What's inside.
If you read nothing else.
Sorrel built the research library — 63 indexed articles, evidence on every claim, anti-fragrance positioning. The brand has done the hardest work. What's missing is the replenishment infrastructure to compound it.
The Founding Member program (40% off first order, 20% for life, ~158/200 spots remaining) is already a replenishment loop in disguise. Turn it into the de facto subscription engine before you build a formal Subscribe & Save.
Growth System ★ Recommended. One strategist + paid acquisition lead + AI dashboard + full creative bank. Investment held for the scoping call — we'd rather decide together what's in scope, then price it.
Five bullets, then we go deeper.
- 01
Sorrel is a research-led brand operating without a research-led growth engine. Five Meta ads, no Subscribe & Save, no nurture beyond capture — the loop is leaking before it lands.
- 02
The Founding Member offer is the most under-leveraged asset in the brand. Forty-two of two hundred sold means 158 conversations are still on the table this quarter alone.
- 03
The path to scale is replenishment, not acquisition. Every dollar of CAC compounds when an evidence-led buyer renews; nothing compounds when they don't.
- 04
AYMI runs all six channels Bruce declared on the quiz — Meta, Google, TikTok, Email/SMS, SEO/Content, Influencer — as one orchestrated system, not six separate tactics.
- 05
The Growth System tier ships in ninety days: paid acquisition flywheel + lifecycle program + Founding Member conversion engine + the dashboard that makes it auditable.
Sorrel built the research
library. Now build the
replenishment loop.
You launched April 2026. Three months in, the brand has done the part most DTC skincare companies never get to: clean ingredient stories, cited studies, a founder narrative with credibility, an anti-fragrance position that means something. The product is real. The category fit is real.
What's missing is the system that turns the first jar into the fifth. Without it, every Meta dollar runs single-pass: acquire, ship, hope. With it, every dollar compounds.
Where you are. Where this takes you.
Turn the Founding
Member loop into a true
replenishment engine.
Forty percent off the first order. Twenty percent off for life. Six months from now, the original cohort is due for their next jar — and there's nothing in place to ask for it. That's the engine sitting unfinished in the basement.
The first ninety days finish it. We design the renewal trigger, write the cadence, ship the flows, and connect the loop to the paid acquisition engine so every new Founding Member walks into a built system, not an empty one.
Three people. One ingredient list.
The Researcher
Reads the citations before she reads the headline. Buys on evidence, not hype. Owns Skinceuticals and Drunk Elephant and is quietly disappointed by both. Closes the cart if the claim doesn't land.
The Recovering Maximalist
Tried twelve products, returned eleven. Knows her skin is sensitive but rejects "gentle" as a synonym for ineffective. Wants liposomal retinol that doesn't fight her face.
The Anti-Fragrance Loyalist
Already converted. Sorrel is the answer to a question she stopped asking five brands ago. She tells two friends. She'll renew. She'll write the review if asked properly.
Five moves. In order.
Discovery
Audit the six channels Bruce named. Pull product-level economics, blended CAC, repeat signal, and the Founding Member cohort's true LTV. Nothing moves until the numbers land.
Strategy
Lock the channel mix, the offer ladder, the KPI tree. One dashboard, three numbers that matter, the rest reported quarterly.
Creative
Build the creative engine. Fifteen concepts in market within thirty days, four formats each, voice locked to the brand book.
Launch
Ship the lifecycle flows, the replenishment trigger, the SEO hub. Wire the dashboard. Confirm pixels and source-of-truth.
Optimize
Test, kill, double. Weekly creative refresh, monthly channel rebalance, quarterly strategy review with Bruce in the room.
META
What we see in the wild.
WHAT WE SEE
Five active ads, all pointing at the Founding Member offer. No persona segmentation. No creative testing rhythm. One winner is carrying the campaign.
WHAT WE CHANGE
Fifteen concepts in month one across three personas. A weekly refresh cadence. Hook-bank library. Lookalike ladder seeded by Founding Members.
FIRST NINETY DAYS
Three winning hooks identified. Cost-per-acquisition trending toward target. The Founding Member loop fed by paid traffic on a known unit-economic curve.
From tag to demand.
WHAT WE SEE
Ahrefs tag is installed. No active Google Shopping, no brand-defense campaigns, no non-brand keyword footprint. Tracking is in place; demand capture isn't.
WHAT WE CHANGE
Brand-defense campaign live in week one. Shopping feed built and submitted. Non-brand keyword cluster targeting buyer-intent ingredient queries.
FIRST NINETY DAYS
Brand traffic protected from competitors bidding on Sorrel. Shopping driving incremental orders. Non-brand search adding a second acquisition lane.
TIKTOK
Eight followers. Real territory to claim.
WHAT WE SEE
Handle exists. Eight followers, no organic cadence, no creator partnerships. The platform that converts evidence-led skincare the hardest is currently silent.
WHAT WE CHANGE
Founder-led content series — the mother-and-son story, the lab footage, the research desk. Two creator partners seeded with Founding Member kits.
FIRST NINETY DAYS
First viral candidate identified. Three creators producing recurring content. The handle is no longer a placeholder — it's a destination.
EMAIL & SMS
Capture without follow-through is a leak.
WHAT WE SEE
Klaviyo-style infrastructure live. Capture forms collecting addresses. No welcome flow, no browse abandon, no replenishment trigger. Six leaks, no plugs.
WHAT WE CHANGE
Six core flows built: welcome, browse, abandoned, post-purchase, replenishment, win-back. SMS layered behind the email for cart and replenishment moments.
FIRST NINETY DAYS
Email contributing 30%+ of revenue. Replenishment trigger firing on the original cohort. Welcome flow converting first-touch capture above category benchmark.
SEO & CONTENT
Sixty-three articles. No architecture.
WHAT WE SEE
The research library exists — 63 articles indexed. They sit flat. No hub-and-spoke structure, no internal linking strategy, no keyword targeting tied to commercial intent.
WHAT WE CHANGE
Three pillar pages built (ingredients, claims, routine). Twelve spokes linked into each. Schema and authority signals added. The library becomes a system.
FIRST NINETY DAYS
First pillar ranking page one for a buyer-intent query. Organic sessions trending toward 5x the current baseline. The research starts paying compounding returns.
INFLUENCER
Zero footprint is also a starting line.
WHAT WE SEE
No visible influencer or creator footprint. No press relationships. The brand story is untapped territory for partners who would amplify it for free with the right kit.
WHAT WE CHANGE
Seed five evidence-led creators with the Founding Member kit. Build the press kit. Pitch three editorial outlets that cover ingredient-led skincare seriously.
FIRST NINETY DAYS
First creator review published. One editorial placement secured. A repeatable creator program with payment terms and content rights locked.
Where the money is.
CONVERSION
- PDP rebuild against the buyer journey — evidence stack visible without scrolling, Founding Member offer surfaced contextually.
- Cart redesign — clear value bar, trust strip, single-page checkout.
- Quiz funnel — routine-builder that captures intent and feeds the lifecycle program.
- A/B testing infrastructure live by month two.
MEASUREMENT
- One AYMI dashboard. Three headline numbers: CAC, LTV, contribution margin.
- Channel-level attribution model agreed before launch — no platform-as-source-of-truth.
- Weekly creative read. Monthly channel read. Quarterly strategy read with Bruce.
- Pixel and CAPI verification standing audit.
Three shapes. One conversation.
Foundation
For brands building the system from the brand book up.
Core build & content cadence
No AI dashboard yet
Best fit: teams who own paid in-house and need a strategist + creative engine alongside them.
Growth System ★
For brands running every channel, but not yet as one system.
AI dashboard live
Full creative bank
Best fit: Sorrel. Six declared channels, no orchestrator, replenishment loop sitting unfinished.
Full Revenue OS
For brands ready to hand off the entire growth function.
AI dashboard + custom tooling
Podcast / press pipeline
Best fit: later. When the loop's compounding and the team wants AYMI to own all of it.
Investment for each is held for the scoping call — we'd rather decide together what's in scope first, then price it once the answer is real.
Three phases. Stacked.
Discover & Lock
- Full channel + unit-economics audit
- Founding Member cohort analysis
- Creative engine kickoff (15 concepts in market)
- Dashboard provisioned, pixel audit complete
Ship the Loop
- Six lifecycle flows live
- Replenishment trigger firing
- SEO hub-and-spoke published (3 pillars, 12 spokes)
- Brand-defense + Shopping campaigns live
Compound
- Three winning hooks identified
- Cost-per-acquisition trending to target
- First press / creator placements
- Quarterly strategy review with Bruce
Three case studies that share Sorrel’s mechanics.
Proven Skincare
−65% CAC
3.7x ROAS
+82% quiz completion
Closest mechanical match. Quiz-led personalized DTC skincare with a routine-builder front end. The shape AYMI knows by reps, not theory.
Nutrafol
+58% retention
4.2x marketing ROI
−28% M3 cancel rate
Subscription-shape analogue. Evidence-led, clinician-fronted, retention as the growth lever rather than acquisition velocity.
Sugarbearhair
+380% influencer ROI
+75% repeat purchase
−34% blended CPA
Authority + UGC hybrid. The creator-program shape that turns evidence content into a flywheel rather than a one-off PR moment.
Growth System.
One strategist. One
acquisition lead. One loop.
Sorrel is not a Foundation problem. The brand book is built, the product is shipping, the research is indexed. It's a system problem — six channels running independently, a replenishment loop half-built, a Founding Member offer leaking spots. That's the Growth System tier.
Foundation underserves you because you'd be back hiring an acquisition lead by month two. Full Revenue OS overserves you because there's no podcast or authority pipeline to staff yet. The middle is the right shape, and we'd start it in two weeks.
Seven questions. Bring answers.
- 01
Bruce’s role at Sorrel & Co relative to Kris & Connor Smith — advisor, operator, family principal? Affects who sits on the scoping call.
- 02
Current per-channel spend vs. the $50–150K/mo budget band declared on the quiz. Where is the money flowing now?
- 03
Blended CAC, AOV, and the first-90-day repurchase signal on the original Founding Member cohort.
- 04
Founding Member cohort size to date and revenue contribution — the loop math hinges on this.
- 05
Existing team & agency stack. Who already owns paid, email, content, SEO? Where do we step in vs. alongside?
- 06
Klaviyo (or equivalent) state — lists, segments, flows installed vs. drafted.
- 07
DTC-only or DTC + retail destination? Affects channel weighting and KPI ladder.
Let’s build the loop.
We’d start with one ninety-minute call. Bruce in the room, Kris and Connor if it’s useful. We walk the proposal, answer the seven open items, agree on the Phase I deliverables, lock the shape, and put a kickoff date on the calendar.
Then we go.