Playbook by Michael Morgenstern

Playbook Podcast features founders, VC’s, & operators who have ACTUALLY scaled things.

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[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Olivia Kory found a brand spending 80% of its performance marketing budget on branded search ads.⁣
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Zero incremental lift. Tested twice.⁣
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The ad wasn't causing the purchase. It was just standing in front of it, taking credit.⁣
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Full episode drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Branded search gets the credit. It rarely earns it.⁣
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Olivia Kory broke down how StockX shifted spend toward YouTube and upper funnel channels, chasing influence instead of easy attribution. Result: 30% lift in incremental ROAS, 11% more GMV.⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Fashion used to be a real estate game. Best mall, best shelf, best window.⁣
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Lisa Yamner says that era is over. Now it's about who helps brands get discovered and who understands what customers actually intend to buy.⁣
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Full episode on AI and shopping drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Lisa Yamner on what Daydream is actually building: the first stop before every trip, every event, every closet refresh.⁣
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Not another app to browse. A new front door for how people find brands and how brands find customers.⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Gen Z grew up digital and still shows up in person. Amish Tolia explains why malls are packed again and why physical retail next to the right brand builds instant credibility.⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Amish Tolia built Leap to be Shopify for physical retail, partnering with brands scaling from one store to ten.⁣
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His take on the state of brick and mortar: "It's not dead. It's the furthest thing away from dead."⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Brick and mortar isn't dead. It's just not full time anymore.⁣
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Amish Tolia says the brands winning right now treat physical space like a tool, not a tradition. Pop up when it makes sense. Go long term when it doesn't.⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Rishabh Jain has a theory on why every website is about to feel broken.⁣
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People touched screens that weren't touchscreens because they expected it. Soon they'll expect every site to talk back like ChatGPT. Static just feels dumb now.⁣
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Full episode drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Rishabh Jain says AI adoption looks huge on Twitter and is actually tiny in practice.⁣
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Almost no one has gotten their team to really use these tools. That gap is why the forward deployed engineer role suddenly exists.⁣
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Full episode drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

A brand hits $20M in US sales and expands into China with two people running the entire operation.⁣
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No warehouse. No local team. Just infrastructure built to test, learn, and scale before you overinvest.⁣
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Rahul Gandhi breaks down how on Playbook. Full episode drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Everyone assumes cross border means operational chaos. Rahul Gandhi built Crossterra to make it feel like domestic drop shipping instead.⁣
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Sometimes the unlock isn't a new idea. It's applying old supply chain lessons to a new problem.⁣
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Full episode drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Rahul Gandhi scaled Crossterra globally with a team of 10.⁣
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His edge isn't headcount. It's hiring locally in every market so the team actually understands the customer, down to how ZIP codes and regions change the sell.⁣
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Full episode drops soon on Playbook.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Chris Quinn has a line that reframes how you think about your Rolodex: your network is currency, but there's no wallet for it yet.⁣
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He's building one. 5,000 connectors. 70 customers. Over $2M paid out for introductions alone.⁣
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Full episode with Chris Quinn drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

LinkedIn sold for 27 billion dollars and still can't tell you who introduced who, or how much money that intro made.⁣
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Chris Quinn thinks that's the real gap. Not another feed. A record of the value your network actually creates.⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Businesses don't want more sales tools. They want humans that can deliver them revenue.⁣
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Chris Quinn on why every platform trying to fix sales keeps solving the wrong problem.⁣
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Full episode with Chris Quinn dropping soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Women control 80% of spend in wellness. They are 5% of the science.⁣
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Nina Khoury built Sportiv because of that gap. Full episode dropping soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Women control 80% of spend in wellness. They're 5% of the science behind it.⁣
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Nina Khoury, founder of Sportiv, built her brand on that gap. No magic pills, no stickers on your skin. Just training and consistency.⁣
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Full episode drops soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

Equal Ventures does 5 deals a year. That's it.⁣
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Chelsea Zhang, Partner at the firm, on why Cord made the cut: contextual commerce infrastructure, plus a founder who was CTO at Glossier.⁣
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Proven right to win beats a good pitch every time.⁣
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Full episode dropping soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

David Blumberg breaks it down in dollars per employee.⁣
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Companies spend $160k a year on white collar wages. 57% of those hours are just drudgery, copy paste, reformatting spreadsheets.⁣
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That gap alone gets him to a $48 trillion market.⁣
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Full episode on YouTube soon.

[Playbook by Michael Morgenstern @playbook_pod_]

David Blumberg has a problem with the term "adventure capital."⁣
VC isn't about adventure. It's about risk minimization, for the founder and the investor.⁣
His advice: de-risk everything you can before you ever ask for a check.⁣
Full episode drops soon.