Dear Future COO: Your $100M Company Is Waiting
They have product-market fit. They have capital. They have momentum. They don't have you.
“Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen. I didn’t win without Scottie Pippen.” — Michael Jordan, The Last Dance (2020)
TL;DR;
A consumer wellness company has achieved $12M+ ARR in just four months with 2.6x monthly growth, no celebrity endorsements or massive ad spend. Backed by the builders of Oura Ring, Starface, Morning Brew, Liquid Death, and Feastables, they're seeking a world-class COO to scale from $15M to $100M+. The role offers significant equity upside (tens of millions in value creation) and the chance to define an entirely new consumer category. This is for experienced DTC operators who've scaled brands through the $10-50M inflection point and want to be part of building the next generational consumer company. Email me brian (at) sugarcap (dot) com.
The Moment
Right now, as you're reading this, there's a consumer wellness company that just hit a $12M+ annual run rate. In four months. Growing 2.6x month-over-month. They're riding one of those rare category waves where consumer behavior shifts so fundamentally that entirely new markets appear overnight. And they desperately need their Scottie Pippen.
After decades building and funding consumer companies, I've never been more excited about consumer opportunities. While everyone else doom-scrolls about CAC increases, I'm seeing the greatest moment for operational leaders in a generation.
The Pattern
The pattern is unmistakable. Companies that generate outsized returns invariably possess one secret weapon: exceptional operators. The people who understand that business is fundamentally about converting chaos into systems, potential into profit.
Think about Michael Jordan. Six championships, five MVPs, global icon. But without Scottie Pippen, Jordan won exactly zero playoff series. Pippen wasn't just support—he was the engine that made the system work. Jordan was the closer. Pippen made closing possible. Together, they redefined basketball. Apart, they were just talented individuals.
Every founder thinks they're Batman, brilliant, driven, willing to work in the shadows to save Gotham. But Batman without Alfred is just a rich guy with issues. Alfred keeps the Batcave running, maintains the equipment, provides tactical support. He's not the hero Gotham deserves—he's the operator Batman needs.
This dynamic shows up everywhere—different industries, same pattern. Apple understood this. Steve Jobs was Batman, but Tim Cook was Alfred, quietly revolutionizing supply chains while Jobs unveiled "one more thing." Cook turned Apple's operations into such a competitive weapon that competitors couldn't match their margins even when copying their products. SpaceX gets this too—Elon tweets about Mars while Gwynne Shotwell ensures rockets actually launch on schedule and budget.
The Rocketship
This company has tapped into something I've witnessed only a handful of times—when consumer behavior doesn't just shift but reorganizes around a new ritual.
They're in the wellness and performance category, but not in any way you've seen before. Not supplements. Not energy drinks. Not another CBD variant. Something entirely different—a new daily ritual spreading through word-of-mouth faster than paid marketing could ever achieve. The kind of organic velocity that turns categories into movements.
Already sprinting past early traction. No celebrity endorsements, no crazy paid media spend, just genuine consumer obsession spreading like wildfire. Tracking toward $50 million before most startups ship their first product. The kind of growth that makes VCs update their return models.
The founder has that combination of product genius and relentless energy I recognize from the best entrepreneurs I've backed. The investor syndicate reads like a who's who of consumer success: builders of Oura Ring, Starface, Morning Brew, Liquid Death, and Feastables. These aren't tourists. They're operators who know rocket ships at liftoff.
But here's the truth: this rocket ship is flying without a co-pilot.
The Inflection
The inflection point between $15 million and $100 million is where magic happens or companies die. The founder who got here through sheer will can't get there alone. The spreadsheets that worked at $1 million are already breaking. The supply chain held together with duct tape needs to become infrastructure. Customer service handled through DMs needs to scale without losing soul.
The ideal operator for this role—your role—brings specific genius. You see inventory and immediately calculate turn rates. You look at acquisition metrics and model lifetime values in your head. You can tell a founder "no" on the product idea that would destroy margins, and make it stick. Most importantly, you have operational courage—making irreversible decisions with incomplete information while building the plane mid-flight.
You've probably scaled a DTC brand before, maybe from that exact $10–50 million danger zone. You know the specific hell of managing inventory for a product that might grow 300% next month or plateau tomorrow.
The Upside
The economics speak for themselves: for the right operator, this is tens of millions in potential equity value. But if you're the right person, you know the real opportunity isn't just financial. It's the chance to define an entirely new consumer category. To be the operator who turned four months of momentum into a decade of dominance.
The Call
Every enduring consumer company made the same decision at exactly this inflection point: they brought in a world-class operator. Not an advisor. An operator with equity, accountability, and authority to build.
This founder doesn't need another advisor. They need their partner. Their Pippen. Their Alfred. Their Goose. The person who wakes up at 3am thinking about inventory optimization and customer lifetime value—and gets genuinely excited about it.
The rocket ship isn't on the launch pad—it's already airborne, pulling serious Gs. The founder is in the pilot seat but smart enough to know they need someone managing systems, watching instruments, planning trajectory.
The category is wide open. The playbook hasn't been written. The opportunity to define how this entire market operates is waiting for someone with courage and capability to grab it.
I've built companies. I've funded dozens more. This is the one that reminds me why I got into this game—for the moments when you can feel the future forming.
Are you ready to be the one?
Because if you are, we should talk. → brian (at) sugarcap (dot) com
Know someone perfect for this? Send them this essay. They'll thank you forever.
Further Reading:
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