Ryan Rouse

MALK Organics

President

Self Employed

Growth Advisor

HighKey 

Chief Executive Officer (acquired)

Board Member

Chief Marketing & Ecommerce Officer

Tasseo Consumer Ecosystem

Operating Partner

Serenity Kids

Head of Growth

Factor_

Co-Founder (Acquired by Hello Fresh)

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Merrill Lynch

Vice President of Sales

Growth advisor to consumer businesses with a focus on every line of the P&L | Previously, Co-Founder at Factor Meals (acquired), CEO at Highkey

9 reasons why you shouldn’t work with me:

1. You have a 2025 plan you are confident you can hit.

2. Your plan is built using metrics that will allow you to easily identify why you are off plan on any given month, and take action on it.

3. You DON’T have a gut feeling that if someone experienced looked under the hood of your sales channels, they would find obvious improvements that could be made.

4. You are confident you are consistently working on the right things.

5. You are confident you have the right people - employees, agencies and contractors - working on those things.

6. You have a dashboard that gives you a clear sense of where the business is going

7. You have a process in place that uses data to identify what you should do among all the things you could do.

8. You have someone on your team who works with your contractors and agencies in a collaborative way that ensures both sides are set up to get the most out of the relationship.

9. You have a regular planning process in place that creates focused action, not reactive chaos.

If you were nodding your head while going down this list, we are not a fit.

If you were shaking your head, we could be.

Shoot me a DM and let’s see.

Vice President | Partner

Data driven investors in early stage consumer brands. 

You can’t outrun your reputation.

I've been in consumer for over 12 years and can’t tell you number of times I’ve crossed paths with the same people again and again.

In many cases many years later.   

The realty is, everyone is 1-2 degrees of separation from multiple people who’ve worked with you in some capacity.   

And there’s a story out there about you. A story that will make things significantly easier (or harder) for you along your way. 

 So make sure that story is a good one.  Because this game is played over decades, not years.

Never Been on a Forbes List | President at MALK Organics | Daddy at Rouse House | Previously: Co-Founder & CMO at Factor_, CEO at Highkey

Give your team access to the P&L.
All of them.  

Better yet, teach them how to read it. And educate them on how their role contributes to it.  

Alignment comes when everyone works towards the same goals.  

The P&L shows you how sustainable your operating model is and whether it's trending in the right direction or not. 

It also exposes your opportunities and risks. 

If they aren’t seeing those things, true alignment doesn't exist. 

Can you imagine how a sports team would do if only 20% of the team saw the scoreboard?  

The answer: Not as well as they could be doing.

“If I texted them today and said 'I need you', they'd be on the next flight out. No questions asked.”

That’s how I’ve always described my closest relationships. 

It’s a special kind of bond. 

And not as simple as it seems. 

Because in order to have those types of friendships, you have to (i) be willing to do the same for them, and (ii) be someone who doesn’t abuse that loyalty. 

And you have to stand the test of time doing both.

For my 20’s and most of my 30’s, I was in a big hurry to be successful.

I felt like I had to make it happen right away, so I was always pressing.

But over the years, I noticed the most successful people I’ve been around all seemed to expect things to work out. 

From the outside it looks like everything comes naturally to them.

But a big reason why it appears that way is they go with the flow. 

They let things happen.

So one big shift I made in my late 30's was to let things come to me more. 

Ironically, since making that change, more things started to come. 

I’m still widely ambitious for success in every area of my life. And work hard to get there. 

But I’m not hell-bent on making it all happen today. 



#happiness #success #mindset

You have to be category obsessed to win in CPG.

Consumers shop categories. 

Retailers manage categories. 

Founders used to have to immerse themselves into the category before thinking about anything else when retail was the only distribution channel available. 

That obsession on the front end went away during the DTC boom.

Founders lost sight of the fact that consumers still compare their product to the broader category despite the fact that those other options don't sit side by side with theirs on their dot com.

And that's one of the reasons many digitally native brands couldn't make the leap to retail.

You gotta be an expert in your category to win.

There are marketers in consumer who know DTC.  

There are marketers in consumer who know Amazon.

There are marketers in consumer who know Retail.  

There are marketers in consumer who know DTC, Amazon, and Retail.   

As an operator of a consumer brand, you want the last one as your head of marketing.

It’s common to think you can handle the role of the person above you - until you’re in that seat.   

There’s always more to it then you think.  

So, rather than working to get into that role as quickly as possible…  Learn as much as you can about the role from person who’s in it now.   

Be a sponge.   
Ask them what’s on their plate.  
Why they are making the decisions they’re making.   

That way, you’re prepared when you do get your shot.   

It’s a long game, play it that way.

Dinner with my wife's family gave me a valuable lesson to anyone trying to grow a consumer brand.

My MIL was telling my wife about a product she loves, which was enough to convince my wife to buy one.

(Not the lesson but a great reminder that WOM is king - always has been and always will be.)

My wife takes out her phone and immediately goes to Amazon. 

Wasn't there. 

Next, Target dot com. 

Not there either. 

She went to their dot com but never made the purchase because in the 5 minutes it took her to navigate their site she was interrupted by one of our kids. 

Then we got to talking and it was out of her head. 

I was super curious if she ever made the purchase, so I asked her yesterday if she bought it. 

Not yet. 

I have a deep affinity for the DTC channel - that's where I cut my teeth. 

But you gotta understand that it's the channel with the most friction in the eyes of the consumer. And generating sales is about removing friction. 

And while there are people who will deal with the friction that comes with your DTC channel, you're missing out on the people who don't care enough (yet) to deal with the added friction if you aren't selling elsewhere. 

My wife would've made that purchase in 90 seconds if it was available on her first two stops. With that purchase, she might have built an affinity for the product and brand. That affinity could have given her the patience she needed to go to their website for the next purchase. 

Instead, she may never purchase.

The founder’s story is powerful in your marketing if you recognize one thing:  

You – the founder – are not the most important character.  

Here's what I mean:  Your customer thinks about one person when considering whether or not to buy - them. 

So, if they can see themselves in the founder’s story, it draws them in. And has the resonating effect a great founder’s story can have.   

Where this goes wrong is when brands believe the founder is the hero.   

They aren’t - the customer is.


#storytelling #marketing

Your ability to impose your will onto a project - and drag it over the line - is directly correlated to your success. 

Success of the business if you're a founder or executive. 

Your career trajectory as an individual contributor.

Sounds simple, but it's not. Because it requires grit, tenacity, and influence over others.

And while a title helps with the influence piece, it's not enough. 

True influence comes from relationships you've built with the humans you need to enlist to get the job done.

Operating a business or function is emotionally draining.

It can cause you to lose your confidence for periods of time.

Often manifesting as imposter syndrome.

But the flip side is intoxicating. 

When you snap out of it and remember that you’re a lion who does lion shit.

My goal isn’t to try and avoid the low periods.

It’s to recognize them quicker and jump back to lion mode faster.

When poor decisions — or lack of decisions — become commonplace, people notice. 

And the more it’s allowed to go on, the more they lose faith.

In leadership.

And, ultimately, in the mission. 

By the time you know something, they’ve known for longer. 

So, move quickly and decisively. 

And realize that the downsides that come with changeover are made up for 100x in the faith that gets restored in the team.

Your "get sh-t live line" is an important thing for any functional leader to be aware of.   

To know, on any given project or initiative, when you’ve reached the point where it’s good enough to push live and move on.

At some point there’s a diminishing return on time and energy invested. 

And an opportunity cost - if you're still doing Thing A, you aren't doing Thing B.

Along with product and team, speed is one of your main strategic advantages as an early stage brand.   

Version done may not be better than a future version, but you learn nothing from version none.

When you avoid difficult conversations, you aren't preserving peace. You're kicking the can down the road.

Have the difficult conversations real time.

While uncomfortable in the moment, those convos lead to stronger relationships built on mutual respect and understanding.

If you’re a consumer brand trying to drive retail velocities via marketing, start at the point of sale.

Because those dollars will work the hardest for you. 

High intent traffic is already there, so you should focus on grabbing their attention.

In store signage, for example.

This is a banger of a secondary display. 

There is no better ad unit to drive awareness and sales - brand + performance - than a brand block or off shelf display. 

High amount of traffic from high intent buyers.

One of the benefits of working at early stage companies is how quickly you can become valuable. 

No matter how good I was at my job at Merrill Lynch, being 1 out of 75,000 employees meant being valuable (in the eyes of people at high levels) was hard.

That’s not the case at small companies.

BUT

You gotta remain valuable. 

And the best weapon you can bring to that fight: Resourcefulness. 

In short, get good at figuring out how to get sh-t done.



#startups #growth #business

Be careful not to over value advice from people outside the company.

This can come off as "no sh-t, sherlock" advice when talking about people who don't know your industry.

But it's not so easy when talking about advice from experienced people.

The mistake isn't seeking out those outside perspectives. That's encouraged.

The mistake is placing too much weight on it. 

No matter how close to the brand someone is, they don't have the context and nuanced understanding you do.

And they don't have your intuition.

Because those things come from eating, sleeping and breathing the brand every single day.

The gap between the outside perception and the actual reality of entrepreneurship is massive.   

Don’t believe the hype, it’s a hard and lonely path.

Which is why there’s an unspoken kinship amongst those who have chosen to walk that path. And the reason every conversation I have with founders is more of a therapy session than anything else.   

For both of us. 


#startups #entrepreneurship

The filters that determine who I like to spend time with:  

They are a good human, fun to be around, and honest about the bullshit they're dealing with - internally and externally. 

Sounds simple, but the combination of the 3 filters out a lot of people. 

With the last one doing the heaviest lifting.

Taplio

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