Operation Melt the Pile
Turn stranded inventory into cash through daily owner-led experiments
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 98%
When the pandemic abruptly removed roughly 70% of Rebecca Minkoff's revenue, the company named its response Operation Melt the Pile. The pile was newly arrived inventory that wholesale customers would no longer take. The company first cut its payroll and reduced compensation, then separated bills that had to be paid immediately from obligations it would need to renegotiate or defer. The remaining team met at 10 a.m. each day, with individuals owning defined areas and deciding what sales activity to run next. Minkoff returned to founder-led content, live streams, customer Zooms, and self-shot product photography. The team also sought alternative buyers and livestream sellers in several markets. The mechanism converts a broad emergency into a daily cadence focused on cash, customer contact, and measurable inventory reduction.
Origin
Extracted from The Foundr Podcast
Core principles
- 01Protect survival before preserving the old structure
- 02Separate immediate bills from deferrable obligations
- 03Give every remaining owner a clear area
- 04Run daily sales experiments close to the customer
- 05Reuse scrappy tactics that worked when the company was small
How to run it
- 1
Define the pile and cash gap
Count the inventory stranded by the channel loss and estimate the revenue and cash shortfall. Make the survival problem concrete.
Pro tip Track units and recoverable cash separately.
- 2
Reset the cost base
Reduce payroll and other costs to a level the remaining revenue can support. Minkoff says her company went from about 60 employees to about 20, with some pay cuts.
Watch out This is a severe crisis action, not a routine efficiency exercise.
- 3
Triage obligations
Separate bills essential to immediate operation from those that must be renegotiated or deferred. Communicate rather than pretending every obligation can be met on the old schedule.
Pro tip Keep the must-pay list short and explicit.
Watch out Seek appropriate financial or legal advice where obligations require it.
- 4
Assign clear owners
Give each remaining team member responsibility for a defined area. Avoid centralizing every action in the founder during the emergency.
Pro tip Make one person accountable for each experiment and result.
- 5
Run a daily action call
Meet at a fixed time, review what moved inventory, and choose the day's customer and sales actions. Keep the cadence focused on decisions rather than reporting.
Pro tip Stop weak experiments quickly and repeat channels that convert.
- 6
Sell through scrappy channels
Use founder-led content, livestreams, customer calls, alternative buyers, and trusted sellers to reach demand outside the failed channel.
Pro tip Revisit tactics that worked when the company had fewer resources.
Watch out Protect brand trust while moving inventory; urgency does not justify deception.
- 7
Measure inventory converted to cash
Track units sold, cash collected, and remaining stock. Update the operating plan as the pile and runway change.
In the wild
After wholesale customers disappeared, the company cut its team, triaged bills, and held daily 10 a.m. calls. Minkoff became the chief content officer, photographed products herself, hosted livestreams and customer Zooms, and worked with livestream sellers and buyers in other markets to move stock.
→ The company survived the immediate collapse and refocused on its direct customer, according to Minkoff.
Illustrative example: a footwear brand loses its largest retailer after receiving seasonal stock. It cuts discretionary spending, assigns owners to wholesale outreach and live commerce, meets daily to compare cash collected, and redirects inventory toward independent stores and direct bundles.
→ The team manages the crisis against daily cash and remaining units instead of waiting for the old buyer to return.
Common mistakes
Waiting for the old channel to recover
The method depends on creating alternative demand immediately rather than assuming former buyers will return in time.
Running experiments without owners
A crisis creates activity without progress when no individual owns each sales action and its measured result.
Tracking sales instead of cash
The survival objective is inventory converted into usable cash, not orders that pay too late to close the immediate gap.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for businesses facing a sudden revenue collapse while holding saleable inventory and limited cash.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the inventory is unsafe, obsolete, or incapable of generating meaningful cash even at revised terms.
From the transcript
“It was 41 30 called Operation Melt the Pile The pile being a pile of bags in a warehouse”
“All the scrappy stuff worked once. it has to work again.”
From the episode
639: From $60K in Debt to ICONIC $100M Fashion Label
Rebecca Minkoff