From your kitchen to a store shelf, one step at a time
ShelfStep lays out each step — recipe, rules, co-packer, packaging, pricing and wholesale — and keeps every paper, cost and reply in one place.
Your recipe stays yours. Quantities, costs and suppliers are confidential: never shown to other users, never sold, never used to train AI. How it is kept
Or picture your product free, right now →One path, fully guided
Every product follows the same arc — ShelfStep tailors the stages, and the steps inside them, to your exact product.
- Write the recipe with amounts
- Check where you can make it
- Compare three co-packers or kitchens nearby
- Draft your label
- Pick the first three stores
- No replies, deadlines or holds are waiting on you.
- Documents and records: 11 of 15 complete
- Done. “Check your state’s cottage food rules” is open.
Gets you ready for the specialists — not just a checklist
Most founders stitch together a label maker, a co-packer directory, a Slack community, and a consultant. ShelfStep puts the acidified-foods rules, process authority, co-packer sourcing, and pricing into one guided plan built around your product. It does not replace your Process Authority or your lab — it gets your answers in order first, so their review is shorter and cheaper.
What ShelfStep keeps for you
Money for the first run
ShelfStep keeps what each step costs you, the amounts funding sources publish (each with its source and the day it was read), and the money you record as received.
- Lab test, estimated
- $85before it was booked
- Lab test, actual cost
- $92.50what it cost
- Example: a community microlender
- $1,500recorded as received
The microlender is an example, not a real source, and nothing here is an offer of money.
Explore the demo →A name and a look
You choose the name and the look, ShelfStep turns them into a one-page brief a designer can take, and you record when you sent it and when their files came back.
- The name
- your own, or ideas drawn from your own words
- The words
- a brand line, a tagline, a back-of-pack story and a shelf talker
- The look
- three palettes and a mood: quiet, bold, warm or clean
- The brief
- one page for your designer, marked sent only when you say so
ShelfStep keeps the names you weigh and the trademark search you make on the USPTO’s own page, with the day you looked and what you saw.
Create your free account →Outreach that comes back to you
ShelfStep finds co-packers, labs, and buyers, on Pro, drafts the first email in your buyer’s language, opens it in your own email, and files the replies you forward.
Watch your product come to life
From the moment you name it, ShelfStep pictures your product — then remakes the picture as you go: the right package, your label and logo, and finally on a shelf. Concept pictures, marked as concepts when you share them. Try one free — no account.
Plans tailored to your product
Add a recipe and ShelfStep generates a tailored set of stages and steps — an acidified sauce gets pH and process-authority steps a dry mix never will.
An advisor that knows your product
Stuck on pricing, labeling, or shelf life? Ask ShelfStep for guidance grounded in your formula, costs, samples, and contacts — and it remembers the conversation.
Formula, costs, and samples in one place
Ingredients by weight → batch cost, allergen line, and a Nutrition Facts estimate. Log every cost and sample on the step it belongs to.
Regulatory path, label check, food-safety plan
FDA or USDA, acidified or not, cottage-food or commercial — ShelfStep works out which questions decide it and what settles each one, so you walk into a Process Authority with your answers ready. Plus an AI label check and a food-safety plan starter to hand them — drafts to verify, not sign-offs.
A sell page for every product
Publish a listing (Pro) and get a link you can text to any retailer: price, case pack, lead time, ingredients and allergens. Buyers ask about stocking it or request a sample right on the page — no account needed — and each one lands in your contacts with a reminder to follow up.
Guided mode
One step at a time, with research and the fields you need pre-filled — so you always know the next move.
Lot tracking a buyer will ask about
Deliveries with supplier lots, batches with lot codes, pH readings, holds, complaints — and every case that ships. One page per lot for a recall drill; one binder to bring to an inspection. Already keep it in a spreadsheet? Import it.
Your calendar, your briefing
Due dates from the plan land in Apple, Google, or Outlook (Pro); a daily founder briefing tells you what’s overdue, what’s stalled, and which samples to chase.
See it with a sample brand — no sign-up
Click through a sample brand’s products, open Guided mode, and meet the AI advisor. Make an account when you’re ready to start your own.