Stop Spreadsheet Chaos: Scale Your F&B Startup
Move beyond manual tracking. Guidance is your first integrated platform for growth.
Apply as Design Partner →The operational challenges Food and Beverage Startups face:
Manual inventory tracking errors.
Inaccurate real-time COGS.
Struggling with lot traceability.
How Guidance solves this
One platform connecting every operational workflow your brand needs.
Smart Inventory Tracking
Know exactly what you have, where it is, and when you need more. Prevent stockouts and waste.
Accurate Real-time COGS
Understand your true costs instantly. Make informed pricing and production decisions for better margins.
Effortless Lot Traceability
Track every ingredient from farm to finished product. Ensure compliance and rapid recall readiness for peace of mind.
FSMA 204 Ready
Meet new food traceability rules without stress. Guidance automates compliance, saving you time and potential fines.
“The CEO of Claros Farm built Guidance to overcome the exact scaling challenges their organic CPG brand faced.”
Common questions from Food and Beverage Startups
Is Guidance only for large brands?
No, Guidance is specifically designed for early-stage food and beverage brands outgrowing manual systems. It scales with you from your first co-packer to multiple product lines.
How quickly can we get set up?
Our onboarding process is streamlined to get your brand operational quickly. Most startups can be up and running within a few weeks, with dedicated support.
Does Guidance integrate with other systems we use?
Yes, Guidance is built to integrate with common accounting and sales platforms. This ensures a cohesive data flow across your entire operation.
Ready to Ditch Spreadsheets and Scale Your F&B Brand?
Apply as a design partner to help validate the commercial rebuild and shape the release for brands like yours.
Apply as Design Partner →Getting Your Operations Right from Day One
Most food brand founders focus entirely on the product and the brand in the early stages, and rightfully so. But the operational decisions you make in your first year create habits and systems that are incredibly difficult to change later. Building on a solid operational foundation from the start is far easier than retrofitting systems onto a chaotic, spreadsheet-based operation at $5M in revenue.
The Three Systems Every Startup Food Brand Needs
Before you hit your first major retail account, you need three operational systems in place. First, a Bill of Materials (BOM) that accurately captures every ingredient, packaging component, and yield loss factor. Second, a lot traceability system that links raw ingredient lot codes to finished goods from the moment you receive your first production run. Third, a COGS model that calculates your true gross margin after accounting for co-packer fees, freight, and overhead.
Why Spreadsheets Work Until They Don't
Spreadsheets are a perfectly reasonable starting point for a brand doing $500K in revenue with three SKUs and one co-packer. The problem is that founders rarely notice the moment they outgrow them. By the time the spreadsheet system is visibly breaking, with inventory miscounts, missed purchase orders, and COGS that don't reconcile, the brand is already in a retailer and cannot afford operational chaos.
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Built by a CPG Founder
Help shape the commercial release.
A working prototype validated Guidance's core operating model. The commercial rebuild is translating that proof into production-ready workflows with CPG design partners.
Apply as Design Partner →