Drivepoint

We're helping brands save 20+ hours per month with forecasting. Often they can defer an expensive FP&A hire by months or years. How? Most DTC and retail brands waste countless hours wrestling with messy home-grown spreadsheets and inaccurate forecasts. They take hours to update, constantly break at the worst possible time, and use shortcut logic and fuzzy assumptions, because who has time to build all that out by hand... I'm sharing our battle-tested forecasting templates to give your brand an elite-level kickstart. You could pay thousands for this if you hired a consultant or fractional CFO. We're giving it away for free. Here's what you get: → Sales & Promo Lift Template: Calculate ROI and predict trade spend impact → eCommerce Marketing & Revenue Template: Forecast CAC, orders, discounts, retention and more → COGS & Inventory Template: Calculate stock levels by SKU and channel, open to buy requirements, and cash flows These aren't basic Excel sheets. They're packed with pre-built formulas that integrate across retail, wholesale, and DTC channels. The best part? You can implement them today and see immediate results in your planning process. Want these templates? They're fully customizable and ready to go. Comment "Forecast" and I'll send them directly to you. P.S. Repost for priority access to the templates P.S.S. - If you need more firepower, we can show you how these templates integrate with our full platform so you never have to update them by hand.

?? Unlocking CEO Mode: Meet AI Quick Edit! ?? CEOs and business leaders, we know how your mind works. You don’t want to get lost in spreadsheets—you want answers. Fast. ?? CAC has been higher for the past 3 months—let’s adjust that now. ?? What if we increased Ad Spend by 10% next month? ?? What happens to Gross Margin if we lower Wholesale Costs? With Quick Edit, you don’t even have to open your model to make these changes. Simply tweak key business drivers right within the Drivepoint web app, let our intelligent AI agent run the scenario for you, and see instant impact—no spreadsheets, no friction. This is the first of a series of features we're launching to equip consumer leaders with AI-powered forecasting tech that delivers actionable insights in seconds. Because the best decisions happen when data meets intuition—without the Excel deep dive. Ready to move at CEO speed? DM your Drivepoint rep to get early access. ??

The market for inventory and demand plannign tools is crazy fractured. But Cin7 is the toolkit we see most often, and that's why we just launched a first-class integration for brands to use Cin7 data in their models and reports. Here are the some of the first use cases brands our beta partners including Graza and others are tackling with this data: - Building COGS assumptions dynamically using your most recent PO data. No more manually updating unit costs in your model. You get better accuracy on forecasting COGS, which means you can do better at adjusting variable spend to hit targets for EBTIDA or Net Income. A 2% miss at the Gross Margin level cascades down the P&L. So it's worth investing here to get better. - Unit forecasting, down to the SKU- and BOM-level. Break any financial or sales forecast saved in Drivepoint into weekly periods, automatically import your most recent stock levels and sales mix data, blend incoming PO's, and get to work on your next plans in seconds, not days. Getting and organizing data is a huge drag on efficiency - not just becuase it takes longer, but because you have fewer days to synthesize information and make the right calls before your ordering deadline. Don't understimate the amount of over/under-stocks caused by simple human stuff like running out of time and "straightlining" previous demand in a model. - Scenario modeling & sensitivities for stock levels, payment terms and more. Here's the thing: there's no one *right* plan. There are puts and takes in any combination of outcomes. So don't try to pick. Instead, run and save them all. Have the machine run some algorithmic forecasts for you based on historical shipment volumes. Lay that over the plan sales gave you, and the plan you gave the board last quarter. Get a smart agent to summarize the outcome of these dozens of scenarios and provide some initial guidance. THEN make the call you think is best, with all the intel in front of you (and the rest of the team). Best of all, when you're done, the finance side of the house can import your plan with a click and ship the next rolling forecast. The team really crushed the execution on this one and we're just getting started.

At Expo West 2025, we uncovered the next big profit drivers every brand must act on now: ? Whole-food plant-based is replacing imitation meats Consumers are prioritizing clean-label, high-margin options over ultra-processed alternatives. ?? Functional ingredients are mainstream Lion’s mane and adaptogens aren’t niche anymore—they’re fueling beverages and snacks in the "food-as-medicine" movement. ? Caffeine gets a wellness upgrade Clean, jitter-free energy drinks are taking over, shifting the market away from traditional stimulants. ?? Functional dairy is back—and profitable Kefir, probiotic-rich yogurts, and premium dairy options are booming with health-conscious consumers. ?? Adaptogens are essential SKU strategy From kombucha to nootropic sodas, adaptogenic drinks are a must-have in the wellness wave. ?? The high-protein, low-sugar snack revolution Better-for-you snacks are dominating shelves, balancing taste, health, and profit margins. ?? Drivepoint empowers CPG brands to turn these trends into financial wins—scenario planning tariffs, smarter omnichannel capital allocation, wholesale expansion, product launch planning, and sales & inventory forecasting with 93% accuracy years out. Stay ahead and stay profitable with AI-powered FP&A built for scaling brands. With Drivepoint, uncertainty becomes opportunity. What Expo West trend caught your eye this year? Let’s hear it. #ExpoWest2025 #Drivepoint #CPG #FPnA #Forecasting #Finance

Expo West 2025 just keeps getting bigger and better! ?? 65,000 attendees. 3,200+ exhibitors. From handing out our premium Drivepoint lanyards to crafting complimentary financial planning & forecasting strategies, we made sure brands walked away with more than just swag. ?? Some highlights: ? Connecting with our incredible roster of brands leveraging Drivepoint ? Hearing from CPG leaders about what they have game-planned this year ? Exploring the top trends shaping CPG in 2025 ? Rallying at Alley Rally & reliving prom days at GOODLES Prom ? Dining with Steve O'Dell, Nate Rosen, and an amazing crew at Bubba Gump We’re beyond grateful for our team, partners, power users, and friends who made this event unforgettable. If we missed you, let’s connect—Drivepoint.io is always open. ?? Here’s our full content dump from Expo West. ?? Too soon to start planning for Expo West 2026? Not a chance. ??

I talked to over 100 brands at Expo West over the past 2 days. Here’s what I heard: ??Forecasting is still a mess. Sales and trade spend are harder to predict than ever, and most brands are patching together solutions that almost work—but not quite. ??Operators are drowning in busywork. More than a few founders told me the first hour of their day is supposed to be for strategic work, but it gets eaten up by fixing numbers and chasing down bugs in spreadsheets. AI isn’t here yet for most folks day to day. ??Wholesale and Amazon are top of mind. Many brands are focused on optimizing one or both, trying to understand their true profitability and capital needs. ??TikTok shop is coming on fast. Lots of friends are interested in exploring and TikTok is taking a big position in retail. Super interesting to see people looking more toward these marketplace channels. A lot of legacy brands are looking to TikTok shop to help freshen up the brand and reach new demo’s. (PS - we just launched our TikTok shop integration, including full support for cohorting, forecasting and detailed reporting, hit me up if you want to join the Beta!!) ??Fundraising is still a puzzle. A lot of founders are debating whether to raise more equity or find alternative ways to fund expansion—especially since so much cash is tied up in inventory. We still don’t have great working capital options for most scaling brands. ??But optimism is back. Buyers are placing bets, retailers are expanding sets, and the overall vibe is way better than last year. Day 3 today! What are you hearing/seeing? Also - pretted stoked we got these sick Drivepoint umbrellas as it was raining all day yesterday! I guess we really are pretty good at forecasting ????

The Drivepoint team has landed at Expo West! ?? Day 2 has been incredible connecting with customers and meeting new brands who are shaping the future of CPG. From complimentary forecasting & financial planning consultations to Startup CPG’s Alley Rally and more coming up, we’re having a blast! If you’re at #ExpoWest, reach out and say hi! Let’s chat. We’ll see you on the floor ?? more posts, content, and recaps on the way.

?? Big News! We’re Now Integrated with Cin7 Omni! ?? At Drivepoint, we’re always looking for ways to help our customers make smarter, data-driven decisions. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce our new Cin7 Omni integration! With this integration, you can now: ? Seamlessly connect Cin7 to Drivepoint ? Import key data like Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, and Product Information with the click of a button ? Enhance forecasting & demand planning for all channels ? Choose your data format – roll-ups or raw data, tailored to your needs If you’re using Cin7 and looking to streamline your retail + wholesale sales and inventory forecasting, this is for you! Ready to get started? Let’s talk. ?? ??Psssst the Cin7 Core integration (formerly known as Dear Systems) is coming soon! #Cin7 #Integration #FPnA #InventoryManagement #DemandPlanning #SalesForecasting

Flavor Fusion—our fictitious but all-too-real example—was scaling fast. New retail partners. Expanded product lines. Surging demand. But behind the scenes, finance was drowning in spreadsheets. Duct-taped Excel templates worked when they were smaller. Now, they were holding them back. A spike in COGS went unnoticed. LTV was in free fall. Inventory planning lagged, leading to stockouts and excess. By the time they saw the problems, the damage was done. Brand leaders & CFOs don’t want to get lost in spreadsheets. They need clarity. What’s driving profitability? Where are the risks? How do different scenarios play out? Modern FP&A isn’t about replacing spreadsheets. It’s about lighting the best path forward. AI-driven insights. Long-term forecasting with accuracy. Automated reporting. Intelligent scenario modeling. Instead of crunching numbers, CFOs and brand teams plan ahead. Instead of reacting, they lead. That’s why we built Drivepoint.io Because when finance moves faster, the entire brand wins.

I didn't invest in OLIPOP PBC. But Alex Malamatinas did. I often preach the gospel of slow(er) and more deliberate growth as the right path for the majority of CPG brands. But in our recent conversation, Alex also reminded me that CPG has the potential to scale super fast in some cases. A lot of people go to the grocery store every week. Easier said than done, but if you can get your product in there and get it spinning fast, you've got a shot to build a monster. #CPG