We name your category and only get paid when your customer acquisition cost drops. We call it naming underwriting.
Naming underwriting for regulated DTC at $0 to $2M ARR · Free application · We pick who we work with
The plan
Five short sections. Eleven inputs. Five to seven minutes. Free. We reply in five business days.
If you fit the rubric, you get 45 to 60 minutes with Joseph. A conversation, not a pitch. Free either way.
We agree on the named category, the attribution, the revenue share, and the exit terms. You pay a $1,000 deposit, credited against your first revenue share (refunded in full if we do not proceed). We lock the baseline using your real ad-account numbers, build the creator pool, and stand up tracking. By month six, your blended CAC is visibly trending down.
We earn a share of category-attributable revenue (sales that come in inside the new category we name together, not what you would have earned anyway). The math only works when your blended CAC drops.
The guide
Joseph Gomez runs Paper St. The lens is psychology training paired with an old positioning discipline (Ries and Trout 1981; Moore 1991; Lochhead and team 2016) applied where the literature mostly ignores it: regulated DTC at the founder stage.
The 43-case database (held privately) traces every named-category builder we could verify back through their first 36 months. The same handful of moves repeat. The losers we studied missed the same handful. The thesis is not a guess. It is a pattern we keep watching the market re-prove.
Operator background available on request. We do not lead with logos. At our stage, the live work is the only honest signal, and the live work is on the page below.
The proof
The 76% market-value capture, the repeating gauche dimensions: the long argument lives at the Category Naming Primer. We do not ask you to read it before applying. The diagnostic below finds your axis first.
Engagement scoped 2026-04-29. A named category, a tracking tool the buyer can use, a monthly subscription practice, a small creator pool. Each piece chosen so ads, organic search, and creator posts feed the same name from day one. First numbers due 2026-07. We open another when this one is on the trajectory.
§ 02 · Free tool
Answer honestly. It names the one position problem costing you the most right now.
First, what we mean by “category”
A category is a shelf in your buyer's head. “Sour candy.” “Prebiotic soda.” “Plant-based femcare.” Name the shelf and you own it. Miss it and they shop on price.
Two futures
Without a named category
Every quarter you do not name the shelf, the worse competitor compounds.
With a named category
The buyer learns a word for what you do. The word spreads.
Neither future is loud. The first is the slow loss most founders narrate as “the market got harder.” The second is the slow win that looks like luck to anyone outside the engagement.
§ 04 · Run The Math
Move the sliders. See if the deal pays you.
Starting share 17.5%. Negotiable 12-18% at contract sign. Combined creator + Paper St share cannot exceed 35% of category-attributable revenue; if it crosses at month six, our share drops automatically. Only moves down.
Baseline lock · before the sliders matter
Whatever number you set as your blended CAC today is what we both measure against. We screenshot it the day we sign, with your ad-account access. We both sign that the number is real. No re-defining later.
Inputs · Your business
Levers · The deal
Your CAC has to drop to
A $74 drop (40.8% off your starting CAC of $180). That is exactly the dollar value of our cut per new-category customer. Below this, the deal costs you. Above this, the deal pays you.
§ 09 · Questions of Record
We get paid on category attributable revenue. Plain English: the sales that come in inside the new category we name together, measured starting the day we sign. We track that revenue line separately. We do not touch your existing affiliate, paid, or other revenue. That stays yours. We audit the number once a month. You have thirty days to dispute it.
Our starting share is 17.5 percent (17.5 cents of every new dollar inside the named category). We can set the share anywhere from 12 to 18 percent at contract sign, depending on your situation. If the combined creator and Paper St share goes over 35 cents on the dollar at month six, our share drops automatically. It only ever moves down.
No. Retainers create the wrong incentives. We would get paid whether your blended customer-acquisition cost (the average cost to land one new customer across paid, organic, and everything else combined) drops or rises. If you want a retainer agency, we are not it, and we will refer you to one we trust.
Sometimes, post-signing, by mutual fit. Most engagements run on revenue share alone. After 90 days we may agree to a small advisor warrant: the right to buy 1 to 2.5% of fully-diluted equity at a fixed price, earned over time and tied to category-attributable revenue milestones.
Engagements are structured for the trajectory to be visible by month 6 and absolute drop by month 9 to 12 as the category compounds in organic search, branded search, and word-of-mouth. Outcomes vary by category, channel mix, and starting baseline. We have one live engagement at the time of writing; numbers will replace this language once they exist.
12 months minimum. Runway is the months of cash you have left before you run out. 18+ months and a $0 to $2M ARR baseline puts you inside the profile we are built for. ARR is annual recurring revenue: how much money the business is on track to earn this year if nothing changes. Tighter than 12 months, the timeline is wrong.
We only earn when the new category earns. At month nine, if your blended CAC is not trending down, we run a joint diagnostic together: fix, reposition, or wind down by month twelve. We keep working the creator pool for six more months either way.
Operator-led, regulated DTC brands at $0 to $2M ARR (annual recurring revenue) or pre-launch. Cosmetics, supplements, food-as-medicine, alcohol-DTC, regulated CPG. The regulated layer matters. It creates a moat behind regulatory friction.
§ 10 · Application
Five short sections, eleven inputs, five to seven minutes. We reply in five business days. If we are a fit, you will get a calendar link from Joseph for an intake call. If not, you will get a short note explaining why and where to go instead. Free either way.
Seats
Four per quarter
One founder cannot run more than four named categories at once
Deposit guarantee
$1,000 deposit
Credited against your first revenue share. Refunded in full if we do not proceed.
Free application · Free intake call
We pick who we work with
The Magazine
Est 2026 · Los Angeles · 10 issues
The thinking, in long form. Naming underwriting, what counts as a real claim, how creator pools earn their pay, and how a regulated DTC business actually compounds.
Lead story · marketing · May 12, 2026
