Ronak Shah

CEO & Co-Founder at Obvi | EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022 | Featured on Inc. as 1 of 22 High Achievers | Chew on This Podcast Host

As the CEO of Obvi, I lead the company's vision to offer the most obvious choice of transparent products that deliver real results without sacrificing taste. Obvi, which has been featured on Inc. as one of the 22 high achievers of 2022, has grown rapidly since its launch in 2019, thanks to our innovative and customer-centric approach to product development, marketing, and community building.

With over a decade of experience in accounting, finance, and e-commerce, I have developed strong competencies in customer relationship management, analytical skills, communication, and technology. I have successfully completed enterprise-scale projects involving technology conversions, re-branding, custom CRM development, report design, and release management. As an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022 and a co-host of Chew On This podcast, I am passionate about sharing my insights and expertise on DTC content and strategies with other founders and entrepreneurs. I am also a growth ambassador for Gorgias, a universal tool for CX that I endorse and use for Obvi.

Chief Executive Officer

Obvi was founded with one objective in mind: present the most obvious choice of transparent products which present real results without having to sacrifice taste. At Obvi, we believe the industry as it is currently, is facing a phenomenon which is known as the paradox of choice; that is, the more choices there are, the less satisfied the customer is starting to become. We have set out to make that choice as obvious and easy for our customers. Simple and transparent formulas with a cutting-edge flavor systems make any Obvi product, the obvious choice.

Year 3 pitching to Walmart  … need the best vibes sent our way for Obvi  🙏🏻

LFG Ashvin Albert Raj Ankit

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At Obvi, we run on one simple financial rule: Every dollar must return $3+.

Not $2. Not $2.50. $3 minimum.

We bootstrapped Obvi from $10K to over $40M in revenue. Zero VC funding. That means every dollar we spend is a dollar we earned, and we can't afford to be loose with it.

When you're bootstrapped, you don't get second chances. You can't just raise another round to cover your mistakes.

So the 3X rule became our filter for everything.

New marketing channel? 3X or we don't test it. 
Hiring decision? That person needs to generate 3X their cost. 
Product launch? Software tool? Same filter.

This isn't about being cheap. It's about being disciplined.

When you're this disciplined, you can actually take BIGGER swings than VC-backed brands burning through cash. 

Because the bets that DO work often return 5X or 10X, and you have the cash flow to double down immediately—not six months later after another board meeting.

Most founders see a rule like this as handcuffs. For us, it's rocket fuel.

Last month we were supposed to be in our new Obvi office. This month, one of my employees is working out of their shoe closet and I'm set up in my son's bedroom.

We didn't choose this. But we're figuring it out anyway.

For 6 years, Obvi has been an in-person team. That's how I built this company. That's how I work best. 

I'm fully against working from home—I need the energy, the collaboration, the focus that comes from being together.

Then reality hit. Office delays forced us remote for 2 months while our new space gets ready.

So here we are. One team member literally set up in their shoe closet because that's the only quiet space in their apartment. I'm working out of my son's bedroom with a makeshift desk. Others are on their couches trying to take Zoom calls with decent lighting.

None of us had real home offices. Why would we? We've been in-person for 6 years.

Here's the thing though—when you have to operate in a way that completely contradicts how you believe things should work, you can't just push through with the same approach. You have to fundamentally change how you communicate, how you structure your day, what you're willing to accept as "good enough."

It's uncomfortable as hell. But watching our entire team adapt and just do what needs to be done has been incredible.

We're still hitting our goals. Still staying efficient. Still moving the business forward from bedrooms and closets.

Sometimes the best growth doesn't come from doing things your way. It comes from being forced into a completely different way and realizing your team will rise to meet it anyway.

Two months. Then we're back in person where we belong. But this sh*t has been a masterclass in adaptability.

Margin is brutally hard to find in DTC right now. So when we find the rare lever that generates pure profit with zero effort, we jump on it.

That’s why we just implemented Rokt Pay+ at Obvi. Here's what it is →

Trying to boost revenue usually comes with different tradeoffs:

- Launch new products = R&D + inventory risk + COGS

- Raise prices = risk CVR hit

- Add upsell products = more COGS + shipping costs

- Free shipping threshold = lower margin

You're constantly trading one thing for another.

But something Rokt Pay+ is different. It’s a simple, incentivized add-on to your checkout.

When customers reach your payment page, they see a simple banner offering them something (like cashback or rewards) for using Apple Pay or PayPal.

Brands like Apple Pay and PayPal then reward you when customers choose their payment method.

This is a no-brainer. Your customers were already going to use these methods anyway. Now you just get paid for it when they do.

The banner is minimal, designed to match your checkout flow. Meaning no disruption to the customer experience.

This is a brand new product and things are early, but so far Aftersell by Rokt is reporting an average of $20-25 cents in pure profit added per order. 

We’re happy to test this because we've been running Rokt Thanks for a while now and it adds 5 figures per month directly to our bottom line. Zero operational lift or trade-offs. 

When the same team told us about Rokt Pay+, it was an obvious “yes”. 

The math is simple:

- No impact on conversion (heavily tested)

- No new products to manage

- No supply chain complexity

- Customers see premium brands (Apple, PayPal)

Obviously, this won't 10x your business. But $20-25 cents per order adds up fast for us.

That could cover payment processing fees. Fund a new hire. Give us more budget to fund marketing spend. 

We just turned this on, so we’ll share our numbers once we have enough data.

But if you're looking for margin and not finding it in the obvious places, this is worth a look.

#ROKTpartner

There are at least 5 ways your DTC brand can trigger sales tax obligations that have nothing to do with how much you sell.

Most founders have no idea these exist. And states are actively auditing back to 2018.

Here's what can randomly create a six-figure tax liability:

THE BASICS: Economic nexus = $100,000 in sales OR 200 transactions in most states (California is $500K). At $5M in revenue, you could be obligated in 30+ states.

But that's just the beginning.

The weird/scary stuff…

1. Your inventory creates instant nexus 

Amazon moves your FBA inventory between warehouses without asking. Each state where your products sit = physical nexus. We woke up with obligations in states we'd never directly sold to.

2. Marketplace facilitator laws don't cover everything 

Amazon collects tax on marketplace sales, but you still must register in states where inventory is stored. Your Shopify/DTC sales? Still your responsibility. Multi-channel = tracking it all yourself.

3. Affiliate programs trigger nexus 

Pay commissions to influencers or affiliates? Pennsylvania: $0 threshold. One sale = nexus. Illinois: $10K. Georgia: $50K. Most founders have no idea this exists.

4. Trailing nexus = you can't just leave 

California requires continued collection for the rest of that year PLUS the entire following year after you fall below thresholds. Colorado, Washington, Arizona have similar rules. The obligation follows you.

5. States audit back to 2018 

The Supreme Court Wayfair decision changed everything in June 2018. If you had nexus but never registered, there's no statute of limitations. Back taxes + penalties + compounding monthly interest.

THE SCALE: 

-13,000+ tax jurisdictions in the US
-100,000+ changes to tax rules annually 
-Different filing frequencies and thresholds by state 
-Manual tracking = 9-10 hours/month (and you'll still miss things)

Consequences for screwing this up are huge. Besides a sudden tax bill, penalties are 10-30% of unpaid taxes. Interest compounds monthly. States can legally shut down your website until you're compliant. For brands on thin margins, this is a potential death blow.

Good News…

When we started, there weren't great solutions. But now you don't have to be a sales tax expert.

Platforms like Kintsugi handle this: real-time nexus monitoring across all states, automatic registration, automated filing, AI support. Free tier for monitoring and alerts.

For multi-channel brands, it's the difference between 9+ hours monthly on compliance vs. having it completely off your plate. 

Bottom line: Sales tax gets exponentially more complex as you scale. The obscure triggers and state variations are designed to trip you up. But you can get ahead of it before audit letters arrive.

If you don’t have sales tax compliance handled yet, check out Kintsugi: https://lnkd.in/eAY8C8_k 

#Kintsugipartner

Most CTV campaigns fail before they even start.

Not because of bad creative or weak targeting, but because most of the “views” you’re paying for aren’t human.

In 2024, bot fraud accounted for 65% of all fraud in CTV environments. That means bots, spoofed Roku devices, and fake streaming apps are inflating your reach while your real customers never see the ad.

It explains why so many CTV tests look great in a dashboard; cheap CPMs, strong completion rates, but drive almost no conversions.

To help brands clean up the chaos, Vibe.co put together a 2026 CTV Performance Playbook.
It’s a deep dive into the state of CTV right now: what’s broken, what’s working, and where the real opportunity sits.

Here's what you'll learn:

-CTV is booming—but flooded with fraud, recycled inventory, and unverifiable impressions.

-Vibe.co’s curated supply enables more accurate targeting and cleaner feedback loops.

-AI accelerates production and reduces cost—allowing rapid testing of message, pacing, and offers.

-Verified lift studies from WorkMagic and Northbeam show exclusive results.

The full playbook covers how brands are achieving 55% lower CAC on CTV versus paid social, how to verify real viewers, and which metrics actually predict customers, not just “views.”

If you want to understand how to make CTV actually perform in 2026, click the link in comments to access the full guide.

#Vibepartner

SARAL - Influencer Relationship Management

SARAL is the simplest and fastest way for brands to get started with influencer marketing. Find creator contacts, email them, track and manage relationships, and more. 

Learn what's working *right now* with influencer marketing. Get on our "No BS" influence marketing letter:  https://www.getsaral.com/academy

Founder

Independent Consultant

I help product/tech-oriented founders who want to grow fast. 

I work with the founder or their marketing team to create a proper Growth Strategy, come up with customer-focused Positioning & Messaging, set up attribution analytics, and help executing on the right channels for Growth, such as performance marketing or direct sales. 

My goal is to create a repeatable process for growth and create loops that compound into predictable revenue 📈

I have helped multiple founders scale to $1M+ in ARR and continue to crush it for my clients. They call me the Rainmaker 💰

Growth Consultant

Sunsama

Head of Growth

Prisma

Fractional Head of Growth

Cledara

Growth Marketing Manager

Nium

Content Marketing, SEO, and Paid Search Growth.

Context Page

Product Marketing Consultant

Bubbles

Wise

I was the first marketing hire @ Wise. Created and executed an outbound ABM plan for Wise's B2B2B strategy. Owned the affiliate program which was prime driver of end-user accounts.  9x-ed WoW application rate. Worked with the CMO, CS, and Engineering teams to promote engagement and retention.

Startup Intern

Startup Intern helps the best startups hire the best Interns.

Chief Firefighter

Founder - SARAL | The Influencer Operating System for Ecommerce

Make no mistake about it.

Influencer marketing is the next big thing. In fact, it's already here. Most of the DTC world just needs to catch up to the right ways of executing 😉

If you don’t have big names talking about you, loving you, and recommending you, you’re missing out on millions of dollars of revenue that could be yours 💸
Imagine letting that much money go down the drain because there isn't a simple enough way for you to capture it. 

When you consider that just one tag, one mention, or one recommendation could result in tens of thousands in sales, you owe it to yourself to try SARAL: The Best Influencer Marketing Tool on the Planet right now 🔥
 
🤔 What makes it the best?

Because it makes influencer marketing as simple as 1-2-3.

With a few clicks of a mouse, you’ll be able to:

1️⃣ Identify top influencers in your niche
2️⃣ Connect with them and build a relationship
3️⃣ Monetize you relationships 

And not just with one or two influencers but hundreds. Imagine 100 influencers promoting your brand on socials week on week. It brings in crazy $$$. 

That’s why you’re going to absolutely love Saral and the money it will make you 💰

Here's the best part: 

It brings in eyeballs and sales without you spending a dime on Facebook ads.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s what our users say:

💬 "This is insane. you are literally replacing a whole team of people with these features"

💬 "Holy shit just watched your demo – your product is absolutely revolutionary."

💬 "Love how organized the app is. It looks SO clean. I think the Drip part is key, glad you have that in there. Especially with the templates"

As my thanks for giving us a try, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my Quick Start Guide to Influencer Marketing, that will take your brand from nobody to superstar in no time 🌟 

Remember, it's as simple as 1-2-3 after you read the guide and you're all set  🚀

Get them talking about you NOW! 

Try here: https://www.getsaral.com

Yash Chavan

Your tech startup is only as strong as the person building the tech department.

Exactly one year ago today, I met Yash Kalwani. After several painful mis-hires and tough lessons, I finally knew what I wasn't looking for in a Head of Engineering.

What I didn’t expect: finding exactly what I was looking for... a Yash in engineering 😂

Since he joined SARAL, the product has seen a massive level-up:

👉 SARAL Inbox - like Superhuman, but for influencer managers
👉 SIA - our AI assistant powering smarter workflows
👉 Campaigns - a better way to structure and manage creator collabs

...and many more.

What most don’t realize: being a great startup CTO is hard:

- Build a lean, high-output team
- Prioritize under pressure
- Clear tech debt while still shipping fast
- Translate the why into product reality
- Survive bugs, outages, and the founder's insane timeline expectations! (guilty)

Kalwani’s done all of the above, and more, with grit, humility, and speed.

So grateful to have him building the world's simplest and complete influencer marketing platform with us at SARAL - The Influencer OS.  

If you’re a non-technical founder, don’t wait too long to find your Kalwani 🪄

I am in the middle of reading the new “State of Ecommerce” report by KnoCommerce team, and one stat stands out glaringly:

➡️ 6,600+ word-of-mouth customers were tagged as “Google” or “Direct” in Shopify.

That explains why so many founders keep saying “ads aren’t working anymore.”

It’s not that Meta died.

It’s that your real demand drivers: influencer mentions, organic content, community buzz, never get the credit 🤷‍♂️

You're stuck optimizing for tracked clicks and ad performance, not true influence that creates enough belief in the market for your ads to work. 

And so you end up cutting the very channels that quietly make everything else perform better.

This line from the report hit home:
💬 “Without customer-declared data, brands over-invest in what looks good on paper and under-value what’s actually driving demand.”

That’s literally why we built SARAL's new measurement engine, to fix that blind spot.

To help brands see and measure the ROI of influence that pixels and affiliate links alone cannot.

If you work in Ecommerce or DTC, this report is worth spending your next coffee break reading.

I'll leave a link in the comments for whoever is interested. So glad Bar and Tina put this together! We had fun contributing, the overall report is such fire 🔥

⚡️ You gotta know the rules to know when to break them.

A brand using SARAL is getting ~46% positive response rates on their influencer outreach emails! That's a very very high amount for a seeding campaign.

But if you look at their email, it violates every "best practice" in the book:
➡️ Too many links
➡️ Long paragraphs
➡️ Asks for shipping address in the very first message

Most marketers would say: “You can’t do that!”

But here’s the thing... It works for them.

Because they know the rules, and that gives them the power to bend them.

This is why copy-paste influencer scripts don’t work. Context matters. The market's familiarity with you matters. Testing matters.

I think it works for them as they've already done some huge collabs with mega-influencers, so there's massive awareness in the space for the brand... so all the nano-influencers want to work with them.

If this brand followed "best practices" they'd be stuck in longer cycle times shipping products to influencers.

👉 Know the rules, and then bend them to your context.

This is a good lesson I wanted to share with you all today.

If you’re running outreach campaigns and seeing inconsistent results, start here:

✅ Audit your response rate (25% is a solid benchmark)
✅ Test copy variations by niche
✅ Break a rule or two intentionally and see how it does

Are you running experiments in your outreach yet?

~~~
#influencermarketing #growthmarketing #dtcbrands

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The Battle

Ronak Shah

Yash Chavan

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Engagements

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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);}Ronak Shah's LinkedIn Performance

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