Vetted forums for DTC founders and operators
Build your brand alongside founders and operators who've already done what you're doing.
Brandside puts founders and operators of brands doing $1M or more into small forums of peers near their size, meeting online every month. You sit with the same non-competing group each time, so the trust and the advice get better the longer you're in it.
Two minutes to apply. We're forming the first groups now.
DTC Dines Austin, July 2026
What comes up at the table
Running a brand right now is a lot to carry by yourself.
Tariffs keep moving your landed cost. Ad costs climb while customers get pickier. AI is changing how people find products and how many people you need to run the business, and every week there's a new tool someone swears by.
Shopify's old rallying cry was "arm the rebels." Independent brands have never been better armed, and there's never been more to figure out. That's easier to do alongside people working through the same things.
“Tariffs moved our landed cost twice this year, and I still haven’t repriced.”
“Our CAC keeps climbing and I can’t tell if it’s the creative, Meta or us.”
“AI can do a lot of what my team does now. I don’t know what that means for the people I hired.”
“We’re profitable on paper and still short on cash every time a PO lands.”
“A big retailer wants us. I can’t tell if it’s the break we needed or a trap.”
“I can’t tell my team how worried I am, and my partner has heard enough about it.”
These are the kinds of things members bring to their forum. You'll hear how people a step ahead of you handled them.
What members get
There's only so much you can learn about your ecommerce business from a guy who owns six gas stations.
We've been in EO-style groups, and they've helped us. Brandside puts you with people whose businesses are built like yours. They already speak the shorthand of consumer marketing, growth and finance, so you skip the explaining and get to the real problem, without anyone at the table competing with you.
The heart of Brandside
Your forum
We place you with founders and operators at a similar stage who don't compete with you, from anywhere in North America. Some of them will be a step ahead and have already been through what you're facing. For others, you'll be the one a step ahead, and helping them through it is part of what makes the room work.
You meet online every month, and every session is moderated and confidential. Members bring real problems with real numbers, like a margin squeeze, a 3PL switch, a hire that isn't working, or a raise they're weighing.
The vendor exchange
Before you sign with an agency, 3PL, manufacturer or fractional CFO, see what other members paid and how it went. Every review comes from a member who worked with that vendor, and vendors can't pay to be listed. We're building it with our founding members.
Collabs and intros
Find bundle partners, list swaps, co-hosted pop-ups and warm intros to retail buyers from brands that already trust you.
Sessions every two weeks
Members-only talks and roundtables with operators we've met through 700+ episodes of the DTC Podcast, on the problems members are working through right now.
A private Slack
The whole community shares one Slack for the quick questions you'd otherwise text three friends about.
Meet in person
Brandside members get the first seats at DTC Dines.
Our dinner series puts DTC founders and operators around a long table in six cities. If your forum-mates are nearby, it's the easiest way to finally meet them in person.
DTC Dines
Coming to these cities
No.
City
1
Vancouver
2
Toronto
3
Austin
4
Salt Lake City
5
Chicago
6
Miami
DTC Dines Austin, July 2026. Each dinner brings together 25 to 40 founders and operators. Dates for each city will be announced to the waitlist first.
Why I'm building this
The best thing I ever built for brands happened between the talks.
Eric Dyck
Co-founder, DTC Media
I've been bringing ecommerce founders and operators together since 2016, starting with my first event at the Berlin Conference Center. Of everything I've run since, our 2022 C-Suite event in Victoria shows best what happens when the right people meet. Brock Mamoser, co-founder of Frost Buddy, and Brandon Horoho, co-founder of Montana Knife Co., came to speak, and they still meet once a month to compare notes. Others from that room still count on each other, and one founder still structures his business around what he learned there.
I've heard versions of that story after nearly every event I've run. When founders and operators build real relationships, the value ripples out in ways nobody could plan, and the relationships that last come from seeing the same faces again and again. The people I've watched get through their hardest years almost always had a few others they could call. I'm building Brandside to create a lot more of those relationships, on purpose.
Brandside is built for
- Founders, CEOs and operators of DTC brands
- People who own the full P&L of a brand
- Brands doing $1M or more in annual revenue
- People willing to share real numbers and show up every month
It isn't built for
- Agencies, consultants, and software vendors selling to brands
- Anyone joining to find clients or pitch the group
- People who aren't ready to give as much as they take
Keeping service providers out is how members can speak openly without being sold to afterward.
Who's behind Brandside
Brandside comes from DTC Media, the company behind the DTC Newsletter and DTC Podcast. Eric started out leading content at Pilothouse, then spun out DTC Media by creating the newsletter and podcast, and has run it as a standalone company for the past six years.
We're already doing this
Brandside runs on the same model as Agency, the vetted forum community we built for agency founders. Agency now has nearly 100 members, meeting monthly in hand-matched, non-competing forums, with 3 more groups forming. Brandside brings that format to DTC founders and operators.
“There are so many things I normally have to explain when I join peer groups that I didn’t have to with this one.”
“Within 15 minutes of my first session, I knew I was in the right room.”
500+
Founders and operators interviewed on the DTC Podcast
150K+
Subscribers reading the DTC Newsletter
700+
Podcast episodes across our shows
Questions we hear a lot
What happens after I join the waitlist?
Someone from our team reviews your answers and reaches out personally. If it looks like a fit, we set up a short call to learn about your brand before we match you to a forum.
What does it cost?
Founding members get founding pricing. We'll walk you through it on your intro call, before you commit to anything.
Will I be in a group with a competitor?
No. We seat each forum so that nobody at the table competes directly with anyone else, and everything shared in a session stays in the session.
Who runs the vendor exchange?
Members do. Reviews and pricing come only from members who have worked with a vendor, and vendors can't join Brandside or pay for placement.
Where do forums meet?
Forums are remote to start, so your group is built from the right people across North America, wherever they live. When you want to meet face to face, DTC Dines and our other events give you plenty of chances.
My brand is under $1M. Can I still apply?
Join the waitlist anyway. Forums start at $1M, and we'll keep you posted as we open groups for earlier-stage brands.
Brandside
The founding groups are forming now.
Join the waitlist and we'll be in touch personally before the first forums are seated.
Join the founding waitlist