For those of you just coming across my account, I’m planning to share a lot more here in 2026 … My name is Matt Bertulli. I learned how to code before most people had access to the internet. - Started working with computers at 11 - Started coding as a teenager - First job: Engineering company at 17 - Got deep into software and the internet in the mid-90s, before eCommerce really existed That technical foundation shaped everything that came next. - Joined NetSuite in 2005, before they went public - Worked as a sales engineer in pre-sales - Spent years talking directly to companies deciding whether to buy - Learned how businesses actually make buying decisions Then the financial crisis hit. - Left NetSuite during the downturn - Started a software services company on Magento, pre-Shopify - Bootstrapped the business for 10 years - Sold it to private equity in 2018 That exit was the moment my wife and I realized we didn’t have to work anymore. But I didn’t take time off. - Became the first outside investor in Pila before it had revenue - Helped scale the business into a complex consumer operation - Backed the company based on the product, the material, and my belief in how to build and sell on the internet Since then: Raised $50M+ in venture capital, largely for R&D and material science Built and operate owned manufacturing facilities in Canada and the US Scaled very quickly Watched the business fall apart Rebuilt it. It’s healthy & growing again. So I’ve lived the full spectrum. - Bootstrapped and sold a company - Worked with VCs and private equity - Scaled fast - Failed publicly and privately - Rebuilt from the damage What I’ll be writing about on my page: - What it actually takes to build durable consumer companies - Why product-market fit is often misunderstood in consumer - How markets, culture, and positioning really evolve over time - The difference between short-term success and long-term businesses - What only CEOs can do, and what they shouldn’t touch - Lessons from building, stalling, rebuilding, and doing it again I don’t believe great companies are built in 2 or 3 years. They’re built over decades. Through cycles. Through mistakes. Through collapse and rebuild. That long-term lens is how I think about everything. If that resonates, follow and stick around.

A common question I get asked - what has driven success for me in business and life? It's these 4 things: -An internal drive to achieve. -Being a life long learner and CRITICAL THINKER. -Surrounding yourself with great people. -Taking care of your health. It's simple but not easy.

How to Make a CMO Hate You ↓ 1️⃣ Hire them to “fix growth” (Make it their problem) 2️⃣ Give them only the title (Treat them like a VP) 3️⃣ Keep all the authority (But not the blame) 4️⃣ Ask for honest feedback (Punish for disagreeing) 5️⃣ Just hire a marketing nerd (Assume they can lead) 6️⃣ Disappear when results dip (Let them take the heat) 7️⃣ Pit finance against marketing (Never agree on spend) 8️⃣ Micromanage every decision (But make them hurry) @MacCoyMerkley (CMO, PLG) puts three CEOs in the hot seat: @mbertulli @mikebeckhamsm + @JasonPanzer “Some businesses aren’t ready for great CMOs.”

I think we're entering (or are in) a phase of ecommerce of massive distrust. The consumer is getting fucked so many ways. There's huge opportunity in this for brand builders.

Need to hang something on this white wall behind me I my new pod studio / office. Anyone got a fun idea ? Was originally thinking a print of an iconic ad.

Nice touch @JaiDolwani

It seems to me that the best way to create business content is to just make it really valuable. Sometimes entertaining. But more than anything...just valuable.

I'm using grokbot more than anything else right now. It's basically my coordination layer for all AI workflows.

What’s your current take on this as founders and leaders. Do you expect your team to be “on” 7 days a week? All hours ?

Who are the best brand-side (not agency/freelancer) copywriters in DTC / consumer right now? Anyone want to come on the pod and jam copywriting?

TJ is easily one of my favorite new people … got to hang in NYC at Beanstalk + our Operators Mastermind. His energy, honesty, and willingness to hear hard things in this episode are rare. Top-tier person. Incredible topics. MUST LISTEN!

If you are thinking about starting a podcast you should know: 90% die by episode 4. 99% die by episode 20 But if you stick with it and find your audience it is amazing. It is the best format for building trust and authority with a large group of people.

Getting the basics right and zooming out is often more productive than deep diving on performance data - both are important but it's easy to focus too hard on the data and forget that you are selling products to actual humans and not IP addresses.

Now we’re talking! Check out what Yoni is building.

I'm starting a small Whatsapp group of founders in consumer who work on hardware/complex products. Already have some large brands in here, so looking for very high quality people to join. Will probably cap this group to 15 or so people. Who wants in?

I think a lot of things would be better if people weren’t allowed to post things anonymously on the internet.

Who makes the best monitor/display these days? Are we all still buying Apple?

1000% co-sign

People won’t remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel. Building a business is hard. There are so many challenges and most of us don’t know many other people in our local communities who can relate to the obstacles we face every day. I’ve gotten feedback from hundreds of @9operators listeners over the last year. I’ve learned that the podcast meets a need that no on else is addressing. But I also have more clarity than ever about our mission. We exist to provide community and practical help to people in the trenches building companies. Creating something new and valuable in the world is ludicrously hard and lonely. Our insecurity ratchets up the challenge. All of us, myself included, can find ourselves playing the numbers game. Trying to define our value from a number on a dashboard. One of the biggest breakthroughs in my life has been realizing that my identity is not in the size of my company. I’m as driven and ambitious as I’ve ever been, but not because I need my company’s growth to make me feel like I have value. There’s a reason why social media has been proven to reduce our happiness and emotional stability. It activates our worst tendencies and biggest insecurities. It encourages us to embellish the wins and hide the losses. Success porn content like that will always do numbers, but it leaves us feeling more empty and insecure after we consume it. Because even if social media presents a world where everything is always up into the right, no one’s real life works that way. We have made almost 200 episodes of Operators. I’m confident the next 200 will be even better. Because we know the mission that we are chasing AND the pitfalls to avoid.

Had a blast telling @cutsclothing story on the @9operators Titians Podcast. Biggest thing I’ve learned from these two legends is no matter how many years you do this game the learning never stops and it’s usually the humblest CEOs that win the most.

One of my favorite things on X, by a mile. Is marketers getting mad at being marketed to.