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There has never been a better time to start a consumer brand.
It is easier than ever to go from idea to product. The distance between a concept and something real in a customer’s hands has collapsed in a way that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago. But that does not mean it is easier to build an enduring brand. In fact, it may be the hardest time in history to do so.
Today, a founder with conviction can move from concept to commerce in months, sometimes weeks. Contract manufacturers handle complexity that once required entire teams, millions of dollars, and years of hard-earned capability. Third-party logistics firms turn fulfillment into an API. Shopify makes global storefronts table stakes. Amazon provides instant access to demand at massive scale. The infrastructure that once protected incumbents is now available to anyone willing to learn it.
At the same time, AI has quietly reshaped the cost structure of building a company. Marketing creative, photography, copywriting, legal drafts, and customer support can now be done with a fraction of the SG&A that used to be required. At Freshly, we had more than 350 CX agents across four countries to deliver a world-class experience. Today, a small, focused team can achieve meaningful revenue without burning capital just to stay operational.
That combination, low barriers to entry and high leverage per person, is why this moment feels electric. You can build a real business with far less capital than ever before.
But that same dynamic is what makes this era unforgiving.
When it’s easy to launch, it’s easy to mistake speed for substance. Growth can come fast, sometimes too fast. Paid channels work before you fully understand why. Co-mans are eager for volume. Influencers are ready to promote anything that converts. Revenue spikes before the product has earned true loyalty.
Teams hire ahead of learning. Spend accelerates while fundamentals quietly weaken. And like bankruptcy, it happens slowly, then all at once.
I’ve seen this pattern repeat. A brand catches fire because distribution and paid spend amplify something early. It looks like momentum. But beneath the surface, the product isn’t finished. The last five to ten percent, quality, packaging, positioning, and customer education, hasn’t been refined. Growth hides these gaps until it doesn’t. Reorder rates soften. Velocity slips. Discounts creep in. When customer acquisition gets harder or more expensive, the engine stalls. What looked like a huge hit turns out to be highly fragile.
The problem isn’t growth. It’s confusing growth with durability.
In this golden age, product obsession matters more than ever. When barriers are low, your product is the moat. Incremental improvement compounds. Finding your true customer and listening deeply to them compounds. Solving a real problem with real results compounds. Some things can be accelerated through data feedback loops, but product iterations and improvements remain cycles. And these cycles take time. Brands that endure are not built by founders obsessed with growth; they are built by founders obsessed with quality and delivering on their customer promise.
Distribution should be treated the same way. Shopify and Amazon are incredible enablers. They compress time and remove friction. Organic TikTok and Instagram build relevance and trust. But paid social is an accelerant, not ignition. It amplifies what already exists.
Think of it like fire. If the product is wood, paid spend makes it roar. If it’s just gas, the minute you stop pouring, or gas gets expensive, the fire dies.
This is why thinking in decades matters. Founders who win long-term don’t build for a single moment. They build for optionality. They treat the business like a marathon, not a sprint. Taking liquidity along the way should feel like a water break. It keeps you in the race, reduces fear-based decisions, and lets you enjoy the work. Not so much that you stop running, but enough that you want to keep going.
The mistake is treating exits as binary. Great businesses create multiple chapters. Early investors find liquidity. New ones join. The product improves. The brand deepens its relationship with customers. The company grows up instead of burning out.
I’m deeply bullish on CPG. Tomorrow’s household brands are being built right now by founders willing to combine modern tools with old-fashioned discipline. There has never been a better time to build a high-quality brand. But the opportunity belongs to those who slow down just enough to build something worth keeping.
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