The playbook for building a consumer brand.
Find out what your brand should actually do next.
We've spent years working one-to-one with consumer founders. Now we've put the playbook into Shelflife.
Find where you are across 15 chapters. See what matters now. Ask ShelfAi when you're stuck.
No card. No trial clock.
Built for food, drink, wellness and beauty founders.
Illustrative · Otterbank Chutneys is an example brand
There are a hundred things you could do next.
Most aren't bad ideas. But they don't all matter now.
Shelflife gives you the order.
- 07Create Repeatable Growth£5k-£25k
- You're hereLive08 / 15Scale Independents3 of 5 completeNext upRank stockists by reorder rate, not sizeStart →
- 09New Growth Channels£25k-£50k
- 10Operational Readiness£50k-£100k
- 11Scale Distribution£50k-£250k
- 12Major-Retail Readiness£75k-£300k
- 13First Major-Retail Listing£75k-£500k
We learned this one founder at a time.
Shelflife comes from years spent working one-to-one with consumer brands across food, drink, wellness and beauty.
And sometimes the right answer is that a business isn't ready to raise yet.
We've seen founders raise too early. Scale something that wasn't working. Chase retailers before the first ones were reordering. Spend money finding out something they could have learned much cheaper.
We've made some of those mistakes ourselves.
Now that experience sits behind Shelflife.
The value isn't the AI. It's the experience behind it.
From Adam
I wish I'd had this when I was building my own business.
It wouldn't have magically made everything work. But I reckon it would have saved me a lot of time and quite a lot of money working out what mattered, usually after we'd already done the expensive bit.
That's what Shelflife is for. Use what we've learned.
Adam
Adam Bridle · Founder, Shelflife
“I was pretty sceptical when I first went on it. But now that I've had a proper play with it, I'm v impressed.”
Ed van der Lande · More Toddler Meals
Sceptical is fine. It's free. Try it yourself.
Three steps, then you're working.
Tell it where you are.
ShelfAi asks about your brand, channels, stockists, numbers and where you're trying to get to.
It's a conversation. Not another form.
Find your chapter.
Shelflife places you across a 15-chapter journey from getting launch-ready to scaling distribution.
If it gets the chapter wrong, tell it. It moves you.
Chapter 08 · Scale Independents · £15k-£40k a month
Do what matters next.
Each chapter contains a handful of things worth doing at that stage.
Do them. Move forward. Get the next ones.
The live app, in a browser.
£1m is a big goal. The next step shouldn't be.
Find product-market fit
Get launch-ready. Find real demand. Learn what people actually come back for.
- 01Get Launch-ReadyPre-launch
- 02Validate Demand£0-£1k
- 03Build Your Foundation£0-£5k
- 04Build Customer Proof£1k-£10k
- 05First DTC Revenue£1k-£10k
- 06First Retail Stockists£1k-£15k
Build repeatable revenue
Turn early sales into something you can understand and repeat.
- 07Create Repeatable Growth£5k-£25k
- 08Scale Independents£15k-£40k
- 09New Growth Channels£25k-£50k
- 10Operational Readiness£50k-£100k
- 11Scale Distribution£50k-£250k
- 12Major-Retail Readiness£75k-£300k
- 13First Major-Retail Listing£75k-£500k
Scale & distribution
Grow what’s working without losing sight of the numbers underneath it.
- 14National Expansion£500k-£2m
- 15Category Leadership£2m+
15 chapters. One at a time.
Think of it as the consumer founder cheat code.
Don't explain your business every time you ask a question. ShelfAi already knows it.
So ask the real question.
ShelfAi is built on what we've learned working with consumer brands: the playbooks, the numbers, the mistakes. Before it gives you a benchmark, it searches that knowledge. If we have a position for your category, it tells you. If we don't know, it says so.
It won't invent a number. It won't invent a buyer. And it shouldn't tell you something just because it's what you wanted to hear.
The value isn't the AI. It's the experience behind it.
For premium ambient food, which includes chutneys, the Shelflife band is 2 to 4 units per store per week before you’re in healthy expansion territory. Above 4 is trophy-door pace. Fern & Fig sounds like it’s there if they’re reordering every 3 weeks.
Your job right now: find out which of your 35 doors are doing 2+ units a week (those are your Fern & Fig equivalents), which are doing 1 or less (call them, fix the range or let them run out), and use the strong ones as proof when you pitch the next 15.
ShelfAi's real reply to an example brand
You don't need another enormous founder checklist.
You need to know what can wait.
Shelflife makes the list smaller.
Rank stockists by reorder rate, not size
When it works, tell people.
Your first market sells out. A buyer says yes. The first shop reorders. You hit your first proper revenue month.
These things can look tiny from the outside. Another founder knows they're not.
Post them to Build in Public. See what other founders are shipping. Celebrate the good stuff. Keep moving.
And the best wins go further. We'll share selected founder progress with our wider Shelflife network, including 100+ investors watching consumer brands.
No begging for attention. No pretending you've cracked it. Just show people you're moving.
First market sold out
14 founders celebrated this
First 10 stockists
9 founders celebrated this
First reorder
21 founders celebrated this
First buyer meeting
11 founders celebrated this
Illustrative activity shown.
Built for people selling actual things.
Food. Drink. Wellness. Beauty.
Shelflife understands stockists, reorders, margins and distribution because that's the world it came from.
This isn't SaaS advice with a few words changed. It's consumer from the ground up.
Yes. The actual playbook is free.
Not three chapters. Not until Friday. Not until we get your card details.
All 15 chapters. Free.
You also get:
- Home & progress
- Monthly numbers
- Build in Public
- Library & calculators
- 8 spreadsheet templates ShelfAi builds with you, using your numbers
- 6 ShelfAi questions every day
No card. No trial clock.
If six questions a day is enough, you can stay on free.
Start free. Upgrade when there's actually a reason to.
You've got enough things to do. Find out which ones matter.
Find your chapter. Do the next thing. Ask ShelfAi when you're stuck. Share it when it works. Then keep going.
No card. No trial clock.
Rank stockists by reorder rate, not size
Illustrative