The Food Means Business Podcast

Lauren Handel is an attorney for food, beverage, and supplement businesses and entrepreneurs. Lauren helps clients with regulatory compliance and enforcement actions, risk mitigation, commercial contracts, intellectual property, recalls, and disputes. Lauren has more than 20 years of experience as an attorney. She previously was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP where her practice concen...

Kun Yang is a recent dad and pharmacist-turned CPG entrepreneur. Kun grew up mostly in Canada but has spent his professional life in the US, where he now feels blessed to be building Pricklee Cactus Water with some incredible humans that want to make the world a better place. Pricklee is on a mission to inspire people to be resilient like the cactus through health, happiness, and sustainability. T...

Emily Schildt is the founder and CEO of Pop Up Grocer, the first experience-first grocery store. She has worked for more than a decade in the CPG space, culminating in a role at the forefront of trends. Pop Up Grocer features emerging, better-for-you brands in food, home, beverage, and body care through its temporary and permanent physical locations, and its e-commerce box offering. Emily recently...

Chrissy Mize, founder and creative force behind Raw Honey Copy, is a talented copywriter with over 13 years of experience in the film, TV, and video industries. As a post producer, she has worked on projects for major brands like Apple, Visa, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, and LinkedIn, as well as popular Investigation Discovery shows such as "Wives with Knives," "I (Almost) Got Away With It," a...

The Esendemir Sisters - Arzu, Fusun, and Gonca are the co-founders of the Mediterranean fast-casual concept, Flatbread Grill, and creators of Thumb Bread, an artisanal bread line made with natural ingredients.  Growing up with financial instability, the sisters were inspired by their father's entrepreneurial spirit to start their own business.  The Esendemir Sisters' entrepreneurial journey is an...

Christine Rico has over 25 years of experience in business development and financial management. As the founder of CFO on Speed Dial, Christine works with mission-driven entrepreneurs in the food business to extract meaningful and actionable information from their financial reports, identify specific financial goals, and create profit plans to optimize their bottom line.  During this episode of Th...

Ayeshah Abuelhiga is the founder and CEO of Mason Dixie Foods, the fastest-growing frozen convenient comfort foods company in the United States. She has a passion for providing high-quality, clean-label comfort food options in an industry that was heavily lacking in this area.  At just 28 years old, Ayeshah opened a biscuit-centric restaurant and pop-up series in Washington, D.C., quickly gaining...

In this episode, learn from expert brand strategist Katie Mleziva as she shares her wealth of knowledge in the natural food and beverage industry. With over a decade of experience and a background in marketing and brand management, Katie is the founder of Real Food Brands and the creator of Brand Strategy Streamlined, a tool that helps emerging food and beverage companies become category leaders....

Najwa Khan is the founder and CEO of dalci, a better-for-you food brand that produces indulgent and nostalgic treats. Najwa has a background in public health and has worked in healthcare, wellness, and technology at non-profits, consulting firms, and startups. She has a Master's in Public Health from NYU and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Syracuse University. Najwa started her journey in th...

Introducing Victoria Ho, founder of Sherpa CPG and a fearless food and beverage industry leader. With over a decade of experience as an award-winning brand strategist, clean-label formulator, and commercialization expert, Victoria is dedicated to helping emerging food, and beverage brands turn their meaningful ideas into memorable, retail-ready products. She tackles the essential work of defining...

Nikki Seaman is the CEO and Founder of Freestyle Snacks, a premium olive snack reimagining olives as we know them. She is a proud Whisps, Bain & Company, and University of Pennsylvania alum. When she isn't spending her time taste testing olives, she loves trying new restaurants in Atlanta and exploring parks with her Sheepadoodle. Since launching Freestyle Snacks in 2022, she has gained distri...

Denise is the Founder and CEO of Partake Foods, a natural food company that was inspired by her daughter’s experience with food allergies. Launched in 2017, Partake’s first product — delicious, better for you, allergy-friendly cookies — can now be found in more than 10,000 retailers including Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's, Kroger, Whole Foods Market. In 2021, Partake released a line of Baking Mixe...

Cameron McCarthy is currently the CEO and Co-founder of WeStock, a Techstars-backed company that makes it easy for shoppers to vote for products they want to see in stores. The company has continued to grow since launching in 2019 and now has over 550 brands and 120,000 shoppers using the platform. Cameron was previously the sales director for Delighted By Hummus, where he grew the brand to over 7...

Sarah Delevan is the host of The Good Food CFO Podcast and the founder of Sarah Delevan Consulting, a Financial Consulting Firm helping mission-driven food business owners achieve financial sustainability and profitability without compromising their values. Sarah's background in Operations Management and Finance, and her experience as a Good Food Business Owner and Specialty Buyer inform her uniqu...

Vanessa is the CEO and co-founder of Omsom, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, and a Bain & Company and Harvard alum. At Bain & Company, she advised Fortune 500 CPGs on their growth and retail strategy as a management consultant. Outside of Omsom, Vanessa speaks on entrepreneurship and heart-forward leadership at organizations like General Mills and Pepsi, mentors BIPOC founders, and fin...

After working for some of the largest household names in beauty Karina started The Avana House in 2018 in hopes to create an agency that better advocated for the representation of diverse backgrounds and innovative ideas in media. Working to redefine the American palette and celebrate heritage-inspired foods is also a large part of Karina’s mission. To further support this work, she recently Co-fo...

Jess Berger is a first-generation American Latina, and the founder and CEO of Bundle x Joy (Bundle and Joy). Jess has spent the last 15 years in the pet industry, gaining industry-leading experience with leadership roles at companies like PetSmart and Nestle Purina. In 2018, Jess launched her first venture as an entrepreneur with Accelerate Retail Partners, building private label pet brands for na...

Ryan Pintado-Vertner is a Chicago-based Activist and Strategic Marketing Impact Expert with two decades of experience guiding Fortune-level brands, building startups, and leading nonprofit organizations.  Ryan believes it's not enough to create yet another brand in the marketplace, we have to go beyond the basics to create brands with empathy, purpose and vision -- brands that will bring more just...

Dawn Pascale, owner and creative mind behind Om Sweet Home, has always enjoyed making decadent treats for family and friends with the most wholesome, healthy ingredients. From a very early age, she was always passionate about cooking and baking. After 20+ years as an HR Professional, Dawn decided to pursue her passion full-time. And in February 2013, she signed up for the Natural Gourmet Institute...

Sandra Velasquez is the founder of Nopalera, a Mexican Botanical Bath & Body line based in New York City that is currently sold in Nordstrom, Credo Beauty, Free People, and over 300 independent retailers nationwide. Prior to launching her company, Velasquez worked as a sales & distribution manager for several CPG brands across multiple categories including food.  Sandra also works as a men...

Alli Ball is the founder & CEO of Food Biz Wiz, Inc. and the creator of Retail Ready® , an online course, coaching & community for producers of packaged product in the food industry. As a former grocery buyer-turned-wholesale consultant, Alli has helped thousands of emerging brands understand what it takes to get their products on the retail shelf- and keep them there. During our 2nd episo...

Once upon time, Alak Vasa was a Wall Street trader. Everything was going well, but there was one problem, she was missing a sense of purpose . So without much of a plan, Alak gave in to her inner voice, quit her job, and eventually launched Elements Truffles, a food business rooted in her authentic Indian heritage and passion for fine chocolate. Connect with Alak: Instagram: @elementstruffles Webs...

The Food Means Business Podcast features personal stories and “secret ingredients” behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a food business. Join host, Djenaba Johnson-Jones , former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator, Hudson Kitchen each week as she interviews fellow food business owners and subject matter experts about their transition fr...