Burning $9M/Month - How Oisin O’Connor Saved Recharge

Описание: Four years ago, Stripe froze Recharge's funds just a week before they were due to pay $1.5M in payroll.

That moment set off everything that followed: a $270M raise in the 2021 frenzy, burning $9M/month, and a brutal reset—letting go of 70% of leaders—to rebuild Recharge around outcomes that actually move a brand: retention, LTV, and operational focus.

In this episode, Oisin O’Connor tells the founder story without the PR gloss—what nearly broke the company, what saved it, and why the next decade of ecommerce won’t be dashboards, but agentic AI and a practical “Retention OS.”

Chapters
00:00:00 – “Stripe froze our funds”
00:02:00 – From Agency to Recharge: 7 attempts before subscriptions hit
00:05:30 – PMF & Early Traction: Why Shopify needed a subscription backbone
00:08:30 – COVID Sugar High: Growth, over-hiring, and the hangover
00:11:45 – The $270M Raise: What changed (control, expectations, burn)
00:15:00 – Burning $9M/Month: The math that forced a reset
00:18:30 – The Reset: Firing 70% of leaders—principles, process, aftermath
00:22::30 – Founder Health: Panic attacks, boundaries, sustainable pace
00:25:45 – Comeback Plan: Focus, accountability, and customer outcomes
00:29:00 – The Retention OS: Offers, credits, upsell, LTV loops
00:32:30 – AI in ecommerce: Agents will take over dashboards (subscriptions, SMS, analytics)
00:35:00 – Why You’re Not Growing (Fixes): data, stack, creative, CAC/LTV

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