Hire the Top 1% of Supply Chain Consultants

What a supply chain consultant does

A supply chain consultant owns the physical flow of your product: where it's made, how it moves, what it costs to land, and whether you'll have enough of it when demand spikes. In practice that means sourcing and vetting manufacturers, choosing between a 3PL and an owned facility, building demand forecasts that prevent stockouts and dead stock, and standing up operations in new countries with customs, VAT, and duties handled instead of guessed at. The best ones also connect each decision to margin, because a freight choice or a tariff exposure shows up directly in your COGS.

For founders, the pattern is consistent. Things work fine until they don't. Freight setups built for $2M revenue buckle at $20M. A manufacturing partner that was good enough becomes inconsistent. An expansion into the EU stalls because delivery times kill conversion. These are the moments a real operator earns their fee.

What to look for when hiring one

Look for someone who has run supply chain inside a brand at your stage or past it, not a generalist who advises from the outside. One founder said it plainly: they wanted people who've navigated co-packer relationships and scaled physical-product brands, not generalist advisors. That's the right instinct. Ask what they actually built and what number it moved. Ask whether they've handled your specific situation: cross-border sourcing, a 3PL transition, a co-packer switch, a tariff problem. Vague answers are a signal. Specific ones, with real brand names and real outcomes, are what you're paying for.

Why founders use MentorPass for it

MentorPass is built around operators, not consultants. The supply chain mentors here ran operations at Gymshark, AG1, Allbirds, TRIP, and Gymreapers. You book a 1-on-1 session against a specific decision, so you're not signing a retainer to get an answer. Most of the founders who use these mentors run brands between $1M and $100M in revenue, the range where supply chain stops being simple and starts capping growth if you get it wrong. The reviews tell the same story over and over: methodical, prepared, specific advice you can act on the same week. One founder had a single 30-minute call with Ben Smith and spent the following week dissecting it. That's the bar. Bring a real problem and a few sharp questions, and you'll leave with a plan, not a deck.