All Episodes
Startup Confidential — 170 episodes
Episode 170 - Please Stop Copying Competitors’ Moves! Here’s Why.
Episode 169 - Measuring Marketing Effectiveness The Right Way
Episode 168 - Why Startups Are like Flowers In the Desert...
Episode167 - Forget the ‘A’ Players; How to Build a Better Team
Episode 166 - Filter Advice Like a Boss - Interview w/Michelle Razavi Pt. 2
Episode 165 - Rising Stars Series - Michelle Razavi of Elavi - Pt. 1
Episode 164 - The Seven Traits of Skate Ramp Founders
Episode 163 - The Benchmark of Benchmarks
Episode 162 - The Staircase Trap - A Growth ‘Curve’ No One Wants
Episode 161 - The Forgotten Variable That Destroys Marketing Efficiency
Episode 160 - Tired of Protein Everything? Fiber is Next!
Episode 159 -YoY Growth is Slowing? — Do This!
Episode 158 - Five Must Learn Tips To Court Investors Well
Episode 157 - Four Proven Ways To Accelerate Your CPG Brand
Episode 156 - Planning Acceleration to Prevent Deceleration
Episode 155 - Emerging Brands As Content Studios - How Do You Decide to Do It?
Episode 154 - Brands as Content Studios - How Do You Decide?
Episode 153 - The Premium Pricing Fork in The Road
Episode 152 - Rising Stars Series : Yoni Reisman of Tip Top Cocktails, Part 2
Episode 151 - Rising Stars Series: Yoni Reisman of Tip Top Cocktails
Episode 150 - Poppi vs. Pepsi Prebiotic : WTF?
Episode 149 - From Sales Execution to a Modern Growth Strategy
Episode 148 - Founder Archetypes - The Creative Founder
Episode 147 - Founder Archetypes - The Finance Founder
Episode 146 - Why Saying No is the Critical Founder Skill
Episode 145 - Hiring Execs Who Can Ride the Ramp Begins With Your Attitude
Episode 144 - A One-Page Plan To Launch
Episode 143 - Broaden Your Positioning to Accelerate - Poppi and Dr. Squatch
Episode 142 - Planning Your ACV Build
Episode 141 - Founder Archetypes - The Missionary Founder
Episode 140 - Rapid Growth Is Not For Everyone w/Sarah Delevan
Episode 139- The Problems With Early-Stage Marketing: Doubt and a Design Bias
Episode 138 - Knowing When To Shut Down
Episode 137 - How I Built This
Episode 136 - Updated Edition of Ramping Your Brand!
Episode 135 - What is YOUR Founder Superpower?
Episode 134 - Why Artisan Pricing Doesn’t Scale in CPG
Episode 133 - Food Innovation for GLP-1 Users?
Episode 132 - Why Most Startups ‘Market’ Instead of Entertain
Episode 131 - A Startup’s Recession Playbook
Episode 130 - Your Year-Round Horror Show - The Death Funnel
Episode 129 - The Six Elements of a Good Strategic Plan
Episode 128 - One Industry Pro Please
Episode 127 - Getting Real on Seed Financing
Episode 126 - Top Five Mistakes Courting Investors
Episode 125 - Quant-Curious Founders Win
Episode 124 - Regenerative Agriculture - New Mega-Trend or Splitting Organic Hairs?
Episode 123 - How To Filter Advice
Episode 122 - The Next Phase of the Smoothie Wars
Episode 121 - The New CPG Funding Gap
Episode 120 - A Conversation with Samyr Lainé of Freedom Trail Capital - Part Two
Episode 119 - A Conversation with Samyr Lainé of Freedom Trail Capital - Part One
Episode 118 - Founder Archetypes - The Creative Founder
Episode 117 - Founder Archetypes - The Finance Founder
Episode 116 – Finance Your Strategy, Not the Other Way Around
Episode 115 - Direct to Consumer is Toast for Founders
Episode 114 - The Death Funnel is Even Deadlier
Episode 113 - How Athletic Brewing Becomes the Next Billion Dollar Brand
Episode 112 - The 2024 Shelf Grab Has Begun
Episode 111 - Why Early-Stage Strategy and Finance Don’t Always Get Along
Episode 110 - Annual Diagnosis for Your Brand
Episode 109 - Let’s Talk About The Dirty, Nasty P (Pricing)
Episode 108 - DTC is for Scaling in Really Tiny, Frequently Ordering Niches You Would Never Find in Retail
Episode 107 - Is The Bad Funding Environment Necessarily a Bad Thing?
Episode 106 - Behavior-Based Brand Building
Episode 105 - Advertising ROAS and Repeat Purchase
Episode 104 - Only Networking Beyond Your Peers Accrues Business Advantage
Episode 103 - Top Myths About Pivoting a Consumer Brand
Episode 102 - Why Startups Fail – w/ Tom Eisenmann Part 2
Episode 101 - Why Startups Fail – with Tom Eisenmann, Part 1
Episode 100 - The Seven Traits of Killer Founders
Episode 99 - Stakeholder Classes – The Buyer
Episode 98 - - What American Marketers Get Wrong w/ Emmanuel Probst, Part Two
Episode 97 - What American Marketers Get Wrong w/ Emmanuel Probst, Part One
Episode 96 - Beyond Predictable - Lessons from Beyond Meat for Founders
Episode 95 - Seven Reasons You Need a Strategic Plan
Episode 94 - Getting Real About Distribution - w/Gregory Esslinger - Part Two
Episode 93 - Getting Real About Distribution - w/Gregory Esslinger - Part One
Episode 92 - Root Cause Analysis for Founders
Episode 91 - The Death Funnel Revisited
Episode 90 - Private Equity, FOMO and Insecure Founders
Episode 89 - Boba Tea - Trend or Fad?
Episode 88 - Alienation Breeds Resilience That Bends the Odds In Your Favor
Episode 87 - Knowing When to Shut Down
Episode 86 - Finance Your Strategy, Not the Other Way Around
Episode 85 - What Everyone Gets Wrong About Organic…Still
Episode 84 - The Challenge of Marketing to Your Fan Behavior
Episode 83 - The Seven Reasons You Need a Strategic Plan
Episode 82 - Liquid Death - The Latest Skate Ramp Winner
Episode 81 - The Paternalism Trap for Startups
Episode 80 - Why Coke Really Shut Down Honest Tea
Episode 79 - The Last Big Early-Stage Hire is the Toughest
Episode 78 - The Curious Case of RampCo
Episode 77 - Annual Diagnosis For Your Brand - Look for Problems
Episode 76 - The Benchmark of Benchmarks
Episode 75 - Are These 6 Things in Your Strategic Plan?
Episode 74 - Why Engineers Struggle as Startup Founders
Episode 73 - Embedded Digital Commerce with Guest, Rishabh Jain
Episode 72 - Stop Staring at Your Laptop And Do This
Episode 71 - Affirmative Action for End Caps
Episode 70 - Gregory Shepard Interview Part 2
Episode 69 - Gregory Shepard Interview Part 1
Episode 68 - The Law of Frito-Lay and Why it Matters
Episode 67 - The SkinnyPop Trap of Sales-Driven Growth
Episode 66 - Why Blitzscaling Doesn’t Work for Consumer Brands
Episode 65 - Artisan Pricing Doesn’t Scale - Watch Out Founders
Episode 64 - Don’t Let Anyone Pester You Into a Hasty Exit
Episode 63 - A Structural Solution for Low-Levels of Funding for Female Businesses
Episode 62 - The Fascinating and Infuriating Case of Bright Farms
Episode 61 - Why Your Business Strategist Should Work With Real Consumer Data
Episode 60 - Jeremy Smith on the Future of Brokering Part 2
Episode 59 - Jeremy Smith on the Future of Brokering Part 1
Episode 58 - The Puppet Startup CEO
Episode 57 - Founder Archetypes - The Missionary
Episode 56 - The Emerging Caste Hierarchy Among Founders
Episode #55 - Why I Said No to $255K in Work And What You Should Learn From it
Episode #54 - I’ll Commit More Time Once There’s Traction...
Episode 53 - Brag About Your Fan List, Not Your Door Count
Episode 52 - Think Like a Scientist, Plan Your Experiment
Episode 51 - Why Public Firm Alumni Make Such Bad Startup Employees
Episode 50 - Founders Build Businesses. Consumers Build Brands
Episode 49 - The Not-So-Secret Weapon to Eliminating Your Competition
Episode 48 - Why Startups Fail - with Tom Eisenmann Part 2
Episode 47 - Why Startups Fail - with Tom Eisenmann Part 1
Episode 46 – Advertising ROAS and Repeat Purchase
Episode 45 – Competitive Strategy Formulation for Exponential Growth
Episode 44 – The Future of Trade Shows
Episode 43 – Your Product Isn’t Done…Sorry
Episode 42 – Don’t Hire Friends as Service Providers
Ep. 41 – The “Death Funnel” - Revisited
Ep. 40 – Stakeholders – Distributors
Ep. 39 – The Skate Ramp – An Excerpt from Ramping Your Brand
Ep. 38 - Pressure Testing Your Topline
Ep. 37 - Behavior-Based Brand-Building
Ep. 36 - Conversion vs. Trade Techniques to Drive Velocity Growth
Ep. 35 - Stakeholder Classes - The Buyer
Ep. 34- Why Your One-Page Strategic Plan is Lame
Ep. 33 - Why Saying No is the Essential Skill as a Founder
Ep. 32- Stakeholder Classes - The Investor
Ep 31- Founder Archetypes - The Brand Worshipper
Ep. 30 - An Interview with Jake Huber - Negotiating with Buyers Part Two
Ep. 29 - An Interview with Jake Huber - Negotiating with Buyers Part One
Ep. 28 - Why I No Longer Work With Young Startups
Ep. 27 - Ramping Your Brand - A Reading on Iteration
Ep. 26 - How to Filter Advice
Ep. 25 - Why Hitting the Gas on Distribution Almost Never Works
Ep. 24 - Interview with Mark Crowell - Part Two
Ep. 23 - Interview with Mark Crowell, Founder of Culinex - Part One
Ep. 22 - The Preface from Ramping Your Brand
Ep. 21 - When to Change Your Strategy
Ep. 20 - A Second Reading from Ramping Your Brand
Ep. 19 Learning the Right Lessons from the Covid-19 Emergency
Ep. 18 - Working w/Agencies - Identity and Branding
Ep. 17 - Professionalizing Yourself
Ep. 16 - The Serial F(l)ounder
Ep. 15 - Designing to Command a Premium
Ep. 14 Working with Agencies - Communications
Ep. 13 - Founder Archetypes...the Creative Founder
Ep. 12 - Founder Archetypes - The Finance Founder
Ep. 11 - Working with Agencies: the Creative Brief
Ep. 10 - 7 Reasons You Need a Strategic Plan
Ep. 9 - A Reading from Ramping Your Brand
Ep. 8 Beating the Odds Against Your Seed Raise
Working with Agencies Effectively - #1 - Package Designers
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Part 2 of Interview with Ted Wright
Ep. 5- Word-of-Mouth Marketing - Part 1 w/Ted Wright
Ep. 4 - A Founder's Confession with Jason Burke
Ep. 3 - My Team Eats Your Lone Wolf for Dinner
Ep. 2 - It Was the Worst of Shows...It Was the Best of Shows
Ep. 1 - Navigating the Death Funnel