The First Batch Check · free · five minutes

You are about to pay for your first production run. Find out what you are really buying.

Why you are here. The first run is the moment the company feels real. It is also the moment four strangers get paid before you sell a single unit: the flavor house, the label printer, the plant, the distributor. Before the deposit, the minimum order is a negotiation. After it, it is your money on a pallet. Before the label prints, the question of what your product legally is costs a memo. After it, a reprint.

Why answer these twelve questions. Each one is something the plant, the distributor, your bookkeeper or your first investor will ask to see. Answer them today, before the money leaves, and you will know which agreements to sign, which to change, and which to walk away from. At the end you get a score and the three things to fix first. Five minutes. Nothing to upload.

12 questions~5 minutesInstant score, and the three things to fix first

For founders before or at the first production run: a formula, a label, a co-packer quote, and your own money on the line. Answer for what is on a page today, not what you could produce by Friday.

Illustration: an open stone doorway onto a loading dock at first light, a pallet of a first production run waiting under the lamp. — Ten months, one product, and the file you start on day one.

Your read is ready

Two fields, and it is yours.

Your score, how the plant, the distributor and your first investor will read you today, the three things to fix before the money leaves, and what to do next.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Your answers stay private — I read them; nobody else does.

First Batch readiness ·

0/24

How they will read you

Build these three first

Your three weakest answers, in the order to fix them. Each one is a question you will be asked, and the page that answers it before they ask.

What to do with this

Three ways forward. Pick the one that fits your gap.

The free check told you what is missing. The Review is me reading your six documents before your money leaves. The book is for building them yourself. And when the raise opens, the same folder six months on is the Seed File™.

01 · Done

The free check

Free

Your score, your three weakest pages, and how the plant, the distributor and your first investor will read you today. Keep it. It is your before picture.

02 · The no-brainer

The First Batch Review

$1,750 flat

You send the six documents as they stand, half-written is fine: the run plan, the label, the flavor-house agreement, the plant’s terms, the distributor’s terms, and the first cap table. Inside five business days you get a written read: what each one will cost you as written, the wrong turns named before you sign them, and a punch list in the order to fix it. Then two working sessions, two weeks apart. The first to decide what you change. The second to read what you changed.

Outcome

the agreements fixed before the deposit leaves, not after.

Odds

a first batch that sells twice, instead of one that pays for the lesson.

Time

the written read in five business days; the whole thing in four weeks.

Cost

$1,750, flat. One minimum agreed too early, or one label reprint, costs more than that on the first run, in cash.

Mutual NDA both directions before I open anything; engagement terms accepted at checkout
No equity, no success fee, no percentage of anything
First Batch™ and the twelve-template workbook included

Book the Review →

Same-day reply with a secure payment link. How the First Batch Review works →

03 · Do it yourself

First Batch™ book and workbook

$199

Twenty-two chapters, one company walked from a line in a notebook to its first check with the four wrong turns shown, and twelve live spreadsheet templates, one for every line you were just scored on: the run plan, the real cost of one unit and the price ladder, the three-plant comparison, the recipe and trademark register, the label checklist, the first hundred customers, sales per store, the cash calendar, the company paperwork on day one, the distributor terms sheet. Included free with the Review.

Every chapter ends with three things to do this week
The worked example filled in, so you see each page done before you do yours
PDF and Excel, instant download

Get the book and workbook →

Read Part I free → · Print the Honest Arithmetic card →

04 · When the raise opens

Raising money next

Free to start

The first batch is the proof. The raise is where a stranger prices it, and your conviction will not be enough; investors need evidence they can check without calling you. When you are six months out, start with how a seed raise actually works, then the free Seed Readiness Check.

What investors check, why they pass without telling you, how to find the right ones
The same folder you are building now, carried forward

How to raise seed money →

Or take the Seed Readiness Check →

Flat fees only — never a percentage of your revenue, your raise, or your sale price, never a success fee, never a commission. Scalewrights is an advisory firm, not a broker-dealer, investment adviser, business broker, or law or accounting firm. The check, the book, and the Review are educational and directional guidance — not legal, tax, regulatory, or investment advice, and not a pitch to CLMB Ventures. Formulas, labels and claims, manufacturing agreements and distributor contracts are legal documents with real consequences: use qualified counsel before you sign one.