Field Notes
A weekly essay on go-to-market and product for startup founders and operators. One sharp idea at a time.
- W8 Run Demos for the Repeat, Not the Day
A demo that moves forty units and creates five repeat buyers is worse than one that moves fifteen and creates twelve. The economics of sampling live in the repeat rate, not the register tape from that afternoon.
- W7 Distribution Is a Tier You Earn, Not a Door You Open
Direct accounts, regional distributors, the big national distributors, broker-managed national retail. It's a ladder, and every rung demands velocity proof. Chasing a rung before you can feed it ends brands.
- W6 Trade Spend Is Rent on the Shelf
Slotting, free fills, promotions, demos, deductions, and spoils are a second P&L hiding behind your first one. Most early brands never model it, so they fund growth that costs more than it earns.
- W5 Velocity Is the Only Number the Buyer Trusts
Getting on shelf is not the win. Turning is. Units per store per week, measured against the category and not against your own hopes, is what earns the re-order and the next door.
- W4 The Panel Has to Be Legal. The Front Has to Sell.
A label does two jobs that pull against each other: satisfy a regulator who reads the back, and convert a shopper who reads the front. Most brands nail one and discover the other in a buyer meeting, which is the worst possible place to learn it.
- W3 The Cash Gap Will Kill You Before Your Competitors Do
Every case you ship is an interest-free loan to your distributor, repaid late and short. You didn't mean to start a lending business, but you're financing the whole channel out of your own undercapitalized balance sheet.
- W2 Margin Is Designed at the Formula, Not the Price Tag
By the time you're setting a shelf price, your margin is already decided. It got engineered (or destroyed) back at the formulation table, in the pack size, and in the co-packer's run minimums.
- W1 The Shelf Positions You Before You Speak
A category manager's planogram decides what your product means before a shopper ever picks it up. You don't pitch your way out of the wrong set. You earn your way into the right one.