Building beyond the first PO: From product to brand to category
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Written by John Mascari
on Oct 15, 2026
When Blueland first entered retail, we were understandably focused on our own products: whether customers would understand what made them different, how they would perform in aisles across the country and what we would learn from being compared, in real time, with brands customers had been buying for years.
As our retail business grew, the scope of the work grew with it. We moved from thinking about how an individual product could succeed to how Blueland could build a meaningful presence across a multi‑category assortment. Increasingly, we began asking how we could contribute to growth in the category around us.
That broader question connects to something that had been part of Blueland from the beginning: our mission. We started the company to make sustainable choices easier and help eliminate plastic and microplastic waste. That mission was always bigger than the success of any one Blueland product or even Blueland as a brand. We knew we could never create the scale of impact we wanted alone. More consumers would need to adopt sustainable products, retailers would need to make those choices more accessible and other brands would need to innovate too.
Our approach to retail has become more sophisticated as the business has grown, but our definition of success has always been broader than Blueland alone. Growing the category could make sustainable choices available to more people, directly advancing the mission we had built the company around. That gave us a different lens for how we hoped to show up with retail partners: not simply asking for more shelf space, but looking for ways to make the category bigger and better together.
The first opportunity should make the next one smarter
Your first purchase order gives you something you did not have before: a much clearer view of how your product and brand behave on retail shelves.
At Blueland, we paid close attention to velocity, packaging, price, placement and the competitive set, but the most useful learning came from understanding what was actually driving the business. We wanted to know why customers were choosing us, whether we were bringing new consumers into the category or converting existing ones and which parts of the proposition were translating clearly at shelf.
As our assortment expanded, that learning became less about any one SKU and more about the role Blueland could play as a brand. We had to think about whether the assortment told a cohesive story, whether new products strengthened the proposition and whether each expansion solved a meaningful customer need rather than simply adding more items to shelf.
On at least two occasions, retailers expressed significant interest in bringing some of our direct‑to‑consumers products onto their shelves. As an emerging brand, that interest is incredibly tempting. But when we evaluated what it would take to make those offerings work in retail, particularly on price and packaging, we knew we needed more time. We were transparent with our retail partners, sharing the data behind our decision to hold off and highlighting the nearer‑term opportunities our findings supported. That gave us a way to work together on products we believed were ready for retail, while continuing to develop the others.
More doors, more products and more retailers can all be good outcomes, but none of them is automatically the right next step. Sometimes the best opportunity is to expand; sometimes it is to make the existing business stronger first. Strong performance can earn another conversation, but understanding why the business is working helps you decide what that conversation should actually be about.
The bigger opportunity is growing the category
From the beginning, we knew the problem we were trying to solve was too large for one company. Eliminating the need for single‑use plastic from everyday products requires more than consumers switching from one brand to another. It requires changing what people expect from the category and making sustainable options easier to find, easier to understand, more effective and ultimately more mainstream.
As our retail partnerships grew, we started to bring more of that perspective into the relationship. We wanted to understand the broader questions our retail partners were working through: where future category growth could come from, where consumers still faced friction, how expectations were changing and where there might be room for meaningful innovation.
One example is our work with retailers on how to make product certifications more useful to shoppers across the category. With so many certifications addressing different aspects of health and sustainability, the question goes beyond which badges appear on Blueland’s packaging. We have worked with retail partners to think through which certifications are most relevant to their shoppers and how to communicate what they mean in ways that make product choices clearer and easier. The opportunity is to help shoppers understand and navigate the category, with benefits that extend beyond any one brand.
We still need to make the case for each Blueland SKU and each expansion. But we also want to bring useful customer learning and a thoughtful point of view on how the category could become more relevant and accessible to more people.
Growing the category and growing Blueland can reinforce each other. If we can help bring more consumers into the category, build awareness of new formats and make sustainable choices more accessible at mass retail, we expand the opportunity for Blueland while advancing our mission at the same time.
It also gives us common ground with retail partners. Retailers are trying to grow the overall business, not simply redistribute share among the brands already on shelf. Because our mission has always required us to think beyond Blueland, we can approach those conversations with a genuine interest in where the category could go, while continuing to learn what it takes to be a valuable partner in getting there.
Make sure the opportunity fits the business you are trying to build
One of our guiding principles since day one has been that an amazing retail or account opportunity may not be the right opportunity for Blueland or our mission. As our retail business grew, that discipline kept us looking beyond the immediate upside of a new SKU, promotion, placement or expansion. We needed to ask whether each opportunity made sense for the retailer, the business we wanted to build and, ultimately, our mission.
Often, those things aligned. An opportunity could be good for the customer, Blueland and our retail partner at the same time, but not always. There were times when growing faster within an account would have required a trade‑off that did not feel right for the mission or the long‑term business we wanted to build. Those moments forced us to distinguish between growth for its own sake and growth that would actually strengthen the company.
We were also fortunate to build retail partnerships early where we could have those conversations openly. Rather than treating every decision as a negotiation over more space or more volume, we could talk honestly about what might serve the customer, the category and both businesses over the long term. That trust made it easier to say yes when the fit was right and to be thoughtful when it was not.
What earns the next opportunity
Over time, we learned that the next opportunity is rarely earned by asking for it. It is earned by showing that you understand the business you already have and can create value beyond it.
Performance matters, of course. But so does being able to explain what is driving that performance, what you are learning about the customer and where you see an opportunity that is genuinely additive. The strongest conversations are not simply about why your brand deserves more space; they are about why the next move makes sense for the retailer, the customer and the category.
That is also where trust starts to build. You execute well, learn together, share what you are seeing and develop a stronger point of view about what should come next. Sometimes that leads to more distribution or more assortment. Sometimes it leads to a decision to wait. Either way, the relationship is stronger because the conversation is grounded in more than growth for growth’s sake.
What I wish I knew after our first PO
Early on, I probably thought about retail growth more linearly: perform well, earn more doors, add more products, repeat. What I learned is that the opportunity is broader. The first purchase order can give you proof, but it also gives you information. Each step should make you smarter about the customer, your brand, the retailer and the category.
If I were talking to a founder who had just landed their first major retail opportunity, I would tell them not to rush past it. Learn as much as you can from the business you have. Understand what is really driving performance. Be clear about what you are trying to build beyond any one account and use that to decide which opportunities are worth pursuing.
The first PO gets you onto the shelf. What you build from there depends on how clearly you understand what you are trying to create, not only for your brand, but for the category around it.
For Blueland, our mission made that last part especially clear. It gave us a way to evaluate growth against something bigger than the immediate commercial upside and an ambition for our retail partnerships: to grow Blueland in ways that could help move the category forward.
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