Simon Huntley

@codyplof Great post we are doing a lot of the same, would be interested in your contact for contractor roles in latam, can’t dm you

This is the year of efficiency and cost-cutting at Jones Road. Across the org, we have the initiatives of getting and staying lean and have improved both Gross Margin Landed Gross Margin considerably, and OPEX considerably. Here are 11 things we've done that will lead to multi 7 figures of bottom line improvements... 1. Price Increase - we launched in 2020 with super high inflation, but we've managed to hold our prices steady for the first 4 years. Fortunately our costs did not rise as scale offset and increases. But facing upcoming tariffs, we decided to get ahead of it and first rolled out some @Intelligems price testing; and then a full deployment in Feburary. This improved COGS overnight with a very small temporary dip in performance. I am glad we got out ahead of this before consumers got sick of it. 2. Vendor Negotiation - My supply chain team calls this Business Continuity and Value Engineering. That's too corporate for me so I call it negotiating. We try to take a collaborative approach and work with contract manufacturers to optimize supply chain and production. If we create a process that lowers their costs, it can be passed onto us. But there's also some good old getting 5 quotes and threating to pull our business that has to get done. For example, we started going straight to vendors and requiring our team to get 5 quotes for a new package; and have seen some 200%+ decreases in cost by doing so. 3. Freight Optimization - We grew fast last year; over 50%. Unfortunately we underforecasted in a few areas like international expansion and we had to rush air more than we should have. This gets costly; so we're doing everything we can to prevent air shipments. If we have to, we're air shipping the least we can get away with and putting the rest on boat. We're also consistently optimizing our store inventory levels and transfer cadence; which has allowed us to halve our number of shipments to stores. We found a better, cheaper messenger service for small transfers and have optimized local hub storage which had other considerable cost savings. 4. Set Up Second US Warehouse - Prior to this year, we shipped all US orders out of 1 East Coast distribution center. We finally opened a second one and it's saving around $2.50 per order, which is wild and has visible bottom line improvements over night. I also negotiated hard on this one; but savings are largely coming from reduced outbound shipping for 35% of our orders. We're now looking into a third distribution center in the middle of the country, as well as moving one of our UK dcs to this new partner which will save us almost $2 on each UK order. Besides some intial freight costs and systems integrations, it's straight bottom line. 5. Shipper Optimization - More brands should evaluate what they are sending their products in and optimize how they can improve efficiency. Sometimes cutting an inch off our a few ounces can qualify for a different shippigng rate that can have outsized impacts. Right now we're testing sending all eligible orders in a padded envelope instead of a box, and this should save several pounds per eligible order. It will only apply to a minority of orders, but it will stull have high 6 figure annual savings. We'll look at everything from boxes and vendor sourcing, tape, and craft paper. Every dollar we squeeze from these costs can either go to the bottom line or be put back into growth. 6. Payroll Optimization - You probably have too many people. We unfortunately did and had to make the hard decision to perform a small restructure. While sad, it was best for the business. Lower perfoerms and redundant roles were let go, and a new standard of efficiency and accountability was put forth. It's actually shocking how well our team functioned after this. In addition to cutting total headcount, we restructured teams for efficiency and placed more responsibilities and function under our strongest leaders. Less, but stronger leaders means less payroll, less people to manage, and improved communication. We also took our retail payroll to sales ratio down overnight. I thought this was going to be hard; but it was done with shckingly zero pushback and impact on sales so we're going to do it once again. 7. Outsourced to Freelancers, Agencies, and Remote - I used ot be very pro in house for most things. Then I became CEO and I realized how expensive this was once you factor in benefits, bonuses, 401ks; computers, etc. Not to mention all of the HR time, people mamnagement issues, etc. A good rule of thumb is to multiple salary by 1.3x to get a full cost. We're relying heavily on freelancers and agencies at this stage of our business, and have built a really great distrubuted workforce for all relevant roles like CX, video editing, design, and mid to low level marketing roles. We still have our leadership team and core roles in office, but this allows us to get the support and bandwidth needed at economical levels. DM me if you want an into to an excellent LATAM recruiter we've used for all these roles. 8. New Compensation and KPI Plan - We never had real KPIs and a compensation structure prior to this year. Performance Reviews were subjective and bonuses were largely tied to company performance. There was not a big enough gap in bonus between our best performers and lower ones, and our retention was too good, which is a thing. Everyone now has very clear KPIs, and we've set a culture of higher standards and accountability. We still want it to be a fun place to work; but success comes first. If someone is not objectively meeting performance expectations, we will address it. This has motivated the team, created some healthy turnover of lower performers self-selecting out, and led to overall higher performance. 9. Software Cutting and Consolidation - Legit my favorite thing to do is negotate. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at the list of all of our softwares and attempted to optimize it. The first thing you can do is make your team put it in two criteria; need to have and nice to haves. Cut all the nice to haves. We've also consolidated where it makes sense. I need the best of the best email and SMS tools, so those stay seperate. But if my tracking pages are 10% worse but I get them for free by consolidating, I'm doing that. We switched out any legacy, incumbent software that were overcharing to newer, smaller and AI enabled tools. Anything that was a variable cost is not fixed. And for the necessary list, I roll up my sleeves and negotiate. I am willing to sign a longer deal with a great partner to get a better rate. I also get 3-5 quotes and threaten to leave if we don't beat them. 60% of the time, it works every time. 10. AI Initiative - We just kicked off a big AI initiative where I am expecting everyone here to become really proficient with AI. I kicked it off with a Tobi style memo, I led an all hands showing a few things to blow peoples minds; we're bringing in 2-3 speakers to teach us, and we have a $7,500 bounty for whoever makes the biggest impact with AI. So far someone on our ops team has vibe codes 3 calculators that will save considerable time and money, so she is in the lead. Everyone is clear we are all expected to become more productive in this new world, and we will not be increasing headcount as quickly as previosuly planned as revenue grows. I'm sure there is a lot more. It's not just one thing; but it's a daily grind, obsession, and focus with clear priorities and checkings accross the organization. I guarantee there is as much or more focus on growth in our org; but the two don't need to be at odds with one another. If you enjoyed this, please give it a RT.

@kirstenagreen Glad to hear it all, check out what we've done at eatharvie.com, capital efficient business capitalizing on the gaping hole in the grocery market post Amazon's Whole Food acquisition, funnels cut, CAC and LTV on 4-week payback

As consumer investors, we're no strangers to committing to models and industries when they're out of favor (in fact, this is when we love to double down). In the past 5-10 years, marketplaces have fallen out of favor in Silicon Valley. Investments in series A marketplaces dropped 85% since the 2015 peak. This follows a wave of "Uber for X" companies that tried to opportunistically capitalize on the model's momentum, but never reached meaningful scale, leading investors to dub the model inefficient, capital-intensive, and inherently challenged (critiques that felt all the more sharp post ZIRP). During this quieter time for marketplaces, we’ve made investments that have proven to be incredibly impactful: @faire_wholesale, Fay, @hellofora, Atticus, @try_headway, @joinLeland, The Expert, Table22, Pavilion, @shopondaydream, and more. Our research team felt inspired to dig into the data on how marketplaces are performing across public markets, M&A, and company building — all to bring a source of truth to an otherwise amorphous narrative about the model. See our report for the full analysis: forerunnerventures.com/our-perspectiv…

@rsrouse Yes they change us, make us stronger and more humble

Startups are a lot like kids. They're unpredictable, emotional, messy and often don't follow the rules. But they also bring an immense amount of accomplishment, joy and personal evolution. And have the potential to change the world in their own way. Most importantly, they have the potential to change YOU in ways you can't possibly imagine.

@Nrcoope that's the definition of uncommon value, does not come from consensus (though post-hoc of course we will create a narrative why this was all obvious)

Curious how many 100x+ investments had more than one person pounding the table for it at inception. I’d bet the vast majority of these had one champion arguing against many people saying they were bad ideas. Contrarians create outliers

My new favorite word: sonder. It's the profound awareness that every person you encounter has experienced a lifetime of hopes, fears, loves, and heartaches that you'll never know. Each moment of sonder is a reminder to appreciate how little we truly grasp about others' lives.

@mikesalguero Welp at least now it’s obvious what Whole Foods has become, believe we (and you, Mike) have a way to be the Whole Foods of the age of internet grocery by telling rich stories about our food

And like that, one of the few companies that was dedicated to doing things right, and not serving you conventional products is changing. Whole Foods/Amazon to start selling Coca Cola.

It is still possible to be kind to yourself, to drop constraints and fall often to your knees, it’s not too late now, to bow to what beckons, the world still swimming around you as you kneel transfigured by what sweeps on, it’s still possible to leave every fearful former self in the wake of newly-heard words issuing from an astonished mouth... From the poem ‘Still Possible’ in STILL POSSIBLE © 2022, David Whyte & Many Rivers Press davidwhyte.com

@JamesKennedy haha heard, joking aside -- i feel like listening to something someone spent ~years writing instead of listening to a throwaway podcast is a better use of time (of course i still listen to more podcasts than books!)

@HuntleySimon I thought they were just for adding to my library. I forgot you could listen to them.

What's good to listen to instead of All In while the election is on?

@DebGrosspgh We are going to look into this @eatharvie to see if we can use our infrastructure to partner with the city and support in this project.. looks like an exciting opportunity!

Hello! The City of Pgh has launched the Request for Proposals (RFP) of the Food Justice Fund for Tier II. For-profit and nonprofit entities can submit proposals ranging from $75,000 to $500,000. Go to the Engage page for Food Justice and scroll to the hyperlink.

@JamesKennedy pretty cool!

Cool. Pasting a screenshot of my calendar into ChatGPT and then asking it to suggest open times works well.

@rainnwilson this is why @eatharvie is building an independent food economy

@chrisbriem Great one I’ll send map to my dad who was a miner at Cumberland

Just was curious. Amazing how much of Greene County was and is mined for coal.

@MrCeranna Let’s connect, check out @eatharvie

I’ve been the CFO/COO for the following growth runs $1m - $75m, $1m - $25m, $30m - $150m, and $0 - $600m and I’m looking for my next challenge. DM me if you know anyone in need.

@michaelpollan Come see us @eatharvie while you are here in Pittsburgh this week- we’ve developed a scaleable model to change the way our country eats - love to host you and show you how it works

Just arrived in OC for tonight event: A Conversation With Michael Pollan | Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Join us! scfta.org/events/2024/mi…

The local food movement of the last ~20 years has failed to change anything about the way we eat. except to create a status symbol for the rich and educated. Still sub scale and no serious consumer demand.

@mikesalguero @iamshackelford Interesting, saw they didn’t work mike? We do a weekly newsletter that I feel is very important but haven’t attempted to measure

@iamshackelford Ideally you can measure efficacy by doing hold outs. Between pick charges and printing costs it can be a very costly (and potentially wasteful) endeavor as you scale.

Package Insert Question to my DTC nerds. Are there any must haves or must not haves on this? We're about to start optimizing what we put in our inserts but curious on who's loved theirs and who is changing it.

@rsrouse Yes interested

Anyone looking for a strong Director of Growth? I know someone who’s looking, Very strong when it comes to all things acquisition for DTC including the ability to run Meta ads.

Our Agriculture & Robotics Summit panel discussion on Commercial Growth & Investment is underway! We're exploring the benefits of applying robotics & AI to agriculture with @InnovationWorks, @eatharvie, @Cybernetix_VC, @CatalystInv, & Bloomfield. #Pittsburgh #Robotics #AgTech

Email turns up in my inbox about "Techsylvania." Is it about Pennsylvania, I wonder, or Transylvania? Then I notice the sender's name is Vlad.