As we have discussed before, big consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands continue to opt-out of doing their own research and development to develop new products in favor of purchasing emerging brands. This route is often cheaper, faster, and more effective, ...
CircleUp’s Inner Circle is a community for entrepreneurs at high-growth, private consumer brands to learn, grow and connect. Brands can join Inner Circle for free, gaining access to resources, insights, and online experiences. This post is part of a series ...
CircleUp’s Inner Circle is a community for entrepreneurs at high-growth, private consumer brands to learn, grow and connect. Brands can join Inner Circle for free, gaining access to resources, insights, and online experiences. This post is the first in a ...
The Story of the Squid and the Whale Noah Baumbach’s film, The Squid and the Whale, follows two sons as they deal with their parents’ impending divorce, which divides them between conflicting parental allegiances that are fraught with emotional manipulation ...
Inner Circle is a community for entrepreneurs at high-growth, private consumer brands to learn, grow and connect. Brands can join Inner Circle for free, gaining access to resources, insights, and online experiences. This article will highlight takeaways from our community event, Inner Circle Live: Learnings from iOS 14.5. The rollout of iOS 14.5 and Apple’s ...
The non-alcoholic spirit market has been growing rapidly, but leading brands lack imagination and spirit. They mostly mimic the taste of and appearance of alcohol, with varying degrees of success. They emphasize what they are taking out of a drink rather than what they are putting into one. Meeta Gournay, Tatiana Mercer, and Dash Lilley, ...
Three years ago, it seemed that early stage consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands had only one viable exit opportunity – a sale to a strategic acquirer. Today, several new options have emerged, including aggregators and public markets. We get a lot of questions from entrepreneurs about the different exit opportunities available, and wanted to take ...
A Helio-powered dive into the financial performance and customer feedback for B Corp certified brands.
A year ago we shared our findings on the performance of consumer packaged goods (CPG) in recessionary environments. As COVID-19 ended an 11-year bull market, it was unclear whether CPG would follow that same path. Now, having analyzed the data, the unique COVID environment has proved to be the best historic example of CPG outperforming ...
It was announced today that Liquid I.V., a leading better-for-you electrolyte drink mix brand, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Unilever. We are incredibly proud to have partnered with Founder & CEO Brandin Cohen over the last two years, as he and his team have built a brand that deeply resonates with consumers ...
Navigating the private markets today is the equivalent of hailing a cab during rush hour or finding a newly released movie at a nearby Blockbuster — ten years ago. Before technology intervened, you had to be in the right place at the right time. Decision-making in the private markets is just as circumstantial: it is ...
As we have discussed before, big consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands continue to opt-out of doing their own research and development to develop new products in favor of purchasing emerging brands. This route is often cheaper, faster, and more effective, as consumer preferences and purchasing behaviors are shifting faster than ever. When does a brand ...
CircleUp’s Inner Circle is a community for entrepreneurs at high-growth, private consumer brands to learn, grow and connect. Brands can join Inner Circle for free, gaining access to resources, insights, and online experiences. This post is part of a series we have created to help amplify the voices of our diverse community of entrepreneurs. CircleUp ...
It is unusual for an early stage beauty brand to launch in both Ulta and Sephora. Typically, the retailers push for some level of exclusivity and are willing to give additional support to get it. In addition, it is hard for an early stage beauty brand to manage the needs of these two behemoths, both on ...
Happy National Entrepreneur Day! It’s a day to celebrate the innovators and idea makers. At CircleUp, our Inner Circle is a community for consumer brand entrepreneurs to learn, grow, and connect. A common interest among our consumer brand founders is the important role that books and podcasts have played in their evolution as entrepreneurs. Below ...
The user opt-out option for Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) in iOS 14.5 has caused a lot of commotion in the eCommerce world. Previously, apps could collect and share data with third parties based on a unique identifier for your iPhone called an IDFA. Now, users can decline to have their activity tracked in this ...
CircleUp’s Inner Circle is a community for entrepreneurs at high-growth, private consumer brands to learn, grow and connect. Brands can join Inner Circle for free, gaining access to resources, insights, and online experiences. This post is the first in a series we have created to help amplify the voices of our diverse community of entrepreneurs. ...
The Story of the Squid and the Whale Noah Baumbach’s film, The Squid and the Whale, follows two sons as they deal with their parents’ impending divorce, which divides them between conflicting parental allegiances that are fraught with emotional manipulation and self-sabotage. While not as comedic, this classic drama has been playing out across the stage of ...
Supply chain issues: the topic seems to be making headlines almost daily, and you likely have experienced them in one shape or another, as either an operator or a consumer, in the past year. But what are they actually, how long will they continue, and what are the potential risks for consumer goods businesses? Where’s ...
The “5 day weekend” in late November that contains Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday (sometimes referred to as BFCM) is a massive opportunity for consumer brands to drive sales. Given the importance of this period for consumer brands, we dove into trends from years past, including last year’s COVID-affected BFCM to share our findings ...
