Consumer Strategy for Founders & Startups

This session is for founders and early-stage teams who want to build consumer-first products and experiences, but aren’t sure how much to invest in consumer insights, or how to use research meaningfully.

Having worked across large FMCG organizations and now a fast-moving, digital-first scale-up, I’ve seen both extremes - over-research that slows teams down, and instinct-only decisions that break at scale.

In this session, we’ll discuss:

1. What kind of consumer insights you actually need at your stage
2. How much to invest (and what not to waste money on)
3. How to design research so it directly shapes product, communication, and packaging decisions
4. Additional notes on category, consumer - if it overlaps with my experience.

We’ll anchor the conversation in real trade-offs founders face, and how strong consumer teams operate in practice, not theory.

This is a thinking partner session for founders who want to build with consumers at the centre, without over-engineering or guesswork.