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.

$80+ shipping is customer betrayal.
You're asking customers to leave your store.

International shoppers don’t leave because they don’t want the product.

They leave because of sticker shock.

They'll see $59,99 on the website.
Then at checkout, it's suddenly $100+.

Conversion is gone.
And the fix isn’t cheaper shipping.

Here's the solution:
Show the full price upfront.

To do this, use software that detects the user's location.

Then, bundle product + shipping + duties + taxes directly on the product page.

So:
• US customer sees $59.99
• Australian customer sees $105

Both customers can see “Free Shipping”
(because it’s already baked in).

With international ads 60–70% cheaper than US ads, even small conversion lifts compound fast.

The Takeaway:
Stop charging $30+ for international shipping.

Just show all-in pricing depending on the user's location.

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

If you want to grow your e-com business in 2026, avoid these 5 mistakes ⬇️
Mistake #1: Playing defense
No urgency = no innovation.

Markets punish complacency fast.

Mistake #2: No goal
When your team doesn't have a unified goal, your business will spiral.

Your employees won't know what to do and they won't feel motivated.

Mistake #3: Expanding too fast
At Obvi, our viral flavors made us famous.

Launching a line of unflavored greens would be a big mistake.
- That's why we made Strawberry Lychee greens.

Mistake #4: Ignoring subscriptions
Recurring revenue must be the core of the business.

Mistake #5: Mismanaging inventory & debt
Cash flow > expansion fantasies.

You can hire faster and chase growth, but if cash isn’t coming in faster than it’s going out, the business collapses.

The Takeaway:
Growth comes from urgency, focus, and doubling down on what works.

Don't make these mistakes in 2026.

No alternative text description for this image

Attribution is the next Lego.
Attribution just means who you give credit to for a purchase.

And most teams are counting it wrong.

For example:
Someone hears me on a podcast during their commute.
They don’t buy.

A week later they open a newsletter that references Obvi.
Still no purchase.

Two days after that, a promo email hits their inbox.
They buy.

Last-click says the email did everything.
First-click says the podcast did everything.

Both are wrong.
Buying decisions aren’t a single moment. They’re a sequence.

Awareness without follow-up never converts.

A great closer without awareness can't close.

The fix is simple:
Lego attribution.

Instead of giving 100% of the credit to one touch, break it into blocks:
1) The awareness block gets credit
2) The conversion block gets credit

Why Lego attribution wins:
• Reflects how people actually buy
• Shows channels that create demand
• Proves what’s working together

The Takeaway:
Stop using single-click attribution.

Start tracking attribution blocks.

Common hiring mistake:
Thinking background is critical.

It’s not.
Reliability is what matters.

I’ll take a “get the job done” person with an average resume over a perfect background and shaky follow-through every single time.

Because follow-up emails close sales.

Because the CRM works only if someone updates it after the call.

Because the invoice needs to go out the same day, not three weeks later.

Because the unglamorous work keeps the lights on.

Because churn starts with “sorry for the late reply.”

Background tells you where someone’s been.

Reliability tells you what happens after you hire them.

The Takeaway:
Hiring isn’t about collecting impressive resumes.
It’s about betting on people who will execute.

Here's how I generated 1,000+ leads for AppLovin:
[steal this]

Most brands default to ads. We didn’t.

Instead, we published a starter guide for AppLovin that explained the platform from zero → launch.

This starter guide was the equivalent of a 2 hour acquired podcast on AppLovin.

Short-form video walkthroughs explained each section.

Old podcasts and clips from Chew on This were recycled inside the guide.

Real ad creatives showed what “good” actually looks like.

Here's the key to converting:
We gave an incentive for the audience.

$5,000 in free ad credits for anyone who signed up.

This was all on a landing page. Anybody can do this.

The result:
1,000 qualified leads from a single campaign without paying a dime in ads.

Takeaway:
Marketing doesn’t mean ads.
It means making something so useful people choose to opt in.

Most brands aren’t bad at marketing.
They’re bad at counting.

Specifically:
Who gets credit when someone finally buys?

Last-click attribution is the problem.
It gives 100% of the credit to the final touch.

Last click attribution is wildly misleading.

Example:
• Customer sees a random Instagram ad
• Doesn’t buy
• One day later Googles the brand
• Purchases

Last click gives Google the credit.
Instagram looks useless.

Here’s the damage:
You cut Instagram. Sales drop.

Now flip it.

First-click isn’t better either.
Now, you're ignoring what convinced the customer to buy.

Most purchases involve 6–10 touchpoints before conversion.

Which brings us to reality:
Marketing is a relay race, not a duel.

Weighted attribution fixes this:
• Awareness gets credit
• Consideration gets credit
• Conversion gets credit

The Takeaway:
Use weighted attribution to track sales.

It will make sure credit is given where credit is due.

3 things every brand must do to rank #1 in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini

(Brand operators: save this.)

Why this matters

Search behavior is changing fast.

- ~70% of discovery conversations are already moving to AI
- OpenAI has partnered with Shopify
- In 10 years, the majority of shopping decisions will start in AI search — not Google

If your brand isn’t visible inside AI answers, you’re not just behind — you’re invisible.

What we’re seeing in the wild

Sean Frank (CEO of Ridge Wallet) recently shared that ChatGPT is already driving meaningful traffic for them.

We’re seeing the same thing across brands like Obvi and others in our portfolio.

AI isn’t coming. It’s already here.

So how do you actually increase AI visibility?

Here’s the playbook we’re using.

1. Nail the boring (but critical) hygiene

AI can’t recommend what it can’t clearly understand.

That means:

- Clean Merchant Center + product feeds (titles, GTINs, variants, availability)
- Clear shipping, returns, and warranty pages (scannable, not fluffy)
- FAQs for every hero product
- Review markup + visible review counts everywhere
- One strong “About” page written in plain English that clearly says who the product is for

If AI can’t extract the facts, it won’t surface your brand.

2. Actively test your AI visibility

Stop guessing. Start querying.

Ask AI the way a real buyer would:

“I need an all-natural deodorant that works for heavy sweating, has no aluminum, and won’t stain black shirts.”

Then:

• Build 25–50 synthetic buyer queries per product line
 • Include use cases + constraints
 • Benchmark weekly across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity
 • Track who is ranking — and why

AI leaves clues. You just have to look.

3. Reverse-engineer where AI gets its opinions

AI doesn’t invent “best products.”
It synthesizes consensus.

Look at what it cites:

- “Best X” listicles (Wirecutter-style + niche blogs)
- Reddit threads
- YouTube reviews + transcripts
- Marketplaces (Amazon, etc.)
- Review platforms

Your job is simple (but not easy):

1. Get mentioned in the places AI already trusts

2. Make sure your brand positioning is consistent everywhere

AI rewards repetition and agreement.
Consensus is the ranking signal.

The reality

You can do all of this manually.

Or… you can use the same system we’re rolling out across 25+ brands.

Meridian 2.0 just launched, and it automates AI visibility tracking, benchmarking, and footprint analysis in one place.

It shows you — clearly — where your brand stands inside AI answers and what to fix next.

If you want to see what your AI visibility score actually looks like, drop a comment and I’ll share the framework.

Yes — full transparency — we’re a proud Meridian partner.

This is the future of SEO.

The first reader of your post is not a person.


It’s a model.

Email. LinkedIn. Now ChatGPT.

With SEO, page two still gets traffic.
With GEO (AI search), there is no page two.

Here’s how to optimize for GEO:

Take the example of what we did for Dr. Jen Natural, a premium toothpaste.

#1: Question the model
Ask ChatGPT and Claude what toothpaste they recommend.

Make a list of those exact articles & URLs.

#2: Copy the structure
Use the same framing. Same logic. But with a different product.

#3: Declare yourself the winner
Publish ranking-style content where Dr. Jen is the clear winner.

#4: Reinforce
Consistency trains the model. Repetition locks it in.

Now when someone asks AI for the best nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste,

Dr. Jen appears.

The Takeaway:
If customers trust ChatGPT and ChatGPT doesn’t trust you, you have a problem.

Optimize for ChatGPT.

Google+Meta Ads Expert | Top 1% Growth Marketer | DTC+Amazon growth advisor

I have experience growing multiple companies with Google and Meta Ads. 

I have a pretty diverse portfolio that includes: 

-Making brands millions of dollars with paid ads in niches including health & wellness, startups, law, ecommerce, home services and more.
-I have experience building paid media & content based funnels that have grown multiple companies.
-Scaling ad budgets profitably. Working on a wide range of projects ranging from funnel building to  managing ad budgets up to $1M/month.
-Helping multiple emerging brands/startups with over $200M in funding to build their growth engines. 

I’m always open to connect with people and explore opportunities. Most recently I've partnered with ad agencies as a white label paid media strategist - though I also work directly with brands.

Feras Khalbuss

If your Google Ads lead quality isn't great.  👇

And you’re spending $50K to $300K a month on Google Ads.

Here are 3 common reasons why.


1. Downstream tracking.
Your not tracking what jobs and revenue came from specific keywords and ads

2. Not pre qualifying the leads meticulously.
You can use a simple quiz funnel to pre qualify leads who are in market today not in 6 months. By asking them the correct questions.

3. Vendor asleep behind the wheel.
If simple best practices aren’t being hit then you may be overspending on leads.
Your landing pages may need to be optimized.

If 3 months have passed and you’ve not seen any quantifiable wins in lead volume or quality. 

It may be as simple as your vendor is not properly testing and troubleshooting things.


If your not impressed with your Google Ads lead gen results.
And looking for a second pair of eyes.

I offer both coaching and full ad funnel management services for brands sick and tired of dealing with junk leads and playing house.

Feel free to shoot me a DM.

Paid Media+Funnels Expert | Growth Marketer | Ask me about our quiz+growth funnels

“We’re seeing an issue with lead quality. If things don’t turn around, we’ll have to cancel.”
 -Ad agency client

Every agency owner knows what follows.
-Silence.
-Pressure.
 -Churn risk.

Many agencies have clients who will churn in the next 3–6 months.

Not because you’re bad 
but because flatlining results and lead quality issues kill trust fast.

You sold world-class results.
Then the honeymoon ended.
Results plateau.
Expectations rise.
Patience disappears.

Fixing this isn’t just “tweaking ads.”
It’s diagnosing what’s breaking performance — under pressure.

If you’re dealing with:
-Clients questioning lead quality
-Inconsistent volume or revenue
-Surprise churn
-A team stuck in reactive mode

Here’s how I help 👇
I work with ad agencies to stabilize accounts, fix lead quality, and protect retainers.
 ✅ 12+ years managing and scaling Google & Meta Ads programs (lead gen + ecommerce).
 ✅ Diagonosing issues with lead quality.
 ✅ Profitably scaling ad budgets.
 ✅ Senior-level second set of eyes.

 I step in when things aren’t working - and get them back on track.

I’m offering ad account audits to:
-Identify why lead quality is slipping
-Surface quick wins in weeks, not months
-Create a clear plan to improve performance and retention
-If you want to reduce churn and keep clients confident

Feel free to shoot me a DM.

Residential roofers & contractors looking to book more jobs 👇

Here's what I see all the time:

-Your best salespeople sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

-Chasing cold referrals that go nowhere.

-Following up on unqualified leads that waste hours of their time.

The problem isn't your sales team. It's that they don't have enough qualified opportunities to work with.

Your team should be closing deals, not hunting for their next conversation.

Here’s what we’ll build out:

✅A funnel that lets you book $10k+ jobs on autopilot.

✅ A qualification process that filters out tire-kickers for BANT (budget, authority, need and timing) before they hit your pipeline.

✅Get back $5-$10 for every dollar you put in.

✅ A system that generates $50-$60 sales calls with qualified leads that are in market today not in 6 months.

The result? Consistent lead flow. Higher close rates. More revenue.

If you're ready to keep your sales team's calendar full with qualified opportunities. 

DM me to set up a quick demo.

Financial advisors and estate planning lawyers looking to generate more qualified leads 👇

I've helped grow multiple companies and made brands make millions of dollars with paid ads+ growth funnels.

Most people don't understand how to build growth funnels that print money.

Instead growth is approached as a game of wack-a-mole. 

The main bottleneck for getting new customers on autopilot I see in 2026 is the ability to reliably generate the right volume and quality of leads for your sales team.

Often lead quality issues come down to sloppy marketing strategies.

Making this shift changes things from chasing and qualifying to simply inviting the right people into your orbit.

Automatically.

Here are 2 funnels I'd recommend you test in 2026:

-Quiz funnels - These allow you to generate high intent leads based on questions you ask. You can literally qualify any potential client based on BANT (budget, authority, need, timing). These quiz funnels qualify and then direct clients to the next logical step (book a call, etc..).
-Webinar or seminar event funnels: I've worked with estate planning lawyers and financial advisors who made $30K+ per event (and host multiple events per month). Just because they've got this down to a science.
-Both of these funnnels will invariably incorporate BANT principles.

Need help setting these up? Feel free to shoot me a DM.

"We're working with an ad agency but they aren't very proactive."
-Founder

This is one of the biggest growth traps in 2026 for brands looking to generate more qualified leads and pipeline.

Working with an ad agency that is misaligned or asleep behind the wheel.

You end up paying 2 preventable taxes:
-Opportunity cost: Every day that passes you are missing out on better results.
-Google+Meta overspend tax: You end up overpaying Zuck and Sundar on mixed quality leads.

If you are spending $100K/month on Google+Meta Ads for lead gen.

I am offering a coaching package where I will show you the exact step by step blueprint to:
-Increase lead quality fast and stop calling junk leads.
-Have a pathway to 2x ad budgets profitably.
-A game plan to offboard your current agency with no drama.
-How to audit your existing CRM setup to track lead quality down to the ad level.

Feel free to shoot me a DM.

Spending $400K/month on ads to build pipeline?

But you’re still seeing speed bumps and growing pains.
-Inconsistent lead quality.
-Lack of strategic direction to profitably scale
-ROI is stalling just as spend keeps climbing.

Managing Google+Meta Ads in 2026 can feel like a game of wack a mole.

Your current ad agency may be presenting you with long lists of action items.

But the needle still hasn’t moved and its been months. 

You may be asking yourself:

What are our top 2 actions with the most leverage to be able to scale 2x to 4x this year?

Right now I’m offering a 12 month growth roadmap to service brands spending $400K/month on ads but not quite getting the results they’ve expected.

And during this roadmap I’ll reveal:
	-Actionable short term wins to 4x lead quality overnight.
	-Short term wins to profitably scale ad budgets 2x.
	-A short list of success actions with 80% of the leverage.


Feel free to shoot me a DM.

"We spent thousands on ads but the leads were all junk.”
-Service brand founder.

I hear this every single week in almost every industry and niche.

But what if I told you the solution was right under everyone's nose.

And it involved the leads actively TELLING you they are qualified.

Thousands of service business owners are missing one of the biggest arbitrage opportunities in 2026.

And nah:
- It ain’t AI.
 -It ain’t new platforms.

It’s 8th-grade marketing.
Segmentation.

And when you actually apply it correctly?
Your leads will literally tell you they’re leads.

By simply executing these 4 pillars with precision, we’ll build you a profitable lead generation funnel in 60 days with ease:
•  Defining the criteria of Goldilocks leads (ideal lead)
 • Running quiz funnels using real market signals like BANT (budget, authority, need and timing)
 • Creating and refining offers built for cold traffic
 • Building compelling ads that attract the right buyers

The advantages are simple:
• You cut out 80% of troubleshooting by solving the lead quality part of the equation.
 (most problems come from poor lead qualification)
• Leads will actively tell you if they’re qualified automatically
• You can test and refine qualification criteria anytime
• You build a pipeline of qualified leads in weeks — not months

In other words — it gets to be easy.

If you're a service brand at $1M/year and you're looking to scale ad budgets 2x to 4x this year.

While finding a solid way to stabilize lead quality. Feel free to shoot me a DM and I'll walk you through a demo of my system.

"We spent thousands on ads but the leads were mixed quality and we couldn’t track revenue.”
-Service brand founder.

You’ve done what you were told to do.

You invested in ads. You showed up consistently. You trusted the process.

And yet — the lead quality feels unpredictable, and the revenue doesn’t clearly connect to the effort.

In 2026, that disconnect isn’t something you have to tolerate.

Especially not when the real issue isn’t traffic —
 it’s qualification.

What if the solution wasn’t more complexity…
 but more intention?
What if your leads could clearly signal — in their own words — whether they’re truly a fit?

Right now, many service business owners are overlooking one of the most elegant arbitrage opportunities available this year.
And no:
 • It’s not AI
 • It’s not a new platform
 • It’s not chasing the latest tactic

It’s foundational marketing.

Quiz funnels and identifying buyer signals upfront.
When applied with clarity and care, something shifts:
You stop convincing - and start being chosen.


The benefits are simple — and powerful:
• You eliminate up to 80% of downstream friction by solving lead quality upfront.
 • Prospects self-identify their readiness and buying timelines, without pressure or persuasion
 • You can refine and evolve qualification criteria as your business grows
 • You build a consistent pipeline of aligned, qualified leads in weeks not months.

This gets to feel lighter.
More strategic.
More intentional and sustainable.

If you’re a service brand doing $1M/year and preparing to scale ad spend 2x to 4x this is a foundation that allows growth to feel clean not chaotic.

“The ads just need time to ramp up.”
 -Former agency

That’s what one of my clients was told.

Except…
 the ads never ramped up.

What did ramp up:
• Zero visibility into actual revenue
 •Reports obsessed with clicks and spend (not sales)
 • A growing distrust of Google as a customer acquisition channel

So they fired the agency.

We onboarded them.

Week one:
 ~$100 in spend → ~$3,000 in real sales
 From about 5 leads.

Now here’s the important part 👇

I’ve also worked on projects where it took months to get traction.

So what changed?

Three things made the difference:
1️⃣ Proven product–market fit
 -This wasn’t a speculative offer.
 -It was a mature service business going to market - not testing whether people wanted the thing.

2️⃣ Quiz funnels > “send everyone to a landing page”
 -Instead of buying volume and hoping sales sorts it out, we pre-qualified upfront.
-We hard-coded the definition of a high-probability buyer into the funnel.
-This filtered out tire kickers and created a strong and frictionless user experience based on a conversation not a pitch.

3️⃣ Speed + ownership of the system
We went to market in a matter of days not weeks or months.
• No waiting on designers to finish landing pages.
 • No internal bottlenecks

We owned the process.

And yes — Google Ads fundamentals still matter.

In 2026, it’s never been easier to miss them while chasing complexity.

The idea that lead generation has to be a slog is an outdated belief.

The platforms are smarter now. A mindset where everything must be “troubleshooting” can blind you to a simple truth:
👉 When the fundamentals are there, it gets to be easy.

And when you apply what’s actually working, you don’t need to “earn your stripes” through pain and wasted spend.

If you’re a $1M+/year service business dealing with:
• Inconsistent lead quality
 • High volume, low intent
 • Growing skepticism toward Google or Meta,

You should seriously look at quiz funnels and tighten qualification before the sale.

Brands spending $100K+/month on paid media and still stuck 👇

Growth is flat. Lead quality and volume are going sideways.

This is the question I hear most:
“What are the 3 things we need to fix in Q1 to actually see movement?”

In 2026, paid media has become needlessly complex.

Most of the content out there is surface-level — “best practices” that sound good on paper.

Helpful when you’re learning. Less helpful when a live account is bleeding cash and you’re stuck defending results.

I'm offering an audit where I look at your screen and tell you exactly what’s keeping you stuck - whether that is:
-Downstream tracking
-Account structure
-Landing pages
-How you’re (mis)using AI to manage campaigns

Being stuck isn’t about effort. It’s about diagnosis. Diagnosis can save months of trial and error.

Knowing what to look for is a skill. Most teams spend weeks testing ideas that feel productive - but will never move the needle.

 I can usually spot what’s holding an account back in one thirty minute call.

Who this is for:
-Brands stuck in a holding pattern with Google Ads or Meta Ads
-Brands considering a change in agency partners.
-Brands with an in-house paid media team but need an extra set of eyes.

About me:
-12+ years in paid media, helping grow multiple companies and spearhead successful growth programs.
-Took scrappy, unknown brand to category leader - including programs that 9×’d growth in DTC and earned recognition like the Deloitte Technology 500 2 years in a row.
-Experience across SaaS, ecommerce, health & wellness, home services, legal, and service brands managing ad budgets ranging from $2K/month to $1M/month.

I currently have space for 3 brands open to coaching or ad management - focused on scaling ad budgets profitably in Q1, fixing lead quality issues, and removing any obstacles holding back growth.

Feel free to shoot me a DM.

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