A buy-side advisory · retail & marketplace strategy for challenger brands
I was the buyer.
Now I'm on your side.
Every agency will optimize your listing. None of them can tell you what the buyer and the category actually reward — because none of them have ever been the buyer.
You have a category review or a buyer meeting coming — or you already got a no, and nobody will tell you why. Before that decision gets made, you need to know what the buyer sees.
Already on shelf and quietly plateauing? Same answer — the buyer's read is the one you never get to hear. Run by Jason, who spent 20 years at Amazon, Nike, CVS Health, Chewy, and Target deciding which brands got onboarded, promoted, funded, or cut.
A no at category review doesn't cost you a deck — it costs you a year. Retailers review annually, so a no in March means your next real shot is next March: inventory already bought, a team already hired.
The Read is free · no signup · the ninety-second version of the two-week Line Review
The problem
The buy side is deciding your brand's future — and you're not in the room.
Your brand is good. Your reviews are strong. Your team is competent. And you're still stuck at the door — or you got in, scaled for a while, and quietly plateaued, and nobody will tell you why.
Somewhere in a category review you weren't invited to, buyers decide who gets the meeting, who gets growth investment, and who gets quietly cut. Your broker doesn't know how. Your agency isn't in the room.
What's capping your growth is almost never your product.
It's the strategic levers nobody put in front of you:
- —Your margin and terms structure
- —Your assortment and catalog strategy
- —Your pricing and promo architecture
- —Your channel mix and 1P/3P model
- —Your retail media efficiency
- —The story your numbers tell a buyer
All of it is fixable. But only if someone tells you.
What actually happens in the room
The first thirty seconds
I open your item in the vendor system and go straight to the numbers — gross margin after freight and returns, your case pack and unit of measure, MAP and street price against the incumbents, and your review velocity versus the leader. I've formed a working opinion before you've finished your intro. Nothing in your deck moves it.
The field that kills the deal
Then I check the boring fields that silently end deals: the list cost on your item-maintenance form, the co-op and MDF you signed, freight terms and returns allowance, and whether your GTINs and case dimensions match the setup sheet. One wrong terms field — a list cost that leaves no margin after deductions — and you're a no before the merits are ever discussed.
The answer
I don't execute. I judge.
SKUBAIT is a buy-side advisory, run by a merchant who spent two decades on the other side of the table. I tell you what a category manager sees when they look at your brand, what's capping your growth, and exactly where to push to break into retail.
The services
Strategy from the buy side, for brands breaking into retail.
From your first retail pitch to the terms and channel strategy that get you onto the shelf — and keep you growing once you're there. Start free with The Read. When the stakes are real, here's the work.
A few Line Review slots open each month. When they're full, it's a waitlist.
- 1
Start free
Run The Read — the ninety-second version of the Line Review, my framework run at speed — or see a sample before you share anything.
- 2
Book a call
I walk your brand with you, the way a buyer would. No pitch — if it's not a fit, I say so.
- 3
Go deep
Begin with a Line Review, then only the work that moves the needle. You start and stop where you want.
The Walk
The meeting, not the engagement. A live buy-side walkthrough of your brand — margin, assortment, pricing, channel, and the three objections you'll face — followed by a short written read.
- —A 90-minute live call — you, me, and your brand on the table.
- —Margin, assortment, pricing, and channel, walked the way a buyer would.
- —The three objections you'll face in a real category review.
The Line Review
A line review is the meeting where a category manager decides what stays, what's added, what's cut, and who gets growth investment. If you're trying to break into retail, I run one on your brand and tell you exactly where you stand and what's capping your growth.
- —Where you stand today — the meeting you'd get, or why you're plateauing on shelf.
- —Margin and terms — is your structure fundable and profitable enough to scale?
- —Assortment and catalog: what to cut, what to lead with, where to extend.
- —Pricing, promo, and channel mix — the strategy a category manager would run.
- —Compliance and claims exposure — the landmines behind stalled deals and delistings.
- —Your competitive set as a merchant sees it, and the three objections you'll face.
You get a straight answer, not a deck.
Retail Readiness Sprint
I design the fix the Line Review found — the pitch, the terms architecture, the channel sequence. I architect it; your team or a partner I refer builds it. I stay the judge, not the vendor.
- —The pitch, rewritten in buyer language — three numbers and one risk.
- —Terms architecture: margin, promo, co-op, MDF, freight, returns.
- —Onboarding and item-setup readiness, where deals die silently.
- —Channel sequencing — which retailer first, because the order matters.
Channel Growth Advisory
Ongoing ownership of your marketplace and retail dot-com growth.
- —Amazon 1P vs. 3P economics — most brands are on the wrong model.
- —The full channel set: Amazon, Walmart, Target.com, TikTok Shop, and the category-specific marketplaces that matter for you.
- —Promo and pricing calendar built the way a category manager builds one.
- —Category intelligence and business reviews the retailer respects.
Fractional Head of Retail & Marketplace
For brands who need the role filled and can't yet hire it. I sit in your leadership meetings, own the channel P&L, and take the buyer meetings with you — a materially different thing from preparing you for them.
Why not an agency
Everyone in this market sells something. Know what you're buying.
Execution agencies
They sell hands.
If you already know what's broken, hire them — they're good, and they're cheaper than me.
Systems & ops consultancies
They sell a system.
If your problem is that four vendors aren't talking to each other, that's a real fix.
Enterprise strategy firms
They sell a brain — to the multinationals.
If you're a global CPG renegotiating with your biggest retailer, they're excellent.
SKUBAIT
I sell judgment to challengers.
If you're the brand trying to become the category leader, and you can't figure out why the door won't open — that's me.
Why not a broker
A broker is paid to place you. I'm paid to tell you whether you're placeable.
A broker takes you to the meeting. If you're not ready — wrong margin, wrong assortment, wrong story, wrong terms — you get one no. And that no follows you. Merchants remember. You don't re-pitch that category for a year, sometimes two.
I make sure the meeting is worth taking. Then hire the broker.
About
Not a consultant who studied how retailers think. I know — because I was one.
Jason
Founder · 20 years on the buy side
I'm Jason. For two decades I was the buyer — the category manager and merchandising leader who sat across the table from brands like yours and decided who got on the shelf, who got cut, and how much margin I took.
I spent seven years at Amazon across vendor management and Retail Globalization — running category P&Ls and standing up Amazon Retail in new international markets. I've also worked inside Nike, CVS Health, Chewy, and Target — across apparel, footwear, consumables, pet, and beauty. I started my career in global strategy consulting, so I've always run the numbers before the pitch.
Along the way I recruited premium brands, cut the ones that weren't ready, negotiated the terms most founders never see, and led the merchandising teams making those calls across dozens of countries.
Now I use that read on your behalf. I'll say “this won't work, and here's why.” I say no to brands that aren't ready, and I don't take the money. Your agency won't tell you the hard thing because they're trying to keep the retainer. I'll tell you, because I'm trying to keep my reputation.
Where I learned it.
- Amazon
- Nike
- CVS Health
- Chewy
- Target
Seven years at Amazon
Vendor management and Retail Globalization — running category P&Ls, recruiting brands, and standing up new international marketplaces from the ground up.
The category-review table
~20 years on the buy side deciding what gets onboarded, promoted, funded, or cut. I ran the meetings your brand is trying to survive.
Margin, terms & item setup
Where deals actually die: margin structure, co-op/MDF, freight, returns, and the onboarding data fields nobody explains until you fail them.
Consumables & private label
Owned large consumables P&Ls and multi-brand private-label portfolios — pricing architecture, mix shift, and promo efficiency that expands margin.
International launches
Built the vendor-recruitment strategy, onboarding workflows, and localization playbooks deployed across new-country marketplace launches on multiple continents.
Strategy & the numbers
A foundation in global strategy consulting — so the read on your brand is grounded in the P&L math, not just merchandising instinct.
Who I say no to
I turn brands away. Here's the standard.
A small roster only works if I'm honest about who it's for. If you're one of these, I'll say so on the first call and save you the fee.
Your margin can't survive retail
If there's no room for the retailer's margin, co-op, and freight without going underwater, I'll tell you to fix the P&L before you pitch — not pay me to confirm you're not ready.
You want a yes-man for a deck
If you've already decided and you want validation to show the board, we'll both waste the engagement. I'm useful precisely when you can still change course.
You need hands, not a read
If what you actually need is someone to run the ads or build the listings, that's an agency — and a cheaper call. I'll point you to one before I take a fee I can't earn.
No client logos here — on purpose.
Every engagement is under NDA, so most of the work never becomes a logo I can show — and that's the point. A merchant who publishes every brand he's touched is showing you how he'd treat yours. Judge the judgment instead: run The Read, or study the full sample. Full background and references come on our first call.
Straight answers
The questions everyone asks first.
Start here
Find out what a buyer sees before you pitch retail.
Run the free Read in five minutes, or book a call and I'll walk your brand the way a category manager would — where you stand and where to push. No pitch. If something's not ready, I'll tell you that too.
The Bite
A short note from the buy side. Every week.
One thing I'd flag if your brand crossed my desk this week — a pricing tell, a listing mistake, a category shift. Read in ninety seconds. No fluff, no course, no upsell.