Hardware Podcasts

Founder Feature: Amna Mettmann of Brause

The Startup CPG Podcast · 18 Jul 2025 · 38m · Episode 170

What this episode covers

Amna Mettmann, founder of Brause, explains how she launched a line of German-inspired craft sodas using whole food ingredients like organic apples and dates to avoid added sugars and artificial flavors. She details the brand's sleek, industrial design philosophy and her strategy of leveraging failed search data from her time at Postmates to identify the growing demand for non-alcoholic beverages. Mettmann also discusses how the Startup CPG community and the SF Grocery Run event helped her secure initial distributors and navigate early-stage growth.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
HelloFresh, Postmates, Anheuser Busch, Diageo, Startup CPG
Products
Brause
Also
SF Grocery Run, Bubble Goods, Fair, Pop Up Grocer

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • People of Packaging · 31m

    259 - It's definitely NOT beer with Not Beer founder Dillon Dandurand

    Dillon Dandurand, founder of Not Beer, explains how he launched a zero-carb, zero-alcohol sparkling water in Dallas, Texas, leveraging his background at Brazi Bites and Jack Black. He details the operational challenge of sourcing a full truckload of 155,600 tall boy cans to meet minimum order quantities, opting for a turnkey manufacturer to simplify logistics. Dandurand discusses the brand's humorous packaging design, which mimics beer aesthetics, and his strategy of using sampling and influencer marketing to drive retail distribution in Texas before expanding nationally.

    Packaging designDirect-to-consumer & e-commerce
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 21m

    How I Built Resilience: Kara Goldin of Hint

    Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of Hint, explains how she launched the unsweetened flavored water brand after quitting diet soda to improve her health. She details the challenges of entering the saturated beverage industry without prior experience, specifically the difficulty of convincing retailers to stock a new category and the technical hurdle of creating a preservative-free product using real fruit. Goldin also discusses how Hint navigated the pandemic by leveraging its automated US-based manufacturing and pivoting aggressively to direct-to-consumer sales, which tripled during the crisis.

    Starting a product companyMaterials & manufacturing processes
    7 chapters

  • How I Built This · 57m

    Health-Ade Kombucha: Daina Trout

    Daina Trout, co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha, explains how a failed attempt to create a natural hair loss product pivoted into a kombucha brand after realizing the formulation was too difficult. Starting in her Los Angeles apartment closet, Trout, her husband Justin, and friend Vanessa Dew sold kombucha at farmer's markets, eventually quitting their jobs at GlaxoSmithKline to scale the business. The company secured $2 million in Series A funding from First Beverage, allowing them to move from home brewing to professional facilities and secure distribution deals with retailers like Erewhon and Gelson's.

    Starting a product companyValidation & product-market fit
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 36m

    Samuel Adams: Jim Koch (2017)

    Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Company, explains how he left a management consulting career to launch Samuel Adams in 1984, reviving a 150-year-old family recipe to create the craft beer movement. Koch details his 'lean startup' approach, including renting brewing space, hiring Dr. Joseph Owades, and personally cold-calling bars with beer in his briefcase to secure initial accounts. The episode highlights the brand's rapid growth after winning 'Best Beer in America' at the Great American Beer Festival, leading to a unique direct-to-consumer IPO that raised $65 million. Additionally, Kaitlin Mogental of Pulp Pantry discusses her garage-stage venture of turning juice bar pulp into snacks, focusing on sourcing ingredients and managing small-batch production.

    Starting a product companyValidation & product-market fit
    7 chapters

  • How I Built This · 48m

    Advice Line with Andy Dunn of Bonobos

    Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn and host Guy Raz advise three early-stage founders: Michele Casentino of Top Banana, Alek Supak of Broda Beverage Company, and Sabrina Nass of House of Biscotti. Dunn critiques Top Banana's DTC pricing and influencer strategy, suggesting wholesale partnerships with brands like Caraway and Paris Hilton. He advises Broda Beverage to leverage its 'better-for-you' ingredients and Polish heritage to create a 'shot culture' in bars, while telling House of Biscotti to abandon DTC e-commerce in favor of competitive wholesale pricing at retailers like Whole Foods and Walmart.

    Pricing, margins & unit economicsRetail, wholesale & distribution
    5 chapters

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