Will Nitze

IQBAR

We make superior brain + body fuel. IQBAR® plant protein bars, IQMIX® hydration sticks, and IQJOE® mushroom coffees are packed with the functional compounds you need to win your day.

Founder & CEO

Wood Mackenzie

Sales & Marketing Manager

Sales & Marketing Associate

Founder/CEO, IQBAR🍫(EATIQBAR.com)

🍫 Founder & CEO, IQBAR (iqbar.com)
📈 Purveyor of random startup learnings
🎓 Harvard BA

HQ demo / lobby takeover at Sprouts Farmers Market today!

📍Phoenix, AZ

Nothing gets the people going quite like a custom cornhole set. 🌽⛳️

#iqbar #sprouts #cpg

Avoid "startup summer camp" for at least the first five years of your biz.

Awards, special lists, incubators/accelerators, name-brand advisors, irrelevant press coverage, expensive website/logo/packaging re-designs, founder meetups/retreats, exclusive dinners, etc., etc., etc.

They're all fun. Just like summer camp!

But none of them are real. None of them move the needle.

Sell more units. Interact with more customers. Recruit more savage animals to join your team. Improve your product by 10%. Move...the...needle.

Or RSVP for "Founderfest 2024" and report back with results in 2-3 years.

#startupsummercamp #entrepreneurship #cpg

IQBAR will grow 100%+ again this year and demand planning is now our top focus.

We need a Supply Chain Manager.

📊 Responsibilities…

→ Develop and maintain demand planning model across multiple disparate data sources
→ Enhance inventory management systems/processes
→ Support production planning and raw material procurement
→ Manage inbound and outbound freight networks
→ Support oversight of contracted manufacturing partners

🛠️ Desired skills…

→ Mastery of Excel (modeling, VBA, macros, etc.)
→ 1+ year(s) of relevant work experience
→ Chicago-based is preferred

💵 Salary Range…

→ $75k-$85k/year

If you - or someone you know - might be a good fit, please engage with this post and ping me at will@eatiqbar.com.

Hop on the 🚀 while there’s still time!

#job #jobdescription #cpg

I'm not particularly well known for my housekeeping prowess.

Yet Good Housekeeping just named IQBAR the "Best Functional Protein Bar" of 2024.

Thus, I will now be highlighting ways I keep my house on a weekly basis...

Brace for impact.

- - -

(LINK IN COMMENTS)

#goodhousekeeping #proteinbars #cpg

CPG can get super boring super quick.

At first, it’s wildly exciting!

New product, new branding, new packaging, new website, first retail partnership, first hire, etc., etc., etc.

BUT, when you achieve a certain level of scale, you’re selling the same exact thing over and over and over…and over.

Your day-to-day becomes predictable. Rote. Under-stimulating.

The boringness is, of course, by design (boring + intense focus wins). But a good business model doesn’t inspire you to leap out of bed in the morning.

So what’s the solve?

I think it’s different things for different people. For me, it’s a combination of new product development, content creation, and value-add networking.

For you, it might be wearing a Power Rangers costume to work. Or whatever you’re into.

In any case, fight boring. Cuz boring kills.

#startups #entrepreneurship #cpg

I'll take a bad idea over no idea all day long.

Show me a bad idea, and I'll show you a baseline that can pivot into greatness.

Apathy and inaction are the REAL killers.

#biasforaction

The best form of advice is "Here's what's possible" advice.

It's helpful 100% of the time.

"Don't do that" advice - by contrast - has an incredibly spotty record.

#advice #startups #cpg

I’m a fan of nepotism.

Blasphemy, right? Cancel me!

Or…read on.

I’m not a fan because it gave me leverage at the *outset* of my startup journey.

Our first major investors were not friends or family, we had zero CPG experience, etc., etc., etc.

I’m a fan because, years in, we’ve made a few “nepotistic” hires that MASSIVELY changed the game for us.

Why did it work?

Let’s start with potential downsides of a nepotistic hire…

→ Incompetence
→ Low effort / complacency
→ Awkward to fire (if warranted)

Now for the potential upsides…

→ Ironclad trustworthiness
→ Exceptionally high effort
→ 100% buy-in on mission

Simply control for the downsides! The *right* nepotistic hire has none of them.

And the upsides? Well they just so happen to be the single most important traits a teammate can have.

Ok…NOW you can cancel me. 🙂

#startups #entrepreneurship #cpg

Good business practices generally run counter to good life practices.

Which is awkward.

What's the smartest business strategy?

Intense focus. Strict routine. Reliable systems and processes.

What's the worst life strategy?

Intense focus. Strict routine. Reliable systems and processes.

Routine and habituation result in a dulled reaction to external stimuli (because it's the same stimuli every time). Translation: they make life boring. If we wanna get really dramatic about it, they make life more death-like.

What's more, when life is boring we perceive it to be shorter (because days blend together). Thus, when people say "life is short," they typically mean "I *perceive* life to be short because low-stimulation days/months/years go by quickly."

The antidote? Adventure.

Adventure attaches emotional significance to events on a regular basis. It disrupts routine. It  lengthens our perception of time, such that we feel life isn't actually short - it's long!

But, again, adventure isn't a great business model...

...so we find ourselves in a pickle.

- - -

There's a great TikTok on this - added in Comments.

#business #life

Fewer, better people solves pretty much every business problem.

(And life problem).

#people

Update: Shawn David is an absolute animal and helped me knock this out in like 15 minutes. He also is working on something very cool - stay posted 👀.

- - -

Any Zapier whiz interested in making a quick buck?

I have a few Zapier flows that integrate with Shopify and ShipStation that keep breaking and I'm too busy writing this post to solve the problem myself.

#zapier #help

Just two guys talking about stuff on a Wednesday.

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