Engineered Results
You can tell which brands were founded by engineers within seconds of a conversation.
They ask similar questions. They read the SOPs end to end. They either partner with a lab on R&D or build their own internal capability. The work shows up in the data.
There’s a second tier I have a lot of respect for: founders who aren’t classically trained engineers but are curious and diligent enough to dig into the published research and form their own point of view on production. Different background, same outcome as they understand at every level what they’re building.
Where brands get into trouble is the armchair engineering tier.
They don’t fully grasp the subtle differences between testing machinery and the data each setup produces. They lean on their factory to figure it out for them. UPA-A has gone to China and met directly with manufacturers to walk them through these nuances. We see time after time when a brand outsources the R&D to the factory, they rarely get the results they were promised.
This is exactly why UPA-A and Pickle Pro Labs publish our research, write white papers, and articulate the SOPs which can all be found on pickleprolabs.com. Anyone who wants to understand what UPA-A is testing and the reasons why, can read it at any time.
A pattern we see often are new brands chasing trends. Usually because a factory is quietly selling them the blueprint from someone else’s successful launch. It often works in the short term. However, it does not build a moat.
Eventually, every brand has to differentiate. And with patent litigation heating up across the category, it is apparent we’re heading into a consolidation cycle, which we have already begun to see. The brands doing the research and genuinely innovating are positioned to come out ahead. The information is readily available, but without the proper understanding of how to execute against it, brands will continue to see short term success by copying but struggle to have long lasting success without real engineering and R&D.