Sean Lynch

Joined post Series A to help shape and build discipline and speed into the business from $1.5MM, owning and setting the 3–5 year strategic vision for the brand, and establishing our omni-channel revenue strategy. Built out a robust sales, e-commerce, marketing, finance, and operations team, led a full brand and packaging overhaul, and partnered closely on formulation and product development. Worked side by side with the founders and built a team, spending more time in stores and in the weeds than in conference rooms, while putting the right fundamentals in place to scale quickly and with discipline.

• Scaled revenue 6× ($1.5MM → $9MM) in under 2 years by resetting the commercial strategy, expanding broadline and DSD, and focusing the portfolio on high-velocity, high-margin SKUs.
• Led a full brand, packaging, and positioning overhaul, repositioning the business as a premium challenger brand, and driving a +253% improvement in velocity and a +11% increase in gross margin post-relaunch.
• Built the 3–5 year strategic roadmap, aligning brand strategy, pricing, channel mix, and operations—creating a repeatable go-to-market engine that supported sustained double-digit growth.
• Expanded retail and distributor footprint by 500% (2k-10k), landing key national and regional partners, while improving service levels to over 98% through tighter forecasting and operational discipline. Directly responsible for WFM, Sprouts, ACI, Kroger, Wawa, Target, and Walmart.
• Improved contribution margin by 8 points through pricing architecture, trade simplification, and cost-to-serve optimization, funding reinvestment into brand, innovation, and team.
• Strengthened the operating foundation by professionalizing planning, cash management, and performance dashboards, enabling faster decision-making and readiness for the next stage of scale.

• Joined as the sixth employee and built the commercial engine that scaled the brand from $1.5 million to $187 million in revenue (180× growth) over 3.5 years, driving a 300% CAGR, and establishing durable, national growth across three categories.
• Designed and executed the end-to-end omnichannel strategy, defining channel roles, pricing architecture, and distributor strategy that expanded the brand to over 117,000 retail doors across grocery, mass, convenience, club, natural, e-commerce, and foodservice.
• Built and scaled the sales organization from 2 to 163+ team members, installing field coverage models, incentive plans, and operating cadences.
• Secured national distribution with top-tier retailers, growing ACV to 71% in MULO, 89% in natural, and 53% in convenience, while improving average velocity through disciplined assortment, merchandising, and field execution.
• Implemented pricing, trade, and RGM frameworks that improved net revenue realization by +250 points and maintained premium positioning.
• Led field-driven execution, maintaining 98%+ service levels through rapid growth, while improving forecast accuracy by +11 pts, and reducing out-of-stocks.
• Partnered cross-functionally to scale launches and supply, successfully supporting 54+ SKU launches with on-time, in-full performance above 95%.
• Helped evolve the company from early-stage hustle to enterprise execution, building scalable commercial processes that supported growth through multiple inflection points, without eroding margin or culture.

• Brought in to lead end-to-end launch planning for a new FMCG brand, owning and developing our omnichannel strategy across product, brand positioning, and go-to-market strategy from concept through pre-launch readiness.
• Led a comprehensive viability assessment, including unit economics, pricing, and RGM analysis, supply chain feasibility, retailer requirements, and launch cost modeling—surfacing critical risks early.
• Partnered closely with founders, investors, and cross-functional teams to pressure-test assumptions, and align on data-driven decision-making around timing, capital requirements, and launch readiness.
• Identified manufacturing constraints that would have limited long-term scalability and profitability, contributing to a disciplined decision to pause the launch rather than force an uneconomic entry to market.
• Left the organization with a clear playbook and launch framework, enabling leadership to revisit the concept in the future with stronger fundamentals and lower execution risk.

• Recruited to design and launch a national DSD model to launch a single-serve line, building the commercial strategy, distributor network, and operating cadence from the ground up.
• Built and led a high-performing sales organization (1-9 team members), establishing hiring standards, training, KPIs, and a culture of accountability, ownership, and field-led execution.
• Developed data-driven route-to-market benchmarks, including ACV, velocity, cost-to-serve, and service-level targets, enabling fact-based decisions on market expansion and profitability.
• Drove $0 -$17 million in foodservice revenue by pivoting the go-to-market strategy, following a board-directed shift away from DSD, leveraging distributor relationships, and sales infrastructure already in place.
• Refocused to build a strategy to successfully launch oat milk nationally in the foodservice channel, overseeing all distribution, QSR, third-wave coffee, and leisure and hospitality.
• Responsible for overseeing DOT, National Sysco, US Foods, Vistar Distributors, while driving partnerships with Compass, Sodexo, Aramark, plus QSR chains.
• Left a scalable commercial foundation, including a team, playbooks, and retailer and distributor relationships, positioning the business for future route-based or hybrid distribution expansion.

Responsible for the development and implementation of BAI’s Natural Retail strategy and BAI’s foodservice sales strategy nationally. Lead a team of 8 RAM's.

• Managed Call Points: natural retailers and GPOs (Whole Foods, Sprouts, Fresh Thyme, The Fresh Market, Earth Fare, Bristol Farms, Mollie Stone's, NCG, INFRA) nationally and managed national natural broker (Presence).
• Managed national and regional distributors (Sysco, US Foods, PFG, GFS, FSA, UNFI, and KEHE) with a focus on building out alternative routes to market outside of DPS BAI DSD for natural retail and foodservice.
• Lead QSR, Hospitality, and Specialty Retail (Hyatt, Hilton, IHG), Specialty Retail (The Vitamin Shoppe, GNC), and Transportation (OTG, Paradies, HMS Host).

Achievements:

• 2016 revenue in the natural retail channel grew 94% from $3.8M to $7.4M.
• 2016 revenue in the foodservice channel grew 116%, from $7.6M to $16.4M.

Direct report to the CEO. Member of the Senior Leadership Team. Responsible for the development and implementation of Hampton Creek's retail, foodservice, and industrial sales strategy.

• Responsible for hiring and managing the National Broker Network (Natural, Conventional, and Foodservice Brokers): Advantage Waypoint (Foodservice), Presence (Natural), and Harvest (Wal-Mart), Harlow HRK (Kroger).
• Responsible for building the HC sales team. Led and managed six directors nationally, driving the Hampton Creek brand portfolio in the retail and foodservice channels.
• Managed the National and Regional Broadline and Natural Distribution Strategy. (Sysco, US Foods, PFG, Vistar, GFS, FSA, UNFI, KEHE)
• Direct call points: Natural channel (WFM, Sprouts), conventional retail (Publix, Albertsons/Safeway, three Costco regions, Kroger, Wakefern), C-stores (7-Eleven, Sheetz, Wawa), drug (CVS and Walgreens), QSR (McDonald's, Chili's, Jack in the Box, Subway, and more), hospitality (Hyatt, Hilton, IHG, and more), transportation (HMS Host). Industrial (General Mills, Advanced Foods, Nestlé, Kellogg)

Achievements:

• 2015 revenue for the retail business grew 152% from $11.7 million to $29.5 million.
• 2015 revenue for food service grew 393%, from $3.2M to $15.8M.

National Account Manager for the Non-Commercial and Collegiate channels. Priority was developing, selling, and executing Red Bull's national strategy and initiatives within all Non-Commercial/Contract Management National Partners (Compass, Aramark, Sodexo, Premier), in addition to driving Red Bull's national broadline distribution strategy with Sysco Foods, US Foods, PFG, and GFS. Developed and implemented best practices by creating processes and driving strategy within the Non-Commercial, GPO, and Collegiate Channels. Key responsibilities include owning national account sales volume quotas, spending budgets, and results (Distribution, Price, and Promotion); developing strong, productive business relationships with national partners and national distributors. Insights-based selling, strategic selling.

Achievements:

• 2014 Growth Target: 12% / 442,840 cases, actual: 16% / 513,694.
• 2013 Growth Target: 9% / 389,699 cases, actual: 12% / 442,840.
• 2012 Growth Target: 6%, 354,626 cases; actual: 9%, 389,699.
• 2011 Growth Target: 8% / 329,802 cases, actual: 7% / 354,626.
• Lead, developed, and implemented National RTM change from DSD to Broadline Distribution, 2011-2015.
• Led, developed, and implemented the National Red Bull Collegiate strategy for Sales and Distribution from 2012 to 2015.