Demystifying Retail Deductions and How to Protect Your Margin with Akash Raju, CEO of Glimpse
Consumer VC #356: Akash Raju, Co-Founder and CEO at Glimpse
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Brought to you by Glimpse
Glimpse and PRESENCE Marketing announced an official partnership to bring AI deductions management to their brand partners.“We’re constantly looking for innovative partners that drive real results for our clients,” said Andi Hendricks, VP of Professional Services at PRESENCE. “Glimpse’s AI technology directly addresses one of the biggest challenges our brands face, deductions, empowering them to recover revenue faster and focus on growth.”To help brands experience the platform firsthand, Glimpse offers a risk-free trial, including a 12-month audit look-back and dedicated recovery team to ensure success.
Hey friends,
On today’s episode, I chat with Akash Raju, Co-Founder and CEO of Glimpse, an AI-powered deductions management platform built to help consumer brands recover revenue lost in retail.
Before starting Glimpse, Akash spent years working directly with emerging brands and saw firsthand how confusing and costly retail can be. Today, he’s focused on solving one of the biggest financial blind spots in CPG — the hidden fees, compliance penalties, and invalid deductions that quietly drain up to 5 percent of a brand’s revenue each year.
We discuss why deductions have become such an expensive part of selling through retailers, how Glimpse built a 91 percent win rate on disputed claims, and why distributors create so much complexity. Akash also breaks down the power imbalance between brands and retailers, how AI is reshaping finance operations, and what every brand should know before expanding into wholesale.
If you’re scaling a CPG brand or preparing to enter retail, this episode is a masterclass in understanding the economics behind trade spend, deductions, and how to protect your margins from day one.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
✅ What makes retail so expensive for brands
✅ The hidden “deduction” ecosystem no one talks about
✅ How top CPG brands lose 5%+ of their revenue without realizing it
✅ Which deductions are worth fighting—and which aren’t
✅ How AI is changing the game for brand finance teams
✅ Why distributors like UNFI and KeHE are pain points for smaller brands
✅ How Glimpse built a 91% deduction win rate
✅ When (and why) brands should start caring about deductions
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:00 What Makes Retail So Expensive
03:00 How Glimpse Helps Brands Recover Lost Revenue
05:00 The Hidden World of Invalid Deductions
07:00 Why Deductions Are a Cross-Functional Headache
09:00 Building Glimpse: How Akash Found the Problem
12:00 Why UNFI and KeHE Are So Painful for Brands
15:00 How Retail Deductions Work (and What to Fight)
18:00 How Glimpse Uses AI to Recover Revenue
21:00 The Power Imbalance Between Retailers and Brands
24:00 Can Deductions Ever Be Fully Automated?
27:00 The Financial Blind Spots in Retail
30:00 How Different Categories Get Hit Harder
33:00 Expanding Glimpse Across Retailers: Target, Walmart, Amazon
36:00 When Brands Should Start Focusing on Deductions
39:00 The Categories With the Highest Invalid Deductions
Thanks for Listening!