Christopher Jane has built two consumer brands in very different environments. One grew through traditional retail. The other launched in the middle of a global shutdown and scaled through e-commerce. That contrast gives him a clear view of what actually drives growth in consumer products and where founders get tripped up.
His message is simple. The hardest part is not starting. It is scaling through the messy middle without losing focus, culture, or capital discipline.
The Most Dangerous Phase Is The Middle
Consumer products look easy from the outside. You can create something in your kitchen, get a permit, and start selling at a local market within days. That low barrier to entry pulls a lot of founders in.
But Christopher points out a critical truth. That early stage is not the real challenge. Nor is true scale, where large brands operate efficiently and generate steady margins. The hardest phase sits in between.
That middle stage is where:
- Costs rise quickly
- Margins compress
- Distribution becomes complex
- Retail relationships start to matter
Many brands stall here.
The mistake most founders make is underestimating how big their idea needs to be to break through. Incremental innovation rarely carries a company through that middle phase. A slightly different flavor or minor positioning tweak is not enough.
Christopher put it plainly. “Innovation on the margin… that’s not enough to build a hundred million dollar brand.”
If you are entering a crowded category, your idea must be large enough to justify the capital, time, and operational complexity required to scale.
Remote Culture Is Not A Side Project
Proper Good was launched in 2020, which meant one thing from day one. The company would be remote.
That created an entirely different leadership challenge. In a traditional environment, culture develops through proximity. People interact naturally. They build relationships without much structure.
In a remote company, none of that happens by accident.
Christopher sees this as a major blind spot for CEOs. Many leaders assume culture will take care of itself as long as people are productive. That assumption fails quickly in distributed teams.
“Business is people,” he said. “You can get very nuts and bolts when it’s a Slack message or a quick email response, but at the end of the day, it’s about connection.”
What stood out in his approach is how intentional it is. Culture is not built through big initiatives. It is built through small, consistent signals.
- Voice notes instead of only text
- Photos from trade shows shared with the whole team
- Informal messages that include humor, not just tasks
- Cross-functional visibility so people are not stuck in silos
He calls these “micro touch points.” They do not change KPIs directly, but they change how people feel about the work and each other.
That matters more than most CEOs expect.
If your team enjoys working together, they collaborate more naturally. If they feel disconnected, everything becomes transactional. Once that happens, performance follows.
Constraints Create Focus Faster Than Strategy
Launching during the pandemic forced Proper Good into a narrow path. There were no trade shows. No in-person sampling. No retail activation in the early days.
Most founders would see that as a disadvantage.
Christopher saw something different. It eliminated distraction.
With only one viable channel, the company focused entirely on e-commerce. That forced discipline early.
- Customer acquisition cost had to work
- Average order value had to increase
- Retention and subscription mattered immediately
“E-commerce is a math problem,” he said. And he treated it that way.
That constraint helped the company build a strong foundation before expanding into retail later. Many brands do the opposite. They spread early efforts across too many channels, which slows learning and burns capital.
The lesson is clear. Focus is often a byproduct of limitation. When everything is possible, execution gets diluted.
The CEO Role Changes Faster Than You Expect
Christopher describes the CEO role as a “gearbox.” It shifts constantly.
In the early days, he handled everything. Legal setup, design, product decisions, operations. That is typical in a zero-to-one environment.
As the company scaled, his role changed completely. He moved into what he calls a “conductor” or “puppeteer” role. Others execute. He orchestrates.
That transition sounds straightforward. It is not.
Most founders struggle here because what made them successful early is no longer what the company needs. The skills that helped you start the business are not always the ones that help you scale it.
He offers a practical way to think about it.
- Identify what your brain naturally enjoys and does well
- Double down on that
- Fill the gaps with people who are better than you in other areas
That sounds obvious, but many CEOs resist it. They try to improve weaknesses instead of designing around them. That slows the company down.
There is another tension here. Sometimes the company needs something you are not good at, and there is no one else to do it yet. Christopher’s approach is pragmatic. Solve it quickly through delegation, external help, or hiring. Do not spend weeks trying to become something you are not.
Speed matters more than ego.
AI Is A System Of Small Wins, Not One Big Bet
Christopher’s view of AI is grounded and practical. He is not chasing a single breakthrough use case. He is applying it across multiple small areas that compound over time.
Inside the business, AI is already improving:
- Retail data analysis across fragmented systems
- Product design through visual attention modeling
- Competitive intelligence using in-store video capture
- Reporting and board-level communication
Each of these saves time and improves decision-making. None of them alone transforms the business. Together, they create leverage.
That is the right way to think about AI in most companies.
On the consumer side, the picture is more complex. In e-commerce, brands can track behavior closely. In retail, that visibility disappears. The retailer owns the customer data, which creates a blind spot for brands.
That limitation is not going away anytime soon.
So the opportunity becomes indirect. Better packaging. Better placement. Better pricing. Better experimentation where data is available. AI helps optimize around the edges, even when full visibility is not possible.
What CEOs Should Take From This
Christopher’s story highlights a few patterns that apply well beyond consumer products.
First, not all growth is equal. The middle phase of scaling is where most companies struggle. You need a big enough idea and enough discipline to push through it.
Second, culture does not scale automatically. In a remote world, it must be designed through consistent, intentional actions.
Third, constraints can be an advantage. They force clarity and eliminate distractions that slow early progress.
Fourth, the CEO role is not static. It evolves constantly, and you must evolve with it or build around your limitations quickly.
Finally, AI is not one decision. It is a series of small improvements that compound into meaningful leverage over time.
I am Glenn Gow. I coach CEOs.
If you are scaling a company, ask yourself a few hard questions. Is your idea big enough to survive the middle? Are you building culture intentionally or assuming it will happen? Are you focused on the right channel, or are you spreading effort too thin? And are you using AI where it actually improves decisions, not just where it sounds impressive?
Those answers will shape your trajectory more than any single tactic.Listen to the full episode here.
