Launch a brand from scratch without becoming a manufacturer
Co-pack sourcing, formulation, packaging, compliance, and distribution — handled. You bring the brand thesis; we ship the SKU. Currently in private beta with cohort one founding brands.
Cohort one pricing locked · No personal guarantees on inventory · Founding-brand IP retention
Most CPG launches die in the gap between a brief and a co-pack.
The standard playbook for launching a CPG brand has gone like this for forty years: have an idea, hire a freelance formulator, pay $40K for an R&D round, get a sample you like, source packaging from a different vendor, find a co-packer with capacity, negotiate MOQ down to something survivable, sign a personal guarantee on the raw materials, wait six months, hope nothing breaks. Most founder-led brands die in the gap between “I have a great formulation” and “the first 5,000 units are on a truck.”
The hardest part isn't any single step. It's coordinating a half-dozen independent vendors who each speak their own language, charge their own fees, and have no incentive to optimize for your launch timeline. R&D doesn't talk to packaging. Packaging doesn't talk to the co-packer. The co-packer doesn't talk to your fulfillment 3PL. And every hand-off is a week of email tag, a misaligned SKU, or a re-spec that costs you four weeks.
FMCG HQ's Private Label Launchpad is the opposite premise: one project lead, one integrated stack, one fee structure. R&D, packaging, compliance, co-pack, and 3PL are coordinated by us — you have a single Slack channel for the entire launch. We own the inventory risk. You retain the IP, the brand, and the customer relationship.
Cohort one is a small group of founding brands actively building this with us. The categories shipping first are the ones cohort one tells us to prioritize. Apply for cohort one to lock founding pricing for your launch.
What changes when launching is infrastructure, not a project
With FMCG HQ Launchpad
- One Slack channel for the entire launch — R&D, packaging, co-pack, 3PL
- We hold the inventory risk; you retain IP and brand ownership
- No personal guarantees on raw materials or first production runs
- Vetted co-pack network we're building category by category with cohort one
- Compliance reviewed by region before the first batch ships
- Founding-cohort pricing locked for the life of the relationship
Traditional launch path
- Six vendors, six contracts, six different account managers
- You personally guarantee raw-material POs to unlock manufacturer credit
- Each vendor optimizes for their own throughput, not your launch timeline
- Compliance review happens after production, not before
- Re-spec costs four-week delays and double-paid R&D fees
- You absorb the inventory risk of the MOQ before product-market fit is proven
From brief to shelf in approximately 90 days
The exact timeline depends on category complexity (RTD beverage in a familiar format ships faster than a novel supplement requiring extended stability testing). Here's the median path for cohort one.
Discovery & brand thesis
- Category opportunity sizing with retailer-level velocity data where available
- Target consumer cohort defined with first-party signal, not Pinterest moodboard
- Claim strategy mapped against regulatory framework before we touch formulation
Formulation + packaging in parallel
- In-house R&D plus partner labs for niche category expertise
- Structural and graphic packaging design coordinated with fill, ship, and retail-shelf constraints
- Multiple formulation rounds with structured taste / texture / efficacy panels (not just internal subjective tasting)
Pilot batch + sampling validation
- Pilot batch in real-world packaging — not a mockup
- Sampling pilot to non-followers, not just the founder's audience
- Decision gate: scale, re-spec, or kill — based on real signal, not vibes
Scaled production + compliance pass
- Co-pack capacity reserved in advance — no production-queue surprises
- Three QA gates: at fill, at pack-out, at 3PL receiving
- Region-specific labeling locked by compliance before first carton ships
Distribution + retail readiness
- DTC fulfillment via vetted 3PL partners
- Retail buyer evidence packs built from sampling signal
- Reorder cycle planned against actual sell-through, not a spreadsheet projection
Six launch paths cohort one is building with us
Different starting points, same destination — a brand on shelf with the founder still owning IP, customer data, and the upside.
You have an audience; we ship the SKU
Second-time CPG founders who've done this the hard way
Established brands testing a new category without dilution
Retailers launching their own house-brand SKUs
Established brand rebuilding a tired SKU
Brands entering the US for the first time
Launchpad vs every other way to launch a CPG brand
Each option has a place. For founders who want to keep IP, avoid personal guarantees, and ship without becoming a manufacturer, the math is hard to beat.
| Capability | FMCG HQ (beta) | DIY (your own ops) | Incubator / accelerator | White-label supplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Keep IP and brand ownership | Equity dilution | |||
Single Slack channel for entire launch | Sometimes | |||
No personal guarantees on raw materials | ||||
We hold inventory risk during pilot | ||||
Sampling pilot validation built in | ||||
Co-pack network across categories | Cohort 1 building | Limited | Single supplier | |
Time from brief to shelf | ~90 days | 6–12 months | 4–8 months | 60–90 days |
Pricing model | Founding-cohort, locked | A la carte vendors | Equity ± retainer | Per-unit markup |
Founder-direct line |
Five layers of the launch stack
Each can be peeled off and used standalone — but they're designed to coordinate, which is the whole point.
R&D — formulation that ships, not just samples
- In-house R&D for food, beverage, and personal care
- Partner-lab access for fermentation, biotech, and freeze-dry
- Production-constraint-aware formulation — no shelf-only samples
Packaging — structural and graphic, coordinated
- Structural packaging design coordinated with fill, ship, and retail-shelf constraints
- Graphic design from award-winning agency partners
- Sustainability scoring (recyclability, recycled content, ship-density carbon math)
Compliance Mesh — region-specific, automated
- FDA Nutrition Facts + allergen labeling automated for US in cohort one
- Claim review (clinical, “clean,” sustainability) before production
- Other-market regulatory templates per the public roadmap
Co-pack Network — vetted, capacity-reserved
- Pre-reserved co-pack capacity for cohort one launches
- Category-by-category buildout informed by cohort one founder feedback
- QA at fill, pack-out, and 3PL receiving — three gates before product moves
3PL + Retail — distribution from day one
- DTC fulfillment via 3PL partners from day one of production
- Velocity signal pulled back into the dashboard for reorder planning
- Retail buyer pitch decks auto-built from sampling pilot data
“A CPG launch is a hundred small decisions strung together. Most fail because no one owns the connective tissue. Cohort one's job is to be that connective tissue — and to do it without taking a piece of the brand.”
What founding brands get from Launchpad
Brand, formulation IP, customer data, and equity stay with you. We're infrastructure, not an incubator.
Whatever pricing we agree during beta stays with your account for the life of the relationship.
During the pilot batch we hold the inventory risk. No personal guarantees on raw materials or first production runs.
One Slack channel for the entire launch. No tickets, no tiered support, no project-manager telephone game.
Common questions we get
Have more questions? Please contact our team.
Related reading
Apply to launch with cohort one
Private beta · founding pricing locked · ~90-day target idea-to-shelf · no personal guarantees on inventory. We respond within one business day.