Predicting The Turn w/ Dave Knox

What happens when a Topgolf, World Poker Tour and Virgin Games veteran takes over a bread company? YuChiang "YC" Cheng invested in Hero Bread through his family office, fell in love with the product and ended up as CEO. Now he's running Hero like an entertainment company runs a fan base, and the data says it's working. Dave Knox and YC dig into why Hero walked away from its early...

One beautiful afternoon, Craig Moody asked his son's seventh-grade teammates why they were inside playing video games instead of shooting on the family court. They told him they'd rather play video games. A longtime high school and college coach, Moody didn't fight it. He cashed out his 401(k) and built Shoot 360, a basketball training gym that works like a video game, with real-time f...

Johanna Hartzheim gave up on American supermarket bread, started baking sourdough every weekend while pregnant, and began par-baking and freezing the loaves her family couldn't eat. When the pandemic shut down the tech and music startup she and her husband had moved from Paris to build, that side project became Wildgrain, the bake-from-frozen subscription for artisan bread, pasta and pastries....

Allan Shen grew up in his parents' herbal apothecary in San Francisco, where his "toys" were ginseng and reishi. That background shaped MoonBrew, the melatonin-free sleep brand that started life as NoonBrew, an afternoon energy drink, until customers kept asking for a sleep version. When the data showed sleep had stronger unit economics, stronger repeat behavior and a category starve...

A family vacation to London changed Mark Flint's life. He booked an escape room he had never tried because it was the number one thing to do in the city, and everyone in his group of eleven walked out having loved the same hour. That single experience became The Escape Game, which today runs roughly 60 corporate-owned locations and has collected more than 300,000 five-star reviews. In this epi...

Ken Ehrman spent 25 years putting tracking technology on forklifts, trailers, and rental cars. Then his niece's dog escaped an invisible fence and was hit by a car, and he realized the invisible fence was the last wired product left in the home. That tragedy became Halo, the GPS dog collar he calls the iPhone for dogs. In this episode, Ken sits down with Dave Knox to break down how Halo scaled...

When Nima Fotovat and his three sisters launched Made Good in 2014, they made a bet that parents, kids, and classroom allergy rules could all be satisfied by the same snack. Twelve years later, Made Good is in tens of thousands of doors, manufactures everything in-house at roughly 500,000 square feet, and was just named the snack served on every Delta flight. In this conversation, Nima walks throu...

Tim Heitmann started Double Good as a 500-square-foot popcorn shop on Navy Pier in 1998 and grew it into a wholesale business that sold to Costco, QVC, and FTD. Then a handwritten letter from a fifth grader who had raised $300 for his band trip made Tim question everything. He walked away from wholesale and poured the company into a fundraising side business that was barely 5% of revenue. In this...

Will Nitze started IQBAR in 2018 to solve his own problem: long hours, a bad diet, daily brain fog. He designed the formulas for cognition, low net carb, low sugar, low glycemic. What he didn't know was that the rest of America was about to get obsessed with that exact macro profile for a completely different reason: weight loss. When keto took off, IQBAR was one of only three keto-compliant b...

When there wasn’t enough fruit to make a juice business viable, Califia Farms co-founder Greg Steltenpohl looked out the window of his Central Valley factory and noticed something: demand for almond milk was quietly exploding. That pivot—from citrus to almonds—transformed a struggling startup into one of America’s leading plant-based beverage brands, with products in more than 20,000 stores nation...

Most grocery stores added “healthy” end caps; Thrive Market built a GLP-1 filterthat instantly rewrites your entire cart instead. In this conversation, Thrive Market’s Chief Marketing Officer Amina Pasha breaks down how strict EU-inspired ingredient bans, AI-generated smart carts, and a radically limited 7,000-item assortment are turning decision overload into trust and growth. For C-suites, found...

When Lucy Postins started The Honest Kitchen in 2002, she didn't just launch a pet food company — she lobbied the FDA to create an entirely new standard for human-grade pet food. Two decades later, the brand she built is the leading human-grade pet food in North America, with a 50/50 revenue split between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail. CEO Will Lisman, who stepped in three years ago a...

Eric Skae was running Rao's — one of the most iconic pasta sauce brands in America — when his daughter told him she wanted to go somewhere else for her birthday. Not just anywhere: Carbone, the red-sauce Italian restaurant that had become the hottest reservation in New York. "It's the place for my generation," she told him. "I've already been to Rao's with you."...

When Gene Oh studied abroad in Seoul as a Brown University senior, he discovered something that would change his career trajectory: jelly sticks that protect your health when drinking alcohol. These products dominate Korea's billion-dollar alcohol aid market, yet remain virtually unknown in the United States. As Co-Founders of day–guard, Oh and his partner Felix Lee are now bridging that gap,...

For decades, Keurig has been synonymous with convenient at-home coffee brewing, revolutionizing how millions of Americans start their day. Yet despite being a household name in coffee makers, the brand has never sold its own coffee—until now. Christine van den Broeck, Vice President, Keurig Brand Marketing at Keurig Dr Pepper, is leading the charge with the launch of Keurig Coffee Collective, a pr...

Blake Mycoskie built TOMS Shoes into a $650 million empire, pioneered the "buy-one-give-one" model that revolutionized social enterprise, and made over 40 of his first employees multimillionaires. Yet three years after selling the company to focus on family, he found himself in a dark place—depressed, isolated, and questioning whether financial success could ever feel like enough. Today,...

In an era when many consumer brands chased venture capital and rapid expansion, Andrew Benin, CEO and Co-Founder of Graza, took a different path. Since launching in 2022, his olive oil brand has become known for its distinctive squeeze bottle packaging and methodical approach to growth, prioritizing product quality and strategic partnerships over instant gratification. Benin's journey from cooking...

When most organic food brands faced pressure to sell to multinational corporations, Arjan Stephens and his family chose a different path. As President of  Nature's Path Organic Foods , Stephens has helped steer the company his parents founded 40 years ago to become one of the last major independent organic brands in North America. Under his leadership, the company has not only resisted acquis...

How can a century-old family tradition from Greece successfully disrupt the competitive U.S. snack aisle. I sat down with OLYRA President and CEO Yannis Varellas to discuss his fascinating journey transforming a fifth-generation flour mill into a modern consumer brand. He details his approach to market entry, the distinction between Amazon and D2C strategies, and how his vision started with a sing...

Ever wondered how a company goes from a single steam mop to a global empire of home and outdoor products? In this interview, SharkNinja's Chief Commercial Officer Neil Shah reveals the company's problem solving philosophy that fuels its rapid growth. He discusses how SharkNinja identifies consumer pain points, balances performance and value, and has evolved its retail and marketing strategies to w...

How do you tackle a challenge as vast as closing America’s brain nutrition gap? Mark Brooks, CEO and co-founder of Brainiac Foods , is answering that question by creating everyday foods packed with the nutrients kids (and adults) need for brain health and development. In this interview, he shares the brand's science-first approach, its unique retail strategy, and the mission to make "brain food" a...

Ever wondered if your bathroom routine could be a little more... luxurious? Charlie Siciak, co-founder of goodwipes is leading a charge to transform the traditionally unglamorous toilet paper category into a vibrant, beauty-inspired experience. In this interview, Charlie delves into goodwipes' unique brand-building strategies, innovative experiential activations like the Porta Palace, and the bala...

The journey from a booming pancake empire to a new venture in protein-packed pretzels is not straightforward, but for Cameron Smith, it's a path paved with intentional growth and invaluable lessons. In this interview, the co-founder of Kodiak Cakes and now founder of Kindling discusses his strategic approach to building a brand, disrupting categories, and the evolving landscape of health-conscious...

What began as a personal quest to drink less has blossomed into a pioneering force in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. In this interview, JW Wiseman, founder of Curious Elixirs, shares the decade-long journey of his brand, from kitchen experiments to navigating market shifts and shaping the future of social drinking. We sat down to discuss the evolution of his innovative elixirs, unique market...

In a crowded beverage market dominated by sugary, traditional options, Halfday is carving a new path with its prebiotic-infused iced teas. I sat down with co-founder Mike Lombardo to hear the story behind the brand's creation and growth, starting from a personal health journey to a successful product on shelves nationwide. In this interview, we dive into Halfday’s origin story, its innovative appr...