The Craftory Secret to a Successful Exit
How to achieve over five times growth in three and a half years
This week we exited Edgard and Cooper to General Mills, and it’s a major deal for all parties involved. To give you some measure of scale: Last year (2023) Edgard and Cooper’s estimated retail sales were in excess of €100M. This represents over five times growth during the three and a half years they were part of the Craftory portfolio.
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Recipes for challenger success in challenging times
How to keep partying like it’s 2019
Ah, the halcyon days of the twilight twenty-tens, when consumers cared about cause, iOS allowed tracking without opt-in, money was cheap, and CPG incumbents were clueless.
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The trap of “status quo risk” vs. “change risk”
When staying put is the most dangerous thing you can do
Human nature is to fear risk. We abhor it. Almost as much as we loathe change. In an evolutionary ideal world, homo sapiens finds contentment in going about our merry business the same way, day after day, safe in the knowledge that all is well with the way things are.
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Of rates of change, and letting go
How founders can lead best during their ventures’ tricky teenage years
Parenting, it is often said, is a thankless task. Children are born as the fruit of effervescent optimism, but the daily grind of changing diapers, sleepless nights, strained marital relations, and adolescent moodiness is often enough to make the very best of us forget why we produced the little terrors to begin with.
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Love is in the actions you take for someone other than you, not in the big speeches …
Laura’s field notes from this year’s B For Good Leaders Summit
The B Good Summit from another perspective, that of Laura Tran Investor and Craft Partner for ESG. How did our in-house expert feel about the 2023 summit?
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FIELD NOTES FROM THE B FOR GOOD LEADERS SUMMIT 2023
JP’s reflections on this year’s B For Good Leaders Summit, Beurs van Berlage, May 10/11/12 Amsterdam 2023.
Finding the actionable middle ground (without giggling at dream state doomers, or throwing sharp objects at dead end bankers).
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Why wasting a ton of money is the only way to build a challenger brand for the ages
Ernesto explores the economics and strategies of brand building.
Is it time to embrace the slow build of real brand power and ease up on the crack cocaine of performance marketing?
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Why looking out the window with their feet up is the best thing challenger CEOs can do
The consequential difference between busy work and formative work
Inherent in many founders' preference for action over reflection lies a widespread misunderstanding of how businesses grow, and the crucial role played by the CEO in the enablement thereof.
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