14.ai Dispatch #37: The butt wipe brand that outsmarted everyone, a book, a podcast, and yes, more breathwork
Your semi-regular update from the people who answer your customers’ messages at 2am...
🧻 How a butt wipe brand beat everyone
DUDE Wipes has 18,000 creators selling their product on TikTok right now.
And their repeat purchase rate on TikTok Shop is only 2%.
Joey Thomas, their VP, considers this a victory.
They DON’T want you to buy wipes on TikTok twice. They want you to discover them on TikTok, then pick them up at Walmart on your way home.
TikTok is the world’s most efficient sampling machine. 40% of shoppers who found DUDE Wipes through TikTok ended up buying at Walmart. Another 17% went to Amazon.
Nothing cannibalized anything and the channels compounded.
Joey walked us through the full architecture: TikTok Shop drives awareness and first purchase, Amazon captures the click-through from anyone who searches afterward, DTC handles everything the other two can’t answer.
They waited until Walmart came to them. Because by then, the shelf pull-through was already proven. The thing that makes all of it work, though?
The CEO is still in the comments. Sean Riley, who runs a brand that processes thousands of transactions a day, personally responds to customer comments online. “Nine times out of ten, it’s Sean.” They won’t hand that off, ever.
Because that’s where they find out what’s broken, what scent to make next (Marie requested rose macaron and Sean texted mid-call - apparently it’ll be a hit), and what the brand actually means to real people.
They reframed the entire category by making toilet paper the villain. Not other wipes.
Full episode on Spotify here.
Dramatic Michael podcast
Michael sat down with Noah Labhart on Code Story to talk about building and what it actually takes to run AI on thousands of real support tickets every day, and what that teaches you about trust, reliability, and not losing your mind.
Sorry for the run on sentence. Also, the dramatic music is epic. Michael is like an AI superhero.
Worth a listen on your commute, walk, or whenever you need something more interesting than your own thoughts.
https://codestory.co/podcast/e6-michael-fester-14-ai
We wrote a book (the hard way?)
We spent a year figuring out TikTok Shop by doing it; running it for eight-figure brands, making mistakes, figuring out what works. Then we wrote it all down.
It’s a practical guide: from posting your first piece of content to actually driving commerce.
Limited early copies are free. DM us or grab one here 👉
https://forms.gle/fNhB4if8vs833fPXA
Another YC women founders night!!!
Marie hosts a regular gathering for YC women founders, and the next one’s coming up.
This one’s a phone-free evening with aura portraits, breathwork, a women’s circle, and a family-style vegetarian dinner.
The kind of night that’s harder to explain than it is to experience, but people keep coming back so we’re doing something right.
If you’re a YC or HF0 woman founder, you’re invited. 👉 RSVP here
Next LinkedIn Live: Building a creator engine that actually scales
One viral moment isn’t a strategy.
Next week we’re joined by Bora Mutluoglu, co-founder of Reacher (YC S25), to talk about what it actually takes to build a TikTok Shop creator operation.
Reacher automates the whole creator workflow: discovery, outreach, onboarding, campaign management. Bora has seen what separates the brands doing one-off wins from the ones building compounding revenue.
We’re going deep on:
Building a scalable creator engine (not just finding one good creator)
Automating sourcing and outreach
Structuring offers that attract high performers
What to track, and what to double down on
The mistakes brands keep making when they try to scale TikTok Shop
For founders, ecom operators, growth marketers, anyone building on TikTok Shop and tired of unpredictability.
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/event/manage/7429619673421467648
Michael went viral for the wrong reasons (he’s fine with it)
Michael posted something on LinkedIn. It got screenshotted and posted to r/LinkedInLunatics.
It went semi-viral.
His response? Post the Reddit thread back to LinkedIn.
The loop is complete. The ouroboros of founder content has consumed itself. We’re not sure what comes next but Michael thinks it probably involves a podcast - which, as it turns out, it did 🤣
How the 14.ai team blows their paycheck
It’s payday week, so we asked the team what they did with it.
Ugo bought an iPad. Classic tech guy. The man already has more devices than a Best Buy.
Marie booked a Thai massage for Saturday. Even tho she has a massage robot.
Joshua got a cheesesteak. One cheesesteak.
Riva somehow acquired cheese and salmon without spending any money. We didn’t ask follow-up questions.
Michael got a print subscription to Works in Progress Magazine. He is the only person under 60 doing this and he’s proud of it.
Zero regrets across the board.
(Also we’re hiring, in case you want to join the team and make equally questionable financial decisions with us.)
What we’re into this week
Marie: Taste for makers, Paul Graham
Michael: Improving Deep Agents with Harness Engineering, Viv
Ugo: The Human Bottleneck, PLB
Joshua: Champagne Poetry, Drake
Talk to us
Got a customer support problem?
Book a call: https://calendly.com/14ai/15minchat
Until next time!