On today’s episode, I sit down with Zoya Virani, head of growth at CPGD, one of the longest-running consumer brand discovery platforms focused on emerging CPG companies.

We get into what it actually looks like to build a business around curation in consumer, including how CPGD decides which brands make it into the newsletter, what they’ve learned from operating a highly engaged founder and investor audience, and why restraint has become a core part of the company’s strategy.

We also talk through the mechanics behind the business itself: sponsorships, events, investor newsletters, deal flow, and the early infrastructure they’re building around connecting founders with capital. Zoya explains how they think about scaling without diluting trust, what makes a founder or pitch stand out in a crowded market, and why durability matters more than ever in today’s fundraising environment.

There’s also a broader conversation around taste as a business model, the tradeoffs between curation and scale, and how emerging consumer brands are increasingly being built around systems and behaviors rather than single products.

I learned a lot during my conversation with Zoya, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.