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Experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working across a range of…
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisApril and May are often our slowest months of the year. So naturally, we just set an all-time record in one of them. Last month we crossed $1 million in sales for the first time in company history. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🔥🔥🔥🔥 $1,053,645 to be exact. Two things drove it. New product. And our mystery bundles. We kept dropping fresh product all month instead of coasting on what already sells. Every drop gives our community a reason to come back, not just a reminder that we exist. Then on the first Monday of the month, we run a mystery bundle. They love the surprise. We love rewarding the customers who show up early. First come, first serve. That is the whole engine. Make something people actually want. Give them a reason to keep coming back. No growth hack. Just product and community, on repeat, in a month that is supposed to be quiet. Now we go chase the next record. Keep building.
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen reposted thisIn this podcast clip we discuss one of the most essential lessons in AI: if you don't apply it to your core, someone else will, and that is an existential threat. This is why we lead out with this concept in Chapter 1 of our book Architected Intelligence. Otherwise, your organization is behaving like Sears and discontinuing your product catalog in the very same year that Amazon is founded. I'm sure the internet helped Sears automate and tackle some tasks, but it also destroyed them because they did not apply the new technology to their core business.Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen reposted thisMost companies are still thinking too small about AI. They are treating it like a productivity layer: - automate some emails - summarize documents - reduce some overhead - add a chatbot somewhere But the companies that win with AI will apply it to the core value they deliver. In this clip from the Tech Pubcast, Jacob Miller and Jeremy Mumford explain why leaders should start with a harder question: “What defines my company? Why do customers find what we provide valuable?” Tune in for more advice from Jacob and Jeremy on how to build more durable AI-native organizations. Full episode in the comments. #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Leadership #EnterpriseAI #TechLeadership #MachineLearning #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #TechPublishing
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisI posted a camo pattern mockup on Reddit yesterday asking for fabric feedback. 15k views. 51 comments. Two people said they had never heard of RMAC before, and went to our site and bought something. That's not a marketing campaign. That's what happens when you treat your community as design partners rather than an audience. We showed them 3 camo colorways on modal, solid nylon, and nylon mesh. We asked which styles they'd want - boxer briefs, briefs, trunks, jocks. The feedback was real, specific, and opinionated. One commenter said that the fact that we come to the community for honest input is why they keep supporting the business. That comment is worth more than any ad we could run. Billion-dollar brands do focus groups behind closed walls. We post on Reddit and let 35k opinionated underwear enthusiasts tell us exactly what they think. Our 40% return customer rate isn't a coincidence. It happened because we build products with the people who are going to wear them. That's the only R&D budget that matters. #mensfashion #plm #FashionPLM #DTC
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisWe make our underwear in Asia. Our pattern makers are 7,000 miles and 13 time zones away. Right now our tech packs live in Excel, PDFs, Illustrator files, screenshots, WhatsApp threads, and a folder structure only I fully understand. That's not a system. That's a single point of failure wearing a lanyard. So we're hunting for a PLM and tech pack platform that can do three things. One. Hold our patterns, BOMs, measurements, and revisions in one place that doesn't break when I'm on a plane. Two. Let our factory partners pull what they need without a 14-step Google Drive or Tencent dance. Three. Version everything, so when a waistband elastic changes mid-run, we know exactly which spec went to which factory on which date. Sounds simple. It's not. Most "fashion PLM" software is built for billion-dollar incumbents with IT departments and six-figure implementation budgets. We're an 8-figure brand with a warehouse in Wichita and a designer who also packs orders on Saturdays. The shortlist right now is Techpacker, Kobo Labs, and a self-built stack on Airtable, GitHub, and Zapier. Techpacker is winning on price and factory economics. Kobo is winning on API depth if we scale past 100 styles. The self-built option is winning on flexibility and losing on the fact that I do not want to be the human glue holding it together. Operations are the moat. The brands that win the next decade aren't the ones with the best ads. They're the ones whose product development doesn't fall apart when the founder steps away from his laptop. Anyone running PLM at a 7- or 8-figure DTC brand, I want to hear what's working and what you wish you'd done differently. Please share in the comments if you have PLM/Tech Pack software recommendations. Techpacker #kobo #Fashion #FashionPLM #PLMSoftware
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisCustomers in Canada, the UK, and the EU ping us every day on Reddit, IG, FB, TikTok asking when we'll ship to them. Intl shipping just keeps losing the prioritization fight to TikTok Shop, the WMS rollout, the warehouse expansion, and product development trips. So now we're looking at how to effectively ship globally from Wichita. Shopify has Managed Markets built in, which handles duties, taxes, and DDP labels through DHL for eligible US merchants. That's the obvious starting point. But I keep hearing from operators that the third party stack still wins for specific reasons. Zonos for landed cost transparency. Global-e for higher AOV markets. Passport for the brand-forward shipping experience. Reach and Easyship in the conversation too. I'd rather hear from operators actually running it than sit through another sales demo. If you're a DTC brand on Shopify shipping internationally from the US, what are you using and what do you wish you knew before you signed? Bonus points if you've been burned by one of them. Please drop your recommendations in the comments.
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisMy 10 year old son was in the warehouse last saturday. Not because I asked him. Because he wants money for Pokemon cards and he knows the only way to get it is to earn it. So he’s packing orders. This is what a family business actually looks like. It’s not a photoshoot. It’s not a cute caption. It’s a kid learning that things cost something, and that work is how you get them. I grew up that way. My parents didn’t hand things to us. If you wanted something, you figured out how to earn it. That lesson shaped everything about how I run RMAC. Every hire, every investment, every decision, it all traces back to the same principle: Nothing is free. Nothing is owed to you. Caden’s going to get his Pokemon cards. And he’s going to know exactly what they cost. That’s the real lesson. #founderlife #dtc #familybusiness
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisProduct returns are a part of running a brand. What is interesting, Is seeing what people actually return? We get a lot of odd stuff coming back. I guess we should be flattered when people steal our product and return competitor products. This is 4 orders that were just returned yesterday and they all include brand new competitor products.
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisHere's the post: We just crossed 35,000 members in our Reddit Sub r/MensUnderwearGuide. 2,400 guys joined last month. Under 400 left. That's a churn rate that puts us in the top 50 fashion subreddits on the planet!!!!! And here's the thing. We didn't build it to sell underwear. For years we tried posting in other subs and kept hitting the same wall. Wrong fit. Wrong moderators. Wrong rules. So a year ago we made a call. Build our own space where guys could actually talk about what works and what doesn't, across every brand, with no agenda. Keep it SFW so wives, girlfriends, and moms shopping for the men in their lives could ask real questions and get real answers without it getting weird. The wild part? The founder of Krakatoa, a competing underwear brand, is one of our moderators. Our competition helps run the community. Because the mission isn't to push RMAC products. The mission is to help guys find underwear that actually fits their body, their lifestyle, and their needs, even when that's not us. Sometimes especially when that's not us. Every body is different. Every guy has unique needs. And the only way to solve for that is honesty about what works and what doesn't. Brands push products. Communities solve problems. We're choosing the second one. #DTC #Community #BrandBuilding
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen shared thisWe just broke our shipment record. 916 orders. 2,378 units. Out the door in one day. Previous record was 1,900 units, so we crushed it by nearly 25%. Three of my sons ran the floor with Christian pitching in to close it out. Four people. One day. 2,378 units. This was Mystery Bundle Monday, which we run the first Monday of every month. Here's the actual mechanics. Every Thursday we drop limited one-time buys. Some of them sell through. Some of them leave us with onesies and twosies in random sizes, sitting on shelves, eating cash and making our listings look messy. So once a month we bundle them, price them aggressively, and let our customers grab a wild deal. We win three ways. We free up warehouse space. We turn cash that was stuck in slow inventory back into capital we can deploy on new drops. And the customer gets a stupid-good deal they would never see at full price. Here's a stat that put it in perspective. We toured the Wichita USPS sorting plant yesterday. They process about 30,000 outbound parcels a day across the entire region. On Mystery Bundle Monday, RMAC is roughly 3% of everything going out of that hub. One brand. One warehouse. One day. The boring infrastructure is the moat. One of my sons may be allergic to smiling in photos....
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisJared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisI found this picture of Brock and me this morning. It made me laugh because we were talking today about how I’m picking up my new bike tomorrow for my first Ironman. After we finished our marathon, I told, “I’m never doing that again.” About a month later, he called me. “I just signed up for an Ironman. Want to do it with me?” I said no. Thirty days later… I signed up. Not because I suddenly wanted to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run a half marathon. I signed up because I’ve realized something. Almost every memory that stands out in my life has one thing in common. It wasn’t the achievement. It was who I was with. Winning Big Ten championships with teammates. Starting Frost Buddy with Brock. Running a marathon with friends. Now training for an Ironman. The hard thing is almost secondary. The people are what make it unforgettable. Years from now, I probably won’t remember my Ironman finish time. But I’ll remember the training rides, the conversations, the days I wanted to quit, and crossing the finish line with people I genuinely enjoy doing life with. If you’re going to choose hard, choose hard with good people. Those are the memories that last.
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisJared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisFrom the Pantone archive: How can you celebrate summer better than with a pair of cool shoes and a colorful matching ice cream in hand? ☀️🍦🌈 Pantone has partnered with LPP S.A. to bring color to summer with a vibrant collection of shoes, shirts, and accessories designed to brighten every moment of the season. Color has the power to influence mood, express personality, and tell a story without words. Whether you're feeling energetic, playful, relaxed, or adventurous, there's a color to match your summer mindset. So as you head into vacation season, surround yourself with the colors that make you feel your best - and celebrate summer in full color. #Pantone #CelebrateColor #SummerVibes #ColorOfLife #Fashion #Lifestyle #ColorInspiration #Licensing #SummerCollection
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thishttps://lnkd.in/giudu_Vm Congratulations to the Davis family for their three years of service. What a great opportunity! Service to others brings joy to souls! I am grateful for my opportunity to serve a full-time mission sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ over 30 years ago. It has blessed and benefited every single day of my life since, including in my professional life! As a Father, I've also seen the blessings and benefits that serving such a mission has brought to my children and to me and my sweet wife. Each of them were blessed while they served, and their service blessed our family's faith, as well. I look forward to serving a mission with my sweet Rory in the years to come, hopefully sooner, rather than later.Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisThree years ago, our family put our lives on hold to serve a mission for our church in Brazil. At the time, I was CEO of the company I founded, Cotopaxi. Leaving that role was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I never doubted it was the right decision. Now our mission has come to an end. If I had to summarize the most important lessons, they would be these: 1. Joy comes from serving others. Money, status, and power don’t create lasting fulfillment. Ironically, the pursuit of happiness directly rarely works. Serving others is the way. 2. Less consumerism leads to a richer life. For three years, material possessions and social media played a much smaller role in my daily life. I found that most of the things competing for our attention contribute very little to our happiness. 3. Authenticity matters more than ever. When we left, AI was not part of our lives. Today it is everywhere. However, AI can’t replace genuine human connection. I hear a familiar artificial voice in posts, comments, and speeches, and I find myself drawn instead to people who speak from the heart. 4. Family and friendships are life’s greatest treasures. We’ve missed our family and friends tremendously. In the end, people are what matter most. 5. Faith grows through sacrifice. I owe God everything. Many of life’s greatest blessings come after we are willing to give something up. We gave up things to serve in Brazil, but what we gained in return was far greater. These three years were among the most meaningful of our lives. I’m a little sad it’s over, but also excited about what’s next!
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisJared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisWe didn't launch our best-selling product for 5 years. Not because we didn't have the idea. Because we kept playing it safe. Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eGMEJrb7 For half a decade, my product launches were all "singles” low cost of goods, low risk, low reward. Steady, but small. Then one product came along that broke the pattern: • 400% higher cost of goods than anything we'd launched before • Required a much bigger inventory order • Way more capital on the line Every instinct said "too risky." But when I actually mapped the upside against the downside, the math said something different: this wasn't reckless — it was the first bet with real asymmetric upside. We took the leap. It became one of our hero SKUs. Here's what I'd tell any entrepreneur still only taking "safe singles": 1. Small, safe bets protect you from big losses, but they also cap your big wins. 2. Every meaningful growth spurt in my business came from a moment I had to choose between competing "good" opportunities and pick the one with real upside. 3. Faith in business isn't blind risk-taking. It's calculated risk-taking after you've actually done the math. If you're only placing safe bets, you might be protecting yourself right out of your breakout moment. Can anyone else relate? 👇
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisAfter sixteen years, I have left Northrop Grumman and started my first day at Anduril! This really is what I wore on my first day. And yes, I did go to the gym after Onboarding because #NeverSkipLegDay
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisJared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisSMACKIN’ has sold 25,000,000+ bags of sunflower seeds. Instead of hiring a 'big brand' agency to run our marketing, I ran our social media In the early days, while other founders were raising VC rounds and hiring consultants, I was editing every post & responding to every single comment on TikTok. A founder sitting on his phone for 6 hours a day, learning what actually makes people buy. It didn't dawn on me then that you have to understand the customer yourself before you pay someone else to 'manage' your brand. I watched other CPG brands raise millions, spend it all on flashy ads, and go bust because they didn't know their own audience. I didn't want to be one of them. So I did the work. I read the comments. I asked the questions that made me look like I had no clue what I was doing, because that’s how you actually build a community. I’d rather know exactly why a kid in Texas loves our seeds than trust an agency to tell me. We’re still doing the work. More flavors, more stores, and way more SMACKIN’ on the way 🚀
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisJared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisWe are much closer to an energy drink brand than a toilet paper company Menthol infused butt wipes is not something anyone in our industry would have dared to do Butt we did it MentHOLE XXtreme now on feature at Walmart 🥶🥶 don’t play by the rules, create the games you want to play And remember… If ya ain’t first, you’re last ✌️
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Jared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisJared 🦏🩳 Mortensen liked thisWe did less than $5,000 in revenue our first year Now we’re an 8-figure brand with our own 50,000 sq ft factory I spent a year reselling thrifted items just to keep the lights on for SMACKIN’ Every dollar I made thrifting went right back into buying more seeds and packaging We weren't thinking about 'scale' or 'exit strategies' we were thinking about how to survive the next month That 50,000 sq ft factory we have now? It didn't come from a big investment check It came from 5 years of grinding, reinvesting every penny The best part is we’re just getting started
Experience
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Education
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Southern Utah University
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Activities and Societies: Society of Manufacturing Engineers (Member)
Minor in Engineering Design Technology
Classes taken: Corporate Managerial Finance, Investments, International Finance, Financial Accounting, Macro and Micro Economics, Decision Modeling (Linear Programming), Econometrics, Engineering Design and CATIA V5
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Soccer Coach
Haysville Activity Center
- Present 8 years 11 months
Children
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Courses
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Udacity - Problem Solving with Advanced Analytics
UD976
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Udemy - Alteryx Bootcamp
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Tony Lewis, CSM
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Joey Glyshaw
You bought the AI tool and then reality hit. Your warehouse system is from 2015 and the APIs do not talk to each other. Three weeks later you are stuck in documentation and the project dies. Legacy system incompatibility kills AI projects before they start. API limitations mean tools cannot sync inventory or customer data. Steep learning curves waste weeks when you need results today. Most sellers lose thousands on abandoned integrations because they skip one step. Audit your tech stack before you buy. 1. Check if your current systems have open APIs or native integration support 2. Choose platforms with pre-built connectors for Shopify Amazon or your warehouse software 3. Start with one automation area like inventory sync or email support to build expertise 4. Use middleware like Zapier or Make to bridge gaps without custom development 5. Test with a small product set or customer segment before scaling Pick one area this week. Run a compatibility check with your current tools. Comment AI AUDIT and I will send you the three questions that saved me from two failed integrations.
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Dennis Horton
SIOP: The Most Underrated Superpower in Supply Chain” (Very basic primer to get you interested) Ever heard someone drop SIOP (Sales, Inventory, & Operations Planning) in a meeting and wondered if you missed a secret class in college? You’re not alone. Most people enter supply chain and don’t truly see how this one process quietly drives everything. Here’s the simple version: 👉 Sales says what customers want. 👉 Product says what’s coming next. 👉 Operations says what we can actually make. 👉 Inventory/Logistics balances the buffer and flow. 👉 Finance keeps score and makes sure it all pays off. SIOP is where those voices meet, compare notes, argue a little, and walk out with one unified plan. That alignment is what turns chaos into clarity. When it’s working right, it feels like magic, forecasts get sharper, inventory stops yo-yoing, and teams stop throwing each other under the bus. If you’re early in your career, here’s my advice: learn SIOP early. It’s not just a planning process, it’s the backbone of how companies make confident decisions. You’ll look back one day and realize that SIOP isn’t a meeting… it’s how the business breathes. 🌬️ #SupplyChain #YoungProfessionals #SIOP #Leadership #OperationsExcellence #ContinuousImprovement #FromChaosToClarity
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