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.

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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.

Founder - SARAL | The Influencer Operating System for Ecommerce

Make no mistake about it.

Influencer marketing is the next big thing. In fact, it's already here. Most of the DTC world just needs to catch up to the right ways of executing 😉

If you don’t have big names talking about you, loving you, and recommending you, you’re missing out on millions of dollars of revenue that could be yours 💸
Imagine letting that much money go down the drain because there isn't a simple enough way for you to capture it. 

When you consider that just one tag, one mention, or one recommendation could result in tens of thousands in sales, you owe it to yourself to try SARAL: The Best Influencer Marketing Tool on the Planet right now 🔥
 
🤔 What makes it the best?

Because it makes influencer marketing as simple as 1-2-3.

With a few clicks of a mouse, you’ll be able to:

1️⃣ Identify top influencers in your niche
2️⃣ Connect with them and build a relationship
3️⃣ Monetize you relationships 

And not just with one or two influencers but hundreds. Imagine 100 influencers promoting your brand on socials week on week. It brings in crazy $$$. 

That’s why you’re going to absolutely love Saral and the money it will make you 💰

Here's the best part: 

It brings in eyeballs and sales without you spending a dime on Facebook ads.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s what our users say:

💬 "This is insane. you are literally replacing a whole team of people with these features"

💬 "Holy shit just watched your demo – your product is absolutely revolutionary."

💬 "Love how organized the app is. It looks SO clean. I think the Drip part is key, glad you have that in there. Especially with the templates"

As my thanks for giving us a try, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my Quick Start Guide to Influencer Marketing, that will take your brand from nobody to superstar in no time 🌟 

Remember, it's as simple as 1-2-3 after you read the guide and you're all set  🚀

Get them talking about you NOW! 

Try here: https://www.getsaral.com

Yash Chavan

Execution years feel very different from transformation years.

In SaaS, not every year is about shipping more or growing faster. Some years are about changing the shape of the company, aka transforming 💜

- Who you sell to
- What you say no to
- The standards you hold the team and yourself to... 
- ...and the hard decisions that follow

In 2025, we made deliberate shifts in how we build the product, who our customers are, and who stays on the team.

We went upmarket, attracted better customers, improved retention and profitability, and built a healthier business 📈

We also shipped foundational updates, including a unified Superhuman-like Inbox built for influencer marketers, and SIA, our influencer assistant! 

But what I’m most proud of is how much the team has grown over 2025.

Our quality of thinking is higher. Systems are better. Alignment with our core values is stronger 💪

That kind of progress compounds quietly. High standards are not abstract. They show up in what we ship, how fast we learn, and what we refuse to accept.

We’re already seeing it internally, and I’m excited to show it to customers this year ⚡️

2026 is about making influencer marketing something brands can rely on, not just operate. Proving impact. Tightening the loop between effort and outcome. 

Building trust where there has been skepticism for years. I think we’ll change how a lot of people think about this space.

Now comes the hard part. Very excited to do it with you all - cc: Muskan, Kalwani, Sneha, Praful, Omkar, Vishv, Pranav, Abhishek, Gold, Michael, Priya, Iuliana, Chris, Jim ❤️‍🔥

“Influencer marketing doesn’t work.”

I hear this every month. And I get it.

🧨 Brands have been burned:

- With sky-high expectations
- With terrible tracking setups
- With short-term hacks that fail later

But here’s the truth: Influencer marketing does work -- when you do it right.

The problem? Most people stop at "doing it right."

They forget to track it right ‼️

If you judge a long-term brand channel with short-term metrics, of course it won’t make sense.

It’s like measuring a car only by how fast it goes 0 to 100 mph... great for a drag race, useless for a road trip.

There’s too much content on “how to do influencer marketing.”  

But not enough on how CMOs can prove its ROI to CFOs.

⚡️ Some of the best people I know who've been consistently talking about this are Dan Wilson and Sasha Jeppesen from Charlie Oscar.

So we decided to bring them on a live webinar for an hour to chat about it.  

🗓️ Wednesday, Jan 14th.
🕙 10 AM CT

Link in comments. Save your spot 👇

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The Battle

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