Bill D’Alessandro is the Founder and CEO of Elements Brands, one of the original holding companies for direct-to-consumer brands. He has acquired or founded more than a dozen businesses with over $100M of revenue and has realized seven exits in both DTC and SaaS. Bill is also the co-host of the Acquisitions Anonymous podcast.On this episode Chris & Bill discuss:➡️ Lessons learned from Element Brands and owning 6 businesses➡️ His pivot to owning Natural Dog Company and why focus is powerful➡️ How to decide between marketing & product innovation➡️ Insights on the pet industry and why it's hugeKey Takeaways:(3:13) - What was your strategy in 2016 and why have you totally flipped on it in 2023?(4:57) - DTC is not a business model(6:14) - Prioritizing marketing over product innovation(10:36) - Was there ever a time when you thought this massive ad spend was unsustainable?(12:23) - What’s happened in the past 18 months since Apple changed its advertising privacy model?(14:33) - Putting brands on autopilot(16:22) - When did you start to realize only one of your eight brands was worth working on?(19:53) - How has your life changed after consolidating your focus?(22:14) - Is there a way to make the Aggregator model work?(25:46) - How big is the pet industry and where is its potential?(26:59) - What are you going to do with this business now that you’re solely focused on the one instead of 8?(30:14) - Why have you chosen to go into retail?(33:18) - How do you get your product into 4-5k stores?(35:55) - Is there any brand with leverage over Walmart?(36:54) - What could make this move into retail go wrong?(39:35) - What’s your approach to product packaging and design?(42:45) - How did you arrive at the decision to launch 12-16 new products this year and how do you decide what they’ll be?(46:32) - What needs to happen in order to get into Walmart and Target?(48:59) - Would you get a higher valuation on your company if you’re in Walmart/Target and successful there?(49:46) - What has podcasting done for you?Additional Resources? Bill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillDA? Natural Dog Company: https://naturaldog.com/? Acquisitions Anonymous Podcast: https://www.acquanon.com/? BillDA.com: https://billda.com/? PickFU.com: https://www.pickfu.com/➡️ Learn more about Xeal: https://xealenergy.com/➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts