Internal · Launch Ops
Launch HQ
Everything between reveal and shelf, in four pages: sell-in, operations, marketing, and ideas. Put a lead on each role, assign a role, a name and a date to every task — and drop new product concepts and business ideas in the Idea Lab before they get lost in a group chat. Every task and idea is editable — and you can add your own.
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Roles & leads
Who holds each workstream. The bar shows that role's tasks completed; a role with no lead is a launch risk.
01
Trade shows to attend
Suggested role · Retail & Sales 0 / 5Ranked by relevance to our channel. Recommendation: walk NACS and Expo West first — badges are cheap, booths run $15–40K. Commit to a booth only once we know which buyers bite.
NACS Show
Oct 6–9, 2026 · Las Vegas
Convenience & fuel retail buyers — the exact channel WSI already sells into. Next show on the calendar.
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Winter FancyFaire*
Jan 17–19, 2027 · San Francisco
Specialty and gourmet buyers. Replaced the old Winter Fancy Food Show.
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Natural Products Expo West
Mar 2–5, 2027 · Anaheim
Largest US natural/specialty show, 60K+ buyers — and it's 30 minutes from the warehouse. Cheapest big show for us to work.
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Sweets & Snacks Expo
May 18–20, 2027 · Indianapolis
Candy and snack buyers across grocery, c-store, mass and club. 1,000+ exhibitors.
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IDDBA
Jun 6–8, 2027 · Atlanta
Dairy, deli and frozen perimeter — the aisle we actually live in. Note: 2028 is in Anaheim.
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02
Platforms — distributors & stores
Suggested role · Retail & Sales 0 / 7RangeMe
Product discovery used by chain buyers — Walmart, Kroger, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Albertsons, CVS, Walgreens. Push for Verified Brand status; it materially raises visibility.
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ECRM
Paid category sessions that put us in scheduled one-on-ones with buyers. Fast, but not cheap.
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Mable
Wholesale marketplace for local independent retailers.
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Pod Foods
Tech-enabled distributor built for emerging brands — handles logistics and fulfillment.
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KeHE & UNFI vendor portals
The two big natural/specialty distributors. Long lead times — start the paperwork early.
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Dot Foods
Largest US redistributor and frozen capable. Opens many doors at once.
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McLane / Core-Mark
Convenience-channel distribution at scale.
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Our unfair advantage: WSI already delivers to 3,000+ stores with our own trucks and our own freezers. We can put Frost Lab on real shelves, prove sell-through, and walk into every platform above with velocity data instead of a pitch deck. Do that first.
03
Pre-order platforms
Suggested role · Marketing & Brand 0 / 3Reality check on consumer pre-orders
Shipping frozen direct to consumers means dry ice and two-day air — often more than the product is worth. Point pre-orders at retail and wholesale buyers, and only open consumer pre-orders if we're willing to eat the freight as a marketing cost.
Our own site (Shopify pre-order app)
Best margin, and we keep the customer data. Should be the default.
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Weee!
Asian grocery e-commerce, frozen capable, and the audience overlaps our product almost exactly.
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Kickstarter / Indiegogo
Treat as a publicity play, not a revenue play.
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04
Events to sponsor & vend
Suggested role · Marketing & Brand 0 / 8Filter: only do events where we can run a freezer and film. The product sells itself on camera — every event should produce a month of social assets, not just a day of sales.
626 Night Market
Santa Anita
Our backyard, and almost precisely our demographic.
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Smorgasburg LA
DTLA · Sundays
Food-first crowd that shows up specifically to try new things.
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LA County Fair
Pomona
Volume, families, and close to the warehouse.
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OC Fair
Costa Mesa
Same play, summer window.
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Anime Expo / KCON LA
LA Convention Center
Heavy demo overlap and the highest UGC potential of anything on this list.
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Head in the Clouds
Rose Bowl
Festival crowd, strong brand fit.
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Rose Bowl Flea Market
2nd Sunday
Cheap, recurring, low commitment — good for testing.
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Campus welcome weeks
CPP · CSUF · USC · UCLA
Concentrated young audience at the start of each term.
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05
Before we sell a single unit
BlockingSuggested role · Compliance & Legal 0 / 8Settle “ice cream” vs “frozen dessert” first
Our packaging reads FLAVORED FROZEN DESSERT, but our ad copy says ice cream. Under the FDA standard of identity, a product must hit a minimum milkfat threshold to be labeled ice cream. If we don't meet it, the label and the advertising are telling two different stories. Get counsel to confirm before paid media scales.
FDA Food Facility Registration
Required for facilities that manufacture or hold food. Renews biennially.
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CA Processed Food Registration (CDPH)
State-level requirement for processed food.
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Dairy licensing (CDFA)
If the product is dairy-based, frozen dessert manufacturing carries its own California license.
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Nutrition Facts + allergen declarations
From lab analysis, per SKU. Milk and coconut both matter here.
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GS1 barcodes
Unit UPC and case codes for all 7 SKUs. No barcode, no retailer.
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Trademark filing
File the “Frost Lab” wordmark and logo with USPTO before we're visible enough to get copied.
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Product liability insurance
$1–2M is typical. Most retailers require a COI naming them additionally insured.
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Lot coding & traceability
Needed for any recall — and buyers will ask to see it.
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06
Cold chain & operations
Suggested role · Ops & Cold Chain 0 / 8Frozen 3PL / cold storage
Capacity for production runs we can't hold ourselves.
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Case pack & pallet configuration
Lock Ti/Hi before quoting freight — it changes the landed cost.
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LTL frozen freight quotes
Get three, and model cost per case at each volume tier.
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Heat-shock / abuse testing
The 3D shape is the product. If it slumps or ice-crystals in transit, the whole concept fails at the shelf.
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Shelf-life validation
Documented, not estimated.
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Written recall plan + mock recall
Chains ask to see it during onboarding.
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Co-packer terms
Capacity, MOQs, lead times, allergen controls — and what happens if demand spikes.
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GFSI audit (SQF or BRC)
Most chain retailers require it. Long lead time — start now if we want 2027 grocery.
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07
Money & margins
Suggested role · Finance 0 / 4Build the full margin stack
Decide the shelf price first, then work backward: retail margin → distributor margin → our price → COGS. If it doesn't leave room at every step, the product doesn't scale.
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Budget the costs nobody warns you about
Slotting fees, free fill, chargebacks and deductions, demo labor, and spoilage.
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Freezer placement economics
We already run this playbook at WSI. Model what a Frost Lab freezer costs to place versus what the door returns.
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Terms and cash flow
Net 30/60 means we fund production long before we get paid. Model the gap at 10, 100 and 1,000 doors.
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08
Marketing plan
Suggested role · Marketing & Brand 0 / 10Everything demand-side in one place: creators, ad creative, paid, video and the reveal countdown. Rule of thumb — nothing ships without a piece of content attached to it.
Influencer & creator outreach
Build a tiered list — nano and micro food, ASMR and LA-local creators first, a few macro swings — with DM and email templates and one tracking sheet. Gift first; pay only where gifting converts.
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Systematize creator seeding
The product is inherently filmable — that should be a repeatable program, not a one-off launch push.
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Ad graphics package
Hero shots and 3D close-ups on the frost-blue look: statics for IG, TikTok and Meta, story and reel covers, freezer-door clings and in-store screen loops. One kit, every size.
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Social media video series
Batch-shoot monthly: reveal countdown, first-bite reactions, freezer restock ASMR, event recaps. Every event and demo doubles as a shoot day.
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Paid ads pilot
Small Meta / TikTok budget geo-fenced around stocked doors. Judge by store-level sales lift, not clicks — we sell in freezers, not carts.
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Content calendar through Q4
Anchored to the Aug 11 reveal, NACS in October and the holidays. Posting cadence, owners and deadlines in one view.
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Grand Reveal countdown
Aug 11, 2026
Teaser posts, creator embargo drops the morning of, email/SMS blast at reveal. The first 72 hours set the algorithm’s opinion of us.
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Press & PR kit
One-pager, product photography, founder story. Pitch LA food media, c-store trade press and the food-TikTok newsletters.
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Email & SMS capture
Popup on the site plus a QR code at every event and demo. The list is the only audience we own.
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UGC rights & repost pipeline
Standing permission flow for reposting customer and creator clips — rights language, a tag to watch, and a weekly repost slot.
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09
Retail demand & merchandising
Suggested role · Retail & Sales 0 / 3In-store demos
The single highest converter for a novelty frozen item. People need to see it before they buy it.
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POS kit
Freezer clings, shelf talkers, danglers. A frozen door is a bad place to be invisible.
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Track reorder rate per store
In the WSI portal. Velocity is the only number that gets us more doors — and every platform and distributor above will ask for it.
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10
Idea lab — product & business
Open board 0 ideasDrop every product concept and business improvement here before it gets lost in a group chat — new flavors, packaging, ops fixes, marketing plays, partnerships. Add a name, a reference link, and notes; move the stage as it develops. Nothing gets made unless it's greenlit here first.
11
Decisions we need from the owners
Suggested role · Owners 0 / 5Which channel do we win first?
Our own c-store and independent network, or grocery chains? They need different packaging, pricing and paperwork — we can't do both well at once.
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Self-distribute or sign a distributor?
WSI trucks give us margin and control. A distributor gives us reach we can't drive to. This sets everything downstream.
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Shelf price and case price
Everything in section 07 is blocked until this is set.
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Budget ceiling for shows and events through 2027
Expo West and NACS alone can absorb $50K+ with a booth. Decide the number before we commit.
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Who owns each workstream
Compliance, cold chain, retail accounts and marketing each need a name attached — or the blocking items in section 05 sit still.
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