Behind the Brand: Mvnifest and GIR, with our CFO Brian Rose - Conversations with Consumer Goods Mavens

Episode 1: The broken leg series. How to launch, scale, and navigate everything a brand does, from ideation to fulfillment.

I broke my leg skiing earlier this spring. As a Founder/CEO, wife, and mom with a whole lot going on, it was a massive disruption. Also, ouch. But it’s been an incredible opportunity to see how beautifully my team operated through a bit of a bump in the road, and to experiment with a few things at work that might not have happened unless I’d literally been forced to sit down (but not slow down) for a couple months straight. I’ve talked a lot about this on IG story takeovers, and on our TikTok if you want to see pics, by the way.

For years I’ve been wanting to make the time to record conversations with my network of founder-friends, mentors, and consumer goods experts. I always found a reason to say “we’ll get to it later,” until now. If I can’t walk around the kitchen to make dinner or sneak off early to go surfing, I can at least sit in front of a camera, chat with friends new and old, and share some fun stories with the world. Take that, leg.

Each episode of Behind the Brand features in-depth conversations with industry trailblazers, entrepreneurs, marketers, product developers, and creative thinkers who have revolutionized the commerce landscape in their own way. In these engaging interviews, we uncover secrets behind their creative processes, engineering hacks, branding strategies, marketing tactics, and customer engagement methods. We learn how they've leveraged digital platforms, social media, and data-driven insights to create personalized experiences and cultivate strong brand communities.

Behind the Brand aims to inspire entrepreneurs, marketing professionals, and design enthusiasts by showcasing the real stories of those who have navigated the complexities of product-based landscapes. Whether you're curious about the latest trends, seeking practical advice, or craving inspiration, this interview series offers a deep dive into the minds shaping the future of consumer brands.

In my initial conversation, I cheat a little: I kick off the series by sitting down with my husband and business partner Brian (co-founder and CFO at Mvnifest) to discuss our experience building businesses together and the dynamics of working as partners. We talk about our first business venture, GIR (Get it Right), and Brian shares how he realized his Wall Street career was shifting towards entrepreneurship during a bond negotiation with the CFO of The Container Store. We emphasize the importance of recognizing each other's strengths and weaknesses, checking egos at the door, and reflect on how starting a life partnership before starting a business partnership gave us a shorthand for decision-making.

The conversation moves on to our new project, Mvnifest—an accelerator for product-based companies—as we talk about how to support brands across the product lifecycle with design, manufacturing, logistics, and business strategy. We also dive into a discussion on the difference between successful and unsuccessful brands, and the key indicators we’ve seen in the brands that we’ve supported in getting off the ground. Tune in to our conversation below, and I hope you’ll stick around for more of our conversations with industry leaders over the coming months. Who knows—if we stick to this series long enough, I might be recording it from a ski lodge one day.

You can also tune in on our YouTube, where the full transcript lives.

At Mvnifest, we manage every aspect of the consumer goods brand lifecycle, from ideation to fulfillment—we’re the swiss army knife in your favorite brands’ back pockets. We’re sharing our favorite industry trends, tips, and takeaways for consumer goods brand builders, founders, and the teams behind them. Subscribe to our substack for bi-weekly episodes of Behind the Brand and other awesome content.