D2C Start-up Guides from an ex-YC Founder

(tl;dr I've released two guides for starting + scaling a CPG e-commerce business from my own start-up lessons. Links at the bottom of the post!)

Hey IH,

I'm excited to share two projects I've been working on for the last few weeks. Well, I've been really working on it for the past 5 years by going through the experiences, documenting them, and thinking hard about the lessons learned if I would ever attempt my start-up again.

I founded The Buttermilk Company in 2017, a D2C authentic Indian food company, from my kitchen. I was a software engineer at Amazon at the time + had no idea how to create a non-software product or build a company. I was part of YC S18 batch, raised $500k+ from investors, and scaled our in-house operations to product 20+ products and ship to all 50 states (shipping perishable products to Alaska + Hawaii is hard!)

In late 2019, I decided to shut down the company (you can read more about that here: https://mitraraman.medium.com/goodbye-buttermilk-ca570be4b56b). I found my way back to tech as an Engineering Manager, but continued to consult with CPG companies and eventually started investing in them myself.

A few weeks ago, I finally executed on a project idea I'd had for some time -- two step-by-step guides for 1) going from recipe -> business and 2) getting your first sales + marketing a CPG company. I struggled immensely with both of these topics, and found little to no clear resources when I was going through my start-up. I gathered all the resources I could find and emerged with a 40+ page e-book, lists of 2000+ co-packers + suppliers, cost breakdowns, and a 1.5 hour video crash course. Within 2 weeks of launch I have happy customers who have used the guides to start their own businesses or scale their marketing.

I'm excited to share them with you here, and hope it helps other CPG founders.

Turn Your Recipes Into An Online Business: Step-by-Step Guide -- https://mitraraman.gumroad.com/l/foodbevbusinessguide
Crash Course: Start an E-commerce Business -- https://mitraraman.gumroad.com/l/ecommstartupcourse