Founder dispatches
John Valenti's field notes on owner-operated retail: what ties up cash, what earns its shelf space, and what to do when the numbers stop moving.
12 recent public entries from Substack
Founder dispatches
John's deeper field notes on retail, trapped capital, and building Cash Margin Partners—selected from his live Substack notebook.
It’s the end of the quarter. Your accountant slides a Profit & Loss statement across the desk. It has a beautiful, healthy black number at the bottom. You made a "profit." But when you log into your operating bank account later that afternoon, the cash isn't there. You are sweating payroll. You can't comfortably fund the new seasonal purchase orders you need…
Read on SubstackLet us consider the back room. Not the gleaming, track-lit showroom with its artisanal birchwood hangers and the faint, expensive scent of white tea and bergamot, no—we must speak of the back room. The purgatory of corrugated cardboard. The sunless, airless, fluorescent-flickering crypt where last season's delusions go to petrify. You can smell it, can't…
Read on SubstackIf you know retail, you know the feeling. You look at your P&L at the end of the quarter, and it says you are profitable. You call your accountant, and they confirm it. You are a successful independent retailer. Then you log into your bank account. The FCF isn't there. Where did it go? It's sitting in your back room. It’s trapped in out-of-season coats,…
Read on SubstackIf you want to understand the real health of the American economy, don't look at the quarterly earnings of Amazon or Target. Look at the back rooms of independent retailers. Right now, there is a quiet crisis of trapped capital unfolding, billions of dollars tied up in dead inventory. For the owner-operator, the P&L might say they are profitable, but the…
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Short observations, useful links, company updates, and the occasional left-field thought—shown as John publishes them.
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Read on SubstackAcross virtually every business conversation I'm having right now (internal, with vendors, with partners) the other side is visibly using an LLM to make decisions, draft communications, and kick off projects. This isn't a novelty anymore, it's becoming the default way business gets done. Indeed, I do the same thing.
Read on SubstackOpenAI has poached 400+ Apple employees (ok, that's business) but then former Apple dude who is now a senior dude at OpenAI tells Apple recruits to bring product designs to job interviews - so weak. You cheat like that when you're scared, when you know you don't have "the goods". I do a lot of business with Upwork and have had multiple contractors say…
Read on Substackand a world-class team of advisors, operators, and partners. CMP's Advisory Board now includes Cindy Zoller, an entrepreneur with deep knowledge & experience in independent retail. She is the owner of Habit Footwear + Accessories. Cindy joins a murderer’s row of advisory - elite entreprenuers and operators: Prem Akkaraju, Sandy Climan, Allen Debevoise, Asbed…
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