Most robotics startups promise what factories might look like years from now. Walden Robotics says its robots are already on the job. The company emerged from stealth on Wednesday with a $300 million seed round, valuing the startup at $1.1 […]

The post Walden Robotics emerges from Stealth with $300M in funding at $1.1B valuation, deploys general-purpose AI robots at Toyota factory first appeared on Tech Startups.

Toronto, Canada, 15th July 2026, CyberNewswire

The post Insignary Launches Clarity On-Demand: SBOMs, No Annual Commitment Required first appeared on Tech Startups.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is seeking a 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) valuation in a new fundraising round as it quietly prepares for a mainland stock market debut, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. The move comes only […]

The post DeepSeek eyes $74 billion valuation in new funding round ahead of planned IPO first appeared on Tech Startups.

It’s Tuesday, July 14, 2026, and the flow of capital today underscores familiar but intensifying trends: governments and venture firms are doubling down on AI infrastructure and sovereignty, as well as defense and related automation. In the past 16 hours, […]

The post Venture capital & startup funding roundup, July 14, 2026: Blackstone, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, & Sequoia first appeared on Tech Startups.

Boards keep asking the same thing this year: hire internally or bring in people who’ve already done this elsewhere? AI rewrites roadmaps faster than most teams can staff, and budgets haven’t kept up with the hype. That’s the gap advisory firms […]

The post Advisory Firms for Business Transformation and Digital Innovation first appeared on Tech Startups.

Tel Aviv, Israel, 14th July 2026, CyberNewswire

The post Tego AI Finds Claude Tag Slack Integration Can Trigger Unauthorized Enterprise Actions first appeared on Tech Startups.

Artificial intelligence is creating a new problem for Wall Street. AI can generate emails, marketing campaigns, research, and trading activity in seconds. Compliance teams still have to review all of it. That gap is growing, and legacy compliance software was […]

The post Hadrius raises $27 million to build AI-powered compliance infrastructure for financial services first appeared on Tech Startups.

New York became the first U.S. state on Tuesday to halt construction of large new AI data centers, imposing a one-year moratorium over concerns that the facilities are driving up electricity costs, straining water supplies, and burdening local communities, according […]

The post New York becomes first U.S. state to halt new AI data centers over power costs and environmental concerns first appeared on Tech Startups.

A group of 26 former Meta employees has sued the company, alleging that artificial intelligence played a central role in deciding who lost their jobs during the latest round of layoffs and that the system unfairly penalized workers with disabilities, […]

The post Meta used AI to target disabled workers for layoffs, lawsuit claims first appeared on Tech Startups.

The race to build humanity’s future beyond Earth is creating a new generation of startups. TerraFirma, a construction tech startup founded by two former SpaceX engineers, has raised $115 million from a group of high-profile investors to bring SpaceX-style speed […]

The post Ex-SpaceX engineers raise $115 million for construction startup TerraFirma to build infrastructure on Mars first appeared on Tech Startups.

It’s Tuesday, July 14, 2026, and the tech world is no longer just building AI — it’s actively defending against it, racing to control it, and feeling its real-world friction. AI’s next phase is no longer being shaped by model launches […]

The post Top Tech News Today, July 14, 2026: Amazon, Cloudflare, Google, IBM, Nvidia, Samsung xAI, & More first appeared on Tech Startups.

CompassPoint Consulting has formalised a strategic partnership with CGI, the Dubai-based compliance and governance consultancy, to support growing businesses across the UAE and GCC with integrated financial, compliance and governance advisory.

The partnership brings together two complementary areas of expertise that are increasingly critical for companies operating in fast-moving regional markets.

CompassPoint Consulting provides fractional CFO leadership, financial planning and analysis, cash flow forecasting, reporting automation, operational transformation and senior finance support.

CGI provides senior-led compliance, governance, AML, KYC and regulatory advisory services, helping businesses strengthen their frameworks, manage complexity and make clearer decisions in regulated and non-regulated environments.

Together, the two firms will support clients across both their financial and regulatory needs, helping founders, leadership teams, family offices and growth-stage companies access senior expertise without the cost or complexity of building every capability in-house.

For many businesses across the UAE and GCC, financial discipline and regulatory readiness are often treated as separate workstreams. Forecasting, cash flow visibility, profitability, governance, AML, KYC and regulatory preparedness may be handled by different advisers, at different times, with limited coordination between them. The new CompassPoint and CGI partnership has been designed to close that gap.

Through the partnership, clients will be able to access CompassPoint’s CFO-level finance insight alongside CGI’s execution-focused compliance and governance support, creating a more joined-up approach to business decision-making, risk management and sustainable growth.

Zaid Aboobaker, Founder and CEO of CompassPoint Consulting, said: “Growing businesses in the UAE and GCC are operating in markets with enormous opportunity, but opportunity also brings complexity. Founders and leadership teams need clarity on their numbers, their cash position, their forecasts and their growth plans. At the same time, they need to understand their governance responsibilities, regulatory obligations and compliance risks.

“Our partnership with CGI reflects the way we believe advisory support should work. Businesses do not need disconnected advice. They need senior people who understand their objectives, can work together, and can help them make practical decisions with confidence. By combining CompassPoint’s fractional CFO and strategic finance capability with CGI’s compliance, AML, KYC and governance expertise, we can support clients across a much broader part of their journey.”

CGI is a boutique consultancy built around client-led decision-making, discretion and senior accountability. With a focus on the UAE market and international capabilities, CGI supports businesses, individuals and family offices in complex situations where structure, pace and execution are essential.

Jamie Killilea, Partner and Head of Global Compliance at CGI, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with CompassPoint Consulting. Our two firms bring highly complementary skillsets, but we also share a similar view of what clients need from advisers: clarity, accountability, practical judgement and work that can be executed.”

Mike Foster-Dalporto, Partner and COO at CGI, added:  “Compliance, governance, AML and KYC are no longer issues that businesses can treat as administrative or reactive. They are central to how companies protect value, maintain trust and create the conditions for sustainable growth. By working with CompassPoint, we can help clients connect the financial and regulatory sides of their business more effectively.”

The partnership forms part of CompassPoint Consulting’s wider strategy to partner with companies whose services complement its own. The firm is actively building a network of specialist advisory partners to give clients access to a broader range of high-quality support across finance, operations, governance and business growth.

Zaid added: “Our clients are building, scaling and navigating complexity in one of the world’s most dynamic business regions. They need trusted relationships around them, but they also need those relationships to be coordinated. This partnership is about giving clients access to the right expertise, at the right time, through a practical and joined-up advisory model.”

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More than 100 young people from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have spent the last few weeks reimagining some of PepsiCo’s favorite brands for their local communities.

The second edition of Youth Impact Studio (YIS), PepsiCo’s program for nurturing a new generation of innovators in the Middle East, saw young changemakers invited to step into the role of brand strategists for Aquafina, Pepsi Zero, and Sting to run brand audits, dig into consumer insights, and build integrated brands campaigns designed to resonate with their generation.

Teams from each market were briefed to create campaigns with a big social impact. The briefs included “Moments of Clarity” and “Drops of Change” for Aquafina, inviting young people in Jordan and Lebanon to capture stillness and small acts of positive change. In Saudi Arabia, teams created campaigns around the “The 12th Player”, celebrating the energy of football fans and the nation’s momentum under Saudi Vision 2030, while the UAE teams’ “Full Throttle” campaigns channeled the spirit of ambition and creative drive. In Iraq, Sting inspired campaigns built around the spirit of local energy.

The program, delivered in partnership with parachute16 and supported by PepsiCo’s local bottlers, culminated last weekend in a regional summit in Amman with five participants attending from each country. At the summit’s conclusion, five individuals – one from each country – were selected to visit PepsiCo’s R&D hub in Dublin.

“As a company deeply rooted in the Middle East, we believe in the power of young people to shape the region’s future,” said Wael Ismail, VP of Corporate Affairs for MENAPAK. “This year’s participants challenged assumptions, debated ideas, and co-created solutions from their communities and cultures. They gave us valuable insight into how youth see our brands and reminded us that the best ideas for positive change often come from young people themselves. Our role is to listen and give those ideas a platform.”

While participants used AI to support the creative process, the competition heavily emphasized human creativity with young people developing skills in public speaking and pitching, design thinking, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving.

YIS 2026 expanded beyond the first edition’s focus on sustainability to include broader themes like social impact, storytelling, and community engagement. More than a one-off competition, YIS is a growing community where young people across the region come together to learn, share perspectives, collaborate, and innovate. It forms part of PepsiCo’s ongoing commitment to investing in the region’s youth and providing a platform to amplify young people’s voices and ideas.

 

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Emirates NBD and Techstars announced a strategic partnership to shift from traditional startup mentorship towards a commercially driven “Acceleration-to-Enterprise” model, designed to integrate high-growth AI and Fintech innovations directly into Emirates NBD’s banking ecosystem encompassing multiple markets. This partnership follows Emirates NBD’s recent #1 ranking in the inaugural Evident AI Index for Banks – Middle East and Africa, where it was the only bank to achieve top three performance across Talent, Innovation and Leadership, underscoring the bank’s position as one of the region’s most advanced financial institutions in artificial intelligence maturity.

The partnership unites Techstars with Emirates NBD’s established innovation ecosystem, including its Fintech engagement initiatives, AI-driven transformation programmes, and strategic partnerships with global technology leaders. By combining Techstars’ global pipeline of over 11,000 founders with the bank’s advanced analytics infrastructure, which currently manages over 50 active AI use cases, the alliance will deliver scalable, commercial pathways for agentic Fintech startups, with a focus on compliance, wealth management, SME banking, and capital markets.

This initiative is a core component of Emirates NBD’s commitment to the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33), which aims to rank Dubai as one of the top four global financial centres by 2033.

Miguel Rio Tinto, Group Chief Digital and Information Officer at Emirates NBD, commented: “With Dubai now home to nearly 60% of GCC FinTech companies, we are pleased to partner with Techstars to tap into and capture Fintech’s new wave of innovation in agentic finance. Leveraging Emirates NBD’s regional footprint and digital capabilities, we are providing selected AI and Fintech startups with a direct pathway into enterprise banking, supporting solutions that can transform how we serve our nine million active customers.”

Neeraj Makin, Group Head of Strategy, Analytics and Venture Capital at Emirates NBD, said: “The partnership with Techstars reflects Emirates NBD’s continued focus on strengthening its innovation ecosystem and deepening engagement with global technology and startup networks. By combining access to emerging founders, market intelligence and new technology trends, we aim to accelerate innovation opportunities that support the Group’s long-term strategic, digital and AI ambitions across the region.”

Unlike standard accelerator programmes, this partnership emphasises enhancing the customer experience through highly personalised, secure, and resilient AI-driven banking services. Startups that solve real use cases and deliver bottom-line impact will gain access to Emirates NBD’s cloud-native infrastructure to pilot solutions that address fast-growing opportunities in the MENAT region and the surging demand for transparent, AI-powered investor intelligence.

David Cohen, CEO of Techstars, stated: “Techstars has always been about helping founders go faster. By partnering with a proactive, AI-first institution like Emirates NBD, we are giving our Fintech and AI founders a front-row seat to one of the most dynamic financial markets in the world. The UAE’s commitment to becoming a global hub for intelligent, data-driven innovation makes it the perfect launchpad for enterprise-grade solutions that will redefine the future of finance.”

In 2025, Emirates NBD advanced its AI-enabled capabilities, strengthened customer journeys, and built a more modern, cloud-native, and modular technology foundation with next-generation capabilities across the Group. The bank’s year-on-year growth is a direct result of its strategic investment in GenAI and digital initiatives, which are now being opened to the Techstars ecosystem to drive the next wave of financial inclusion and growth in the digital economy.

The initiative complements Emirates NBD’s broader innovation agenda, including programmes such as the National Digital Talent Incubator (NDTI), which focuses on developing the next generation of regional FinTech entrepreneurs.

 

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SupperClub Global today announces the launch of its new mobile app, now available to download on iOS and Android, marking a significant milestone in the premium dining and lifestyle platform’s continued growth and evolution. The app brings SupperClub’s global network of hospitality venues and exclusive offers directly into its members’ hands, with access across more than 21 countries.

The new SupperClub Global mobile app serves as a key consumer-facing touchpoint within the broader tech ecosystem, connecting members, partners and platforms in a more immediate way. The launch further proves SupperClub Global’s momentum as a female-owned UAE business that has scaled rapidly both regionally and internationally. The last year was the most successful yet for the brand, achieving 2,000% membership growth, 30% year-on-year increase in platform partners, double-digit growth in reservations with over 100,000 bookings facilitated, and more than 400 new restaurant partners added.

While SupperClub Global has previously operated via its web platform alongside a dedicated WhatsApp concierge, the introduction of the mobile app represents a natural next step, simplifying how members discover, book and access elite benefits. The design remains aligned with SupperClub Global’s core philosophy of discreet, experience-led offers, and works seamlessly alongside the other booking options.

SupperClub Global continues to evolve beyond a membership platform into a scalable, API-driven ecosystem. In addition to the new app, the business has built a modular infrastructure that enables integration with banks, payment networks and enterprise systems, allowing curated experiences to function as a programmable benefit layer embedded within external partner platforms. For example, SupperClub Global operates “Premium Dining Edition” for Visa Infinite cardholders, accessed directly through the Visa Airport Companion App. SupperClub Global can support capabilities such as card-linked offers, real-time eligibility validation, and partner-specific rule engines, enabling the frictionless deployment of fully configurable, high-value privileges, engineered for strategic collaborations.

“At the heart of this launch is our commitment to creating seamless, elevated access to the best of hospitality,” said Mehreen Omar, CEO and Co-Founder of SupperClub Global. “The new mobile app puts SupperClub Global in the palms of our members’ hands, with even more convenient ways to browse and book offers, ensuring an effortless brand experience wherever they are. At the same time, we are building the infrastructure to deliver these benefits more intelligently across partners and external platforms. As we continue to grow, our focus is to further elevate membership access with an expanded curated network around the world, while strengthening support for both our venue partners and enterprise partners.”

The SupperClub Global mobile app is available to download now on iOS and Android. For more information, visit https://supperclubme.com/memberships.

 

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UAE-based startup Taggy, a fashion resale platform, today announced it is entering its next phase of growth with a clear goal: to make buying and selling pre-loved fashion more effortless, intelligent, and accessible in the Middle East.

As the UAE continues to embrace more conscious ways of shopping, Taggy is positioned at the intersection of fashion, technology and sustainability. The platform encourages users to extend the life cycle of clothing, unlock the value of pieces they no longer wear and access quality fashion at more affordable price points.

While interest in resale continues to grow globally, selling fashion online can be time-consuming. Sellers often need to photograph items, write descriptions, set prices, respond to enquiries, manage packaging, and coordinate delivery. Buyers, meanwhile, can face inconsistent listings, limited search tools, slow delivery and uncertainty around product quality.

The need for more circular fashion solutions is increasingly urgent. The fashion industry is a major contributor to global emissions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimates that fashion contributes around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions due to long supply chains and energy-intensive production. In the UAE, the shift towards more responsible consumption aligns with the country’s wider sustainability agenda, including its Net Zero 2050 Strategy and Circular Economy Policy 2021–2031, which promote resource efficiency, waste reduction and more sustainable consumption models. By helping users extend the life of clothing already in circulation, Taggy supports a more conscious way of shopping that reduces waste, encourages reuse and makes sustainable fashion choices more accessible.

Through AI-assisted listing tools, personalised shopping recommendations, secure payments, buyer protection and fulfilment-led services, the platform makes resale as easy and reliable as shopping new. For sellers, Taggy simplifies the process of turning unworn pieces into earnings. The platform’s listing technology can help generate product titles, descriptions, categories, style tags and pricing recommendations, reducing the effort required to list items. Sellers can choose to self-list through the app, while Taggy’s longer-term service model includes additional support such as virtual listing, in-person listing, and professional photography.

For buyers, Taggy offers a curated shopping journey. The platform learns from each user’s favourite brands, sizes, style preferences, wishlists and shopping behaviour to create a personalised discovery experience.

“Taggy was created to make resale feel effortless,” says Mark Leeming, Co-Founder of Taggy. “Our goal is to build the region’s most intelligent fashion marketplace, one that uses technology to remove the friction from selling, buying and discovering pre-loved fashion. By making resale easier, more trusted and more accessible, we can help build a future where sustainable shopping becomes the first choice, not the alternative.”

Taggy is now inviting UAE residents to explore the platform, list their pre-loved pieces and discover a smarter way to shop second-hand.

 

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Flex has raised $70 million in fresh funding at a valuation of about $1.2 billion, marking another big milestone for the AI fintech startup as it pushes to become the primary financial platform for mid-sized businesses. The funding arrives alongside […]

The post AI fintech startup Flex raises $70 million at $1.2 billion valuation, launches global stablecoin payments first appeared on Tech Startups.

Vancouver, Canada, 14th July 2026, CyberNewswire

The post Greenhat Announces Successful Delegation at Web Summit Vancouver 2026 first appeared on Tech Startups.

It’s Monday, July 13, 2026. The past 24 hours of venture news point to a clear focus on compute sovereignty, defense-edge technologies, and the continued ripple effects of the AI arms race. Investors are plowing capital into ventures that promise to advance […]

The post Venture capital & startup funding roundup, July 13, 2026: Accel, General Catalyst, Sequoia, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Nvidia Ventures first appeared on Tech Startups.

Artificial intelligence is creating a new challenge beyond chips and data centers. As AI systems generate larger volumes of data and satellite networks continue to grow, moving information through space is becoming a major infrastructure problem. Dayton, Ohio-based startup Ravee […]

The post Ravee Optics raises $6 million to meet growing AI demand for faster data transfers in space first appeared on Tech Startups.

Chicago Ventures leads the seed round as Guthrie AI expands its platform to recruit, train, and manage Virtual Bid Assistants, helping commercial glass contractors shorten bid cycles and take on more work without adding full-time estimating staff. Every missed bid […]

The post Guthrie AI raises $4 million to automate construction bidding, helping glass contractors bid 70% more with virtual bid assistants first appeared on Tech Startups.

The stock has fallen from a post-IPO high of $225.64 to around its $135 offering price, wiping out roughly $1 trillion in market value as investors reassess the company’s heavy spending on Starship and Starlink. The market’s excitement over SpaceX’s […]

The post SpaceX loses nearly 40% from its $225.64 post-IPO peak, erasing $1 trillion in market value first appeared on Tech Startups.

Citation Capital has closed its first private equity fund with $1.2 billion in investable capital, marking one of the largest first-time buyout funds raised in the past decade and setting a new record as the largest female-founded buyout fund ever […]

The post Citation Capital closes $1.2 billion debut fund, launches largest female-founded buyout fund ever first appeared on Tech Startups.

It’s Monday, July 13, 2026, and the global tech ecosystem is navigating a pivotal stretch where AI hardware ambitions, frontier model releases, and regulatory pushback are colliding in real time. Meta is moving its custom silicon into production, OpenAI has […]

The post Top Tech News Today, July 13, 2026: Apple, Anthropic, Blackstone, Meta, OpenAI, Samsung, ShareFile & More first appeared on Tech Startups.

Torrance, California, USA, 13th July 2026, CyberNewswire

The post Torq and Criminal IP Partner to Deliver Decision-Ready Threat Intelligence for Autonomous SOC Operations first appeared on Tech Startups.

The German startup’s latest funding round underscores growing investor confidence in AI-powered defense companies as Europe ramps up spending on military technology and sovereign capabilities. European defense startup Helsing has raised $1.8 billion in fresh funding, pushing its valuation to […]

The post European AI defense startup Helsing raises $1.8 billion at $18 billion valuation first appeared on Tech Startups.

Recurring revenue, high margins, and unlimited scalability have made SaaS the dream startup for aspiring entrepreneurs. SaaS has produced some of the world’s most valuable companies. It has also produced thousands of startups that never reached meaningful revenue. Revenue data, […]

The post Why Building a SaaS Is the Worst Startup Idea for Most First-Time Founders first appeared on Tech Startups.

OpenAI and Anthropic are once again competing for the top spot in enterprise AI, with both companies unveiling their most advanced models within weeks of each other. On June 10, Anthropic introduced Claude Fable 5, bringing its once-restricted Mythos-class AI […]

The post GPT-5.6 vs. Claude Fable 5: Which AI Model Is Better? The Ultimate 2026 Comparison first appeared on Tech Startups.

Apple has sued OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT maker of using its trade secrets to speed up its push into consumer hardware after hiring hundreds of former Apple employees. The lawsuit marks a sharp escalation in the rivalry between the two […]

The post Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets to build AI hardware first appeared on Tech Startups.

A new analysis found Google’s AI Overviews answered factual questions correctly about 90% of the time, yet more than half of those correct responses weren’t fully supported by the sources Google cited. Google’s AI-powered search is getting better at answering […]

The post Google’s AI Search produces millions of wrong answers every day despite 90% accuracy first appeared on Tech Startups.

China’s intervention in Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus is opening the door for one of the country’s biggest technology companies to step in instead. Tencent is in talks to become the largest shareholder in Manus after Chinese […]

The post Tencent leads $2B buyback of Manus after China forces Meta to unwind AI startup acquisition first appeared on Tech Startups.

Circle has cleared a major regulatory hurdle that could reshape its role in digital finance. The company said Friday it received approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to operate as a national trust bank, […]

The post Circle gets green light to operate as a trust bank, strengthening its position in the stablecoin race first appeared on Tech Startups.

It’s Friday, July 10, 2026, and the AI frontier just got a serious jolt. In the past 24 hours, OpenAI dropped its most advanced model family yet after U.S. government clearance, Meta green-lit production of its own custom AI chip, […]

The post Top Tech News Today, July 8, 2026: Today’s Biggest AI & Tech Stories from Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, TenCent & More first appeared on Tech Startups.

Meta has opened public developer access to Muse Spark 1.1 just days after OpenAI introduced GPT-5.6, intensifying the race among leading AI labs to win developers with more capable coding models, agentic AI, and lower-cost APIs. The release marks Meta’s clearest […]

The post Meta launches Muse Spark 1.1, an agentic AI coding model with an API to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic first appeared on Tech Startups.

London, United Kingdom, 10th July 2026, CyberNewswire

The post FastNetMon Launches Netomics, a Self-Hosted Routing Intelligence Platform first appeared on Tech Startups.

It’s Thursday, July 9, 2026, and today’s dealmaking paints a clear picture: venture capital is pouring into AI infrastructure and frontier technologies, while strategic sectors like clean energy, biotech and national security quietly attract large infusions. The biggest rounds are […]

The post Venture capital & startup funding roundup, July 9, 2026: Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, A16Z, and Accel first appeared on Tech Startups.

Tally Solutions today announced the launch of TallyPrime 7.1, which introduces three key enhancements for UAE businesses: e-Invoicing readiness, direct EmaraTax-powered VAT compliance, and enhanced invoice personalization, helping organisations align with the country’s evolving digital ecosystem while continuing to operate with simplicity and confidence.

As one of the few business management software providers offering direct integration with the EmaraTax portal, Tally continues to simplify tax and compliance workflows for businesses across the UAE. Businesses using TallyPrime for VAT e-return filing have experienced an average improvement of over 17% in filing efficiency through direct API-based integration with EmaraTax.

A key highlight of the latest update is comprehensive support for UAE e-Invoicing workflows. TallyPrime 7.1 offers a guided onboarding journey, from initial setup through EmaraTax registration, helping businesses become e-Invoicing ready through a simple and intuitive process.

Built-in validations proactively identify missing or incorrect information before invoices are exchanged, helping improve accuracy and ensuring smoother interactions with the e-Invoicing ecosystem.

Businesses can choose between instant invoice exchange and bulk processing based on their operational requirements, while bilingual support in English and Arabic ensures ease of adoption across the UAE’s diverse business community. To further strengthen security, TallyPrime 7.1 incorporates two-factor authentication fore-Invoice exchange, adding an additional layer of protection through OTP-based verification and helping safeguard business transactions from unauthorised access.

As an FTA-accredited solution for VAT filing, TallyPrime 7.1 further strengthens its connected compliance capabilities through direct integration with the EmaraTax portal. Users can securely access filing statuses, download and reconcile Customs Import and Tourist Refund Scheme data, compare VAT returns against their books, and submit VAT 201 returns directly through TallyPrime.

By bringing compliance workflows closer to day-to-day business operations, the release enables businesses to maintain greater accuracy, visibility, and control over their tax processes. For organisations maintaining accurate accounting records, VAT returns can typically be prepared in less than five minutes using TallyPrime’s built-in VAT reporting capabilities.

The release also introduces a substantially enhanced invoice personalisation experience, enabling businesses to create invoices that reflect their unique identity while maintaining the trust and credibility associated with a Tally invoice. With a range of modern,customisable invoice templates, businesses can personalise invoices with logos, signatures, watermarks, and business-specific information, allowing them to express their brand in a way that is uniquely their own. The result is an invoice that reflects boththe business’s identity and Tally’s consistency, professionalism, and credibility.

Commenting on the launch, Vikas Panchal, Senior General Manager – MENA, Tally Solutions, said, “The UAE continues to set a strong benchmark in driving digital transformation initiatives that are creating a more connected and future-ready business environment. As businesses prepare for the next phase of the country’s e-Invoicing journey, they needtechnology that not only supports evolving requirements but also works the way they do. With TallyPrime 7.1, we have focused on helping businesses embrace this transition with confidence through e-Invoicing readiness, connected compliance through direct EmaraTax integration, and greater flexibility in everyday business operations. By bringing these capabilities together in a single experience, we are enabling businesses to participate more effectively in the UAE’s digital economy while staying focused on growth.”

The launch comes at a pivotal moment as businesses across the UAE prepare for a more digitally connected business and compliance ecosystem. Through TallyPrime 7.1, Tally Solutions continues its commitment to building technology that adapts to the way businesses operate, helping them simplify operations, stay aligned with evolving regulatory requirements, and confidently participate in the UAE’s digital economy journey.

TallyPrime 7.1 is now available for businesses across the UAE. Existing customers can seamlessly upgrade to the latest release and immediately access the new e-Invoicing, connected VAT compliance, reconciliation, security, and invoice personalisation capabilities.

 

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Advancing its 2030 vision to support 1,000 ventures and facilitate AED 50 million in commercial deals for Sharjah-based businesses, the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) has launched the ‘Sheraa Membership’, a unified founder support system designed to provide entrepreneurs with continuous access to mentorship, funding opportunities, relevant networks, and ecosystem resources throughout every stage of their growth journey.

By 2030, the membership aims to support the launch of more than 50 youth-led businesses and create 1,000 jobs. Applications to the annual membership are now open on a rolling basis through Sheraa’s official website: https://sheraa.ae/membership. Applicants of all nationalities interested in setting up or growing their ventures in Sharjah are eligible to apply.

Sheraa Membership brings together access to the center’s founder support ecosystem through a single, integrated platform. Designed to support entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey, the membership provides access to tailored programmes, expert guidance, community connections, growth opportunities, and resources that help founders move from idea validation to business growth and expansion. By creating a more connected experience, the membership enables entrepreneurs to access the support most relevant to their needs as their businesses evolve.

Additionally, the membership enables Sheraa to support entrepreneurs throughout their entire journey, creating ongoing access to its ecosystem beyond individual programme cycles. From aspiring founders and early-stage startups to alumni and growing SMEs, members can engage with the resources, networks, opportunities, and support most relevant to their evolving needs.

How the membership programme works
Sheraa Membership is built across sequential stages. Each stage is structured around defined entry and exit criteria, giving founders a clear framework for progression. Members follow a guided curriculum and task-based roadmap tailored to their stage, complemented by regular in-person sessions that provide hands-on support and direct access to Sheraa’s network of advisors and partners.

The membership includes three interconnected layers of support. The first covers discounted licensing and co-working access to help founders establish and operate in Sharjah, in addition to rent concessions and accommodation, insurance, education discounts, and lifestyle benefits.

The second delivers hands-on knowledge-building through masterclasses, business clinics, sprint labs, one-to-one advisory sessions with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and regular office hours. The third connects members to the broader ecosystem through investor introductions, access to Sharjah’s procurement platform, trade missions, and participation in the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival and other local and global showcase and networking opportunities.

Commenting on the evolution of the center’s founder support, H.E. Sara Abdelaziz Al Nuaimi, CEO of Sheraa, said: “Sheraa Membership is, at its core, a commitment to the founder. Every entrepreneur who walks through our doors can expect access to a program, and a sustained partnership that grows with them at every stage, from their first idea through to scale. As Sheraa enters its next decade, we are focused on broadening our impact through this membership. Looking ahead to 2030, our focus extends beyond supporting more ventures; it emphasises on enabling founders to build resilient businesses that contribute to Sharjah’s innovation-driven economy.”

The announcement of the membership came during a curated gathering of founders and ecosystem stakeholders at the Sheraa HQ at Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SPARK). The event featured the Sheraa Founders Roundtable, which brought together entrepreneurs from Sheraa’s community, including RAWA Wellness, a homegrown UAE wellness brand, Eshara AI, an AI-powered platform providing real-time sign language translation through digital avatars, and Little Sprouties, a business providing healthy, farm-to-spoon meals for children aged 6 months to 4 years. Together, they discussed the role of community in scaling businesses and shared their experiences of growing their ventures within Sheraa’s ecosystem.

For 2026-27, Sheraa is looking to onboard up to 400 members across all stages. The membership’s goals align directly with Sharjah’s strategic priorities to build a competitive, knowledge-based economy and strengthen its startup and SME sectors.

 

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• The purchase decision is almost entirely emotional: Nobody can try a course before they buy it. Your emails have to build belief long before the cart opens.
• Your list is your launch: Social reach is unpredictable. Your email list is the only audience you actually own, and for digital product creators, it’s where the majority of sales will come from.
• The nurture sequence is not optional: Subscribers who buy from a cold welcome email are rare. The ones who buy after weeks of genuinely useful content are not.
• Launch emails are a different discipline: Frequency goes up. Stakes go up. The writing has to earn that.
• Post-launch is where loyalty is built: Most course creators abandon their buyers the moment the cart closes. That’s the biggest missed opportunity in digital product email.

Why Email Hits Different for Digital Products

The Lead Magnet Isn’t the Strategy. What Comes After Is.

Building a Nurture Sequence That Actually Moves People

The goal of a nurture sequence isn’t to fill a subscriber’s inbox. It’s to progressively build belief: that the problem you’re solving is real, that your approach is credible, and that your course is the logical next step for someone serious about making progress.

The structure that tends to work best follows a simple arc. Start with the problem your audience is living with right now. Then shift to what’s possible on the other side of it. Then bring in proof, student results, case studies, your own story. By the time you mention the course, a subscriber who’s been through that arc isn’t reading a pitch. They’re reading confirmation of a decision they’ve already started making.

How long the sequence needs to be depends on your price point. A $49 ebook can convert from three or four emails. A flagship course or membership needs more runway, often six to ten emails over several weeks, before the cart opens.

Launch Emails: A Different Discipline Entirely

When the cart opens, the rules change.

The measured, value-first approach that works in a nurture sequence doesn’t carry a launch on its own. A launch window is a contained period of urgency, and the emails need to match that energy.

Open with a story, not a feature list. Use the middle emails to tackle objections directly. Too busy? Show how students fit it around a full-time job. Not sure it will work for them? Share a result from someone who looked exactly like them six months ago.

And close with honesty. A deadline that’s real, stated plainly. Manufactured urgency collapses the moment someone tests it. Real urgency doesn’t need to oversell itself.

One email a day in the final 48 hours is not too many. By that point, the subscribers who are interested are looking for it.

The Emails Nobody Sends (But Should)

The cart closes. The sales page comes down. Most course creators go quiet.

That’s a mistake.

A simple check-in email sent a week after purchase, asking how a student is getting on, generates a disproportionate amount of goodwill. Most buyers aren’t used to the creator showing up after the sale.

Progress-based emails that acknowledge milestones and encourage students who are falling behind have a direct impact on completion rates. And completion rates matter, because a student who finishes your course and gets a result is the most valuable marketing asset you have. They write the testimonials. They refer their friends. They buy the next thing you release.

Foundr backs this up with a 90-day results guarantee on Foundr+. That kind of commitment only works if the post-purchase experience is strong enough to deliver. The emails are a big part of how that happens.

Final Thoughts

Building a digital product business on email is one of the most durable models in online entrepreneurship. It doesn’t depend on an algorithm. It doesn’t evaporate when a platform changes its rules. It grows in direct proportion to how well you treat the people on your list.

The creators who do it best aren’t sending more emails. They’re sending better ones, at the right moments, to people who already trust them enough to open.

That’s exactly what Omnisend is built to support. Automation tools that handle your nurture sequences, launch flows, and post-purchase follow-ups without manual intervention, and segmentation that makes sure the right message reaches the right subscriber at the right stage.

And if you’re currently on another platform, switching costs less than you think, in time and money. In five days, Omnisend’s migration team moves every flow, list, and template across for you, free. You just show up when it’s done. For most founders, that switch means paying up to 35% less than they were before, with SMS starting at just $0.007 per message.

Foundr readers also get 50% off their first three months. Use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start building an email program your audience actually looks forward to.

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Cloudflare and beehiiv announced a strategic partnership to redefine the creator economy and how independent creators interact with AI. By integrating Cloudflare’s advanced Crawl Control technology directly into the beehiiv platform, the partnership equips creators with clear visibility and granular control over how AI models use their work.

As AI models evolve to offer new forms of search and discovery, independent creators are looking for flexible ways to understand and manage how their content is accessed. This integration simplifies the process by letting beehiiv users manage their digital footprint through two clear choices: publishers can either opt-in to maximum discovery to allow AI search engines and agents to crawl their work freely for broader distribution, or choose content protection, blocking AI scraping to preserve their archives for future monetization and licensing opportunities.

“Cloudflare is dedicated to protecting and enabling content creators, from independent bloggers to the world’s largest publishers,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “As the Internet evolves, our commitment remains the same: ensuring creators have the tools they need to thrive. This partnership with beehiiv is the next logical step in that mission, giving newsletter operators the transparency and control to navigate the AI era on their own terms, whether they are optimizing for discovery or preserving their work for future opportunities.”

“beehiiv was built to support creator independence,” said Tyler Denk, co-founder and CEO of beehiiv. “As AI changes how people find and consume content, publishers need real leverage. Our partnership with Cloudflare gives creators the data and controls they need to either maximize discovery and distribution, or protect their writing and dictate their own terms.”

Managing AI bots historically required complex technical engagement, like manual robots.txt updates or firewalls. This partnership removes those technical hurdles, giving publishers of all sizes–from large media outlets to individual creators–the ability to easily set automated preferences. Key features of the integration include:

• Personalized Analytics: Creators get an on-platform dashboard powered by Cloudflare APIs. This shows exactly which AI crawlers are attempting to access their content, which ones are being blocked, and the referral traffic those crawlers send back to the newsletter.
• One-Click Toggle Permissions: The ability to block or allow specific AI models based on the creator’s business goals.
• Future-Proof Rights Management: Automatic updates that adapt to new AI crawlers as they emerge on the web, ensuring creators have the most up-to-date control without needing to update code.

AI Crawl Control will be available to all beehiiv users in beta, giving every publisher visibility into how AI services interact with their content and the traffic they generate. beehiiv Max customers will also have access to AI Crawl Control, enabling them to block AI crawlers and decide how their content is used across the AI ecosystem.

The new AI control features will be available through the platform’s standard dashboard settings.

 

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Freedom Telecom International has opened a Silicon Valley Innovation Center with Nokia near Nokia’s Sunnyvale campus, creating a collaborative space focused on next-gen digital infrastructure, AI, cloud technologies for telecom-fintech convergence, and state-of-the-art consumer applications.

Complementary to Nokia’s recently launched AI Networking Innovation Lab, the center will serve as a testing ground for joint initiatives across Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC), Freedom Telecom International, Freedom Lifestyle Group, and Nokia, where teams can experiment, build, test, evaluate, and demonstrate digital solutions designed for direct application across FRHC’s operational footprint.

The collaboration combines Nokia’s expertise in networks, cloud, edge computing, and AI-ready infrastructure with Freedom Holding Corp.’s expanding ecosystem in finance, banking, insurance, telecom, payments, e-commerce, and lifestyle services. The parties are determined to discover and develop the most promising next-generation digital infrastructure solutions. Early focus will be on AI data center blueprints, cloud infrastructure and advanced networking, 5G and edge use cases, and enabling AI-powered consumer services.

By being located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the center will bring together:

• Nokia’s infrastructure, engineering expertise, global innovation network, and technology testbeds;
• Freedom’s ecosystem, market access, investment capabilities, and experience scaling digital financial and lifestyle services;
• Silicon Valley’s unique energy: the closeness of all technology partners, world-class entrepreneurs and world-class tech talent.

During the opening ceremony, Timur Turlov, CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., said, “Financial services represent a tremendous global opportunity due to their inefficiencies. Too much time, effort, and human capital are spent on processes that can already be automated. We have proven that it is possible to approve a mortgage within hours, and this encourages us to completely rethink the role of traditional structures. AI opens our horizon and allows us to tackle complex processes which can be redesigned and assisted through its capabilities. I trust our partner, Nokia, that together we can move our ideas to real, scalable solutions for the benefit of our ecosystem.”

Mikko Lavanti from Nokia commented, “This partnership is about delivering tangible value together. At Nokia, we bring deep expertise in designing and deploying high-performance AI infrastructure at scale, backed by a strong track record of innovation. We are proud to support Freedom in launching state-of-the-art consumer applications across its markets, helping to accelerate its AI ambitions with resilient and future-ready infrastructure.”

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AXON successfully concluded its exclusive Investor Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, bringing together a distinguished group of investors, decision-makers, and leaders from the fintech and investment sectors across the Kingdom and the wider region to discuss the future of financial infrastructure connecting traditional finance with the digital economy.

The event was attended by representatives from some of Saudi Arabia’s leading investment firms and financial institutions, including organizations connected to the Kingdom’s national investment ecosystem and prominent venture capital funds such as the Ministry of Investment, Raed Ventures, Sadu Capital, and Takamol Ventures, alongside representatives from other investment firms, funds, and financial technology companies.

Held under the theme “Connecting Traditional Finance with the Digital Economy: The Future of Financial Infrastructure in the GCC,” the summit showcased AXON’s vision of building a unified financial orchestration layer that seamlessly connects banks, payment networks, stablecoins, and digital asset infrastructure within a fully integrated ecosystem designed to meet the highest standards of regulatory compliance.

During the event, the AXON team presented an overview of the company’s flagship products, including AXON Transfer and AXON Pay, which are designed to simplify and accelerate cross-border payments and settlements. The platform aims to reduce settlement times for international transfers and payments from several days to as little as one hour. The company also presented its product roadmap and expansion plans across Saudi Arabia as well as regional and global markets.

The summit concluded with the signing of a strategic investment agreement between AXON and Maarej Real Estate, under which Maarej committed to invest approximately SAR 4 million (approx. $1 million) in the company. The investment reflects growing confidence in AXON’s vision and its role in developing the next generation of financial infrastructure across the region.

Commenting on the occasion, Malek Alzubi, Co-Founder and CEO of AXON, said: “We are witnessing a fundamental transformation in the way value moves across the global economy. Our mission at AXON is to build the infrastructure that enables institutions to move seamlessly between traditional and digital financial systems within a comprehensive regulatory framework. Maarej’s investment marks an important milestone in our journey and reinforces the market’s confidence in the growth opportunities we are creating.”

For his part, Tamim Al-Juhani, Chairman of Maarej Real Estate, said that the investment reflects the company’s strong belief in AXON’s significant potential and its ability to play a pivotal role in supporting the region’s financial transformation. He added that the investment aligns with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and contributes to strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a global hub for financial innovation. The agreement also marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between the two companies to support AXON’s growth and expand its presence in the Saudi market.

AXON continues to advance its regulatory approvals while expanding strategic partnerships with leading global financial and technology institutions. The company’s long-term vision is to establish a unified financial layer connecting traditional banking systems with modern digital infrastructure, helping accelerate cross-border trade and payments across the region and beyond.

 

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NinjaOne announced a $12.3 billion valuation following more than $400 million in Series C extensions. The extensions included participation from Wellington Management, Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), BDT & MSD Partners’ affiliated funds, Sequoia Capital, ICONIQ, Hedosophia, NEA, Washington Harbour Partners, CapitalG, and Pinegrove Opportunity Partners.

“We’re in a rare position to collaborate with some of the most forward-thinking investors in the world, and those partnerships are shaping how we bring AI into every layer of our business, from our platform roadmap and market expansion to our internal operations. This will fundamentally accelerate how we build and scale for our customers and partners, and will ensure our growth is not just intentional, but inevitable,” said Sal Sferlazza, CEO and co-founder at NinjaOne. “NinjaOne is well positioned to be the control plane for unified IT – rooted in a powerfully simple platform, our automation DNA, and our relentless focus on making customers and partners successful.”

“By 2030, over 50% of digital workplace tasks will be automated via digital workplace operations automation platforms, an increase from less than 5% in 2026,” according to Gartner. Nearly 40,000 organizations in 140+ countries use the NinjaOne Unified IT Operations Platform to unify IT and simplify work for everyone. The cloud and multi-tenant native platform manages, protects, and supports endpoint and IT operations workflows in a single console that delivers intelligent automation and efficiency at scale. This combination of modern architecture, automation at scale, market and use case coverage, and results delivers significant return on investment to our customers and partners. IDC Research** found NinjaOne customers on average enjoy:

• 720% three-year return on investment
• 4-month payback on investment
• $1M in annual benefits per 5,000 endpoints managed

NinjaOne remains founder-led and controlled. Co-founders Sal Sferlazza and Chris Matarese are still the largest equity holders in the company and have majority control of the Board of Directors and the company’s voting power. NinjaOne has nearly 40,000 customers, including Arc’teryx, Audi Revolut F1 Team, Birkenstock, Carnival Cruise Line, Deloitte, Executech, GoFundMe, Hyundai, Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, PGA Tour, Porsche, TeamLogic, and UCLA – Anderson School of Management.

 

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A with David Royce

Nathan Chan: Long before you sold your first company, you were a kid in school who thought he wasn’t smart. What happened?

David Royce: I struggled in school because I couldn’t focus unless I cared deeply. And when you’re a kid, you don’t say, I might have undiagnosed ADHD. You say, I guess I’m not smart. But in the sixth grade, a teacher, Mrs. Luft, really saw me. She believed in me before I believed in myself. From that point forward I worked incredibly hard to get good grades.

I didn’t learn I had ADHD until I was an adult. I’ve come to see it as a double-edged sword. In boring environments it’s brutal. In environments I care about, it’s a superpower. Sales and entrepreneurship were the first place my brain felt like an asset instead of a liability.

Years later, with no Mrs. Luft and nobody watching, he had to learn to do that for himself.

NC: Take us back to that first summer in sales.

DR: I got into pest control the way most people do. Accidentally. A friend told me he’d made $25,000 the previous summer selling it door-to-door. I drove out to Sacramento, and I was horrible at first. Didn’t sell anything the entire first week. Commission only, so I made nothing. Five days straight of zeros. I watched my teammates sell one to four per day while I was basically doing free cardio all week.

That weekend he didn’t call home. He went to a bookstore, bought half a dozen sales books, and put 90 minutes of study on the calendar every day.

DR: By the end of that summer I was the top sales rookie in the entire company out of 200 reps. Not because I was special. Because I was too stubborn to go home and admit I failed. Persistence is genius in disguise.

“Persistence is genius in disguise.”

NC: You got to the top 1% of 1% in your industry. What did you codify into the training program?

DR: Three things became the spine of everything I taught. Option closes versus yes-or-no questions. We’ll be in your area tomorrow at three or five, which works better? Both answers are in your favour. Then RAC. Resolve the doubt, lay down an ace they hadn’t heard, close again in a different way. And body language. Your body sells before your mouth does. I used to tell reps, you’re not losing because your script is bad. You’re losing because your face is saying please don’t hurt me.

NC: You were on track for investment banking. What changed?

DR: My last year of college I was planning to apply to investment banks. I figured my sales skills and my finance degree would tee me up nicely for M&A. So I asked my boss for a letter of recommendation. And he goes, why would you go work 80 to 100 hour weeks for someone else when you could start your own pest control company?

I’d never considered the idea. And this is embarrassing, but my first thought was literally, pest control doesn’t sound impressive. At the time, I thought success had to wear a suit and have a skyline.

Image versus opportunity wasn’t a new dilemma. He’d faced it at fifteen.

DR: I got let go from a pizza parlour at fifteen and ended up at McDonald’s because they were the only place that would take anyone. That’s where I learned the value of best practices. I owe a lot of my personal wealth today to a minimum wage job I considered embarrassing as a teenager.

His boss had just sold his own pest control startup to Terminix for $10 million after four years, and was offering Royce the same template. Royce had $300,000 saved from four college summers, originally earmarked for MBA school. That became his start-up capital.

DR: I was making $225,000 a summer. About half a million in today’s money. I asked my boss every pain point he had, and where he’d improve the business if he had the time. He gave me 30 things to fix. I had a finance degree, which is highly unusual in pest control. So I swallowed my ego and chose the opportunity instead of the image.

“I swallowed my ego and chose the opportunity instead of the image.”

NC: Year one you almost went bankrupt in Los Angeles. But not for the usual reason. What happened?

DR: Year one I learned you can be killing it and dying at the same time. We grew far faster than I could have imagined and almost bankrupted the company. The business model required me to pay my salespeople’s commissions in advance of the revenue coming in. A timing issue with cash flow.

He had planned for 4,000 to 5,000 new customers that year. He did 7,500. Nobody in the industry had ever done that many from a single branch.

DR: I had to go to multiple sales leaders and ask for an extra month or two to pay their bonus checks. I gave them an extra 10% interest on their money. Luckily they’d all had an amazing summer and were willing. Revenues are vanity. Profits are sanity. But cash flow is reality.

That scare taught him to fund growth differently. The workaround became the structural template across four companies.

NC: You sold three companies before Aptive, all to the same strategic buyer, and you never gave up your key people. Take us through how that worked.

DR: The asset deal structure was the key. Each time, I sold just the customers and the technicians servicing them. That was all the strategic buyers wanted anyway. They had their own brand, their own back office. They needed streams of recurring revenue. So I’d carve out my leadership team, my operations managers and my salesforce from the deal. That was the golden goose. Then I’d take the capital and start the next company with the same team, in new locations, better capitalised. No investors. No equity dilution. Same family, bigger stage.

NC: There are over 20,000 pest control competitors in North America. What let you grow seven to ten times faster than the rest of them?

DR: Three things. Our sales program. We built it into a machine of 3,000-plus people, and reps who switched over from competitors were producing 70% more in a summer than at their previous employer. Second, additional service features. I’d knocked on 60,000-plus doors in college, so I basically got a PhD in what homeowners complained about. Third, we invested early in software to improve efficiencies and gamify the business. Unheard of seventeen years ago for a blue-collar company. We built a sales app that ran tournaments nationwide and lifted productivity by up to 30% on tournament days.

NC: Why is there so much opportunity in blue-collar industries?

DR: Unsexy industries often have sexy margins. The Wall Street Journal calls these owners the stealthy wealthy. Among the top 0.1% of income earners in the U.S., people making about $2.3 million a year or more, roughly 43% of them are in what most people would call boring blue-collar industries.

There’s also a huge trend right now. Millions of baby boomers are retiring who own these kinds of businesses, and the majority don’t have anyone to sell to. Most are essential services with recurring revenue models. Recessions come and go. But bugs don’t read The Wall Street Journal.

DR: AI is making them even more attractive. AI can write code, analyse legal documents and automate a lot of entry-level office work. But it’s not unclogging your toilet anytime soon. It can’t climb on your roof. And it definitely can’t treat the termites in your walls.

“Revenues are vanity. Profits are sanity. But cash flow is reality.”

NC: You built one of the most talked-about cultures in home services. NCAA basketball court at HQ, golf simulator, retreats in Egypt and Thailand, skydiving, swimming with sharks, racing Ferraris around a track. Where did this philosophy come from?

DR: I read Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness when I was struggling with how to keep a family feel across the country. The lesson stuck. Tony sold his first company for hundreds of millions and was miserable because the culture wasn’t intentional. Culture isn’t vibes. It’s design.

We tried a lot of fun stuff after that, and it helped us stand out. But if I’m honest, perks are sugar. They’re not the protein. The primary driver attracting top talent was always the training program. They wanted to sell more than at any other company.

DR: The other thing I’m most proud of was giving away 25% of the company to our employees. I wanted to align everyone’s interests so they could benefit financially when I sold the business. We had over $500 million in annual revenue, and companies in my industry sell between one and three times revenue. So we gave away a nine-digit number to our team members at the exit. Many received six- or seven-digit figures.

I’ll never forget the calls. Lots of our team members paid off their mortgages and student loans. Another bought his parents a brand-new car. And I remember hanging up thinking, that was worth it. Turns out ownership is a far better retention tool than ping-pong tables.

NC: After three companies as CEO, you stepped aside at Aptive. How did you actually let go?

DR: For a decade, I’d been training my protégé. He’d joined my second year in business and worked his way up. Top sales rep, top sales manager, then running our sales recruiting program. When I started Aptive, I replaced myself with him as CEO.

When you replace yourself, you realise very quickly whether you built a company or a dependency. The hardest part wasn’t the structure. It was me staying out of it. There’s a temptation when you see something slightly off to jump back in and save the day. I had to learn that leadership at that level means letting someone else win, even if they’d do it differently. I had to stop being the hero and start being the architect.

Letting go of the CEO seat was one thing. Bringing in seasoned executives from much bigger companies was another, and that lesson cost him an exit.

NC: What happened with the big-company hire?

DR: We hired a CFO who had worked at a billion-dollar tech company. On paper, incredible. So we gave him a lot of autonomy. But resumes don’t run companies. People do. He was used to having dozens of people underneath him and wasn’t aware of how all our expenses hit the business. That year, we’d launched a process to sell half of Aptive. We had initial offers from half a dozen buyers valuing the company between $1 and $1.6 billion. We were already missing forecasts, and the misses got bigger each month. One by one, every buyer dropped off.

DR: A few lessons. First, trust but verify. Second, never miss your forecast while running a sale process. Buyers hate it, and it hands them leverage in the negotiation. Third, when you do run a process, only about 50% of sellers find a buyer. That’s OK. You learn a lot about what buyers want and can improve before going to market again, just like we did.

NC: Last question. After four companies and twenty years, what do you want people to take from your story?

DR: Success has always been a moving target for me. I was sitting in a room with other entrepreneurs once, and someone asked everyone what their number was. How much is enough? At the end he told us we were all wrong. The right answer is, just a little more. No matter what goals we set, our brain goes, cool, now double it. Entrepreneurship isn’t really about a big exit or financial freedom. It’s the expertise, discipline and character you develop along the way. If you don’t enjoy the climb, the summit is going to disappoint you.

DR: I’ve always been most passionate about helping develop people. Gandhi said the sign of a good leader is not how many followers one has, but how many leaders one can create. If there’s a legacy I care about, it’s not the valuation. It’s the leaders we helped build along the way.

From a kid who thought he wasn’t smart, to a door-to-door salesman too stubborn to quit, to the founder of a billion-dollar empire built in an industry nobody else wanted, David Royce has always known one thing: the opportunity worth taking rarely looks like one.

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Sia Arora, photographer and leading visual storyteller, explains how the next‑gen startup landscape is unlocking new opportunities for photographers, blending vision, authenticity, technology, and community to help creators thrive in today’s fast‑moving digital and gig‑driven economy.

How is today’s startup landscape — especially one driven by next‑gen founders — creating new opportunities for photographers and content creators?
The startup ecosystem has completely reshaped the creative economy. Today’s founders, especially Gen Z and young millennial entrepreneurs, understand the power of storytelling better than any generation before them. They build brands that live online first, and that means they need visuals that communicate identity, purpose, and emotion instantly. This shift has opened enormous opportunities for photographers and content creators. Startups move fast, experiment constantly, and rely heavily on digital presence — from pitch decks and product launches to social media campaigns and community‑building. In the gig economy, this creates a steady demand for creators who can deliver high‑quality, multi‑platform content with agility. What excites me most is that startups value creativity as a strategic asset, not an afterthought. They want collaborators, not just service providers. For photographers, this means you’re not just capturing images; you’re helping shape the brand narrative of the next generation of companies. It’s a space where fresh ideas are welcomed, experimentation is encouraged, and creators can grow alongside the startups they support.

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Music Nation, a pioneer in music rights management based in the United Arab Emirates, and the Human Artistry Campaign, a global alliance of more than 200 organizations across the creative and technology communities, today announced that MusicNation has joined the coalition advocating for responsible AI that supports innovation, while protecting human creativity, consent and creator rights.

MusicNation becomes the first signatory to the Human Artistry Campaign from the Middle East, expanding the campaign’s international reach at a critical moment for the global music and creative industries.

The Human Artistry Campaign brings together organizations across music, film, television, publishing, journalism, voice acting, photography and other creative sectors to advance principles for ethical AI. The campaign supports innovation that respects human expression, protects creators’ rights, and ensures that artists, performers, songwriters, composers, publishers, labels and other rights holders retain control over the use of their work, voice, image and likeness.

MusicNation’s participation reflects the company’s role in helping implement the UAE’s vision for the protection and enforcement of musical copyrights, while supporting the country’s broader ambition to lead in responsible innovation. In 2017, the UAE became the first country in the world to appoint a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, signaling a national commitment to shaping the future of AI across every sector. As the UAE continues to rapidly advance AI across government, industry and the digital economy, MusicNation is uniquely positioned to help ensure that the creative industries are part of that leadership, reinforcing the importance of clear licensing frameworks, trusted rights infrastructure and creator-focused policies that allow technology and human creativity to grow together.

Rasha Khalifa Al Mubarak, MusicNation’s Founder and Chairwoman, said, “The UAE has quickly established itself as one of the world’s most forward-looking markets for AI, innovation and the creative economy. As that momentum accelerates, MusicNation and our allies in the Human Artistry Campaign seek to support the next phase of growth on trust, transparency and respect for human creativity. We are proud to join the Human Artistry Campaign to support responsible AI, clear licensing frameworks and protections that ensure creators and technology companies can thrive together.”

Amer M. Samhoun, MusicNation’s CEO, said, “Human creativity is the foundation of music. As new technologies emerge, our goal is not to impede innovation, but to help ensure it develops on a foundation of respect for creators, clear licensing, transparency and trust. That is essential for artists, for technology companies and for the future of the creative economy.”

Dr. Moiya McTier, Human Artistry Campaign senior advisor, said, “MusicNation’s support reflects the growing global recognition that responsible AI must be built with respect for human creativity. Innovators and policymakers around the world are working to embrace powerful new technologies while preserving the uniquely human artistry, identity and rights that fuel culture. MusicNation’s leadership in the Middle East is an important addition to this growing international movement that prioritizes creators.”

With best-in-class tools, technology and leading industry partnerships with Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), the largest performing rights organization in the world, and SoundExchange Inc., the recording industry’s top digital global collective management organization, MusicNation is building the region’s premier rights management organization capable of supporting the timely, transparent and accurate collection and distribution of music royalties. BMI and SoundExchange are existing Human Artistry Campaign members.

The Human Artistry Campaign is a leading voice in global discussions around AI and creativity, including advocacy for protections against unauthorized deepfakes, voice clones and digital replicas, as well as support for market-based licensing models that allow technology companies and creators to collaborate responsibly.

MusicNation’s decision to join the Human Artistry Campaign follows a period of increased international attention on AI, copyright, licensing and personality rights. The Human Artistry Campaign has advocated for clear guardrails to ensure AI systems are developed in ways that respect existing law, require authorization for the use of creative works, and protect individuals from the unauthorized use of their voice, image and likeness.

For MusicNation, joining the campaign also reflects a broader commitment to helping build a robust music economy in the UAE and the broader Middle East and North Africa region. As AI becomes a growing part of the global creative economy, MusicNation and the Human Artistry Campaign share the view that innovation is strongest when supported by consent, transparency, licensing and respect for the people whose work, voices, images and ideas make creative technologies possible.

 

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Masdar City has officially launched Biosphere Labs, the GCC’s first commercially scaled shared laboratory facility, marking a major milestone for startups in biotechnology, life sciences, and deep‑tech innovation. Announced at the BIO International Convention 2026 in San Diego, the new facility directly addresses one of the biggest barriers facing early‑stage science‑driven ventures: access to specialised, capital‑intensive lab infrastructure.

For startups, the launch represents a transformative shift. Instead of spending months — and millions — building compliant lab environments, founders can now access ready‑to‑use bench space, advanced equipment, operational support, and a fully integrated life sciences ecosystem from day one. This dramatically reduces the cost, complexity, and time required to validate ideas, run experiments, and scale prototypes.

Developed in partnership with M42 and Attentive Science, Biosphere Labs is a plug‑and‑play innovation hub where emerging companies can build, test, and commercialise new technologies within a single, connected environment. For global startups looking to enter the Middle East, the facility also serves as a soft‑landing platform, offering immediate access to Abu Dhabi’s fast‑growing life sciences cluster.

The new lab builds on Masdar City’s HELM cluster — a dedicated hub for health, longevity, medicine, and advanced biotechnology — which already hosts leading organisations such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Insilico Medicine, and the Abu Dhabi Biobank. For founders, this means proximity to potential partners, customers, and investors, all within a single innovation district.

Government and industry leaders emphasised the accelerator‑like impact Biosphere Labs will have on early‑stage ventures. H.E. Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, noted that the facility “provides researchers, startups and biotechnology companies with the infrastructure needed to build, test and scale new technologies,” helping translate discoveries into real‑world solutions. M42 and Attentive Science echoed this, highlighting the lab’s role in enabling scientific breakthroughs and supporting the creation of globally competitive intellectual property.

With more than 2,000 organisations already operating in the Masdar City Free Zone — including clean‑tech startups supported by The Catalyst — the addition of Biosphere Labs strengthens Abu Dhabi’s position as a rising global destination for science‑driven entrepreneurship. For founders across biotech, genomics, precision medicine, and advanced materials, the message is clear: Abu Dhabi is building the region’s most accessible, startup‑ready life sciences ecosystem.

Ahmed Baghoum, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar City, said: “Biosphere Labs is a defining milestone in Masdar City’s life sciences journey and proof of what becomes possible when the foundations, partnerships, infrastructure and policy are built with intention. Masdar City was designed to be a test bed, a place where new models are not just imagined but demonstrated, and Biosphere Labs is precisely that. We are proud to help create the conditions for scientific innovation by removing barriers, attracting global expertise, and giving researchers, startups and biotechnology companies the platform they need to develop, test and scale new innovations.

 

The post Masdar City launches Biosphere Labs for startups appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.

500 Global and Sanabil Investments announce the eleventh batch of the Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global, a hybrid program supporting early-stage founders building in sectors critical to the region’s future. Running from April 5 to July 1, 2026, the cohort brings together a highly selective group of eight startups, chosen from more than 690 applications, with companies building across AI-driven products, fintech and payment infrastructure, healthcare diagnostics, digital risk and fraud, insurance distribution, compliance, and content and IP monetization.

For this cohort, the team looked for companies that demonstrate the potential for strong operating discipline, clear business fundamentals and a sharp focus on execution, qualities we believe are important in this region. In response to ongoing uncertainty across the Middle East, the program has adapted its format, with Phases 1 and 2 delivered fully remotely as part of its hybrid model. The approach reflects how the Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global continues to evolve alongside the MENA ecosystem, giving founders practical support while maintaining the flexibility needed to build through changing market conditions.

Participating founders have received targeted mentorship, operator-led workshops, access to regional and global networks, and exposure to ecosystem stakeholders ahead of Demo Day on July 1, 2026. Rather than following a one-size-fits-all accelerator model, Batch 11 has been designed around hands-on execution support, with a particular concentration of AI-enabled and infrastructure-driven companies addressing foundational challenges in the region.

“Batch 11 reflects the rising caliber and ambition of founders building from the region today,” said Amal Dokhan, Managing Partner at 500 Global MENA. “We are seeing entrepreneurs develop globally relevant companies with stronger execution, deeper innovation, and clearer paths to scale. We remain committed to empowering these founders with the capital, mentorship, and network needed to help accelerate their growth.”

A spokesperson for Sanabil Investments added, “This cohort demonstrates the strength and relevance of the region’s next generation of founders, particularly those building solutions in sectors that matter most to long-term economic resilience and growth. Through the Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global, we remain committed to backing ambitious entrepreneurs with access, insight, and institutional support as they scale solutions with regional and global potential.”

The Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global, Batch 11 companies are:

• Carevision – An AI platform that transforms any smartphone camera into a 60-second cardiometabolic risk scanner.
• Emtethal – A computer Vision and IoT technology helping hospitality operators detect and prevent food safety and operation violations in real-time.
• IBEA – Solves late B2B payments by turning them into revenue for buyers while giving suppliers early, debt-free access to capital.
• Kami – An AI-powered tools platform empowering Gen-Z content creators to monetize their work from day one by transforming short fictional stories into immersive, multi-format experiences.
• Melon Digital – An Insurtech app providing personalized coverage, transparent pricing, and AI-powered claims processing through mobile phones.
• Raid AI – Instantly detects deepfakes across channels, helping businesses prevent losses from identity theft and fraud.
• TPP – A media intelligence company that creates and scales Arabic content, helping brands make data-driven marketing investments.
• Xsquare – Helping businesses connect their financial operations in one unified view, saving them time from navigating disconnected tools to make sense of their money.

With Batch 11 concluding in July, applications for the next cohort are open. Startups from across the MENA region are invited to join the strong and growing community of ambitious founders shaping the future of innovation in the region. Apply here.

 

The post Batch 11 announced for Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global appeared first on My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Zero-party data is given, not inferred: Your subscribers tell you what they want directly, which makes your targeting more accurate and your emails more relevant.
• Quizzes are the highest-leverage collection tool: A well-built quiz captures intent, preference, and context all at once, in a format people actually enjoy completing.
• Surveys fill the gaps: Post-purchase surveys and single-question emails surface insights your analytics will never show you.
• Preference centres give subscribers control: When people can manage what they receive and how often, they unsubscribe less and engage more.
• The data is only as good as what you do with it: Collecting zero-party data without acting on it is just form-filling.

What Is Zero-Party Data (And Why Is Everyone Talking About It)?

Quizzes: The Highest-Return Data Collection Tool You’re Probably Underusing

Surveys: How to Keep Learning After the First Sale

Quizzes work best at the top of the funnel. Surveys do something different. They fill in the gaps that purchase data leaves behind.

A post-purchase survey sent 24 to 48 hours after delivery is one of the most underused tools in ecommerce email. Not an NPS score in isolation, but actual questions: why did you buy this? What were you hoping it would do? How did you find us?

The answers tell you things your analytics never could.

You might find that 40% of the people who bought your supplement were buying it as a gift. That’s a segment you didn’t know you had, and it changes everything about how you market to them. The re-engagement email you’d send to a repeat buyer who wants it for themselves is completely different from what you’d send to someone who bought it for their mother’s birthday.

Preference check-ins, sent to your existing list every few months, are worth building into your calendar too. Ask how often subscribers want to hear from you, what content they find most useful, and whether anything has changed about their needs. It reduces unsubscribes and tells you where your content is drifting.

And don’t underestimate the single-question email. One question, two or three answer options, the reply feeds directly into their profile. Low friction, surprisingly high response rate, and genuinely one of the most underrated formats in email marketing.

Preference Centres: Giving Subscribers Control Builds Trust You Can Bank On

Most ecommerce brands treat the unsubscribe link as the only exit option.

That’s a mistake.

Between “I want every email you send” and “remove me from everything,” there’s a wide middle ground. A preference centre lives in that space. It lets subscribers tell you exactly what they want to receive and how often, rather than forcing them into an all-or-nothing choice.

The engagement difference is significant. Someone who manages their preferences is actively investing in the relationship. They’re not tolerating your emails. They’re curating them.

At minimum, a preference centre should let subscribers choose their topics, their frequency, and ideally their format. The mechanics don’t need to be complicated. But the option needs to exist, and it needs to be easy to find. Link to it from every email, not just buried in the footer. The subscribers who update their preferences are giving you data and signalling that they want to stay. Both of those things are worth making easy.

Turning the Data Into Email Programs That Actually Convert

Collecting zero-party data is the easy part. The harder question is what you do with it.

Every piece of data you collect should map to a specific segment, flow, or content decision. If it doesn’t change what someone receives or when they receive it, you’re collecting it for no reason.

Quiz answers should feed segmented welcome flows. Someone who identifies as a complete beginner gets a different onboarding sequence than someone who’s been running paid ads for three years. Both are on your list. Neither should get the same emails.

Survey responses should update profiles and shape future communication. If someone flags in a post-purchase survey that they were disappointed with delivery times, that’s not just product feedback. It’s context worth carrying into the next email you send them.

And combining zero-party data with first-party signals gives you the most complete picture. What someone told you they want, paired with what they’ve actually been buying and clicking, is more useful than either source alone.

This is where Omnisend does its best work. The ability to store custom properties at the subscriber level, build dynamic segments from those properties, and trigger automations based on specific answers is what makes zero-party data actionable at scale, rather than sitting in a spreadsheet no one looks at.

Final Thoughts

The brands that win at email in the next few years won’t be the ones with the biggest lists.

They’ll be the ones with the most useful subscriber data, and the systems to act on it.

Zero-party data gives you something paid acquisition and behavioural tracking can’t: a subscriber who told you what they need. A quiz answer. A survey response. A preference they actively chose. That’s not just marketing data. It’s a signal that someone trusts you enough to tell you the truth about what they want.

Build the tools to collect it. Build the flows to use it. And treat the information your subscribers give you with the respect it deserves.

That’s where Omnisend comes in. With custom properties, quiz integrations, dynamic segmentation, and automation tools that respond to subscriber-level data, it gives you the infrastructure to turn what people tell you into emails they actually want to open.

And if you’re currently on another platform, switching costs less than you think. In five days, Omnisend’s migration team moves every flow, list, and template across for you, free. You just show up when it’s done. Same power as the big players, with SMS now starting at $0.007, which for most founders means up to 35% less than what you’re currently paying.

Foundr readers also get 50% off their first three months. Use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start building an email program that earns its place in the inbox.

The post Stop Guessing What Your Subscribers Want: How Zero-Party Data Changes the Email Game appeared first on Foundr.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Community is built through consistency and voice, not just frequency: The brands whose subscribers feel like insiders aren’t sending more emails. They’re sending more intentional ones.
• Your email list already contains your most engaged people: The fact that someone subscribed at all is a signal worth building on.
• Shared identity is more powerful than shared discounts: People stay loyal to brands they feel part of, not just brands that occasionally give them a deal.
• Two-way communication changes the relationship: Asking questions, inviting replies, and responding when people write back turns broadcast into conversation.
• The metrics that matter look different: Open rates, reply rates, and forward rates tell you more about community health than conversion rate alone.

The Difference Between a List and a Community

Make Your Subscribers Feel Like Insiders

Ask Questions. Then Actually Listen.

Most email programs are one-directional. The brand talks. The subscriber receives.

Community requires the opposite.

The simplest way to change the dynamic is to ask questions and make it easy for people to reply. Not a twelve-question survey with a submission form. Just an actual question at the end of an email: what’s the one thing you’re still figuring out about this? What would you want us to make next?

When people reply, respond. Not with an automated acknowledgement, but with a real answer. This doesn’t scale to 50,000 subscribers, but for most ecommerce founders, even a handful of genuine email conversations per month has an outsized effect on how connected that part of your list feels to you.

Those people become your most vocal advocates. The ones who tell their friends, leave detailed reviews, and DM you when something lands for them. It all starts with being the kind of brand that actually listens when someone writes back.

Reply-based campaigns are a good format to build into your rotation. Send an email specifically designed to generate replies: “Tell us the one product you’d recommend to a friend” or “What’s the best thing you’ve bought from us, and why?” People enjoy being asked for their opinion, and the answers often surface insights you can use.

Community spotlights work well too, especially for brands whose products are tools, cameras, craft supplies, fitness gear. Featuring real customers in your emails creates social proof and signals that the brand is paying attention to the people actually using it.

Build a Voice People Recognise

Community coheres around identity. And identity in email comes from voice.

If your emails could have been written by any brand in your category, they won’t build anything beyond a transactional relationship. The subscribers who become genuine fans can usually identify a brand’s email from the first sentence. There’s a recognisable point of view. A consistent way of looking at things. A tone that doesn’t shift depending on whether this week’s email is promotional or informational.

Building that voice takes deliberate choices.

What does your brand actually believe about the space it occupies? What does it push back on? What does it refuse to do, even when competitors do it? What does it care about beyond selling product?

When the answers to those questions consistently show up in your emails, subscribers start to feel like they know you. Feeling like they know you is what makes them trust you enough to stay.

This doesn’t mean every email needs to be a manifesto. Most of them will still be promotional. But the voice should be consistent whether you’re launching a product or sharing a piece of content. The subscriber should feel the same presence behind every send.

The Metrics That Tell You If It’s Working

Community-building doesn’t always show up immediately in revenue. But it shows up in other numbers, and those numbers are worth tracking alongside conversion data.

Reply rate tells you whether the conversation is genuinely two-directional. If nobody is writing back, the door might not feel as open as you think it does.

Forward rate is one of the clearest signals in email marketing. When someone forwards your email to a friend, they’re endorsing you to someone they trust. A rising forward rate is a strong sign your content is hitting the mark.

List growth from referrals is worth tracking too. If you ask new subscribers how they found you, and a growing proportion say a friend sent them your email or shared it with them, that’s community operating as a growth channel.

And pay attention to unsubscribe patterns. A spike after a specific email type tells you something. Consistently low unsubscribes across content-led emails relative to purely promotional ones tells you something else. The brands that build community pay close attention to what keeps people around, not just what gets them to click.

Final Thoughts

The most successful ecommerce email programs aren’t built by the founders with the most sophisticated automation or the highest send frequency.

They’re built by the ones who made their subscribers feel like something more than a name on a list.

That’s achievable at any size. You don’t need a huge audience to build genuine connection through email. You need consistency, a real voice, and a willingness to treat the people on your list as participants rather than recipients.

That’s where Omnisend fits in. With segmentation tools that help you send the right message to the right people, automation that handles the transactional side so you have more space to focus on building relationships, and analytics that show you how your audience is actually engaging, it gives you the infrastructure to build both revenue and community at the same time.

Foundr readers also get 50% off their first three months. Just use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start building an email list that actually looks forward to hearing from you.

The post How to Use Email to Build a Community, Not Just a Customer Base appeared first on Foundr.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Leila Hormozi doesn’t talk about her past to shock people. She talks about it because she thinks it’s the point.

The co-founder of Acquisition.com has been open about the six arrests, the addiction, and the moment she stood in front of a mirror and decided she didn’t want to be that person anymore. Not as a cautionary tale, but as proof that the same capacity for excess that nearly destroyed her is exactly what built a portfolio doing over $250 million in annual revenue by the time she was 30.

Foundr CEO Nathan Chan sat down with Hormozi to hear how a personal trainer with $5,000 in her bank account became one of the most respected operators in online business, and what she’s learned about leadership, execution, and telling people the truth even when it costs you.

Q&A with Leila Hormozi

Nathan Chan: You were arrested six times in eighteen months. What finally made something click?

“It wasn’t discipline. It was complete pain.”

NC: You moved across the country, became a personal trainer, started from scratch. How did that phase build the operator you are today?

LH: I became a personal trainer. I walked to every gym that was within walking distance from where I lived. I got a job at the closest gym so I didn’t have to spend any money on gas. I had $5,000 in my bank and my rent was $1,500 a month. I just needed to make it work.

That period of selling, building client rosters from zero, and managing survival-level finances became the foundation for everything that followed.

LH: I am such a fanatic about leadership, starting with self-leadership, because you cannot lead others unless you can lead yourself. And that’s what kicked me off on that journey. Starting a business is just a vehicle for how I can help other people better their lives.

“You cannot lead others unless you can lead yourself.”

NC: You and Alex met on Bumble, and he pitched you on Gym Launch on the first date. What made you say yes?

LH: I said, the worst case scenario is I end up right back where I am now, needing to build up my client rosters again. I can accept that. And when else in my life can I do this with very little consequences?

The early days of Gym Launch were marked by one disaster after another: a fraudulent business partner who drained their bank account, a merchant processor that locked their funds on Christmas Eve, and friends who had quit their jobs to work for a company that suddenly had no money.

LH: I had burner phones with different accounts on them because that worked at the time. We scrounged everything possible.

NC: You scaled Gym Launch from zero to $50 million in twenty months. But Glassdoor told a different story. What happened?

LH: We had a 4.9 Glassdoor up until I learned a very hard lesson, which is that you cannot let inexperienced managers make hiring projections. We hired 35 people. We only needed five. I had all of the same desire that I do now. I just want to make an amazing place for people to work. I had the desire. I didn’t have the skill.

The day before she was supposed to lay people off, her director of HR texted one person and told her she was going to get fired. That person told the whole team.

LH: My Glassdoor went from a 4.9 to a 2.2.

NC: You’ve talked about struggling with wanting to be liked, and how that actually failed the people around you. How did you work through it?

LH: I desperately wanted to be liked and I didn’t know it. I came from the side of being incredibly empathetic, incredibly understanding. I had to go through going from there to probably swinging too far on the other side, then finding my middle ground.

I realized it’s really not better to be nice in that way, because the two personalities have the same effect on people long term. Whether I’m yelling at my team, or I’m being so nice I don’t tell them the truth, the same result occurs. That person doesn’t know what they need to do better.

The shift came when Hormozi had to let go of a close friend she had hired, someone she had failed to give honest feedback to until it was too late.

LH: I remember in the firing I said: if I could fire myself, I would, but I own the company. I hadn’t given them the feedback they deserved. And because of that, they lost respect from the teams.

I started following John Wooden’s stuff about seven years ago. I said, I’m the coach. What’s the coach’s job? The coach’s job is to tell you: you’re at a six. I need you at a ten. Here’s how to get there. And that changed everything for me.

“I was being deceptive to spare my own feelings of being uncomfortable.”

NC: There is a through line across everything you touch: Gym Launch, Alan, your SaaS company. Rapid, outsized growth is always the result. What drives that?

LH: There are two things you have to have. You have to be building what the customer wants: the offer, the money model, understanding the market. And on the other side, you have to say: how are we gonna make that happen? Most people put a lot of resources on the first side and completely underestimate how many they’ll need on the second.

When I think about business capacity, I think about financial capacity, personnel capacity, systems capacity, and thinking capacity. How many people wake up every morning thinking about this thing? You need all four in excess before you launch.

LH: Most businesses don’t fail because of a bad strategy. They fail because they have poor execution, and they have nobody to tell them what good execution looks like. Out of all the portfolio companies we’ve looked at, probably two of them were capped because of strategy. The other fifty, it was execution.

NC: You are obsessive about talent. What do most founders get wrong about building a team?

LH: A great environment can take a mediocre person and make them great. But if you are just starting your business and you don’t have that culture yet, guess who makes the culture? You are the culture. The CEO, the founder is the heartbeat of the business.

It was not until I realized that every single thing I did was heard through a megaphone and seen through a microscope by my team. They modeled all of my behavior. I’m thinking everywhere: they’re watching, and I’m teaching through my actions, not my words.

NC: How do you attract great people without a big brand or huge compensation packages?

LH: You have to know what your offer is to the marketplace as a small business owner. For me, I don’t want it to be money. I want it to be growth. In a fast growth company, if people don’t want to grow, they see every point of change as a threat rather than a challenge. I want people who see those inflection points as challenges.

I have a big people team: six people, looking to hire four more. A lot of companies would be triple my size before they had a team that big. But I believe in the employee experience the same way I believe in the customer experience.

Despite having no Ivy League pedigree and starting out at community college, Hormozi has built a team of former founders, seasoned executives, and high-growth operators drawn not by compensation but by culture.

LH: I just started these companies after I graduated from community college. But they come because of the offer we present: we are a place for people to grow, and we leave everyone better than they came in.

NC: Last question. What do you want people to take away from your story?

LH: Do you think we would have had the massive success without the massive failures? No. The same muscle that allows you to succeed at that level and take those risks also means you’re gonna fall on your face. It’s a rite of passage.

LH: I became obsessed with how to build an amazing team: a team that can get us not just to 50 million, but to 50 billion. And it all starts with understanding your team as much or better than you understand your customer.

From arrest warrants on kitchen tables to leading one of the most respected operator-founder duos in online business, Leila Hormozi’s story is ultimately about one thing: the moment the pain of staying the same outweighs the fear of change.

The post How Leila Hormozi Went from Six Arrests to a $250 Million Empire appeared first on Foundr.

You’ve done the hard part.

You’ve written a subject line that earns the open. You’ve crafted copy that actually sounds like a human wrote it. You’ve built the automation, scheduled the send, and hit the button with the quiet confidence of someone who knows what they’re doing.

And then it disappears into the spam folder.

Not because your email was bad. Not because your offer wasn’t compelling. But because something in the background, something invisible to most founders, decided your message wasn’t worth delivering.

That’s the brutal reality of email deliverability. You can have the best email strategy in the world, but if your emails aren’t reaching inboxes, none of it matters. Not the copy. Not the psychology. Not the perfectly timed automation. None of it.

The good news? Deliverability is fixable. And once you understand what’s actually driving it, protecting it becomes straightforward.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Sender reputation is the foundation: Email providers score your sending behavior over time. Poor list hygiene, low engagement, and spam complaints quietly damage that score in the background.
• Authentication is non-negotiable: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC aren’t just technical boxes to tick. They’re the proof that your emails are genuinely coming from you.
• Your list quality matters more than its size: A smaller, engaged list will always outperform a bloated one full of cold or unverified contacts.
• Engagement signals protect your inbox placement: When people open, click, and reply to your emails, you earn trust with email providers. When they ignore or report you, that trust erodes.
• Content habits affect deliverability too: Spam filters are smarter than most people realize. The way you write and format your emails plays a bigger role than you’d expect.

What Is Email Deliverability (And Why Should You Care)?

Deliverability isn’t the same as delivery.

When an email is “delivered,” it just means it didn’t bounce. It reached the recipient’s mail server. Where it went after that, inbox, promotions tab, or spam folder, is a separate question entirely, and it’s the one that actually determines whether your campaign drives revenue.

Email deliverability refers to your ability to land in the inbox. It’s influenced by a combination of technical setup, sending behavior, list quality, and content, and it’s tracked and scored in real time by email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.

Get it right, and your emails land where they’re supposed to. Get it wrong, and even your best campaigns get quietly buried where your subscribers will never see them.

For ecommerce founders, this isn’t a marginal concern. If 20% of your emails are going to spam, you’ve effectively lost 20% of your list overnight, except the damage is invisible, so most people never notice until open rates start sliding and revenue quietly dips.

Your Sender Reputation Is Everything

Think of sender reputation like a credit score for your email program.

Every time you send, email providers are watching. How many people are opening? How many are ignoring? Are you getting spam complaints? Are your emails bouncing? Over time, all of that behavior adds up into a reputation score that follows your sending domain and IP address around.

A strong reputation means your emails are trusted. A weak one means they get filtered, deprioritized, or blocked entirely, sometimes without any warning.

The two things that damage sender reputation faster than anything else are high bounce rates and spam complaints. Bounces signal that your list isn’t clean. Complaints signal that your audience didn’t want the email in the first place. Either one tells email providers that something is off, and they respond accordingly.

This is why sending to a warm, engaged list is one of the most important things you can do for your deliverability long-term. The kind of engagement signals you build through thoughtful email automation don’t just drive revenue. They protect your reputation at the same time.

Authentication Is Not Optional

If sender reputation is your credit score, authentication is your ID.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are the three technical standards that prove to email providers that your emails are genuinely coming from you, not from a spammer impersonating your domain. Without them, even legitimate emails can get flagged, filtered, or rejected.

Here’s what each one actually does, in plain English:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record that tells email providers which servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. If an email arrives claiming to be from you but it’s sent from a server that isn’t on your SPF list, that’s a red flag.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a digital signature to your emails that verifies the content hasn’t been tampered with in transit. It’s essentially a seal of authenticity that travels with every email you send.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) ties the two together. It tells email providers what to do if an email fails SPF or DKIM checks, whether to quarantine it, reject it, or let it through, and it gives you reporting so you can see what’s happening.

If you’re using a platform like Omnisend, these are either handled automatically or set up as part of the onboarding process. But it’s worth checking that all three are correctly configured for your sending domain. A missing or misconfigured DKIM record is one of the most common reasons legitimate emails end up in spam, and it takes less than 15 minutes to fix.

List Hygiene: The Unsexy Work That Actually Protects You

Nobody talks about list hygiene at dinner parties.

But it might be the most quietly powerful thing you can do to protect your deliverability.

Every email list accumulates dead weight over time. Old addresses that no longer exist. Contacts who signed up years ago and have never engaged. Typos that were never caught at the point of capture. Each of those sits on your list doing nothing except pulling your engagement rates down and pushing your bounce rates up.

The fix is straightforward: remove them.

Run a re-engagement campaign for contacts who haven’t opened or clicked in 90 to 180 days. Give them one last chance to raise their hand. Those who don’t engage get removed. It feels counterintuitive to shrink your list, but a smaller, healthier list consistently outperforms a bloated one when it comes to inbox placement.

You should also be suppressing hard bounces immediately and monitoring your soft bounce rate closely. Most reputable email platforms will handle hard bounces automatically, but it’s worth building a regular hygiene audit into your sending schedule, especially before major campaigns.

One more thing worth checking: how are people joining your list in the first place? Double opt-in isn’t the most glamorous growth tactic, but it produces subscribers who actively confirmed they wanted to hear from you. That confirmation makes a meaningful difference to both engagement rates and deliverability over time.

Engagement Signals Are Deliverability Signals

Email providers aren’t just checking whether your technical setup is correct. They’re also watching how people respond to what you send.

When subscribers open your emails, click your links, reply to your messages, or move your email out of spam, those are all positive signals. They tell providers that people genuinely want to receive what you’re sending, and that makes future emails more likely to land in the inbox.

The inverse is also true. Low open rates, ignored emails, and spam complaints tell providers the opposite, and they adjust your deliverability accordingly.

This is where content strategy and deliverability actually intersect. Writing emails your audience genuinely wants to receive isn’t just a conversion tactic. Every time someone engages with your email, they’re quietly voting for your inbox placement.

It’s also why getting your welcome series right matters more than most founders realize. The first few emails a new subscriber receives set the engagement tone for the entire relationship. Strong opens and clicks from new subscribers build sender reputation from day one. Silence from the start erodes it.

Content Habits That Quietly Trigger Spam Filters

Spam filters have come a long way from simply scanning for the word “free.”

Modern filters analyze hundreds of signals at once, including your sending history, your domain reputation, your HTML structure, and yes, certain content patterns that have historically been associated with spam.

A few habits worth checking in your own emails:

1. Heavy image-to-text ratio. Emails that are mostly images with very little text can trigger filters, partly because spammers have historically used images to hide content from scanners. Aim for a balanced ratio with readable text that carries the message even if images don’t load.
2. Excessive punctuation and capitalization. ALL CAPS SUBJECT LINES!!! look like spam because spam has trained us, and the filters, to treat them that way.
3. Too many links. A single email crammed with 15 different links suggests bulk promotional content. Keep your calls to action focused. One primary CTA per email is almost always the right move.
4. Misleading subject lines. Subject lines that don’t match the email content don’t just irritate readers. They generate complaints, which damage reputation, which affects future deliverability.
5. Unsubscribe friction. If people can’t easily unsubscribe, they report you as spam instead. A clear, one-click unsubscribe link is not just a legal requirement in most markets. It’s a deliverability protection mechanism.

None of this means you need to strip the personality out of your emails. The psychology behind what makes emails convert still applies in full. It just means being deliberate about how you write and format, so the content you’ve worked hard on actually gets seen.

Final Thoughts

Deliverability isn’t a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing practice.

The founders who consistently land in the inbox aren’t the ones who got their DNS records right once and forgot about it. They’re the ones who treat list quality, sending consistency, and subscriber engagement as ongoing priorities, not afterthoughts.

The frustrating thing about deliverability is that it’s invisible until it breaks. By the time you notice the drop in open rates, the damage has already been done. The answer is to build habits that protect your reputation before problems appear.

That’s exactly what Omnisend is built for. With deliverability monitoring, authentication setup support, list health tools, and smart sending features that protect your sender reputation automatically, it gives founders the infrastructure to keep their emails landing where they’re supposed to.

Foundr readers also get 50% off their first three months. Just use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start building an email program that actually reaches its audience.

The post Avoid the Spam Folder: Email Deliverability Tips You Can’t Ignore appeared first on Foundr.

We’ve all been there.

It’s Black Friday week, and your inbox looks like a warzone. “50% OFF EVERYTHING!” “LAST CHANCE!” “DON’T MISS OUT!” Every brand you’ve ever bought from (and a few you definitely haven’t) is screaming for your attention at the same time.

And what do you do? 

Delete, delete, delete.

But seasonal email campaigns don’t have to feel like a desperate pitch. Done right, they can actually strengthen your relationship with your audience, drive real revenue and leave your customers genuinely excited to hear from you, even during the busiest shopping periods of the year.

The secret? It’s not about selling less. It’s about selling smarter.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through proven seasonal email strategies that drive sales without making your subscribers want to hit “unsubscribe.” 

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Plan ahead: Map out your seasonal calendar early and mix promotional emails with value-driven content so your audience doesn’t feel bombarded.
• Lead with story: Open with a personal angle, behind-the-scenes moment, or customer story and let the offer emerge naturally.
• Segment your list: Even basic segmentation (new vs. returning customers) makes seasonal emails feel personal rather than mass-blasted.
• Build anticipation, not panic: Replace “LAST CHANCE” energy with early access, limited editions, and countdown sequences that create genuine excitement.

Plan Your Calendar Before the Season Hits

If you’re scrambling to put together a Valentine’s Day email on February 13th, you’ve already lost.

(The same goes for getting your partner a gift, but I’ll save that story for another day!)

The best seasonal email strategies start weeks, often months, in advance. And I don’t just mean pencilling in “Black Friday campaign” on a sticky note. I mean building out a proper content calendar that maps every seasonal moment worth showing up for.

Now, that doesn’t mean you need to email your list for every obscure holiday on the internet (nobody needs a “National Sock Day” campaign. Unless you’re the CEO of Socks ‘R’ Us). But it does mean identifying the moments that genuinely matter to your audience and planning a mix of content around them.

Here’s a good rule of thumb: for every promotional email you send, aim to send at least two that educate, entertain, or inspire. That way, when the sales email does land, your subscribers are already engaged and far more likely to open it.

I call this the give-and-take approach. Each sales email you are ‘taking’ from your audience, offering little support, asking them to take action. Each educational or entertainment piece builds trust, offering readers value and asking for nothing in return. 

Psychologically speaking, this makes the reader much more likely to purchase when the sales email does come their way.

Lead With Story, Not the Sale

Here’s something most founders get wrong with seasonal emails: they lead with the discount.

“30% off for summer!” “Holiday sale starts NOW!” Sure, it’s direct. But it’s also exactly what every other brand in your subscribers’ inbox is doing. And when everyone is shouting the same thing, nobody stands out.

Instead, try leading with a story. A personal angle. A behind-the-scenes look at why you created a particular product, or a customer story that ties naturally into the season.

For example, instead of “20% off our summer collection,” imagine opening with something like, “We designed this piece for those long weekends where you want to look good without trying too hard.” The offer can still live in the email, but now it has context, personality, and a reason for existing beyond just shifting stock.

People remember stories far more than they remember sales pitches. In fact, research suggests that people retain around 63% of stories but only 5% of standalone statistics. So if you want your seasonal emails to stick, give your subscribers something worth remembering before you ask them to buy.

The discount is the cherry on top, not the whole cake.

Segment Your Audience for Relevance

Let me ask you something. 

Would you send the same Christmas gift to your best friend, your boss, and your grandma?

Probably not. So why would you send the same seasonal email to every person on your list?

One of the fastest ways to make your emails feel “salesy” is to blast the same generic message to your entire subscriber base. It screams, “I don’t really know who you are, but please buy something.” And your audience can feel that a mile off.

Even basic segmentation can make a huge difference. Splitting your list into new subscribers versus returning customers is a great starting point. A first-time buyer might need more of an introduction to your brand during a seasonal push, while a loyal customer might respond better to early access or a “thank you” discount that rewards their loyalty.

From there, you can get more specific. Segment by purchase history, engagement level, or even browsing behaviour. The more relevant your email feels, the less it reads like a sales pitch and the more it reads like something that was written specifically for them.

The good news? You don’t need to be a data scientist to do this. Tools like Omnisend make segmentation straightforward, even if you’re a solo founder juggling a hundred other priorities. A few smart filters and your seasonal campaign suddenly feels a lot more personal than the “Dear Valued Customer” approach.

Create Urgency Without the Desperation

Urgency works. That’s not up for debate. 

But there’s a big difference between creating genuine anticipation and making your subscribers feel like they’re being guilt-tripped into a purchase.

We’ve all seen the emails. “FINAL HOURS!” “You’ll regret missing this!” “This will NEVER happen again!” It’s the email marketing equivalent of a used car salesman following you around the lot. And honestly? Most people see right through it.

The good news is you can still create urgency without resorting to the all-caps panic approach. It just requires a little more thought.

Early access is a brilliant example. Instead of pressuring everyone at once, reward your most engaged subscribers by letting them shop before anyone else. It creates exclusivity rather than anxiety, and your audience feels valued rather than rushed.

Limited editions and seasonal exclusives work in a similar way. If a product is genuinely only available for a short window, that’s real urgency, and your subscribers will respect it because it’s authentic, not manufactured.

Lily, the founder of Luu Lounge, nailed this approach. Before her drops went live, she had her entire email and SMS list waiting for the launch date, the time, everything. By the time the product was available, demand had already built. She wasn’t chasing customers with “LAST CHANCE” subject lines; she had them queuing up because the anticipation had been earned through genuine excitement, not desperation.

That’s the kind of urgency that drives sales and keeps people subscribed.

Automate the Heavy Lifting (So You Can Focus on What Matters)

Seasonal emails shouldn’t feel like shouting into a crowded room. They should feel like a well-timed conversation with someone who already wants to hear from you. The founders who win at email marketing aren’t the ones with the biggest discounts or the loudest subject lines; they’re the ones who treat their subscribers like people, not transactions.

That’s exactly what Foundr students are doing right now, building real businesses with email and SMS strategies that work around their schedules, not against them. And with the right tool, it’s a lot more achievable than you might think.

If you want to start building seasonal campaigns that drive revenue without doubling your workload, Omnisend makes it practical. Foundr readers can also get 50% off their first three months, just use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up, and start turning your seasonal moments into your most profitable ones yet.

 

The post Seasonal Email Strategies That Drive Sales Without Feeling “Salesy” appeared first on Foundr.

Lily didn’t set out to launch a clothing brand for the sake of fashion. The idea came from a daily frustration she couldn’t ignore. 

While working full-time in electric vehicle infrastructure, Lily found herself constantly battling pet hair.

“I work in electric vehicle infrastructure. It’s a nice eight-to-five, Monday through Friday. I have three dogs, and I was always just covered in fur all the time,” she explains.

The problem was simple, persistent, and personal.

“I pretty much thought to myself, how could I make clothes where the hair just doesn’t stick — or I could easily wipe it away?”

That question became the foundation of her brand. Lily began developing custom fabric designed to resist pet hair, committing to a process that would take far longer than a typical apparel launch.

“It’s been like over a year-long work in progress trying to find the right manufacturer because my clothes are made with the custom fabric,” she says.

Throughout that period, she chose to build in public, sharing the process openly as it unfolded.

“I was building in public, I put my idea out on TikTok, and it pretty much started going viral.”

What followed validated the demand she suspected was there all along. When her first drop went live, the response was immediate.

“When a drop came, I sold out in a couple of hours,” Lily recalls.

The challenge quickly shifted from proving interest to managing it — all while continuing to work a full-time job.

Learning Email Marketing From Scratch

As Lily moved closer to launch, she faced a new challenge beyond fabric and manufacturing: learning email marketing from the ground up while working full-time.

“Basically. I’m very new to email marketing,” she explains.

With a demanding Monday-to-Friday role, time was her biggest constraint.

“I needed something that was going to be easy enough for me to learn — something intuitive enough where I wouldn’t have to pour way too much time into it.”

She initially started with Klaviyo, intending to set up emails and automations herself.

“I started with Klaviyo first. Let me get on here, start making emails, and start doing my automations,” she says. 

But instead of clarity, the process became circular.

“I was kind of going in circles with it, and things weren’t looking like how I wanted them to look.”

As her audience grew, the frustration compounded.

“I felt like I was being punished for growing.”

That experience led her to switch to Omnisend — and the difference was immediate.

“That’s honestly how I felt when I made the switch to Omnisend, it was a lot easier to use,” Lily explains.

She moved quickly without overthinking the setup.

“I was able to pop all my automations together really quickly, and then things were also looking like how I wanted them to look.”

For a founder balancing a full-time job alongside a launch, that simplicity mattered. Omnisend helped Lily put essential systems in place without taking focus away from everything else she was building.

How Lily Uses Omnisend Day-to-Day

Day to day, Lily relies on Omnisend to keep customer communication running without demanding constant attention. With a full-time job and multiple priorities, the platform is something she can set up and trust.

“I’m glad I can just put it on and leave it so I don’t worry about it,” she explains, describing how email and SMS can run in the background once everything is in place.

Rather than managing campaigns manually, Lily uses Omnisend to support early access and launch coordination through straightforward automation. That hands-off structure is what allows Omnisend to fit into her routine.

Instead of pulling focus away from product development or fulfillment, her customer communication runs reliably in the background — helping her manage demand while balancing everything else.

The Impact Lily Is Seeing

For Lily, the impact of Omnisend shows up most clearly at launch. By building her audience ahead of time, she was able to start selling with demand already in place.

“I was around 3,000 when I launched,” she explains.

From there, growth continued as the brand moved out of development and into active drops. 

Also, that audience wasn’t passive. Lily used email and SMS to coordinate exactly when — and how — customers could access each release.

“I had everyone just sitting on that email list, waiting for their text or the email for the launch date, the time, everything,” she says, describing how anticipation built before products went live. 

Reflecting on the launch as a whole, Lily is clear about the role the platform played in turning preparation into results.

“Omnisend has been a big part of my launch,” she says, describing it as “definitely a major tool when it came to the early success of my brand.”

How Foundr Students Are Using Omnisend in Real Businesses

Lily’s experience reflects a broader reality for many Foundr students building businesses alongside full-time jobs. With limited time, energy, and margin for error, they need systems that are quick to learn, easy to implement, and reliable when it matters most.

Rather than treating email and SMS as separate, complex disciplines, founders like Lily integrate them directly into their launch process. By setting up essential automations early, they can build audiences in advance, coordinate demand, and manage access — without constant hands-on work.

That structure frees them up to focus on product development and fulfilment, while customer communication keeps running in the background.

If you want to build similar campaigns without doubling your workload, Omnisend makes it practical.Foundr readers can also get 50% off their first three months — use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up, and start creating emails that not only meet but exceed your customers’ expectations.

The post How Lily Launched a Custom Clothing Brand Alongside a Full-Time Job appeared first on Foundr.

Most businesses obsess over getting the first sale. Far fewer think about what happens next.

After a customer buys, there is a quiet window where decisions are already being made. Will they remember you? Will they come back? Or will your brand slowly fade while something else grabs their attention?

This is where timely email makes the difference.

Not more emails. 

Not louder promotions. 

Just the right message at the right moment.

When emails arrive in context, after a purchase, during a pause, or exactly when a customer is ready to re-engage, they feel helpful instead of intrusive. And that is what turns one-time buyers into repeat customers.

In this article, I will break down how timely emails work, why they are so effective for retention, and how you can use them to keep customers coming back without increasing your workload.

Why Timing Matters More Than Frequency

When email performance drops, most businesses respond by sending more. More campaigns. More promotions. More reminders.

But frequency is rarely the real problem.

Customers do not disengage because they receive too few emails. They disengage because the emails arrive at the wrong time. A message that feels relevant today can feel annoying tomorrow. The difference is context.

According to Omnisend’s 2025 ecommerce data, automated emails, despite accounting for just a small fraction of all sends, drove a disproportionately large share of revenue. 

In fact, automated flows generated around 37% of email-driven sales from just 2% of email volume, highlighting how behaviour-triggered email at the right moment outperforms generic campaigns. 

Timing gives your email meaning. It connects what the customer has just done, or is about to do, with a message that feels useful rather than promotional. That relevance makes the content feel personal, even when it is automated.

This is also why sending fewer, better-timed emails often improves retention. Instead of competing for attention, your brand shows up when it makes sense. When customers feel understood rather than marketed to, they are far more likely to come back.

The Psychology Behind Timely Emails

Timely emails work because they align with how people think, not how marketers plan campaigns.

Most purchasing decisions are shaped by emotion, habit, and context. When an email arrives at the right moment, it feels relevant without needing to work hard for attention. The timing does the heavy lifting.

One of the strongest psychological drivers here is recognition. When a message reflects something a customer has just done, bought, or shown interest in, it signals that the brand is paying attention. That sense of being understood increases trust and lowers resistance.

Another factor is momentum. After a purchase or interaction, customers are already mentally engaged with your brand. A well-timed follow-up keeps that momentum going. Miss that window, and the emotional connection fades faster than most businesses expect.

Timely emails also reduce decision fatigue. Instead of asking customers to think about whether they want to re-engage, the email arrives when the decision is already half made. The action feels natural, not forced.

This is why retention-focused emails rarely feel promotional when they are timed correctly. They feel supportive, helpful, and easy to act on. And when customers associate your brand with ease rather than effort, coming back becomes the default choice.

The Email Moments That Bring Customers Back

Understanding the psychology behind timely emails is only useful if you know where to apply it. Retention is not driven by constant contact. It is built through a small number of moments where timing, relevance, and intent line up.

Email works best when it supports those moments rather than interrupting them.

Right after the first purchase is one of the most important windows. Customers are still emotionally invested, but they are also subconsciously looking for reassurance that they made the right decision. A timely email here should focus on confirmation and confidence. Setting expectations, offering helpful guidance, or reinforcing the value of what they bought can reduce buyer’s remorse and increase the likelihood of a second purchase.

Then comes the quiet period. This is where many brands go silent or default to generic promotions. Instead, this is an opportunity to stay present without selling. Emails that educate, inspire, or help customers get more value from what they already purchased keep the relationship warm while trust builds.

Finally, there is the re-entry moment. This is when a customer is naturally ready to return. It might be driven by time, usage, or behaviour. When your email arrives at this point, it feels intuitive rather than persuasive. The action feels obvious because the timing is right.

These moments do not require more emails. They require better timing. When your messages align with where the customer already is, coming back feels natural, not forced.

A Timely Email That Brings Customers Back

Imagine a customer who made their first purchase a few weeks ago. They have not returned yet, but they also have not disengaged. 

This is a perfect moment for a timely email.

Instead of sending a generic promotion, the message arrives with a clear purpose.

The subject line focuses on relevance, not urgency. It references the customer’s last interaction or hints at what comes next. The goal is to remind, not pressure.

Inside the email, the opening line acknowledges where the customer is. It reinforces the value of what they already bought and helps them get more out of it. There is no hard sell. The tone is supportive and confident.

The body of the email keeps things simple. It highlights one useful tip, one insight, or one next step that feels logical at this stage. The message is short enough to scan and clear enough to act on.

The call to action reflects the moment. It invites the customer to return in a low-friction way, such as:

• Exploring a related product
• Restocking a previous purchase
• Seeing what other customers found useful next

Nothing feels forced. The email arrives when the customer is ready, and the action feels natural.

This is what an effective retention email looks like. Not louder messaging or deeper discounts, but thoughtful timing paired with relevance.

Final Thoughts

Customers don’t come back because they receive more emails. They come back because the right email shows up at the right moment.

When your messages are timed around real behaviour, not arbitrary schedules, email stops feeling like marketing and starts feeling like part of the experience. That is what builds trust, familiarity, and long-term loyalty.

If you want to keep customers coming back without increasing manual work, Omnisend gives you the tools to do it. With behaviour-based automations, dynamic personalization, and built-in social proof, it helps founders turn timely moments into repeat revenue.

Foundr readers also get 50% off their first 3 months. Just use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start sending emails that customers actually look forward to.

The post How to Keep Your Customers Coming Back with Timely Emails appeared first on Foundr.

You spend hours crafting the perfect email. The subject line feels sharp, the copy is polished, and you’re confident this one is going to drive serious clicks.

Then it lands in inboxes… and nothing happens.

No spike in traffic. No sales. No meaningful engagement.

Just another email your audience scrolls past.

If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. Even the smartest founders and marketers struggle to turn opens into clicks. And while it’s easy to blame “email fatigue” or shrinking attention spans, the real problem usually comes down to a handful of fixable mistakes.

The good news? Small, strategic tweaks can dramatically boost your click-through rate. In this article, we’ll break down why people aren’t clicking your emails and exactly how to reverse it using proven psychology and practical best practices.

Ready to turn passive readers into active customers? Let’s dive in.

Why Your Emails Aren’t Getting Clicked

Before you can fix low click-through rates, you need to understand why people aren’t taking action in the first place. Most email performance issues stem from a few common patterns. If your CTR is flat or falling, chances are one of these culprits is to blame.

Your subject line isn’t pulling its weight

The subject line is your email’s first impression, and in a crowded inbox, you only get a split second to earn attention. If your subject line is vague, predictable, or overly salesy, people will skip right past it.

Strong subject lines spark curiosity, promise value, or tap into a specific desire. Weak ones blend into the noise. If you’re not making people want to open your email, you’ll never get them to click inside it.

You’re not connecting with the reader’s mindset

Most emails fail because they talk at the reader instead of speaking to where the reader is mentally or emotionally.

People click when something feels relevant.

They click when they feel understood.

They click when the message aligns with what they’re already thinking about.

If your email jumps straight into a pitch without context or empathy, the disconnect kills engagement long before the CTA appears.

The email feels generic or impersonal

Sending one blanket message to everyone on your list doesn’t work anymore. Subscribers are used to personalized recommendations, tailored content, and experiences that feel crafted for them.

If your emails feel mass-produced, readers treat them that way.

When the message doesn’t match their interests, stage in the buyer journey, or past behaviour, they simply won’t engage.

Your formatting makes it hard to read

Huge paragraphs, cluttered layouts, weak hierarchy, and buried CTAs all cause friction. And friction kills clicks.

People skim emails, especially on mobile. If they can’t quickly understand what the message is about and what’s in it for them, they won’t take the next step.

Your job isn’t just to write well. It’s to make the message effortless to digest.

You’re not using psychological triggers that drive action

Clicks don’t happen by accident. They’re a response to emotional cues.

Urgency, curiosity, social proof, reciprocity, fear of missing out, clarity of benefit. These are the levers that turn attention into action.

When your email lacks these triggers, the message may be pleasant but ultimately forgettable. A good email makes people nod. A great email moves them to click.

How to Fix It (Step by Step)

Fixing low click-through rates isn’t about reinventing your entire email strategy. It’s about tightening a few key elements so your message feels clearer, more relevant, and more compelling. Here’s how to turn your emails into high-performing assets your audience actually engages with.

1. Write subject lines that spark curiosity or promise value

Great subject lines earn attention by doing one of two things:

They make the reader curious, or they make the benefit irresistible.

Keep them short. Avoid clichés. And focus on what the reader gets, not what you’re sending.

A few reliable approaches:

• Ask an intriguing question
• Tease a solution to a known problem
• Create an open loop that the reader wants to resolve

If the subject line earns the open, the content can earn the click.

2. Segment your audience and tailor the message

People click when the message feels made for them. Segmentation lets you send targeted emails based on behaviour, skill level, interests, or stage in the buying journey.

The more specific the message, the more relevant it feels. And relevance is the fastest route to clicks.

Start with simple segments such as:

• New subscribers
• Customers vs. non-customers
• Highly engaged vs. inactive readers
• Product interest groups

Even basic segmentation can double or triple click-through rates.

3. Personalize beyond first names

True personalization is about context, not just tokens.

Use behaviour, history, and preferences to shape your message. For example:

• Recommend content based on what they previously read
• Reference items they browsed
• Follow up on something they downloaded
• Tailor emails to the challenges of their specific niche or role

When readers feel like the email speaks directly to them, they’re far more likely to click.

4. Use psychology to guide your CTA

A strong call to action isn’t just well-worded. It’s strategically positioned, emotionally primed, and crystal clear.

To increase clicks:

• Make the CTA benefit-driven
• Use urgency that’s real, not force
• Leverage social proof near the CTA
• Reduce hesitation with risk reversals or guarantees

Your CTA should feel like the natural next step, not a hard sell.

5. Improve readability and layout

If readability improves, clicks improve.

Make your email effortless to skim by using:

• Short paragraphs
• Bullet points
• Clear subheads
• Bolded key lines
• One primary CTA

And don’t underestimate design hierarchy. Your CTA should be impossible to miss, especially on mobile.

6. Test, Measure, Iterate

The most successful email marketers treat every send as data.

A/B test:

• Subject lines
• CTA placement
• Send times
• Button colour and copy
• Email length and structure

What works for one audience may flop for another. Testing lets the numbers decide.

Quick Wins You Can Implement Today

You don’t need a full strategy rebuild to get more clicks. A few targeted adjustments can lift your CTR almost immediately.

Start by tightening your CTA. Vague prompts like “Learn more” or “Click here” don’t tell the reader what they’ll gain. Swap them for benefit-driven actions such as:

• “See the full strategy”
• “Download the guide”
• “Start improving your results”

Next, move your primary CTA higher in the email. Most subscribers skim, and if the only action appears at the bottom, many will never see it. Place one CTA early, then repeat it for readers who scroll.

Shortening your email also helps. Cutting around 20% of the copy reduces friction and makes the core message easier to digest. A tighter email naturally draws more attention to the action you want people to take.

A quick curiosity line at the top can also boost engagement. A simple hook like “Most people miss this step” keeps readers moving long enough to reach your CTA.

Finally, preview your message on mobile. Over half of your audience reads on a phone, so spacing, CTA size, and readability all influence whether they click.

Final Thoughts

The emails that earn the most clicks aren’t the loudest or the flashiest. They’re the ones built around how people actually make decisions.

If you want to build these kinds of campaigns without doubling your workload, Omnisend gives you everything you need. With behaviour-based automations, dynamic personalization, and built-in social proof, it helps founders pair smart psychology with effortless execution.

Foundr readers also get 50% off their first 3 months. Just use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start creating emails that get clicked, not ignored.

The post Why Your Emails Aren’t Getting Clicked (And How to Fix That) appeared first on Foundr.

Every great email campaign has one thing in common.

It makes people feel something.

It’s not just about clever copy or eye-catching design. The emails that drive serious revenue tap into how people actually think and behave, the subtle psychological triggers that move someone from scrolling to clicking “buy now.”

Because behind every open rate and conversion metric is a human brain making micro-decisions.

Do I trust this brand? 

Am I missing out?

Is this for me?

Understanding those instincts is what separates average campaigns from unforgettable ones.

In this article, we’ll unpack the four psychological levers that power the best-performing emails and make your emails stop feeling like promotions and start feeling like opportunities.

The Psychological Triggers Behind Every High-Converting Email

Before we dive into the mechanics of high-performing emails, and assuming you have already followed our steps to build your email list, it helps to understand one simple truth: people don’t make decisions logically; they make them emotionally.

Then they justify them with logic afterwards!

When someone opens your email, they aren’t analysing your layout or weighing up your CTA buttons. They’re responding to invisible forces that shape almost every buying decision they make:

• Urgency: The instinct to act before an opportunity disappears.

• Scarcity: The pull toward things that feel exclusive or limited

• Social proof: The comfort of seeing others make the same choice

• Personalization: The sense that a message was crafted specifically for them

These are the psychological levers that quietly guide behavior, and when you build your emails around them, everything converts better.

Urgency: Why timing triggers action

Urgency works because it taps into one of the most powerful human instincts. 

We all hate missing out on something good!

When a customer feels like they need to act now (not later, not “when I have time”), their decision-making shifts. The longer someone waits, the more doubts creep in. Urgency cuts through that hesitation by giving the moment weight.

That’s why phrases like “Ends tonight”, “Last chance”, or “Only a few hours left” consistently outperform softer messaging. They turn a passive reader into an active decision-maker.

But the key is authenticity. 

Fake urgency, like a flash sale every other day, trains customers to ignore you. Real urgency tied to a genuine deadline, product drop, seasonal moment, or limited bonus, creates momentum without damaging trust.

Scarcity: Why ‘limited’ can be so valuable

Scarcity isn’t about speed; it’s about value.

When something feels limited, exclusive, or hard to get, our brains automatically assign it more importance. 

We pay closer attention. 

We think harder about whether we want it. And once we want it, we want it more because we’re not guaranteed to have it.

In email, scarcity shows up in subtle but powerful ways:

• Highlighting genuinely low stock
• Launching limited-edition versions or seasonal items
• Offering bonuses only available to a specific group
• Giving early access to people on a particular list

The message isn’t “hurry.”

It’s “not everyone will get this.”

Suddenly, the product feels special. The customer feels like they’re part of something selective.

Social Proof: Why people trust people more than brands

If urgency moves people and scarcity elevates value, social proof removes doubt.

It’s the quiet psychological signal that says, “Others tried this, and it turned out well.”

In a world full of promises, customers are constantly scanning for clues that what you’re saying is actually true. Social proof gives them that reassurance. It bridges the trust gap faster than any headline, offer, or guarantee ever could.

This is why a single review can do more for conversion than a full paragraph of polished copy.

Why a real customer photo carries more weight than a studio shoot.

Why a quick video testimonial can overturn a shopper’s last remaining hesitation.

Social proof reduces the risk of buying.

In email, social proof works best when it’s woven naturally into the story you’re telling:

• A short testimonial placed above the CTA
• A customer photo beside a product feature
• A “Loved by 12,000+ customers” badge
• A case study snippet showing real results
• UGC used as the hero image instead of a polished creative

You’re not trying to “prove” your worth, you’re letting your customers do it for you.

Personalization: Why People Pay Attention When It Feels Personal

Most inboxes feel generic. 

Same offers. Same templates. Same tone.

(Unless you’ve implemented our 5 ways personalization in eCommerce can enhance customer experience!)

That’s why genuine personalization stands out, because it breaks the pattern.

Personalization in email works because it answers an unspoken customer question:

“Why are you showing me this?”

If you can answer that naturally, engagement goes up immediately. For example:

• Showing someone products that match their previous purchase.
• Recommending items based on what they browsed.
• Sending returning customers different content than first-timers.

Example email

Now let’s put all that into practise in this example email:

Subject: Your next match just got faster (limited sizes left)

Hi {{FirstName}},

You’ve been checking out our performance padel shoes lately, so we thought you’d want the heads-up on this:

Our new Velocity Pro 2.0 just dropped, built for players who want maximum grip, faster footwork, and a smoother slide on sand-based courts.

And early customers are already calling them a game-changer:

 “The stability is unreal. I’ve never moved this confidently at the net.” Mark R., Intermediate Player

Here’s why players are upgrading:

• 40% improved traction in lateral movements
• Lightweight cushioning for longer rallies
• Reinforced toe box for durability on abrasive courts
• Breathable upper to keep feet cool during tough matches

But a quick heads-up before you pick your size:

We’re already running low on the most popular sizes after the first 72 hours. Once they’re gone, they won’t be restocked until next month.

To make sure you don’t miss out, we’re giving subscribers early access for the next 24 hours only.

Your early-access link: [personalized link]

And because you’ve bought performance footwear from us before, this exclusive colourway comes with free shipping on your order, just for VIP customers like you.

See how they look on real players:

[UGC Gallery featuring the shoe in action]

Whether you’re working on your bandeja or powering through long defensive rallies, these were built to keep up with your game.

See the Velocity Pro 2.0 before your size disappears 

[CTA]

Catch you on court,

The PadelLab Team

Where the four triggers show up

• Urgency: “24 hours only,” “early-access window,” gentle time pressure
• Scarcity: Limited sizes, restock next month
• Social Proof: A real review and  UGC gallery
• Personalization: References past browsing and purchase behaviour plus VIP free shipping

Final Thoughts

The emails that convert best aren’t the ones with the loudest subject lines or the biggest discounts, they’re the ones that understand how people actually make decisions. 

When you blend urgency, scarcity, social proof, and personalization with intention, your campaigns stop feeling like promotions and start feeling like moments. Moments that move people, reduce hesitation, and guide them toward what they already want.

If you want to build these kinds of campaigns without doubling your workload, Omnisend gives you every tool you need. 

From behaviour-based automations to dynamic personalization and built-in social proof blocks, it helps founders pair smart psychology with powerful execution.

Plus, Foundr readers get 50% off their first 3 months. Just use code FOUNDR50 when you sign up and start creating emails that do more than just land in the inbox.

The post The Psychology Behind High-Converting Email Campaigns appeared first on Foundr.

Every founder knows the story.

You pour money into ads, tweak targeting, rewrite copy, and still watch your customer acquisition cost (CAC) creep higher each month.

No matter what you do, the tests you run, or the out-of-the-box ideas you try, that graph just keeps slowly climbing.

But it’s not (necessarily) that your product’s worse. It’s that your audience has changed.

Shoppers don’t just want to see your brand, they want to hear from people who’ve already trusted it.

Because today, attention is expensive. But trust? That’s priceless.

In this guide, we’ll break down how verified reviews and user-generated content (UGC) can build instant trust, lift your conversion rates and turn happy customers into your best-performing sales channel

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Trust is the new growth engine in ecommerce. Verified reviews and UGC are driving higher conversions than paid ads alone.
• Your customers are your best marketers. Authentic voices (through written, photo, and video reviews) build credibility faster than any campaign.
• Reviews are data, not just decoration. Analyse feedback trends, improve your CX, and use insights to drive repeat sales and loyalty.

Traffic Might Win Attention, But Trust Wins Sales.

There’s a point every founder hits. You’re getting clicks, your ads are sharp, and your traffic’s growing. But somehow, sales stay flat.

Perhaps you have spent a few sleepless nights checking the customer journey on your site or making sure every ad is running as planned, but in many instances, this approach will have no major impact on your conversion.

Why?

Because the reality is that it’s not that people aren’t interested, it’s that they don’t believe you yet.

The customer’s perspective

Put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes for a moment. You’ve been hit with an ad for something that is of interest. You head to the company’s website for the first time, having never heard of them before. 

Everything sounds great, from fast shipping to 24/7 customer service, but there’s still one major issue. All that information is coming from the company, not from it’s customers. Shoppers are smarter than ever, and they know when they’re being marketed to. They also know to take any and all promises from a brand with a grain of salt.

But when they hear it from an existing customer? That’s a game-changer.

Because when someone sees genuine reviews, unfiltered UGC, or a quick customer video, the story changes. It’s no longer your brand voice trying to convince them; it’s the voice of someone they can truly relate to.

While digital marketing is rapidly evolving, one constant that will continue to remain is that people sell to people, and there is no better form of marketing than word of mouth.

Customers can sell your product and brand better than you can. People trust people, not polished marketing messages. The customer’s voice validates what your brand is already saying—and that validation is what converts curiosity into confidence.

And that shift? That’s where growth really starts.

The data backing up this approach

According to a recent study from Dixa, as many as 93% of customers will search for online reviews before making a first-time purchase.

But not only that, 47% of those same people will also spread the word if they have a positive experience with a brand. And perhaps even more importantly, as many as 95% of them would let others know about a negative experience.

Your customers are your most important salespeople, and it’s important to use their words to build trust and convert new customers.

You only need to look at G2 to find the right tech for this, but when it comes to ease of use, REVIEWS.io is a clear standout. It’s simple to set up, flexible enough to fit into your existing stack, and backed by a team that genuinely cares (seriously, their support is next-level!). What they enable you to do (collect, verify, and showcase authentic customer voices) makes them a go-to for brands that want trust to be more than just a marketing line.

From written testimonials to photo and video reviews, it helps you showcase real voices that build instant credibility. By integrating directly with tools like Shopify, Klaviyo, and Omnisend, it ensures every potential customer sees proof, not promises, right when it matters most.

Your Customers Are Your Best Marketers. Let Them Convert for You

So, now you know just how important gathering customer reviews is for building trust and getting your customers’ voices heard, let’s look at some of the tools that can help you achieve that. 

Remember, your customers aren’t just leaving reviews; they’re creating some of your best-performing content. Real photos, quick unboxing clips, and short testimonial videos are the kind of proof that builds instant confidence.

The smartest founders and marketers treat this content like gold. They don’t just hide it on a “Reviews” page; they weave it throughout the entire customer journey.

Think:

• UGC galleries that showcase real customers using your products in your homepage feed.
• Social proof widgets that surface star ratings and review snippets right beside the “Add to Cart” button.
• Video reviews that play directly on your product pages, breaking down that last bit of hesitation before checkout.

These tools turn the customer’s voice into a genuine sales engine, one that works quietly in the background, building trust, reducing hesitation, and giving every new visitor a reason to believe.

The Benefits of Leaning in to Review-based Marketing

When you start treating reviews as a growth channel, they quickly become one of your most valuable assets. 

Here’s how they impact every stage of your customer journey:

They help turn proof into conversions

Every shopper hesitates before buying from a brand they don’t know yet. Reviews bridge that gap. Real stories, photos, and experiences from actual customers give potential buyers the reassurance they need to take action. 

Instead of relying solely on ad copy or product claims, review-based marketing puts proof front and center, right where decisions are made. The result? Higher conversion rates without needing to increase ad spend.

They build trust that compounds

Each verified review adds another layer of credibility that future customers can see, search, and believe in. Over time, that social proof becomes part of your brand identity. After all, a public record of customer satisfaction that outlasts any campaign.

And because it’s built by your community, not your marketing team, it carries ten times the influence of any branded message.

They attract customers who come back

Reviews don’t just attract new customers, they also help you keep the ones you’ve already won. When founders actively engage with feedback, respond to reviews, and make improvements based on what customers say, they build loyalty that can’t be faked. 

It turns a one-time purchase into an ongoing conversation, and that ongoing dialogue becomes the foundation for repeat sales, referrals, and advocacy.

Final Thoughts

At its core, ecommerce growth has never really been about algorithms or ad hacks; it’s always been about people trusting people.

The brands that win aren’t the ones shouting the loudest. They’re the ones giving customers a reason to trust their claims, through verified voices, real stories, and proof that feels human.

If you can turn your customer feedback into a key part of your marketing strategy, you won’t just earn more clicks, you’ll earn lasting credibility. That’s what drives sustainable growth.

And if you’re ready to make that shift, REVIEWS.io gives you everything you need to start.

• Collect verified reviews. 
• Showcase them where they matter most. 
• Bring photo and video UGC into your store and your marketing stack.

All without slowing down your team.

Explore REVIEWS.io today and start turning trust into your strongest growth channel.

The post Why the Future of Ecommerce Growth Belongs to Verified Voices, Not Ad Spend appeared first on Foundr.

What’s the fastest way to boost sales from your next email campaign? Offer a discount.

It works, at least in the short term. Open rates jump, clicks surge, orders roll in. 

But there’s a hidden cost. Every time you rely on a discount to make a sale, you’re quietly training your audience to wait for the next one. Over time, that chips away at your profit and your brand perception.

The smartest ecommerce brands know how to walk the line, using offers that drive excitement without eating into margins.

In this guide, we’ll unpack how to create email offers that feel irresistible but still protect your bottom line. 

Why Discounts Work (and Why They’re Dangerous)

Let’s be honest, discounts are addictive.

For customers, they trigger instant gratification. The thrill of getting more for less. For brands, they deliver fast results. Inboxes light up, conversions spike, and the sales graph shoots upward.

That’s not by accident. Discounts play directly into core psychological triggers like scarcity, urgency, and reward bias. When people see a limited-time deal, their brain releases dopamine. It feels like a win. That’s why a simple “24-hour flash sale” can outperform a beautifully written product story.

But here’s the catch. That same emotional response can work against you over time.

When discounts become predictable, customers start to wait for them. They’ll abandon carts knowing a sale email is coming. They’ll skip full-price items because they’ve been trained to expect 20% off next week. 

What started as a short-term sales tactic becomes a long-term habit, one that eats into your profit and erodes your brand’s perceived value.

It’s a balance problem. You need offers strong enough to motivate action, but not so frequent or aggressive that they undermine your positioning.

That’s why smart founders use discounts strategically, not as the story, but as the hook for a bigger one. They time them around product launches, new collections, or brand milestones, and they always have a plan for what happens after the sale ends.

The Long Game: What Sale Periods Are Really For

Too many brands treat discount periods as quick fixes. They see it as a way to clear stock, hit a monthly number, or win back customers who’ve gone quiet.

But the best founders know a sale is more than a short-term bump. It’s actually a moment to build something bigger.

A good sale does three things. It grabs attention, drives action, and teaches you something about your audience.

Maybe your Black Friday sale reveals which products people really care about. Maybe your “End of Summer” offer brings back lapsed customers you can now re-engage. Or maybe your anniversary event shows you what messaging tone hits hardest.

The point is, a sale isn’t just about selling. It’s about learning.

And the brands that win long-term know how to play both games. The one happening now (cash flow, conversions, excitement) and the one happening later (retention, loyalty, predictability). They think in cycles, not spikes.

The Give and Take Theory of Email Offers

So how do you keep that momentum going between sales without constantly discounting?

This is where what I like to call the ‘Give and Take’ approach comes in clutch.

“Give” emails are your relationship builders. They share something useful, inspiring, or entertaining. So that could be a story about your brand, a behind-the-scenes look at a new drop, a quick tip that helps your audience get more from your product. They build trust, and trust is what makes every future sale easier.

“Take” emails are your asks. These are the moments when you lean in and say, Hey, it’s time to buy. A product launch, a limited-time bundle, a 24-hour discount. These are the spikes of energy that drive revenue, but they only work when they’re supported by enough goodwill from your give emails.

The mistake most founders make? They take too often. Every email becomes a pitch, and over time, that drains the list. Engagement drops, unsubscribes rise, and customers tune out, not because your offer was bad, but because it felt expected.

Treat your email offers a little bit more like a healthy relationship of give and take. Give first, take later. Offer guidance before you sell. If your audience learns something or feels something in between the offers, your next “take” will land twice as hard.

How to Build Offers That Feel Generous (But Protect Margins)

Another common myth is that the most effective email offers are always the biggest discounts, but that’s not strictly true. Instead, they’re the ones that feel generous while quietly protecting your bottom line. 

It’s all about perceived value. When customers believe they’re getting something special, the actual cost to you matters a lot less.

Start by rethinking what “value” means:

• Bundle instead of slash. Pair complementary products and frame them as an exclusive set. That way, the customer saves, you move more inventory, and your average order value goes up.
• Add, don’t subtract. Instead of cutting prices, add a bonus. That could be free shipping over a certain threshold, a free gift with purchase, or early access to a new drop.
• Reward loyalty, not everyone. Your best customers shouldn’t get the same deal as a one-time buyer. Use segmentation to make loyal customers feel recognized while keeping margins tight.
• Create “next time” incentives. Offers like “£10 off your next order” encourage repeat business and keep your revenue compounding over time.

Each of these strategies gives the customer a win without conditioning them to expect permanent discounts. You’re adding perceived value (exclusivity, reward, belonging) instead of subtracting margin.

Final Thoughts

Used strategically, offers are one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. They grab attention, drive urgency, and give your audience a reason to act now. But when every email leans on a discount, you’re not building a brand, you’re teaching people to wait for one.

That’s where Omnisend comes in. Built for ecommerce founders, Omnisend gives you everything you need to send smarter, not just more.

You can:

• Build and automate your email flows with drag-and-drop ease
• Segment customers based on purchase behavior and engagement
• Test offers, incentives, and timing to see what really moves the needle
• Integrate seamlessly with your store and scale without extra effort

And right now, Foundr readers get 50% off their first 3 months.

Click here and use code FOUNDR50 to start sending emails that sell.

The post How to Create Irresistible Email Offers Without Killing Your Margins appeared first on Foundr.

What if your email list could sell for you while you sleep?

That’s the power of email automation. 

No manual broadcasts. No writing the same discount email over and over. Just smart, pre-built flows that turn browsers into buyers and buyers into loyal fans, automatically.

The best part? It doesn’t take a dev team, a giant list, or 10 hours a week to make it work. You just need to know what to send, when to send it, and how to set it up once so it runs on autopilot.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through:

• The 7 essential email automations every ecommerce brand should have
• What makes each one convert (without feeling robotic)
• How to start small and scale fast, even if you’re short on time

Whether you’re just getting started with email marketing or you’re tired of sending one-off campaigns that don’t move the needle, this is how smart founders grow revenue without adding work to their week.

First Off – What is Email Automation?

Before we dive in, I wanted to quickly clear up what I mean by the phrase ‘email automation’.

After all, email automation isn’t just a time-saver, it’s one of the most powerful growth levers in your entire business.

Think of it like this: every time someone signs up to your list, abandons their cart, makes a purchase, or goes quiet, you have a chance to guide them toward the next step.

But most founders try to manually send emails one by one, or worse, miss these opportunities altogether!

That’s not scalable. That’s exhausting.

Automation flips that script. Instead of blasting out one-size-fits-all newsletters and hoping for clicks, automation lets you build email flows that are triggered by real customer behavior. 

Someone signs up? They instantly get a welcome series that introduces your brand, offers value, and nudges them toward a purchase. They add to the cart but don’t buy? They get a perfectly timed reminder, maybe with a small incentive. Loyal customers? They get thanked, rewarded, and reminded that your brand still cares.

According to Omnisend’s latest benchmark report, automated emails generate 320% more revenue per email than regular one-off campaigns. 

Open rates are higher, click rates are higher, and most importantly, conversion rates are significantly higher, especially for flows like abandoned cart, welcome series, and post-purchase follow-ups.

For time-strapped founders, that kind of efficiency is game-changing.

Instead of writing dozens of one-off emails every month, you can build just a few key automations and let them run in the background, earning while you sleep. It’s like hiring a round-the-clock sales team that never forgets to follow up, never misses a customer milestone, and never needs a day off.

The 7 Email Automations That Quietly Scale Your Sales

If email automation is your 24/7 sales engine, these are the gears that keep it running. You don’t need dozens of flows to start making an impact. You just need the right ones.

Below are seven essential automations every ecommerce brand should have. Together, they form a complete system that welcomes new subscribers, recovers lost revenue, builds trust, and reactivates dormant customers.

1. Welcome Series

Your welcome series is the handshake, the first impression, and the start of a relationship. It should trigger immediately after someone joins your list, whether through a popup, landing page, or lead magnet.

A great welcome flow isn’t just a “thanks for signing up” email. It’s a sequence (usually 3 to 5 emails) designed to introduce your brand, share your origin story, showcase your bestsellers, and deliver any promised incentive (like a discount code). 

This is also the best time to build trust. Show social proof. Explain your mission. Let people know they’re in the right place.

2. Abandoned Cart

This is the highest ROI automation in your entire stack.

Cart abandonment happens constantly, whether due to distraction, second thoughts, or unexpected shipping costs. But just because someone didn’t buy doesn’t mean they’re not interested. In fact, they’re very interested. They just need a little nudge.

An abandoned cart flow sends a timely follow-up when someone adds products to their cart but doesn’t complete checkout. The best-performing sequences typically include 2–3 emails: the first within an hour (when intent is still high), and a final one 24–48 hours later, often with an added incentive like a discount or free shipping.

3. Browse Abandonment

Browse abandonment is like cart abandonment’s quieter, younger brother, but it’s just as valuable.

This flow targets users who view a product or category but leave without adding anything to their cart. Maybe they weren’t ready. Maybe they were comparing options. Either way, they were interested enough to click, which makes this a perfect re-engagement opportunity.

The email can be simple: “Still thinking about this?” along with a reminder of the product they viewed, maybe paired with customer reviews or a few similar items.

4. Post-Purchase

Most brands stop talking after the sale. That’s a mistake.

Post-purchase automation is where loyalty starts. This flow reassures your customer that they made the right decision, reduces buyer’s remorse, and sets expectations around shipping and delivery. It also offers a prime opportunity to upsell, cross-sell, or introduce them to your loyalty program.

Think: thank-you message, order summary, a follow-up with product tips or how-tos, and eventually, a gentle nudge toward their next purchase.

5. Win-Back Flow

No one wants to be ghosted—especially by someone who once cared. That’s what the win-back automation is for.

This flow targets customers who haven’t opened, clicked, or purchased in a set timeframe, usually 60 to 120 days. It’s your chance to reignite the relationship before they slip away for good.

Keep it honest and personal. Remind them what they loved about your brand. Offer an exclusive discount, ask for feedback, or give them a reason to come back. Even a simple “We miss you” can be enough to drive action.

6. Review Request

Social proof fuels ecommerce. Your happy customers are your best marketers—if you give them the chance.

This flow triggers a few days after a product is delivered, asking the customer to leave a review. You can make it easy with a direct link, offer a small reward (like 10% off their next order), and showcase examples of other customer reviews to set the tone.

7. Birthday or Anniversary

This one’s optional, but incredibly powerful.

Celebrating a customer’s birthday, signup anniversary, or even first-purchase milestone adds a personal touch that builds brand loyalty. It reminds them they’re more than just a transaction.

Whether it’s a one-time discount, a surprise gift, or early access to a new product, these milestone-based emails perform incredibly well, not just because of the offer, but because of the timing and emotional connection.

Don’t Set and Forget

Once those core flows are live, the real work begins: making them better.

The brands seeing the biggest returns from automation don’t stop at setup. They test, tweak, and improve constantly, because even a 2% lift in open rate or a 5% bump in conversion, when scaled across hundreds or thousands of sends, adds up fast.

Start simple. Look at how each flow performs. If your abandoned cart emails get opened but not clicked, test the CTA or add a review section. If your welcome series trails off after email #2, try changing the order or cutting it shorter.

Focus on one variable at a time: subject lines, timing, CTA copy, and offer format. Use a basic A/B test or the 20/20/60 split to see what actually moves the needle.

And don’t forget to check your timing. A cart email sent after one hour might be too soon. A second follow-up with a small incentive at 24 hours? That might seal the deal.

You don’t need to overhaul your flows every week. Just revisit them quarterly. 

Final Thoughts

Email automation isn’t about doing less; it’s about doing it smarter.

With just a handful of well-built flows, you can turn casual visitors into loyal customers, recover abandoned revenue, and build brand trust that compounds, all while you focus on the bigger picture.

You don’t need a massive list. You don’t need to write 100 emails a week. You just need the right strategy, the right flows, and the right tool to bring it all together.

That’s where Omnisend comes in.

Built for ecommerce founders, Omnisend gives you everything you need to automate smarter:

• Pre-built workflows
• Drag-and-drop builders
• Deep segmentation
• A/B testing tools
• And seamless integrations with your store

The best part? Foundr readers get 50% off their first 3 months. Simply click here and use code FOUNDR50.

The post Email Automation 101: Scale Your Sales Without Lifting a Finger appeared first on Foundr.

Most brands obsess over getting more subscribers. 

But what happens after someone joins your list? 

That’s where the real money (and loyalty) is made.

Your welcome series is the first impression of your brand at scale. It sets the tone, builds trust, and guides a new subscriber toward becoming a paying customer. 

Done right, it’s one of the highest-performing flows in your entire email strategy.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to build the perfect 3–5 part welcome series that not only introduces your brand, but builds long-term loyalty and revenue. 

Whether you’re launching your first flow or optimizing an underperforming one, this is how smart founders turn signups into superfans.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

Info

Why Your Welcome Series Matters More Than You Think

You only get one shot at a first impression. In email marketing, that moment is your welcome series.

And it matters. A lot.

According to GetResponse, welcome emails have an average open rate of 83.63%, compared to just 19% for typical promotional emails. That makes them the most opened emails you’ll ever send. 

Yet most brands blow this opportunity with a generic “thanks for signing up” message that does nothing to build trust, tell a story, or encourage a next step.

Here’s why a proper welcome series is a growth asset, not a formality:

• High intent, high attention: Your new subscriber just raised their hand and said, “I want to hear from you.” The next few emails either validate that decision—or make them regret it.
• Sets the tone for your brand: The welcome series is your chance to show personality, build credibility, and differentiate from the dozens of other brands crowding their inbox.
• Drives faster first purchases: A structured welcome flow that educates and incentivizes often converts first-time buyers within 24–72 hours.
• Builds long-term loyalty: You’re not just after one sale. You want to create a relationship. That starts by showing your brand understands, supports, and serves your customer, not just sells to them.

Think of your welcome series as onboarding for your brand. The better the experience, the more likely they are to stick around and come back.

The best part? Once it’s built, it runs on autopilot, welcoming every new subscriber like your best customer, 24/7.

The Anatomy of the Perfect 5-Part Welcome Series

This isn’t a random sequence. It’s a tested, high-converting structure designed to build trust, drive early sales, and turn new subscribers into loyal fans.

Whether you’re running a DTC brand, a digital product store, or a service-based business, this 5-part flow can be adapted to fit your goals.

Email 1: The Welcome and What to Expect

Timing: Immediately after signup

Goal: Confirm subscription, deliver any promised incentive, and set expectations

What to include:

• A warm, on-brand welcome message
• Delivery of discount code, lead magnet, or freebie
• Clear summary of what’s coming next (how often you’ll email, what type of content)
• Optional soft CTA to browse or follow on socials

Pro Tip: Use personalization here. First name, product interest, or “Hey, welcome to the crew” tone. The goal is human, not salesy.

Email 2: The Founder Story or Brand Mission

Timing: 1–2 days after Email 1

Goal: Build emotional connection and brand affinity

What to include:

• Short, punchy founder origin story or brand mission (not a novel)
• High-quality founder photo or intro video
• Relatable messaging around shared values (“We started this because we were tired of X…”)
• Optional CTA to “Learn more,” “See what we stand for,” or shop a curated category

Why this matters: People buy from brands they believe in. This is where you make them feel like they’re part of something bigger.

Email 3: Highlight Your Bestsellers or Categories

Timing: 1–2 days after Email 2

Goal: Showcase products they’re most likely to buy

What to include:

• 2–4 high-performing products or categories
• Customer favorites, “as seen on,” or trending picks
• Short testimonials or social proof (if available)
• CTA to “Explore” or “Shop Now”

Optional: If you’re using segmentation, tailor this email based on what they browsed or how they signed up.

Email 4: Build Trust With Reviews or UGC

Timing: 2–3 days after Email 3

Goal: Reinforce credibility and reduce purchase hesitation

What to include:

• Star reviews, quotes, or customer photos
• “Real stories from real customers” approach
• Option to include before/after content or influencer shoutouts
• Soft CTA to view the product or see the collection

Trigger: People trust people. This email creates FOMO in the best way.

Email 5: The Nudge (Offer and Urgency)

Timing: 2–3 days after Email 4

Goal: Push toward first purchase

What to include:

• Reminder of welcome discount or first-purchase incentive
• Deadline or urgency element (“expires in 48 hours”)
• Reassurance copy (easy returns, fast shipping, 1000+ 5-star reviews)
• Strong, clear CTA

Bonus: You can use this final email to invite them into a loyalty program, VIP list, or referral incentive. Keep the relationship going.

What Makes a Welcome Series Convert?

A welcome series isn’t just a checklist of emails; it’s a psychological journey. If you want your sequence to drive action and loyalty, you need to hit the right emotional triggers, at the right time, in the right way.

Here’s what separates a high-converting welcome flow from one that gets ignored.

• Timing is everything: The first email needs to land within seconds (not hours) of someone signing up. Why? Because intent fades fast.
• Design for mobile first: Over 60% of ecommerce emails are opened on a mobile device. If your welcome series isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re already losing.
• Clarity beats cleverness: Your subscriber just opted in. Don’t confuse them with cute wordplay or 9-button menus. 
• Use emotion to build connection: People don’t fall in love with products, they connect with stories. Inject emotion where it counts:
• Social Proof over self-promotion: You’re not the hero, your customer is.
• Consistency builds trust: Too many brands fire off one welcome email, then disappear for weeks. That silence breaks momentum and erodes trust.

Final Thoughts

Your welcome series isn’t just about saying hi. It’s your one shot to make a lasting impression. Nail those first few emails, and you don’t just get a sale… you start building a relationship.

The best part? Once it’s live, your welcome flow works in the background, greeting every new subscriber, telling your story, and driving revenue while you sleep.

But to make it work, you need the right tools.

That’s where Omnisend comes in.

Built specifically for ecommerce founders, Omnisend makes it effortless to:

• Build automated welcome sequences
• Segment your list based on behavior
• A/B test your emails for better performance
• Connect with your audience, without tech headaches

Foundr readers get 50% off their first 3 months with code FOUNDR50.

Claim your discount now and start turning new subscribers into loyal customers.

The post How to Create the Perfect Welcome Series and Grow Customer Loyalty appeared first on Foundr.

There’s a common yet very important saying in digital marketing.

What worked yesterday won’t always work tomorrow.

Attention spans shift, inboxes get noisier, and what you think is a great subject line means nothing if your audience doesn’t agree. That’s why A/B testing isn’t just a “nice to have”, it’s a non-negotiable.

Smart entrepreneurs don’t rely on hunches. They test everything: subject lines, CTAs, send times, even who the email appears to come from. 

Why? Because small wins compound. A 5% lift in open rates here, a 10% bump in clicks there, suddenly your same email list is generating 30% more revenue, without spending a dollar more on growth.

In this article, I’ll break down why you should always have at least one test running, the high-impact elements worth experimenting with, and how to do it without burning time or getting lost in the data. 

Whether you’re scaling your ecommerce brand or optimizing a lean SaaS funnel, these tactics will help you get more out of your existing audience.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• A/B testing is non-negotiable if you want to increase opens, clicks, and conversions without growing your list.
• Always test high-impact elements like subject lines, CTAs, send times, and sender names. Small tweaks can lead to big results.
• Only test one variable at a time so you know what’s actually driving performance.
• The right platform makes it easy. Omnisend helps you automate, segment, and A/B test faster, with no clunky tech stack.

Why A/B Testing Isn’t Optional Anymore

Most founders obsess over growth, but often the real opportunity is right in front of them: conversion optimization. 

If you’ve built even a small email list, A/B testing is how you unlock consistent gains, without growing your list or budget.

The stats behind email optimization

Omnisend’s recent analysis of billions of emails shows average open rates rose from 22.9% in 2022 to 25.1% in 2023 among its merchants, and click rates rose from 1.2% to 1.5%, all driven by better testing and segmentation.

Automated emails delivered even stronger results. They had 52% higher open rates, 332% higher click rates, and a staggering 2,361% better conversion rate than regular campaigns. 

That means triggered flows like welcome messages and abandoned cart emails are massively more efficient at turning opens into sales, but only when they have been optimized through AB testing.

When small lifts compound

Even a 5% uplift in opens or a 10% boost in clicks doesn’t sound revolutionary, until it rolls through your entire funnel. Omnisend customers testing abandoned cart flows reported extra monthly sales gains of around $5,000, with small but consistent increases in open and click rates over just a few months of testing.

Better subject lines, smarter CTA copy, optimized timing, every improvement multiplies.

Real readers outpace assumptions

A staggering 43% of people decide to open an email solely based on the subject line. And poor copy? About 69% of users mark an email as junk based on subject alone, impacting both engagement and future deliverability.

Omnisend also confirms personalized subject lines boost open rates by up to 26%, especially when paired with segmentation and automation.

What You Should Be Testing

A/B testing isn’t just about finding “better” subject lines or button colors, it’s about deeply understanding your audience so you can serve them the right message, at the right time, in the right way. 

Here are the high-leverage elements every founder should be testing regularly:

Subject Lines

Goal: Improve open rates

Why it matters: If your email doesn’t get opened, nothing inside it matters.

What to test:

• Curiosity vs. Clarity (“You won’t believe this…” vs. “Your 15% discount ends today”)
• Personalization (first name, location, or purchase behavior)
• Emojis vs. plain text
• Urgency and scarcity language

CTAs (Call-to-Action)

Goal: Increase click-throughs

Why it matters: This is where opens become actions, like clicks, purchases, signups.

What to test:

• Button copy: “Shop Now” vs “Claim Your Offer”
• Button vs. hyperlinked text
• CTA placement: top, middle, or bottom
• Number of CTAs per email (single vs. multiple offers)

Send Time and Frequency

Goal: Maximize visibility and engagement

Why it matters: Even the best content gets ignored if sent at the wrong time.

What to test:

• Weekdays vs. weekends
• Early morning vs. afternoon vs. evening
• Time zone segmentation
• Frequency: daily, weekly, biweekly

Sender Name & Preheader Text

Goal: Boost trust and curiosity

Why it matters: The “from” field and preheader often influence opens more than the subject line.

What to test:

• Sender name: brand vs. personal (“Acme” vs. “Sarah from Acme”)
• Preheader style: benefit-driven, curiosity-based, or instructional
• Pairings: How subject + preheader work together

Audience Segments

Goal: Boost relevance and conversions

Why it matters: Blanket emails don’t convert. Micro-targeted ones do.

What to test:

• First-time customers vs. loyal customers
• High spenders vs. inactive users
• Product category affinity (e.g. men’s vs. women’s items)
• Cart abandoners vs. browsers

Why There Should Always Be One Test Running

Testing isn’t a one-off tactic; it’s a system. The best-performing brands don’t just test when they’re stuck; they make testing part of their everyday process. Here’s why that mindset matters, and how to bake it into your workflow.

Your audience is always changing

People don’t open, click, or buy the same way forever. Preferences shift based on seasonality, inbox fatigue, competitive offers, and even economic conditions. What crushed it last month might fall flat today. A/B testing helps you stay in sync with your audience.

Example: A subject line that wins in July (“Stay cool with this 1-day offer”) might flop in October when priorities have shifted. Testing gives you real-time insight into what’s actually resonating.

Test small, win big

Testing doesn’t require huge budgets or dev-heavy funnels. You can get statistically relevant results with:

• An email list as small as 1,000, using a 50/50 split
• Testing just one variable (e.g. subject line) per send
• Running the test until at least 25–30% of your total list has engaged

Small tweaks lead to big outcomes.

Testing builds intelligence, not just results

Every test gives you data you can reuse across emails, ads, landing pages, and beyond.

Learning that “curiosity-based subject lines” outperform benefit-driven ones for your audience? That applies everywhere. This is how small brands move fast and punch above their weight.

How to Run a Smart A/B Test Without Wasting Time

A/B testing only works if it’s set up right. Otherwise, you’re just comparing guesses. Here’s a simple, repeatable framework to follow every time:

1. Start with a hypothesis

Don’t test randomly. Know what you’re trying to learn.

Bad: “Let’s try a red button.”

Good: “We believe a benefit-driven CTA (‘Get My Discount’) will increase clicks by 10% over a generic one (‘Learn More’).”

2. Test one variable at a time

To know what caused the result, isolate a single change:
Subject line
CTA copy
Send time
✘ Subject line, CTA, and design (you won’t know what moved the needle)

3. Pick the right metric

Your test goal should match what you’re changing:

• Testing subject line? → Measure open rate
• Testing CTA? → Measure click-through rate
• Testing landing page copy? → Measure conversion rate

4. Send to a big enough sample

Avoid false positives. Most platforms (like Omnisend) recommend testing with at least 1,000 recipients per version to get meaningful results.

If your list is small, consider a 20/20/60 split:

20% see Version A, 20% see Version B, and the winning version goes to the remaining 60%.

5. Document and apply learnings

What worked? What didn’t? Why?

Track every test and result. Over time, this becomes your competitive advantage, a private library of what your audience actually responds to.

Final Word

You don’t need to overhaul your entire marketing strategy to get better results. You just need to test one thing consistently, and with intention. 

Whether it’s your subject line, CTA, or timing, each small experiment brings you closer to what actually works for your audience.

That’s where Omnisend makes a difference. Built for ecommerce brands that move fast, it lets you automate smarter flows, segment with ease, and optimize every send, without juggling multiple tools or workflows.

Foundr readers get 50% off their first 3 months with code FOUNDR50.

Start testing smarter. Start converting more. Claim your discount now.

The post Why You Should Always Be A/B Testing (And How to Do it Well) appeared first on Foundr.

You know the kind of email we’re talking about.

The subject line sounds like a corporate announcement. The body reads like a blog post with a call to action duct-taped to the bottom. 

And the CTA? Something like “Check it out!” (No thanks.)

The truth is: most marketing emails get ignored. Not because email is dead, but because the writing is.

That’s good news for you. Because writing emails your audience actually wants to read isn’t about being a wordsmith. It’s about knowing what grabs attention, what holds it, and what gets people to click without feeling like they’ve been sold to.

In this guide, I’m pulling back the curtain on the email strategies used by successful creators, ecommerce brands, and consultants who turn inboxes into income streams.

Whether you’re sending newsletters, launch emails, or “just checking in” messages, this article will help you stop second-guessing your copy and start sending emails people look forward to.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Structure matters: Use proven email copywriting frameworks like Story–Lesson–Offer or PAS to keep your message clear, engaging, and conversion-ready.
• Write for your reader, not your brand: Ditch the “we’re excited to announce” intros. Focus on what your audience cares about and how you can help them, fast.
• Your subject line is everything: If they don’t open, they don’t read. Test curiosity, value, and specificity-driven subject lines and don’t forget the preheader.

What Makes People Open (and Read) Your Emails?

Writing emails that get opened (and actually read) starts with one uncomfortable truth.

Nobody cares about your email.

At least, not at first.

People don’t open emails because you sent them. They open them because there’s something in it for them, like a benefit, a hook, or a reason to be curious.

Here’s how to give them that reason.

 

Email isn’t a mini blog post

You’re not writing a masterpiece. You’re writing a moment.

Long paragraphs, big intros, and “In today’s email, we’ll discuss…” intros? Skip it. People scan.

You have maybe five seconds to hook them before they swipe away, so don’t waste valuable digital real estate on content that doesn’t get to the point!

Reader-first vs brand-first copy

Picture this: You’re at a party, and someone walks up and immediately starts listing all their accomplishments. No context, no question, no interest in you. Just… “me, me, me.”

That’s how most emails sound.

If your email starts with “We’re excited to share…” or “Our latest feature…” you’ve already lost them.

The fix? Flip the lens.

Make the reader the hero of the story: their pain point, their curiosity, their goal. Speak directly to that.

Instead of “We’ve launched a new course on productivity.” Try “Still wasting hours on to-do lists that don’t actually get done? Here’s a fix that works.”

Know your email’s job

Not every email needs to sell.

In fact, this approach is one of tne of the fastest ways to lose subscribers is treating every message like a pitch.

Smart email marketers understand that every email serves a purpose. Before you write a single word, ask yourself:

• Is this email meant to build trust?
• Is it educating?
• Is it promoting something?
• Is it just showing up and reminding them you’re human?

Trying to do all of that in one email? You’ll confuse the reader, and a confused reader doesn’t click.

Here’s a simple framework:

Email Type	Goal	What It Sounds Like
Nurture	Build trust and affinity	“Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way so you don’t have to.”
Educational	Deliver value	“3 ways to fix [common problem] starting today.”
Sales/Promotional	Drive action	“Spots are filling, here’s how to grab yours.”
Relationship	Start conversations	“Got a quick question for you…”

When you get clear on the why behind your email, the tone, CTA, and structure fall into place naturally. You stop overexplaining. You start writing like someone with a mission, not just an Omnisend login.

And that’s when people start reading all the way to the bottom.

Proven Copywriting Frameworks for Emails

Here are three battle-tested frameworks that work especially well in email, and how to adapt them to your style.

The “story – lesson – offer” method

Best for: Nurture emails, launches, newsletters

This one’s gold for creators and service pros who want to connect before they convert.

Break it down:

• Story: A real, relatable moment. Something that happened to you or a client.
• Lesson: What it taught you, and why it matters to your reader.
• Offer: A natural segue into your CTA (download, reply, book, buy, etc.)

Example:

“Last week, I almost missed a deadline because I was so deep in busywork. Sound familiar? Here’s how I fixed it with one 10-minute tweak I now use daily. If you want the full system, it’s inside this week’s workshop.”

This approach builds trust fast because it feels like a conversation, not a pitch.

PAS: Problem – agitation – solution

Best for: Short, punchy promo emails

Simple. Powerful. And when done right, wildly effective.

• Problem: Name the pain. Be specific.

• Agitation: Twist the knife a little (not too much, this isn’t clickbait).

• Solution: Show how your product/service/idea is the fix.

Example:

“Still hitting snooze five times before dragging yourself into the day? That 3 a.m. scroll habit might be why. Here’s a better morning routine, one that starts the night before.”

PAS is all about empathy. You’re not selling a solution. They’re relieved to find it.

4Ps: Promise – picture – proof – push

Best for: Sales and launch emails

This one’s great when you need your email to convert, not just get clicks.

• Promise: Lead with the big benefit.

• Picture: Help them imagine the result.

• Proof: Show a testimonial, stat, or quick case study.

• Push: What’s the next step?

Pick one structure, tailor it to your voice, and write like you’re talking to one person, not your entire list.

How to Write Subject Lines That Don’t Get Ignored

You’ve written a killer email. It’s helpful, clear, and the CTA sings.

But none of it matters if no one opens it.

Subject lines are your first impression. And in a sea of inbox noise, you’ve got one shot to stand out, not by being gimmicky, but by being genuinely worth the click.

The anatomy of a great subject line

A strong subject line usually checks one or more of these boxes:

• Sparks curiosity
• Offers clear value
• Feels personal or emotionally resonant
• Creates urgency (but not fake FOMO)
• Sounds like it came from a person, not a marketing department

Here’s what that looks like in real life:

Type	Example
Curiosity	“This email isn’t for everyone…”
Specificity	“How I doubled my open rate in 7 days (with one tweak)”
Cliffhanger	“The lesson that nearly cost me $12K”
Question	“Still stuck on what to send your list this week?”
Urgency	“Enrollment closes tonight (and won’t reopen this year)”

Don’t sleep on preheader text

If the subject line is the headline, the preheader is the sneak peek. It’s your chance to reinforce the hook or add context.

For example:

Subject: “Why I stopped sending weekly emails”

Preheader: “(And what happened to my sales after I did)”

This is prime real estate, don’t waste it on “View this email in your browser.”

Keep testing (but test the right things)

A/B testing your subject lines? Good. But don’t just swap a word or throw in an emoji and call it a day. Test types, not just tweaks:

• Curiosity vs. clarity
• Short vs. descriptive
• Emotional vs. benefit-driven

And make sure you track more than opens. High open rates with low click-throughs? That subject line might be clickbait in disguise.

Write Emails They’ll Look Forward To

You don’t need a team of data analysts or a 47-step tech stack to make email marketing work.

You just need the right platform behind you, and that’s where Omnisend shines.

Built with e-commerce in mind, Omnisend makes it incredibly simple to send smarter emails. Segment your list, automate your flows, and drive real revenue without bouncing between five different tools.

From welcome sequences to abandoned cart nudges to VIP exclusives, it’s all there. Easy to build. Easy to scale.

Foundr readers get 50% off their first 3 months with code FOUNDR50.

Start sending better emails (and finally watch them convert).

Claim your discount today.

The post How to Write Emails Your Audience Actually Wants to Read appeared first on Foundr.

Think AI is only for Silicon Valley engineers and hoodie-wearing coders? 

Think again.

Artificial intelligence is no longer locked behind walls of complicated code or reserved for billion-dollar tech startups. Today, it’s available to anyone with a laptop or mobile phone, a solid idea, and the willingness to experiment, even if you’ve never written a single line of code.

From writing emails to building websites to analyzing customer data, AI is quickly becoming the ultimate co-founder. 

And the best part? You don’t need a computer science degree to use it.

In this guide, I’ll break down exactly how you (yes, you!) can start using AI in your business right now. Whether you’re a solopreneur building your first MVP or a founder looking to scale smarter, I’ll walk you through time-saving tactics and prove AI isn’t just the future, it’s the advantage founders need today.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

Info

Isn’t AI Too ‘Techy’ For Some Founders?

If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “I’d use AI, but I’m not technical,” you’re not alone. But here’s the truth: being non-technical is no longer a barrier.

In fact, it’s an advantage so long as you play it right.

Because you don’t need to know how to build AI or become an AI content expert, you just need to know how to use it strategically.

Think of AI like a team member. It’s not perfect, it needs direction, and it won’t magically fix a broken business model. 

But with the right prompts and tools, it can handle tasks that used to take hours in just a few clicks. For all the entrepreneurs currently reading this, I know that improved productivity and efficiency are music to your incredibly busy ears!

Your role as a founder isn’t to dive into backend code or train neural networks. Your job is to be the architect, to understand the big picture and use AI tools as building blocks. 

The good news? You already have the skills to do this. Founders are creative problem solvers by nature. AI just gives you more leverage.

Here are a few examples:

Brainstorming new business ideas

Use ChatGPT to simulate customer personas and test value propositions. For example, if I were building a company in the fitness apparel space, I could get this information with a prompt like this:

I’m starting a fitness apparel company, focusing on providing consumers with great quality clothing that is built to last and keep up with their exercise habits. Brands I look up to in the space include Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and GymShark. Using that information, please can you outline three main target audiences I should be looking at, including their goals, pain points, and the best platforms to reach them on.

Here’s the result:

Content design

Where you once needed the support of a designer, you can now use various tools to help produce product mockups, social content, and even your brand logo. Using the example above, I asked ChatGPT to mock up some logo examples, based on my favorite brands.

Mock up a logo that would match this brand’s goal, taking into account the brands I look up to

Sure, it might not be perfect, but it’s a strong starting point and can be improved with more detailed prompting.

Customer insights 

For better customer insights, you can feed your survey responses into an AI model to pull out patterns without digging through spreadsheets, saving you countless hours, improving your brand’s knowledge and also laying the foundations for excellent future content.

Prompt Engineering: The New Skill Every Founder Must Master

If AI is your new team member, prompts are your instructions.

You don’t need to be a developer, but you do need to know how to talk to AI tools in a way that gets results. That’s where prompt engineering comes in.

At its core, a prompt is just a well-worded request. But when done right, it can unlock insanely powerful outputs (think business plans, investor emails, product copy, or even customer support replies in your brand voice).

And the best part? 

You already do this every day. If you’ve ever written a brief for a freelancer, sent a detailed email, or jotted down a task in a project management app, you’ve written a prompt.

What makes a great prompt?

Here’s a simple formula that works almost every time:

Role + Task + Context + Style + Format 

For example:

“You are a marketing strategist [Role]. Write a 3-part welcome email sequence for a new fitness app [Task]  targeting women 25–35 who want short home workouts. [Context] Keep the tone friendly and motivating. [Style] Each email should include a CTA.[Format] ”

That one prompt could save you days of copywriting or hundreds in freelancer costs.

Founders are already using prompts like these:

• Market Research: “Summarize the top 5 pain points for solopreneurs trying to launch an online course.”

• Sales Emails: “Write a follow-up email for a cold outreach campaign where the lead clicked the link but didn’t reply.”

• Product Validation: “List 10 potential objections a user might have before signing up for a subscription-based productivity app.”

• Customer Service: “Respond to a customer asking for a refund due to a delayed shipment, in a polite but firm tone.”

Pro tip: Create a prompt library

As your business grows, save your best prompts in a Notion doc or Google Sheet. You’ll build a personal playbook that you can reuse or hand off to a virtual assistant (VA) or team member later.

Avoiding Pitfalls: What Not to Automate (Yet)

AI is powerful, but it’s not perfect.

When you start using AI more regularly, it’s easy to fall into the trap of overreliance.

Yes, it can write your emails, summarize your meetings, and help you build a landing page in an afternoon. 

But just because you can automate something doesn’t always mean you should, especially if it comes at the cost of clarity, trust, or connection.

As a founder, you need to know where to draw the line.

Pitfall #1: Automating too early

Before you hand off tasks to AI, ensure you’ve validated the process or message first.

For example, don’t automate your entire cold email outreach before you’ve tested which subject lines get replies. 

Pitfall #2: Replacing the human touch in high-stakes moments

Your first few customer interactions? They should feel personal.

Early investor outreach? Customize every message.

Negative feedback or refund requests? That’s where real empathy counts.

AI can help draft, but don’t let it become a wall between you and your users.

Pitfall #3: Blind trust in AI outputs

AI is confident, even when it’s wrong (which is far too often!). It might quote fake data, invent case studies, or misunderstand the tone if your prompt isn’t clear.

I had a genuine interaction with ChatGPT yesterday where I asked it for a quote about love from one of my favourite book series, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. ChatGPT confidently gave me an answer, my fiancé found it so wholesome she shed a tear, only for us to discover that it was completely made up and not in any of the four books!

And you definitely don’t want to find yourself in a situation like the Chicago Sun-Times, which printed an AI-generated summer reading list featuring books that don’t exist.

Always:

• Double-check facts
• Run outputs through plagiarism tools (especially if you’re publishing content)
• Sanity-check AI recommendations with real-world logic

Pitfall #4: Losing your brand voice

AI tools like ChatGPT are great at “sounding professional”, but they’re not you. If everything you publish sounds like a generic LinkedIn post, you risk blending in with everyone else using the same tools.

Make AI Your Competitive Edge

The most successful founders aren’t the ones who know how to code; they’re the ones who know how to adapt.

You don’t need to become an AI expert. You simply need to understand how to apply it to your business more effectively, efficiently, and creatively than the next person. That’s your edge.

Currently, most entrepreneurs are either overwhelmed by AI or ignoring it altogether. That gives you a massive opportunity: to become the founder who knows how to think like a strategist and execute like a team of ten, all with smart tools and a few sharp prompts.

AI won’t write your vision. It won’t build your network. It won’t hustle on your behalf.

But it will help you:

• Launch products faster
• Market smarter
• Run leaner
• Learn faster than your competition

And it’s not just about saving time. It’s about buying back your focus so that you can stay in your zone of genius as a founder.

Get the AI Edge Your Startup Needs for Just $1

Ready to start using AI to work smarter, move faster, and scale without the overwhelm?

For just $1, unlock access to over 30 expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons inside Foundr+, covering everything from building your first MVP with no-code tools to automating your marketing and creating AI-powered workflows that save you hours every week.

Whether you’re a solo founder or leading a lean team, you’ll learn how to harness AI like a pro, with no tech background required.

Join Foundr+ today and take the first step toward building your AI-enhanced business.

The post How Founders Can Leverage AI Without Writing a Single Line of Code appeared first on Foundr.

If you’re launching a business in 2025 and a sustainable business model isn’t built in from day one, you’re already behind.

Today’s customers demand more than great products. They want values-aligned brands they can believe in. Investors are pouring capital into climate-positive ventures. And the most forward-thinking founders are proving you don’t have to sacrifice profit for purpose.

But here’s the kicker: building a sustainable business isn’t about slapping a green label on your packaging or offsetting your carbon footprint after the fact. 

In this guide, we’ll break down how to design a business that is both profitable and future-proof, from your very first customer to long-term scale. 

Whether you’re bootstrapping your way to freedom or pitching a mission-driven startup to VCs, this is your blueprint for building smarter, leaner, and greener.

Let’s get into it.

Redefining Sustainability for Modern Founders

Forget the outdated idea that sustainability is just a “nice-to-have” or a luxury reserved for large corporations. In 2025, sustainability is a strategy, and founders who integrate it early are building a competitive edge from day one.

So, what does sustainability really mean in a startup context?

At its core, sustainability isn’t just about reducing harm; it’s about creating value that lasts. That means:

• Financial sustainability – building a model that can survive lean months, economic shifts, and scale smartly.
• Environmental sustainability – reducing your footprint, managing waste, and designing products or services with the planet in mind.
• Social sustainability – treating people (customers, employees, suppliers) as stakeholders, not just transactions.

Why founders can’t afford to ignore it:

• Consumers want brands to help them live more sustainably.
• Regulations are tightening globally on emissions, waste, and ethical sourcing.
• Investors are prioritizing ESG metrics when evaluating early-stage ventures.

If you’re still building your business model, now is the perfect moment to map your value creation against impact. 

Founders who do this not only de-risk their ventures; they also open new doors, including loyalty, press, partnerships, and often, better margins.

Sustainability is no longer a buzzword. It’s a blueprint for a resilient, modern business.

Choosing the Right Business Model Framework

Before you start building products, hiring talent, or pitching investors, you need to make one decision that will shape everything else.

Your business model framework.

Why? Because not every model scales well with sustainability in mind. And not every sustainable idea is financially viable without the right monetization strategy baked in.

Your two-lens filter

When choosing a business model in 2025, founders should evaluate ideas through two lenses:

1. Scalability – Can this model grow without requiring exponentially more capital, time, or emissions? 
2. Sustainability – Does this model inherently reduce waste, extend lifecycle value, or contribute to social impact?

Common business models that align well

Model Type	Why It Works for Sustainability
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)	Greater control over the supply chain and materials, faster feedback loops for reducing waste.
Subscription / Membership	Encourages long-term customer relationships and predictable revenue; great for circular products.
Productized Services	Minimal environmental overhead, scalable, and efficient.
Marketplace / Platform	Enables sharing economies (e.g., rentals, resale, recommerce).
Circular or Regenerative Models	Built specifically to reduce or reverse environmental impact.

Design for Profit and Purpose

Building a sustainable business isn’t just about doing good, it’s about doing good business. The most successful founders in 2025 are designing business models where purpose is a growth engine, not a constraint.

Let’s break that down.

Start with your value proposition

Your value prop isn’t just “what you do”, it’s why it matters and who it’s built for. In a sustainable business model, this means answering:

• What problem are you solving without creating new ones (e.g., waste, overconsumption)?
• How does your product or service create long-term value for the customer and the planet?
• Would people miss your product if it disappeared? That’s product-market-purpose fit.

Pick your partners

Choose vendors who align with your mission, local, renewable, or ethical. This not only reduces your environmental impact but also builds trust with conscious consumers.

The product lifecycle

Can your product be reused, refilled, repaired, or recycled? Brands like Patagonia and Fairphone built loyalty by designing products people keep, not toss.

Your revenue model

Your revenue model matters too. Consider moving away from endless one-time transactions. Subscription models or rental systems can create more predictable income and reduce overproduction.

Build community, not just a customer base

Let your audience become part of the mission, whether that’s through education, co-creation, or even user-led advocacy. Purpose-driven brands win when their customers feel like stakeholders, not just buyers.

Building a Circular or Regenerative Value Chain

The traditional “take-make-waste” business model is broken, and in 2025, founders who build circular systems are not only reducing harm, they’re unlocking entirely new revenue opportunities.

A circular value chain is designed to keep resources in use for as long as possible. Instead of creating products destined for landfills, you create systems where materials, components, or products are reused, repaired, or returned into the loop.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Reuse: Designing durable products that can be repurposed or redistributed (think: secondhand, refurbished).
• Repair: Enabling customers to extend the life of your product, offering repair services, spare parts, or how-to content.
• Resell: Launching your own resale marketplace or partnering with one.

Regenerative vs. sustainable

If sustainability is about doing less harm, regeneration is about doing more good.

Regenerative brands build supply chains that restore ecosystems, strengthen communities, and increase biodiversity.

This might look like:

• Partnering with farms that use regenerative agriculture (e.g., improving soil health, carbon drawdown). 
• Funding reforestation, clean water access, or education as part of your product’s lifecycle. 
• Designing product models that directly improve the environment or community they interact with.

How to start building a circular system:

• Map your waste: Where are you leaking time, money, or materials? Can those be reused or recovered?
• Talk to your suppliers: Are there recycled or upcycled inputs you could switch to?
• Design for durability: What if your product were built to last 5x longer?
• Create an incentive loop: Offer customers discounts, credit, or perks for returning used goods or packaging.

Circular models aren’t just better for the planet, they’re sticky, defensible, and increasingly expected. If you can close the loop on value, you create something bigger than a transaction: you build trust, repeat business, and long-term growth.

Marketing Your Mission Without Greenwashing

You can build the most sustainable business in the world, but if you can’t communicate it authentically, you’ll lose trust faster than you gain traction.

In 2025, consumers and regulators are calling out greenwashing. They’re not interested in vague claims like “eco-friendly” or “natural.” They want proof, specificity, and a clear sense of why your sustainability efforts matter.

What greenwashing looks like today

• Using buzzwords without backing them up (e.g. “green,” “clean,” “planet-friendly”)
• Highlighting one sustainable action while ignoring a harmful core process
• Overstating the impact or using misleading imagery
• Lack of transparency in sourcing, operations, or carbon offsets

What to do instead

1. Be specific: Say, “Made from 90% post-consumer recycled plastic” Not “Eco-conscious packaging”
2. Be transparent: Share your wins and your work-in-progress. Customers respect brands that admit what they’re still working on.
3. Show the data: Use certifications (like B Corp, Fair Trade, CarbonNeutral), LCA reports, or emissions reduction targets.
4. Make it relatable: Show the human, environmental, or emotional impact of your efforts. Turn your sustainability into a brand narrative, not just a compliance report.
5. Educate, don’t preach: Empower your audience with tools, tips, or ways they can join your mission. Make it easy for them to care and act.

Final Thoughts

Building a sustainable business model isn’t a side project. It’s the foundation of long-term success in 2025 and beyond. But strategy alone isn’t enough.

If you’re serious about launching or scaling a brand that’s profitable and purpose-driven, you need the right tools, tactics, and mentorship.

For just $1, unlock access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons tailored for modern founders, covering everything from building a sustainable brand to driving traffic, mastering growth, and funding your mission.

Learn how top entrepreneurs are balancing impact with income, and how you can, too.

Join thousands of founders who are building smarter, greener, and more resilient businesses.

Sign up for Foundr+ today.

The post How to Build a Profitable and Sustainable Business Model from Day One in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

Ever find yourself spending hours crafting the perfect email, only to have it ignored by most of your list?

You’re not alone.

With inboxes more crowded than ever and customers expecting tailored content, the old “spray and pray” email strategy just doesn’t cut it anymore. That’s where audience segmentation comes in, arguably the most underrated tool in your email marketing arsenal.

The importance of audience segmentation cannot be understated. At its core, audience segmentation means breaking your email list into smaller, targeted groups based on traits like behavior, interests, or buying stage. 

The result? Your messages actually feel relevant, and that’s what drives opens, clicks, and conversions.

In this guide, we’ll unpack why segmentation matters more than ever, how to get started (even if you’re not a data geek), and how smart founders are using it to build stronger relationships and boost revenue, one email at a time.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Audience segmentation means grouping your email list by shared traits or behaviors, so you can send more relevant, higher-converting messages.
• Generic, one-size-fits-all emails often get ignored. Segmentation boosts engagement, builds trust, and increases conversions.
• Start with five simple segments: new subscribers, past purchasers, cart abandoners, inactive subscribers, and VIP customers.
• Use behavior-based triggers (like product views or clicks) to place subscribers into the right segments automatically.

What Is Audience Segmentation (and Why It’s a Game-Changer)?

At a glance, audience segmentation sounds technical. But it’s really just a fancy way of saying: Send the right message to the right people at the right time.

Instead of blasting one email to your entire list, segmentation lets you group subscribers based on things like:

• What they’ve bought (or haven’t bought yet)

• How often they open your emails

• Where they live or what they’re interested in

Imagine walking into a store where the clerk already knows your favorite products and what you looked at last time. That’s the experience audience segmentation creates in the inbox, and why it drives better results.

And the results speak volumes. According to Omnisend’s 2025 report, automated emails (which often utilize segmentation) achieved an impressive 40.55% open rate, significantly higher than the average open rate of 26.6% across all industries.

Why Generic Emails Are Costing You (And Your Brand)

It’s tempting to think that more emails = more sales. 

However, if you continue to send the same message to every subscriber, you may be doing more harm than good.

Today’s consumers expect personalization. They want emails that feel like they were written for them, not for your entire list. 

When your emails miss that mark, people tune out. 

Or worse, unsubscribe.

Here’s what happens when you ignore segmentation:

• Your open rates drop because your content doesn’t match your audience’s interests.

• Your click-through rates flatline because the CTA feels irrelevant.

• Your brand reputation suffers, especially if people feel like you don’t “get” them.

Put simply, sending the wrong message to the wrong person costs you conversions. For early-stage founders, every sale counts.

The 5 Types of Audience Segments You Should Be Using

So now you know that sending the same email to everyone is costing you opens, clicks, and real revenue.

The good news? 

You don’t need complex data or advanced tools to start segmenting. Just a few smart, simple groupings can dramatically improve your email performance.

Here are five audience segments that every founder can (and should) start using today:

New subscribers

These people are brand new to your world. Don’t hit them with a sales pitch right away; use this window to build trust and make a strong first impression.

Imagine you run an online tea brand. When someone signs up, you can easily set up a three-part welcome series that shares your founder’s story, how to brew the perfect cup, and offers a discount on their first order.

Past purchasers

They’ve already bought from you once. Now’s the time to turn that one-time buyer into a repeat customer by showing them what’s next.

Let’s pretend a customer bought a yoga mat from your store. A week later, you should send a follow-up email featuring resistance bands, foam rollers, and a video series on recovery routines, adding post-purchase validation and value, while also upselling them other products you sell.

Cart abandoners

These users came close to making a purchase, but didn’t. They’re clearly interested, and a well-timed reminder could be all they need. For example, someone added a handmade leather wallet to their cart but didn’t complete the checkout process. 

A day later, you send an email that says, “Still thinking about it?” with a photo of the wallet and a free shipping offer.

Inactive subscribers

These are people who haven’t opened or clicked your emails in a while. Rather than ignore them or delete them outright, try to win them back with a re-engagement campaign.

For example, if you ran a skincare brand, and some subscribers have gone cold, you could send a message with the subject line: “Still into self-care?” and highlight new product drops or a limited-time promo just for them.

VIP customers

These are your most engaged and valuable customers, also known as those who open every email, make frequent purchases, or spend a significant amount. Treat them like insiders.

Let’s say you sell digital courses. For VIPs who have taken multiple trainings, consider sending them early access to your next launch or inviting them to a private Q&A session with the instructor.

Tools and Tactics to Start Segmenting Today

Knowing who your audience is doesn’t help much unless you can act on it. That’s where the right tools and a bit of strategy come in.

You don’t need to be a tech expert or have a team of data analysts to build effective segments. Most email platforms already provide these features. It’s just a matter of using them with intention.

Step 1: Choose the right platform for your business model

If you’re running an e-commerce brand or a product-based business, Omnisend is one of the most effective tools available for segmenting your email audience without overwhelming complexity.

It’s designed specifically for high-growth businesses that want to do more than just send newsletters. With Omnisend, you can create detailed customer segments based on real-time behavior, no code, no friction.

Here’s what you can do with the platform:

• Pre-built segments for new subscribers, repeat buyers, cart abandoners, inactive users, and more, ready to launch from day one.
• Event-based automation that responds to customer actions on your site, such as browsing a product or abandoning checkout.
• Multi-channel integration, so your segments stay synced across email, SMS, and push notifications.
• Shopify and WooCommerce integration, making it easy to target users based on purchase history, order value, or frequency.

Step 2: Start simple and segment based on behavior

You don’t need a dozen categories to get results. The most powerful (and actionable) segments are based on what your subscribers do, not who they are.

• Clicks: If someone clicks on a product category (e.g. “Coffee Beans” vs. “Cold Brew Gear”), tag them accordingly and tailor follow-ups to that interest.
• Purchases: Segment by specific products bought, total orders, or time since last purchase.
• Engagement level: Separate frequent openers/clickers from dormant subscribers. You’ll write differently to each group.
• Lead magnet origin: Did they sign up for your webinar, your PDF guide, or your launch waitlist? Their entry point reveals what they care about.

Step 3: Automate flows that react in real time

Segmentation doesn’t mean constantly creating new campaigns. When done right, it powers automations that run quietly in the background, delivering personalized content based on subscriber behavior.

• Welcome Flow: When someone signs up, automatically send a series of emails introducing your brand, product benefits, and what they can expect next.
• Cart Abandonment Flow: Trigger an email 1–2 hours after someone leaves items in their cart. Include a product image, a benefit reminder, and a gentle nudge (not always a discount).
• Post-Purchase Flow: Based on what they bought, send care tips, tutorials, or cross-sells a few days later.
• Re-engagement Flow: If someone hasn’t clicked in 30+ days, automatically trigger a “We miss you” email with updated content or a small incentive to come back.

Step 4: Measure, iterate, and refine

Segmentation isn’t a one-time setup. It’s a system that evolves as your audience grows and your product offerings change. What worked when you had 500 subscribers might not work as well at 10,000.

The key is to treat your segments like experiments. Set hypotheses, track results, and make adjustments.

Here’s what to look at regularly:

• Open rate by segment: Are certain groups more responsive than others? If your VIPs are clicking like crazy but new subscribers aren’t opening at all, your welcome sequence may need work.
• Click-through rate (CTR): Segment-level CTR helps you spot what content or offers resonate with each group. If cart abandoners aren’t clicking, test subject lines or swap your CTA.
• Conversion rate: This is the metric that pays the bills. Don’t just track if people open, track if they buy (or take the next step).
• List health: Are some segments full of dead weight? Prune inactive contacts periodically to keep deliverability high.

Start Smart, Segment Small, and Save

You don’t need a huge team or complicated data systems. You just need the right strategy, and the right tools behind you.

That’s where Omnisend comes in.

Built specifically for ecommerce brands, Omnisend gives you everything you need to segment your audience, automate the right messages, and drive real revenue, all from one easy-to-use platform. 

Whether you’re welcoming new subscribers, recovering abandoned carts, or rewarding VIP customers, Omnisend helps you make every email count.

Foundr readers can get 50% off their first three months of Omnisend when you use code FOUNDR50 at checkout.

Activate your discount and start growing today.

No more generic emails. Just the right message, to the right people, at the right time.

The post The Importance of Audience Segmentation For Your Email Marketing Campaigns in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

Looking for ways to build and grow your email list without paid ads?

Many people are quick to point out the benefits of having a large email database to contact, and the many ways you can do so.

However, when it comes to offering actionable ways to actually grow an email list, there are significantly fewer useful insights available.

Here, I’ll run you through 6 ways to build and grow your email list in 2025. The best bit? All of these strategies are completely free, allowing you to spend your precious marketing budget on other pressing matters.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Give them what they want: Create an eye-catching lead magnet that is sure to make your target audience sign up for emails to access.
• Strategic sign-ups: Popups are your friend, so don’t be afraid to add them everywhere it makes sense on your website.
• Additional downloadable resources: Take your best-performing blog posts and add a bonus download that’s related to that post, only available by signing up to your email list.
• Run a free challenge: Invite people to a 5-day challenge, free bootcamp, or educational email course for your niche. 
• Don’t be anti-social: turn your followers into subscribers.
• Add your email link…everywhere: Don’t keep your email link locked up on your website; get it added to all the other places you have a digital footprint.
• Collaborate: Team up with people in your niche for cross-audience success.

The Importance of a Big, Healthy Email List

But first, I want to quickly explain why having a big, healthy email list is so important for almost any brand, regardless of the industry.

For starters, having a large email database gives you direct access to your audience, taking out the volatility that can come from relying on social media algorithms, varying PPC costs, and the dreaded Google algorithm updates.

You own the channel, which means you have complete control of what gets sent to your audience, when it gets sent to them, and how your messaging is viewed.

Additionally, the ROI for email is significantly better than other marketing channels. According to The 2025 State of Marketing Report, an annual report produced by HubSpot, the average ROI for email marketing campaigns is 36 times. That means you can earn an average of $36 in pure revenue for every dollar you spend on your email marketing efforts, a return that other marketing avenues can only dream of!

But email marketing isn’t just about profit and topline numbers. It is also a fantastic way to build relationships, improve trust, and develop loyal, repeat customers. Think about the best brands out there right now. They all have highly personalized, insightful, friendly welcome programs, as well as excellent re-engagement tactics and educational content.

Building trust through email is one of the best ways to turn one-off customers into repeat purchasers, shoring up the long-term success of your business.

Lastly, a healthy email list allows for advanced segmentation. You can tailor your messaging based on user behavior, interests, or demographics, making your emails more relevant and more likely to convert. It’s one of the only marketing channels that gives you full autonomy over which customers receive what content, and when.

6 Ways to Build and Grow Your Email List Without Paid Ads

As you can see, there are a ton of reasons why you need a large active email list. However, founder budgets are often tight, so any opportunity to save on outreach should be snapped up with both hands! With that in mind, here are six tried and tested ways to build and grow your email list without the need for paid ads.

Give them what they want

One of the most successful ways to build your email list is through giveaways. Sometimes, you’ve got to give a little to get a lot.

However, if you don’t have the marketing budget to give away an expensive prize, you could also do so by providing something for free, such as a checklist, template, mini course, or even an eBook.

Just make sure that whatever you choose, it’s specific to your audience and genuinely useful. I see a lot of examples of brands going down this avenue, whipping up a resource on ChatGPT in five minutes, and then wondering why they have a high rate of users subscribing and then immediately unsubscribing from their email list.

If you’re asking readers to hand over their personal information, then you need to ensure that what you’re providing is genuinely insightful, offers expertise they couldn’t otherwise find themselves, and goes above and beyond the answers they could get themselves with a couple of well-worded prompts.

Strategic sign-up placements

It’s easy to focus on the content of your email opt-ins, but it’s also just as easy to forget about the placement of them.

Don’t just limit your email opt-in messaging to a singular place on your website. Consider adding it to your homepage, any blog posts you publish, your website footer, about page, and even via pop-up messaging.

Most email service providers allow users to easily set up pop-ups anywhere on the website, either after a set time spent on the website, or after a particular action, such as scrolling, or moving the mouse away from the website.

However, I’d strongly advise you to use popups sparingly. It can be tempting to put them everywhere, but it’s important to remember that you want the experience on your website to be a fun one, and too many popups can feel very intrusive and frustrate some visitors.

It’s a fine line between maximizing the options you have on your website and not overdoing it, so always keep track of metrics like bounce rates and time spent on your site.

Run a free challenge

Another excellent way to engage your audience and build trust is by inviting them to a brand-specific challenge or boot camp. These experiences feel interactive and valuable, and the only investment required is your time and expertise.

For example, if you run a wellness brand, you could host a 7-Day Wellness Reset Challenge, helping participants improve their energy, focus, and overall well-being.

If you’re a beauty brand, consider launching a 7-Day Skin Glow Challenge, sending daily skincare tips and routines directly to their inbox.

Own a fitness brand? Run a 7-Day Strength Challenge with simple workouts and motivational content.

Promote your challenge across your social media channels, inviting your audience to sign up for free. Each day, deliver valuable, actionable tips straight to their inbox, strengthening your relationship, showcasing your expertise, and priming your audience for future offers.

Don’t be anti-social

Speaking of social channels, why not turn followers into subscribers? These people are already actively engaging with you on social media, so there’s a good chance you could convert them into email list subscribers as well.

To do so, tease your lead magnets, free challenges, or other offerings in stories, posts, or lives, and use “link in bio” tools to drive people to your opt-in.
Don’t be afraid to promote your email opt-in as your social audiences grow and new people become exposed to your brand.

Add your email link…everywhere

However, your social media bio shouldn’t be the only external avenue you use to get your email opt-in link out there! There are also tons of other locations you can add it without damaging the consumer experience, such as your email signature, LinkedIn bio, your business cards, and even as part of a guest post outreach strategy.

Essentially, you should view any platforms that you have as an opportunity to funnel people into your list, so that you can contact them in the future.

Collaborate

Lastly, building your email list as an entrepreneur can feel like a very daunting task, and one that can seem hard to do as a solo effort.

But it doesn’t have to be a solo effort!

There are a ton of other entrepreneurs out there who will be interested in collaborating with you, sharing their audience with you in return for you sharing yours, a total win-win.

Team up with people in your niche for co-branded lead magnets, joint webinars, newsletter swaps, or guest blog posts.

How to Make the Most of Your Email List

Now you have all the free tools and tactics you need to grow your list. Don’t expect this to happen overnight, but a prolonged and multichannel approach will certainly gain traction over time.

However, it’s important to also consider what to do once you have grown your email list. After all, it’s one thing to grow your list, but it’s another to keep them engaged and excited about what you send them.

To cover this topic in great detail, we probably need to create a whole new article, but here’s a quick breakdown of the most important things to consider once your list has begun to grow:

1. Nurture, don’t just sell: People join your list for value, not just sales pitches. Focus on building a relationship with educational content, personal stories or behind-the-scenes, curated resources, and thoughtful opinions.
2. Segment your audience: Not all subscribers want the same thing. Group your list by interests, purchase behavior, and (most importantly) engagement levels.
3. Automate your welcome series: When it comes to a great email setup, triggered communications are your best friends. A welcome series is the perfect place to start, as he first few emails you send help set the tone and manage reader expectations. Create a welcome sequence that introduces your brand, provides instant value, sets expectations, and builds anticipation.
4. Track what works: One thing I was taught at the start of my email marketing journey? You should always be testing something. Use your email platform’s analytics to monitor open rates, click-throughs, unsubscribes, and conversions, and don’t be afraid to test and try new things.

Learn How Omnisend Can Maximize Your Email List’s Potential

Of course, you can only do all that with a brilliant email and SMS marketing service provider in your corner.

That’s where Omnisend comes in.

Omnisend is built for eCommerce brands that want to grow smarter, not harder. With powerful tools for email and SMS automation, intuitive drag-and-drop builders, and advanced segmentation options, Omnisend helps you turn your email list into a high-performing revenue driver.

Not only that, but when you use code FOUNDR50 at checkout, you also get 50% off your first three months of a paid plan. Simply copy the code and enter it at checkout to activate your discount. Click here and start today

The post 6 Ways to Build and Grow Your Email List Without Paid Ads in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

Trying to decide which payment system you should be using?

Fortunately, there are plenty of payment systems for small businesses to consider in 2025, so whether you’re unhappy with your current provider or setting up for the first time, you’ve got plenty of choice.

Almost too much choice!

So, I’ve decided to make the process easier for you, testing several of the most popular options and identifying the top seven options to consider.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

1. Stripe: Offers a flexible, developer-friendly platform with powerful tools for online payments, subscriptions, and global scalability.
2. PayPal: Provides a trusted, easy-to-integrate payment solution with broad consumer recognition and built-in buyer protection.
3. Authorize.net: Gives small businesses a reliable gateway for accepting credit cards and e-checks with strong fraud protection and recurring billing options.
4. Amazon Pay: Enables small businesses to boost checkout conversions by letting customers pay quickly using their existing Amazon accounts.
5. Square: Offers an all-in-one solution with easy-to-use hardware, software, and payment processing for both online and in-person sales.
6. WePay: Backed by J.P. Morgan, provides seamless integrated payment solutions that are ideal for platforms, marketplaces, and SaaS businesses.
7. SecurePay: Delivers simple, secure online payment processing with customizable fraud prevention and flexible integration for small businesses.

What is a Payment System?

Before we jump straight in, let me quickly clarify what I mean when I say ‘payment system’.

A payment system is a platform, network, or technology that facilitates the transfer of money between a buyer and a seller, enabling transactions in exchange for goods or services.

Payment systems can include credit card processors, online payment gateways, mobile wallets, and even bank transfer networks, all designed to securely and efficiently move funds.

Payment systems aren’t:

• Banks: Payment systems move money but don’t hold deposits or offer loans like traditional banks.
• Accounting platforms: They process transactions but don’t handle bookkeeping, taxes, or full financial reporting.
• Marketplaces: Payment systems enable transactions but don’t create listings, sell products, or match buyers and sellers.
• Payment methods: A payment system supports methods like credit cards or Apple Pay, but isn’t a method itself.

Key Factors to Consider When Selecting a Payment Method

Now we’ve got the housekeeping out of the way, let’s take a look at the key factors to consider when selecting a payment method.

These are the key factors that I considered in my research when narrowing down this list to the top seven options.

Payout times.

Firstly, I wanted to look at solutions that provided reasonable payout times. When a customer makes a transaction, it actually takes a little time for a payment gateway to get those funds from the user and into your account. Each payment solution has its own time frames, but for small businesses and founders, budgets can be tight, so quick payment times are essential.

Ease of payment.

However, fast payments are pointless if they aren’t easy for consumers to make! You also need a payment solution that makes it as easy as possible for customers to check out, or you risk ending up with some extremely high bounce rates and less than ideal profits.

Accessibility.

Are you selling locally or aiming to appeal to a global audience? While some payment solutions allow for debit and credit card payments around the world, others only allow them in specific countries.

Price structures.

It’s no secret that the industry of processing payments has some very complex pricing systems, based on volumes, variable rates, and a heck of a lot of head scratching. The price structure for each payment system varies, so you need to choose one that suits the trends and purchasing habits of your target audience.

Security.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, I made sure that this list only includes the safest and secure solutions. Each of these solutions complies with PCI-DSS, so you can be confident taking recurring payments, credit and debit card information, and processing payments for your customers.

6 Payment Systems For Small Businesses to Consider in 2025

With those key factors in mind, here are six online payment methods to consider for your business, each with its own benefits and drawbacks to be aware of.

Stripe

Pros:

• Highly customizable and developer-friendly.
• Supports global payments and multiple currencies.
• Strong recurring billing and subscription management tools.

Potential drawback:

• Requires technical expertise for advanced setup.

Pricing

• Online transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• In-person transactions: 2.7% + $0.05 per transaction
• ACH payments: 0.8% per transaction (capped at $5)
• Subscription billing fee: 0.7% of recurring charges

First on the list (and probably my favorite solution) is Stripe. The reason I think Stripe is such a great option for small businesses is that it’s incredibly easy to install and maintain, both of which are crucial for owners that have a thousand other important tasks to get to.

Unlike other popular solutions like PayPal, Stripe provides customers with a seamless payment process, keeping users on the website while making a purchase, reducing friction, potential for bouncing, and improving the customer experience along the way.

Just be aware that if you want a more advanced setup for your business, you will need to invest in a technical expert to do so effectively.

PayPal

Pros:

• Extremely trusted and widely recognized by consumers.
• Easy to set up and integrate with most platforms.
• Offers buyer and seller protection programs.

Potential drawback:

• Higher transaction fees compared to some competitors.

Pricing

• Online checkout transactions: 3.49% + fixed fee (varies by currency)
• Standard credit/debit card payments: 2.99% + fixed fee
• QR code payments (in-person): 2.29% + fixed fee

Could I really do this list without including PayPal as an option? It’s by far and away one of the most popular solutions, and for a good reason.

PayPal lets you accept payments in several currencies across the world, as well as being a very well-known (and therefore trusted by customers) solution.

Authorize.net

Pros:

• Very reliable for traditional credit card processing.
• Includes advanced fraud protection features.
• Supports recurring billing and invoicing.

Potential drawback:

• Monthly gateway fees can be costly for very small businesses.

Pricing

• Monthly gateway fee: $25
• Transaction fee: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• eCheck (ACH) processing: $0.75 per transaction

When I started researching this list, Authorize.net really stood out to me, most notably due to it’s extremely developer-friendly API. It offers great versatility, allowing users to offer a unique, satisfying user experience.

It also offers advanced fraud protection features, which adds a level of reassurance to both you as the seller, and your customers as the buyers.

Amazon Pay

Pros:

• Increases conversion rates by leveraging Amazon’s trusted checkout experience.
• Easy integration with many eCommerce platforms.
• Secure payment processing backed by Amazon’s infrastructure.

Potential drawback:

• Only available to businesses selling online (not for in-person payments).

Pricing

• Web and mobile transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• Alexa voice transactions: 4.0% + $0.30 per transaction
• Cross-border fee: Additional 1.0% per transaction

When you think of Amazon, your mind may not instantly think of Amazon Pay. However, it is rapidly becoming one of the preferred payment methods for small businesses.

It also offers an in-depth fraud protection solution, and (as you can imagine!) it integrates easily with almost any eCommerce platform.

Not only that, but customers often feel safe and your brand seems trustworthy as they recognize the Amazon brand.

Square

Pros:

• Simple, all-in-one solution with hardware and software.
• Transparent pricing with no monthly fees for basic services.
• Excellent for both in-person and online sales.

Potential drawback:

• Limited customization for online checkout compared to other processors.

Pricing

• In-person transactions: 2.6% + $0.15 per transaction
• Online transactions: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• Manually keyed-in transactions: 3.5% + $0.15 per transaction

Another extremely popular solution for small businesses with a physical store is Square. Infact, if most of your business is done via in person payments, this would be my number one recommendation for you!

The best solution Square offers is it’s virtual terminal, which allows users to accept payments from almost any device, making it ideal for stores that require an on-site payment solution, but don’t necessarily have the busiest online store.

SecurePay

Pros

• Easy to set up for small and mid-sized businesses.
• Customizable fraud prevention and risk management features.
• Offers flexible API integration for online stores.

Potential drawback:

• Less brand recognition compared to Stripe or PayPal, which can affect customer trust.

Pricing

• Domestic Visa/MasterCard transactions: 2.4% flat rate
• Setup fees: None
• Monthly fees: None

Finally, don’t forget to consider SecurePay! It’s a very useful alternative for small businesses and startups as it offers all available payment options, and has a very handy free trial that you can try before you buy.

It’s another solution that’s very easy to setup, with some great API integration features, which is essential for eCommerce businesses, especially those that aren’t set up on the most popular platforms like Shopify.

The biggest downside to SecurePay is that most people have never heard of it! That might not seem like a big deal, but it can actually have quite a significant impact on customer trust, especially for new customers who are already wary of parting with their hard-earned cash.

Gain Other Essential Business Tips For Just $1

Choosing the right payment system is just the start. If you want to level up your business in 2025, mastering payments, marketing, and online growth is essential.

For just $1, unlock access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons designed to help small business owners and entrepreneurs build, scale, and streamline their brands.

Learn everything from selecting the right payment system to driving traffic, increasing customer loyalty, and building a powerful online presence.

Join thousands of entrepreneurs growing smarter and faster.

Sign up for Foundr+ today.

*I pulled the latest pricing information available as of early 2025. Most of these rates are correct for standard accounts (no heavy customization, no negotiated enterprise deals). However, payment processors frequently change pricing (sometimes even quarterly!) depending on new features, local regulations, volume-based discounts, and other key factors. Before picking a provider, I’d highly recommend double-checking each provider’s official site or support documentation to check the rates still stack up.

Frequently Asked Questions About Payment Methods

What is the best payment processing software for small businesses?

The best payment processing software for small businesses offers easy integration, transparent fees, and support for multiple payment methods. Options like Square, Stripe, and PayPal are popular because they allow small businesses to accept in-person and online payments with minimal setup.

How do mobile payments and contactless payments work for small businesses?

Mobile payments (like Apple or Google Pay) and contactless payments allow customers to pay using smartphones, smartwatches, or contactless cards by tapping or scanning at a payment terminal. Small businesses can accept these payments by using point-of-sale (POS) systems or card readers that are NFC-enabled.

What are payment service providers and why are they important for small businesses?

Payment service providers (PSPs) like Stripe, Square, and PayPal simplify the payment process by handling card transactions, fraud protection, and deposits into your business bank account, making it easier for small businesses to accept payments without needing complex merchant accounts.

Do small business payment systems charge monthly subscription fees?

Some small business payment systems charge monthly subscription fees for premium features like advanced reporting, lower transaction rates, or additional hardware support, while others offer free plans and charge only per transaction.

The post 6 Payment Systems For Small Businesses to Consider in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

As your business grows, so does your responsibility to your employees.

As a solo entrepreneur, you can (and often need) to work quickly, putting in the long hours needed to get your business up and running.

But you also need to make sure that you’re taking care of your employees.

To do that, you need the HR software solution in your corner.

However, with so many options to choose from (and likely a limited amount of time to do your research!), finding the right HR software can be hard.

With that in mind, I’ve done the hard yards for you! Here are 6 of the best HR software solutions for small businesses.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Gusto: Offers an all-in-one payroll, benefits, and HR platform that’s simple and affordable.
• Zoho People: Offers highly customizable HR management tools at an affordable cost.
• Homebase: Specializes in easy scheduling, time tracking, and team communication.
• Deel: Streamlines global hiring and payroll for small businesses looking to easily expand their remote or international teams.
• Connecteam: Delivers an intuitive mobile-first platform for workforce management.
• Rippling: Combines HR, IT, and payroll into one powerful system that scales as you grow.
• BambooHR: Offers a user-friendly HR software focused on employee experience.

What is HR Software?

But before we jump straight in, let’s quickly look at what an HR software solution is, and also what it isn’t.

HR software (also known as Human Resources software) is a digital solution that helps businesses automate, organize, and optimize their human resources processes.

It encompasses a wide range of functions, including recruiting and onboarding new employees, managing payroll and benefits, tracking performance, storing employee records, ensuring legal compliance, and enhancing internal communication.

For small businesses, HR software is especially valuable because it streamlines administrative tasks, reduces human error, saves time, and allows business owners to focus more on growth and leadership rather than paperwork.

HR software doesn’t:

• Conduct interviews or evaluate candidates: It can schedule interviews and track applicants, but humans still need to assess skills and ensure a cultural match.
• Onboard and train new employees: HR software can manage documents and checklists, but real onboarding requires human interaction.
• Resolve workplace conflicts: It can log complaints or track incidents, but managers or HR leaders must actually handle disputes.
• Understand employee emotions or morale: Some tools can measure engagement scores, but spotting burnout, dissatisfaction, or motivation still requires human intuition.

Key Factors to Consider When Selecting an HR Software Solution

Now the basics are covered, I want to take a moment to highlight the key factors that I considered when compiling this list.

After all, there are several ‘non-negotiable’ factors that any good HR software must have. I’ve listed them below, and they are the foundations of the companies I have selected for you to consider.

Ease of use

For starters, the right HR system should be simple and intuitive for both admins and employees. As a small business owner, you want to ensure that HR tasks aren’t taking up too much of your time, as you also have several other important tasks to focus on to make the business a success.

Core features

The right human resource management software also needs to cover all the basics you need. That means picking a platform that offers payroll processing, onboarding new employees as the business grows, and employee management.

Scalability

Choose a system that can grow with your business, not one you’ll outgrow in a year. As you continue to successfully grow your brand, you want to ensure that your HR operations can keep up with the rest of your business.

Integration and compatibility

The right HR management software should also easily connect with your existing tools, like accounting, scheduling, performance management tools, and communication platforms.

This goes back to focusing on ease of use. I’m a strong believer in ensuring small businesses meet all the necessary employee standards, but that they do so in a way that doesn’t slow down their brand’s growth or cause unnecessary issues.

Security and compliance

Lastly, you can’t ignore security and compliance! Small businesses need an HR portal that offers strong data protection and helps with legal compliance, both of which are non-negotiable.

The 6 Best HR Software For Small Businesses in 2025

Now that you know the benchmarks I used to build out this list, let’s dive straight into the best solutions for you to consider.

Gusto

Pros:

• Easy-to-use interface perfect for non-HR experts
• Strong payroll and benefits management, especially for U.S. teams
• Transparent pricing with no hidden fees

Potential drawback:

• Limited international support compared to some competitors

Pricing

• Simple – $49 per month (plus $6 per month per person)
• Plus – $80 per month (plus $12 per month per person)
• Premium – $180 per month

Gusto is a top choice for small businesses looking for an easy-to-use, all-in-one HR platform. It offers full-service payroll, benefits management, hiring tools, and employee onboarding in a straightforward dashboard, making HR tasks much easier for busy small business owners.

Known for its friendly interface and transparent pricing, Gusto is particularly well-suited for U.S.-based businesses that want to stay compliant and support their expanding teams.

However, it’s worth noting that Gusto has limited support for international employees, which could be a drawback for businesses planning to expand globally.

Zoho People

Pros:

• Highly customizable workflows and modules
• Affordable pricing plans, especially for small teams
• Seamless integration with other Zoho apps

Potential drawback:

• Some users find the interface less intuitive and outdated

Pricing

• Free Plan: Available for up to 5 users
• Essential: $1.50 per employee per month (or $1.25 when billed annually)
• Professional: $2.50 per employee per month (or $2.00 when billed annually)
• Premium: $3.50 per employee per month (or $3.00 when billed annually)
• Enterprise: $5.00 per employee per month (or $4.50 when billed annually)
• People Plus: $10 per employee per month (or $9.50 when billed annually)

Zoho People is a flexible and affordable HR software solution that’s perfect for small businesses requiring customizable workflows and strong employee management tools.

It offers features like time tracking, leave management, onboarding, and performance reviews, all integrated with the broader Zoho ecosystem.

Zoho People is ideal for businesses seeking a highly adaptable system without a substantial price tag. However, some users find the interface less modern and occasionally challenging to navigate compared to newer competitors.

Homebase

Pros:

• Excellent free tier for basic scheduling and time tracking
• Great for managing hourly and shift workers
• Simple team communication tools built in

Potential drawback:

• Payroll features cost extra and are U.S.-only

Pricing

• Basic: Free for one location with up to 20 employees
• Essentials: $24.95 per location per month
• Plus: $59.95 per location per month.
• All-in-One: $99.95 per location per month

Homebase is a user-friendly HR platform tailored for small businesses, especially those with hourly employees in sectors like retail, hospitality, and food service. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including employee scheduling, time tracking, team communication, hiring, onboarding, and labor cost management, all accessible through a mobile-friendly interface.

While Homebase is excellent for small teams, it may not be ideal for larger organizations or those requiring advanced customization. From my experience, there were some limitations in configurability and scalability, which could pose challenges as your business grows. ​

Deel

Pros:

• Simplifies global hiring, compliance, and payroll
• Built-in contractor and employee management for multiple countries
• Strong compliance and legal document handling

Potential drawback:

• Overkill (and pricey) if you only hire domestically

Pricing

• Contractor Management: Starting at $49 per contractor per month
• Employer of Record (EOR): Starting at $599 per employee per month
• Global Payroll: Starting at $29 per employee per month
• Deel HR: Free for teams with up to 200 people

Deel is a comprehensive global HR platform designed to simplify international hiring, payroll, and compliance for businesses of all sizes. It enables companies to hire full-time employees and contractors in over 150 countries without the need to establish local entities, making it an ideal solution for small businesses aiming to expand globally.

While Deel offers a robust solution for global HR management, I noticed a few issues with customer support responsiveness and occasional system complexities. Additionally, the cost is higher compared to other platforms that made the list, which could be a consideration for small businesses with limited budgets.

Connecteam

Pros:

• Mobile-first design that’s easy for field employees to use
• Affordable plans tailored to small teams
• All-in-one app covering scheduling, forms, chats, and task management

Potential drawback:

• Feature depth may feel shallow compared to specialized tools

Pricing

• Free Plan: Available for businesses with up to 10 users
• Basic Plan: Starting at $29 per month (billed annually)
• Advanced Plan: Starting at $49 per month (billed annually)
• Expert Plan: Starting at $99 per month (billed annually)

Connecteam is a mobile-first HR and workforce management platform designed for small businesses, particularly those with deskless or frontline teams in industries like retail, construction, hospitality, and field services.

It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including employee scheduling, time tracking, task management, internal communication, and HR functionalities such as onboarding, training, and document management.

While Connecteam excels in managing deskless workforces, it may not be the ideal choice for businesses seeking advanced payroll functionalities or extensive desktop-based operations.

Not to mention the fact that researching pricing made my head hurt!

Rippling

Pros:

• Combines HR, IT, finance, and payroll management in one place
• Scales easily as your business grows
• Automates onboarding and offboarding tasks efficiently

Potential drawback:

• It can get expensive quickly as you add more modules

Pricing

• Base Platform: Starts at $8 per user per month
• Core HR Features: From $21 to $29 per employee per month, depending on the selected modules
• Additional Modules: IT management features can add $5 to $20 per employee per month

Rippling is a comprehensive HR platform that unifies HR, IT, and finance systems into a single, easy-to-use solution. It offers a wide range of features, including payroll processing, benefits administration, time and attendance tracking, device management, and expense management.

Rippling’s modular approach enables businesses to tailor their plans by selecting only the features they need, making it scalable for companies of all sizes. Its intuitive interface and automation capabilities streamline complex processes, reducing manual work and improving efficiency.​

While Rippling offers a robust and flexible platform, I did find that the pricing structure can become complex and potentially costly as additional modules are added. Additionally, customer support is primarily chat-based, with phone support available only for clients with over 150 employees, which may be a limitation for smaller businesses seeking immediate assistance. ​

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Choosing the right HR software is just the beginning. If you want to scale your business in 2025, mastering HR, leadership, and team growth is essential.

For just $1, unlock access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons designed to help small business owners and entrepreneurs hire smarter, build strong teams, and streamline operations.

Learn everything from selecting the best HR tools to managing employee data, boosting retention, and creating a thriving company culture.

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Sign up for Foundr+ today.

Frequently Asked Questions About HR Software

What are the main HR functions in a small business?

The main functions of HR include recruiting, onboarding, managing employee data, handling payroll and benefits, ensuring compliance, and fostering employee engagement.

Why is managing employee data important in HR?

Accurate employee data management is crucial for tracking performance, maintaining legal compliance, streamlining payroll, and making informed business decisions.

How can small businesses create effective HR processes?

Small businesses can create effective HR processes by clearly defining workflows for hiring, onboarding, time tracking, performance reviews, and employee offboarding.

What types of HR data should small businesses track?

Small businesses should track HR data like employee personal information, job history, time-off records, performance evaluations, and compensation details to support operations and compliance.

The post The 6 Best HR Software For Small Businesses in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

Trying to work out which slides you must have in your pitch deck for 2025?

Perhaps you’re at the start of your business journey, and you want to bring your product to market.

Or maybe you’ve started to make some sales, and you want to scale your brand up and take it to the next level.

Here, I will talk you through the 10 slides you need to include in your pitch deck, as well as the key points you need to include in each slide.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

1. Title slide: Include your company name, tagline, and contact info to make a strong first impression.
2. Problem slide: Highlight the pain point you’re solving. Keep it clear and relatable.
3. Solution slide: Show how your product or service solves the problem effectively.
4. Product or service slide: Give a quick overview of your offering: features, visuals, and benefits.
5. Business model slide: Explain how you make money and why it’s sustainable.
6. Go-to-market slide: Outline how you plan to attract and retain customers.
7. Competitor slide: Show who else is out there and what makes you stand out.
8. Team slide: Highlight your team’s relevant experience and why you’re the right people.
9. Finances slide: Share key numbers and funding needs—keep it simple and realistic.
10. Why now slide: Explain why this is the right time for your business to take off.

10 Must-Have Slides You Need For An Impressive Pitch Deck

Let’s dive straight into the essential slides you need in your pitch deck to turn your business idea into a business dream.

A great title

First off, what’s a good pitch deck without a great title slide?

Think of the title slide as your first opportunity to impress. A great title slide can be the make or break for some investors, as you have a split second to capture their attention or lose them for the entire presentation.

A great title slide commonly features your brand name, logo for professionalism, and a strong tagline that highlights your mission statement.

That tagline should highlight what you will cover in your pitch deck and not overly promise and underdeliver.

What’s the problem?

Once you’ve nailed your title slide, it’s time to consider your problem side.

What is it that your product or service is trying to resolve?

The pain point slide should identify the common problem that your target audience faces and also highlight why there should be some major urgency put towards solving it. You want to create a sense of urgency and highlight the true significance of the problem your audience is experiencing.

How can it be solved

Once the problem has been identified, it’s time to explain how your product or solution solves it. Here, spend time going into details where necessary, forming a clear narrative that your business solves this issue, is of high demand, and is a no-brainer when it comes to profitable investments.

How your product or service does just that

But you can’t just tell your audience that you can solve the problem with your product or service, you need to show them.

In this slide, you can identify and explain the benefits, key features, and unique selling points of your particular solution.

The business model slide

Money talks, and that’s exactly what the business model slide is all about. Investors want to understand how your company plans to generate profit. Use this slide to break down your revenue streams, pricing model, and sales channels. It’s your chance to prove that your venture is financially sound and built for long-term success.

The go-to-market slide

Your customer acquisition strategy is key, and that’s the focus of the go-to-market slide. Use it to outline how you’ll market, sell, and distribute your product and how you plan to win over and keep your ideal customers. This slide gives investors a clear view of the actionable steps behind your growth plan.

What about the competition?

The competition slide shows you know the landscape (and how you stand out!). Acknowledge your competitors, then highlight what sets you apart. This slide proves you understand the market and have a clear edge in your positioning.

Who are they investing in?

While understanding the competitive landscape is important, it’s not as important as ensuring potential investors understand your team.

After all, that’s who they’re going to invest in, so you need to ensure they are confident in the experience, passion, and skillset your team has to offer.

Focus on aspects that investors want to see, such as experience, success stories, and any additional value they bring to the business (think, acquiring customers, creative marketing, and so on).

The financial projections

Okay, so far, you’ve likely highlighted the problem, impressed with your business model, team, and market research, and investors are seriously considering working with you.

Now it’s time to seal the deal with your financial projections. That means showing off detailed revenue forecasts, expenses, and your break-even point. Venture capitalists want to ensure there is an exit strategy in place and that they can be confident that they’ll make their money back and more.

When pitching your potential revenue model, don’t be afraid to use detailed competitive analysis to back up any statements.

Why now?

Lastly, you need to finish your pitch deck with a sense of urgency.

After all, if you’ve just made a killer pitch, now is the time to strike while the iron is hot! The last thing you want is to lose the momentum you’ve generated and ultimately lose sales or investors.

That’s where the why-now slide comes in, highlighting marketing trends, outlining why this market opportunity needs to be taken now to gain a competitive edge, and pushing venture capitalists to act now.

The Importance of a Great Pitch Deck

Having a high-quality pitch deck ready is something you certainly shouldn’t take lightly. A winning pitch deck can be the difference between potential investors backing your business venture and walking away from the negotiating table.

Venture capitalists want to ensure you have a true competitive advantage and have conducted the relevant market research. A pitch presentation is the perfect place to convince investors of your unique selling proposition, raise money to take your business model to market, and turn your business dreams into a reality.

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The post The 10 Slides You Must Have in Your Pitch Deck for 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

What is Printful?

Perhaps that’s a question you often find yourself asking when you read about other entrepreneurs and their production line processes.

Or perhaps you have been searching for a new solution to some current supply line issues, and you want to see if Printful is the right option for you or whether the services offered aren’t quite up to scratch.

Here, I will discuss Printful in more detail, helping you understand if it’s the right option for your print needs.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Printful simplifies eCommerce for creators: Printful is a user-friendly print-on-demand platform that lets you design, sell, and ship custom products without holding inventory. It integrates seamlessly with major e-commerce platforms, making it ideal for entrepreneurs, creators, and small businesses.
• Low risk, high flexibility: With no setup fees, minimum orders, or upfront costs, Printful is a low-risk way to test new product ideas and grow your brand. It’s perfect for early-stage founders looking to scale without worrying about warehousing or fulfillment logistics.
• Some limitations to keep in mind: While Printful is convenient and accessible, profit margins are lower than with wholesale, and customization options can be limited. Quality control is also in the hands of Printful, not you—something to consider when building customer trust.

What is Printful?

First off, let me explain what Printful is!

In simple terms, Printful is a print-on-demand service that allows users to create, print, and sell their products quickly and easily.

The platform can easily be integrated into your store whether that’s Amazon, Etsy, or even eBay, and offers a wide variety of customizable print products.

Some of the most commonly chosen product ideas include:

• Bags
• Clothing
• Stationary
• Posters
• Tech accessories.

Not only that, but unlike other competitor apps in the world of print on demand, it also offers a built-in design feature, making it even easier to develop products quickly.

Plus, if you’re unsure how you can improve on a design, the Printful design tool also offers several useful recommendations.

The benefits of Printful for founders

One of the biggest benefits of Printful is the fact that you don’t have to hold any inventory.

You can opt to keep a few extras if you feel it’s necessary, but ultimately, when a customer purchases an item, Printful then makes it and delivers it, meaning you don’t have to worry about order fulfillment.

Not only that, but delivery is incredibly fast, too! Once you receive an order, Printful automatically starts creating the custom products without you needing to do anything.

As mentioned already, Printful seamlessly connects with major e-commerce websites like Shopify, Etsy, and WooCommerce, and also offers global fulfillment, meaning you can sell products across the U.S, Canada, Europe, and even further afield.

One of the biggest benefits for founders is that Printful doesn’t require a minimum order amount, making it ideal for testing new products and growing your brand without the pressure of extra products sitting on the shelves.

Another major benefit for customers is that Printful stays behind the scenes; your brand takes the spotlight.

Lastly, it’s important to highlight the quality of the products. From my experience, Printful does a fantastic job on this front, providing companies with the quality their audience has come to expect.

The drawbacks to be aware of

Of course, you can’t have all those benefits without a few drawbacks to be aware of!

The biggest drawback (one that almost all print-on-demand systems have) is the profit margin.

Margins are often significantly lower compared to bulk ordering from wholesalers, making revenue growth much slower.

There is also quite significant limits on customization, as some design placements and customization options are restricted.

The other major issue with opting for a print-on-demand platform is that quality control is completely out of your hands.

Mistakes (though rare) can happen during fulfillment, and no matter how much great marketing and advertising you do, it can be very hard to regain customer trust and create loyalty if you aren’t able to sort issues quickly when they arise.

Is Printful Right For You?

Ultimately, whether or not Printful is right for you depends entirely on your brand, goals, and the products you want to sell.

If you want to sell these types of products on your site, Printful could be a good option for you to consider before moving on to a wholesaler when you have a built-in audience for better product margins.

For example, you could use Printful for about two years, gain a loyal following, and then move to a system that offers better profits when you’re confident you won’t be left with stock collecting dust.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Printful

Can you create custom products with Printful?

Yes, you can create custom products with Printful. The platform lets you design and sell a wide range of products, like t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and more, using your own artwork, logos, or text through an easy-to-use mockup generator.

Is Printful free?

Yes, Printful is free to use. There are no setup costs, monthly fees, or minimum order requirements. You only pay when a customer places an order, covering the product and fulfillment costs.

Who pays for shipping on Printful?

The end customer typically pays for shipping. As the store owner, you set your retail prices, including shipping fees. Printful charges you their shipping rate, and you can either pass that on to the customer or include it in your product pricing.

What is the minimum order for Printful?

There is no minimum order requirement on Printful. You can sell and fulfill orders one at a time, making it ideal for startups, small businesses, and creators testing new designs.

The post What is Printful? The Definitive Guide appeared first on Foundr.

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know about dropshipping, how it works, and some of the profits other people have made.

But one big question may still remain.

Does dropshipping work in 2025?

After all, the concept of dropshipping is no longer new. Now, with more dropshippers joining the party every day, there is more competition than ever, with some being quick to claim that ‘dropshipping is finished.’

But that’s not entirely true. Instead, you need to be savvy, calculated, and driven to see success. Here, I’ll show you that dropshipping continues to be profitable in 2025 and how you can get started today.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• While dropshipping is certainly more saturated than it was a decade ago, it can still be extremely profitable for the right products, brands, and marketing.
• The key to a successful dropshipping business is to choose the right products and niches that meet several important criteria, such as profit, ease, and audience size.
• Successful branding can help differentiate yourself from others in your niche.

Dropshipping in 2025

It’s easy to understand why some people think dropshipping is dead in 2025. After all, there are more people than ever trying their hand at it.

Anecdotally speaking, I was in Bali recently, and I would say one in every three people I met was doing dropshipping!

However, there’s a reason why people continue to give it a go. Here are some of the most notable dropshipping statistics for you to be aware of, highlighting just why it’s still a profitable endeavor.

1. $85 billion in sales are made via dropshipping. That’s almost 23% of all online sales. 
2. Dropshipping stores with at least one social media account tend to generate 32% more revenue. 
3. The dropshipping market is expected to be valued at $372.47 billion in the year 2025. 
4. The e-commerce market share of the US is expected to reach 19.4% in 2025.

How to Start Dropshipping

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the steps you need to take to start your dropshipping business.

Choose a business model

First off, you need to decide what business model you are going to opt for. Are you going to niche down and select a store that focuses on a very small but fiercely loyal community? Are you going to try and set up a general store that appeals to a larger audience but comes with more competition? Or are you going to go down the ‘one-product store’ approach?

Each option comes with its own pros and cons, so it’s important to identify a route and ensure everything you do helps you achieve that goal.

Want to understand niche markets in more detail? Check out this article.

Research your niche

Once you have decided on your niche, whether it’s a very specific or broader one, it’s important to swat up on everything you can about it. This will help you understand what your competition is selling, what your audience is looking for, where they shop and engage with brands on the internet, and any potential pain points you could look to exploit for quick success.

To do this, tools like TikTok, Instagram, Amazon Best Sellers, and Google Trends are all excellent options. They will help you understand what the competition is doing well and also what you could do better than them, allowing you to carve out a much-needed USP, especially in a saturated market.

Another important factor to consider at this stage is profit margins and feasibility. If you can’t find a way of making a profit from your chosen niche, then it’s essentially a non-starter. You need to be confident that sales will at least cover your costs at first and have the potential to scale smoothly, thanks to easy shipping.

As a dropshipping company, not handling inventory can seem excellent, but it does also come with some downsides, most notably, if there are issues with shipping, it can have a major impact on your brand’s perception as it can be tricky to rectify issues that are out of your control.

Find a reliable supplier

Firstly, you need to find a reliable supplier. I cannot stress enough how important this step is. So much so that everything else from this point becomes significantly less impactful if you fall at this hurdle.

Some of the most popular options include AliExpress, DSers, Zendrop, CJ Dropshipping, and Spocket, but we also have a fantastic video training course on this subject.

If you’re planning on dropshipping on Amazon, you need to be really careful who you partner up with. Amazon has some pretty strict policies on suppliers and wholesale distributors, so I strongly recommend checking out their list of vetted candidates.

Once picked, take time to order samples, making a note of the product quality, delivery speed, and other important aspects of the customer experience.

Set up your online store

Once you’re happy with the supplier you opted for, it’s time to consider where you’re going to set up your online store. 

The most popular options tend to be Shopify or Amazon, each of which comes with its own benefits.

Shopify is an excellent option as it offers a lot of excellent eCommerce features, it’s easy to set up, and it gives you control over the design of your page and branding.

However, it is trickier to get people to find and purchase from your brand at first, especially when compared to setting up on Amazon.

As you can imagine, setting up on Amazon means you open yourself up to a much bigger target audience automatically, which is very attractive for new dropshippers.

However, Amazon is also aware of the many benefits they offer you and that your choices are minimal due to their market dominance. As such, they often take significant fees, monthly costs, and a percentage of sales.

Fortunately for you, I’ve compiled a list below of some excellent Shopify guidance, ensuring you give yourself the best chance of success:

• The Absolute Best Premium and Free Shopify Templates
• How to Set Up a Shopify Store in 8 Easy Steps
• 11 Proven Strategies to Increase Shopify Sales
• Shopify SEO Tools for Your New Store

Sort the boring bits

Okay, calling them ‘the boring bits’ might be a bit harsh, but I know I would much rather be working on the creative aspects of a brand rather than setting up policies for shipping, returns, and refunds.

However, these pieces of legislation are all absolutely crucial for protecting yourself in case of any issues, which can get quite complicated as a drop shipper.

You also need to consider other important aspects like basic liability insurance or whether you want to set up as an LLC or a sole proprietor.

Luckily, you can learn a bit more about all that here: Sole Proprietorship vs. LLC: Everything You Need to Know.

Optimize

Now that those bits are out of the way, it’s time to optimize your website. That means writing compelling product descriptions that are SEO-friendly and what the consumer wants to see. Focus more on the benefits of your products rather than the features.

Does a consumer want to know that your vacuum has powerful 26kPa suction? No, probably not. Do they want to know that it has the power needed to suck up everything, even dog hair? Yes!

You should also focus on using other important user-focused features, such as high-quality imagery. It makes your brand look professional and your products more valuable.

Lastly, test out different urgency elements, such as highlighting limited stock and countdowns; just make sure not to overdo it.

Launch marketing campaigns

Once all your foundations are in place, it’s time to get your brand in front of your target audience.

Start getting an email list in place for future discounts and new products by adding pop-ups to your website and promotions on social media.

Use micro and macro influencers to promote your product, ensuring you work with influencers specifically within your niche.

Tips and Tricks for Success

While it’s easy for almost anyone to set up a dropshipping business in 2025, making it a success is a different matter altogether. Here are a few tips and tricks I recommend that will help you ensure your brand gets off to a great start and builds sustainable long-term success.

Branding

For branding, it’s absolutely crucial that you invest time and effort into this early on. Use websites like Fiverr to get a quality logo made, ensure you have a consistent color palette in place, and don’t be afraid to lean into the story of how your brand came to be and what you want it to represent.

Consumers also want to see other trust signals, especially those who haven’t purchased from you before. That means collecting legitimate reviews, laying out a detailed frequently asked questions page for customer support, and adding real photos of the products you’re selling.

Marketing and ads

When it comes to marketing, it can be very tempting to spend big in the hopes of attracting new customers.

However, the best approach is to actually start small, testing each route before identifying where you are seeing the most success and then spending more in those areas.

Mindset and strategy

Dropshipping is not passive income.

I can’t stress this enough: Anyone who tells you it is passive either doesn’t do dropshipping themselves, or if they do, they don’t do it successfully!
You have to treat your dropshipping like a real business, focusing on long-term strategies like focusing on customer experience.

Always be learning

Lastly, it’s important to know that once you’ve done all of the above, the work doesn’t stop there! Dropshipping and eCommerce as a whole are rapidly evolving, and staying up to date with the most recent trends, success stories, and products is a must for long-term success.

There are plenty of great resources, such as r/dropshipping on Reddit, but for the very best results, joining Foundr’s community is the best solution, as it will put you in touch with authentic, current eCommerce business owners and dropshippers, allowing you to learn and grow with each other.

Get Started Today For Just $1

Ready to build a successful dropshipping business in 2025? Learn how to drive high-converting traffic, grow a loyal customer base, and turn your store into a powerful brand.

For just $1, unlock instant access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons on Shopify, Amazon, social media marketing, and online branding. Join thousands of ambitious dropshippers and digital entrepreneurs inside Foundr+—your ultimate resource for eCommerce success.

Sign up for Foundr+ today and start scaling smarter.

The post Does Dropshipping Work in 2025? The Definitive Guide appeared first on Foundr.

For most founders, securing funding to get started is often one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome.

Often, it can be hard to get the credentials required for a business loan, and in many cases, owing someone money or handing over business equity is not very appealing!

That’s where grants for small businesses come into play!

In this article, I’ll take you through the grant programs you should be capitalizing on this year, helping you get the funding you need without the strings attached.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Small business grants can be an excellent way to get more cash into your business without giving away any of your ownership.
• Grants are available and can be industry-specific or targeted toward particular demographics, such as women-owned or underrepresented businesses.
• There are a wide variety of grants available to certain small businesses, but you will need a robust and enticing business plan to access them.

What is a Small Business Grant?

First off, let me quickly explain when I refer to a small business grant, as there is often a little confusion between the difference between a loan and a grant.

A small business grant is a form of funding provided by government agencies, private foundations, or corporations to support the growth and development of small businesses.

Unlike loans, grants do not require repayment and typically come with specific eligibility criteria and designated purposes, both of which I will discuss in greater detail later in this article.

For a comprehensive guide to bootstrapping vs. external funding, check out our recent article!

The benefits of small business grants

There are a ton of benefits that small businesses can get from a successful grant application. Most notably, grants provide funding that doesn’t have to be repaid, reducing financial stress during early growth phases.

Not only that but you can also maintain the full control of your business, as no equity stake is taken. However, there are also some less obvious benefits to securing a grant, such as the credibility and visibility it can offer your brand.

Securing a grant often signals that an external party believes in your business, which can boost credibility with investors and customers.

Grants for Small Businesses

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most common grants that small businesses can attempt to take advantage of.

Federal grants

Federal agencies could be handy places to start your search! Federal grant programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) are excellent options for any startup that has launched a tech-focused company.

The added benefit of these grants is that they don’t just offer funding, but they also help you validate your technology or service.

State grants

However, while federal grants can be very beneficial for certain businesses, they are tricky to acquire for most businesses, especially for those not focused on technology.

State grants could be a solution to that issue, as many local governments offer unique grant programs to promote entrepreneurship and economic development in their area.

These grants also tend to target specific industries based on their needs at that time, but it’s always worth reaching out to their small business administration to see what may be on offer.

Corporate-sponsored grants

As a small business owner, it can sometimes feel hard to compete with the larger companies in your industry. However, large companies tend to help give you a leg up occasionally, running grant competitions to foster innovation in sectors they care about.

These may be technology-based, but they can also be for a wide range of industries, such as businesses that support community services.

Foundation and nonprofit grants

For nonprofit organizations, there are specific grants you can go after, such as the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation or local economic development nonprofits. These grants are often relied on by nonprofits to stay afloat, and as such, there are likely plenty of options to look into in your area.

Women-owned business grants

There are also plenty of funding opportunities in place for anyone who starts a women-owned small business, with numerous programs focusing specifically on promoting women’s business ownership.

Eligible businesses will need to prove their ownership is women-led, but with more small business loans and grants becoming available, it’s an avenue worth looking down.

Underrepresented founder grants

For eligible small businesses, there are also minority and veteran-owned grants to consider. Often, these grants don’t just offer funding, but also mentorship and networking opportunities.

Innovation funding

If you’re shaking up an industry with a potentially ground-breaking technology, you may be eligible for grants that cover research and development expenses, which can be a game changer.

These opportunities help reduce the financial risk of innovation without taking on debt or equity dilution, allowing you to truly test your thesis, create product prototypes, and get them to market.

How to Get a Grant For Your Business Ventures

Lastly, let’s talk about how you go about enquiring about potential grants, as the routes for nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses differ slightly.

The best place to start your search is with good ol’ Google! Search for ‘government grants for small businesses,’ and you’ll be able to see specifically what is on offer in your area. As I mentioned earlier, local areas tend to provide grants with different criteria unless you’re interested in federal contracts.

However, as the local or federal government isn’t your only option, you should also attempt to identify private companies and foundations that support entrepreneurial ventures.

For women entrepreneurs, minority-owned ventures, or industry-specific initiatives, these grants aren’t always clearly advertised, so don’t be afraid to reach out to someone you think may be able to help.

When you have uncovered a potential grant opportunity, it’s important to spend time learning the requirements.

Each grant comes with specific requirements, so make sure your business qualifies before investing time in the application.

Determine if the grant is intended for research and development, expansion, marketing, project costs, or another specific area. Tailor your application to show how the funds will meet these goals.

If you think you meet the criteria in question, then it’s time to craft your pitch! After all, you can’t expect an entity to just give you money because you asked for it.

Within your plan, include clear objectives, detailed financial projections, and measurable outcomes. Demonstrating a well-thought-out strategy reassures grantors of your business’s viability and dramatically improves your chances of a successful application.

Final Thoughts

Small grants can provide a vital boost, but they’re only one piece of the entrepreneurial puzzle. To build a thriving business, you need comprehensive guidance that covers everything from branding and design to eCommerce and marketing.

That’s where Foundr+ comes in. For just $1, you’ll get instant access to 30+ expert-led courses and over 1,000 lessons designed to guide you through every aspect of setting up and growing your business.

Whether you’re learning how to secure grants, perfect your brand identity or master digital marketing strategies, Foundr+ equips you with the tools, insights, and community support you need to succeed.

The post Grants for Small Businesses: Grants You Should Be Taking Advantage Of in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

What is Canva?

As a business, it is crucial that your website and marketing collateral match the high quality of your services or products.

However, with your time and effort getting pulled in multiple directions, taking night classes to become a master at graphic design probably isn’t too high on your to-do list!

That’s where Canva can help.

But what is Canva? Here, I’ll explain what Canva is, and how you can use it for your business in 2025.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Canva is an excellent alternative to more advanced (and more expensive) alternatives like Adobe Illustrator.
• The Canva Free version is very inclusive, allowing you to do most things other than access specific premium templates or create transparent backgrounds.
• To get the most out of Canva, I recommend signing up for the free version of the tool first, getting comfortable with the user interface, and then investing in the affordable pro version for maximum impact.

What is Canva? Everything You Need to Know

Firstly, what is Canva?

Canva is a fantastic design tool that businesses can use to create high-quality marketing materials, regardless of their design skills.

The tool uses a clever drag-and-drop interface, making it much more simplistic (but also significantly easier to use!) than more advanced tools like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

As a result, it is a much more accessible tool for creating professional designs, especially given the pricing. ‘Canva Free’ is an incredible free version of the tool that lets you access almost every aspect of the platform at no cost whatsoever.

I have used Canva myself for several years, and only started paying for Canva Pro in the last year or so to access some of the premium templates. It’s a brilliant tool for people like me who are not advanced enough to get the most out of Adobe products but still need to be able to produce the odd Instagram post and blog header from time to time.

What is Canva and How Can It Be Used For Business?

And on that note, let’s take a look at how Canva can support your design process, helping you create a range of forms of content for your marketing efforts.

For brand assets

Canva can be a brilliant tool to start brainstorming your potential brand assets. If you’re like me, you would count yourself as creative but sometimes need a little bit of extra support to get kickstarted. With Canva, you get that little bit of help and so much more!

Simply log in, click Create New Design, and search ‘brand’.

 

As you can see, the first option that comes up is ‘Brand Board’ click on that and you’ll immediately be shown some brilliant brand templates.

Let’s say I’m starting a new game company that focuses on video editing and graphic design for gaming companies, called ‘Gaming Graphics.’ A quick scroll and a few tweaks, and we have a great starting point for our brand!

For social media content

Canva is also brilliant for creating social media posts, with templates for TikToks, Instagram posts, stories, and Facebook posts.

Using our Gaming Graphics example, here are a few quickly worked-up posts based on our branding from above and the templates available in the platform.

For blog headers and additional visuals

When it comes to creating high-value, truly engaging blog content, you need to be able to produce excellent blog headers and additional visuals, such as tables and infographics.

These keep your readers engaged, and also act as useful SEO signals for the Google algorithm as well!

With Canva, you can use the infographic or blog header Canva templates to create high-quality content, even if you don’t have a graphic design background.

For lead magnets

Another essential aspect of any marketing effort is a strong lead magnet, such as a free eBook. Again, it is essential that these pieces of marketing collateral look the part, and Canva can help ensure your work looks professional and of the highest quality.

Fun fact: If you want to ensure your whole team has access to Canva, there are multi-person subscriptions available as well, called Canva Teams and Canva Enterprise (ideal for large organizations.).

Learn About More Great Tips and Tricks For Just $1

In conclusion, Canva is a fantastic design tool, and one you should definitely consider adding to your marketing suite.

But to truly harness Canva’s potential, you need comprehensive guidance that covers all aspects of running a successful business.

That’s where Foundr+ can help.

For just $1, gain instant access to over 30 expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons on branding, marketing, eCommerce, and beyond.

Ready to elevate your business in 2025? Take the next step and unlock your entrepreneurial potential with Foundr+ today.

The post What is Canva? 6 Ways to Use It For Your Business in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

Trying to show off all your great digital content on social media can be tricky at the best of times.

Should you direct followers to your company website? What about a current offer? Or even your other social accounts?

Well, you have to choose, as you can only put one link in your bio!

Or can you?

With Linktree, you can create a landing page that your target audience can use to seamlessly move around your brand’s digital pages, allowing you to promote new offers, YouTube videos, a company contact page, and everything in between.

Here, I will answer the question ‘What is Linktree?’ As well as showing you how to set one up for your brand this year.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Linktree allows multiple links in a single bio, making it easier to share content across social media.
• Linktree is free to use, with a paid version offering more customization and analytics.
• Setting up a Linktree is quick and simple, requiring just a few steps to add links and personalize your page.
• Linktree can boost engagement by directing users to your website, offers, social profiles, or content.

What Is Linktree?

First off, let me explain what a Linktree is for those that are not aware. For those who already know this, you can skip to the next bit!

Linktree is a tool designed for social media users to add personalized links to their platforms, acting as a jumping-off point for their many other digital content.

You might think your favorite social media channel features multiple links, but most of them only allow one, making it hard for users to pick the right one to promote.

Linktree takes away that issue, taking fans and viewers to a Linktree landing page, where social media celebrities and brands can show several different links.

Linktree (not ‘link tree’) has a free and paid version, with the paid version offering advanced customization options, as many links as you want, and in-depth analytics data.

How to Set Up a Linktree

Fortunately, it’s incredibly easy to set up a Linktree landing page and start promoting various links.

• Go to www.linktree.com and create a free subscription.
• Input the information requested about your account.
• Choose your plan (we recommend testing the free tool first before paying out for the paid version.)
• Alter and tweak your page appearance (we suggest altering it to match your own website. That way, any direct traffic that comes through won’t be surprised by the disparity!)
• Add at least one single link.
• Select a header, title, and thumbnail.
• Copy your unique URL and put it into your chosen social media channels as in your one bio link spot.

Should Linktree Be Part of Your Marketing Plan?

Now that you know how to set up your Linktree link, one important question remains: is it actually worth doing? Does your website need all the important links in your Instagram bio, or can you make do with one link in bio?

The benefits of setting up a Linktree URL

One of the biggest and most obvious benefits of implementing a Linktree as part of your social media marketing efforts is that all of your links are easily accessible in one simple location.

Rather than asking customers to come through to your website and then try to get them to follow your other accounts, check out product drops, and other actions, you can do all of that from your brand’s Linktree landing page.

The other major benefit is that you can use Linktree to add links to almost every social media platform. Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok all only allow one bio link as standard, so this link-in bio tool really can come in handy!

Another major benefit? It’s completely free! For startups that are keeping their budget tight, you’ll be pleased to hear that you can set up and start using a Linktree account without spending any money. You will have to deal with the Linktree logo on your Linktree page, but as soon as you see the platform bringing you success, you can always upgrade to a pro version to customize colors, branding, and fonts.

One of the reasons I particularly like the Linktree website compared to the alternatives is that it has some very detailed tracking data and analytics.

Much like when your executing search engine optimization marketing, you want to ensure that your social media marketing efforts are actually driving traffic and conversions.

Linktree lets you gather insights into how many users are clicking each link, as well as where those link clocks are coming from.

As a paid plan user, you can also prioritize and schedule lists, ensuring certain ones go live at specific times and also get removed automatically at a later date. This is a fantastic tool for brands running offer periods where they want to launch a limited-time deal to generate interest.

Linktree alternatives to consider

Of course, if Linktree isn’t quite to your liking but you’re still interested in the concept in general, there are a few other options to consider:

Milkshake: The best alternative, in my opinion, as I feel like the user interface is the easiest, especially on mobile, where most of your clicks will be coming from.

Beacons: Another good option, mainly as it offers some minor customizations as part of a free plan, as well as arguably providing more advanced analytics than Linktree.

Koji: Not my personal favorite, but it offers customizable storefronts as well as some interesting built-in mini-apps.

How to Make Your Linktree a Success

Creating a Linktree? Piece of cake.

Making it a success? That takes a little more skill!

After all, if you’re going to go through the effort of setting one up, then you must ensure it is optimized for maximum engagement and conversions.

To do this:

• Prioritize the most important lists: Stick your most important links at the top of your page.
• Customize it to match your brand: Opt for colors and fonts that match your branding.
• Catch attention with titles and thumbnails: Make links stand out with fun and engaging text. Make the CTA’s compelling and unique.
• Regularly check analytics: Don’t forget to track performance, adjusting your strategy and Linktree order accordingly.
• Promote it everywhere: Add your link to all your social pages, as well as other places like email signatures, business cards, and even website footers.

Gain Other Essential Marketing Tips For Just $1

Want to maximize your online presence in 2025? Learn how to drive traffic, increase engagement, and grow your brand.

For just $1, get instant access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons designed to help you master Linktree, social media marketing, and online branding. Join a community of forward-thinking entrepreneurs who are building powerful digital presences.

Sign up for Foundr+ today.

Frequently Asked Questions About Linktree

Can you set up multiple links on Linktree?

Yes, Linktree allows you to add multiple links to your profile. You can customize the order, add thumbnails, and include icons to make all your links more engaging.

Is there a free version of Linktree?

Yes, Linktree offers a free version that includes basic features like unlimited links and some customization options. However, premium plans provide advanced features like analytics, custom branding on your Linktree landing page, and integrations.

What social media platforms can you use Linktree on?

Linktree can be used on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X), Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other platforms where you can share a single bio link. It helps you share multiple links in one easy-to-access landing page for social media users.

The post What Is Linktree? How to Set One Up in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

What has no physical presence and haunts every entrepreneur’s dreams?

No, I’m not talking about actual ghosts.

I’m talking about building a ghost e-commerce brand!

Many entrepreneurs dream of opening their own ecommerce store, selling products and services online, and growing their own businesses in the process.

However, one major barrier is that a physical inventory can be too much of an upfront cost, not to mention the issues that can arise with inventory management.

But what about exploring a simpler business model like ghost commerce?

Here, I will take you through the concept of ghost commerce business, as well as highlight some of the major upsides and potential drawbacks to consider before going all in on this unique twist on traditional ecommerce.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Ghost commerce can be an incredibly effective way to get into the world of ecommerce without taking on large volumes of inventory.
• Customer satisfaction must be a top priority to build trust and encourage repeat business.
• Common challenges of ghost commerce include high competition, reliance on third-party suppliers, limited brand control, and difficulties in customer retention.
• Success in ghost commerce requires a strong online presence, strategic marketing efforts, and a willingness to invest in marketing efforts.

What is Ghost Commerce? Everything You Need to Know

First, let me explain what I mean by the term ‘ghost commerce.’ Ghost commerce is the phrase used to describe running an online store that has no physical store for shoppers to visit or any physical inventory to manage.

Instead, a ghost commerce business sells products or services from third-party manufacturers.

The benefits of starting a ghost commerce business

When reading that description of ghost commerce, chances are a few benefits immediately come to mind.

First and foremost, the barrier to entry is almost non-existent! You have the potential to run a ghost commerce store from anywhere, without worrying about creating a product, managing inventory, or even fulfilling orders.

That means the upfront costs are significantly lower than traditional ecommerce businesses.

You can also act much quicker and adapt to changes in trends, rotating products in and out based on consumer behavior.

Rather than waiting for manufacturers to create new products and set up the line of production, ghost commerce business owners can simply host another third-party product at a minute’s notice.

Lastly, the ghost commerce business model is also ideal for anyone searching for the holy grail: passive income.

While no business venture is ever truly passive, ghost commerce requires minimal day-to-day maintenance, as you can automate the process of passing order information to suppliers and vice versa.

The potential drawbacks of ghost commerce to be aware of

Sounds pretty great, right?

Well, there are some potential drawbacks to consider as well.

For starters, ghost commerce means you have much less control over the quality of the products and shipping process, which means you’re relying heavily on the partners you work with.

In many instances, this won’t be an issue, but a bad customer experience could lead to negative feedback and a lack of repeat purchases.

As you’re not the owner of the products, you also need to adjust your expectations when it comes to profit margins.

As a ghost commerce owner, you’ll only be able to charge a small markup, meaning you’ll need to grow to become a large brand before the income earned becomes significant.

How to Create a Profitable Ghost Commerce Business Model

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the steps you need to take to give your ghost commerce business the best chance of succeeding. With tight profit margins, ensuring you put your brand in the best possible position is crucial.

Opt for a niche that you know well

First and foremost, look for a niche that you know very well or at least feel very passionately about.

Niching down can sometimes feel like a limiting decision as it cuts down your audience size, but as a new brand, it is often impossible to compete with a generalist approach. Instead, focus on trying to build a loyal customer base within your niche. The key to long-term success is repeat business and word of mouth, both of which can be achieved by choosing a specific niche.

Not only that, but picking a niche you know well will ensure you remain passionate about your business venture and also allow you to use your inside knowledge of current trends to promote products you know your target audience will want to see.

Optimizing now will make your life much easier later

Optimizing whilst you go through the online store setup is crucial for getting all your digital ducks in a row early. It can be tempting to quickly set up your store, skipping key aspects like meta descriptions and alt-tag text on imagery, in an attempt to go live as quickly as possible.

However, optimizing as you go ensures you won’t need to go back and troubleshoot issues after going live, which can be difficult to do and will cost you valuable time. Take the necessary steps to conduct search engine optimization during the setup process, and your future self will be very grateful!

Identify reliable suppliers

Another crucial step in ensuring your setup for success is to partner yourself with reliable suppliers. As mentioned above, as a ghost commerce business, you have minimal control over the delivery of your products, yet any negative customer reviews will impact your business and not the manufacturer.

Therefore, you must control the controllables! If a manufacturer’s rates or lead times seem too good to be true, it’s best to steer clear and stick to suppliers that have a strong track record for hitting their deadlines and meeting customer expectations.

Tailor marketing strategies specifically for your target audience

Laslty, ensure that all of your marketing strategies are tailored specifically to your target audience. It can be tempting to try and attract the most people with your efforts, but that generalist approach will likely mean you attract no one.

Instead, lean heavily into your niche, conducting targetted social media ads that reach them specifically, and focusing on PPC topics that they search.

One of the most obvious examples is via your SEO efforts. If, for example, your ghost commerce business is selling functional fitness sneakers, it can be tempting to write content for your website that focuses on the keyword phrase ‘sneakers.’

After all, as you can see below, there is plenty of traffic for that search term:

However, it is also a very competitive keyword (56) and you will be competing with leading brands like Adidas and Nike.

Instead, opt for a search term like ‘functional fitness’ which has less search volume (4.1k) but also much lower competition (23).

As a new website, your domain rating will be very low, so tackling topics with less difficulty is crucial as you grow your brand.

Learn All You Need to Know About Setting Up an Online Store for Just $1

Ghost commerce is one of the most low-risk, high-reward ways to start an online business—no inventory, no upfront stock costs, and no need to handle logistics. But to succeed, you need the right strategies, suppliers, and marketing tactics to make it work.

That’s where Foundr+ comes in. For just $1, you’ll get instant access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons on eCommerce, branding, digital marketing, and supplier sourcing—everything you need to launch and scale your ghost commerce brand.

Start building your ghost commerce brand today for just $1.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Ghost Commerce Business Model

What are the cons of ghost commerce?

1. High Competition
2. Market Saturation
3. Dependence on Third Parties
4. Lack of Brand Control
5. Limited Customer Relationship & Loyalty

How do I identify a target audience for my online business?

To identify your target audience, you must evaluate your competitor’s content marketing strategies, see who they’re going after, and identify common traits that you can then bake into your ideal customer profiles. As you start to make sales, you can then look for common traits in your purchasers to make more specific target audiences.

How do I get more people to visit my online store?

Ecommerce ghost commerce only works with a strong online presence and plenty of visitors. To get more people to your site, ensure your content marketing efforts are aligned, and you must be willing to spend on advertising through social media accounts or via PPC.

The post What is Ghost Commerce? The Definitive Guide appeared first on Foundr.

Interested in learning how to make money fast in 2025?

The good news is, it’s not as difficult as you may think.

And no, this isn’t another article about how you can ‘earn passive income by buying our AI software’.

These are real, unique ways that you can tap into online money making opportunities that will help you earn quickly, and also for the long-term.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Drop new products with limited stock: By limiting stock, you create urgency for your products, which generates more demand.
• Trendspotting and fast-moving inventory: Set up an online store that tracks trends and turns them into relevant, fast-moving products.
• Niche subscription boxes: Niche markets are a great starting point for earning extra cash, and can become a very steady income stream.
• Buy local, but sell national: Use the local aspect of your products as a digital marketing tactic, allowing you to make more money from attracting a global audience.
• Branded merch: If your online business already has loyal customers built-in, they may be interested in branded merch.
• Sell in bulk to businesses: While many people try to earn money by selling to consumers, why not try selling in bulk to other businesses?

Making Money Quickly (The Right Way)

Before I dive into some clever ways that you can make money quickly in 2025, I just want to quickly explain how I researched and pulled together this list.

After all, there are lots of ways to make money online quickly, but some of those are not quite as morally correct (think crypto rug pulls, sports gambling, or selling online courses that are just a collation for freely accessible content).

I wanted to provide you with real ways to make money fast, and from my market research, I’ve come up with six options that are not only great for short-term gains but also long-term success.

Many of the below also require limited additional knowledge, and all you need is a strong internet connection, a few digital marketing skills, and some old-fashioned hard work!

How to Make Money Fast in 2025 in 6 Unique Ways

With that in mind, let’s take a look at six unique ways to earn money online. Some have minimal upfront investment, whereas others will require you to put in some additional extra money and time. However, these ideas all aim to provide you with unique ideas for your own online store rather than simply telling you to sell online courses or take part in dropshipping.

There’s a ton of information on how to earn money in those ways, so let’s take a look at some more interesting options!

Drop new products with limited stock

It can be difficult to get your products to stand out in today’s overcrowded digital marketplace. Sometimes new products can take a while to gain the traffic, reputation, and customer reviews needed to become a popular product.

However, there is a way that you can skip the digital queue.

Brands have seen great success limiting stock, drumming up demand through scarcity, and earning money fast.

Not only that but limiting stock also ensures you never get caught out with a lack of stock compared to demand, which is a lovely bonus!

The fitness shoe company R.A.D has done this really well, rising from relative obscurity to become the must-have functional fitness shoe in just a couple of years.

Here’s an example of their upcoming drop, where the product is not currently available and will sell out in a matter of minutes, much like coveted gig tickets for a Dolly Parton reunion tour would.

And here’s a traffic graph highlighting the brand’s growth in recent years since taking this approach to product launches.

Trendspotting and fast-moving inventory

Another way to help get your foot in the digital door and start making money quickly is by focusing on trend-specific products.

Rather than setting up an online business that focuses on one specific niche or industry, one way to ensure traffic is to quickly adapt to current trends, selling products or services that are in high demand. One of the benefits of being small team or independent business is that you can be much more flexible, adaptable, and quick than market-leading businesses.

Thanks to advances in technology, you don’t need any web development skills to quickly set up a high-quality shop with sites like Shopify. For this venture to be successful, you’ll need to ensure you keep abreast with any new trends, and also find yourself a reliable supplier than can produce the products you need, at a timeframe that ensures they are still relevant.

For example, remember fidget spinners? One entrepreneurial teen managed to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by jumping on the craze, setting up an online shop and gaining large volumes of traffic almost overnight.

Niche subscription boxes

However, if the generalist approach isn’t right for you, niching down could be a great alternative. Creating a business model that focuses on a very specific niche can seem limiting, but it’s a fantastic way to build a strong online presence and brand loyalty.

For example, your brand may start as one that focuses on high-quality coffee beans, but in the future that can easily branch out into a brand that focuses on all kinds of coffee, tea, and other relevant products.

Subscription boxes are also an excellent choice because they help brands get a much better understand of monthly demand, not to mention a consistent income each month. They take a little bit of effort and upfront costs, but one of the benefits of subscription models is that once everything is in place, the process requires minimal tweaks and time managing.

I actually covered How to Build a Subscription Box Business in a separate article, which dives into the subject in greater detail.

Buy local, but sell national

The allure of purchasing local produce has never been more attractive for consumers.

It is easier than ever for consumers to get a taste of any part of the world, without ever having to leave their home!

As a brand, the best way to capitalize on this is to lean into your local produce, and sell it on a global scale.

For example, if you’re based Texas, a quick ChatGPT search can help you identify what type of products could gain quick traction.

Who is going to resist the chance to purchase BBQ sauce, made and distributed directly from the Lone Star State?

Branded merch

For companies that already have a following of sorts, one way to quickly capitalize on that is by created branded merch.

For several customers, purchasing branded merch is their way of showing their support for the brand, while also getting their hands on something unique that helps them show off their style and interests.

I recently explained How to Make and Sell Merch For Your Brand in this detailed article. If your business is in a position to start profiting from branded products, be sure to check it out!

Sell in bulk to businesses

Lastly, while every other business is trying to sell to customers, why not flip the script, and focus on selling to other businesses instead?

For example, you could start selling custom office supplies for other startups, or branded packing for small businesses.

One of the biggest benefits of pitching your products to businesses is that they are much liklier to purchase in bulk, ensuring you can earn money quickly that can then be reinvested back into your business.

Get All the Insights You Need to Earn a Consistent Monthly Income, For Just $1

If you’re serious about making money online and want expert guidance to help accelerate your success, then Foundr+ is the perfect solution. For just $1, you’ll get 14 days of live coaching, direct support from real experts, access to an engaged community of 30,000+ entrepreneurs, and over 30 business courses designed to fast-track your business growth.

Whether you’re launching a niche subscription box, branded merch, or a trend-driven online store, having the right strategies in place can make all the difference.

Claim your $1 trial now and start scaling your business today.

Frequently Asked Questions About Making Money Online Fast

Is it possible to make passive income by selling courses online in 2025?

While it is possible, it is very difficult, most notably due to the saturation of the market, plus the bad reputation that online courses have gained after many poorly put-together courses have let consumers down before.

How can I identify my target audience and what they need?

For businesses that already have a following, you can identify your target audience by tracking common traits in your existing customer base. For businesses that are still starting out, use a combination of ChatGPT and your competitor’s customer base to identify who your ideal audience is.

Should I quit my full-time job to set up my own website?

Each person’s situation is completely different, but we would recommend that you only take this step if you are confident that your essential payments are all covered, at least until your new business is up and running.

The post How to Make Money Fast in 2025: 6 Easy Options appeared first on Foundr.

When running a startup or small business, finding new revenue avenues can be significantly beneficial.

After all, building a brand isn’t always cheap, so any way that you can generate additional income should be welcomed with both arms.

That’s exactly what high-quality merch can do for you! Here, I’ll show you how to make and sell merch for your brand in 2025, expanding your business and making some additional funds along the way.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• Step 1: Build a brand identity: Start by identifying what your brand is popular for and how that can be reflected in your merchandise.
• Step 2: Know your audience: Next, understand the buying habits and traits of your audience, as this will impact marketing efforts and designs.
• Step 3: Choosing what to sell: Select what type of products have a good profit margin and meet audience expectations.
• Step 4: Design time: Once selected, start designing the style you want to see from your merchandise.
• Step 5: Test and learn: Get samples of your first design efforts and ask friends and family for feedback.
• Step 6: Choose a manufacturer: Once you’re happy with them, organize manufacturing and start stocking your merch, ready to sell.

Firstly, What is Merch?

Before we jump straight in, I wanted to quickly touch on what I mean by the term merch. Merch is a common abbreviation for merchandise, and you’ll likely hear influencers, YouTubers, and streamers refer to it as one of their main sources of income.

In simple terms, the phrase ‘merch’ refers to any products that are branded in line with a company or popular personality and sold to fans of that business or person.

While it has often been popular with social media celebrities, it has become more and more popular option for more mainstream businesses as well, most notably coffee shops, bookstores, or other locally run businesses.

Why is merch so popular?

The popularity of merch doesn’t just come from one key reason; there are actually several reasons why customers would opt to purchase a brand’s merchandise.

One of the main reasons is that it is a great way to show support and loyalty to that brand and allows them to feel a little bit closer to the inner workings of the business.

That’s why merch is so popular with shops that operate locally in the community, as people appreciate that running a small business can be challenging and purchase merch as a show of their appreciation.

It also offers sentimental value, as it can be seen as a memento from a memorable experience, such as a t-shirt from a concert of your favorite brand. Speaking from experience, I have several Sam Fender t-shirts that fill this reason, and also a t-shirt from a coffee shop I have many fond memories for that closed down in 2020.

It also allows customers to not just show support but also personality. People want to wear clothes that represent who they are and what they like, and what better way to do that than by purchasing merch from their favorite brands?

As you can imagine, setting up a successful merchandise shop can be incredibly successful. Because of this, many brands and influencers are also attempting to get into the merch game, so it is crucial that you create the sort of products your audience want to see, or you will struggle to get a foothold in the market.

Your 6-Step Plan to Selling Merch Successfully

With all that in mind, here is a very quick six-step process that you can follow to start selling merch successfully. For a more detailed approach to selling and scaling, be sure to check out Gretta’s fantastic course on the subject in this free training video.

1. Build a brand identity

Before you go ahead and plunge valuable funds into your merch adventure, you need to ensure that you have an audience that will be receptive to what you put out.

After all, your customers might be happy with your IT solutions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they want your brand plastered on their tote bags and mugs.

You must, therefore, ensure you have established a clear and exciting brand identify first. That’s more than just an eye-catching logo, though. It’s also the image and personality that is related to your brand and what people think about when they see your branding.

Some of the most successful merch sellers are trendy coffee shops, popular influencers, and cool content creators. That’s because merch for these brands allows customers to show off their love of the brand while also projecting to other people that they are cool because they are fans of those brands and personalities.

Here’s a quick guide to creating a quality, authentic brand.

• Define your core values: Identify the principles that guide your brand and ensure they align with your mission and audience expectations. Authenticity comes from staying true to these values in all aspects of your business.
• Know your audience: Understand your target market’s needs, desires, and pain points. Speak their language and create content that resonates with them on a deeper level.
• Craft a unique brand voice: Develop a distinct tone and messaging style that reflects your brand’s personality. Consistency in voice builds trust and recognition.
• Design a memorable visual identity: Your logo, colors, and typography should reflect your brand’s essence and make a lasting impression. Cohesive visuals help reinforce brand identity.
• Tell a compelling story: Share your brand’s origin, purpose, and journey in a way that connects emotionally with your audience. People engage more with brands that feel human and relatable.
• Be consistent across all platforms: Whether it’s your website, social media, or packaging, maintain a unified look, voice, and experience. Consistency builds trust and recognition.
• Engage and listen to your community: Foster meaningful interactions by responding to comments, gathering feedback, and showing appreciation. A strong community reinforces brand loyalty.
• Deliver on your promise: Quality and reliability are key to building an authentic brand. Ensure your products, services, and customer experience align with your brand’s messaging.
• Showcase real people and experiences: Highlight customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes content, and real-life brand applications. Authenticity is strengthened through transparency.

2. Know your audience

Once you’ve nailed down your branding, it’s time to get more familiar with your audience. Understanding your audience’s behavior, wants, and needs will greatly help when it comes to choosing the type of products you should be selling.

If you already have a group of loyal customers, gathering this information should be quite simple and can be done by reviewing feedback, reviews, and engagements on social media.

If you haven’t got a large dataset just yet, you can pull together all the information you have on your existing audience, running it through ChatGPT to glean more insights and expand on the limited data you have available.

If you do have the audience size necessary, running surveys or asking for comments on social posts is a great way to take the guesswork out of product selection.

Failing that, review your current customers, establish their other likes and dislikes in your industry, and see what those competitors seem to be selling and to what level of success they are doing so.

3. Choosing what to sell

Next, it’s time to pull those product ideas together and identify what you want to sell. While most of the information you will use for this will be based on audience preference, you will also need to factor in costs, profit margins, and availability.

Melisa Vong has a fantastic free masterclass on How to Find a ‘Hot Product’ that you should definitely check out for inspiration!

Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the most popular choices that many businesses and individuals opt for:

• Hats
• T-shirts
• Mugs
• Phone cases
• Hoodies
• Sweatshirts
• Tote bags

4. Design time

This step is perhaps the trickiest, as it doesn’t matter what merch you have lined up if the designs are no good! Create designs that you know will resonate with your target audience, leaning heavily on your brand colors and only using the highest quality imagery and graphics.

I always suggest to brands that they keep things as simple as possible, focusing on clear and easy-to-read fonts and easy-to-recognize designs.

5. Test and learn

Once you’re happy with your designs, it can be very tempting to quickly rush to get your products to market, but this is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make.

After all, what if you’ve made a horrific spelling error? Suddenly, your ‘Getting Your Ducks in a Row’ hats might not be so child-friendly!

To prevent such expensive problems from arising, chat to friends and family for honest advice on your efforts. You need to choose people that you trust will tell you what they really think, as purchasing stock is not cheap.

Feedback is the best way to identify what is most likely to work and what isn’t, and gives you the confidence you need to sell your products online.

6. Choose a manufacturer

Once you’ve got your honest feedback, swallowed your pride, and made any necessary changes, it’s time to turn your merch ideas into tangible products!

When it comes to producing and stocking your merch, you have two main options to choose from: Print on demand or via a Manufacturer.

Each has its own benefits, so it’s important to research both in as much detail as possible. Print-on-demand allows you to keep costs low and reduces any inventory concerns you may have, which can be very helpful for anyone who is unsure how well their merch will be received.

For those who are confident they will sell their merch quite quickly, you may want to opt for a manufacturer, as purchasing in bulk is often significantly cheaper than a print-on-demand alternative.

Want to learn more about creating the perfect product blueprint? Check out Kian Golzari’s brilliant course on this subject.

Create and Sell Your Own Merch with Foundr+

Want to launch a successful merch brand? Foundr+ gives you everything you need to make it happen. For just $1, you’ll get instant access to 30+ expert-led courses and 1,000+ lessons covering branding, design, eCommerce, and marketing.

From crafting standout designs to choosing the right suppliers and growing your audience, Foundr+ equips you with the tools, strategies, and community support to build a profitable merch business.

Don’t wait—start creating and selling your merch today.

The post How to Make and Sell Merch For Your Brand in 2025 appeared first on Foundr.

Starting a business can be tricky.

Not only does it require a lot of time and effort, but it can also be very daunting to consider quitting your 9-5 without knowing whether or not you’ll be successful.

With that in mind, I’ve pulled together eight unique side hustles for you to try this year. The aim is to provide you with potential side hustle ideas that you can scale and grow into full-time businesses over time.

That way, you can build an audience and an income stream before taking the ultimate leap and laying the foundations for your future success.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

1. Create an e-course: A high-value niche course can still provide a great form of passive income.
2. Social media management: With more brands expanding their social media marketing efforts, you could use your expertise to manage multiple channels.
3. AI automation consultant: The rise in AI capabilities has left a gap for skilled experts to consult and support.
4. Domain flipping: As it’s easier than ever to create a website, hunting for domains is also more popular.
5. Ghostwriting for CEOs & influencers: Thought leadership is becoming increasingly important, but often, people don’t have the time to do it properly
6. Local drone photography and videography: Drones are a great way to get memorable shots and videos, and they only cost a small amount upfront.
7. Personalized embroidery business: Personalization is a fantastic way to diversify yourself from the competition.
8. Subscription-based coffee roasting business: Subscription-based businesses are a great way to manage inventory and growth in line with demand.

8 Unique Side Hustles to Try This Year

Create an e-course

Pros: 

• Limited upfront costs
• The main investment is time
• Once live, minimal work to maintain

Cons: 

• There are a lot of other eBooks to compete with
• There is a generally negative perception of eBooks
• Building your initial reputation takes time

Firstly, you could opt to create an online course to make a little bit of extra money on the side. Creating an eCourse is easier than ever, with minimal upfront costs other than your time and effort in researching and writing.

Plus, once your course is live, there’s minimal upkeep required, just quick edits and amends where necessary when information changes.

Of course, it’s important to note that the internet is flooded with average, at best, eCourses, so it’s very important that you produce something that doesn’t just regurgitate already available knowledge. Instead, focus on providing true value, accept that this will take a little longer in the short term, and you’ll slowly build a library of popular eCourses that provide you with a healthy monthly income.

Social media management

Pros: 

• Completely remote and easy to scale
• High demand due to increasing brand awareness of social media marketing
• Posts can be scheduled to meet client time zones

Cons: 

• Requires a level of skill, qualification, or experience to start
• It can be difficult to find initial clients
• Constant work to upkeep, manage, and expand

Another popular side hustle you could consider is social media management. One of the biggest benefits of this approach is that you can do the work completely remotely and use tools to schedule content in advance, ensuring it meets client deadlines without taking over your entire life.

Plus, thanks to increased awareness of the value of having a brand presence on social media, there is plenty of opportunity here to scale up your efforts and turn it from a side hustle to a full-time business.

AI Automation Consultant

Pros: 

• Extremely topical
• Scope for growth as the technology develops
• Company concern and lack of understanding are driving high demand

Cons: 

• Requires certain skills and experience
• Must maintain constant learning to stay on top of the newest innovations
• Convincing brands it’s necessary can be tricky

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve gone a day without hearing about the advancements or capabilities of AI so far this year!
However, while some of those advancements either seem minimal at best or hard to understand, the evolution of AI has led to companies desperately searching for ways it can increase production and improve profit margins.

That’s where an AI consultant can help. There’s a ton of scope for growth with this role as the technology develops and becomes even more mainstream, and although it requires consistent upskilling to keep up with the updates, this side hustle could be very profitable.

Domain Flipping

Pros: 

• More and more demand for good domains
• Easy to do at a time of the day that suits you

Cons: 

• Turnover is minimal per domain
• It can be hard to find good domains without taking a gamble
• Difficult to scale without investing more time and money

Domain flipping is another from-home side hustle that can quickly start to make you a nice little second income. 

As it becomes easier and easier for people to create websites, web domains are also becoming more sought after, increasing the demand (and therefore competition) for good quality domain names.

However, I would be wary of expecting this to turn into a full-time role. It can be hard to pick domains that will one day be worth a lot more than you paid from them, and it can be difficult to scale without investing more time and money.

Ghostwriting for CEOs & Influencers

Pros: 

• Fully remote and can be done at a time that suits you
• Potentially high-paying clients
• High demand for quality work that differentiates from the norm

Cons: 

• Hard to expand by investing more time
• Some clients can be very specific or critical
• Establishing rates will likely vary per client

The rise of generative AI would have many people thinking that the role of a ghostwriter is no longer needed. In actual fact, high-quality writing is now more important than ever!

High-quality content is now a significant differentiator for brands, and especially for CEOs and influencers, whose personal brand is absolutely critical for business growth.

You can offer this service fully remotely and work at a time that works for you around other commitments, although it is worth noting that rates will often be dictated by clients somewhat, so income may vary.

Local Drone Photography and Videography

Pros: 

• Drones are now much cheaper than when they first launched, making the startup costs cheaper
• Provide a service normal photographers can’t
• High demand for beautiful imagery and aesthetics thanks to social media growth

Cons: 

• There is a startup cost to factor in
• Work is not remote, and travel is required

When drones first became available, many people (myself included) scoffed at the price. However, now they have been in the market for several years, drones are much more affordable, and as such, have become a very useful tool for setting up a photography or videogreaphy business. 

Whether you specialize in weddings and work your side hustle at the weekends, or work with brands that want more marketing collateral, drone-based photography and videography can be very attractive for many businesses in your area.

Personalized Embroidery Business

Pros: 

• Customers demand personalization
• Personalization can help differentiate from other services
• Turn a craft into a source of income
• Patterns can be produced on a ‘set and forget’ service

Cons: 

• Time-consuming and often demanding delivery times
• Requires specific skills and resources

When launching an eCommerce brand, it can be tricky to show audiences your USP. After all, what separates your brand from others in the industry?

One way to truly differentiate is to offer a personalization-based service. It could be embroidery, it could be metalwork, it could be anything in between! The main thing is that you adhere to a specific type of customer, building a loyal audience that people will make repeat purchases from, helping you grow your side hustle into a business.

Subscription-based coffee roasting business

Pros: 

• Subscription businesses are easy to scale and manage inventory
• The packaging is small, making it easy to store at home until you scale
• Simple to setup, with minimal upfront costs for equipment

Cons: 

• It will take time to build a consistent audience
• Requires time and effort to continue running

Lastly, I wanted to include a subscription business as part of this list, as they are an excellent option for founders who want to track consistent sales and manage inventories on a budget. The reason I chose coffee subscriptions is that it is a commodity that coffee lovers are willing to spend money on, it’s a product that people frequently use each month, and it’s a product that has been proven to be popular for generations.

All of that ensures that coffee-roasting brands are not going anywhere any time soon and that there is a built-in market ready to taste your delicious concoctions.

Final Thoughts

Looking to start a unique side hustle this year? Foundr+ provides the perfect resources to help you turn your ideas into reality. For just $1, you’ll gain instant access to over 30 courses and more than 1,000 lessons, all taught by industry experts. 

Whether you’re launching a passion project or building a profitable business, Foundr+ equips you with the skills, strategies, and community support you need to succeed.

Don’t wait—take the first step toward your next side hustle today. Sign up now.

The post 8 Unique Side Hustles to Try This Year appeared first on Foundr.