Could one bad supplier decision bring your entire ecommerce brand down?
Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods) joins hosts Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi) and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) to pull back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood decisions in consumer goods: vertical integration. Curtis built North America’s largest leather bag manufacturer in Mexico not by grand design, but out of pure necessity.
The conversation covers why owning your factory can 10x your business or burn millions of dollars, and how China’s manufacturing dominance is being driven by robotics, not just cheap labor. They unpack how the coming wave of AI-powered robotics could reshape fulfillment and production faster than most operators expect, and close with the one move each host credits with 10xing their own business.
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Postscript
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Chapters
00:00:00 We Built Our Own Factory
00:09:46 Why US Steel Is So Hard
00:13:24 China Math Explained
00:22:09 Vertical Integration
00:28:16 Molds Will Lock You In
00:35:20 Start Small, Prove It Out
00:39:30 Dangers of Manufacturing
00:45:40 Beware the Factory “Trap”
00:50:53 Robots Do All Pick & Pack
00:56:07 3PL to Full Supply Chain
01:00:57 Why Bezos Buys Factories
01:04:52 Main Quest vs Side Quest
01:07:46 What Winning in Life Means
01:10:05 Question Everything Now
01:14:09 What 10x’d Your Brand?
E110B: Most Underrated Growth Tactic in Ecommerce Right Now With Andrew Faris
