Startup Confidential

It's no secret that Placement is the "P" that dominates strategy among most early-stage consumer brands, selling into retail primarily. And there's no shortage of brokers, fractional sales VPs and consultants ready to focus you on manipulating the trade to win narrowly. The problem with this 'normative' viewpoint is that brands don't grow via TPR programs. There is NO marketing science to prove this common myth. Brands grow by adding households and growing velocity inside those households (generally most common for beverages). So, in this episode, I take on the myth and explain why you need to understand the limits of trade techniques in the later phases of the Ramp. If you're a Founder and want to see how well your team is set up for exponential growth, please take my Founder's Quiz online right now and get your score immediately.  Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

Retail buyers. Either right now or eventually, you will need to convince buyers you are a key new addition to their sets. In this episode, I share some pros and cons of developing relationships with these important stakeholders. I also discuss why the Skate Ramp is just not on their radar, even though one of your key KPIs - velocity - absolutely is. Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

Well...Well..Well, I never...I mean, what a rude title!  Then stop writing plans not based on market and consumer data. Then I'll take this episode down right away. It's a plague among early-stage startups in ALL industries. Dataless plans based on wholesale case projections. Your review mirror of case sales to the distributor is not sufficient to make a smart plan for exponential growth. In fact, it sentences you to repeat the growth rate in the mirror itself. If you're growing at 10% and want to grow 100%, the rear-view mirror of case sales doesn't help you much.  Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

You might think saying 'no' is simply the luxury of an established business who has the privilege to turn down an opportunity that isn't dead-on perfect.  But you'd be wrong. Dead wrong.  In this episode, I introduce the perfect training ground for saying no: the onslaught of service providers who 'prey' on the ocean of startups, most of whom will fail or stagnate as hobby businesses. A small % are actually really good. But they never come to you...If this episode intrigues you, you might like my recent on Episode on How to Filter Advice. Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

It's time to share thoughts on one of the more important stakeholder classes for your fast growing early stage brand. I focus on the pros and cons of angels, venture capitalists and private equity firms. I'm very keen on angels for reasons you'll want to listen in and discover. The big challenge for most entrepreneurs is their de-leveraged situation early on up the Ramp. Maximizing your leverage is a sociological challenge, not a financial one in the face of very, very rich people.Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

Grab onto your handrails, folks. You may hear the thunderous retort of the entire global branding industry in the middle of this one. Branding is one of the most over-rated arts in the early years on the Ramp. Without a data-refined strategy in place, you just can't finalize your brand's symbolic system. Yes, you can try to research it in advance and over-determine everything like a Big Company. But since that rarely works out well for them either, I advise patience. Don't launch a product line hoping initial branding will carry you. Professional branding is expected by consumers. It's not impressive or distinctive any more in premium CPG. Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

He's back! Jake Huber riffing with me on more advanced topics in retail buyer negotiation. The big one in this final part of the interview is : how to say no...obviously, without ever using this word. :) If you liked Part 1, then you're going to luv, luv, luv this part. Again, I apologize for the horrendous audio on my end. Won't happen again. You have my promise.Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

Pardon the horrendous audio. This was recorded in a chaotic apartment during the early months of the pandemic. Nevertheless, Jake Huber and I riffed on some very important topics. In Part One we address the #1 thing founders screw up when approaching buyers, how pitching investors and buyers is similar/different and the challenges posed for introverted founders. Hope you like it!Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

Sorry to discuss my boring business, but, in this rare case, my internal decision is based on something it might benefit some of you to hear about. I hope so, or this will be a seriously low performing episode! This episode hinges around the concept of coachability. And my foil is the human need for validation. We all have it. We all need social validation or we will eventually commit suicide. A problem arises for founders of young startups, especially for young founders of young startups when they approach business advisors or mentors looking for validation, and not for professional critique. Listen in, if you dare...Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com

The UPCs you initially launch with are very, very unlikely to be the ones that you scale. Maybe the product inside the package is largely the same. But many things will change as you learn and iterate on the basis of market feedback. In this episode I read a few pages from my new book - Ramping Your Brand and hope you enjoy them.Your Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.comPlease send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.comYour Host: Dr. James F. Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions, LLC www.premiumgrowthsolutions.com Please send feedback on this or other episodes to: admin@premiumgrowthsolutions.com