What ROAS should a DTC brand target when it sells a high-priced product? Dayne Rusch, co-founder and CEO of Vyper Industrial, used to demand a 5 ROAS on the first order and now calls that target stupid. Vyper sets a new customer CAC goal, checks it every day and keeps scaling while it holds.
Vyper makes premium shop chairs, carts and creepers in Wisconsin, with its flagship chair at $625, and calls itself the Yeti of the garage. Two and a half years after his first visit, Dayne is back with a new 65,000 square foot facility, a new CRO and performance team, and a plan to spend 2027 on brand: national TV, collaborations with Ford, an event that drew more than 5,000 people and a full-time human calling abandoned carts.
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WHAT YOU WILL SOLVE
- You set a high first-order ROAS target and growth stalled. Dayne says chasing a 5 ROAS suffocated Vyper's growth and didn't bring in enough revenue to cover operating costs. The target now is a new customer CAC, checked daily, and when Vyper is under it during the holidays, they spend more.
- Your product is too expensive for subscription-style LTV math. Vyper is profitable on the first purchase. Its ideal customer buys one chair to test the quality, then comes back for four more. Others come back for accessories that run $200.
- You keep testing new channels. Dayne puts the budget into the three he knows work, TV, Meta and email, and says $100K on an unproven app can get you nothing.
- Your TV ads sell too hard. Vyper is moving from problem-and-solution spots to brand spots built on collaborations with Ford, Hendrick Motorsports and Realtree, because a partner everyone recognizes lends credibility.
- Your site is cluttered with what you think customers want. Vyper rebuilt its pages from reviews, forums and on-site questions about what nearly stopped people from buying. Dayne's LinkedIn post put the lift at 37% on mobile and 67% on desktop with sessions flat.
- You want to use AI without sounding like everyone else. Vyper's team uses Claude to cut a two to three hour image task to 15 minutes and to spark design ideas, but keeps the copy human. After a trial of AI replies to abandoned cart texts, Vyper hired a full-time person to call and text abandoned carts.
- You can't justify an event on ROI. Vyperfest drew more than 5,000 people. Dayne counts local brand, hiring and team morale as the return, and a second one is planned for next September.
- You can't measure brand spend. Dayne watches branded search, organic and direct traffic, and whether new customer cost is falling. He doesn't trust post-purchase surveys on their own.
- You are running the same Black Friday as last year. Vyper gives every sale period its own brand look across ads, email and site, splits discounts into blocks and brings back limited editions for one weekend.
- Your giveaway prize is eating the budget. Vyper swapped six-figure trucks for a UTV that costs it $20,000, with free email entry to build the list before Black Friday.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dayne Rusch is co-founder and CEO of Vyper Industrial, which he runs with his brother Dylan. https://vyperindustrial.com
STAY CONNECTED
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Building Vyper into a premium automotive brand
05:00 How Vyper increased website conversions
12:00 Why Vyper is investing heavily in TV
21:00 Using AI without losing brand authenticity
30:00 Vyper’s Black Friday strategy
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