16 Years in Supply Chain: The Biggest Lesson I Learned (So You Don’t Have To)

Hey there,

It’s my birthday this week!
And instead of a cake emoji or discount code, I wanted to give you something better.

This month marks 16 years since I started working in supply chain.
Not as a founder. Not running a business.
Just me—2008—fresh in my first real job, eager to learn everything I could.

What I thought supply chain was:
→ Logistics. Inventory. Delivery.

What I’ve learned it actually is:
→ Decision-making under pressure.
→ Building systems that hold when everything around you breaks.
→ Knowing when to push and when to pivot.

And a lot of problem solving, problem solving, and more problem solving!

Sixteen years in, here’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned:

The costliest problems don’t come from a broken link.
They come from broken alignment.

Most DTC brands don’t suffer because their factory missed a shipment or because their 3PL botched an order (though that happens).

They suffer because product, marketing, and operations weren’t looking at the same timeline—or the same truth.

📦 Marketing launches a promo while stock is still on the water.
📦 The ops team buffers 45 days—but no one re-checks supplier holidays.
📦 The brand scales a hero SKU—but never tests how fast the supplier can actually scale with it.

Sound familiar?

Over the years, I’ve seen 7-figure brands stall because no one asked:

• Did we test our vendor at higher volumes?

• Is our inventory planner looped into product dev?

• Are we using tools like PERT to map dependencies before we commit?

So today, I’ll leave you with this:

If there’s one gift I can give you from 16 years in the trenches, it’s this framework:

🧠 3 Alignment Checks That Will Save Your Supply Chain

✅ Product Meets Planning
→ Before launching, ask: “What’s the actual timeline and capacity to scale this product?”
Use PERT to spot bottlenecks before they happen.

✅ Marketing Meets Inventory
→ No promos without forecast validation.
If marketing wants to push it, planning needs to sign off. (NON NEGOTIABLE)

✅ Ops Meets Finance
→ Don’t just track landed costs—forecast cash impact on freight, deposits, and delays.
Real profit lives in timing, not spreadsheets.

Sixteen years ago, I had no idea that working in supply chain would shape how I lead, think, and build.

But here we are—still moving.

Thank you for being part of this journey.
And if there’s anything I can help you align this quarter—hit reply. Let’s make it better together.

Here’s to many more moves,
Lara