The Good Food CFO podcast

For years, food founders have had exactly two bookkeeping options: * Pay a bookkeeper hundreds of dollars a month (and hope they understand your industry and provide accurate & timely numbers) * Do your own bookkeeping (with no access to guidance or support) And if we’re being honest, the third option… don’t think about it until tax time. There was never anything in between. Until now. In this epi...

Revenue is up 40%. Online ads are working! But cash is tighter than ever. Should they raise their prices? If you’ve ever stared at growing sales numbers while your bank account tells a completely different story, this episode is for you. Sarah is walking you through a real client case study - a brand with 70% gross profit margins and 40% revenue growth that was still cash strapped - and breaks dow...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thegoodfoodcfo.substack.com Thrive Market has built a loyal following of health-conscious consumers who are actively looking for better-for-you brands. For good food founders, it’s a direct line to your target audience. And the conventional wisdom has always been that selling direct to retail, cutting out the distributor, means better m...

Most food founders think fundraising means perfecting your pitch deck. Angel investor Katie Dunn says you’re starting in the wrong place. In our conversation, Katie breaks down the three fundamentals that actually get investors to meet with you, and say yes: understanding investor thesis (and why it saves you from wasting time), leveraging warm introductions instead of cold pitching, and building...

Building a profitable food business without investors isn’t just possible—it’s a strategic choice. Sarah sits down with Daniel Goetz, founder of Good Pop, who’s bootstrapped his popsicle brand for 16 years by prioritizing profitability over growth headlines. Daniel shares practical strategies that kept Good Pop alive and thriving: * Why he sold just 4 popsicles at his “big launch” (and what happen...

Sarah sits down with Shelley Elkovich, co-founder and CEO of For Bitter For Worse, to explore the financial strategy behind building a profitable specialty beverage brand. Shelley shares how self-manufacturing became a dual revenue stream through contract manufacturing, allowing her to control costs while generating additional income. The conversation reveals practical insights on sustainable grow...

Sarah shares real stories from beta testers using The Good Food CFO financial strategy software for the first time: * A founder running five sales channels discovered their revenue tracking wasn’t set up to support strategic decision-making * A 16-year bakery owner finally understood where profit actually goes when monthly debt payments take it right back out * A founder learned why categorizing m...

Can you build a CPG brand without chasing unicorn status? Kelley Scanlin, founder of Pure Simple Foods (parent to Lark-Ellen Farm and Purely Sprouted), shares how she grew from farmer’s market beginnings to operating a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility—all while refusing to compromise on quality. Sarah and Kelley dig into the strategic path most founders overlook, exploring: * Why regional g...

Margins matter—but what’s the rest of the financial strategy that transforms good margins into actual profitability and positive cash flow? Sarah lays out the complete three-part framework behind “Profit by Design,” the philosophy helping food founders escape the 70% failure rate. Beyond product margins, you need clarity on your true operating expenses and the ability to build financial scenarios...

Farmers markets offer food founders the chance to capture high margin sales —but it only matters if you know how to make them profitable. In this episode, Sarah sits down with Catt Fields-White, nationally recognized farmers market expert and founder of the InTents National Farmers Market Conference, to answer real questions from Good Food CFO listeners about maximizing farmers market revenue. Wha...

What if the secret to massive food business profits isn't growing revenue first? Sarah reveals a counterintuitive "grow last" strategy that transformed a seasonal business from $19K to $107K monthly profits in just two years. This client's 14% gross profit margins were a ticking time bomb – every new sale was actually creating bigger losses. But instead of the typical "sell more" advice, Sarah imp...

What if the secret to a profitable food business isn't scaling bigger, but growing smarter? Sarah challenges the "grow fast or fail" mentality that's crushing food entrepreneurs, revealing why 75% of VC funded businesses fail and sharing a proven approach to sustainable growth. You’ll meet two food founders who made the counterintuitive decision to right-size their businesses - one contracting fro...

While most founders obsess over store count, Kartik Das, Founder of Doosra is building repeatable revenue systems. Rather than chasing new accounts Kartik focused on just 15 core retail partners and developed a multi-channel strategy that generates predictable cash flow. Sarah and Kartik dive deep into Doosra’s financial playbook: the 90-day cash flow planning system that breaks large expenses int...

The Good Food CFO is launching first-of-its-kind financial strategy software built exclusively for food founders!  After seven years of perfecting her approach with hundreds of clients, Sarah's taking everything she knows about building profitable food businesses and turning it into powerful software that doesn't exist anywhere else. This isn't another generic financial tool trying to serve everyo...

What if accepting failure could actually free you to build a stronger food business?  Sarah talks with Alyssa Fernandez, founder of Ollin, who is revolutionizing premium baking by filling the gap between conventional and gluten-free cake mixes with Texas-based ancient grain blends. Alyssa shares how she spent 18 months perfecting her heritage grain strategy before launch, why she's deliberately le...

Poppi's $1.95B exit is being hailed as the new "North Star" for food entrepreneurs – but Sarah isn't buying the headlines. When she dug into the reported investor returns, the math literally doesn't work. Forbes reported returns that would individually equal the entire acquisition price – a mathematical impossibility. But if major publications can't do basic math on these deals, what else are we g...

What happens when nostalgia meets innovation? Sarah sits down with Joe Nicchi, founder of CVT Soft Serve, who transformed a simple craving for East Coast soft serve ice cream into a nationwide success now in 3,000 stores. After investing $150,000 in a vintage 1961 truck to bring authentic East Coast soft serve to LA, Joe spent years building cult-like brand loyalty. Then came the pivotal moment: w...

Your inventory numbers are telling a story - but do you know how to read it?  In this episode, Sarah answers listener questions about inventory turnover ratio - the metric that reveals whether your products are converting to cash or quietly draining your resources. She shows how to turn a confusing ratio like "2.75" into clear insights - that inventory turnover ratio means it takes your business 1...

What happens when you choose to 'control your growth' instead of racing to expand? Sarah sits down with Ilay Karateke, co-founder and CEO of Bezi, the labneh brand redefining growth through meticulous data collection and strategic expansion. Ilay shares her unconventional approach: launching direct-to-retail in handpicked New York stores, doing her own distribution, and running 5-10 demos weekly w...

You asked, Sarah is answering! We love these listener Q&A episodes, and today's cost of goods sold questions are absolute gold. First up: When Google gives you two different definitions for the same term, which one should you trust? Sarah breaks it down and explains gross profit margin vs. net profit margin and which should be your starting point for healthy food business cash flow. Then, we hear...

Ever wondered why finding a co-manufacturer feels impossibly difficult? Sarah sits down with Julia Megson, CEO of ReScale, who reveals the shocking reality that co-manufacturers receive about 100 inquiries monthly but only work with one to two brands from that entire pool. Julia's unique background – from auditing over 100 contract manufacturers at Trader Joe's to founding a tech platform specific...

In this eye-opening episode, Sarah breaks down the harsh food distributor chargeback reality that many founders don't discover until it's too late. Using a real-world example of a brand that invoiced KeHE for $68,267 but received only $13,345 (just 19.5%), she dissects exactly where that money went. From the surprising "initial PO" payment policy that can delay your first check for 3-6 months, to...

Ever wonder how a food business thrives for four decades without compromising on quality? Sarah sits down with culinary visionary Ariane Daguin, who transformed America's specialty meat landscape with just $15,000 and an unwavering commitment to sustainability. Ariane shares the unvarnished truth about building D'Artagnan from the ground up. She walks us through those challenging first ten years m...

In this episode of The Good Food CFO Podcast, Sarah reveals the counterintuitive financial tracking system that successful food brands actually use to drive profitability. Responding to a listener's question about which financial reports matter most, Sarah challenges conventional wisdom by presenting a strategic hierarchy that puts cash flow management at the top of the priority list—not the P&L s...

In this Building a Business on Your Own Terms episode, Sarah sits down with Matt Cross, co-founder of Harvest Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolate company in Tecumseh, Michigan. Matt shares how he and his wife Elizabeth transformed their culinary expertise into a thriving chocolate business that started in their kitchen during the pandemic and now operates a successful retail location with multiple...