How I Financed It

Your spice cabinet is probably lying to you and your financing offers might be too. Keith Kohler sits down with Ori Zohar, co-founder and co-CEO of Burlap and Barrel, to trace a 10-year path from packing spices in a Queens living room to building a nationally known single origin spice company with a real social enterprise backbone. We talk about what “single origin” actually means in spices, why s...

Buckwheat in chocolate sounds like a weird idea until you hear the story behind it. I’m joined by Tatyana Jones, founder of Defy Snacks, who explains how she turned a “misfit” ingredient into a better-for-you snacking brand and a real early-stage CPG company with a clear financing path. We dig into the leap from corporate brand building to founder life, including the parts nobody misses: politics,...

Billions were raised “overnight” during the ICO era and it exposed a hard truth: when technology moves faster than securities law, founders and investors both get burned. That collision is where Herwig “Happy” Koenigs built his edge, first by learning the compliance rules that govern private fundraising and then by helping shape what compliant tokenization can look like as finance moves on chain....

Taking “Florida” off a Florida citrus label sounds like a branding tweak until you live it. Matt McLean, founder of Uncle Matt’s Organics and a fourth-generation citrus grower, walks us through the real cost of building an organic orange juice company when nature, cash flow, and supply chains refuse to cooperate. From the early days of learning juice quality through an import-export brokerage to l...

A snack brand can do everything “right” and still get rocked by one thing going wrong at the wrong time. We sit down with Stephanie from OMG Pretzels to unpack how a family garlic pretzel recipe grew from two pans in her mom’s kitchen into a premium seasoned sourdough pretzel nuggets business selling through local retailers, distributors, and grocery accounts, and what it really takes to keep goin...

Nobody tells you hormone decline can start in your early 30s or that it can change your face, your sleep, your weight, and even your confidence at work. We sit down with Lorrie King, founder of Caire Beauty, for a candid talk that connects menopause education to skincare science and the realities of building a consumer brand with limited capital.  We unpack why so many “anti-aging” promises miss t...

Organic coffee wasn’t a trend when Jim Cannell started roasting it. It was a belief and a bet, made years before most shoppers could even explain what “certified organic” meant. I’m joined by Jim from Jim’s Organic Coffee as we trace the real origin story: starting in the early natural foods trade, educating buyers who assumed all coffee was organic, and building demand store by store until the br...

Cottage cheese ice cream sounds like a dare until you hear how Smearcase made it taste great, look shelf-ready, and sell like a real brand. Keith sits down with founders Joe and Drew to unpack the full arc: a marathon-training craving for a healthier dessert becomes “Froco,” a high-protein frozen treat built around casein and a surprisingly powerful ingredient choice, collagen, to support creamine...

A lot of founders can tell you how they made something delicious. Swati Elavia can tell you how she made it consistent, safe, and financeable. Swati is the founder of Monsoon Kitchens, and her story runs from a PhD in nutrition to the unglamorous disciplines that actually scale a food business: standardization, HACCP, co-packer execution, and working capital planning. We talk about the moment a un...

Ever wonder how a distributor scales from a single pallet favor to pro seller status on a major marketplace? We sit down with Noslen Anaya of Great Deals 21 to unpack the real mechanics of financing growth in logistics and distribution—where Miami’s ports meet Latin American demand and e‑commerce velocity meets old‑school wholesale relationships. We start with origin and place: how Miami became th...

A spiky cactus and a crowded snack aisle sparked a bigger mission: rewrite the story of Latin flavors on U.S. shelves. We sit down with Regina Trillo to unpack how Nemi Snacks emerged from representation, health, and heart—and why money wasn’t the only thing that fueled the journey. From the first pitch to sweaty palms, she turns fear into a trigger for preparation and practice, showing how showin...

What if you could slash a medical device’s cost by 75 percent, scale to 39 countries, and still avoid venture capital? That’s the story we unpack with Keto-Mojo’s cofounder, Mr. Mojo himself, who turned a personal health crisis into a mission-driven company that put $1 ketone strips in millions of hands—and backed it with rigorous clinical science. We start at the spark: a ketogenic diet that lift...

What if a donut could change how you feel, think, and show up each day? Kristoffer from Good Journey Foods joins us to explore a path that threads through a rocket-ship startup, a painful collapse, and a return built on purpose, taste, and smarter financing. We dig into how a brand name became a compass, why “healthy and delicious” must coexist, and how the right capital is more than money—it’s op...

Two hours into their first Nashville event, the line still hadn’t died. That moment convinced Jimmy Feeman to go all-in with his co-founder and wife, Megan, on a wild idea: build a dessert brand from scratch and figure out the financing on the fly. What followed was a raw, unfiltered journey—from maxed 0% APR credit cards and DIY build-outs to packed scoop shops, an SBA Express loan, a pandemic pi...

A cashew, a cave, and a credit line changed everything. We sit down with Rebel Cheese co‑founders Fred and Kirsten to map the real path from an elegant 1,200‑square‑foot deli in Austin to a D2C‑first brand backed by Mark Cuban—without losing sight of profit, people, or product quality. You’ll hear how they bootstrapped the first buildout, kept margins front and center, and then weathered COVID by...

A hit song funded a hit dessert. Matt, the founder of Hiatus Cheesecake, went from baking with his mom to serving fine dining rooms, then navigated a leap into Whole Foods and, later, Kroger’s Go Fresh & Local Accelerator. We unpack the real story behind the glossy headlines: how a single anchor restaurant paid for a commercial kitchen, how packaging and UPC readiness opened doors with distrib...

The most dangerous myth in entertainment is the lone genius. We sit down with LA creators Byron Manuel and Rich Morrow to show how community, discipline, and smarter money beat that myth—and how filmmakers can keep far more of their work. Byron and Rich trace their path from athletics to the arts, sharing how structure, coaching, and resilience translated to sets where permits fall through, lights...

What if your fundraising edge isn’t a prettier deck, but the energy you bring into the room? We sit down with Miami operator and “crypto guy” Kyle Sonlin to unpack how conviction, curiosity, and consistent behavior become the signals investors actually trust. The journey winds through a decade of Miami tech growth, the post-remote shift in capital access, and why in-person time still matters when...

What if your financing strategy was as clean and simple as your ingredient list? We sit down with Hector Gutierrez of JOI, the plant base brand built on “just one ingredient,” to unpack how a concentrated product, a flexible channel mix, and disciplined cash flow turned a pre-pandemic seed round into a profitable, resilient business. From the early days of almond paste sold B2B to cafés to a brand...

From a comfortable engineering career to the brink of financial collapse and back again, Myles Powell's entrepreneurial story embodies both the exhilarating highs and crushing lows of building a CPG food brand from scratch. What begins as a childhood love for family dinner conversations transforms into Myles Comfort Foods, a journey that tests Powell's resilience at every turn. With rema...

Margarita Womack never intended to build a frozen empanada empire. Eight years ago, she was a PhD scientist with Colombian roots who simply wanted to help a friend secure a visa through a small catering business. Today, she's the founder of Maspanadas, with over 50 employees, a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, and nationwide distribution. This candid conversation reveals the complete...

Keith Kohler launches his new podcast "How I Financed It" with a candid conversation featuring Ora Organic co-founders Ron and Will, who share their decade-long journey from maxed-out credit cards in the beginning to sustainable profitability today. The founders reveal how their personal motivations—Will's frustration with supplement transparency during his "junk food vegan&quo...