Leadership isn’t about being liked. It’s about making hard decisions, living with the consequences, and still winning.

Mike Beckham, Matt Bertulli, and Jason Panzer sit down to talk honestly about what leadership really costs when the stakes are high. They dig into hiring and firing decisions, culture trade-offs, growth versus profitability, and the personal pressure that comes with running large, successful businesses. The conversation avoids motivational clichés and focuses on what actually works when real money and people are involved.

The episode moves beyond strong opinions into the results behind them, including margins, growth trade-offs, enterprise value, and scale. They explore why most people shouldn’t lead, how insecurity quietly damages businesses, and why saying no is often a leader’s most important job. Along the way, they challenge common leadership advice and ask uncomfortable questions about who leadership is really for.

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How did a married couple with $30k in savings and no business plan build one of the biggest beauty and accessories brands in America?

Cassandra Thurswell (Founder & CEO of Kitsch) and Jeremy Thurswell (COO), join hosts Mike Beckham and Matt Bertulli for their first-ever joint podcast interview.

Together, they unpack the full story of building a bootstrapped empire from a living room apartment to over 30,000 retail doors and more than 10 million ecommerce orders.

Cassandra and Jeremy open up about eight failed businesses before Kitsch, catching their manufacturer stealing IP on their “honeymoon” in China, and navigating a terrifying pivot that led to 70 million face masks. They share how they’ve protected their marriage while running a company together, the reality of balancing motherhood with being a CEO, and why scarcity — not funding — created the focus that made Kitsch unstoppable.

Learn more about Latinas in Beauty, where Cassandra serves on the Advisory Board: https://latinasinbeauty.org

Operators Titans is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the our channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://9ops.co/channels

How does a bootstrapped brand go from $0 to $600 million in three years — without raising a single dollar?

Sean Frank, CEO of Ridge, and Matt Bertulli, CEO of Pela Case, break down the explosive rise of COMFRT, the anti-anxiety travel brand founded by Hudson Leogrande that has shattered every assumption about what’s possible in ecommerce.

They unpack the tactics, the mindset, and the cashflow mechanics behind one of the fastest-scaling bootstrapped brands in history.

The conversation dives into COMFRT’s radical affiliate strategy — recruiting thousands of zero-follower creators and turning them into brand missionaries through Discord communities, weekly coaching calls, and a grueling “1,000 videos in a month” challenge.

Sean and Matt debate why TikTok Shop is a top-of-funnel awareness play that no one profits from as a standalone channel, how paying affiliates after the sale creates a massive cashflow advantage, and why having a selfish mission — one that directly helps the buyer — is the secret ingredient most brands are missing.

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Postscript

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Operators Newsletter

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