This coming Tuesday, April 21st, at Shopify NY, I’m sitting down with three consumer founders who've scaled past $10M in very different categories—and they're ready to tell us what they’ve learned.
Left: First Ugly Talk (Aug 23); Right: Last Ugly Talk (Jan 26)
No bullshit. No rose-colored glasses. Just the real playbook for going from 7 to 8 figures in eCommerce.
Below is who's on the panel — and what you're going to learn from each of them.
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MICHAEL CHERNOW — Kreatures of Habit
The Creator-Led Brand That Did $2M Year One (Then Had to Learn How to Hunt)
Michael started Kreatures of Habit because oatmeal saved his life.
After getting sober in 2004, a mentor wrote him a plan: eat oatmeal every morning.
Michael followed it for 15 years. Then the pandemic hit, his restaurant plans evaporated, and he thought: what if I could bottle this routine?
He raised $1.8M (Gary Vaynerchuk wrote the first check), launched three flavors of high-protein oatmeal, and did $2M in year one—almost entirely off his personal brand.
Then reality hit.
"At a certain point, your audience gets tapped out," Michael told us on our pre-panel call. "You gotta go hunting."
Meta CPAs skyrocketed. Customers weren't eating it daily like thought they would—more like 2-3 times a week. And selling more oatmeal wasn't going to work at $10M+.
So he launched the Daily Bar—a protein + creatine bar that drives actual repeat. And just got greenlit for a national Sprouts rollout.
What we’re asking Micheal:
How to scale when your personal brand is the acquisition channel—and what happens when it taps out
Why customers won't use your product as much as you think
Why he writes a 75%+ open rate newsletter, calls customers three days a week, and hand-seeds influencers—even though "it doesn't scale"
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NICOLE CENTENO — Splendid Spoon
The Solo Founder Who Built to $12M with 6 People (While Raising Three Kids)
Nicole started Splendid Spoon at a farmers market stand while pregnant.
She was making vegan soups in a shared kitchen. Her midwife told her to stop lifting 50-pound bags of vegetables. She gave birth two weeks early—and went into the kitchen the next day to fulfill her first Fresh Direct PO.
That was 13 years ago.
Since then, she's raised through Series B, scaled past $10M, merged with another brand (Mosaic Foods), vertically integrated by acquiring a kitchen, and raised three kids in NYC.
The lesson she learned the hard way? Your co-manufacturer can make or break you.
She got dropped by a co-manufacturer mid-growth. It almost killed the business. So she bought one.
What we’re asking Nicole:
How she went from $1M to $12M with 6 people (her mantra: each hire needs to generate $1M in ARR)
Why she vertically integrated instead of raising another VC round—and what that math looks like in low-margin food
The calendar-blocking system that lets her run a $10M+ company while being present for her kids
RYAN BELTRAN — Original Grain
The Watch Brand That Went $500K to $5M in One Year—Then Had to Learn Systems
Ryan and his brother started Original Grain with a Kickstarter in 2013. Raised half a million. Made watches with wood and steel.
Then Meta happened.
"We went from $500K to $5M in one year, almost entirely on Facebook ads," Ryan told us. "ROAS was 5x. We were crushing it."
Those days are over.
The business scaled to $15M. But they made mistakes—hired too many people (23 employees at $15M), bought too much inventory, and spent a year catching up.
Now they're leaner with a new unlock: licensing.
They've done deals with the Yankees (bought old stadium chairs off eBay to make limited-edition watches), Jack Daniels, Ford. Ryan says it's one of the most underrated strategies at the $10M mark.
What we’re asking Ryan:
Why the new rule is $2-3M revenue per employee (not $1M)—and how to structure with full-time, fractionals, and agencies
How to think about licensing at $10M (and avoid building their brand instead of yours)
The shift from founder to CEO: 9-5 for networking, 5-9 for actual work
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IN SUMMARY
This Tuesday:
We're talking cash flow. How much capital it actually took to go from $1M to $10M. Whether to raise, bootstrap, or take on debt.
We're talking team structure. How many people you need at $5M vs. $10M. The first three mission-critical hires.
We're talking acquisition. What's working beyond Meta. How unit economics shift when you can't rely on paid ads alone.
Want to chat? Reply to this email or email me ([email protected]).
See you in NYC on Tuesday ✌️
