CG Brands — Workspace

Max's app: 23,000 email list → 3,000 paid subscribers at $9.99/month. ~£16k MRR. Started at zero, zero marketing spend. Our 10% sub rate assumption is not conservative — it's proven.

📱

TikTok Live Shopping is the GTM

Max was unambiguous: for physical products, TikTok Live Shopping is the best channel right now. Go live, list the product, people buy in real time. Growing explosively in the West — Asia is already massive. Build this in from day one.

🌿

The pilot product is the sauce

Max volunteered the hidden veg sauce idea unprompted — 5+ vegetables blended smooth, helping people get their 5-a-day without noticing. This is his idea. That changes everything. His energy behind it will be completely different to being handed a product.

🏢

Agencies are the B2B channel

Hyped Management, and agencies like them, manage 20–50 creators each with full engagement stats and campaign data. Partner with 5 agencies = access to 100+ creators. Harry Hugo is the bridge — he sold one of Europe's biggest influencer agencies.

⚖️

Equity framing needs rethinking

Max said 50/50 felt right — "you can't have one without the other." The creator IS half the business. 25% rev share may not be enough to feel like real ownership. Consider restructuring toward meaningful brand equity + a stake in the holding company.

📚

Education layer is essential

Max explicitly flagged that most influencers won't understand equity. They'll conflate shares with ownership and not know what they're actually getting. Need a simple, visual education piece built into the onboarding — what does 20% of your brand actually mean in £?

Bottom line: Max is warm and interested. The seasoning business he ran himself — mixing, bottling, labelling, shipping — was a nightmare. He said "if all of that was taken care of and all I had to do was sell it, that would have been completely different." That is the pitch in one sentence.

Max's Follow-up · 8 April 2026

Points to explore — straight from the pilot creator

After the call, Max sent a detailed WhatsApp breaking down his thinking. These are his points, organised into themes — all worth building into the model.

🎯

Quality over quantity — engagement beats follower count

A 100k creator with genuine engagement can outsell a 1M creator with a passive audience. Prioritise creators who have sold something before — digital products, merch, anything — as proof of commercial demand. Follower count is a starting filter, not the decision.

🔍

Build a proper vetting framework — tools + signals

Use influencer analytics tools to detect fake/bought followers (several tools flag this directly). Key signals to track: engagement rate, views in past 30 days, previous brand partnerships, comment sentiment (positive support vs negative audience), and overall community health.

🛒

TikTok Shop sellers + live agencies as a parallel route

TikTok Shop creators are searchable by revenue generated — high-intent, commercially proven. Also: live selling agencies (e.g. tikmarketing.co.uk — Max knows the founder) run 24/7 livestreams with shift workers. Brands have gone 0 → multi-millions/month via this model. Worth exploring as a launch amplification layer.

🔒

Pre-order / waitlist model to de-risk every launch

Don't commit production spend until demand is proven. Set a minimum pre-order or waitlist threshold (e.g. 500 sign-ups, 200 pre-orders) before triggering the supply chain. The creator promotes to their list — if it doesn't hit the threshold, we don't manufacture. Zero inventory risk before launch.

📈

Performance-based rev share to keep creators motivated

Flat rev share = low urgency after launch. Consider tiered performance incentives that increase as sales grow. Max's example: 10% at £0–50k, 15% at £50–100k, 20% at £250k+, 30% at £1M+. Creates genuine skin in the game and aligns creator effort with Common Ground's upside. Model the margins carefully.

🎓

Creator sales training + paid advertising layer

Creating ≠ selling. Build a playbook: how to talk about the product, optimal video structure, CTA placement and timing, product positioning language. The right framing can dramatically change conversion. Also explore partnering with a Facebook/paid ads agency — creator provides content, agency scales it, both reduce rev share % in exchange for higher volume.

The creator–product fit question: Max also flagged that follower count doesn't guarantee product fit. We need a scoring model that evaluates creator × audience × product alignment — separate from product-market fit. Build this into the onboarding scorecard.

Work Management

Progress tracker

To do 8

WhatsApp Max — send deck + sauce proposal

Strike while warm. "Mate, as promised — built this out. The sauce model is on there too, wanted you to see what it could look like."

Urgent

Call Charlie Thomas

Co-founder conversation. His athlete/F1 network unlocks the premium tier. Frame as building this together.

Co-founder

Research TikTok Live Shopping agencies UK

Find 3–5 agencies that specialise in TikTok Live. Understand fee structure, conversion data, how to integrate into product launch playbook.

GTM

Secure cgbrands.co + socials

Domain bought ✓. Deploy workspace to Vercel. Lock Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn for CG Brands.

Admin

Revisit equity model

Max said 50/50 felt right. Model what 50% brand equity + holding company stake looks like vs current 25% rev share structure.

Structure

Build creator vetting scorecard

Standardised scoring sheet: engagement rate, 30-day views, past sales proof, comment sentiment, fake follower %, creator × product fit. Research top tools for fake follower detection (HypeAuditor, Modash, etc.).

Framework

Design pre-order / waitlist model

Define minimum thresholds (pre-orders or waitlist sign-ups) before triggering production. Build into standard launch playbook so every creator launch has a demand-proof gate before any supply chain spend.

Playbook

Contact tikmarketing.co.uk

Max knows the founder. TikTok Live agency — runs 24/7 livestreams with shift workers. Brands have gone 0 → millions/month. Explore as a launch amplification layer for our creator brands. Understand fee structure and integration model.

GTM

In progress 2

Max hidden veg sauce proposal

Building standalone proposal. Brand names, unit economics, TikTok Live GTM, equity structure. Ready to send this week.

Pilot · Building now

Pitch deck reframe — model-first

Reframe the deck so it leads with the platform model, not coffee specifically. Coffee becomes one case study. Bigger rebuild — queued.

Queued

Done 7

Call with MealsWithMax ✓

8 April 2026. Warm and interested. Validated sub model, surfaced sauce idea, flagged TikTok Live and agency channel.

Pilot

Evaluate DRC coffee opportunity ✓

6-dimension framework. All greens except defensibility (amber). Strong thesis confirmed.

Research

Model influencer white-label economics ✓

£143k net yr 1 per brand at 1M audience. £18k MRR at 10% sub take.

Model

Build pitch deck ✓

12-slide interactive HTML with live calculator. Reframe to model-first is next.

Deck

Confirmed brand name: Common Ground / CG Brands ✓

CG Brands as holding company. Common Ground as the coffee vertical. cgbrands.co purchased.

Brand

Meeting agenda prepared ✓

Pilot

Workspace hub built ✓

Ops

Meetings

Log & upcoming

Apr '26

MealsWithMax — Pilot partner conversation

10am · 45 min call · Tom + Max

✓ Warm and interested · Sauce brand idea surfaced (his idea) · Validated 10% sub rate · TikTok Live as GTM · Talent agency angle confirmed · Follow-up pending

Done · 8 Apr

Add future meetings here. Link agenda before, add outcome notes after.

Product Strategy

Platform thinking — not a single product

GTM — How we sell

TikTok Live Shopping is the distribution unlock

Max confirmed this directly: for physical products, TikTok Live Shopping is the best channel available right now. The creator goes live, the product is listed on TikTok Shop, and their audience can buy in real time. In Asia this is already a multi-trillion dollar market. The West is following fast.

📱

TikTok Live (primary)Creator goes live with the product. Real-time purchase. Max's 2M audience watching = even 0.5% conversion is 10,000 units at launch.

🔄

Subscription follow-upEvery launch product has a subscription option. 10% take rate validated. This is where the recurring revenue and exit multiple is built.

🛒

Supermarket (secondary)Morrisons has an Innovation Hub open to emerging brands. A secondary B2B channel adds distribution without relying solely on creator content.

TikTok Live agency: Partner with a TikTok Live agency as part of the launch infrastructure — they manage the live session mechanics while the creator focuses on being themselves.

Products — What we sell

CG Brands is the infrastructure, not the product

The supply chain, packaging, white-label ops, and distribution model transfer across any physical product category. Coffee proves the model. The pilot is a sauce. Then we scale the platform into whatever each creator's audience actually wants.

☕

Specialty coffeeDRC Kivu origin. Lifestyle and food creators. ~10 brands max before audience overlap. Each gets named cooperative + distinct roast profile.

🌿

Sauce / condiments — PILOTMax's hidden veg sauce. 5+ vegetables blended smooth. Food creators. Low MOQ, high margin, gift-friendly, TikTok-native.

💪

Protein / supplementsAthletes (Eze, PL players, F1 via Rosberg/Charlie's network). Higher AOV. Protein powder, collagen, electrolytes.

🫙

Spice blends / seasoningsNatural adjacency to sauce. Low barrier. Food creators can cross-sell a whole kitchen range.

The pitch to investors: "CG Brands is a creator commerce supply-chain platform. We build, source, and fulfil physical products — the creator provides the audience and distribution. Coffee and sauce are the first two verticals."

Potential Partners

The three conversations to have

Priority 1 · Pilot Creator

MealsWithMax

2M+ TikTok. Food & lifestyle creator. Validated the model on the call — he ran his own seasonings business and hated the ops side. Hidden veg sauce is his own idea. Perfect pilot partner.

Pilot productHidden veg sauce brand

GetRev share + brand equity

StatusCalled 8 Apr · Warm · Follow-up due

Priority 2 · Co-founder

Charlie Thomas

Talent manager. Represents Eze (Arsenal), PL footballers, F1 connections (Rosberg). Unlocks the premium athlete tier — a separate product category (protein/supplements) not coffee or sauce.

BringAthlete talent + premium tier

GetUp to 20% sweat equity, 3yr vest

ActionPhone call this week

Priority 3 · Investor

Harry Hugo

Founded & exited GOAT Agency. Capital post-exit plus the entire agency network. Max confirmed he knew of Harry. Approach once Max is confirmed as pilot — "we have our first brand and need your network to scale."

BringCapital + agency network access

GetUp to 20% equity on £250k

ActionAfter Max confirmed

Key Decisions

What's confirmed, what's placeholder

🏢

Holding company: CG Brands · cgbrands.co

CG Brands is the platform — supply chain, white-label ops, distribution infrastructure. Each product vertical gets its own brand name. Common Ground is the coffee vertical. The sauce brand is TBD (Max to input). Domain cgbrands.co purchased and deploying to Vercel.

Confirmed

🌿

Pilot product: Hidden veg sauce (MealsWithMax)

Max's own idea, surfaced unprompted. 5+ vegetables blended smooth — helps people hit their 5-a-day without realising. Food creator audience is perfect. Lower ops complexity than coffee (no origin story required). Launch via TikTok Live Shopping.

Confirmed as pilot direction

☕

Coffee vertical: Common Ground · DRC Kivu origin

Still a strong product — Arabica from Nord/Sud-Kivu, smallholder cooperative, B Corp-aligned. Will be the second or third vertical once sauce pilot is proven. Each coffee brand gets named cooperative, distinct region, roast profile to prevent audience overlap.

Queued — after pilot

⚖️

Equity model: under review

Current model is 25% rev share. Max's instinct was 50/50 — "you can't have one without the other." Need to model a brand equity split (50% of individual brand entity) combined with holding company upside, vs pure rev share. Decision pending financial model update.

Under review

💰

Valuation: £1M pre-money · max raise £250k (20%)

Pre-money set at £1M. Maximum raise of £250k for no more than 20% of the company. Operator sweat equity capped at 20% over 3 years. Creator/ambassador pot at 5%.

Confirmed

Valuation & Exit

What a seat at the table looks like

Funding Structure

Pre-money valuation£1,000,000

Maximum raise£250,000

Maximum dilution20%

Operator partner (sweat)up to 20%, 3yr vest

Creator / ambassador pool5%, 2yr vest

Distribution bonus+3% on brands introduced

Exit Scenarios (20% stake on £250k)

ScenarioRevenue×Return

Conservative Yr 3£3M3×£1.8M

Base Yr 5£10M3×£6M

Upside trade sale£20M4×£16M

Next Steps

The critical path

WhatsApp Max — send deck and sauce proposal

Strike while warm. Keep it short: "Mate, as promised — I've put together what the sauce brand could look like. Would love your thoughts when you get a sec." Attach the sauce proposal and pitch deck link. Don't overthink it.

Do today

Call Charlie Thomas — co-founder conversation

Frame it as "I'm building this and I think you're the right person to build it with me." His athlete and F1 connections unlock the premium tier. Phone call between friends, not a pitch.

This week

Research TikTok Live Shopping — agencies and playbook

Find 3–5 UK TikTok Live agencies. Understand typical commission, conversion rates, how a live launch session is structured. Build this into the standard product launch playbook for every CG Brands creator.

This week

Approach Harry Hugo — with traction

Go to Harry once Max is confirmed. "We have our first brand partner, a pilot product, and we need your network and capital to scale." A deck plus traction gets a term sheet.

After Max confirmed

Source sauce manufacturer for pilot

Find a UK co-packer who can handle small-batch sauce production. Target: ethically sourced veg, 350ml glass jar, MOQ under 500 units. Need samples before any launch commitment.

After Max is in