Meredith Zlatkin, our Vice President of Advisory Services, spent Expo West 2026 in back-to-back conversations with founders, executives, and investors. As the head of ForceBrands Advisory, she was listening for something specific: how brands are thinking about their leadership teams at a moment when the stakes around getting those decisions right have never been higher. Here is what she heard.
The shift was visible at Expo West in a way it hasn't been before. The conversations were about margin structure, velocity, and strategic retail expansion measured in the right doors, not simply more doors. Brands were showing up with tighter product stories and a clearer sense of where they were headed. The tone of the show felt more mature and operationally grounded than in previous years.
Founders were more sharply focused. More financially aware. The growth-at-all-costs mindset that defined an earlier era in this industry has given way to a more considered approach. That's a meaningful change, and it shows up in how brands are making people decisions too. When a founder is thinking about margin structure, they're also thinking about whether the people around them can execute against it.
That's exactly where ForceBrands Advisory tends to enter the picture: helping brands align their leadership structure to the stage they're actually in, not the stage they just came from.
Better-for-you is table stakes now across the category. Brands compete on taste, price accessibility, brand clarity, and retail execution. Private equity and strategic buyers are prioritizing operational strength, leadership depth, and a clear path to profitability. Hype-driven growth doesn't move the needle with sophisticated investors the way it once did.
Retailers want to see velocity and repeat purchase numbers before a brand earns its place on the shelf. The brands attracting serious attention from investors and acquirers are those that have built the systems and teams to consistently deliver on those demands. That's an organizational question as much as a product question.
Experienced revenue leadership came up in nearly every client conversation. VP of Sales, National Accounts, retail-ready sales operations, with an emphasis on efficiency and measurable ROI. Player-coach executives who can scale systems without layering in unnecessary overhead. The brands further along in their growth are also rationalizing SKUs, tightening retail strategies, and approaching org design as a growth tool rather than a headcount exercise.
Several founders I spoke with are actively preparing for capital raises or exits. That work is prompting clearer role definitions and a deliberate shift from early-stage generalists to experienced operators. The question beneath it all is whether the leadership team that brought the brand here is the right one to take it where it needs to go next. Sometimes that’s not a comfortable question. But it’s a necessary one.
ForceBrands Advisory works with brands at exactly that point: assessing leadership effectiveness, designing organizations for the next stage of growth, and preparing leadership teams for transitions before the pressure of a deal forces the issue.
Investors and acquirers are looking at the leadership team as part of how they assess a brand's value and its risk. Leadership quality and organizational maturity are increasingly seen as direct drivers of valuation and long-term success. A brand with experienced operators in the right seats, clear accountability, and a structure built for the next stage of growth presents differently in a due diligence process. The leadership team is part of the valuation story.
The time to develop that story is before anyone is asking to dive into it. Brands that do the organizational work early, before a capital raise, before a sale process, before a founder transition, have more control over how that process unfolds. They walk in with a defensible narrative. That's not a small advantage.
ForceBrands Advisory works with consumer brands and their investors during key transitions: leadership assessment, org design, exit readiness, and executive performance coaching. If the questions in this piece are ones you're sitting with, let’s start a conversation.
ForceBrands has spent nearly 20 years inside the consumer brand ecosystem: food, beverage, wellness, beauty, pet, and cannabis. Our work spans executive search, direct hire recruitment, freelance and fractional contract staffing, and advisory guidance. If you're growing in these categories and thinking about who belongs on your team next, we welcome a meeting to explore how we can help.