◆ Follow-up game plan — for Mark
Biggest leverage: She's explicitly exit-oriented — 3–5 year horizon to bring in a CEO or sell a majority stake, and she wants help "working backwards from the exit." That is your exact story (ZICO exit) and Ground Force's lens. Lead with "I've sat in your seat and actually sold" — that's the differentiator no coach or YPO forum can match, and it's what will make her choose you.
Opportunities to open:
- Frame the incubator as reverse-engineering the exit: what the org, team, and metrics need to look like for a CEO handoff or majority sale. Most coaches can't credibly serve this; you can.
- Get her husband on the call. He runs ops/finance and it's a joint decision — align on the $15k two-seat structure ($5k/month for both) with both of them present.
- She built an AI tool that caught ~$250k in shipping overcharges — she'll light up at the AI toolkit and operating dashboards. Lean into that; it signals the program meets her where she already is.
Watch-outs:
- The loyalty-vs-talent tension is emotionally loaded: she loves the team that built the company but feels they've been outgrown. Handle with care — it's her guilt point, not a staffing bullet.
- Highest-revenue prospect in the pipeline ($20–50M, team 31–50). Don't under-serve the ask or over-simplify — she's past the basics.
The ask: Run the 30-min intro with both her and her husband; get alignment on the two-seat pricing and a start before Q4 (her biggest quarter, when her attention will narrow).
Kirsten’s Background
- Co-founded Rebel Cheese with husband seven years ago, starting as a restaurant in Austin
- Woman-owned, disabled veteran-owned business
- Kirsten served in the US Navy doing air traffic control, then moved into tech consulting (Expedia and other large companies)
- Motivated by a gap in the market: no gourmet dairy-free cheese for cheese boards or picnics
Business Overview
- Pivoted to e-commerce and DTC during COVID, neither originally planned
- Shark Tank appearance accelerated growth, doubling revenue year over year
- Raised $1.5M via SPV from their own customer base
- Small subset reached out; individual checks as large as $250K
- Currently mid-raise; may pause if not closed before Q4 (their biggest quarter)
- Operations: fully vertically integrated, manufacturing and fulfilling in-house
- Husband handles operations and finance (construction background)
- Kirsten handles R&D, marketing, sales, and AI roadmap
- Built an AI tool that caught \~$250K in shipping overcharges
- Fractional CMO recently brought on to relieve bandwidth pressure
Goals and Pain Points
- Running 7 days a week, 12 hours a day for seven years; actively seeking more balance
- Near-term: hire more executives, reclaim weekends, create space for strategic thinking
- Wants to return to zone of genius: cheese R&D, including vegan casein (stretchy mozzarella)
- 3-5 year horizon: bring in a CEO or sell a majority stake
- Needs help structuring an exit strategy and working backwards from it
- Has never done a raise at this scale; figuring it out as she goes
Next Steps
- Send Kirsten a recap email with program details and page link
So she and her husband can review the Backable CEO program together before deciding.
- Sync with Mark on co-founder pricing and involvement
Proposed structure: $15K for both (vs. $12K each), split as $5K/month over three months.
- Set up a 30-minute intro call between Kirsten and Mark
She wants to connect with him directly before committing; co-founder may join.
Where they feel stuck
Defining and working towards an exit strategy and rapidly scaling with the right team (feels like we’ve outgrown some of our team). We’re very loyal to our team as they’ve helped us build the company but they no longer have the expertise that is needed to continue growing.
What they've tried
Tried recurring planning sessions, roadmap planning and reviews, meeting with experts in the industry, hiring around it and a coach that didn’t work out.
What would be different in 90 days
Be able to work at a more sustainable pace and focus more on strategy and less on day to day.
Anything else
not provided
How they heard about it
Mark's email list