Building a $100M+ Company - Matt Bertulli @ Pela Interview

About this video

Dan Martell interviews Matt Bertulli, CEO of Pela Case, where Martell is an investor and board member. Bertulli says Pela, a B Corp making compostable phone cases from a biopolymer, reached an eight-figure run rate in about four years and was, he says, the second-fastest retail company in Canada in its ranking. He recounts doubling every 30 to 60 days between 2017 and 2019, with people, capital structure and systems breaking in cycles, and teams breaking at the threes and tens — notably 30 and 100 people; Pela had about 60-65 staff at recording. Before Pela he built e-commerce agency Demac Media for almost 11 years after leaving NetSuite after its IPO around 2007-2008, starting in a basement when, he says, online retail penetration was about 1% in Canada versus 7-8% in the US. Demac built stores for little upfront plus a share of sales for five years, grew from SMBs to clients including Sleep Country and Staples Canada, did about 200 projects, and once came within 60 days of no money before learning retainers and account management. He met Pela inventor Jeremy and operator Brad at MastermindTalks, sold Demac, and focused on Pela, whose lines now include cases and accessories, eyewear, personal care and pet products under a thesis of everyday products without everyday waste and a graceful end of life — composting in three to six months in a good backyard compost, he says — aiming to stop a billion pounds of waste a year. He describes Marcy Venture Partners, linked to Jay-Z, committing nine minutes into a meeting when Pela revenue was about $7 million, via Tom Kennedy. On paid media, he rejects pure attribution, runs spend on a P&L basis, keeps creative in-house for daily cycles, built the Wear One, Wash One buy-one-get-one campaign from a nurse customer washing her case during COVID, reads all of what he says are 55,000 five-star reviews for copy, and uses step-up events such as Earth Day and monthly design drops.

Key takeaways

• Physical growth breaks in cycles: Bertulli says between 2017-2019 Pela doubled every 30-60 days, and people, capital or systems broke roughly every 90 days; plan infrastructure ahead of the 30- and 100-person breaks.
• Demac’s entry model was performance-based — build the store for little upfront plus a share of sales for five years — but he says it felt like a tax at scale, so they later switched to retainers and project billing.
• Don’t judge paid media by platform attribution alone: Bertulli says he runs it on a P&L basis, watches overall KPIs and lift, and must be willing to risk large budget increases when signals look strong.
• Keep creative in-house at scale because cycles are daily: outsourcing is too slow, media buyers join creative ideation weekly, and reusable 3-5 second intros/story blocks fight creative fatigue.
• Best campaign ideas come from customers: Wear One, Wash One came from a nurse washing her case, and Bertulli says he reads reviews and does word-density analysis, sometimes copying customer wording directly into ads.

Episode details: published January 24, 2022 · 57:11 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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