Inside GROW LA 2025: The B2B Gathering Where DTC Gets Smarter

This year’s GROW LA was everything a great B2B event should be: thoughtful programming, a curated crowd, and insights you can actually use. The DTC space showed up ready to learn, connect, and evolve. Quality Media was proud to return this year, soaking up insights, strengthening relationships, and leaving with ideas we’re already putting into action.

Hosted at the Directors Guild of America, GROW LA continues to stand out for its intentionality. The event attracts a high-quality mix of growth marketers, brand leaders, and platform partners who are deep in the work. That creates an environment where every conversation feels useful and every connection holds potential.

Across panels, keynotes, and 1:1 chats, a few core ideas came up again and again: 

1. Customer acquisition isn’t enough – retention and lifetime value are the true north stars. (Speakers from brands like True Classic, Bobbie, and AS Beauty emphasized investing in post-purchase flows, membership models, and personalization to drive sustainable growth.)
2. Creative is a growth channel, not just a cost center. The best brands are producing assets quickly, testing constantly, and letting data guide strategy across Meta, TikTok, and even direct mail. 
3. Zero-party data is helping brands capture clean information up front and use it to convert more efficiently. 
4. And retail isn’t just back, it’s part of a broader shift to omnichannel. Founders are combining digital agility with real-world presence to meet customers wherever they shop.

One panel that stuck with explored how brands can monetize the confirmation page without adding friction. True Classic and AfterSell walked through how they’ve added dollars per order just by optimizing that final moment in the purchase journey. 

Liquid Death’s keynote was a standout reminder that storytelling still drives connection, especially when it breaks the mold. And tools like Rokt, Digioh, and PostPilot popped up in conversations around creating more value at every stage of the funnel.

GROW isn’t a traditional tradeshow. It’s a working session. From mainstage insights to casual hallway moments, it’s built for people solving real problems in real time. As an agency, we walked away with fresh ideas for our clients and new connections with the kinds of brands we love working with: smart, scrappy, and ready to move.

If you’re building in DTC, GROW LA is one of the few events where the playbook is actually on the table. It’s honest, focused, and full of people who believe that growth comes from doing the unglamorous work really well. We’ll be back next year. Until then, we’re putting the insights to work.