Why the Hardest Part Starts After Launch: Operators Build (E5)

“The amount of effort that we put in to start does not have any meaningful correlation with the success at the end.”  When you get delayed and deprioritized by your co-manufacturer, your timeline slips by almost a year, and you still have zero sales, what do you have to show for 18 months of work?  Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela & Lomi), Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern), Sean Frank (CEO, Ridge), Curtis Christopherson (Chief Growth Officer, Ammortal), and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) reunite one month from launch to close the loop on everything that went wrong.  Physical product is in hand. Five thousand units for their very first purchase order. Now, the hard part.  Sean raises the question nobody wants to answer: is powder still the right format in 2026? Mike does the math on what 14,000 families means for a nine-figure exit. Cody challenges the team to hit $200 CAC in month one. Then drop it to $100.  Powered by  TBAR Partners  ⁠https://9ops.co/tbarpartners⁠  Aftersell  ⁠https://9ops.co/4i3bb5⁠  Skio  ⁠https://9ops.co/skio-9operators⁠  Runneth  ⁠https://9ops.co/motion-runneth⁠  Omnisend  ⁠https://9ops.co/omnisend⁠  Richpanel  ⁠https://9ops.co/richpanel⁠  Operators Portal  ⁠https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard⁠  Operators Newsletter  ⁠https://9operators.com/⁠