Growth is exciting, until your operations start pushing back.
Many founders try to solve this by working harder, producing more, or expanding faster. But the brands that actually scale learn a different lesson: at some point, you have to stop forcing it and start building systems that work with your business, not against it.
In this Nombase podcast, Dirty Gut founder Daniel Berlin sits down with Jesse Barruch, co-founder of Whims, to get some advice on how to navigate that shift without breaking your business.
Find out:
How to know when you're forcing growth instead of building real scale
How to schedule smaller production runs early to save you from costly mistakes later
How to approach co-manufacturer selection and avoid the wrong partners
What to track when you have little to no data and how to build useful systems over time
How to think about inventory, forecasting, and demand planning in the early stages
The operational problems that only reveal themselves as you grow
How to decide what to handle yourself and what to outsource as a founder
The tradeoffs between control, cost, and efficiency in your operations
How to structure your time around high impact work that actually drives growth
Why your vision for the business should guide every operational decision you make
