The Startup CPG Podcast

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Sophia Cheng, Founder and CEO of Oddball, for a Founder Fundraising Journey conversation. Oddball is reimagining snacking for a new generation with jiggly, nostalgic fruit cups made from real fruit juices and purees — no artificial flavors or colors — inspired by the fruit-based snacks Sophia grew up with in Singapore....

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Lindsey Fredrick, founder of Tart, a healthy lifestyle beverage built around tart cherry and house-made mineral water — just five organic ingredients, with zero natural flavors and no added sugar. Lindsey's path into CPG started in her college kitchen, where she was managing 35 different food allergies and searching fo...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with two founders who have attended and sampled at some of the most Startup CPG Grocery Run events: Dan Choi, founder of NA Beverage Company, and Stephanie McGregor, founder of Ringa. Together, they share what Grocery Runs are actually like from a brand perspective, how they decide which ones to attend, and what founders sho...

In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by food scientist Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Guru Hari Khalsa, founder of Guru Food Design — a product development and innovation consultancy helping CPG brands move from creative product vision to commercially scalable food and beverage products. Guru has over 40 years of experience in food and beverage product development, food science, manufacturing s...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Drew Fallon , Co-Founder and CEO of Iris Finance, an AI-powered financial planning and forecasting platform helping emerging consumer brands make smarter financial decisions, improve profitability, and prepare for long-term growth. Before launching Iris Finance, Drew spent nearly a decade building and scaling consumer b...

Honey is one of the world's oldest pantry staples—yet it's also one of the least changed. After years working in branding and design, Noah Phillips couldn't stop wondering why consumers were still buying honey from the same bear-shaped bottle they'd seen for decades. That question became Honey Department, a brand using thoughtful packaging, premium ingredients, and consumer psychology to rethink h...

In this Startup CPG Mini Episode, Daniel Scharff sits down with Hans Eisenbeis, Director of Mission and Messaging at Non-UPF Verified, for an update on one of the fastest-growing conversations in food and beverage: ultra-processed foods. Since launching its certification program, Non-UPF Verified has seen growing interest from brands, retailers, and consumers looking for greater transparency aroun...

In this episode of Founder + Funder, Hannah Dittman sits down with Alex Michaelsen, Co-Founder and CEO of Leisure Hydration, and Ryan Springer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Midnight, for a conversation about fundraising, founder-investor relationships, retail expansion, and what it takes to build a next-generation beverage brand. Leisure Hydration was founded by brothers Alex and Steve Micha...

In this Founder Feature episode, Startup CPG Managing Editor Caitlin Bricker sits down with Anastasia Sartan, Founder and CEO of The Cycle, a functional beverage brand supporting women through their pre-period, period, perimenopause, and menopause stages. Before launching The Cycle, Anastasia spent nearly two decades building products in the tech industry, including leadership roles at Snapchat an...

Startup CPG's Daniel Scharff sits down with Hannah Koch, Category Manager for Supplements at Kimberton Whole Foods, one of the most beloved independent natural retailers in the country. Based in Pennsylvania, Kimberton Whole Foods has built a reputation for thoughtful merchandising, strong community relationships, and a deeply mission-driven approach to retail. Hannah's path to retail is anything...

In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by food scientist Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Jamie Valenti-Jordan, founder of Catapult Commercialization Services, to discuss the realities of commercializing and scaling food products. Jamie has helped more than 400 brands commercialize thousands of products and has become one of the most trusted voices in the Startup CPG community when it comes to manu...

In this episode of Founder + Funder, hosted by Hannah Dittman, Hannah sits down with Emily Groden, Founder and CEO of Evergreen, and Brian Bernstein, Principal at Rich Products Ventures, for a conversation about fundraising, founder-investor relationships, and what it takes to build an emerging food brand into a category leader. Emily founded Evergreen after struggling to find frozen breakfast pro...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Jess Haghani, founder of Lucille — the first better-for-you nutrition company specifically designed for older adults, named after her 92-year-old grandmother. Lucille is reimagining what senior nutrition looks like from the ground up: better ingredients, better taste, better packaging, and a brand that finally gives ol...

Host Daniel Scharff sits down with R&D Radio host and food scientist Adam Yee for a special mini episode previewing Startup CPG's first-ever Founders & Formulators event—happening July 12th in Chicago at the Palmer House Hilton, the day before the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) annual convention. With a room full of formulators already heading to Chicago for IFT, Startup CPG is seiz...

In this mini episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Hillary Hughes — CPG legal legend and leader of the Consumer Brands Industry Group at Foster Garvey — to break down everything emerging brands need to know before entering a private label arrangement. Private label can be a powerful revenue stream and a fast path to scale, but it comes with real tradeoffs: margin c...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with David Bell, co-founder of Idea Farm Ventures and one of the most academically grounded voices in consumer. David has spent decades studying what actually drives success in consumer brands and retail — from analyzing Nielsen and IRI barcode scanner data as a PhD student at Stanford GSB, to building Wharton's first digita...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Liana Krasnow, founder of Noodo — a tomato sauce made with grass fed bone broth that's redefining what a premium Italian sauce can be. Growing up watching her grandparents harvest tomatoes from their Connecticut garden and make traditional sauce every summer, Liana took that family recipe, removed the wine, added bone...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Isabel Washington, founder of Laurel's Coffee — an A2 dairy canned latte brand bringing coffee shop flavors like Dirty Chai and Matcha to retail shelves. Isabel left McKinsey in February 2024, launched in August 2024, and has already landed Whole Foods, Erewhon, Wegmans, and a chain-wide 1,800-store Target launch coming...

In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by food scientist Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Abbey Thiel, a food scientist, science communicator, and consultant with a PhD in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and postdoctoral training at Wageningen University. Abbey specializes in food formulation, ingredient functionality, and technical problem solving for food and beverage brands...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Rana Taghdisi Argenio, co-founder and General Partner at Palette Ventures, an early stage fund focused on pre-seed through Series A consumer brands. Rana brings a rare full stack perspective to investing, having started her career at Goldman Sachs, taken over a legacy manufacturing business, and bootstrapped her own dir...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Christine Liu and Clarissa Wei, co-founders of HEYDOH — a single origin soy sauce brand built to fill a gap in the American grocery market. The global soy sauce market is worth $40–59 billion, yet there is not a single origin option on the shelves of America's largest grocery stores. HEYDOH is here to change that. Clar...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Yoga Charya, President and COO of Mezcla, and Sebastiaan Debrouwe from Doss, the operations cloud built for fast-growing CPG brands. Together, they trace the rise of Mezcla — one of the breakout brands in the crowded protein bar category — and unpack the operational philosophy that made it possible: simplicity scales. Y...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Graham Garzon, Vice President at Ground Force Capital — a consumer focused growth equity fund with deep roots in food and beverage. Graham brings a background in investment banking and private equity to a firm whose two founding partners are CPG entrepreneurs themselves, giving Ground Force a rare combination of financi...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Ashley Whalen, founder of Chara — a Greek frozen yogurt brand bringing back the joy of froyo with a modern, better-for-you twist. High in protein, packed with certified living probiotics, naturally sweetened with maple and agave, and completely lactose free, Chara is the frozen treat today's health-conscious consumer h...

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Jacob Trumbull, founder of Roaring Fork Mill — a family owned and operated stone flour mill based in Carbondale, Colorado. Jacob is the only Regenerative Organic Certified mill in the Mountain West, a recent recipient of the Greg Stoltenpohl Pragmatic Visionary Award, and someone who went from exhibiting at his first t...