Imagine this: it’s midnight, and you’re at the kitchen counter. A test batch is cooling on the stove, a vendor quote you don’t quite understand is open on your laptop, and you’ve rewritten an email to a buyer four times. You’re the founder, the formulator, the sales team and the shipping department. And most nights, you’re alone.
The story is that founders are lone visionaries, and the brand on the shelf is the product of one person’s grit… But actually, in Renaissance Florence, no masterpiece left the workshop by a single pair of hands. Apprentices ground the pigment, assistants laid in the backgrounds, and the master pulled it all together. The products we love today are no different. Behind every single one there is a web of people who shared a supplier, made an introduction or told a hard truth over a glass of wine.
So we’re setting the stage:
On Thursday, November 19th, Off the Shelf brings together 20 founders building food, beverage, wellness and lifestyle brands at Wilder. We’ll share dinner, drinks and real conversation. Sure we will talk about margins and distribution, but more importantly about what it actually feels like to build something people put in their carts. A table full of people who get it.
Alone, you can build a lot. Together, you build more. We’ve seen it happen: 68% of our past guests have gone on to collaborate with someone they met at our table.
Pull up a chair.
