The vast majority of consumer startups selling in retail get lulled into operating as a B2B company, even though they make products for the end consumer. This is because the initial data they manage concerns distributor case sales and retail account sales. They have no
The unspoken problem with encouraging more investments in female and minority-owned companies is that it encourages an already ongoing problem in the early-stage universe: predatory male investors targeting startup founders for manipulation/take-over. Women especially get targeted by these bad-faith actors and have the most to
They’re struggling. They are only 2-3% of the population at most (according to the latest 2022 poll). So, most of us still do not understand their dietary commitment. They had no idea how many times a year they would have to declare/explain their veganism at
There’s a fundamental obsession with control and aggression in American marketing. Nothing epitomizes this better than the obsession with celebrity influencers and influencers standing in for persuasive messaging from a place of humility. Celebrity-driven growth does happen, but it rarely attracts American marketers because it promises
Scanner data companies like Nielsen, IRI, and SPINS love to default to Year-over-Year (YOY) time comparisons. Against every possible metric they have. Why? Because this involves the smallest amount of data released to any paying client, and it’s the least valuable possible information. It’s like the trailer
The following are patterns gleaned from my work with highly successful founders new to the industry. Killer Founders are:1) Auto-didacts - they learn new subjects quickly and facilely - this IS correlated to being just plain smart, but not any more than the top 10% of
It’s no secret that female-operated startups receive far less funding than those founded by men. The apparent reason is how humans form high trust relationships, like giving millions of dollars to strangers. Investors do this with people who are most like them along the lines
The poorly handled firing of Miyoko Schinner last year (which we all learned about this winter suddenly) should remind us that investor/founder alignment is not always great. This is especially true if both parties are not really listening to each other up front and are
Writing a creative brief is one of those BigCo professional practices that should be taking place at every consumer brand startup. Yet, I rarely meet founders who even know what I'm talking about when I mention this. It's partly because it's a stuffy BigCo term.
As a public figure in the CPG industry, I get a fair number of inbound messages, mainly on LinkedIn (and I answer every single message!). And some of them still are from folks in a hot hurry to get referred to this or that specialist.