One of the most common mistakes early-stage founders make is hiring a full-time supply chain manager too early.

At first, it feels like the right move. Operations are messy, inventory feels unpredictable, and the supply chain starts becoming a black box the founder wants to escape from. So they hire someone senior to “take it over.”

But in many cases, that hire creates more problems than it solves.

In this episode of Supply Chain Moves, we break down why premature operations hires can drain cash, overcomplicate simple systems, and disconnect founders from the operational knowledge they actually need to build a resilient business.

We unpack:

• Why a $65K to $85K supply chain salary is often the wrong investment for pre-revenue and early-stage brands
• The hidden risk of outsourcing operational understanding too early
• Why senior operators struggle in low-complexity businesses
• How over-engineering starts happening inside small brands
• The difference between strategic supply chain support and execution support
• When fractional consulting makes more sense than a full-time hire
• Why junior operations coordinators are often the better early-stage solution
• The revenue and operational milestones where a true supply chain manager becomes a “real unlock”

If you're building a DTC brand and feeling overwhelmed operationally, this episode will help you understand what kind of support you actually need, and when.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

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Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Sales are picking up. The product is getting traction. And suddenly, it feels like you are ready to scale.

This is exactly where many DTC founders go wrong.

In this episode, we break down Mistake #8: building your supply chain for a version of the business that does not exist yet. What feels like smart preparation often turns into expensive overcommitment. More inventory, more SKUs, bigger orders, new suppliers. All based on early signals that have not fully proven themselves.

We unpack the difference between real product-market fit and short-term demand spikes, and why that gap matters more than most founders think.

You will learn:

• How early traction can create a false sense of predictability
• Why inventory is not just product, but locked-in decisions
• The hidden cost of adding complexity too early
• A real example of how one brand scaled too fast and had to recover
• A practical framework to separate proven products from experiments
• How to scale in layers without trapping cash or losing focus

We also talk about the role of optimism in growth. You need it. But without guardrails, it can quietly push you into decisions your business is not ready for.

If you are in that in-between stage where things are starting to work but still uncertain, this episode will help you stay flexible, protect your cash, and scale from proof instead of hope.

Question to think about: Are you scaling based on what the market has proven, or what you hope will happen next?

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
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Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Fast growth feels like success. Sales are up, ads are working, and demand looks strong.

So the instinct is simple: keep buying inventory, keep scaling, don’t lose momentum.

In this episode, Nate Littlewood, Founder of Future Ready CFO, breaks down why that instinct can quietly break DTC brands. On the surface, everything looks healthy. But underneath, cash is getting trapped in inventory, timing gaps between payables and receivables are widening, and profitability starts to look very different from reality.

He walks through how brands end up in this situation, not because they are “bad at finance,” but because supply chain, marketing, and finance are operating in separate lanes. Marketing optimizes for growth, supply chain optimizes for availability, and finance is left trying to make sense of the cash impact after decisions are already made.

The result is a business that looks strong in reporting, but feels tight in the bank account.

If you’ve ever wondered how a “profitable” brand still ends up cash constrained, this episode will make it very clear.

What You’ll Learn

• Why fast-growing brands can still run out of cash
• How the Cash Conversion Cycle quietly determines your financial reality
• Why inventory is really “frozen cash,” not just stock on a shelf
• How siloed decisions between marketing and supply chain create cash blind spots
• Why over-ordering feels safe but slowly increases financial risk
• How weak bookkeeping hides the real state of your cash flow
• What it looks like when finance actually acts as the conductor across the business
• The first steps to building clearer unit economics and a real cash flow forecast

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Nate & Future Ready CFO

• LinkedIn - Nate Littlewood
• Website - Future Ready CFO 
• Podcast - Profits on Purporse 

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

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Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Stockouts are painful. So the instinct is simple: order more, just to be safe.

In this episode, Omar breaks down why that instinct quietly creates a bigger problem. Over-ordering feels like protection, but it often comes from fear, not strategy. And while stockouts are loud and obvious, excess inventory builds slower, hides deeper issues, and ties up the one thing growing brands need most: cash.

He walks through how “just in case” ordering turns into heavier operations, messier planning, and slower decision-making, plus what to do instead if you want a supply chain that actually scales with you.

If you’ve ever increased your order size after getting burned once, this one will feel familiar.

What You’ll Learn

• Why over-ordering is usually driven by fear, not data
• The hidden costs of excess inventory (beyond storage)
• How too much stock creates less clarity, not more
• The difference between safety stock and panic stock
• Why inventory stops being an asset when it doesn’t move
• How to separate real risk from emotional decision-making

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
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• ⁠X – Lara⁠
• ⁠Facebook⁠
• ⁠Instagram⁠
• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

You found a lower landed cost. Better tariff exposure. Cleaner DDP quote. Cheaper freight.

So why does everything feel harder?

In this episode, Omar, Growth Partner at Move Supply Chain, breaks down one of the most common traps growing brands fall into: optimizing for the cheapest number on paper while ignoring the costs that actually show up later.

Because landed cost tells you what it takes to get product into your warehouse. It does not tell you what it takes to run your business.

Omar unpacks why obsessing over tariffs, DDP, and all-in cost feels like the “smart” move, and how it quietly introduces risk across your supply chain. From inconsistent suppliers to fragile operations, delayed timelines to emergency air freight, the real cost shows up when growth starts to put pressure on your system.

If your backend can’t keep up, your margins will not matter.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why landed cost is only one piece of the decision, not the decision
• The hidden costs that do not show up in your supplier quotes
• How DDP can simplify things and reduce visibility at the same time
• Why “cheaper” and “more efficient” are not the same
• What to evaluate when choosing suppliers beyond price
• Where the bigger margin wins actually come from
• How to build a supply chain that supports growth, not just protects margin

If you have been chasing lower costs but feeling more operational friction, this episode will help you zoom out and make better decisions for the stage you are in.

Because the goal is not the cheapest landed cost.
It is a supply chain you can actually scale.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
• ⁠X – Move⁠
• ⁠X – Lara⁠
• ⁠Facebook⁠
• ⁠Instagram⁠
• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Most founders think negotiating a lower MOQ is a win. It’s not.

In this episode, we break down why obsessing over Minimum Order Quantity can actually cost you more in the long run and how it quietly kills your leverage with suppliers.

You’ll learn:
• What MOQ really is and why manufacturers enforce it
• The hidden cost of “winning” a lower MOQ
• The 4 terms you should be negotiating instead (and why they matter more)
• A real case study where skipping QC clauses led to a costly mistake
• How to approach supplier negotiations strategically without burning goodwill

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
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• ⁠X – Lara⁠
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• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Forecasting sounds like a sign of operational maturity.

But for many brands, forecasting isn’t actually based on data. It’s based on gut feel, optimism, and internal narratives.

And when that happens, forecasting stops being planning and starts becoming a story that traps your cash.

In this episode, we break down the hidden danger of “forecasting without data” and why it creates a predictable cycle inside growing DTC brands:• Stockouts on your best-selling products• Cash trapped in slow-moving inventory• Panic purchase orders and expedited shipping• Supplier friction and rising MOQs• Promotions just to clear excess stock

Left unchecked, this becomes what we call the inventory death cycle: stockouts of winners, overstock of slow movers, tighter cash flow, and more operational chaos.

But there’s a better way.

Instead of building forecasts around goals or guesswork, we walk through how to shift to a decision demand plan that protects cash and stabilizes operations.

You’ll learn:• Why sales velocity matters more than ambitious targets• How to segment demand into baseline, marketing-driven, and event-driven sales• A simple way to forecast A SKUs individually while grouping long-tail products• How reorder point guardrails prevent panic ordering• Why assigning forecast confidence levels improves purchasing decisions

We also cover what early-stage brands should ignore for now: advanced forecasting tools, daily planning, and complex seasonality models.

Because the goal isn’t perfect forecasting. It’s building a planning rhythm where reality updates the plan quickly and cash stays protected.

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
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• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Most DTC founders are told: “Get a 3PL so you can scale.”

For brands doing $100K to $200K, that advice can quietly destroy margins, flexibility, and momentum.

In this episode of Supply Chain Moves, Lara breaks down Mistake #1 of 12 supply chain mistakes: signing a 3PL contract before you’re ready.

You’ll learn:

• The 4 traps of early 3PL adoption (minimums, lock-in, lost learning, and the wrong kind of scale)
• The story of Luna, a $120K skincare founder who felt stuck by $800K
• When you actually need a 3PL
• The “Goldilocks” fulfillment setup for $100K to $500K brands
• How to systematize before you outsource
• How to transition to a 3PL without losing control

If you’re packing boxes in your garage and wondering if it’s time to “level up,” this episode might save you six figures and a lot of regret.

Mistakes planted at $120K become painful at $800K.

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
• ⁠X – Move⁠
• ⁠X – Lara⁠
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• ⁠Instagram⁠
• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Two point one million in revenue.Twenty-three SKUs.One exhausted founder.Two point five percent net margin.

Six months later:

One point nine six million in revenue.Fourteen SKUs.Seventy-two percent more profit.Twenty fewer hours of work per week.

This episode is the full case study.

I’m walking you through exactly how Rachel, a $2M pet accessories founder, cut 40% of her catalog and rebuilt her business around contribution margin instead of revenue.

We break down:

• The spreadsheet that revealed her “hero” product was actually underwater• Why 9 SKUs were quietly draining $18,000 per year• The Kill, Fix, or Scale decisions that felt terrifying• What happened when revenue dropped 18% in month one• How profit increased even while sales declined• The exact numbers behind the 72% profit jump• The emotional reality of cutting products tied to your identity

This is not theory.

It’s the real application of unit economics.Real contribution margin.Real operational decisions.Real panic.Real results.

If you’ve ever thought, “Once I get bigger, the numbers will work,” this episode will challenge that belief.

Because sometimes the path to more profit is fewer products.

And sometimes your hero SKU is your villain.

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
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• ⁠X – Lara⁠
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• ⁠Instagram⁠
• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders

Last week, a founder showed me her numbers for the first time.

Forty-three SKUs.Eleven were clearly profitable.Eight were clearly losing money.And twenty-four were stuck in the gray zone.

Her question was simple:What do I actually do with this?

Because knowing your numbers is only half the battle. The real challenge is deciding what to kill, what to fix, and what to scale. And most founders freeze when it’s time to make that call.

In this episode, I walk you through the Kill-Fix-Scale framework. The exact system I use to help founders make clear, confident product decisions without guessing, hoping, or relying on gut instinct.

You’ll learn:• How to categorize every product using contribution margin thresholds• Why products under 15% margin quietly destroy your growth• The five levers that can move a product from barely profitable to scalable• How to liquidate underperforming products cleanly and strategically• Why the best founders kill products faster, not slower• How to escape the gray zone where most businesses get stuck

This isn’t about cutting products randomly. It’s about reallocating your time, cash, and energy toward what actually builds profit.

Because every product in your catalog is doing one of three things: building your business, draining it, or distracting you.

Your job is to decide which is which.

If this episode helped make your supply chain a little less painful, share it with another founder because nobody deserves to learn these lessons the hard way. Follow Supply Chain Moves wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Lara & Move Supply Chain

Want to keep learning and connect with Lara and the Move Supply Chain community?

Follow & Subscribe:

• ⁠LinkedIn – Move⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn – Lara⁠
• ⁠X – Move⁠
• ⁠X – Lara⁠
• ⁠Facebook⁠
• ⁠Instagram⁠
• ⁠YouTube⁠

Get more insights:

• ⁠Unboxed Weekly⁠ – Lara’s newsletter on DTC supply chain moves
• ⁠Lara’s AI Brain⁠ – Ask Lara’s AI anything about supply chain
• ⁠SC Lounge⁠ – Join Move Supply Chain's free Slack community for DTC founders