Framework
The Channel Ladder
The exact go-to-market sequence, in order, over roughly seven years.
How it works
- 1Assumption phase: build it and they will come. The phone didn't ring.
- 2Direct outreach (drove around Dallas pitching doctors), then a marketplace test (eBay: low infrastructure, fast validation, expensive rake).
- 3Owned storefront once the eBay fee became the biggest line item, then organic search, then paid ads funded by reinvested profit.
- 4Earned media and content last: podcasts, YouTube, social, the founder personally on camera, reluctantly.
Hear it on the podcast
He Sells Oxygen Systems Nationwide: The Zero-Funding Hardware PlaybookListen to the episodeMore from this episode
The Reframe QuestionThe single question that converted Brad from a frustrated patient into a founder.The Supply and Demand StackWhy oxygen plus exercise beats either one alone. Also a general model for stacking interventions.The Reinvestment LadderHow Brad financed a hardware company with no outside capital.The Elbow TestBrad's signal for when a side business becomes the business.Re-BaselineBrad's mental protocol for founder despair.
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The Headless BrainDon't sell your customer more stuff. Make the stuff they already bought work.Build With, Not ForThe partnership motion Mike is actively running instead of traditional agency billing.Interested And InterestingSourced from Jeremy Wrathall, founder of Cornish Lithium, via a prior episode.The Acquisition-Led Cold StartHow Gruve solved the enterprise cold-start problem.Habit Before HireThe student program is a distribution strategy dressed as generosity.Two Motion Go To MarketCoVet runs bottoms up and top down in parallel rather than sequencing them.