A CPG go-to-market consultant designs how a consumer brand reaches shelf and sells through once it gets there — channel sequencing, distributor and broker selection, pricing and trade architecture, and the proof required at each stage. Aterra does this operator-first, built on ten years inside U.S. natural retail rather than on category frameworks.
What is the right sequence — and what have we not earned yet?
Most go-to-market failure is sequencing failure. Brands take national distribution before velocity supports it, chase conventional retail before natural has proven the story, or spend on trade promotion to fix a problem that is actually a positioning problem. The order matters more than the individual moves.
Engagements are scoped to the brand. These are the areas they draw on.
Which channel proves the brand, which one scales it, and the order that does not burn capital proving the wrong thing.
Who to work with, what terms are actually standard, and what the relationship costs in margin and attention.
Shelf price, promotional calendar, and whether the margin structure survives the channel you are targeting.
What evidence a buyer, a distributor or an investor needs at each stage, and the order it has to be built in.
Whole Foods, Sprouts, Erewhon and the independent natural channel — how the buyer actually decides, from the inside.
Gravity Gates — five thresholds that show when expansion has been structurally earned rather than merely wanted.
And who it is not for.
They design how a product reaches shelf and sells through: which channels in which order, which distributors and brokers, what shelf price and trade structure, and what proof has to exist before each step. The output is a sequence with reasoning, not a list of tactics.
Scale and provenance. Large consultancies bring frameworks and a team; Aterra brings an operator who built a functional beverage brand into Whole Foods, Erewhon and Sprouts and made these decisions with his own capital at risk. That is narrower and more senior. For a founder-led brand it is usually the better trade; for a global portfolio restructure it is not.
Yes — it is a core case, and it has its own page covering the six-pillar market-entry blueprint.
Scoped per engagement, because the work varies with category, stage and channel ambition. The lowest-friction entry point is a $500 Gravity Scan, which reads the concept before any advisory work is committed.
DTC, Amazon, natural grocery, conventional grocery, club, and foodservice — with a bias toward natural retail, where the operating experience is deepest.
Indirectly and deliberately so. Aterra builds the commercial proof and unit-economic clarity that fundraising depends on. It is not a placement agent and does not introduce investors.
Concept stage through growth stage. Below concept stage, a Gravity Scan is the right tool and costs $500. Above a certain scale, the constraint is usually organisational rather than strategic, and a larger firm serves better.
Gustavo Nader, directly. Aterra is intentionally small.
Written and maintained by Gustavo Nader, founder of Aterra Studio and co-founder of AMAZ.
Published 2026-08-05 · Last reviewed 2026-08-05 · Gravity methodology · Contact