Frank: Sub-$10M e-commerce brand shutdowns have surged since Trump's election
Sean Frank · Sean Frank talks about Meta monetizing WhatsApp, Ridge Wallet, and the downfall of Solo Brands. · Mar 24, 2025 · at 4:24
Sean Frank, CEO of Ridge Wallet, discusses the wave of bankruptcies hitting smaller e-commerce brands due to sudden tariff increases.
0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.1s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“What we're seeing right now is a wave of shutdowns in smaller sub ten million dollar brands, right? Like that's always been a trend, but it's really ramped up the past like three to probably the past three months since Trump got elected because they just can't absorb tariff costs.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Sean Frank
Frank: Apple launched iOS 14 privacy changes because Facebook refused revenue-sharing
“And that was the whole iOS, 14 breakdown, right? Is that Apple wanted to, they wanted revenue from Facebook in exchange for that data. And Facebook said, no, so they shut it down.”
Sean Frank: Solo Brands will sell Chubbies and be taken private
“So, you know, they will sell chubbies that like when you break out the finances like that, that's They're looking for someone to buy that asset to pay down some of this debt, and then they're just to take private. It is just some, somebody will swoop in.”
Frank: Apple will make $40B from ad data exchange in two years
“They will get probably forty billion dollars in the next two years from just ad data exchange. I think that's tracking.”
Frank: Klarna or Affirm paid Ridge $50,000 for checkout integration
“All of those providers would pay you money to actually add it to the website. So I think it was either Klarna or a firm gave us 50,000 dollars to have it as an option on that.”