All Episodes

Ep. 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