Free Playbook · The Advantage № 003

The McBride Playbook

From RXBAR's $600M crossover to the CEO chair at Kettle & Fire.

Sam McBride joined RXBAR as roughly its fourth employee and was there through the $600 million sale to Kellogg. He now runs Kettle & Fire, after eight years on its board and $44 million invested. This playbook breaks both runs into six moves — with verbatim quotes from the episode, what actually happened at each step, and a run-this-week checklist.

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Cover of The McBride Playbook

What’s Inside

The six moves — plus the filter he runs every decision through.

  • №01

    Start in the niche, don't stay — the CrossFit business that topped out at $6M.

  • №02

    Translate, don't educate — the condo demo that put the ingredients on the front.

  • №03

    Stop building race cars — why every extra badge is reductive, not additive.

  • №04

    Hire for the environment — a values-only final round and two weeks in customer service.

  • №05

    The idea is not the advantage — there were four other RXBARs.

  • №06

    Fewer bets, bigger bets — the concentration test that led to the CEO chair.

  • №07

    Read the people, not the P&L — the filter behind every move above.

About the Author

Mike Wystrach

Mike built and sold Freshly, a direct-to-consumer food brand, to Nestlé for over $1.5 billion. He is the co-founder of Petfolk and managing partner at Cutting Horse Ventures, where he invests in early-stage consumer brands. He writes weekly in The Advantage on what it actually takes to build — beyond the highlight reel.

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