Startup Confidential

Wow. Finding a decent head of marketing is easy. But, their ability to move the needle is probably dumb luck, despite their organizational skills. Most marketing fails to move awareness and household penetration because the head of marketing doesn’t have a Guggenheim ruthless eye for effective creative that moves hearts and wallets. The problem is so bad, I even launched a course, now live, to help train folks who want to up their effectiveness and become major players at the table. 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

RampCo is an illustrative case based on my client's work. It explores how a brand launched as a multi-category platform can immediately find its hero UPCs and pivot toward them. The result is a more focused, much faster grower brand consumers now see as a true category expert. And consumers want new brands to be category specialists. Leave the platform innovation for store label brands. They can pull it off because they own the points the distribution and don't care how slowly 800 UPCs move. It's their shelves!  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

Committing to a plan is hard enough for many founders. But, if you don't do an annual diagnosis well, you will lose much of the plan's benefit. The point of planning and diagnosing is to understand WHY you did or did not hit your revenue target (or other topline goals).  This requires systematic disbelief in topline success. I call it pressure-testing, so you can ensure your 'growth' is not masking other problems (including misbehavior by your sales team).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 most efficient Skate Ramp brands earn large amounts of money in small geographies. In this episode I explain how to measure this and why it’s so important to set such a high standard for an undercapitalized business early on. You have to listen to learn the benchmark. This is contained in my book, deliberately. Sort of.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 that time of year, folks. Preparing for 2023! The most underthought aspect of early-stage business plans is the strategic plan. It's the front half of your business plan focused on growth. And all too often, it resembles an investor pitch. In this episode, I narrate material from my Blog for a broader audience, so you can focus on a measurable plan for growth based on reality. 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

 Licensed professional engineers rarely become startup founders. I’ve met a few. They all struggled. They represent an extreme version of professionally cultivated risk aversion. The bridge must stand or you get fired. Any founder can wind up acting like this, if you let the terror of your cash situation overcome your ability to take big, calculated risks necessary to iterate well. Have a listen.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

Tired of throwing money at influencers with no way to understand ‘influence’ on sales in a multi-tactic marketing playbook? You should be. Introducing Fermat, a brand-new technology that enables 100% embedded shopping directly inside your favorite content, without changing its layout on your screen of choice. I normally ignore people pitching to get on my show. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that Rishabh Jain and his team are on to something. Thought you should be first to know, since marketing dollars are far more precious to startups than BigCo leviathansYour 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

Consider this a non-violent, verbal kick in the rear. I continue to see too many digitally native founders sit on screens too much of the day. Get out in the field and meet stakeholders, including your fans. Respect the big, broad world out there that builds your brand with you. This is how you achieve an unfair advantage over others. 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

In this episode, I'm just going to say what SO many are mumbling. Why can't chain retailers gift end cap space to select high-performing minority founders as a market advantage? It's one thing to onboard minority founders. But, since they're wildly under-capitalized, this rarely works out well. What they need is an initial velocity surge from retail display space. To pull this off, pringles and the retailer need to lose some real profit. This is what affirmative action requires, that the elite sacrifice something. Have a listen.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

Have you ever wanted a founder who is also an investor to peel back the real challenge of investor alignment? I've been looking for two years for such a person. It's hard to find folks like this who will talk honestly.  And Greg Shepard is one of them. Greg is the co-founder and CEO of BOSS Startup Systems, an open-source methodology developed to empower entrepreneurs. Greg has built and sold 12 businesses in BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech, and MarTech, is a recipient of four private equity awards for transactions between $250M to $1B and has appeared in Fortune, Entrepreneur, The New York Observer, The DEAL and Thrive Global.In part two of our interview, Greg and I discuss the red flags of the 'bad faith investor' or simply an investor deal-hunter who is not the investor at all. Hint: think of all the young kids in Patagonia vests at Expo West. 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