Fractional C-Suite & Operations · Consumer Packaged Goods
The industry has a talent distribution problem, not a talent shortage.
Socratic CPG places operators who've built supply chains, run trade programs, and managed P&Ls through downturns to work inside early- and mid-stage CPG brands — at the moments the decisions actually matter.
What we do
Two practices, one operator model
We don't hand a brand a deck and leave. We sit in the operating seat — Operations or Growth, sometimes both — until the systems and the team can run without us.
Fractional COO
Operations
Supply chain, co-manufacturer relationships, unit economics, cash discipline, and the playbooks and accountability structure that let a founder stop being the bottleneck.
How we run OperationsFractional CGO
Growth
Holistic sales and marketing leadership — channel and retail strategy, pricing, pipeline, demand generation — owned by one operator instead of split across a CRO and a CMO.
How we run GrowthThe platform underneath
Agora CPG
Our proprietary operating system — the playbooks, process, and AI-native tooling that let a fractional executive move at the speed a founder needs, without cutting corners on judgment.
From the Midyear Letter
“This industry needs more operators and fewer storytellers. There are thousands of CPG brands that have raised real money, built real distribution, and acquired real consumers, but that cannot explain their cost to serve.”
$330B+
in annual U.S. private-label sales — the middle of the shelf isn't struggling, it's being eliminated.
75 bills
on food dyes introduced across 37 states in 2025. MAHA is regulation now, not a culture-war aesthetic.
71%
of CPG executives say they've adopted AI in at least one function. Few can say it's changed a decision.
Founder-led, growing deliberately
Built by an operator, not a firm that's only ever advised one.
Socratic CPG is founder-led by John Henry Behrens III and is in active transition from solo practice to a firm with a real bench — built in public, on purpose.