on four levels that no other category touches at the same time.

Psychological. Emotional. Habitual. Economic.

People don't buy a serum because they want a serum.

They buy it because they want to feel young again.

They want their spouse to look at them the way they did 10 years ago.

There are layers to why people buy beauty products.

Most brands only market to the surface.

Fix your wrinkles. Clear your dark spots.

But the real driver is deeper.

It's emotional. It's identity.

When you understand that, your emails stop sounding like product pitches.

They start sounding like you actually get the customer.

Now the economics.

Beauty is replenishable by nature.

Even when the product solves the problem it leads to the next one.

Or at the very least maintenance of the outcome.

Theoretical LTV doesn't end.

The customer always needs more.

And the replenishment cycle gives you a predictable window to drive the next order.

That changes the math on everything.

Then there's the habitual side.

Beauty customers are sticky.

Way stickier than most categories.

They've been dealing with their issue for months. Sometimes years.

They buy a product and it doesn't work immediately.

But they don't bounce.

You can anchor them with small wins along the way.

"Seeing redness after week one? That's actually a good sign."
"Here's what results look like at week two. Week six. Week twelve."

Those mini milestones keep people on the path.

Even before the product fully delivers, they stay.

Because they feel like they're making progress.

That's lifecycle marketing at its purest.

You're building a habit around the product so they keep using it.

See results faster.

Run out sooner.

This actually works too. Not just some concept or idea.

We work with a beauty brand mid 8-figures.

Core product is a microinfusion device.

Helps with fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots.

Replenishment cycle is every 3-6 months.

Here's the ecosystem we built:

- Bounce back flow offering a discount within 24-48 hours of purchase to pull forward LTV instead of waiting 6 months

- Educational sequences mapped to their timeline. What to expect at week two. Week six. Week twelve. So they don't quit.

- Product-specific cross-sell flows. Not one generic post-purchase flow. Each product gets its own flow tying the cross-sell back to what they already bought.

- Campaigns feeding the whole machine. Even when click rates dip from higher frequency those clicks push people back into browse abandonment, cart abandonment, checkout abandonment. Flows absorb the pressure.

This is why beauty brands win at retention. 

Every layer feeds the next one. 

Psychological → Emotional → Habitual → Economic

Make 2026 the year you make MILLIONS in repeat revenue.

Here's 13 core retention flows you can implement today:

1. Welcome Flow
2. Abandoned Checkout Flow
3. Browse Abandonment Flow
4. Abandoned Cart Flow
5. Site Abandonment Flow
6. Failure to Launch Flow
7. First-Time Purchase / Thank You Flow
8. Win-Back Flow
9. Sunset Flow
10. Repeat Purchase Flow
11. VIP Flow
12. Cross-Sell / Upsell Flow
13. Replenishment Flow

Brands doing $5M+ are using all 13 of these.

This email came in 42% above our average campaign revenue.

After a heavy Q4, our list had seen the same pitch dozens of times. 

Discount. Urgency. Repeat. 

Performance was dropping across the board.

So we led with story instead: 

• The history behind their best-selling product.
• Influencer GIF in the hero.
• Problem agitation in the body. 
• Social proof at the close. 
• Discount in the CTA

What the data told us:

→ Most of the revenue came from returning customers 
→ The email reminded them why they bought in the first place 
→ It didn't need to convert, just reconnect

Not every email has to sell. Some exist to refill goodwill so the next promo lands harder. The brands that figure out that balance tend to keep their lists a lot longer.

If campaign revenue has been slipping, it might not be the offer. It might be how often you've been making one.

We grew our retention agency to easily run 100s of campaigns a month.

• 75 people
• Strategist-led
• Making our brands $8M/month total

Here’s exactly what I’d do if I had build my agency from scratch:

GET CLEAR ON THE FOUNDER’S ROLE:

> Don’t get tied to day-to-day campaign execution.
> Track core retention metrics: list growth, 90-day LTV, content retention, contribution margins.
> Compare metrics to track progress (last year, past campaigns, etc)
> Founder’s Role: Oversee strategy and performance.

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT WITH BUSINESS GOALS:

> Every email, SMS, and campaign should support core business objectives.
> Ensure your retention strategy integrates with marketing, product, and growth goals.
> Have a Strategy Lead acting as the glue across operations, product, and marketing.

SPLIT THE ROLES:

> Strategy Lead: high-level planning and alignment with business goals.
> Activation Specialist: operationalizes campaigns and ensures deadlines are met.
> Clear separation = better accountability, focus, and results than one person juggling both.

DEDICATED CREATIVE RESOURCES:

> Bring in copywriters and designers dedicated to retention if possible
> Having the right creative resources ensures your strategy turns into action smoothly.

Get the structure of your agency right and the results follow.

This is getting out of hand.

Take 30 seconds and actually sit with this:

More segments does not mean more revenue.

Right now, segmentation is spiraling and brands are sitting in 1 of 2 camps ...

1) Running a generic playbook from A to Z with zero personalization.

2) Super micro, trying to hyper-segment their list into a hundred different buckets and drowning in the workload.

Neither works.

Instead, focus on minimum viable segmentation.

You don't break the list into a hundred chunks.

You identify core intent, which is usually tied to whatever acquisition angle already worked for the brand.

Take a creatine brand.

The buyer is there for one of three reasons.

• Build muscle
• Lose weight
• Mental performance

And that alone is enough to guide your welcome flow, your campaigns, your offers.

"20% off your first order" becomes "20% off your journey to building more muscle."

Same offer. Completely different emotional weight.

More powerful. 

More manageable. 

And a more realistic way to maximize outcomes with the most efficient input.

This might sound crazy.

But hear me out...

You shouldn’t be rebuilding your retention strategy every time you onboard a new brand.

The brands change. The buying behavior never does.

Once you understand the psychology driving purchases in a vertical, you stop reinventing campaigns and start deploying a structure that works every time.

You learn this after 700+ campaigns a month.

→ You stop asking what worked for this brand.
→ You start asking what works for this type of buyer.

That answer becomes the structure. The structure is what scales.

For example: 

I see this again and again with pet brands. They have the same exact problem.

Their emails were written for the owner. Not the pet.

Pet parents don't buy for themselves. They buy for the animal.

That sounds obvious. But watch how many pet brands still lead with product specs, stack features in the body, and bury the discount like it needs to be earned.

Once we understood that the pet purchase is almost always an act of care and not a transaction, the email structure changed.

Every product benefit is written through the pet's experience. Because that's what the owner is actually buying.

Same structure. Can be applied to other brands too.

Stop caring about the product, the features, the benefits...

Until you understand why and how the buyer will buy.

The buying behavior doesn't change. So the framework doesn't either.

Copying retention strategies from other industries is one of the most expensive mistakes in DTC.

Every industry has a different retention logic.

• Supplements run out
• Beauty gets used up
• Subscriptions auto-renew
• Fashion has none of that

A fashion brand running a supplement playbook is running a system designed for a customer who doesn't exist.

Fashion retention runs on desire, not depletion.

1. Lead with identity, not inventory
2. Win-backs need a reason to want, not a reminder to reorder
3. Loyalty programs work when they reinforce who your customer wants to be

If your retention strategy could work for a supplement brand, it couldn’t possibly work for yours.

I'm watching a $50M health and beauty brand build an app right now and it's changing everything about how they retain customers.

The old way will fizzle out in 2026.

- Email open rates hovering around 30%
- SMS getting lost in the noise
- Push notifications on web that nobody opts into

Now compare that to an app.

- No load times. 
- No clunky mobile web. 
- Everything is seamless. 
- A premium-feeling mobile experience

Push notifications through an app are free. You click send and you're in front of millions of eyeballs instantly. 

That's an entire channel of communication that didn't exist before.

And the habit-forming angle is where it gets powerful.

We use Klaviyo's recency, frequency, monetary scoring to rank customers. 

There's always a middle band: 

People who bought recently but haven't crossed a spend threshold. Or spent a lot but haven't come back in a while.

Life got in the way. An app reminds them of their habit.

An app is that gentle, consistent touchpoint that makes a customer feel: “Despite what happened today, I'm still a person who takes care of my skin.”

When you can instill that thinking, two things happen:

→ Stickiness to the brand goes up 
→ Replenishment periods get shorter

And here's the part that surprised me.

It's way easier to introduce new product categories when your customers are on an app. Because you're not selling a solution anymore. You're selling an identity.

I'm an Apple guy now. 10 years ago I would've never called myself that. 

But here I am with the whole ecosystem. It's not about any single product. It's a being, not a doing.

When your customer identifies as "a person who takes care of their skin," launching a new SKU becomes a no-brainer. (Especially paired with mobile push notifications)

We know excitement spikes at key moments: 

- Right before someone places an order. 
- Right after they order.
- When the new product arrives.

But that energy fades fast. Not with an app.

An app lets you capture that peak intent and extend it just long enough to build the habit. 

And then the cycle continues.

2026 is the year smart DTC brands stop treating apps as a nice-to-have. And start treating them as the retention infrastructure they've been missing.

It’s never been easier.

Only 50% of your list opens your emails on a good day. 

For supplement brands, that 50% is the difference between a one-time buyer and someone on a 30-day replenishment cycle.

The best way to run retention as a supplement brand:

The average holiday promo leads with the discount.

ForChics led with the customer.

"Let's Celebrate YOU." was the opener. National Compliment Day was the hook. The 20% off came after.

By the time readers hit the offer, it felt like a reward.

The product naming did the same thing:

→ "Boost My Brows" 
→ "Unleash My Lashes" 
→ "Elevate My Lashes"

Those do so much more than sell the product. They’re reinforcing identity and reaffirming WHO the customer is (someone who uses this product).

The discount didn't change. The sequence did.

Lead with identity then follow with the offer. The emotional weight of the whole email shifts.

Been watching the discourse around Meta's credit card ban. 

It’ll be fine, they’ll fold within 90 days. 

Invoice billing becomes an option, not the default. Third-party providers build workarounds so brands can still run cards and collect points. This already exists in other markets anyway.

What actually dies is the arbitrage seller. People running products at breakeven just to harvest points and fund a travel lifestyle. 

We're like a rounding error to Meta. The SMB world below $200M is a tiny slice of their revenue. Nike isn't tweeting about losing points. 

Platforms will always change the rules. Build so you won’t constantly fall victim to them.

I see AMAZING products flop because the launch strategy is horrible.

If your product launch starts on launch day, you already lost.

Get them excited a week beforehand...

Send a "raise your hand" email before the product page even exists:

"Want first access? Click here." 

Immediately identifies your highest-intent buyers before there's anything to buy.

By the time you go live, they've already decided they're in.

Then don’t mess up the launch email.

Put someone wearing or using the product in the hero. 

• Not a flat-lay. 
• Not a product on white. 
• A person your reader can see themselves as. 

That visual sells harder than any copy underneath it.

Stack the offer to push AOV. 

• Buy one get 10% off. 
• Buy two get 15%. 
• Buy three get 20% plus free shipping. 

They just need a little nudge to get over the edge. This does it and then some.

Then throw a short banner at the bottom for the skimmers. 

Half your list scrolls straight to the footer. Meet them there.

Most brands treat a launch like one big blast. 

One email
One shot
Move on

Do this and you’ll flop.

A real launch sequence has warmup, early access, the main push, a reminder with social proof, and a last-chance close. 

Five touches minimum.

Your list already trusts you. 

Build the launch around that trust.

This post reminds me of brands that just give up on retention.

They try it, build something, don't see the return they expected, and move on. 

Retention is an amplifier. The better your lifecycle program runs, the more efficient every other channel gets. Lower CAC. Better ROAS. More room to scale.

Shutting it down doesn't ever free up bandwidth. It just makes everything else harder.

graphical user interface, text, application

These are all the 2026 holiday dates your retention team should already be planning around (save this)

Q1: REACTIVATION PHASE: 

→ Easter - April 5

Q2: GIFTING + SUMMER SCALE:
 
→ Mother's Day - May 10 
→ Memorial Day - May 25 
→ Father's Day - June 21 
→ Independence Day - July 4

Q3: LIST BUILD + INFRASTRUCTURE: 

→ Back-to-School - July–September 
→ Labor Day- Sept 7

Q4: PEAK SEASON

→ Halloween - Oct 31 
→ Veterans Day - Nov 11
 → Thanksgiving - Nov 26 
→ Black Friday - Nov 27 
→ Cyber Monday - Nov 30 
→ Hanukkah - Dec 4–12 
→ Christmas - Dec 25 
→ New Year's Eve - Dec 31

RETAIL WINDOWS: 

→ Prime-driven shopping window - Mid July (Dates TBA) 
→ Small Business Saturday - Nov 28 
→ Giving Tuesday - Dec 1

The ones doing well treat it as a sequencing strategy, not just a calendar of sales dates.

Q4 revenue gets decided in Q2 and Q3. 

The list-building, the deliverability work, and the segmentation depth all happens before the calendar gets crowded.

BTW

We audit brands every week and the biggest Q4 misses almost always trace back to Q2 and Q3 planning.

If you want us to review yours, reach out. DMs are open.

83% of Chargeasap’s newest product drop was funded by people already sitting in their CRM. 
Here is the technical breakdown of how they did it without redlining their ad account.

Welcome back to the LTV Profit Lab. If I walked into your office and told you that 83% of the money for your next launch was already sitting in your d

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