I built an internet-famous consumer goods brand. Here’s how you can do it too.

Ten years ago I started my first brand in the tiny kitchen of a NYC apartment.

I built that company, GIR, from a single handmade spatula into an award-winning, internet-famous, omni-channel housewares brand with hundreds of SKUs.

I pulled my husband Brian, best friend Lauren, and a few other early employees on board, and we bootstrapped our way into Target, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdales, into dozens of dropship partners, and hundreds of small retailers across the world. We said yes to every sales opportunity—but some of them almost killed us. Our first Target order broke our existing systems and operations. Every scaling event went wrong before it went really right. 

I was an English major by education, a branding executive, and at the time, a new mom. Brian was a finance pro with a double major in Physics and English. We were a far cry from being consumer goods specialists, but we used our time at GIR as an on-the-job education. We learned what worked (and also what didn’t).

What all of this means now.

Two years ago, we started Mvnifest: a company born of wanting to make everything easier for other consumer brands. We manage every aspect of the consumer goods brand lifecycle, from ideation to fulfillment, and are the swiss army knife in your favorite brands’ back pockets. We’re waxing poetic on some of our favorite industry trends, tips, and takeaways for consumer goods brand builders, founders, and the teams behind them.

When we talk to other founders, we realize they collectively share many of the same struggles. So we’re creating a community to share our blueprint for consumer goods success. From industry insights to interviews, and access to recommendations around branding, design, manufacturing, and fulfillment, it's a must-read for anyone building or growing a brand.