Kevin O'Leary: Make CAC Profitable Before You Scale Ads

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kevinolearytv Why do 80% of businesses fail in the first 36 months? Customer acquisition cost. If it costs you...

A loud Hawaiian-pajama outfit and a deathly serious message: most businesses die because they scale ads before they make customer acquisition profitable. This reel is a walking billboard for one idea: if CAC is broken, more ad spend just speeds up the funeral.

The Visual Hook: Ridiculous Pants, Ruthless Math

The outfit is insane on purpose. Bright butterflies, pink sandals, leopard shirt… then a terrifying headline: “Why 80% of Businesses Fail in 3 Years.” The contrast pattern-interrupts your scroll, buys three seconds of attention, and then slams you with one number that matters: CAC vs LTV.

Make CAC Profitable Before You Scale Ads

  • Know your unit economics cold: CAC, LTV, gross margin, payback period.
  • Fix the funnel first: boost conversion and average order value before raising budgets.
  • Cap spend until CAC is profitable on a small sample, then scale gradually.
  • Treat every channel like a stock: kill anything with negative CAC fast.

Brands That Nailed CAC Before Pouring Gasoline

Dollar Shave Club logo

Dollar Shave Club validated profitable CAC with scrappy YouTube ads before raising huge growth capital.

HelloFresh logo

HelloFresh tested and tuned mailers, TV, and influencer ads until CAC was predictable, then scaled into global markets.

Gymshark logo

Gymshark obsessively tracked creator campaign CAC and only scaled partners that produced profitable first-order sales.

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