What happens now?
- Your project will be listed on our Marketplace platform for 45 days, where co-mans can see all projects listed.
- Within the first week after publishing, your listing will be sent out to a curated list of co-mans within your production category.
- When a co-man expresses interest in your project, you will receive an email notification that will bring you back to the platform. To connect with the co-man, you must click accept, then sign the NDA.
Your next steps:
- Respond to connection requests within 3 days
- Check out the interested co-man on our platform or on their website, and either approve or reject the connection. If you aren’t sure if they’d be a good fit, we recommend connecting, as we've found every call provides valuable insight into the manufacturing landscape for your specific product..
- Don’t leave co-man inquiries pending. They are actively searching for projects, and when brands don’t respond, it decreases the overall value our platform provides. Quality matches come when both brands and co-mans actively engage, so when we notice a brand who has a lot of pending connections, we’ll temporarily remove the listing from the marketplace until they have time to respond to those connections.
- Sign the NDA right after accepting a connection request
- When you press “Connect Me,” a mutual NDA is automatically sent to both you and the co-man via email. Reduce the lag time, and make sure co-mans aren’t waiting on you.
- Set up an intro call
- Use the “View Engagement” button to access the messaging app. Schedule an introductory call, either by using a free tool such as calendly.com or by giving some upcoming availability.
- Absolutely no ghosting!
- It’s impossible to tell if someone is waiting on more information to answer, or just never going to answer again. The CPG space is very cozy… you don’t want to develop a bad reputation. If there’s something holding up your responses, communicate that to the co-man. Nobody likes being left in the dark.
- Be financially prepared
- Co-mans want to know you’re ready to go, and part of that is having the funds. If you have any questions about how financing for CPG products works or if you are looking for how to get funding, schedule a free call with our financial advisor Guillermo.
At 30 Days
When your project has been live on the marketplace for 30 days, we will check in to see how your connections are going. The goal of this check-in is to see
- Have you made any connections you are moving forward with?
- Are you getting the kinds of connections you are looking for?
This will also allow us to help you find additional connections, step in to help with any communication with co-mans, tweak your project, or allow you to continue two more weeks on the marketplace to make additional connections.
At 45 Days
After your project has been live on the marketplace for 45 days, we will remove it from the marketplace.
- Have you made any connections you are moving forward with?
- Are you not getting the kinds of connections you are looking for?
This will also allow you time to work through all your connection requests if you haven’t had a chance to respond to them all, or let us know if you’ve had any difficulty connecting with any of the manufacturers.
If you’ve identified connections you’re moving forward with, great! We’ll leave your project off the marketplace for now, and periodically check in to make sure you’re still on track.
If none of the co-mans feel like suitable matches, we’ll see if we can modify and re-post your listing to connect with manufacturers more in line with your needs. Information from any calls you’ve had with co-mans is really helpful at this point, especially when it comes to production volumes or unique processing requirements.
In the meantime
Check out the rest of the Partner Slate academy to read articles on the various elements of the CPG industry. If there are any articles you don’t see, please email alex@partnerslate with the subject line: “PS Academy suggestion”.
And as always, please email your advisor with any questions you have along the way!