Application — Growth
Recess has five flavors and a $26.99 sampler to open with, but the home title sells a feeling: Calm Cool Collected.
Who I am
- Former COO of Tabs. Built its creator program to 100M monthly social impressions, and the paid ad engine alongside it.
- Founded Mainstreet, a consumer home-services platform: a team of 70, $25M raised (Greylock, Khosla, YC, Tim Ferriss). It failed.
- Before that: Quintessential Ventures, an early seat at a high-growth startup, and entrepreneur-in-residence at Prehype.
- I'm moving into growth specifically. The creative and top-of-funnel work is what I want to be doing every day.
What I noticed
- The Mood Greatest Hits Sampler costs $26.99, while a Recess Mood flavor pack like Pink Lemonade costs $32.97. The sampler is the cheaper first buy, and it is the natural lead for cold traffic.
- The site promises "free shipping, all the time", yet the shipping answer excludes sparkling water orders to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi and Puerto Rico. Ads should state that limit up front.
- Recess Mood Powder - Gradient Berry Stick Pack - 10pk Box costs $21.99 for 10 sticks of a 3-in-1 magnesium, adaptogens and electrolytes blend. It is a second line with its own ad angle.
What I built
What I'd do here
- My KPI: scale ad spend, hold target CAC. Everything else follows from that, starting with the $26.99 sampler as the first order to win.
- Week to week: launching a bunch of different experiments, losers killed early. One variable per test, across samplers, Zero Proof and powders.
- Creators: after-work wind-down voices for the Happy Hour Sampler, hosts for the Zero Proof party pack, and busy-day desk workers for Mood powders.
- Reporting so you never have to ask. Daily CAC. Weekly what we learned. Monthly cohort payback, split by one-off orders and subscriptions.
- Event tracking I'd spec and work through with your team. That part isn't me. Subscription repeat orders need clean events first.
Month one
| Metric | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators live | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Creator videos / week | 0 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 56 | 70 |
| Landing pages live | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| New ads / week | 12 | 12 | 12–20 | 12–20 | 20 | 20 |
| Unique experiments | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
Creators come on two a week, up to 10 live by week six. Each posts the same number of videos a week: 14 at two creators, 70 at ten. New ads and landing pages follow the creators, so tests never wait on content. Proposed.
Creator videos a week = creators live × videos per creator. Week 1: 0 × 7 = 0; Week 2: 2 × 7 = 14; Week 3: 4 × 7 = 28; Week 4: 6 × 7 = 42; Week 5: 8 × 7 = 56; Week 6: 10 × 7 = 70.
How I'd start
- Build a claims sheet from the brand's own wording on hemp, magnesium and adaptogens, so every ad stays inside what Recess already says.
- Open with the Happy Hour Sampler and the Mood Greatest Hits Sampler as first-order offers, and test each against the full-size flavors.
I'd love to chat if this makes sense. Grab a time here.
Danilo