Before the outbreak of COVID, I was concerned that too few brands had a clear strategy to drive discovery and trial in brick and mortar retail. Distribution gains would come, but the actions that get the product off the shelf were expensive and inefficient. …

This is going to be a “do as I say, not as I do” article. Admittedly, I struggle with disconnecting. I find it hard to set work aside and use my mind and energy on other things. I find this to be true now more than ever given the reality…

Spoiler alert. Investors, be they angels, a VC fund, or a family office, invest. That is what they do. The question you have to help them answer is not, “Should we invest?” but instead is, “Why should we invest in you?”. On the surface, this sounds pretty obvious. Yet, it’s…

Three times last week, I was asked a similar question. What is the right percentage of revenue? One asked this about marketing expenses, another about acquisition spend, and a third about SG&A costs. In each case, my answer was the same. There is no “right” percentage. Sure there are some…

In the early days after the cancellation of Expo West in March, I was scared. Yes, for my business, but more so, was I sure that I was offering the right guidance, advice, and support to the founders I serve. Things were changing so fast, and there was so much…

Recently, John Foraker, Co-Founder, and CEO of Once Upon a Farm, joined for a taping of one of our TIG Talk episodes. I invited him because I was both inspired and encouraged by his willingness to speak up and speak out about the state of our current politics and the…

Before I go any further, let me start by pointing out the elephant in the room, me. I am a middle-aged white dude. Leveraging as much empathy as I can muster, I still can’t fathom what it would be like to be a victim of systemic racism. The closest I…

I find it fascinating that somehow we’ve all been trained to ask the same questions, “What’s your velocity?”, What’s your margin?”, What’s your channel strategy?” Sometimes I feel as if we are merely lemmings. I know that is not quite true but I do worry that our paradigms narrow what…

Last Thursday and Friday I spent over 16-hours on Zoom. Now, ordinarily, that would be the start of a “woe is me” type article, but not in this case. I feel blessed that I was able to do so. Yes, my butt was a bit tired of sitting. Fortunately, my…