July 9, 2021
My Team Eats Your Lone Wolf For Dinner
This is for those out there who are just starting out and are trying to do it alone. I think you’re
The PGS Blog
July 7, 2021
The Best Shrinking Show on Earth
Anyone go to Sweets and Snacks? 6,000 did. Amazing. But there were only 450 booths. I bet 3,000 of those attendees were desperate service providers sucking wind. I’ve been to this show twice before, and they had at least twice that number typically. But here’s an
July 5, 2021
You’re a Geek. Your Consumers Aren’t. Deal with it.
Most CPG innovators and founders are geeks of some sort. It doesn’t matter if the geekiness was professional or amateurish or a committee of both. The point is that you isolated a problem, a gap in your category, and you filled it. Or…you simply are
July 2, 2021
Founders, Be Investable
I often come across founders griping about attracting investors. Often, they haven’t spent much time networking at all. They’ve spent more time thinking about their working capital problem. But, more importantly, many founders simply don’t come off as investable. At all. This is because they don’t
June 30, 2021
Do Your Investors Have the Right Time Horizon?
On a webinar hosted by Gary Hirshberg in May, Wayne WU of VMG Partners pointed to a common problem before the pandemic. “[Brands chasing a pre-determined exit] are generally not the best brands to invest in because … they haven’t focused on surprising and delighting consumers.
June 28, 2021
Top 3 Ways to Defend Your Brand From Copycats
Last week, Business Insider allowed me the opportunity to warn newbies that BigCo is absolutely scanning startup land continuously for ideas they can easily copy, even reverse engineer at a low technical expense. Technical expense? Say what? Ah, that’s the point I’m trying to make. BigCo is
June 25, 2021
Skate Ramp Brands Crushed the COVID-19 Pandemic
It sounds a bit too dramatic to be accurate, but it is. Since these are the brands I tend to work with the most, I have a robust set of case files. And here’s what it has taught me. If you were a Skate Ramp brand
June 23, 2021
Saying ‘No’ is a Critical Skill- Learn it
You might think saying ‘no’ is simply a luxury of an established business who has the privilege to turn down an opportunity that isn’t absolutely dead-on perfect. But you’d be wrong. Saying ‘no’ is one of the fundamental business skills never taught in school, especially in business
June 21, 2021
Plan for Two Macro-Scenarios in 2022
If you missed my Friday webinar, here’s the big take-away. You really should accept that there is enough uncertainty left in the epidemiology to make two scenarios plausible for 2022. I’ll walk you through them briefly here. They’re based on the new ‘fact’ that CPG sales
June 18, 2021
De-Weirding Your Brand
This guy looks so uncomfortable. He's either trying too hard to work on vacation or not trying hard enough to blend in at the beach. It's weird. Not offensive per se. Just weird. Anomalous. Even silly. Judging these kinds of behaviors is what humans do.