How To Build A Brand Of The Future

June 23, 2022

AI Summary

5 min read

How To Build A Brand Of The Future

Nick Saltarelli, founder of Midday Squares, walked into his board meeting with a decision that made no sense on paper. The company was on fire in the US—they had just beaten Perfect Bar as the number one bar in the country over the previous 24 weeks. His board's reaction was predictable: "Don't fuck with anything." But Saltarelli had been reading customer requests, and they were clear. People wanted to buy one square at a time, not two. So he proposed dropping the two-square package, raising the per-unit price, and betting that volume would follow. The board asked for a test market. His response: "What do you think this is, fucking L'Oreal? We're barely surviving."

That decision—moving from a two-square package at $3.99 to a single square at $2.49—is still in flight. "We're right now in this part of the movie where the plane goes off the radar and nobody knows if it blew up or not," Saltarelli says. If he's wrong, the company could hit a wall, need to raise earlier than expected, and face a down round. But he made the call anyway, based on anecdotal evidence from customers who wanted one square at a fair price. "There was no data in the world that could have made this presentation look like this was the right decision to make, other than anecdotal evidence."

The manufacturing moat

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Authenticity as the Foundation for Success** - Nick argues that being authentic frees up mental energy and unlocks a unique intuition that leads to success.
2 (05:48) **The "Gotta Bring the Heat" Framework** - Nick introduces his first framework: you must go hard at the things you care about.
3 (06:14) **The Montreal Mafia & The Grandmaster** - Nick and Greg discuss their shared mentor, Rory Olson, and the power of being a big fish in a small pond.
4 (13:48) **Why Midday Squares is Not a DTC Company** - Nick explains the difference between operating in the DTC space and being a DTC company.
5 (17:30) **The "Band" Marketing Framework** - Nick reveals their marketing strategy is stolen from the music industry: they are a media company whose Patreon is their chocolate.
6 (20:05) **The Manufacturing Moat** - Nick explains why they own their factory and why it's a critical competitive advantage.
7 (27:23) **Playing a Different Game** - The hosts discuss the power of finding pockets of exploitation by playing a different game than everyone else.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Storytelling is the future of the brand building. How are you telling your story? In this episode, we explore what today's successful companies have in common, why brand is everything, and how to create a network from scratch. Hosts Sahil Bloom & Greg Isenberg are joined by guest Nick Saltarelli, an experienced entrepreneur and co-founder at Midday Squares, the brand that gave the world functional chocolate. Nick is unapologetically himself, and today he offers his raw insight into why everyone should be learning from mentors, how success comes to those that follow their hearts, and his hack to expedite the fundraising process.

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THIS EPISODE

Nick Saltarelli: https://twitter.com/nicksalto

Sahil Bloom: https://twitter.com/SahilBloom

Greg Isenberg: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg

Production & Marketing Team: https://penname.co/

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