Gross To Net

Cam Houser co-founded 3 Day Startup and ran it as CEO for a decade, growing it to 13,000 students across dozens of countries and helping launch founders who went on to raise more than 150 million dollars and sell to companies like Google and Etsy. Then he did the thing most founders never do. He stepped out of the CEO seat on purpose and rebuilt his working life as a one-man shop, trading the org...

Most people meet a finance chief only after the interesting decisions are already made — he's the one who tells you whether you can afford them. Matt Dunaj has spent his career sitting exactly where those trades get made: as CFO at Follow Your Heart through its sale to Danone, as CFO/COO at Fly By Jing during its hypergrowth chili crisp era, and now as CFO at SWG Brands, the vertically integr...

Morgan Zanotti co-founded Primal Kitchen, bootstrapped it to $50M in revenue, and sold it to Kraft Heinz for $200M when she was 35. Then she did the thing almost nobody does — she stayed for five years, quadrupled the business from the inside, and kept her entire founding team in place the whole time. She eventually ran M&A strategy for Kraft's health and wellness portfolio, where she fla...

Katie Horgan spent six years as a Marine Corps logistics officer, running truck convoys in Iraq and coordinating operations for a ship-based crisis response force in the Pacific. After earning her MBA at Columbia, she dove into the NYC startup world, holding operations roles at Plated during its explosive meal kit growth phase, then at Crave Crush and SelfMade. When that last role ended abruptly,...

Nick Wiseman started cooking in D.C. kitchens at 15, trained under Fabio Trabocchi in New York, then came home and opened a Jewish deli named after his grandfather's grocery stores. Little Sesame was born in the 500-square-foot basement of that deli in 2016, inspired by the hummus his co-founder Ronen Tenne used to make for family meals on the line. When COVID hit, Nick turned the restaurant...

Gardar Stefansson is an Icelandic food entrepreneur who has spent his career turning unlikely starting points into real businesses. His first company used geothermal hot springs in Iceland's Westfjords to make sea salt — an idea born from his master's thesis at Aarhus University in Denmark. After exiting the salt business, he and two co-founders launched what became Good Good, now the fa...

Robby Sansom is the co-founder and CEO of Force of Nature, a regenerative meat company based here in Austin that's now in Whole Foods nationally and 1,475 Publix stores. Before that, he was one of the first hires at EPIC Provisions, where he helped build the company from a scrappy Austin startup into a category-defining brand that General Mills acquired in 2016. Robby and I were on a panel to...

This week I was joined by the hilarious, energetic, extremely talented Ryan W Garcia. Ryan is an actor, a coach, a podcaster, and kind of a big deal as an influencer and official Try Guy. Ryan's exuberance is infectious and he is constantly knocking on a lot of doors. We talked about the business of show business, his mindset and staying power, and his neverending quest for energy and connect...

Today I talked with Claire Bays whose positivity and motivation rubbed off on me and it will rub off on you too. Claire is a fitness coach, influencer, podcast host, and MC, just to name a few of the things on her plate. But it wasn't always this way. Claire spent the last decade overcoming challenge after challenge, including celebrating close to 5 years sober. Claire tries to keep things si...

I talk with Chris about pivoting from a culinary career into making hummus for farmer's markets, to borrowing money from his dad to build a hummus factory, to shutting down his hummus factory to move in with his copacker. Ithaca Hummus has lit the world of hummus on fire and Chris hasn't taken any VC money to do it. I love talking to interesting people who have unique stories and world v...

Greg Esslinger used to be a Supplier Manager at UNFI. In fact, he was MY Supplier Manager at UNFI when Yellowbird was a fledgling brand. We were both learning the industry at the same time from completely different angles.  Greg opted out of big distribution years ago to prioritize time with his family and meaningful work over climbing a corporate ladder that ultimately wasn't filling his cup...

David is the founder of Seed Ranch Flavor Co. and Grown As* Foods . Previously in the renewable energy sector, he never seems to stop moving.  That penchant for moving takes him all over the world. And he's using his business spend to travel there, in style, for almost free. Check out David's story here and then head over to the Gross To Net Substack to see the points travel plan that Da...

Tim Otto started his first business when he was 12, incorporated at 16, and sold it at 25. He had attained material wealth in his mid-20's but was burnt out. When Tim met Alex (now his wife) he was finishing his MBA while she was in her first year of dental residency. Alex Otto had the seed of an idea that ultimately turned into Alcan Dental Cooperative : their answer to PE consolidation of d...

Mason was a chemical engineer at UT who started an environmentally-friendly lawncare service and discovered his lifelong addiction to entrepreneurship. Among other amazing accomplishments, Mason founded Greenling as a very early grocery delivery service and hit #3 on the Inc 5000 list when he was running Cece's Veggie Co.  Now Mason and his wife Jess run Small Potatoes which an anti-PE incuba...

Lauren Vogel is an Alabama-based yogi, marketer, and writer who, with her partner and co-founder, is building and running a community yoga app called Zentric . She's building small and following positive energy at every turn. Tune in for a great conversation and follow Zentric on Instagram for flows and meditations.

Today I talked with Alison Cayne . Alison is the founder of Haven's Kitchen which was originally a cooking school and turned into a CPG brand. She also runs In The Sauce podcast (like and follow) and writes This Is Not An Advice Column on Substack.  Alison is an entrepreneur's entrepreneur. We discuss everything including building and shutting down her brand, all the things she learned a...

Errol Schweizer scaled Whole Foods' grocery division from $1B to $5B as VP, launching brands like Beyond Meat and Vital Farms while setting national standards for organic and regenerative agriculture. Now he documents grocery consolidation and corporate profiteering as a Forbes contributor and newsletter writer. In this episode, Errol breaks down how Whole Foods industrialized better-for-you...

I talked to Jimmy DeCicco who co-founded Super Coffee with his brothers in a dorm room. Jimmy has raised over $100mm to grow his company to the third largest bottled coffee in America and we talk about growing pains and how they had to change what they optimized for. Jimmy and I also talk about life and fitness and what it's like to hire your replacement at the company you started. Jimmy is n...

Today I talked with Daniel Giacopelli who has spent a lot of his career interviewing and writing about entrepreneurs. Originally the host of "The Entrepreneurs", one of the industry's first podcasts about entrepreneurship, Daniel is now running a newsletter called For Starters (https://forstarters.co/) where he shares stories and ideas on how to be an entrepreneur living a life you...

I talked to Ellen Donnelly (Ellen from The Ask) about making the transition from recruiting into coaching entrepreneurs. We talk about why people even start businesses and I get some free, on-air consulting.  Ellen turns the tables back on me but then I turn them back again. My, my, how the turntables have...turned? I recommend subscribing to Ellen's newsletter, The Ask, at https://the-ask.uk...

Today I talk with Eric Martindale about the digital shelf and how he's spent his life chasing arbitrages. Follow Eric on LinkedIn for nearly daily posts about where food and bev retail media is going:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-martindale-amazonagency/