Express Checkout

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!

This week, we're back after a little hiatus (news alert: we got acquired by Morning Brew!), and we've got an extra fun episode for you in our fancy new studio.

We're kicking things off with Coke and Pepsi's latest functional soda wars and the booming "hard sports drink" category. Then, we're diving into the Whole Foods 2027 Trends Report (check out the full report here)—what we loved (Beautrition, Dish Reinvention, Yoshoku Effect, The Bean Boom), what missed the mark (Ingredient Minimalism, Zero Waste 2.0, Terroir's New Territory), and the two massive trends Whole Foods left out entirely. 👀

Let's get into it →

The Breakdown:

0:00 - Intro and why things look/sound different...

1:46 - Our fave finds of the week

4:53 - The new Coke vs. Pepsi battle

12:44 - The "hard sports drink" boom

16:12 - Whole Foods 2027 Trends Report: The four trends that we liked (Beautrition, Dish Reinvention, Yosoku Effect, and The Bean Boom)

33:28 - Trends that missed the mark for us... (Ingredient Minimalism, Zero Waste 2.0, Terroir's New Territory, Bitter Done Better)

40:42 - The trends we'd add to the list

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to the Express Checkout podcast wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

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💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!

This week, we’re sitting down with wildly impressive Tristan Walker, who built and sold Walker & Company (the parent company behind Bevel) to Procter & Gamble. He also sits on the board of Shake Shack and recently joined Collaborative Fund to help launch Collab Holdings—a private equity arm built for consumer brands that don’t fit the traditional VC/PE playbook. He also runs Heirloom Leathercraft, a trade school and atelier bringing fine handcraft back to America.

He walks us through building Bevel from a personal shaving problem to a national brand, the difficult decision to sell to P&G, and why he now believes most founders shouldn’t take VC money in the first place. We also dig into what makes a CPG brand “durable,” why Gen Z is increasingly skeptical of private equity, and whether AI can ever replicate intuition. 👀 Let’s go!

The breakdown:

0:00 - Intro + Tristan’s background and new role3:42 - Building Bevel: from personal problem to national brand6:35 - The P&G acquisition and life after11:45 - Launching Collab Holdings20:27 - What makes a durable CPG brand27:48 - Good brands, bad capital, and the true cost of VC money35:16 - Heirloom Leathercraft and bringing fine handcraft back to America42:30 - Outro

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to the Express Checkout podcast wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!This week, we're sitting down with Aaron Butterworth, Senior Specialist in Product Development at Häagen-Dazs, who's been developing flavors for the brand for over 20 years!She walks us through the entire journey of making ice cream for a massive brand, from brief to shelf—including the "ice cream charcuterie" brainstorming process (as dreamy as it sounds), why some great flavor ideas can never survive a factory, and how Häagen-Dazs's commitment to a clean label shapes everything about the product.Plus, we're tasting two new flavors on air (!!!!), getting the inside story on Häagen-Dazs's discontinued non-dairy line, and learning how the brand thinks about trends.

The breakdown:0:00 - Intro + Aaron’s role at Häagen-Dazs3:01 - The flavor development process7:44 - How to make ice cream factory-friendly12:00 - “Overrun” and what’s not in the ice cream16:00 - Where flavor ideas come from23:34 - The science of texture25:14 - Behind the (discontinued) non-dairy experiment35:31 - Tasting our fave new flavor + what’s next

PS. If you’re in NYC and interested in attending our seasonal trends event on 10/6, you can request to join us here!!! :)

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to the Express Checkout podcast wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!

This week, we’re catching up on a bunch of launches from the past few weeks, from David Protein’s new ready-to-drink milkshake, to the Liquid Death’s founder’s new brand and Beyond Meat’s latest (bizarre) attempt to regain relevancy.

Plus, we’re getting into what “peak function” looks like, why “supplements for your supplements” might be the next big thing, and more.

Let’s get into it →

The Breakdown

0:00 - What we’ve been loving lately

4:55 - David Protein milkshakes and $250M raise

10:43 - Liquid Death’s founder’s new business

17:36 - Bero’s NA beer goes premium in glass

22:05 - Girl Scout Cookies x BARK and Partake

25:53 - Alec’s Ice Cream x Purely Elizabeth

29:19 - Beyond Meat’s bizarre new direction

38:46 - Folgers goes functional

43:38 - Optimum Nutrition’s NA protein beer

46:17 - Supplements for your supplements

PS. If you’re in NYC and interested in attending our seasonal trends event on 10/6, you can request to join us here :)

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to the Express Checkout podcast wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

This week on the pod, we’re thrilled to be joined by Adam Terry, CEO and co-founder of Cantrip and On the Brightside—and absolute WEALTH of knowledge on all things THC regulation and functional beverages.

Adam walks us through his journey in the cannabis beverage industry and pivot into a new kind of functional drink. He explains why the low-dose THC hypothesis didn’t pan out, the science behind the new functional ingredient he’s betting on, and the tricky retail landscape of functional beverages.

This is a great follow-up episode to our interview with Jake Bullock, CEO and co-founder of Cann—offering some updates and rare insights into the ever-changing THC regulatory environment!

The breakdown

0:00 - Intro and Adam Terry’s background

1:56 - The low-dose THC hypothesis

6:13 - The hemp ban and birth of On the Brightside

7:14 - What is kanna?

9:09 - Educating consumers on an unknown ingredient

13:20 - Retail strategy: soda, function & shelf placement

19:55 - Kanna vs. other functional ingredients

24:01 - The science: why kanna is more pro-social than THC

27:50 - Rethinking the functional beverage category

37:22 - The future of Cantrip & hemp ban outlook

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to the Express Checkout podcast wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!

This week, we’re sitting down with Arthur Leopold, CEO and co-founder of Agentio, the buying platform for creator media. We dive into how creator marketing has evolved beyond the old influencer model and why most digital attention now lives with creator content (yet there’s still a spend gap). We also get into the non-obvious creator matches that drive real results—like how a lobster fisherman became a top performer for Grüns—and why the best brands treat creators as a channel, not a one-off campaign. If you want to learn more about Agentio click below!

Book a demo today!!

Let’s get into it!

The Breakdown

0:00 - What is Agentio?

2:54 - What is creator marketing?

4:53 - Influencer vs creator

6:59 - Making content that resonates

8:13 - CPG brand success stories

11:06 - The creator spend gap

16:19 - Activating creators the right way

18:52 - Creator partnership formats

23:18 - The future of creator marketing

27:10 - Creators building their own brands

28:27 - Outro

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to Express Checkout wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!

This week, we’re talking about AG1’s entrance in the greens gummy space, the decaf coffee movement, and why Alex Cooper’s beverage brand couldn’t make it. Plus, we’re getting into the headlines on Liquid Death’s weirdest new collabs, Goldfish going gluten-free, Purely Elizabeth’s acquisition and so much more.

Stick around to the end for a fascinating interview with Jacques Spitzer, founder and CEO of Raindrop Agency—the creative agency behind brands like Grüns, Native, Poopourri, Magic Spoon, and so many more. We get into what it means to be an “aspirational” brand, and how the best brands are thinking about creative content.

Let's get into it!

The Breakdown

0:00 - What we’re been obsessing over

5:27 - AG1 enters the gummy game

11:32 - The decaf coffee movement is here

20:49 - Alex Cooper’s Unwell Beverage shuts down

28:00 - Liquid Death’s wildest stunts yet?

33:40 - Goldfish finally goes gluten-free

36:10 - Zero-sugar candy from David Protein’s founder

41:00 - Ferrero acquires Purely Elizabeth

46:04 - Interview with Jacques Spitzer of Raindrop Agency

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to Express Checkout wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Express Checkout Podcast!

This week we’re exploring sexual wellness's leap into mainstream beauty retail with plusOne launching at Ulta, and how it differs from Sephora’s wellness strategy.

Check out our full deep dive on sexual wellness here!

Then, we dig into the laundry care category's unexpected glow-up, K-beauty's big Sephora takeover via Olive Young, the protein soda showdown, and how apple is quickly becoming the new pumpkin spice.

Let's get into it!

The Breakdown

00:00 Intro

07:43 Ulta launches sexual wellness with plusOne

15:31 The luxe laundry care boom

28:04 K-beauty comes to Sephora via Olive Young

32:02 Protein soda wars

44:30 Apple is the new pumpkin spice

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to Express Checkout wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of Express Checkout (surprise! new name)!!

This week, we sit down with Troy Bonde, Co-Founder of Sauz, the brand that's rewriting the rules of the $10 billion tomato sauce category. Troy takes us through his wild journey—from a COVID-era hand sanitizer dropshipping hustle to building Sauz into a nationwide brand at Target and Sprouts, backed by $22 million in funding.

We dig into how Sauz found its brand moat, the story behind the name, their viral "pimping Troy out" social campaign, the new Basic Basil marinara launch, and what's next for the brand.

Let’s get into it!

The breakdown:

0:00 - Intro

0:36 - Introducing Troy

1:08 - From hand sanitizer to pasta sauce

5:35 - Learning CPG through angel investing

7:47 - Breaking category norms

11:33 - The story behind the name “Sauz”

14:37 - The California Naturals tomato lip balm collab

19:16 - Launching Basic Basil marinara

24:44 - Sauz’s viral social media strategy

29:31 - Measuring repeat purchase and loyalty

31:25 - Scaling distribution: Target, Erewhon, and beyond

39:17 - Closing thoughts

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to Express Checkout wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Curious Consumer! This week we dive into coconut water's surprising resurgence—why a 2010 darling is suddenly back in the spotlight and what brands are doing to capitalize on it. Check out our full deep dive on coconut water here!

Then, we dig into how the PB&J wars are heating up, a new squeezy peanut butter, Smash Foods’ fresh $18M raise, and the truth about Gen Z drinking habits. Let's get into it!The Breakdown

00:00 Intro

02:12 Why coconut water is the hottest bev right now

14:29 The PB&J wars heat up

22:14 Squeezy PB launches in US

24:42 $18M for jam

28:11 Gen Z is indeed drinking again

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

🗣️ Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!