Jonathon Blair

Free to Grow CFO

www.freetogrowcfo.com

Increase Profit and Cash Flow As You Scale. 

Outsourced CFO and Bookkeeping services for profit-focused DTC brands. 

Scaling a DTC brand is stressful. 

With messy books and no CFO on your team you run the risk of…

-Hiring too quickly 
-Buying too much inventory
-Scaling ad spend unprofitably
-Running out of cash

And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don’t want that for you.

Free to Grow CFO has given dozens of DTC brands a plan for scaling alongside
healthy profit and cash flow. Our plan will work for you too


Fast, Insightful Reporting.  Proactive Strategic Advice.  From DTC Finance Experts.

-M&A
-Debt & Equity Funding
-Accurate Financials by the 15th
-Planning, Forecasting, Budgeting
-Financial Dashboards and KPI Tracking


All delivered through our proven, ready-to-implement “Free to Grow CFO Process”.

Founder | Fractional CFO

Luminous

Strategic Advisor

StoreHero

SureStop

SURESTOP (A Mark Cuban Company) is a patented brake technology which solves the problem of incorrect braking on bicycles and revolutionizes the experience of stopping on a bike. On a traditional bike, if a rider brakes too hard, or grabs the wrong brake lever at the wrong time, the front wheel can stop too soon, causing the bike to flip over. Not with SURESTOP. In addition to the safety advantage, SURESTOP also makes the experience of braking simple, requiring only one brake lever to control both brakes.

Learn more at:
www.surestop.bike

COO & CFO

Guardian Bikes

Guardian Bikes (A Mark Cuban Company) is a digitally native vertical brand focused on creating the world's safest kid's bikes, featuring our patented and award winning SureStop brake technology.

In addition to innovating the bicycle itself, Guardian has created the first truly seamless online bike buying experience. Our first of its kind online 3D sizing software (RideSizer), along with our 99% assembly and packaging methods, allow customers to receive the perfect sized bike to their door that's ready to ride in less than 10 minutes. www.guardianbikes.com

SureStop/Guardian Bike Company

SURESTOP (A Mark Cuban Company) is a patented brake technology which solves the problem of incorrect braking on bicycles and revolutionizes the experience of stopping on a bike. On a traditional bike, if a rider brakes too hard, or grabs the wrong brake lever at the wrong time, the front wheel can stop too soon, causing the bike to flip over. Not with SURESTOP. In addition to the safety advantage, SURESTOP also makes the experience of braking simple, requiring only one brake lever to control both brakes.

Learn more at:
www.surestop.bike

Guardian Bikes is a digitally native vertical brand focused on creating the world's safest kid's bikes, featuring our patented and award winning SureStop brake technology.

In addition to innovating the bicycle itself, Guardian has created the first truly seamless online bike buying experience. Our first of its kind online 3D sizing software (RideSizer), along with our 99% assembly and packaging methods, allow customers to receive the perfect sized bike to their door that's ready to ride in less than 10 minutes. www.guardianbikes.com

A Mark Cuban Company

Controller & Operations Director

RSS Manufacturing

Controller

Civil Solutions Incorporated

RSS Manufacturing/Phylrich

Accounting Manager

The Joseph Company International

DTC Brand Fractional CFO | Follower of Jesus | Husband | Father of 3 | Fractional CFO | Leadership, Strategy & Productivity Nerd

Formerly a founding team member, CFO, and COO for Guardian Bikes:
       -Shark Tank/Mark Cuban Company
       -High-growth DTC brand
       -Led business growth from $0 to 8-figure revenue in 4 years.  
       -Raised 8-figures in debt and equity capital 

Over a decade of experience working as a Controller, CFO, or COO at fast-growing companies with:
              -$5MM to $50MM in annual revenue
              -50% to 200% annual revenue growth

Founded Free to Grow CFO to:
       -Package hands-on experience leading growing brands
       -Help DTC brand founders increase profit and cash flow as they scale.

www.freetogrowcfo.com

www.freetogrowcfo.com

Fractional CFOs for High Growth Direct-to-Consumer Brands

Outsourced, part-time CFO services for high growth D2C brands, designed to help you scale your business with confidence.

You don't have to suffer through another sleepless night worrying about making difficult business decisions alone.  Hire a Free to Grow CFO and get the financial insights you need to make fast, effective business decisions with confidence.

Get access to the CFO you need to scale your business without the full-time salary:
-Strategic Planning
-Forecasting & Projections
-Cash Strategy & Fundraising
-Financial Statement Analysis

Jon Blair

Flavor Forward Strategy

Independent Strategist partnering with brands to create healthy, sustainable food innovation

Recent Projects:
• Innovation Strategy Lead for a rapidly growing ($50MM) BFY confectionery snack brand. Established brand guardrails, landscaped 5 adjacent categories, and facilitated cross-functional ideation workshop culiminating in category extension / brand stretch recommendations.

• Interim Innovation Director for a ($1.5B+) private equity backed juice brand. Created brand & innovation architectures, shaped consumer insights & unmet needs into innovation platforms, wrote 75 product concepts in <1 week, and filled the brand's 5 year innovation pipeline.

• External Facilitator for a ($300MM) growth-stage, better for you, better for the planet meat snack. Conducted stakeholder interviews, planned, moderated, and directed the brand's first-ever innovation summit generating 10 testable new product concepts.

• Brand Strategist supporting a global team of behavior change specialists & nutritionists. Tasked with landscaping the dietary diversity needs of school-age children in India to fight malnutrition & micronutrient deficiency, mapping best practices & gaps in existing programs (public, private, NGOs, and PPPs), and making recommendations to further improve the ($600MM) health drink's social impact.

• Head of Insights & Innovation for a rapidly growing ($50MM), purpose-driven, clean-label frozen novelties brand. Established repeatable commercialization process, tested 50 category extensions, filled 3-year innovation pipeline, wrote sell-in story and customer-facing category strategy for long-term growth.

• Innovation Strategist for two of the world's largest ($1B+) salty snack brands. Elevated jobs to be done with culturally relevant & emotionally rich consumer insights, drafted discussion guides, moderated digital consumer interviews, facilitated cross-functional ideation workshops, and wrote new product platforms & concepts.

More here: 
FlavorFwd.com

Founder & Innovation Director

Drake University

Guest Lecturer for Drake's College Of Business & Public Administration

Courses:
-Consumer Behavior: Marketing + Psychology (Mktg 115)
-Money or Mission: First Year Seminar in Social Entrepreneurship (FYS 004)

Guest Lecturer - Consumer Behavior & Social Entrepreneurship

The Taste Trust

Co-Founder of The Taste Trust. We're a merry band of food innovators with 3 goals...

• Connect - smart people with different perspectives (brand, co. size, location, function, seniority)
• Learn - from each other, making each of us 10% smarter about food innovation
• Play with Purpose - bringing fresh air to stale (but real) business problems

Every month, Taste Trustees bring one of the the following to our call:
• A food innovation challenge / business issue we're wrestling with
• An untapped whitespace opportunity we believe has potential
• An innovation trend we're keeping an eye on
• A new product that we love / hate

Along the way we learn a little and laugh a lot.

Co-Founder

Tropicana Brands Group

Interim Innovation Director, Tropicana

GoodPop

Interim Head of Insights & Innovation

Wells Enterprises

Brand Manager for Blue Bunny's $500MM ice cream & frozen novelties businesses

• Served as "general manager", overseeing all daily operations for flagship Blue Bunny brand
• Orchestrated 8-figure IMC/360 marketing campaign incl. TV, social media, digital, PR
• Led new product commercialization & portfolio management for all product lines
• Supported director & innovation team on 3 year plan and innovation pipeline
• Owned media plan & marketing budget; led monthly demand meetings with senior leadership
• Managed two senior associate brand managers & creative/PR/social/media agencies

Brand Manager, Blue Bunny

Yum! Brands

Brand manager with P&L responsibility for $1.5 billion KFC U.S. Group Occasion segment

• Returned declining segment to growth, delivering +30% sales growth YTD thru Aug '20
• Coached 2 associate brand managers & served on KFC’s Coaches Council on behalf of marketing
• Oversaw the design, planning, and execution of 10+ cross-functional projects at a time
• Facilitated bi-weekly innovation alignment meetings with c-suite and key franchisees
• Sold 400k Cinnabon Desert Biscuits per day and won QSR's 2019 package of the year
• Generated over one billion impressions with Chicken & Donuts, driving millennial consideration
• Coached new ABM through KFC's biggest bet of 2019, Kentucky Fried Wings in <6 months

The relaunch of Kentucky Fried Wings effectively tripled our sales of wings during the promotion, and doubled ongoing everyday sales for the layer.  This was a highly complex launch, touching virtually every part of the business, including:

• Renovation of 2 core menu items (hot wings & BBQ sauce)
• Launch of a new sauce (buffalo)
• Development of new cooking & saucing procedures back of house
• Significant changes to menu boards
• National rollout of Delivery via GrubHub
• An ambitious supply plan increasing wings production to over one million pounds per week

Brand Manager, KFC Calendar Marketing

Innovation manager responsible for overhauling KFC’s innovation stage-gate process

• Redesigned KFC’s innovation process to generate more ideas and standardize consumer testing
• Accelerated product development process, cutting down on paperwork & time to market
• Filled 18 month innovation pipeline, a key enabler for 2018 & 2019 annual operating plans
• Started embedding a culture of innovation with R&D, marketing, finance, and operations teams

Brand Manager, KFC Upstream Design & Innovation

Unilever

Innovation lead for two of Unilever’s largest heritage ice cream brands: Popsicle & Klondike

• Initiated format launch across 4 brands estimated to contribute $100M in retail sales
• Collaborated with agencies to reposition Popsicle, including 2019+ communications roadmap
• Led innovation for Popsicle Canada & Klondike Canada (new products & claims through 2020)
• Ran point on nutrition & sustainability, ensuring that our growth was responsible
• Redesigned Popsicle.com (managed 4 external agency partners and cross functional teammates)

Senior Associate Brand Manager, Popsicle & Klondike Innovation

Resident expert on developed markets for the world’s largest hand washing program 

• International short term assignment in Mumbai, India
• Crafted strategy for launching Lifebuoy in new countries (i.e. white spaces) 
• Localized Lifebuoy’s interactive voice response (IVR) mother's program for Indonesia and Kenya
• Streamlined UX for reporting the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan’s (USLP) reach

Senior Associate Brand Manager, Lifebuoy Social Mission

Brand expert for sales teams & customer expert for the brand team

• Coordinated development of national sales strategy, incl. price & promotional guidelines
• Partnered with all major customer teams to set trade rates & sales targets
• Optimized trade spend by analyzing past events and vetting in-year funding requests
• Tracked all in-store merchandising to ensure flawless off-shelf product placement
• Set standards to prevent channel conflict between e-commerce and brick & mortar retailers
• Supported retail sell-in of Hellmann's Vegan (Carefully Crafted) and Organic Mayonnaise 
• Supported foodservice and retail sell-in of Hellmann's Stick Packets

Channel & Customer Development, Hellmann's/Best Foods

Business Manager with P&L responsibility for $200 million personal care brand 

• Led all cross-functional margin improvement & innovation projects
• Owned business operations for the brand, incl. P&L management, budgeting, and forecasting
• Managed external agency partners (PR, design, and social media) 
• Led digital marketing (incl. SEO, SEM, and e-commerce)
• Supported Unilever’s campus recruiting team and employee wellness business resource group
• Delivered Q-tips best-selling month ever (to-date): August 2015
• Recognized by AdWeek as the #8 Most Trusted CPG Brand for Women

Senior Assistant Brand Manager, Q-tips & Vaseline

Unilever’s boots on the ground in Minnesota for Walmart, Target, and the Grocery channel 

• Enhanced store-level execution of customer marketing programs 
• Piloted new share of shelf software & reported compliance vs. planograms 
• Built and maintained displays and other forms of in-store visibility (ISV)
• Influenced store managers to participate in marketing programs, improving display support

Retail Analyst

Data Analyst for Unilever’s 200+ Hair Care SKUs at Target

• Supported TRESemme, Nexxus, Dove, Suave, Clear, Axe, TIGI, TONI&GUY, Motions, Just for Me
• Optimized coupon drops to prevent layering & maximize ROI of brand/retailer trade spend
• Conducted ad-hoc analysis using Nielsen & RSi to refine category price & promo strategy 
• Developed data-driven consultative sales support material
• Partnered with Category Management & Customer Service to improve forecasting & in-stocks

Sales Analyst, Target Hair Care

Brand Management Intern for Vaseline – encouraged men to add skin care to grooming routines

• Developed launch plans for Men’s Spray Lotion with external agencies (PR, Design, and Media)
• Conducted competitive analysis of men’s lotion category using Nielsen Nitro and ad spend data
• Recommended growth opportunities in men’s grooming segments to marketing leadership

Brand Management Intern

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

Marketing intern – helped a team of financial advisors find & serve high net worth individuals

• Developed full marketing plan for financial advisors to grow assets under management (AUM)
• Improved conversion with snowball sampling and referrals in place of cold calling 
• Worked with an advanced CRM system to generate warm leads (high net worth individuals)
• Partnered with compliance team to develop new, substantiated marketing claims 
• Recommended business development opportunities with large local businesses
• Recruited and trained my replacement to ensure a seamless transition

Marketing Intern

I'm an innovation strategist on a mission to create $500MM in healthy, sustainable food innovation by 2030 in support of the United Nations' SDGs.

It's a blend of food innovation, brand strategy, consumer insights, and environmental & social impact work.

➤ Who I Help:
✓ Entrepreneurs: 
co-founders | bootstrapped startups | investor-backed scaleups

✓ Intrapreneurs:
purpose-driven brands in the food & beverage and CPG industry


➤ Where I Started:
✓ In-house brand management / strategic marketing for...
✓ Unilever (Popsicle, Klondike, Hellmann's, Best Foods)
✓ Yum! Brands (KFC)
✓ Wells Enterprises (Blue Bunny)


➤ What I Do:
✓ Food Innovation:
product-market fit | category extension | category creation | brand stretch | whitespace mapping | platform innovation | portfolio architecture | competitive landscaping | innovation process design | concept writing

✓ Consumer Insights:
concept testing | consumption data analysis | qualitative research | focus groups | interviews | ethnography | consumer journey mapping | workshop facilitation | research vendor referrals

✓ Brand Strategy:
value proposition | brand positioning | brand purpose | social mission | vision | values | brand personality | brand archetypes | distinctive attributes | functional benefits | emotional benefits | brand key


➤ Why I Do It:
1) We need to accelerate our transition to a more sustainable food system. Today, global food production accounts for ~35% of emissions and ~50% of habitable land use, yet ~1/3 of the food we produce goes to waste. By 2050, there will be 10 billion people on this planet. They will need to eat.

2) We need to encourage people to make healthier choices with food. 1/3 of Americans are obese. Another 1/3 of Americans are overweight. Plant-based diets reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and stroke, and simultaneously improve our quality of life while we're here.

3) If the core skills of a marketer are behavior change & demand generation, and if the core function of innovation is to solve human problems, I can think of no better use of my time & talents than helping people make better choices with food -- both for themselves and for the planet we all inhabit.


➤ How I Do It:
✓ Values: growth, truth, freedom
✓ Strengths: learner, focus, achiever, analytical, significance
✓ Archetypes: creator, explorer, sage
✓ Enneagram: 5 (investigator), 1 (reformer), 8 (challenger)
✓ MBTI: INTJ (architect)


If you're a founder, entrepreneur, investor, innovator, or strategist working to make the food world a better place...
🌍 read more: FlavorFwd.com
👍 let's connect!

Nick Budden

88-93% of Americans don’t eat enough plants.
Those are real numbers. From the CDC.
Specifically…

12.3% of Americans eat their daily fruit.
10.0% of Americans eat their daily vegetables.
<10% of Americans eat their daily whole grains.
7% of Americans -- just 7% -- eat their daily fiber.

That means you’re outnumbered.
By about 10:1

If you want to eat well, get comfortable being different.

Fortunately, small changes compound fast. 
Start with 1 more serving -- *today* -- and grow from there.

Have better-for-you food brands lost the plot entirely?
Sometimes I really do wonder.

I wonder if we’ll ever stop defining “better” as the absence of a negative (fat, sugar, calories, etc.) or stop the myopic/mechanical process of bolting on one nutrient of interest at a time.

Not just adding 20 grams of protein and calling it better. 
Not hot swapping the worst ingredient for the 2nd worst.
Not formulating for a claim on a label, but for real people.

Not just following consumer perceptions – hiding behind the convenient comfort of “just giving people what they want” – but actually educating people to want what they already clinically need. 

I wonder if we’ll ever define better health and nutrition as it actually is – as the presence of the *many* positives offered, first and foremost, by an abundant variety of minimally-processed fruits & vegetables.

Where “white space” and “unmet need” are not defined within the narrow bounds of fiduciary responsibility, but within the much broader realm of real unmet human needs – a white space that remains perennially unexplored, under-developed, and yes, unmet.

I wonder if we ever stop to consider the harm we cause when we casually use the terms “wants” and “needs” interchangeably. 

I wonder if we can ever learn to look beyond “the business reality” to see *reality*. I’m not suggesting we ignore financial results. I’m beckoning for braver leadership, to be 1% more open to the idea that financial results and public health outcomes can improve in tandem.

Is that a message BFY brands are ready to hear?
Because sometimes I really do wonder…

taplio

The Battle

Jon Blair

Nick Budden

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreNick Budden's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jon Blair

Nick Budden

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nick Budden's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNick Budden's LinkedIn Performance