5 Major Lessons from Minor Figures

Author

Dan Pope
February 13, 2026

FUCKING WILD time in Nashville BRO with Will Rickson, co-founder of Minor Figures.

Devoured 4 days of fucking yummy craziness. Partying. Drinking. Stuffing my face. 2 BIG WHOPPA poddys. 1 x Super bowl. 67 Americans who didn’t get my British sarcasm.

Lots more I can’t say in this News Correspondence, chiefs.

Alas, Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?

It’s 11.20ish pm. Wednesday Eve. 30,000 ft up. British Airways plane sailing across the fluffy clouds somewhere above the Atlantic.

I feel absolutely fooked - shattered - yet - totally alive - enthused - buzzing - feverishly excited - writing this newsletter as we swoon back to London Heathrow.

A Cranky Yanky is sitting next to me. Maybe a Marv. Maybe a Garv.

In a Power-Ranger-red, cling-film tight Under Armour shirt, ebulliently stuffing his face.

Oh! Btw, just quickly, before we dive in.

Had my first Chic-Fill-A at the airport - can confirm it’s marvellously fucking shit.

Turgid car crash of cholesterol inducing SLOP. Cotton Candy sweet bun with violently odious pickles and Chicken with the personality of a on-deaths-doors-librarian. Chic-Fill-Nay.

Now…TO THE MAIN EVENT…

Major Lessons from Minor Figures

  1. ALWAYS ASK THE QUESTION BEHIND THE QUESTION

Too many brands take “advice” or “category norms” or “expertise” or “how it’s always been done” at face value.

Stu, Will and Johnnie, the Minor Figures co-founders, ALWAYS probe deeper.

Minor Figures’ Superpower = always ask the question, behind the question.

  • Why is that normal way to do it?

  • Why can’t we do it differently?

  • Why can’t we do it in a strange way ?

  • Why can’t we steal ideas from weird and wonderful places?

  • Why can’t we have more fun and joy with this?

Minor Figures adopt the 5 Layers of Why mindset.

Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?

always ask the question, behind the question.
always ask the question, behind the question.
always ask the question, behind the question.

99.9% of brands never ask the 2nd or 3rd or 4th question, behind the question.

Take any assumption or category norm and blitz it to smithereens with WHY.

The deeper you go, the richer the magic.
The more questions you ask, the greater the unique gold.

At London Coffee Festival, Minor Figures are consistently weird and iconic.

They banished the banal gimps with perfunctory iPad, lanyard, crap breath, Water Melon Ice Lost Memory vape addiction giving out free Blueberry Muffins.

Feast your eyes on the below, chiefs.

2.SALES > EVERYTHING

Most see Minor Figures as a non-chalant, quirky, psychedelic, avant garde brand.

They absolutely are. However, peel beneath the service.

Founders: Stu, Will, and Richie are Wild Sales Dogzzzz and Commercial Cool catzzzz

Minor Figures balance “brand” with aggressive commercial drive and strategy.

You may have the best “brand” in the world, but if you can’t sell or unlock distribution.

You’re fucked.

Conversely, lots of distribution doesn’t equal a SICK brand.

A la Byron Fix Up. Look Sharp’s book “How Brands Grow” and “Mental Availability” vs. “Physical Availability”

Minor Figures adopt Sumptuous Barbell Strategy:

SICK Brand <> KiILLER Sales/Commercial Strategy.

People, including me, don’t realise just how commercially savvy Minor Figures actually are.

3.BRAND IN SERVICE OF COMMERCIAL PAIN AND GROWTH POINTS

When Minor Figures launched into cafes, replacing other brands like OATLY and Alpro.

Regular Cafe customers often got aggy and complained to their local barista

“Steve, have you changed your oat milk supplier, this tastes really acidic?”
“Juliano, our coffee is too acidic, brah”

(yep, I know, first world problems)

The reason?

Coffee IS acidic. It’s meant to taste acid. Other Oat milk brands smothered all the acidic taste out the coffee.

Minor Figures used BRAND to solve this commercial headache and unlock growth.

Transmogrify adversity into opportunity.
Transmogrify setback into growth.
Transmogrify bug into feature.

Enter:::: High on Acids.

A campaign to raise awareness and normalise acidity in coffee, it encouraged users to upload quirky images of acid trippy coffee to win a supply of minor figures.

Most brands use “commercial tools” to solve commercial problems (more promotions, more FSDU’s, more Influencer spend, more Meta ads).

Minor Figures use BRAND in service of solving actual commercial problems to unlock growth.

Minor Figures blend “sales” and “brand” like no other.

4.FOLLOW THE VIBRATIONS

Sir John Hegarty and Sir Paul Smith say the hardest grapple about any creative work is

  1. Developing your own taste

  2. Developing your point of view

  3. Having the courage of your convictions to follow through on the above.

Minor Figures have a heuristic for sifting through and picking great ideas. Follow your vibrations. Follow your energy.

They KNOW and TRUST their unique point of view and taste.

This is incredibly hard, but once you have it, it’s very nigh impossible to copy.

Brand is a Moat.

Follow the v- - ib - - ra——- tio-ns.
Follow Your e- - n- - e - - - r- GY.

5.WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER? WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER, REALLY?

In b2b, most, including myself, assume Minor Figures’s “customers” are baristas, right?

Wrong.
Fucking Wrong.

Minor Figures, in true Minor Figures probing style, when hitting field sales and the streets.

They asked more and more questions and found out their consumers weren’t baristas.

Instead, they were musicians or actors or creatives, trying to make it in the Arts world, working in cafes, as a side hustle, to fund their dreams.

This changed EVERYTHING.

Will launched MFFM (Minor Figures FM) - a platform connecting coffee shops around the world through music. Each cafe was able to upload a playlist and connect with other baristas music tastes around the world.


No other Oat milk brand could execute this. The deeper you understand your consumer, the more you can surprise and delight them.

The wider and deeper the brand moat.

6.GO DEEPER IN UNDERSTANDING YOUR CONSUMER.

In the zenith of the Oat Milk Wars, the front line stretched from Shoreditch to Hackney Wick turning at Islington.

During The Battle of the Somme-in-Solomons, most sales reps went into cafes and dropped off merch or swag.

NEWSFLASH! BRAH!!!!

Every brand under the fucking sun is doing that.

BOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGG

GO DEEPER. FIND OUT YOUR CONSUMERS ACTUAL & HIDDEN PAIN POINTS.

Minor Figures realised baristas often get incredibly dry hands and blisters from working coffee machines all day.

So instead of dumping off another pair of socks.

They created this ICONIC WHAM, Barista Balm, to moisturise baristas hands during shift.

Minor Figure are THE iconic brand who understand the dance between Commercial<> Brand. Brand <> Commercial better than anyone else.

Most brands see “commercial” and “brand” as silo’d departments.

Brand solves brand problems
Commercial solves commercial problems.

right?

Minor Figures use brand to solve commercial problems and commercial to solve brand problems.

Easy in theory, very hard in practice.

Especially when your Brand Manager is a 27 year old ket head from Hackney and your Commercial Director is 52 year old cyclist from Beaconsfield

So, my lovely founder friend, please take off your Fedora Hat. Get out their, and ask your customers/consumers some ACTUAL fucking questions to build you brand.

PEACEEEEEE xxxx
Popey xxx

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