Hardware Podcasts

Founder Feature: Houston Buehrle of Little Zing

The Startup CPG Podcast · 2 Jan 2026 · 24m · Episode 243

What this episode covers

Houston Buehrle, founder of Little Zing, explains how he transformed his great-grandmother’s century-old Danish mustard recipe into a premium brand by focusing on clean ingredients, distinctive Boston round squeeze bottle packaging, and a mermaid-inspired logo to stand out in a commoditized aisle. He details his rapid growth to 130 retail locations in eight months, driven by grassroots farmers market sampling, strategic partnerships with high-end retailers like Leavers Locavore, and aggressive direct-to-consumer sales via TikTok Live. Buehrle also reflects on the lessons learned from his previous venture, Bindle Bottle, which failed due to a lead solder recall and bankruptcy, highlighting the importance of regulatory diligence and resilience in CPG.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Leavers Locavore, Bristol Farms, Lottie's Meats
Products
Little Zing, Bindle Bottle, Gray Poupon, French's, Heinz, Liquid Death, Nuffs N U F S
Tools
Yucca, TikTok Live
Also
Expo West, Fancy Food Show

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 · 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

  • People of Packaging · 26m

    327 - The best soda you haven't heard about (probably)!

    Gina Ho, co-founder of Hawaiian Soda Co., explains how the brand scaled from a 2020 kitchen idea to over 1,500 retail doors by prioritizing differentiation through packaging and authentic ingredients. She details the strategic decision to use 12oz sleek cans to stand out in Hawaii and the operational shift from shrink sleeves to direct-print cans as volume grew. The conversation also covers the complexities of expanding from a regional Hawaiian brand to the mainland US, including finding co-manufacturers and navigating logistics.

    Packaging designScaling production
    5 chapters

  • How I Built This · 49m

    Advice Line with Sarah Kauss of S'well

    S'well founder Sarah Kauss joins Guy Raz to advise three early-stage founders on positioning and growth. She helps Chiara Moonzi of Chigi navigate grocery placement for a chickpea-based hot cereal, Jesús Rualcaba of Paper Tacos expand his Latino-inspired greeting cards beyond specialty stores, and Adam Barker of Bolt Skin and Shave determine his growth strategy for a razor brand targeting men who shave their legs.

    Retail, wholesale & distributionMarketing & brand
    4 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

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.