Building the Shopify of Wholesale | Bryan Mitchiner, Peasy

On this episode, we're joined by Bryan Mitchiner, Co-founder of Peasy - the free wholesale operating system built for independent CPG brands. Before Peasy, Bryan spent a decade building and selling Mustard and Co., then met his co-founder Ryan Conti at Shelf Engine, the Seattle startup that helped grocers optimize ordering. We dive into the decade Bryan spent running Mustard and Co., where he tested every inventory platform on the market, never found one that understood how he actually worked, and kept rebuilding his own spreadsheets until they became the product he wished existed. That tinkering is the direct blueprint for Peasy. Bryan breaks down the business model. Peasy is free with no contract, monetizing transaction volume the way Square, Shopify and QuickBooks do, and he walks through why that made sense when your real competitor is a free spreadsheet. He is also candid about the counterintuitive downside. When signing up is that easy, walking away is just as easy, so the product has to prove value in days instead of months. We also get into how the roadmap gets prioritized against a flood of user feedback, why most feature requests are not what the user actually needs, and the operational mistake Bryan sees sink early stage brands: growing the top line while the margins quietly go underwater. --------------- Episode Highlights: 🥫 A decade running Mustard and Co. and never finding the right software 📊 Why spreadsheets are still the default tool at every company size 🏢 What Shelf Engine taught him about the data behind the software 🤝 Meeting co-founder Ryan Conti and deciding to build together 🛒 Building the Shopify for the wholesale side of the house 💸 Why Peasy is free and monetizes transaction volume instead 🎣 Answering the "if it's free, what's the catch" objection ⚠️ The hidden downside of free (easy to join, easy to leave) 🗺️ How the roadmap gets prioritized against constant feedback 🔍 Separating what users ask for from what they actually need 🧮 The mistake that kills brands: selling more and losing more 📉 Mapping every cost line before the volume shows up 👀 Trends and brands he's watching (Graza, Ayoh) --------------- Table of Contents: 00:00 – Intro 00:56 – A decade running Mustard and Co. 02:24 – When spreadsheets stop working 04:10 – What Shelf Engine taught him about operations 05:31 – Meeting Ryan Conti and starting Peasy 06:28 – The Shopify for wholesale operations 07:43 – A year in: how brands actually use the platform 09:26 – Why Peasy is free and monetizes transactions 11:30 – Answering the "what's the catch" objection 12:26 – The hidden downside of free 13:55 – Advice on picking a pricing model 14:52 – How the roadmap gets prioritized 16:14 – Separating requests from real needs 17:13 – The feedback loop that converts users 19:50 – Advice for SaaS founders selling into CPG 21:06 – The operational mistakes that quietly kill brands 24:23 – Know every cost before you scale 26:00 – Brands and trends he's watching --------------- Links: Peasy – https://peasyos.com/ Follow Bryan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanmitchiner/ Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/ Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes. Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.