Infinite Games – Data, Design, and Building Feals with Alex Iwanchuk

“Don't knock it until you try it. What I mean by that is—you never know what's really going to work from an acquisition model, so you have to spend to learn, and have the willingness to lose money up front and test, iterate, and optimize to find what's actually working.” – Alex Iwanchuk

Alex Iwanchuk is Co-Founder of Feals, a modern wellness brand of hemp-based CBD products. He previously worked with the same co-founders to create Ad Exchange, an affiliate marketing program that was later sold in a successful acquisition. 

Chapters in this interview:

• 00:00:06 – Alex’s background and first company, Ad Exchange
• 00:03:57 – Data-driven growth vs. intuition
• 00:08:39 – The end of Ad Exchange and the beginning of Feals
• 00:13:21 – Data-driven methodology for creating Feals and its product
• 00:16:18 – The efficacy of a CBD tincture
• 00:19:02 – The Feals direct-to-consumer model
• 00:20:40 – The importance of branding to the success of Feals
• 00:26:42 – Acquiring customers and launching a direct-to-consumer brand
• 00:35:45 – Working with co-founders on multiple companies
• 00:40:35 – Depression, anxiety, and the path to mental health
• 00:47:19 – The importance of a morning routine
• 00:51:15 – Exercise and fitness with Tonal
• 00:53:08 – Books recommended by Alex
• 00:54:29 – The definition of success

For more, explore the transcript of this episode.

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Links from the Episode

• Connect with Alex Iwanchuk: LinkedIn | Feals
• Eric Scheibling 
• Drew Todd
• 2018 Farm Bill
• Warby Parker
• Enneagram types
• Ritalin
• Joovv light therapy
• Phillips Wake-up Light
• Headspace
• Breathwrk app
• Spanish Institute
• Duolingo
• Tonal
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle 
• Feals CBD Hotline: 844-311-9090

Terminology

• Depression
• Anxiety
• CBD (Cannabidiol)
• Topicals
• Tinctures
• CBD Isolate vs. Full Spectrum
• Broad spectrum CBD
• Full spectrum 
• Full terpene
• THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol)
• Entourage effect
• MCT oil
• CBG (Cannabigerol)
• CBC (Cannabichromine)
• CPA (Cost per acquisition)
• CAC (Customer acquisition cost)
• DTC (Direct-to-consumer) 
• Pantone
• COGS (Cost of goods sold)
• LTV/CAC ratio
• CPM (Cost per thousand) 
• CPC (Cost per click)
• SEO (Search engine optimization)
• Endocannabanoid system

Key Takeaway

Through his success with Feals, Alex is well aware of the importance of great branding, and the fact that it takes trial and error to nail that down. From ad copy to the style of the landing page, everything can be optimized for the end user, and it's worth taking the time to see what works best.

You never know what's really going to work from an acquisition model, so you have to spend to learn. You need the willingness to lose money upfront and test, iterate, optimize, to find what's actually working.

Until they're swiping their credit card, there is a place to optimize all the way through.