Ryan Rouse

MALK Organics

President

Self Employed

Growth Advisor

HighKey 

Chief Executive Officer (acquired)

Board Member

Chief Marketing & Ecommerce Officer

Tasseo Consumer Ecosystem

Operating Partner

Serenity Kids

Head of Growth

Factor_

Co-Founder (Acquired by Hello Fresh)

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Merrill Lynch

Vice President of Sales

Growth advisor to consumer businesses with a focus on every line of the P&L | Previously, Co-Founder at Factor Meals (acquired), CEO at Highkey

Growth-minded CPG leader with deep experience across finance, brand building, and operational leadership.

After more than a decade in finance—culminating in an eight-year tenure at Merrill Lynch—I co-founded Factor_, a ready-to-eat meal delivery company that went on to be acquired by HelloFresh for $277M in 2020.

I joined HighKey Snacks as Chief Marketing Officer and later CEO, guiding the low-sugar snack brand through rapid expansion and an acquisition in 2024.

I'm currently the President of MALK Organics, a fast-growing, near nine-figure brand redefining the plant-based milk category with its commitment to clean, organic ingredients and uncompromising quality.

And I write a newsletter about what it really takes to grow—your company, your mindset, your tolerance for chaos:
​
​• The unfiltered truth about building a brand
• Why “strategy” isn’t always strategic
• What to do when everything feels on fire
• Mindset shifts that keep you sane(ish)​
• Founder mistakes, market moves, and lessons I’m still learning​
​
​Part playbook, part perspective shift.
For anyone trying to grow something—and keep their head on straight.

Sign up using the link here (or below my profile pic above): https://ryanrouse.me/

Vice President | Partner

Data driven investors in early stage consumer brands. 

I don't know a single truly successful person with a scarcity mindset.

Not one.

The ones who make it big? They're cheering everyone on, even their competitors. 

Sounds backwards. 

But the pie's not fixed. When the category grows, everyone grows. So their success doesn't shrink yours.

And when you operate from that place, you stop playing defense and start playing offense.

That's when you really win.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Never Been on a Forbes List | President at MALK Organics | Daddy at Rouse House | Previously: Co-Founder & CMO at Factor_, CEO at Highkey

The most expensive person in your company isn't your highest-paid employee.

It's the one who loses their shit when things don't go their way.

The person who stays calm when shit hits the fan doesn't just solve problems faster.

They become the anchor everyone else holds onto.

When you're the one not freaking out, something magical happens.

People think clearer around you.
They bring solutions instead of panic.
They match your energy, not your emotions.

Being offended is a choice.
Getting emotional is a choice.
Losing your cool is a choice.

And every time you make that choice, you're choosing to make your team weaker.

The competitive advantage isn't in being right when everyone's wrong.

It's in being calm when everyone's not.

Because emotions are contagious.

Choose which ones you're spreading.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Everyone thinks they're ready for their boss's job.

Until they get promoted.

And realize the job they thought they understood was maybe 30% of it.

The other 70%? 

Managing up while managing down.
Making decisions with incomplete data.
Taking heat for choices they didn't make.
Navigating politics they didn't know existed.

As well as the additional context. 

Board dynamics.
Investor relationships.
Internal politics.
Historical baggage.

All the shit you can't see from one level down.

Instead of assuming you know the role, assume you don't and seek to understand. 

Ask questions.
- Why'd you phrase it that way?
- What aren't you saying in this email?
- Who are you really managing here?

Not just in meetings - in the prep. In the follow-ups. In the calls that "weren't important enough to mention."

The real education isn't in the meetings you're invited to.

It's in the ones you're not.

Want that next role? Stop assuming you're ready for it.

Start learning what it actually is.

Because the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn't about skills.

It's about context you don't have yet.

And, likely, soft skills you need to refine. 

Get curious about what you can't see.

That's how you get ready.

Not by waiting.

By studying.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Stop trying to motivate people.

You can't.

I wasted years at Factor_ thinking I could inspire people to care about our mission. Gave passionate speeches. Shared the vision until I was blue in the face.

Know what I learned?

Everyone's already motivated. Just not by what you think.

So your job isn't to motivate them.

It's to figure out what already drives them.

Then connect the dots.

I thought I was a shitty motivator at Factor_.

Turns out I was just a shitty listener.

Once I started asking "What matters to you?" instead of assuming everyone wanted what I wanted?

Everything changed.

People started crushing goals. Not because I motivated them.

Because I finally understood what motivated them.

And showed them how to get it.

Stop pushing your agenda.

Start pulling theirs.



~~~~~~~~~

If you liked this post, you'll love my emails. No BS observations and advice from 12+ years in the trenches building brands. 

Link in the comments 👇

The best deals happen when you're willing to lose them.

The best partnerships form when you're not desperate for them.

The best opportunities find you when you're not frantically searching.

I can't explain the mechanics of it.

But I've lived it.

The tighter you squeeze, the less you hold.

The more you relax, the more flows to you.

Sounds backwards.

Works forwards.

The difference between good leaders and great ones?

Good leaders hit their numbers.

Great leaders make everyone believe they can hit theirs.

Leadership isn't about being the hero of your own story.

It's about making everyone else the hero of theirs.

Your job isn't to cross the finish line first.

It's to make sure everyone believes they belong in the race.

Don't create followers.

Create more leaders.

Do it by making every single person feel like they're writing the story, not just reading it.

Your victories should feel like their victories.

Because they are.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Nobody wants your advice.

They want to know what you did when you were in their shoes.

Huge difference. Took me years to learn it.

When I was at Merrill Lynch, an employee came to me. Struggling with a toxic coworker. Asked what to do.

I launched into this whole speech about "professional communication" and "setting boundaries."

Watched their eyes glaze over.

Know why?

Because I was talking like a management textbook. Not like someone who'd actually been there.

So I stopped. Started over.

"Had the same thing happen to me years ago. Guy constantly undermined me in meetings. Here's what I did: Started documenting everything. Every interaction. Every slight. Not to be petty - to see the pattern. After two weeks, I realized he only did it when the CEO was around. Insecurity. So I started praising his ideas publicly before meetings. Killed him with recognition. Stopped within a month."

Their whole posture changed.

Not because my story was brilliant.

Because it was real.

When someone asks for advice, they're not asking for wisdom.

They're asking for proof that someone survived what they're facing.

Your theoretical framework means nothing.
Your "5 steps to success" means nothing.
Your generic best practices mean nothing.

But that time you royally screwed up a product launch and recovered?
That matters.

That time you had to resolve an issue with your co-founder?
That matters.

That time you lost your biggest client and rebuilt?
That matters.

Stop playing guru.

Start sharing scars.

People don't need another expert.

They need someone who's been in the mud and made it out.

Next time someone asks for advice, skip the lecture.

Tell them about the time you faced the same shit.

What you tried. What failed. What finally worked.

That's the only advice worth giving.

Everything else is just noise.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Stop writing novels before you get to the point.

• Slack messages with 2 paragraphs of context before asking if you can move a meeting.
• Emails that bury the budget approval request in paragraph 4.
• A "quick update" that takes 5 minutes to find the actual update.

You think you're being thorough. But you're burying the lead. 

Every second someone spends hunting for your point increases the chances that they miss it. 

Always. Lead. With. The. Ask. 

"Need budget approval for X. Details below."

"Meeting conflict - can we move to 3pm? Here's why..."

"Update: We're 2 weeks behind. Here's what happened..."

When you do that, speed of decision making increases.

People actually read the context because they know why they are reading it. 

Your high school English teacher was wrong.

Don't build to the conclusion. Start with it.

Don't provide context first. Give them the point, then explain.

People aren't reading your messages like novels. They're scanning for what you need.

Make it easy for them.

Or watch them start ignoring you.

I've never met a successful founder who was in a hurry to be happy.

But I've met plenty who were in a hurry to be successful.

And most were miserable.

Here's the thing about hurrying... 

Every time you rush through now to get to later, you're telling yourself this moment doesn't count.

That happiness is waiting for you somewhere else.

Spoiler: It's not.

The disease isn't being busy.

The disease is believing that busy gets you somewhere better than here.

Your next meeting isn't more important than this moment.
Your next milestone won't make you happier than you can be right now.
Your future success won't fix your current inability to be present.

Happiness isn't waiting at your next revenue or income threshold. Or an exit. 

It's sitting right here. Right now.

Even if here isn't where you thought you'd be.

Especially if it isn't.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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One of the biggest turning points in an early stage business is when you stop thinking it's cute that the business "flies by the seat of its pants."

And start realizing that it's limiting growth.

"We're scrappy."
"We move fast."
"We figure it out as we go."

All code for: We don't have our shit together.

And it works. Until it doesn't.

Process is not about control. It's about freedom.

Freedom from:
- Solving the same problem 47 times
- Having every decision escalate to you
- Losing your best people to preventable burnout
- Watching quality tank because "everyone does it differently"

There's a fine line between startup energy and startup chaos.

But one you have to be on the lookout for. 

Because chaos doesn't scale.

Doing things that are hard will change how you see yourself.

They don't just build skills. They rebuild identity.

When you do the shit that scares you, you stop being the person who's scared of it.

When you tackle what you suck at, you stop being the person who sucks at it.

Each hard thing I've tackled in business changed the story I tell myself.

From "I'm not a numbers guy" to "I can figure this out."

From "I don't do operations" to "I'll handle it."

From "That's not my strength" to "Not yet."

The hard things you're avoiding?

They're not obstacles.

They're identity upgrades waiting to happen.

You think you know who you are.

But you're just who you've been so far.

Do the hard thing.

Meet who you could be.

This is cliche as hell. 

It's also true.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

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There are two types of people at startups.

The ones waiting for their manager to tell them what to do.

And the ones who've already done it.

Take two employees side by side. 
Same title. 
Same experience. 
Completely different trajectories.

One keeps asking "What should I work on next?"

The other is already shipping solutions to problems nobody had assigned yet.

Guess which one has a steeper trajectory?

At early stage companies, your task list is a suggestion.

The real work? It's everything that's not on it yet.

The stuff nobody's noticed is broken.
The process that takes 10 steps but could take 2.
The customer complaint that "isn't your department."

Everyone's busy at startups. That's not special.

What's special is being busy with the right shit.

The ones who wait for permission to level up never do.
The ones who just start fixing things become indispensable.

I used to think initiative was about working harder.

Wrong.

It's about working on what matters before someone tells you it matters.

Your boss isn't your career GPS.

Stop waiting for directions.

Start building the map.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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The biggest sales job you'll ever make isn't to your customers.

It's to yourself.

Because it's the stories in your head determine the stories you tell the world.

If you're telling yourself you're an imposter, that's exactly what you'll project in every meeting.

If you're telling yourself you're not a "numbers person," guess what? You won't be.

If you're telling yourself you need one more certification, one more mentor, one more anything before you're ready...

You're right. You'll never be ready.

Because readiness isn't something you acquire.

It's something you decide.

The most successful people I know aren't the ones with the best credentials or the smoothest pitch.

They're the ones who changed their internal narrative first.

From "I'm figuring it out" to "I know my shit."
From "I hope this works" to "Watch me make this work."
From "I'm not that type of person" to "I'm becoming that type of person right now."

Your business can only grow as fast as your self-concept allows.

Change the story. Change everything.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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When emotions run high, intellect runs low.

Your IQ literally drops when you're heated. The part of your brain that handles logic? It checks out. 

Leaves you with the part that wants to fight or flee.

That's when we make our worst decisions.

Break trust with a team member.
Send the relationship-ending text.
Make the deal-killing move.

Now when I feel that heat rising, I do nothing.

No emails. No calls. No Slack messages. No decisions.

Just breathe. Stand up. Walk away.

The problem will still be there in the morning.

But I'll have my full brain back to solve it.

Because I now know that the most expensive words are the ones you say when you're emotional.

In those times, the most powerful thing you can do is absolutely nothing.

At least not until tomorrow.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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You can't be friends with people who work for you. 

I don't buy into this philosophy. 

I think you can. And believe it can an advantage in leadership. 

You just have to be willing to piss off your friends (who are also team members) more often then you do with people who are just friends.

We all want to be in good standing with our friends at all times. There's a weight that comes with being in conflict with people we care about that we'd rather not carry. 

But if you are going to be friends with people you lead, you have to get comfortable with that weight. 

Because you won't be in good standing with them all the time. 

Not if you're doing it right.

The best operators aren't the ones who can take the most punishment.

They're the ones who refuse to.

I used to pride myself on being the guy who could handle anything. Any timeline. Any ask. Any amount of chaos.

Until I realized I wasn't scaling the business.

I was enabling its dysfunction.

Real scaling happens when you make heroes unnecessary.

When you build processes that work without someone sacrificing their weekends.
When you invest in infrastructure before you're drowning.
When you say "this timeline isn't realistic" instead of "I'll figure it out."

Being irreplaceable isn't job security.

It's a trap.

The constraint of limited capital forces clarity.

When you can't throw money at problems, you have to actually solve them.

When you can't hire your way out, you have to execute your way through.

When every dollar matters, bullshit dies fast.

But at some point that constraint is a net negative on the business.

Because the "bootstrappers mindset" is established but company growth is stunted by a lack of cash.

When you can't invest in proper infrastructure, you pay in time.
When you can't hire the right people, you pay in mistakes.
When you can't test at scale, you pay in missed opportunities.

This is why experienced operators raise money differently. 

Not because they're greedy. Because they've lived through the hidden cost of being too lean.

They know when to be scrappy and when to invest.
They know which constraints sharpen you and which ones slow you down.
They know that sometimes the most expensive thing is being cheap.

Investors get this. That's why experienced operators raise bigger rounds sooner and often times operate in the red for longer.

Not because they have better pitch decks.

Because they've already paid the tuition on when capital constraint stops being an asset and starts being a liability.

The impact of your ability to connect with other human beings cannot be understated.

That skill alone unlocks more opportunities than everything else combined. 

This has nothing to do with the number of social media followers you have. Follower count is a terrible measure of the skill. 

I'm talking about your ability to find common ground with other people below all the surface level shit.

Which lives and dies with how early in a conversation you're willing to take off your mask and be honest about things. 

When I am real with people, I can literally see their face and body relax.  

The type of relief that only comes with the realization that you're in a conversation with someone you don't have to fake it with. 

Because faking it is exhausting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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When it comes to brand, positioning matters the most.

There are many positioning frameworks out there. 

I personally like one from McKinsey consultant Victor Cheng.

Cheng says that the best positioning makes a “Unique Compelling Credible Promise to a potential buyer”.


1. Your promise must be unique. 

The first step in winning a customer is being unique in a field of sameness. 

To achieve uniqueness, riff on the Who / What / Where / Why / When / How of your offering:

- Who do you serve?
- What do you offer?
- Where are your sales happening?
- Why do you do what you do?
- When do you fulfill?
- How do you do what you do?

All can be unique and differentiators in the market relative to your competition.


2. Your promise must be compelling.

Whatever you are promising has to solve a customer problem in an overwhelmingly compelling way. 

Review your customer feedback. What are their searing problems? 

Not their surface level problems.

Do they want to be healthier? (Surface level)

Or are they disgusted by how they feel and can't play with their kids because they are low on energy. (Searing problem)

Make your promise compelling. Address the searing problem head-on. 

Use the language your customers use. Mirror your solution back at them. 

Take this approach in all your sales copy, your ads, and your site.


3. Your promise must be credible. 

A unique and compelling offer means nothing if your potential customer doesn't believe you. 

It is asking a lot for a brand-spanking new visitor to take out her credit card and buy from you on the first visit to your site. 

This lack-of-trust is a big reason why conversion rates are so low.

You have to build credibility around your brand, fast. Here are some ways to do it:

- Customer testimonials
- Specificity
- Guarantees
- Research reports / Trials

Credibility is king. Without it, the first two don’t go very far.


You're gonna have a really tough time building and scaling a business without solid positioning. 

I love the approach above, but there are others. 

Pick one and do the thinking involved to carve out your own positioning. 

Every other aspect of running your business will become easier.

Action is the great equalizer.

It doesn’t care about your background, where you went to school, or how old you are. 

While everyone has things they want to do, significantly fewer people take action on them. 

Which presents an opportunity for those who do. 

Here's a simple formula for taking action on something new:

1/  Determine what the absolute smallest first step you can take looks like. 

2/  Take that step.

That’s it.

That one baby step will do a few important things for you. 

First, it will reveal the next step. There’s value in mapping out a step by step plan, but the step you actually take is the only thing will bring the next one into focus.

It will also help you decide if you want to take the next step. You don't have to.

Lastly, it will build momentum and internal belief. 

There’s nothing more powerful in the universe than the combination of these two things. 

This works for everything from a new business idea to a new hobby. 

Taking action, as imperfect as it may be, wins every time.

Will Nitze

IQBAR

Founder/CEO

Wood Mackenzie

Sales & Marketing Manager

Sales & Marketing Associate

Founder, IQBAR (iqbar.com) 🍫+💧+☕️

🍫 Founder/CEO, IQBAR (iqbar.com)
🎙️ Co-Host, "Eating Glass" Podcast
🎓 Harvard BA

We make superior brain + body fuel. IQBAR® plant protein bars, IQMIX® hydration sticks, and IQJOE® instant coffees are packed with the functional compounds you need to win your day.

I always chuckle when someone's response to an urgent situation is "I sent out three separate emails on this - still nothing back!"

Pick. Up. The. Phone. And. Call.

If that person doesn't pick up, call someone else. And so on.

Speaking is a competitive advantage in 2025. Just...speaking.

What's happening with Big CPG right now is wild.

Every major player is dramatically under-pacing the S&P.

Meanwhile, numerous CPG startups are sprinting faster than ever (while also embracing sustainable business fundamentals).

The shakeup we're about to witness will be one for the ages.

Grab your 🍿 and settle in.

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