The Origin Story
Guidance was built by the CEO of Claros Farm — a certified organic CPG brand that sources organic fruit internationally, processes it through co-manufacturers, and sells finished goods through retail and ecommerce channels.
Running Claros Farm meant managing a genuinely complex operation: international supplier traceability, organic mass balance reconciliation, co-packer cost tracking, lot-level COGS calculation, and annual USDA organic audits. For years, all of it lived in a web of 14 disconnected spreadsheets.
We looked at every operations platform on the market. The enterprise systems (SAP, NetSuite, Odoo) were built for discrete manufacturing and required months of implementation and a dedicated IT team to configure. The food-specific tools were either too simple — basic inventory tracking without real COGS or compliance features — or built for large manufacturers with production floors, not the asset-light co-packing model most CPG brands actually use.
"We couldn't find software that connected all of it — supplier traceability, co-packing costs, organic mass balance, and real COGS in one place. So we built it. Guidance is what we run Claros Farm on today."
— CEO, Claros FarmSo we built it ourselves. Guidance is the operations platform we wished existed when we were running Claros Farm on spreadsheets. It's what we use today to manage our own operation — and we're now making it available to other CPG brands facing the same challenges.
Claros Farm
A vertically integrated organic CPG brand and the founding design partner of Guidance. Claros Farm sources certified organic fruit internationally, processes through co-manufacturers, and sells through retail and ecommerce. Read the case study →
What We're Building
Guidance is an operations platform for CPG brands — a single connected system that replaces the spreadsheet stack most growing food brands rely on. It covers the full operational loop: purchasing, inventory, production, COGS, and compliance.
The core insight behind Guidance is that food manufacturing data is relational. A purchase order connects to a lot code. A lot code connects to a production run. A production run connects to yield loss, COGS, and organic mass balance. When all of this data lives in disconnected spreadsheets, you spend your time reconciling it. When it lives in a connected system, the reconciliation is automatic.
We're building Guidance in close partnership with a small cohort of CPG brands who are running live operations on the platform. This is how we ensure the software reflects the actual complexity of real food operations — not a theoretical model of what food manufacturing looks like.
Our Principles
Built from the inside
Every feature in Guidance was built to solve a problem we encountered running a real CPG operation. We don't build features we don't use ourselves.
Operators first
Guidance is designed for the person running operations, not the CFO or the IT team. It should be usable without a consultant or an implementation project.
Data accuracy over convenience
We don't round numbers or use theoretical yields when actual data is available. Accurate COGS and mass balance require accurate inputs — we make it easy to capture them.
Compliance as a byproduct
Organic mass balance, lot traceability, and FSMA records shouldn't require separate effort. When you run your operation in Guidance, compliance documentation is generated automatically.
Design Partner Program
Guidance is currently in a design partner phase — working with a small number of CPG brands who are running live operations on the platform. Design partners get access to the full platform at a significantly reduced rate in exchange for active feedback that shapes the product roadmap.
We're looking for brands that are outgrowing their current spreadsheet or point-solution setup and are ready to consolidate into a single connected system. If that's you, we'd like to talk.
Apply as a Design Partner
A small cohort of CPG brands running live operations on Guidance at a reduced rate. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.
Apply Now