"What Will and I had was an audience that was curated to give something a go... our job was to make that thing good enough that they'd be willing to have it twice."

Will and James built an audience online long before they built a coffee brand. When they launched Rodd's, a plant-based ready-to-drink coffee, they forecast 22,500 bottles for the launch. They sold 100,000 in two weeks and then found out the hard way what FMCG lead times actually mean when you've got nothing left on shelf and a five-week wait for more stock.

In this episode, Will and James talk through what it's really like building an FMCG brand from a content-creation background: the audience trust that got people to try the product once, the NPD process that runs on gut feel and internal taste panels rather than boardroom data decks, and the moment "rate of sale" stopped being a retailer buzzword and started being the thing that kept them up at night.

We also get into:

• What 75% of new-to-category Sainsbury's shoppers tells them about where growth is really coming from
• Sampling 10,000 bottles at Wimbledon, and why in-person reactions changed how they think about marketing
• The moment they realised social media couldn't be their only channel
• How creator brands need to look past hype and think long term
• Why hiring a CEO changed how they make decisions

"At each stage of the business, your identity has to evolve. From individual contributor, to manager, to leader. Most founders miss the moment when that shift needs to happen."

Deepak Ravindran co-founded Oddbox, the UK's leading ugly produce subscription service, and scaled it from a church hall side project to a nine-figure valuation in under a decade. But the real story isn't the growth. It's what happened to him inside it.

In this episode, Deepak talks honestly about what hypergrowth actually feels like from the inside: going from 25 to 100 people in a year, becoming the bottleneck in your own business, and the moment he realised his leadership style hadn't kept pace with the company he'd built.

He also gets into the stuff that rarely gets talked about- the identity crisis that comes when your business becomes you, the Sunday dread that crept in at Series B, and how a 360 review and a coach helped him surface the blind spots that were quietly holding the business back.

Now working as a founder coach, Deepak helps consumer brand founders scale themselves - not just their businesses. In this conversation he shares what he sees again and again in the founders who most need help but are least likely to ask for it.

In this episode:

• What breaks (operationally and personally) when you scale fast
• The shift from startup operator to organisational leader - and why it's so hard to spot in real time
• Why exit interviews and investor feedback were the making of him as a leader
• The difference between coaching and mentoring - and why it matters
• What "contentment through values alignment" actually looks like in practice

"The journey was about 10 times longer than I ever thought it would be, 10 times harder."

Joanna Jensen built Child's Farm at her kitchen table after struggling to find products for her daughter's eczema-prone skin - and grew it into the UK's market-leading baby and family skincare brand before selling four and a half years ago. She's since become an angel investor, chair of the EIS Association, and author of Making Business Child's Play.

In this episode, Joanna talks bootstrapping versus raising money, why most founder financial forecasts are "abysmal," and the real mechanics of EIS/SEIS tax relief for angel investors. She's blunt about founder mindset, sharper still about LinkedIn oversharing, and unflinching on what building a business actually costs a family.

Topics covered:

• Starting Child's Farm from a kitchen-table problem to market leadership
• Writing Making Business Child's Play
• Why she has zero patience for founders who complain about hard work
• Bootstrapping first: why self-funding before raising protects your equity and your credibility
• Forecasting properly - three-year plans, 26-week cashflow, and why you should double whatever number you think you need
• Red and green flags she looks for before investing
• The difference between an investor and an advisor - and why founders confuse the two
• EIS and SEIS explained: how the schemes work and why they matter for UK angel investment
• AI in FMCG: where it genuinely helps founders, and where it can't replace proprietary data or judgement

"Working hard means different things to different people... you just have to discuss expectations before you go into business with someone."

Vivien Wong is co-founder of Little Moons, the mochi ice cream brand that became one of the most talked-about FMCG success stories of the last decade. From a small family factory in west London to supermarket shelves across Europe - and one of the most remarkable viral moments in UK food and drink history.

In this episode, Ruth and Vivien skip the origin story and get straight into the scaling journey: the decisions, the people, the processes (that didn't exist) and what it really felt like inside a brand growing at warp speed.

They cover:

• When Little Moons stopped feeling like a startup - and what triggered that shift
• How to hire heads of department: timing, level and the cost of getting it wrong
• The TikTok moment - what actually happened when demand went vertical overnight
• Why going viral isn't the hard part, turning it into a sustainable business is
• 16 years of co-founding with her brother Howard: what's worked, what's nearly broken, and the personality test that changed how they communicate
• Bringing in private equity and a CEO and what Vivienne chose to hold onto
• The honest truth about burnout, leadership under pressure and why she still loves the product

Subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone building a brand of their own.

"Every inch of shelf space is rent. And that rent is paid in velocity."

Kara Rubin spent a decade at Whole Foods overseeing grocery for the entire Northeast region before moving to the brand side as VP at Just Water, where she helped take the company from the brink of bankruptcy to $25m in revenue. She now runs a consultancy with her business partner Ira, helping brands based outside the US navigate their entry into the American market.

In this episode, the first in our mini-series on cracking the US, Kara gives UK brands a clear-eyed look at what they're actually walking into:

• Why the US is not one market, and what that means for logistics, distribution and channel strategy
• What a buyer at Whole Foods is actually evaluating — and why velocity is the only currency that matters
• The real timeline from first conversation to product on shelf (it's longer than you think)
• Why your UK backstory is probably neutral at best, and what actually builds credibility with US retailers
• Certifications, claims and regulatory pitfalls that catch international brands off guard
• Whether you can run a US business from the UK (short answer: no)
• When to hire a broker, and what a fractional sales lead looks like in the early days

Part one of our three-part series on launching in the US. Next up: Zachary DeAngelo of Rodeo CPG on the operational mechanics - brokers, margins, channel sequencing, and what the data actually tells you.

‘Sales cures all ails’

Zachary DeAngelo is the founder of Rodeo CPG, a US sales and broker agency that caps its portfolio at 30 brands and has worked with the likes of Huel on their US retail launch. Having founded and sold his own brands, including baby food company Little Duck Organics, Zach brings a founder's perspective to the notoriously complex US go-to-market.

In this episode, the second in our mini-series on cracking the US, Zach gets into the operational detail that trips up most UK brands:

• How the US broker system actually works, why it exists, and why it often fails emerging brands
• What Rodeo does differently - and why founder empathy is built into the model
• The margin maths you need to do before you spend a penny on launch
• How US retail channels work: natural, molo, conventional, mass - and the right order to approach them
• The Huel US story: product selection, innovation, and why great people made the difference
• DTC as test-and-learn: what the data tells you, and what it doesn't
• What separates founders who survive the hard years from those who don't

Part two of our three-part series on launching in the US. Kara Rubin covered the retail relationship and buyer psychology in episode one- go back and listen if you haven't already.

"In my opinion, what makes a brand of tomorrow? Founders, all the way."

In this week’s episode we go inside Ocado's accelerator for early-stage food & drink- Ocado Roots with Genevieve Fitch.

This is a practical, honest conversation about what it actually takes to grow on one of the UK's most data-rich platforms.

What we cover:

• What Ocado Roots is, who it's for, and why Ocado built it
• Why their most loyal, highest-spending customers are the ones putting challenger brands in their baskets
• What buyers are actually looking for - and the pitch mistake that kills most conversations before they start
• The Ocado growth toolkit: what new brands should be doing in their first six months on shelf
• The Buy Women Built and Gen M partnerships - and what Ocado is doing to drive visibility for underrepresented founders
• What long-term brand potential actually looks like from a retailer's perspective

If you're building a food or drink brand and thinking about UK retail, or you work with brands who are, this one's for you.

"You don't know you've got resilience until you go through it."

Toby Hoppy co-founded All Things Dairy with chef and content creator Tom Straker, building a brand that started with a viral butter video and has since grown into one of the most talked-about challenger brands in UK grocery.

This is a conversation about what growth actually looks like when it's faster than you planned for...

We cover:

• Why Toby knew nothing about dairy when he started - and why that turned out to be a superpower
• How a chef with 500 followers and a lockdown experiment became the foundation for a multi-SKU grocery brand
• The cottage cheese launch and what happens when you're 4x your own forecast
• Building a creator-led marketing engine with zero paid social
• Why 60% of their customers in Sainsbury's are under 45, and what that means for category growth
• The equity creator model: how they turned creators into genuine brand partners
• The US plan: butter first, New York restaurant next, and why cottage cheese isn't crossing the Atlantic yet
• Where All Things Dairy goes next and why naivety is still a superpower

If you're building in food and drink, obsessing over growth strategy, or just want to understand what a genuinely modern FMCG brand looks like from the inside - this one's for you.

"When we were bootstrapping and I was comparing myself to founders who'd raised a million before they'd put a product on shelf - there's no comparison. It's not like for like. Make your own path and enjoy it."

Sarah Vachon, founder of Citizens of Soil, joins us for a conversation that covers a lot of ground - from commodity supply chains and regenerative agriculture to physical brand activations, D2C challenges, and building a business without compromising on values.

What we cover:

• How a Greek family, a love of Spain, and a background in sustainability led Sarah to found Citizens of Soil
• Why most olive oil on supermarket shelves is a shadow of what it should be - and what the commodity system has to do with it
• The Olive Oil Club: how a simple subscription evolved into a discovery-led community model
• The Olive Oil Clubhouse pop-up - what worked, what didn't, and why she'd do it again
• Why harvest date matters more than best before date
• The realities of D2C in 2026
• How climate events are directly hitting her producers, and the importance of resilience
• Taking impact investment seriously

If you've ever picked up a bottle of olive oil in a supermarket without thinking twice, this episode will change that.

“A good idea is worth more than a big budget.”

What happens when you stop trying to drink less… and instead build something you can drink more of?

In this episode, Ruth speaks to Tom Benn, founder of Future Chateau - a 5% wine designed for midweek rituals, not just Friday nights.

After six years as “Deputy Squirrel” at Pip & Nut and early experience at Vita Coco, Tom spent five years developing a lower-alcohol wine that isn’t a compromise, it’s grown to be less alcoholic from the start.

They explore:

• Why early-stage brands need emotional clarity, not big budgets
• The myth that low/no should cost less
• How poor innovation damages entire categories
• The emotional stakes of founding your own brand
• Why Slack might be killing productivity
• The overlooked audience driving the mid-strength wine category
• Rebranding in response to real customer insight
• Modern luxury as “freedom without consequence”
• Why earned attention is the only sustainable growth strategy

About Future Chateau

Future Chateau is a 5% wine brand built around permission — giving people the ability to say yes to wine on nights they’d usually say no.

Designed for midweek dinners, work drinks, and reopening cultural rituals without the nuclear hangover.