Free tools
Tools and books I built for retention work. Use them on yours.
Each one does one job, and none of them needs a call with me. Three run in your browser, one arrives by email, five are books and thirteen are field guides.
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New · Counter
The Second-Order Counter
Drop in your Shopify order export and get the count almost nobody runs: your one-and-done rate, the days between a customer’s first order and their second, and a cohort table by the month they first bought.
Open the counter -
Generator
The First Email
The first email in your welcome flow, written the way a person would write it. Fill in a few fields and get plain HTML with one question and one link, plus the sending checklist behind it.
Open the generator -
Calculator
Retention Leak Calculator
Three numbers you already know. It shows the revenue sitting in your one-and-done customers, what five and ten points of repeat rate are worth, and the three places I’d look first.
Open the calculator -
Five emails
The Flow Ledger
Five emails, each one a query you run on your own Klaviyo account and the arithmetic to read the answer: revenue per recipient by flow, dead flows, cohort economics and the holdout.
See the five -
Book
The Second Order
Twenty-four chapters on turning first-time buyers into second-time buyers: the audit, the cohort tables, the build order, and what a second order is actually worth.
Read it -
Book
Close the Loop
The sequel: how customers bring the next customer. PayPal, Dropbox, Whatnot, Binance and OVRLND taken apart, seven calculators, and a thirty-day plan to build your own loop.
Read it -
Book
The First Offer
Volume three: the offer that wins a stranger decides the customer you get. The research on first discounts, Blue Apron and JCPenney taken apart, eight calculators, and a thirty-day plan for a new first offer.
Read it -
Book
The Whole Machine
The fundamentals of DTC growth, from contribution margin and creative to deliverability, flows and cohorts. Casper and Allbirds taken apart, eight calculators, and a ninety-day plan.
Read it -
Field guide
The Standing Order
Subscription programs people would sign up for twice: churn counted properly, what a subscriber is worth, the rules on cancellation, failed payments and the cancel flow. Blue Apron and Chewy taken apart, five calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Honest Test
Conversion work for stores without Amazon’s traffic: how much traffic a test needs, why winners lie, what to do when you can’t test, and the product page. Four calculators, including a test planner and a result reader.
Read it -
Field guide
The Return Trip
Returns as a retention system: what a return is worth, exchange first, refund speed, serial returners, and how to test a return fee before charging one. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Kept Promise
Delivery reliability, contacts per order and service recovery: a weighted failure index, delivery dates you can keep, bad news first, and a recovery grid. Four calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Price Rise
Raising prices without losing the customers you have: break-even volume math, fairness, grandfathering, price tiers, the loyalty tax, shrinkflation and tariffs. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Free Choice
Defaults, the right to say no, and urgency that’s true: every preselected box in your stack, where a default becomes a dark pattern, and how to test a real deadline. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Catalog
Stockouts, discontinuations, reformulations and SKU cuts as retention events: what a stockout does to future buying, the discontinuation playbook, and pruning by basket role. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
Used, Not Bought
Getting first-time buyers to use what they bought: time to first use, if-then plans, cues in the box, habits, and the three real sources of customer captivity. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
Cash Before Growth
Working capital for DTC brands: the cash conversion cycle, why profitable brands run out of cash, preorders, float, supplier terms and the weekly cash meeting. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Proof File
Reviews, claims and what customers believe: how reviews move sales, herding and the first review, the review ask, origin claims, and the rules as of 2026. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Noise Floor
Luck, variance and judgment: process behavior charts for your scorecard, regression to the mean, base rates, kill criteria, premortems, and reading other people’s case studies. Three calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Next Category
What to sell the customers you already have: headroom in the core, adjacency distance, why multi-category customers look better than they are, and launching to the base. Four calculators.
Read it -
Field guide
The Journey Map
Customer journey mapping from data: stages as events, where the cohort leaks, where customers wait, the backstage, and which fix to make first. Three calculators.
Read it -
Sales · Book one
One to Many
Sales and marketing are one skill at two scales: the sales conversation, when a deal needs a person, pipeline math, and turning calls into copy. Four calculators.
Read it
If one of these turns up a gap worth fixing on your own account, that’s what the Second-Purchase Sprint is for.