Omnichannel Ventures

Founder, Retail Strategist

Stealth

Co-Founder, Managing Partner

BRANDED

Head of Retail Sales

Dr. Squatch Soap Co.

Director of Retail Sales

Genexa

Regional Sales Manager

Halo Top Creamery

Channel Sales Manager

PepsiCo

District Sales Leader

Sales Associate

Sales Leader Intern

Advisor & Retail Strategist to Disruptive Brands | Expert in CPG Scale Up | Ex - Dr. Squatch | Real Estate Development Co Launching Soon | Endurance Athlete

I’m Martin - consumer strategist/advisor, a real estate developer, & endurance athlete. 


Today, I help advise some of the most disruptive consumer brands on the planet. I’m also a partner in the real estate development company I helped cofound, currently in Stealth and launching soon.

As an early-stage employee at Dr. Squatch, I defined and executed the brands initial retail launch strategy. This culminated in a national launch and rapid expansion in Walmart, one of the most meaningful DTC to retail launches of all time. 

I help brands on a similar trajectory develop their omnichannel expansion strategies, applying the multitude of lessons and mistakes learned from Dr. Squatch and others. 

I also cofounded and lead real estate development for a soon to be announced venture. Our vision is to be one of the largest homebuilders in the country by 2030. 

I’m a housing advocate and I practice what I preach. As a first time homebuyer I bought a hoarder house, gut renovated it (while living there throughout construction) and utilized ADU laws to transform my single family home into a duplex. As the next phase, I will be one of the early pioneers of California’s law SB9 - which allows you to split your lot and build up to 4 units on parcels previously zoned for only one unit. 

I spend my free time in the mountains. I’m a 3x ultramarathoner, 5x regular marathoner, former D1 athlete and US National team member. I’m training for my first 100 miler in October 2025. 

Thanks for reading all this! If anything I wrote resonated I love speaking with interesting, enlightened people. Feel free to book time to chat above. 

High stoke, high gratitude!

Going on a solo pilgrimage to the Himalayas months after launching Highline Brands was not optimal. But I know this is the right thing for me and for the company, and here’s why:

When Diane Roy and I decided to build Highline Brands this summer, we both knew it was important for the company to be reflective of both of us. 

That’s how we landed on the name and visual identity - a higher mountain path, guides to the unknown, being of service to others. 

Through these last couple of weeks here in the Himalayas, I’ve embodied these virtues. 

And through this experience, continued to be able to help brands, connect them with Diane while I’m out, and open new distribution while on the other side of the planet. 

Huge shout to my partner Diane Roy and the rest of the team Kalynn Davis and Brie Brandenburg for holding down the fort while I’ve been out here having this heart opening expansive experience. 

Thing is, I know coming back I’ll be able to be more grounded, more present, more inspired for our brand partners. 

And that’s one of the best investments I could make. 

One more week left of the journey, integration is underway in the beatiful kingdom of Bhutan

📷 Contrasting the intensity of the high Himalayas with the beauty and flow of Bhutan

Martin Forde

Retail Brokerage & Strategy for Disruptive Brands | Co-Founder @ Highline Brands | Ex - Dr. Squatch (#13) | Real Estate Developer | Endurance Athlete

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Big CPG doesn’t innovate. It acquires.

But here’s the pattern that plays out (over and over again):

1️⃣ They buy a breakout brand that’s built something real.

2️⃣ They “integrate” it. Also burying it in the process.

3️⃣ The team that made it special begins to turnover naturally 

4️⃣ A new crop of MBA-flavored operators steps in, obsessed with lagging KPIs and yesterday’s wins.

5️⃣ The brand gets slower. Safer. Less weird. Less human.

6️⃣ The magic dies.

What made the brand disruptive doesn’t survive the handoff.

I’ve watched this happen too many times. The packaging stays. The product might linger. But the edge? Gone.

M&A is booming again. Will this next cycle be different?

We’ll see. But history has a long memory.

📷 Sprouts Farmers Market personal care section, with a few acquired brands which appear to follow this pattern

Today is the last day of my pilgrimage. And it was among the most spiritually significant days of my life. 

I had the great fortune of meeting and receiving a blessing from an accomplished Dzogchen Buddhist master and guru. Khenpo Sange Rangjung Rinpoche.

I came into my final two days of Kathmandu tired. Worn out from 3 weeks of solo traveling and exploring. 

Through a surreal combinations of synchronicities, I befriended a young Buddhist monk Padma. 

Padma had this immediate presence, this calm loving energy about him. He guided me in my final two days showing me all around the sacred temples, stupas, and caves all throughout Kathmandu. Places I’d never otherwise get to experience. 

And the culmination, the highlight was meeting this guru. A poetic and fitting end to the end of my journey. 

I asked a single question. I invited reflection after sharing a brief story on my spiritual journey. 

And what he said I’ll never forget. 

“Everything is mind”. 

For me, this affirms something I’ve long reflected on but never had the words for. 

The world arises in consciousness. Every emotion, every experience is just mind-play, tendencies appearing in awareness. 

Radiating gratitude to have such a powerful reflection on the final day of my journey. Grateful to my humble audience for bearing with me on my spiritual journey these last few weeks. Back to your regularly scheduled menu of CPG hot takes soon. 

📷 Some highlights from today’s meeting of Khenpo Sange Rangjung Rinpoche

Want to know most people’s reaction when I told them about my solo ultralight trek in Nepal in 7 days?

You’re crazy. 

If you don’t know me, sure. Seems crazy attempting a route at high altitude in less half the time most people take to complete it. 

But I’ve learned comments like these are more a projection of others than reflections of myself. 

And that’s because most people don’t operate at the edge of their own capacity. I do. 

I’m wired to push limits, go to the edge. To go to extreme highs. And also the lows that can follow those highs. 

Grateful for the opportunity to push limits, find my edge, and learn more about myself in the process. What a gift, what a journey. 

Have made it safely back to Kathmandu, recovering and integrating from a long journey. 

Tomorrow, I head to the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, a fitting contrast of calm grounded serenity from the intensity I just experienced over the last week. 

More to share! 

📷 Me & Everest, a peak I will stand upon one day

Every time I travel abroad and visit a grocery store, I’m reminded how the US has the greatest consumer ecosystem on the planet. 

Here’s one of the largest grocery stores in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. 8 Eleven, a funny pun of 7-Eleven? 

Inside it feels like a convenience store. It has everything you might expect, but outside of major multinational brands you don’t see much in the way of local brands except for commodities like rice and potato chips. 

The merchandising just feels… basic. No real thought or strategy behind what goes on shelves.

Makes me immensely grateful to have the opportunity helping brands do what they do in the US. The American retail landscape is fragmented and highly complex, but for the right brands it’s the best place on the planet to build and scale. 

Excited to be back home and on the grind soon 🤝

📷 8 Eleven and it’s merchandising

This solo trek in Nepal has transformed me. The immense highs, crushing lows. All powerful reflections from my life. 

Today was yet another high. I woke up after getting hit with a nasty GI bug feeling… great. 

Zero symptoms. Hungry even! Crushed a massive breakfast. 

And so I made the decision this morning to push onward, and complete the final pass Renjo La of my abbreviated Three Passes trek.

After a late start at 7am, I slowly and methodically pushed towards Renjo La at 17,585’. I passed several groups, feeling great throughout, and topped out around 2 hours later. 

And next came the descent, deeply symbolic of the next phrase of this journey, integration. 

It’s hard to put into words the expansion and presence I’ve felt in these mountains. The powerful simplicity of showing up day after day in brutal conditions, and receiving the lessons and reflections they’re meant to reflect back.

So far, I’ve learned to be calm and grounded. Detailed yet adaptable. Compassion. Strength. I pushed to my edge and looked over into the abyss. 

Grateful for all that I’ve experienced. Easy mellow cruise of 11 downhill miles into Lukla tomorrow! 

📷 me all zinc’ed up after burning my face off yesterday hanging at the pass of Renjo La, Everest in background of pic 2

Since returning from pilgrimage, beginning the reintegration into “real” life, almost everyone has asked me the same question. 

What did you learn? What did you take away from this experience? 

I can finally answer this now. 

I have this embodied state of clarity. 

A sense of purpose. A full knowing that what I’m doing now, what I’m building is in alignment with my highest self. 

Presently, one of those manifestations is building Highline Brands with Diane Roy. 

But beyond that, I’ve zoomed out and really thought on the impact I want to have on the world.

And what that is to be of service. To help people like me. To build and create everyday. 

What a privilege, what a gift to be living that out now in the present moment.

“I am a visionary. I can see into the future.”

Words which came to me in an intuitive download years ago, words which resonate deeply today. 

A visionary isn’t someone who just sees the future. It’s someone who builds it in the present. 

Humbled and honored to get to build. To be of service. To step into my purpose, in full alignment. 

Beyond stoked to share all that’s to come in 2026.

📷 me in the midst of my pilgrimage mid-trek, top of Kala Patthar with Everest in the background, feeling expansive as I do in this moment

Good news for Walmart might be bad news for the broader economy. Here’s why:

Walmart just reported quarterly earnings, with the country’s biggest retailer posting a 34% jump in profits. Not because the economy is booming. But because more Americans are trading down.

Consumers are shopping less often, but when they do, they’re heading to Walmart and spending more in fewer trips. Rollbacks are back in a big way. 7,400+ discounts across the store, especially in grocery.

That’s not a win for retail. That’s a signal.

When higher-income households shift spend toward EDLP, and lower-income consumers pull back altogether, it’s not “consumer strength” - it’s belt-tightening at scale.

The fact that Walmart is outperforming while other major retailers are revising guidance DOWN says a lot about where things are heading.

It’s also a reminder for CPG brands:
Attainable pricing isn’t just a strategy - it’s a necessity. Especially in mass.

The winners in 2025 will be the brands that get ruthless about value without compromising brand.

Walmart isn’t slowing down.
And if you want your brand to be on that ride, you’ll need to speak their language. Operationally, financially, and with your merchandising strategy.

Smart brands won’t treat this as a threat.
They’ll see it as an opportunity to build sharper, stronger, more durable businesses. Even when the broader macroeconomic picture is messy.

📷 NYT sources, (link in comments) & Walmart’s new Home Office campus

A brands performance on Black Friday / Cyber Monday is one of the biggest indicators of their capacity & scaleability in retail. Here’s why: 

These holiday events are a barometer. 

Success and scale during specific consumer buying periods like BFCM is a huge lagging indicator of a brands ability to impact consumer behavior. 

In retail, one of the clearest signals of a brands staying power is their ability to drive traffic to shelves. 

BFCM is a proxy and indicator for that same behavior - going to a store, buying the product. The call to action is just different. 

Great example of such a brand (that elicited a purchase from me!) was Ketone-IQ. 

Super polished and dialed BFCM offer - 30% off subscriptions plus a couple free gifts with branded swag. 

Ketone IQ has been on a tear lately, rapidly scaling up their retail footprint after building a resonant and impactful DTC business. 

The interplay between DTC and retail is a fine one. The best brands thread that needle.  

📷 Ketone IQ BFCM offer, them at Expo West earlier in the year, and me and Michael Brandt running sometime last year

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