Startup Confidential

Pricing power is one of the major things a brand gives you as an owner. But not right away. The power of a brand lies in the ability to raise prices at scale as costs increase without volume suffering much at all. Conversely, you can not slash your price to accelerate. In this episode,  I explain the math behind price inelasticity and how to obtain it.Your 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

This wonky episode may require a repeat listen. You were warned. I want to walk listeners through the variables and math that make it crystal clear what kinds of consumer propositions not only do well through DTC but should remain there and the much larger set of innovations that need to see this channel in a very restricted manner.Your 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

Lots of well-run, patient brands need an angel infusion right now. But the absence of VC right now is still a blessing. Instead, founders will need to network for angel cash, be much more focused and disciplined and yes fewer people will get to play. Fewer, better businesses actually improve the whole ecosystem in my opinion. In this episode, I lay out how I came to this conclusion recently.Your 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

Unfortunately, the folks who talk loudest about brand-building are either a) branding agencies, b) venture capitalists or c) overly enthusiastic founders. Curb your enthusiasm. You can design a brand identity, a symbolic system. But, ‘brand’ is an outcome. It is an outcome based on influencing real human behavior, entering social networks with memorable consumer experiences, potent symbolism, and grassroots ‘influence,’ not social media puffery. Learn the rules of behavior-based brand-building or get ready to struggle unnecessarily on your journey up the Skate Ramp.Your 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

In the world of consumer brands, it’s common for investors to look down on paid advertising. Why? Because they often don’t see the same kind of trial surge that a temporary price reduction or change in attribute-outcome signaling can deliver. So, they generally see no real return on the expense. However, ROAS has to be calculated on the basis of a longer-term view of how repeat purchasers contribute to the brand.Your 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 critical NOT to remain with a bubble of startup founders in the early Phases. If you do, you will not access the greater wisdom you need. In this episode, I explain the social science behind this networking advice. You don’t need to have lunch with Mark Cuban or Daniel Lubtezky to succeed. Your 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

In this episode, I address some of the key myths about pivoting that I have heard. Most correspond to excess risk aversion for an ideal founder. You took the risk to start this business. Let’s not let risk in the back door and prevent you from pivoting to a better path to scale. In many cases, you do not need to see a sales decline at all. Your 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

99% of business media stories on startups are essentially PR for the startup itself. This makes these stories a one-sided source of information on what it’s like to operate and grow a startup. While there are more and more discussions of mistakes, basically no one at Inc or Entrepreneur or anywhere else really will ever greenlight a debate on this or that failed startup unless, like Theranos, it ended in some massive ethical scandal. Failure is depressing, they say. Not me.I’m honored to bring you a past podcast, the second part in a two-part interview with Professor Tom Eisenmann of the Harvard Business School (HBS). He and I chat about themes from his new book Why Startups Fail and how these patterns play out in the world of consumer packaged goods (CPG). In the second part of our interview, we discuss more advanced themes in failure:  the Speed Trap, Help Wanted, and the challenges of staffing up quicklySince joining the HBS faculty in 1997, Tom has led The Entrepreneurial Manager, an introductory course taught to all first-year MBAs, and launched fourteen electives on all aspects of entrepreneurship, including one on startup failure. Eisenmann has authored more than one hundred HBS case studies, and his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.Your 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

99% of business media stories on startups are essentially PR for the startup itself. This makes these stories a one-sided source of information on what it’s like to operate and grow a startup. While there are more and more discussions of mistakes, basically no one at Inc or Entrepreneur or anywhere else really will ever greenlight a debate on this or that failed startup unless, like Theranos, it ended in some massive ethical scandal. Failure is depressing, they say. Not me. I’m honored to bring you a past episode, the first in a two-part interview with Professor Tom Eisenmann of the Harvard Business School (HBS). He and I chat about themes from his new book Why Startups Fail and how these patterns play out in the world of consumer packaged goods (CPG). In this episode, we discuss what to do when you have little business training, how unit economics evolve differently in CPG vs. tech startups, and how to prevent False Positives by doing just the right pre-revenue research.Since joining the HBS faculty in 1997, Tom has led The Entrepreneurial Manager, an introductory course taught to all first-year MBAs, and launched fourteen electives on all aspects of entrepreneurship, including one on startup failure. Eisenmann has authored more than one hundred HBS case studies, and his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.Your 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

In this episode, the podcast discusses the seven essential traits of successful founders in the consumer package goods industry, including being auto-didactic, humble, curious, able to fail well, not status oriented, obsessively goal oriented, and adaptable. It also emphasizes the importance of analytics and consumer marketing for exponential growth, decision making based on analysis, trust within founding teams, and the behavioral profile of investors.