The CPG Boot Camp
For Founders Past $500K
Stop bleeding on bad decisions. Get the operator playbook.
Eight sessions taught by Tony Ford, Practitioner in Residence. D2C founders who've outgrown generic advice and need frameworks tested at cost. Not theory. Not coaching. Operator truth.
Applications close July 30 · $500K+ ARR required
If you're reading this
You crossed $500K and now you're carrying weight you didn't have before.
Payroll. An agency on retainer with reports full of impressions and "trending positive." Six SKUs in market and at least two of them are dragging your P&L down, but every time you look at the numbers you talk yourself out of cutting them. Paid spend across two or three platforms. A blended ROAS that looks acceptable until you pencil the actual contribution margin.
You launched another flavor last quarter because growth felt slow. It didn't fix anything. The email list has 14,000 people on it and no real lifecycle strategy. Amazon and retail are both calling and you don't know which one is the trap.
You're not lost. You're past lost. You're the operator who can sense the bleed and can't isolate it.
That's the problem this program was built to fix.
Tony Ford
Practitioner in Residence · Proof Incubator
Why Orchid Media built this
There's a gap in the market between $500K and $20M. Below it, options exist. Above it, you can buy expertise. In between, nobody built anything for you.
Below $500K
Accelerators, courses, weekend workshops, founder Slack groups. The ecosystem was built for this stage.
$500K to $20M
Past the textbook stage. Not big enough to buy your way out. The market built no infrastructure for this zone. You're on your own.
Above $20M
Afford a real CFO and a real head of growth. Capital allocation replaces operator knowledge as the primary constraint.
Orchid Media works with D2C CPG brands every day. We see the same patterns. The same wasted agency spend. The same SKU portfolios that haven't been pruned in two years. The same founder, sharp and capable, running on incomplete information.
This boot camp is the condensed version of what we build into the longer client engagements at Orchid. Eight sessions, four weeks, the operator-grade frameworks that move the number.
We partnered with Proof Incubator because Proof has a track record of serious operators in the room. The cohort will reflect that.
Your cohort room stays open forever.
The alumni room compounds with every group that follows. Dozens of operators at your stage, one message away.
30 minutes with Tony. Your numbers, his eyes on it.
Not a group call. Not office hours. Every company gets their own session on their specific P&L.
The 8 sessions
Eight live sessions over four weeks. Every one built around frameworks you use the same week you learn them.
Product Traps to Avoid
Kill losing SKUs. Stop the launch addiction. Spend behind winners. We work with your actual SKU list and your actual margins.
Who Buys and Who Doesn't
Why someone buys once and never returns. Why someone else buys four times. Acquisition versus loyalty math. Not personas. Not survey theater.
Retail vs. Amazon vs. DTC
Real unit economics by channel. Why vanity revenue will empty your bank account faster than slow growth ever will.
Ad Testing and Metrics
What to measure. What agencies hide. How to know if your paid spend is working before you've burned another quarter.
Nurturing an Audience
Past the Google pain purchase. Lifecycle marketing, loyalty, repeat purchase economics that actually compound.
Advanced Ecommerce Conversion
CRO that actually moves the number. Testing frameworks. The on-site elements that matter, and the ones that don't.
Paid Media Without Getting Robbed
PPC at scale. Holding agencies accountable. The in-house decision and exactly when it makes sense to make it.
Scaling Trap and Capital Stack
Why companies lose money faster as they grow. How to build without outside money. How to pitch and prep if you do raise.
About Tony Ford
Practitioner in Residence.
Operator. Not a Theorist.
Tony co-founded Menolabs and sold it for $25 million. Since the exit he's run agencies, advised CPG brands from pre-launch through nine figures, and is currently operating Orchid Media, a D2C consumer marketing firm working with brands across the category.
He didn't retire and start teaching from a beach. He's in the work, every day, with real money on the line.
Every framework in this program was tested at cost. Tony's cost. Or a client's cost. With real customers, real consequences, and a P&L that didn't care about good intentions.
If you've sat through enough accelerator panels to spot the difference between someone who ran the race and someone who watched it, you already know why that distinction matters.
What you get
Everything in the program. No upsells after you're in.
- Eight live sessions with Tony Ford
- Cohort Slack room: live for four weeks, open forever
- Alumni Slack with every program graduate, no end date
- One private 30-minute mid-cohort call with Tony
- Session recordings, tools, and templates, all yours to keep
- Alumni pricing on future cohorts and team seats
per company · pay in full or split into two payments
10 seats · $500K+ ARR required · Applications close July 30
Is this for you
Read both sides before you apply.
Yes, this is for you
- A D2C CPG founder past $500K in revenue
- Paying for paid media or agency support and unsure of the ROI
- Stuck on portfolio decisions you've been deferring for two quarters
- The decision-maker on your channel mix and spend
Not for you if
- Pre-revenue or under $500K ARR
- Looking for inspiration, motivation, or a community
- Unable to attend live sessions twice a week for four weeks
- Not the person who can act on what you learn
How it works
From application to cohort in four steps.
Apply.
Ten-minute application. Tony reads every one personally.
Hear back in 48 hours.
Fit candidates get a 15-minute call to confirm the cohort makes sense for your business.
Lock your seat.
Pay in full or split. Seats are confirmed in order paid.
Refund policy.
Full refund before session 1. 50% before session 2. After session 2, you're in.
Good to know before you apply.
How is this different from working with an agency?
What's the relationship between Orchid Media and Proof Incubator?
Why is the cohort capped at 10?
Can my co-founder attend with me?
What if I can't make every session live?
Will I make my money back?
What happens after cohort 1 ends?
Ten seats. Applications close July 30. Cohort 1 starts the week of August 17. Seats confirmed in order paid.
You can keep guessing.
Or you can know.
Spend four weeks getting the operator playbook from someone who already paid to learn it.
Ten seats · Applications close July 30 · Cohort 1 starts August 17
If you can feel the bleed, the application takes about ten minutes.