Marry your problem, date your solution.

You need paying customers and a story that raises money, not the world's best logo or website. I've done it all from a blank page, and the numbers below are what that looked like.

Book the free call The three moves
$500K+ tradedby 200+ member businesses in 16 months, ReSource Network1 pilot to 3 citiesAsheville, then Chattanooga and Austin, ReSource Network1,000+ locationsWomen's Golf Day, from under 100 in two countries100+ countriesand Nike and Callaway on the hashtag in 2019, Women's Golf Day

Three moves, in order

  1. Customers.

    Ten conversations with people who have the problem, this week. A one-page offer that says what you do in a sentence. One channel with a number on it.

    Business development

  2. The story.

    A positioning you can say in one breath. A deck investors actually finish. A brand only where it sells product or closes the round.

    Branding

  3. The machine.

    Follow-up in minutes. Intake that qualifies. Found in Google and named by ChatGPT when someone asks. Built with AI, priced like it.

    Custom apps and SEO

What it looked like

Hemp Flower Naturals

Packaging photo goes here
Hemp Flower Naturals

$1.5M and 100+ stores in eighteen months.

Where it started
A logo sketch, a founder, and a $110K seed that had to be repaid in a year.
What I built
The pitch deck that raised the seed, the brand and packaging, the product, the supply chain, the sales team, and the website.
What happened
Seed repaid in year one. Wholesale into 100+ stores carried about 80% of revenue.
Pitch deckBrandWholesaleE-commerce
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ReSource Network

The member app and an event photo go here
ReSource Network

A pilot in Asheville became three cities and $500K in trades.

Where it started
A barter network for local businesses, with one pilot to prove in Asheville and the wall every network hits: nobody joins until there's someone to trade with.
What I built
The member base, two of every kind of business so everyone had something to buy, the weekly and quarterly events where trades happened in the room, the Chattanooga launch on my own, then marketing, the CRM, and the website as Head of Marketing and Business Development.
What happened
200+ member businesses, 500+ users, and more than $500,000 traded across Asheville, Chattanooga, and Austin in 16 months.
Business developmentEventsLaunches
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Women's Golf Day

Event photo goes here
Women's Golf Day

Two countries became more than a hundred.

Where it started
A founder with a network and capital, and nothing built.
What I built
The platform, the host toolkit, the marketing engine, and the partner and sponsor development.
What happened
Over 1,000 locations in 100+ countries. Nike and Callaway on the hashtag in 2019.
PlatformPartnershipsCampaigns
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What's usually in the way

We haven't found our first real customers yet.

Customers first, brand after. Before we touch a logo or a website, you're having ten real conversations with people who have the problem, and we're listening for what they'd pay to make it go away. If nobody will pay, that's the most useful thing you can learn this month, and it costs you nothing. If they will, the offer writes itself and the brand finally has something true to say.

We're raising and the story isn't landing.

Investors don't fund ideas. They fund a number that's already moving. We rewrite the story around that number, cut everything that doesn't prove it, and rebuild the deck so it gets finished in one sitting. The deck that raised the Hemp Flower Naturals seed was built that way: the product, the margin, the first stores, and the plan to repay it in a year.

We're spending on marketing and can't tell what's working.

Kill what you can't measure. Most early marketing is five channels at once with no number on any of them, which means you're paying to feel busy. We keep the one channel closest to paying customers, put a number on it, and feed it until that number says it's time to add a second. Everything else waits.

The first 90 days

  • A positioning you can say in one sentence. Who it's for, what it does, and why they'd pay. Everything else, the site, the deck, the pitch, hangs off that sentence, so we get it right before anything gets designed.
  • A deck investors actually finish. Built around the number that's already moving, with the proof up front and the ask on the last slide. Short enough to read in one sitting and specific enough to answer the first three questions before they're asked.
  • One customer channel with a number on it. Outbound, referrals, search, or events, whichever is closest to paying customers. We pick one, give it a target, and feed it for the full 90 days before adding anything else.

Probably not a fit if

You're pre-idea, or you want a logo before you've talked to ten customers. If you're so sure that your idea is good enough to overcome a lack of customers or investment, feel free to reach out, but you may not like what I have to say.

The solutions this draws on: Business development, Branding, Custom apps, SEO and AI search.

Start with the free call.

Sixty minutes. I'll tell you what I'd do and what I think it's worth. Within 48 hours you get a written playbook you can run with or without me.

Book the free callOr send me a note first