Description
Ali Kriegsman built Bulletin, the B2B wholesale marketplace, from a side-hustle newsletter at age 24 to a full-scale platform connecting 3,000 independent brands with over 26,000 retailers — before selling to Emerald Holding for roughly $10 million in 2022. Since then, she's channeled that builder's lens into consulting for early- to mid-stage consumer and DTC brands, advising on ShopMy strategy and go-to-market, writing her Substack New Motives, and publishing two books: the non-fiction How to Build a Goddamn Empire and her debut novel The Raise — a psychological thriller about a founder who has to take over after her co-founder mysteriously dies mid-fundraise.
🔧 Neglected Vertical Identification — How Ali spotted what VC-backed startups had overlooked in wholesale and B2B, and how that shaped the decision to sell to Emerald
📊 Consumer Brand Go-to-Market as Book Launch — The unconventional, DTC-style strategy behind self-publishing The Raise, and why she treated it like a product drop rather than a traditional book release
🤝 ShopMy for CPG Founders — Who should and shouldn't be on the platform, what founders consistently get wrong, and what good looks like before engaging a consultant
⚙️ Traction Without Structural Advantages — What founders without networks or runway actually need to know about getting early traction in today's market
📈 Founder-to-Consultant Identity Shift — The mental and operational transition from being the figurehead to supporting other founders behind the scenes — and whether she'd build again
🎯 Cross-Portfolio Operator Insights — The most common mistakes CPG founders are making right now, spotted across multiple brands simultaneously
Whether you're preparing for an exit, figuring out how to grow without paid ads, or navigating what comes after the founder chapter — Ali's frameworks will help you operate with more clarity and less noise.
Perfect for: DTC founders, early-stage CPG operators, brand consultants, founders considering an exit
Guest: Ali Kriegsman — Exited Founder (Bulletin) | Author | Consultant
Host: Samantha Rose — Managing Partner, Hologram Capital & Founder, Endless Commerce
This episode was recorded live and is part of our series on operational frameworks that drive real business results. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
What is Commerce is Chaos?
Look, we've all heard the polished founder story—the perfect pitch, the seamless scale, the overnight success. But what about the time you oversold by 100K units? Or when your 'seamless' integration crashed right before Black Friday?
Host Samantha Rose has been there—from founding her first consumer business, GIR, managing fulfillment and industrial design for your favorite brands, or acquiring distressed brands on her own.
Welcome to Commerce is Chaos, the podcast for founders who knows that building a real business is beautifully, chaotically messy.