Ep 182: Why Most CEOs Are Getting AI Adoption Wrong with Annica Rantala, CEO of Rapunzel of Sweden
OffcutsShow Notes
On this episode, I sit down with Annica Rantala, CEO of Rapunzel of Sweden, to talk about what happens when you take a category dominated by professionals and salons and hand it directly to the consumer. Rapunzel is a Nordic pioneer in hair extensions - built on a direct-to-consumer model from day one, with 81% of revenue through their own e-commerce. We get into how that model works in practice: the education-first approach to new customers, why micro-creators with 2,000–10,000 followers consistently outperform big names on return, and how the brand thinks about its dual audience of end users and hairstylist key opinion leaders. We also talk about Annica's journey from board member to operating CEO - what you think you can see from a board seat, and what you can't - and the lessons from her time scaling Stronger through and beyond the pandemic. On AI, Annica makes a point I hadn't heard put quite this way before: you can take a people-first approach to AI adoption, a brand-first approach, or a technology-first approach and most companies are getting it wrong by defaulting to the last one and locking it down to the tech team. Enjoy the show.
More from Offcuts
On this episode, Offcuts went live again, this time in London, on stage at Forza Wine in Soho in front of a room of commerce and brand leaders.
On this episode I sit down with Alex O'Byrne, an independent writer, builder and investor focused on AI-first companies, and my former co-founder at the Shopify agency we built and sold together. Alex now runs Alpha Factory, an AI investment company, from Miami. This is his fourth time on Offcuts.
On this episode I sit down with Alister Hewitt, Technology and Operations Director at Rat & Boa and co-founder of Prebuy.
On this episode I sit down with Eleanor Warnock, a writer, journalist and communications expert based in London who has worked for The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times's Sifted, and the Reid Hoffman-backed AI company Every. She's currently an advisor to Bek Ventures, ranked the top-performing VC firm globally since 2010 by HEC-Dow Jones, and holds an MBA from INSEAD.
On this episode I sit down with Olivier Legris, co-founder of Alter, a native macOS AI assistant that refuses to bet on any single model, and founder of Clauders, the global Claude Ambassador community.