What It Really Takes To Build a Food Business: Part 2

How I Built This · 25 Oct 2024 · 37m

What this episode covers

Becca Millstein of Fishwife, Brian Rudolph of Banza, and Caue Suplicy of Barnana discuss scaling their food brands from direct-to-consumer origins to national retail presence. They detail strategies for product-market fit, including influencer seeding, packaging design, and navigating supply chain disruptions and misinformation crises. The founders also share advice on co-founder dynamics, customer segmentation, and the importance of brand moats in the competitive CPG landscape.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 33m

    #232 - 2026 Brand Resolutions

    Host Daniel Scharff interviews Rebecca Styn of Blind Tiger Spirit Free Cocktails, Dava Guthmiller of A Dash of, and Andrew Schundler of CH Matcha about their 2026 brand resolutions. Rebecca resolves to eliminate noise by saying no to unaligned opportunities like expensive celebrity gifting, focusing instead on strategic regional growth. Dava aims to step into the spotlight by sharing her personal story and passion for salt terroir to build authenticity, rather than just curating others' products. Andrew plans to double down on retail execution and in-person tastings for his canned matcha brand, learning from early data to avoid stretching the business too thin.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 29m

    Founder Feature: Bar Bruhis of Boostcous

    Bar Bruhis, founder of Boostcous, explains how he formulated a better-for-you couscous using only chickpeas, lentils, and peas after a licensing deal with an Italian manufacturer collapsed due to tariffs. He details his decision to launch direct-to-consumer first, hitting 10,000 Shopify orders in six months to prove product-market fit and gather customer data. Bruhis shares the specific post-purchase survey question that led to a Costco buyer call and discusses his strategy for pitching Whole Foods and Walmart after his first trade show at Summer Fancy Food.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 1h 00m

    #66 Sharing is Caring: How Alison Cayne & Haven's Kitchen share cooking confidence and industry knowledge

    Alison Cayne, Founder & CEO of Haven's Kitchen, discusses scaling her fresh, high-pressure pasteurized sauce brand from a cooking school side project to national retail presence in Whole Foods, Target, and Sprouts. She details the operational challenges of managing supply and demand mismatches, the strategic decision to use Social Nature for pandemic-era trial instead of traditional demos, and the distinct margin and velocity dynamics between natural channel and mass retailers like Target. Cayne also shares her framework for founder decision-making, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between short-term fires and long-term structural issues, and the necessity of building a strong foundation before expanding.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 56m

    #101 Celebrating 10 Years of Growth: Family, Foodservice, and Forging your Own Path with Soom's Amy Zitelman

    Amy Zitelman, co-founder and CEO of Soom Foods, discusses the company's 10-year journey from a college project to a national CPG brand. She explains how Soom prioritized the foodservice channel for eight years to build credibility before launching nationally in Whole Foods and Sprouts. Zitelman details the strategic rebranding with agency Pulp & Wire, the decision to raise capital in 2021, and the operational shifts required to support retail growth while managing family life.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 30m

    #179 - Bootstrap Heroes: Hazard's Hop Water, SWAIR, Gourmend Foods

    Host Daniel Scharff interviews Ryan Hansen of Hazard's Hop Water, Carrie Sporer of SWAIR Hair, and Ketan Vakil of Gourmend Foods about bootstrapping their consumer packaged goods brands to six-figure revenues without venture capital. Hansen details scaling a non-alcoholic hop water brand to $500k by targeting golf courses and breweries, while Sporer explains how SWAIR reached $350k in revenue by focusing on fitness enthusiasts and managing co-founder dynamics. Vakil shares how he built Gourmend Foods to nearly $850k in revenue by reformulating low-FODMAP broths and leveraging online sales and dietitian networks.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.