People ask us all the time: how do you start a startup? Like, really, how do you start a business, step by step? There's an idea that starting a business requires a magical idea, gorgeous brand work, brilliant product development, and a deeply engaged community. Here's the thing: all of that stuff is really, really useful. But at the end of the day, businesses get off the ground through one simple factor: work.
Here at the HQ, we have created, built, launched, scaled, and transformed over 60 consumer brands since we launched almost 5 years ago. While every brand we've partnered with - from the fashion innovators to the beauty brainiacs, from the wellness whizzes to the food-and-beverage aficionados - had its own unique vibe, goals, and challenges, every single one of these businesses lived by the ability of its founder(s) to execute, every damn day.
So without further ado: I've decided that I'm going to spend 2023, little by little, sharing the playbooks we've built over the last five years. You're gonna experience a litany of lists and tasks and to-dos, but you're also going to start getting some (ahem, IMO) pretty stellar guidance on how to start a consumer product brand.
We're starting things off with the pre-launch activities required to start a consumer product brand. I'll link things in as I populate, so that you have this handy playbook to kickstart that momentum. (Oh, and if you see anything glaring that we're missing, shoot us a note or a comment - we'll revise as it makes sense.)
So... before you get things going with an actual in-market situation, there's some critical admin you're going to need to kick off. And, for me, everything starts with a good old fashioned workback - set some dates, define your dependencies, and let's get rolling.
So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself an Asana board going and let's build.