Startup To Scale

Off-price and value retail is often misunderstood. A lot of founders think of it as a last resort for excess inventory, but it can actually be a strategic channel for discovery, customer acquisition, and incremental revenue. In this episode, I talk with Matt Goldbloom, Founder and CEO of Common Shelf, about how brands can approach retailers like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, Burlington, and HomeGoods...

Founders are getting more retail opportunities right now than we’ve seen in a long time. But retail growth only works if the economics work. In this episode, Abby Richards walks through how to pressure test a retail opportunity before you commit. We break down contribution margin at the case level, how trade spend actually impacts your numbers, and why volume alone won’t fix a broken model. We als...

Inventory is one of the most important and most overlooked parts of running a CPG brand. Too little inventory means missed sales and unhappy retailers. Too much ties up cash and creates operational chaos. In this episode, I’m joined by Matt Lynn from BELAY to break down how emerging CPG brands should think about inventory management software when to implement it, how to choose the right system, an...

 In this episode, I sat down with Mac Villarreal, founder of I Eat My Greens, to talk about how he is bringing fresh, flavorful refrigerated soups to a category that has felt stale for years. We also get into the challenge of not just getting on shelf, but selling off the shelf, and Mateusz Drela from Retail Media IQ joins the conversation to share how digital retail media can help brands drive re...

Big CPG brands don’t win just because they have bigger budgets. They win because they understand how shoppers actually make decisions in-store. In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Smith from SmashBrand to break down what large CPG companies know about shelf performance that most emerging brands completely miss. We talk about: Why most packaging fails before a shopper even reads it The science b...

In this episode of the Startup to Scale Podcast, I sit down with Smári Ásmundsson, founder of NØRSE CØDE and the former founder of Smári Organics. Smári spent more than 10 years building Smári Organics into a nationally distributed yogurt brand carried by retailers like Whole Foods Market, Target, and Walmart, reaching $5M in annual sales. But when COVID hit, the business collapsed. Instead of wal...

Hiring a CPG broker can unlock retail growth or become an expensive distraction. In this episode, I break down the real role brokers play in scaling a food and beverage brand with Lisa from Run the Numbers. From understanding retailer relationships and review cycles to structuring compensation and setting performance expectations, this is a tactical guide for founders navigating wholesale growth....

In this episode, I sit down with Kun Yang , CEO and co-founder of Pricklee , to talk about the brand’s shift from cactus water to natural hydration. We break down what sparked the rebrand, how the team tackled consumer education barriers, and why simplifying the message became key to scaling in a crowded beverage category. This conversation also covers packaging strategy, retail rollout decisions,...

As companies grow, something subtle often happens: the business starts to change the founder. Decisions get filtered through investors, advisors, benchmarks, and expectations and slowly, the company can stop feeling like an extension of the person who started it. Today I want to talk about identity drift what it looks like, why it happens, and how founders can reconnect with the voice and values t...

Affiliate marketing can be a strong growth lever for CPG brands when it’s approached with the right strategy. In this episode, I talk with David Abbey, co-founder of Endlss, about how brands can turn affiliate and ambassador programs into a real growth channel instead of treating them like one-off campaigns. We talk about what makes these programs work, how to find the right partners, and how to b...

What happens when collaboration becomes the growth strategy? In this episode, we sit down with the founding team behind TUYYO Foods to unpack the decision to merge Nemi Snacks , Todo Verde , and TUYYO Foods into one unified cultural CPG brand. This conversation goes beyond press-release headlines. We talk about the realities of building independently, the behind-the-scenes conversations that led t...

Gen Z is not shopping the way Millennials did and they are definitely not responding to the same packaging playbook. In this episode, I sits down with Sanders, founder of Nuex Creative, to unpack how Gen Z discovers new food and beverage brands, what signals authenticity and what feels forced, and why traditional front of pack claims have stopped doing the heavy lifting. They explore the visual la...

Scaling a CPG brand doesn’t always mean hiring fast or hiring locally. In this episode, I sits down with Luke Anthony, founder of Morning Made, to break down how he used global, VA-style talent to grow the brand without overextending cash or complexity. Luke shares how international support helped him move faster across marketing, operations, and day-to-day execution, the lessons he learned managi...

Growing a CPG brand gets messy fast. More SKUs, more people, more tools, more decisions. In this episode, I sit down with Brian , co-founder of Peasy , to talk about why most founders feel overwhelmed not because they’re doing too much, but because they don’t have a clear operating system for their business. Brian shares lessons learned from growing Mustard & Co and how building simple, repeat...

In this episode, I talk with John Ferrante from EO Space about how high-growth CPG brands find white space, build emotional differentiation, and use packaging as a true growth lever. We break down why functional claims are no longer enough, how standout brands earn attention and convert on shelf and on social, and what founders should focus on when positioning their product to win in competitive c...

I sit down with Rachel Vigil , Founder of UpClose Marketing , to break down one of the most overlooked sampling channels for emerging CPG brands: vacation rentals and short-term stays. We talk about how placing products inside Airbnbs, mid-term rentals, and campgrounds allows brands to reach high-intent consumers in distraction-free environments without the high costs and chaos of festivals or in-...

You made it onto the shelf. Great. But now the real spending begins. Trade spend is one of the biggest drivers of success in retail — and one of the fastest ways for emerging brands to lose money, stall velocity, or get discontinued. In this deep-dive conversation, I and Yuval Selik unpack the most common and most expensive trade spend mistakes founders make, and how to avoid them. We cover: Why m...

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Ian Timmons and Billy Knox , founders of Beefy , and one of my favorite new snacks—featured in our Winter Foodbevy Insider Box . We talk about: what went wrong (and right) in early R&D the complexity of manufacturing and scaling a brand-new product format the GTM strategy that got Beefy their early traction where they’re headed next as they expand beyond DTC S...

In this episode, I share how one “small” packaging change can snowball into a six-figure problem—and how to stop that from happening to your brand.  I sit down with Maureen Dollard, founder of Complete Acuity, to break down where CPG founders go wrong: missing pieces in the scope, forgetting secondary packaging, and leaving regulatory to the last minute. If you’re planning a refresh or new launch...

In this episode, I sit down with Joon co-founders Cody Allen and Alexandre Bennet to talk about how they turned a 300-year-old family pistachio recipe into one of my favorite new snack brands. We dig into how they chose pistachios, grew into 1,000+ doors in just months, and built a brand that stands out in a crowded snack aisle.  If you’re a founder who loves a good origin story and wants the play...

Most founders design packaging based on gut feeling — not data. But what if you could know, before launch, exactly how consumers will respond? In this episode, I chat with Michael Keplinger , Managing Partner at SmashBrand , about how to bring the consumer voice into every stage of brand-building. We dive into the psychology behind the 3–13 second decision window , how packaging roles differ betwe...

Getting a meeting with a retail buyer is tough — but winning that meeting is even tougher. In this episode, I talk with Tia Ellis , Founder and CEO of Wildflower Insight , about how to pitch your product to retailers the right way. Tia shares her Golden Retail Rule , breaks down the 3 types of pitches every founder should master, and reveals how to understand buyer psychology so you can connect, p...

What does success really mean to you? For many founders, that answer gets buried under industry pressures, investor expectations, and comparisons to competitors. In this episode, I sit down with Howie Sher of JPG Resources to discuss how he helps founders uncover their own definition of success—and build their businesses accordingly. We’ll talk about why defining success in personal terms is essen...

When I ran my own CPG brand, supply chain headaches nearly broke me — late POs, cash crunches, and endless supplier follow-ups. In this episode, I sit down with Helen Murphy, Founder and CEO of Opply, who’s building an operating system for small and mid-sized CPG brands to simplify sourcing, forecasting, and funding. Helen shares how her background in consumer goods and tech inspired her to solve...

I sat down with Brad Ebenhoeh of Belay (formerly Accountfully) to unpack how CPG founders can actually make money during Black Friday and Q4 instead of burning it on discounts and excess inventory. In this episode, we talk about: Knowing your true landed costs and margins by channel Forecasting demand without tying up too much cash in inventory Negotiating supplier terms and securing credit before...