Ryan Rouse

President @ MALK Organics | Previously, Co-Founder & CMO @ Factor_, CEO @ Highkey

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

Most CPG brands die because they're looking for the breakthrough moment instead of stacking 200 unremarkable weeks in a row.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

Kill products faster. Even the ones that get retail distribution.

And the ones that do 'ok'.

The obvious cuts are easy. You know what to do with the product that straight up flops.

But the 'ok' ones will wreck you.

They get in some doors. They move units. They never quite break through, but they never fully die either. So they just... sit there.

And while they sit, they're pulling from everything.

Broker attention. Retailer conversations. Marketing budget. Your ops team's bandwidth. Your own headspace.

At MALK, we've had to make these calls. A SKU that had placement, had some velocity, but wasn't the one.

A formulation for an entire category that was good, but not great.

The decision to cut them was hard.

They were working, kind of. But 'kind of working' is the most expensive thing in a growing brand.

Because every hour spent managing a mediocre SKU is an hour not spent making your best products undeniable.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

At Factor_, I responded to every fire like it was the only thing that mattered.

Missed dinner. Skipped workouts. Answered Slack at midnight like it was normal.

I didn't decide to become that person. I just made the same small choice 500 days in a row until it wasn't a choice anymore.

First you form your habits. Then your habits form you.

People love talking about freedom of choice. Nobody talks about the fact that consequences aren't optional.

You don't wake up one morning as a burned-out founder. You get there one "just tonight" at a time. Each one so small it doesn't register. Until the compound effect shows up in your marriage, your health, your ability to think clearly.

I didn't lose those years to one bad decision. I lost them to a thousand invisible ones.

Now I treat small choices like what they are: bets on who I'm becoming.

Some days I still lose that bet. But at least I know I'm making one.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

Your reaction to bad news IS your culture.

I've run teams where people hid problems from me. Not because they were lazy or dishonest.

Because they'd seen what happened to the last person who brought bad news.

That was my fault.

I wasn't abusive. I didn't yell. But my energy shifted. The disappointment was loud. And people read that like a threat.

So they stopped telling me things.

Thankfully, I've changed.

If your team hides problems from you, that's not a people problem. That's a mirror.

The best cultures I've seen aren't the ones where nothing goes wrong.

They're the ones where bad news travels fast because people trust that the response will be "okay, how do we fix it" instead of "how did you let this happen."

Your reaction to bad news sets the ceiling for your entire organization's speed.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

I've seen every type of leader.

Been every type at one point as well.

The fear-based one who thought intensity was the same as accountability.

The numbers-obsessed one who burned through people to hit plan.

The "systems guy" who built playbooks but never built people.

All of them felt like leadership at the time. They weren't.

Real leadership is watching someone on your team do something they didn't think they were capable of.

And knowing you had a small part in rewiring that belief.

That's the hardest jump. Because it means your ego takes a backseat permanently.

It's not about your results anymore. It's about theirs.

The scoreboard eventually resets. Revenue targets get replaced.

But your impact on how they see themselves lasts forever.

For better or worse.

Still working on this. Probably always will be.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

I watched a founder nearly kill a good strategy over one soft week of data.

We were three months into a launch. The thesis was solid. The team had done the work.

Then one early signal came in soft and suddenly everything was wrong. The product sucked. We needed to pivot. Full panic.

But the decision was made months ago. The thesis was sound. One bad signal doesn't change that.

I've seen this pattern in every company I've been part of. Smart people spiraling over a single bad data point.

It keeps happening because detachment is hard. Especially when you're the one who made the call.

But detachment means you did the work upfront, made the call with conviction, and then actually let it breathe.

You stop refreshing the scoreboard every five minutes. You stop treating early noise like a verdict.

The people who consistently make good calls aren't the ones white-knuckling every outcome.

They're the ones who trust their process enough to stay calm while everyone else is spiraling.

Do the work. Make the call. Then get out of your own way.

Give it the runway you promised it.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

@justnblock you can (and should) ask those questions of them and their referrals.

but they have an idea of where you're doing with the question so isn't the full story, unfortunately.

but yes, obviously do everything you can to attempt to get it.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

Talent is everywhere.

What's rare is someone who knows how to lose, recover, and still perform at a high level.

I've hired people with perfect resumes who crumbled the first time something went sideways. And I've watched people with no pedigree eat shit for 6 months straight and come back stronger than before.

Resilience isn't a line on a resume. You can't interview for it. You only see it when things go wrong.

And things always go wrong.

If I'm building a team, give me the person who's been punched in the face and kept walking. Every single time.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

@afigtrades Strategy

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

@CuckedbyVC Riser is great for sure.

Our VP of Brand&Creative is brilliant and has been the driving force behind everything we’re doing to elevate the brand, though.

Which is how all great agencies do their best work imo. When someone internal at the company has the vision.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

Watching MALK move beyond "alt-milk" is one of the most rewarding parts of this job.

Not because of the press hits or the partnerships.

But because it means we're building something that actually matters to people outside of a grocery aisle.

A year ago, these conversations weren't happening. Now they're happening weekly.

Brand building in CPG isn't just about shelf space.

It's about showing up in the places where people actually live their lives.

Cafes. Events. Experiences.

Discovery happens on shelf and in real life.

Both matter.

But when someone tries you for the first time while they're fully immersed in an experience they love, it sticks.

In a way they can't even fully explain.

And that's where loyalty comes from.

We're building a brand people want to be around.

That's the whole point.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

@CuckedbyVC We never rebranded. We certainly refreshed and bright some more life into the brand.

This is about a push into IRL activations with the “right” brands and partners.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

I helped build a company that sold for $277M.

I didn't get rich.

No life-changing payday. No "I'm set forever" moment. No champagne on a yacht.

I got experience. Scars. And a very clear picture of what I'd do differently.

People assume acquisition = payday. It doesn't always.

Your cap table matters. Your position matters. Your choices leading up that day matter.

Here's what I learned:

Not everyone who helps build a $277M company walks away rich. Some of us just walk away smarter.

And honestly? That's been worth more than any check.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

I've sat through thousands of meetings across three companies.

Most of them sucked.

And yeah, a lot could've been emails. Everyone knows that. But the meeting format gets all the blame when really it's the person presenting.

Two things kill every bad meeting:

The presenter never asked themselves why anyone else on the call should care. So they ramble for 30 minutes when they needed 5. Cover everything instead of the one thing that matters.

And the delivery is brutal. Monotone. No energy. Reading slides like a hostage video.

Want better meetings? Know your one point. Tighten your talk time around it. Leave the context in a doc for people to read later.

And for the love of god, bring some energy. If eyes are glazing over, adjust.

Meetings don't need to die. The people running them just need to get better.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

I used to think alignment meant everyone agreeing with me.

At my first business I'd walk out of a meeting thinking we were all on the same page. Two weeks later nothing moved. Or worse, people moved in completely different directions.

The problem wasn't them. It was me.

I was confusing compliance with alignment. People nodding in a room isn't agreement. It's just people not wanting to argue with the founder.

Real alignment is uncomfortable. It means someone says "I don't think that's right" and you actually sit with it instead of steamrolling them because you're stressed and behind on everything.

Took me years to learn that the quiet room is the dangerous room.

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

When raising money, your tendency will be to self filter.

You shouldn’t.

Speaking from experience.

At Factor_, we were raising a friends and family round.

I was making my calls, skipping names, telling myself stories about why certain people weren't worth reaching out to.

A former colleague from Merrill Lynch called me out of the blue. Just catching up.

Asked how Factor_ was going. Came up that we were raising.

10 days later he wired $250,000.

A quarter million. From a call I was never going to make.

I see this all the time.

Founders put filters on who they'll call.

"He won't be interested."
"She won't get it."
"That's awkward."

But that's not real logic.

You're just protecting yourself from hearing no.

Most CPG categories need some capital upfront.

The social discourse on this topic all too often defaults to "VC or no VC" like those are the only options.

They're not.
Raise from people.
Friends, family, former colleagues.

But you have to actually call all of them.

Make a list of every single person you know. Don't filter. Don't assume. Don't decide for them.

Tell them the truth about your business. Let adults make adult decisions.

I almost left $250K on the table because I was too proud to pick up the phone.

Don't be me.