Startup Confidential

The most efficient Skate Ramp brands earn large amounts of money in small geographies. In this episode I explain how to measure this and why it’s so important to set such a high standard for an underc...

If your brand does not Ride the Ramp, it most likely attained nine-figure scale by stair-stepping its way upwards. Distribution gains with sustained, not growing velocity. In this episode, I explore w...

Marketers obsess with platform metrics, because these are the numbers they can tactically control the most. However, buried in every CPG product’s design are hidden sensory variables that work with or...

Megatrends are ones that grow for decades in a steady linear fashion regardless of hype cycles that occur within that time span. They often start decades before the industry leaders pile on. In this e...

The survival rate of brands at $1 is brutal enough. And at $10M, even more hit a wall or die. But the real problem that survivors face as they scale into eigth figures is stagnation. The grand delusio...

The majority of early-stage brands chase investors way too late and with a mindset of moderate-to-extreme desperation. Investors can smell it, and you attract the worst actors, who, themselves, do not...

These four tips derive straight from my best-selling business book, referred to by many as “The CPG Bible” for founders new to the industry - Ramping Your Brand. It’s about discipline. The discipline ...

Brands crossing the $100M line, roughly speaking, face a privileged danger : deceleration. It happens very quickly once you hit max ACV or even ¾ of your category’s max ACV. If you didn’t prepare for ...

In the last episode I described the content studio revolution inside high growth brands and how it is upending traditional assumptions about how to use promotional agencies, especially social media ag...

The agency-brand partnership axis is evolving really fast as the cost of creating video content plummets with AI. Brands got in earlier on distributing social content from their own desks in the 2010s...

It’s possible to have strategic premium pricing and a profitable business model. But this is NOT easy. Few founders spend enough time getting their business model right before they hit the gas. This e...

This is part two of my interview with Yoni Reisman, founder of Tip Top Cocktails. In this episode, we explore how he came to realize others were better suited to manage the day-to-day operations of th...

This episode launches a new series I’m calling Rising Stars - Founders new to CPG who have defied the odds, built growing eight-figure businesses without the interference of premature institutional mo...

Every creative mind on LinkedIn has railed against the upcoming launch of Pepsi prebiotic. That’s because it’s NOT very creative. Growth strategy for a legacy brand is very different from what works i...

Hopping from buyer meeting to meeting may get you into the seven figures, but it won’t garner your business fast growth through $100M and beyond. Not without really lucky amounts of word-of-mouth. Rea...

How could creativity be a founder liability? When it distracts you. This is the third installment in my series on founder archetypes. I think many of you will recognize yourselves in this episode. The...

This is the second installment in my series on founder archetypes. While I’m glad to see MBAs and finance-trained folks launching CPG brands, they do have a huge problem taking some of the most critic...

Business doesn’t teach you how to say “no” to bad deals. Yet, it’s the most important skill you have to learn, not just to deflect unsolicited pitches from creepy agencies and suppliers. You need to l...

If you want to Ride the Ramp, you must hire superb functional executives. Hold on, though. What makes you think you’re ready to do this? In this episode, I explore two hidden attitudes that make it ha...

You do not need a 85-page defensive Powerpoint plan. But you do need a plan. And one-page is more than enough to keep your business disciplined in the early Phases. This episode makes the case and exp...

Many founders worry about diluting the quality of their product in order to scale. Understood. Yet, diluting the ‘quality’ of your audience is essential. Snobby brands do not scale. Listen in as I exp...

 I finally spent some time to prove to all you door-counting crazies that doors do not equal value to your business. In the process, I developed a tool to plan your ACV build in a restrained manner, a...

How do mission-driven founders get in their own way? It’s not that hard, depending on how ideological your company’s foundations. The most fundamental issue with missionary zeal, when you do not chann...

It’s time for a contrarian view. Most founders in CPG should not be focused on rapid growth. It is far easier to create a stable, satisfying seven-figure CPG business if you let go of a need to scale ...

It’s not uncommon for brands to scale mostly as B2B enterprises with minimal emphasis on sophisticated consumer marketing. When product design carries you that far, it can be easy to overlook the mark...

I never urge anyone to become an entrepreneur. Ever. That’s because I am one. Sometimes, continuing the business could endanger more than your finances. In this episode, I give you five clear signals ...

Believe it or not, I used the same fieldwork techniques to build my own B2B brand that I urge you to deploy in my book. In this episode, I explain how I used a flywheel of goodwill connecting tradesho...

 In ten days, the updated and expanded edition of Ramping Your Brand goes live in all formats. In this episode, I go over what has changed and why you should grab a copy even if you have the 1st editi...

American media loves to reinforce the ideal of the visionary entrepreneur who ‘bootstraps’ to glory with no initial resources. The reality is that those who do pull this off usually have one or more s...

One of the more common problems lurking at the Fancy Foods show, if you’ve ever been, is sitting at every booth in plain sight. It’s on the sell sheets of various specialty food brands that exhibit th...

Despite one or two “diet” food brands like Atkins that are still kicking around, diet food innovation is generally a graveyard of CPG innovation. But GLP-1 drugs raise the profile of a different outco...

A lot of us are sick of hearing about Liquid Death, the entertainment brand that happens to sell water. In this episode, I explain why it’s so hard for the average CPG startup to build an entertainmen...

 In 2025, the Trump administration’s stated policy moves may easily trigger a recession in the U.S. by late in the year or in 2026.  This is a great time of year to create a Plan B for your marketing ...

The perils of the first $500,000 in recurring sales are many. Most are related to cash flow and getting paid by distributors or retailers. Without the proper seed monies, many companies evaporate desp...

It’s that time of year, folks. Preparing for 2025! The most underthought aspect of early-stage business plans is the strategic plan. It’s the front half of your business plan focused on growth. And al...

Let’s get real on seed financing. Judging by the sheer volume of founders complaining about all the hidden costs in third-party distributed retail, it’s clear to me that way too many middle-class peop...

During this funding lull, we should all step back and absorb the key mistakes that so many amateur founders made in the 2010s and the pandemic. In this episode, I start with the big one: You started l...

The most important thing founders can learn from private equity investors is quant-curiosity. It comes in at least two forms. The first is deep curiosity around the financial inner workings of your bu...

With two dueling regenerative ag certifications in motion, I feel like it's 1999 all over again. You know, the time when "organic" had multiple certifications and not much clarity for c...

LinkedIn has accelerated the distribution of unsolicited and solicited advice on anything. For founders of consumer brands, though, knowing how to seek out and filter advice is critical, especially qu...

Disclaimer: I am an advisor to Once Upon a Farm, which produces smoothies for tiny kids  but do not hold equity in the companyThe battle for the freshly blended home smoothie is on. You would think th...

As wealth has concentrated in the 1%, there is a lot more private money looking for ways to diversify and generate income. Not in savings accounts or CDs. In your startup. Angel and family office mone...

Part Two of my conversation with Samyr Lainé,  an expert in the intersection of A-list celebrities and CPG startups and how to make this work for everyone. He is especially keen on A-list celebrity fo...

I rarely have investors on the show, but Samyr is doing things differently. He is an expert in the intersection of A-list celebrities and CPG startups and how to make this work for everyone. He is esp...

The majority of CPG founders exhibit this archetypal orientation. They got into this because they're innovators. They're category geeks. Some, even snobs. But the real weakness these folks h...

Founders are not snowflakes after all. They tend to come in a finite array of archetypes. In this series, I begin by discussing the Finance Founder. His/Her orientation to money and ROI over-determine...

It can be very tempting to look at your balance sheet or cash flow and then pick only tactics you can afford based on your present snapshot. The problem with this is not your financial responsibility....

Scaling a consumer-packaged goods brand via the DTC channel is more or less dead to all but the super-wealthy founder. It's important to note that the much larger, adjacent online grocery space i...

The perils of the first $500,000 in recurring sales are many. Most are related to cash flow and getting paid by distributors or retailers. Without the proper seed monies, many companies evaporate desp...

Non-alcoholic beer has been on a tear since 2017. That's when Heineken and an unknown brand, Athletic Brewing, appeared on shelves to shake things up. The latest Skate Ramp brand has crossed $100...