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Hey friends,
On today’s episode, we have Chris Jane, Co-Founder and CEO of Proper Good.
"We're going to make soup in a pouch. Hear me out."
That's how Chris Jane pitched his sister Jennifer on what became Proper Good. They launched in April 2020, scaled DTC through the pandemic, got a Shark Tank deal with Mark Cuban, and then did something almost no emerging brand does: skipped the natural channel entirely and launched national in Walmart.
In this episode, Chris breaks down why that decision made sense on the math, what it took to get a Walmart buyer to underwrite a five to seven year category rebuild, and why the health claims that drove sales online actively hurt them in the aisle. Plus the oatmeal test that killed one of their own brand pillars.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:46 Launching a brand in April 2020
4:11 Montana Mex and building with his sister
9:09 Where Proper Good came from
15:08 Shark Tank
19:32 Why Walmart was the first retail swing
24:20 Competing with Campbell's on price
26:24 When health claims hurt sales
32:35 Raising from family offices
38:12 The brand pillar we made up
43:51 Taking the Walmart data everywhere else
53:46 Biggest win, biggest mistake, and one piece of advice
