Hardware Podcasts

360 - Beyond the Die Line - The pitch was awful. They liked the bar! Tom Seymour and Ree Dolnick

People of Packaging · 8 Oct 2026 · 1h 09m · Episode 360

What this episode covers

Ree Dolnick, founder of JECA Energy Bars, explains how she transitioned from cancer research to building a self-manufacturing CPG brand after co-packers rejected her clean-label recipe and demanded unfeasible run sizes. She details the company's pivot to in-house production developed with RIT engineers, which allowed JECA to control quality and offer short turns that retailers like Whole Foods and Wegmans prefer. Dolnick also discusses the iterative packaging journey, moving from plain film to digital printing and finally to ePac pouches, while emphasizing the importance of customer discovery at UB Cultivator to identify the true buyer profile.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Whole Foods, Wegmans, Big Y, Tops, Amazon, UB Cultivator, RIT, Launch New York, ePac, Ignite Buffalo, 43 North, Top Seeds, Cornell Food Sparks
Products
JECA Energy Bars
Also
John Lawson

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 56m

    #133 How to Make and Scale Your Product with Jamie Valenti-Jordan, Catapult Commercialization Services Part 1

    Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services, explains the end-to-end process of launching and scaling CPG products, drawing on his background at Hampton Creek and Campbell Soup. He details how to create a 'gold standard' recipe, translate it into weight-based formulations, and select packaging that protects against oxidation and moisture. Valenti-Jordan advises on the strategic choice between self-manufacturing and contract manufacturers, explaining how co-man pricing works on a shift basis and why equity swaps are ineffective. He also covers inventory planning, shelf-life testing, and the importance of maintaining cash reserves to survive the early scaling phase.

    Materials & manufacturing processesPackaging design
    6 chapters

  • How I Built This · 1h 05m

    MadeGood: Salma and Nima Fotovat Lost Their First Business. They Grew Their Next One Into a Snack Giant.

    Nima and Salma Fotovat, along with their sister Saba, recount how they rebuilt their business after losing their family's co-packing company, Taste of Nature, in a 2012 buyout. They launched MadeGood, an allergen-free organic snack brand, by financing a $2 million factory with personal assets and bank loans. The episode details their early struggles, including manually reworking 200,000 mislabeled bars with alcohol wipes, and their strategy of saying 'yes' to difficult retailer requests to gain traction in Whole Foods and Costco.

    Starting a product companyValidation & product-market fit
    8 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 44m

    #260 - Packaging Changes as you Grow with Evie's Snacks and Belmark

    Eve Ackerley, founder of Evie's Snacks, and Cody Ponsler from Belmark discuss how packaging must evolve as a CPG brand scales from farmers markets to national retail. Ackerley details her journey from hand-applied stickers on craft bags to custom printed stand-up pouches, highlighting a critical lesson where buyer feedback revealed her initial design looked like 'laundry detergent.' Ponsler explains why 50% of brands change their packaging art between their first and second production runs and advises founders to prioritize shelf-life and brand storytelling over premature premium finishes.

    Packaging designScaling production
    6 chapters

  • How I Built This · 36m

    What It Really Takes To Build a Food Business: Part 1

    Guy Raz interviews Becca Millstein of Fishwife, Brian Rudolph of Banza, and Caue Suplicy of Barnana about the early stages of building their food businesses. Millstein explains how she leveraged social media and distinctive packaging to launch Fishwife as a direct-to-consumer brand during the pandemic. Rudolph details Banza’s journey from a kitchen prototype to securing a major retail deal with Meijer, despite catastrophic manufacturing failures with chickpea pasta. Suplicy describes bootstrapping Barnana by sourcing co-packers and initially rejecting large orders from retailers like Wegmans due to capacity constraints.

    Starting a product companyManufacturing partners & offshoring
    8 chapters

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 29m

    Reinventing the Pizza Bagel: Bagelverse's Jacob Cooper on Nostalgia and CPG

    Jacob Cooper, founder of Bagelverse, explains his pivot from eight years as a CTO in AI to launching a nostalgic pizza bagel brand with flavors like spicy vodka and barbecue chicken. He details the complex supply chain requiring two separate co-packers for bagels and pizza assembly, and his strategy of validating demand through pop-ups before securing manufacturing. Cooper emphasizes the critical importance of high-quality packaging for emerging brands and his long-term, relationship-focused approach to securing retail placements with major retailers like Target and Whole Foods.

    Starting a product companyManufacturing partners & offshoring
    6 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by People of Packaging. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.