Recipe to Revenue

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Pitching a totally unproven, first-to-market concept is the hardest way to get a business loan. Jessica and Damien Zouaoui pitched 40 banks, and all of them said no. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Jessica and Damien Zouaoui, co-founders of Oakwell Beer Spa. After...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Building a massive food brand requires an intense focus on supply chain and operational excellence. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Will Nitze, founder and CEO of IQBAR. Will shares how he went from selling software to building an omnichannel nutrition bar company...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! The standard startup advice is "move fast and break things." Charbel Mawad did the opposite—and it landed him in Target. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Charbel Mawad, co-founder of Projo*, about his painstaking, multi-year journey to engineer the perfect...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Founders think hiring a broker is the key to getting into retail. Usually, it’s just a $5,000/month retainer with no guarantee. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Tia Ellis, founder of Wildflower Insight, about why she left the brokerage world to teach founders how to...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Most snack startups look for a co-packer. Jared Drinkwater built a factory instead. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Jared Drinkwater, founder of Low and Slow Snacks and former Frito-Lay executive, about why he left the corporate world to launch a "real wood sm...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! To save a traditional agricultural system, sometimes you have to treat it like a business, not a charity. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Ben Ripple, co-founder of Big Tree Farms, about how he went from a backpacker in Bali to managing a vertically integrated suppl...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! The American food system is like a speeding locomotive heading in the wrong direction—and stopping it won't happen overnight. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with AJ Richards, founder of From the Farm, about why our centralized food supply chain is brittle, how &qu...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Founders often dream of an exit, but few understand what corporate acquirers are actually looking for. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Auroni Majumdar, VP of R&D and Global Open Innovation at CJ Foods, about the specific criteria global giants use to evaluate t...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Sometimes the hardest decision in business is turning down revenue—especially when you’re just starting out. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Meghan Luck, founder of Fable Fish Company, about how she transformed a commodity by-product into a premium CPG brand—and wh...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Most companies think they have a sales problem. In reality, they have an alignment problem. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with DeAnn Petersson, founder of Sunburst Sales Innovation, about how companies can build predictable revenue without adding headcount by fixing w...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! The coffee industry is massive — but it’s also structurally broken. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina sits down with Andy Kleitsch, co-founder and CEO of Atomo Coffee, to unpack how his team is approaching disruption in a $450B market without alienating consumers, retailers, or...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! What happens when someone with no distilling background buys a failing rum distillery and rebuilds it into a Louisiana cultural staple? ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Doug Miller of Wildcat Brothers Distilling about how he transformed a struggling operation into a...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Most people think water kefir is just another kombucha. It’s not even close. And for Fermenteria founder Jade Chang Sheppard, that misunderstanding became the opportunity to build an entirely new functional beverage category. ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Jade ab...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! What separates the best-performing teams from the rest, especially in fast-moving and ultra-competitive industries like produce, grocery retail, and CPG? ------------------ In this episode of Recipe to Revenue, host Leah Messina talks with Don Klusendorf of D&W Marketing, a leader with decades of experience in fre...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! When every dessert you make is handcrafted from scratch, how do you scale that into a national brand trusted by airlines, cruise lines, hotels, and distributors? ------------------ In this powerful episode of Recipe to Revenue, Autumn Cullen, CEO of Whole Story Meals, shares how she went from stay-at-home mom of five...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! When Autumn Cullen discovered her daughter's tube feeding formula was 55% sugar, she didn't simply accept this reality. Instead, she revolutionized an entire industry. After being fired by her doctor for refusing to accept processed formulas, she founded Whole Story Meals,  the only real food nutrition compa...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Securing investment is just the beginning, and finding the right capital partners can make or break your beverage brand. Joseph Messina, Managing Partner of Intercontinental Beverage Capital and sponsor of Recipe to Revenue, reveals what investors actually look for in entrepreneurs and why not all money is created equ...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Think $10-20K sounds expensive? It's actually the cheapest part of launching a food brand. KJ Burrington, Vice President of Technical Development at the American Dairy Products Institute, delivers crucial insight about real costs entrepreneurs face, technical expertise requirements, and manufacturing pitfalls tha...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! In today’s beverage industry, under unprecedented pressure, strategic M&A decisions require more than experience. They demand data-driven precision. Pat DeLong, founder of Azur Associates and 35-year industry veteran, shares how market intelligence separates successful acquisitions from costly mistakes and why dis...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! When retail shelves didn’t fit their premium pricing model, this Canadian farm distillery made a radical decision: abandon local distribution and target international luxury markets instead. Barb Stefanyshyn-Cote shares how strategic market selection transformed their craft distillery into a global export success. ---...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Why do most leaders fail when trying to change their organizational culture? Karl Johnson, former Fortune 500 executive from Mars and Cargill, shares why culture is a "lagging indicator" and the integral model that shows leaders exactly where to focus instead for measurable brand performance results. -------...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! What are the two biggest mistakes that kill beverage brand growth potential? A.T. Howe, beverage industry veteran with 20+ years at companies like Diageo and PepsiCo, answers this question, how brands often destroy market connections that drive lasting success, and more.  ------------------ In this episode of "Re...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Are you an aspiring food or beverage entrepreneur wondering how to scale from local farmers markets to national distribution? In this episode of "Recipe to Revenue," Christy Clement, founder of Vashon Island Coffee Dust, shares how she transformed a personal coffee interest into a thriving spice blend busine...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Are you losing 50% of your subscription customers within 90 days? Or struggling with low repeat purchase rates in retail? In this episode of "Recipe to Revenue," Ken Rapp, CEO of BluStream, highlights how post-purchase customer experience automation is transforming how brands retain customers across all busi...

Send us Fan Mail 🔔 Subscribe to this channel for exclusive content and updates! Are you losing out on customer data because of big retailers? Spoiler – the answer is likely ‘yes!’ Tune into our ‘Part 2’ episode with Blandine Jean Paul, who explains why direct-to-consumer strategies are the only way CPG brands can survive, and why industry giants like Dole are filing for bankruptcy by ignoring thi...