A discussion on mental health with our guests: Jeremy Smith - CEO of Launchpad Mark Samuel - Founder & CEO of iWON Organics Hugh Thomas - Co-founder & CEO of Ugly Drinks In this episode we trigger up some thoughts from three serial entrepreneurs who share their close encounter with it, how they crossed over to the other side and some daily best practices that keep your heart and mind healthy.
Tom Spier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Boulder Food Group(BFG), a venture capital firm that seeks partnerships with early stage food and beverage consumer product companies. Tom previously co-founded EVOL Foods and was the COO of Bear Naked Granola. Under Tom’s management, both businesses were successfully sold to public companies. In addition to his role at BFG, Tom proudly serves on the board of directors of three non-profit organizations including Chef Ann Foundation, Just Label It ...
Jessica Levison is the Founder and CEO of Pekaboo Ice Cream. In her search to get veggies into her three toddlers, this lawyer turned Ice Cream Confectionist started infusing vegetables in ice cream and ended up starting a successful ice cream brand called Peekaboo Ice Cream. In this episode, Jessica talks about how she used her artisanal ice cream stores in Surfside and Wynwood to launch Peekaboo Ice Cream and how she managed to get the funding and exposure that brought Peekaboo Ice Cream to130...
Francisco Pavan is the Co-Founder of Kumana, a company that makes Avocado Sauces inspired by Venezuelan cuisine. After traveling the world and experiencing different cultures through food, he decided to change career paths from being an automotive parts supplier, to a food startup entrepreneur. His passion and desire to bring light back to the image of Venezuela(Francisco’s home country), led him to team up with Jeremy Smith(President of LaunchPad Group) and Eric Read(Founder & Creative Director...
Kenneth Park is the founder and CEO of Detoxwater, an Aloe Vera water brand that started as a home remedy that his mom used for digestive problems and other illnesses. Ken eventually introduced Aloe water to the market, originally branded as Superleaf Aloe Juice, selling from his dorm room and later on becoming a household name with a nationwide distribution. Detoxwater is now famously known to be an aloe drink offering the best of both worlds: great taste with health benefits. In this episode, ...
Mark Cohen is the founder and CEO of Kidfresh, a food brand that was inspired by Matt's goal to provide a line of better-for-you and tasty kids meals to-go made with the same quality ingredients enjoyed by parents but for children. In this episode, he shares several key insights for shelf strategy, as well as the importance of perseverance and vision. A few other takeaways: Production and packaging: Find co-packers who are willing to work with you and your small margins. Develop an honest, strai...
Katie Katie Jesionowski is Co-Founder of MySuperFoods, a company that makes superfoods for kids. With three product lines distributed nationally via natural food channels, traditional grocery, food service, schools and export as well as online, they are a snack brand on the rise. Katie shares her journey, the impact of a good business partner, and how she mastered the eCommerce channel to get her products out to her consumers.
Sadie Scheffer is the founder and CEO of Bread Srsly, a wholesale sourdough bread company that wants to reunite gluten-free eaters with their beloved sourdough bread. All of their bread rises for more than 12 hours, breaking down hard-to-digest grains and plus, Bread SRSLY gluten-free sourdough contains a host of bioavailable nutrients, promoting digestive health and healing. Sadie has had a different approach to CPG via self-distribution. And she shares how they’ve made that work, and why it he...
Matt Bachmann is the co-founder of Wandering Bear Coffee, a company that produces and distributes cold brew beverages. The company started back in 2013 and is now sold in over 750 retailers, including Target, Costco and Whole Foods and is distributed nationally to offices via their website. Matt shares the experience of how an obsession with coffee ended up becoming a successful business. 3:18 How and why Matt Bachmann got into the food business. 7:35 The influence of university in entrepreneurs...
Annie is an activist, writer, scientist, and marketing manager dedicated to environmental issues related to food, water, and agriculture. She works with consumers, suppliers, and purchasers to drive demand for regenerative products, transition farms to regenerative agriculture, and inspire brands to invest in regenerative supply lines. 5:00 - Overview of Kiss The Ground as an organization 7:30 - What damage have we done via farming practices and food waste 10:00 - What is regenerative agricultur...
Don Morton is a bartender, WSET trained wine nerd, cocktail geek, fermentation enthusiast, and an eager host. After 10 years of working in public policy, Don founded Shrub District to bring a little more happiness into the world. Today, their cocktail vinegars (aka shrubs) and 'built cocktails' (A “built” cocktail is a cocktail you build in the same glass in which you serve it) are available online, restaurants and bars across the North East. With a keen focus on quality and sometimes, seasonal ...
John “Sonic” Ban has worn many hats, is a serial entrepreneur and shares valuable lessons from his experience, in this episode. Also known as DJ Sonic, due to 10+ years in a hip hop radio station, his first brush with starting his own business was with the Indianapolis food truck scene and becoming one of the first successful food truck business owners. Grass Fed Coffee began in 2014 when John “Sonic” Ban experienced incredible gains in mental clarity, energy, and fat burning, from just one dail...
Hema Reddy is the Founder & CEO of Crafty Counter, an innovative packaged food products company, and their first product line is available in the market today, and they called Wundernuggets. She is also the Founder & CEO of Epicurate Media - a digital marketing firm that is hyper-focused on helping food & beverage brands achieve their growth targets via carefully designed marketing blueprints & processes. Prior to her entrepreneurial ventures, she was Program Director for Worldwide Systems Marke...
There is no denying the inventory and logistics benefits of Whole Foods being purchased by Amazon. Any spreadsheet or report can show that. But what is often overlooked in the history of acquisitions is culture. Jeremy Smith believes there is a high probability that Whole Foods will fail post-Amazon purchase because of it. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has already acknowledged the cultural challenges. We talk about Online vs Retail, what the future holds, and what food startups can do to best...
In just a few years, nutpods is on fire. A dairy-free coffee creamer, they have passed Coffee Mate on Amazon.com for # of reviews. Talk about "review capital"! She entered the food space as an outsider. With a beginner’s mindset and the ability to develop die-hard fans, nutpods has become a great success. Awarded as “Editor’s Pick” at the Natural Products Expo in her debut year, nutpods has quickly grown online and in traditional brick and mortar business and is now available nationwide. Madelin...
Andrew Lynch is co-founder and president of the Zipline Logistics, an award-winning North American 3PL that specializes exclusively in the transportation of retail consumer goods and food and beverage products. Zipline Logistics works with popular brands such as Vita Coco, Chameleon Cold Brew, Avitae Water, Vegan Rob’s, and Barney Butter. Starting his career in carrier procurement and management within a Fortune 100 logistics company, Lynch has held positions of responsibility in all areas of th...
Jeanne David has created a company by taking a long-used veggie as a replacement for pizza crust and bread. By cutting out refined carbs, one can transform health. We talk about the anti-inflammatory diet, getting on restaurant menus, dealing with unexpected sales spikes via a popular blog, and more. More about Jeanne: Jeanne David is the Founder, Head of Product Development and President of Outer Aisle Gourmet, LLC. Jeanne is a born entrepreneur and loves creating ideas for new products. She st...
Mindset, packaging, food labeling, logistics, innovation, systems thinking, sustainability, traceability, and big e-commerce in the delivery space. This episode has it all. I don't say this lightly, but this episode should be listened to by all food entrepreneurs. Michael Joseph is the CEO of Green Chef , his 3rd food startup. Green Chef is a a USDA-certified organic meal kit company. They work with farmers to source sustainable, non-GMO ingredients. A fun and insightful episode....
Steve Broad is on his second startup in the food space. He previously had Co-Founded and was CEO of Annie Chun’s Inc. with his wife, Annie Chun. They started at the Farmer’s Market in 1992 and built it into a national brand, then sold the company in 2008 to CJ Corp, Korea’s largest food company. They began gimMe in 2012 and the brand has quickly become the #1 seaweed snack. We talk seaweed and Steve's ideas on how to thrive in the natural foods space.
Sam Lillie is the founder/CEO of Vinder, a peer-to-peer marketplace for homegrown produce that connects home gardeners who hate seeing their excess veggies go to waste, with fellow community members looking to buy local produce. Sam graduated from San Jose State in 2015 then solo-hiked from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail (2,658 miles) which took 5 months to complete. While hiking, Sam faced extreme weather conditions from 105+ degree heat in the desert with 20-30 miles distances bet...
"I had a lot of experiences where I truly manifested my reality. And those experiences continue." Joshua Mchugh has been at this for 13 years. Not many startups make it to the decade mark. How did he do it? Starting out, he would spend endless hours reading recipe books with the intention of understanding how he could take standard comfort foods and turn them into nutritional powerhouses. Living Intentions has formulated multiple lines of products, from gourmet sprouted nut and seed blends to su...
Hi all! In today's brief episode, I evaluate the success of the past 50 guests on the show and synthesize it into 3 steps.
"Back the jockey, not the horse." At early revenue stages, the founder is crucial when deciding whether or not to invest. Out of every 100 or so food startups Accel Foods invests in just 1. What makes them say yes to this small handful of companies? Cofounder Jordan Gaspar and I dive into her perspective of food startups and how they can prosper: How Jordan left the legal space and ended up with an investment fund The size of the companies and the investments they make Common mistakes food start...
Reza Mirza has an exciting job: CEO of Icelandic Glacial. A premium brand, they control the sole commercial rights to bottle and sell water from the legendary Ölfus Spring. In 21 countries with only 40 total employees, they are organized, efficient, and growing. Their U.S. distribution is handled by Anheuser-Busch, which took a 20% ownership stake in the company in July 2007. Reza recently served as President of Activate Drinks where he grew the company in key markets through increased distribut...
When I asked Alex how they came up with the idea for an energy shot. It was simple: Our customers told us. Before the interview, I thought: "Why would anyone start a cold-brew coffee company? There are so many on the market already." I quickly learned the unique value proposition of Bizzy Coffee from a product and brand perspective. The co-founder, Alex French sat down to talk with me on the final leg of their East Coast #vanlife tour. And it was quite the success: they were able to sell into 20...
For Steven, it's all about patterns. He has spoken to over 1,000 founders and has developed a sense for which startups are going to flourish. He focuses on sourcing and evaluating premier brands and coaching entrepreneurs through the fundraising process at CircleUp. CircleUp is the platform providing capital and resources to innovative, early-stage consumer brands, and opportunities for sophisticated investors to participate in their growth. From machine learning data to predict CPG success to t...
Most Americans are sick. Alex Bayer saw it first hand, dealing insurance policies for AFLAC in southern California. Born and raised in Palos Verdes, he has followed an extremely healthy and active lifestyle from an early age. In his 20’s, he became ‘too busy’ and was always on the go, never having time to cook a meal or prepare food, and smoothies became a way of life for him. When the coconut craze hit, he discovered that coconuts were a great source of nutrients and benefits, and he always won...
Imagine if, in 1996, you knew that the internet was going to be the next big thing. In hindsight, it seems obvious, but it wasn't at the time. Now we are on the brink of a new technology that can be as monumental to the world as the internet: the blockchain. Food and Ag is just one of many industries that will evolve with the technology. Emma Weston of AgriDigital is applying blockchain technology to transform global agricultural supply chain. She breaks down the blockchain and how it will chang...
Jeremy Smith is back. If you haven't heard the first interview, listen here . There is trouble in the food broker space. The market has changed dramatically. Based on listener response to the first episode and Jeremy's intuition, we continued the conversation on Costco, brokers, and how to adapt to the evolving food space: Costco pitches: phone vs in-person. Can you do it on the phone?: “Does a founder have to live the messaging of the brand before he/she communicates it to the consumer?” Hershe...
