Had a founder reach out to me this summer asking if I could look at why their brand burned through $300k in 6 months with nothing to show for it.

Good product. Solid market fit. Should've worked.

But when I dug into what actually happened? Classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen. And honestly, I see this all the time.

Here's what their setup looked like:

• 3 brand advisors (all giving conflicting advice)

• A design agency ($10k for a website that Shopify templates could've done for way cheaper)

• 2 different marketing consultants

• Various "specialists" for each platform

• Monthly retainers eating up cash

• Warehouse space they didn't need yet

Every decision took 2-3 weeks.

Every test needed approval from 5 people.

Every pivot turned into a committee discussion.

Meanwhile their runway was burning.

By the time they came to me, they had $40k left and zero momentum.

The real problem?

Nobody was actually DOING anything. Everyone was advising, strategizing, consulting... but who was executing?

The design agency made pretty designs (and ads...). The brand advisors had opinions. The consultants wrote reports.

But nobody was running ads, testing offers, or talking to customers.

This is what kills most early-stage DTC brands. Too many people giving advice, not enough people doing the work.

Here's what should've happened from day 1:

Lean team structure

• 1 person making final decisions (the founder)

• 1-2 people who can actually execute (not just advise)

• Clear ownership - no "let me check with the team" BS

Smart resource allocation

• Minimal spend on branding

• Maximum spend on customer acquisition

Agile testing

• Launch fast, test fast

• Scale what works

• Kill what doesn't immediately

• No 3-week decision cycles

What I told them to do:

Cut everyone. Seriously.

Fire the advisors. Drop the agency. End the consultant retainers.

Take that $40k they had left and spend it on:

• Basic Shopify setup ($500)

• Product photography (you can even do that with Ai nowadays) <($2k)

• Marketing/Acqusition ($37.5k)

They've adopted this suggestion and started running TikTok Shop, Amazon Ads & low amount on google & meta...

In 4 weeks, the first profitable week kicked in.

Could've been there 6 months ago if they hadn't wasted time (and money) on all the "help."

The lessons:

1. Clear ownership - One decision maker per area. Marketing? One person. Product? One person. Multiple stakeholders = paralysis and burned cash.

2. Speed > Perfection - Launch with 80% and learn. Perfect plans are worthless if you run out of money before executing them.

3. Focus your budget - Put 80% of resources into customer acquisition. Everything else should be minimal until you prove the model. Nobody cares about your brand guidelines if you can’t acquire customers profitably.

The fastest DTC brands I work with have tiny teams. Usually founder + 1-2 execution people. That’s it. The slowest ones? 10+ advisors, agencies, and consultants.

All talking, nobody doing.

Simple structures win.

Always.

Your Take

How many agencies/consultants are you currently working with? And be honest - how many of them can actually execute vs just give advice?

Hit reply. I'm genuinely curious what the average is. I'm guessing it's higher than it should be.

Talk soon,

Kris