Church buildings are everywhere, but most of their square footage sits unused most of the week. That’s not just a real estate problem, it’s a neighborhood problem and a massive opportunity hiding in plain sight. I sit down with Emmanuel Brown, co-founder of ChurchSpace, to explore how underutilized church real estate can become something bigger than rentals: local infrastructure that creates jobs and makes daily life easier.

Emmanuel shares how ChurchSpace began as a marketplace model people dubbed “the Airbnb for churches,” helping churches rent kitchens, auditoriums, and offices for short-term use. Then came a key insight: the real value isn’t only empty space, it’s proximity. Churches are already embedded close to where people live, which makes them powerful anchors for micro-fulfillment, last-mile logistics, and same-day delivery. We talk through what it looks like when a fellowship hall becomes a delivery hub, and how employing congregants can turn logistics into meaningful local work.

We also get practical about startup financing and what it really takes to raise venture capital as a first-time founder. Emmanuel breaks down reverse-engineering milestones, why SAFE notes are common early on, how pitch competitions and the A16Z accelerator helped unlock momentum, and what “investor psychology” has to do with getting to a yes. If you care about community impact, church innovation, venture funding, or last-mile delivery strategy, you’ll come away with a clearer map and plenty to think about.

Subscribe, share this with a founder or faith leader who needs it, and leave a review if the conversation helps you see church real estate and neighborhood infrastructure in a new way.

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Empty shelves during the pandemic created a brutal test for every CPG operator: could you find capacity, move fast, and still deliver quality? We talk with Hima Pal, co-founder of American Food Solutions, about the moment a Sam’s Club buyer called in a panic and how that single demand for speed helped spark a private label business that now runs massive programs across salty snacks and more.

We dig into AFS’s “broker plus model” and why it works. Hima breaks down what it means to own innovation, packaging, specs, quality, and the customer relationship while coordinating a co-packer network and carrying the operational risk. Then we get specific about cash conversion cycles, retailer terms, and why thin margins force a different financing mindset. If you have ever wondered when factoring helps and when it quietly destroys profitability, this conversation gets honest fast.

The most powerful part is the human side: building a company with a deeply aligned partner, learning from the debt spiral of a first brand, and treating payroll and employee stability as a non-negotiable responsibility. We also cover the shift toward in-house manufacturing after acquiring a Texas facility, how private label is pushing premium quality at 25% to 40% below branded pricing, and how they manage inflation with constant re-quoting and transparency.

If you care about entrepreneurship, private label, manufacturing, and capital-efficient growth, subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

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Your spice cabinet is probably lying to you and your financing offers might be too. Keith Kohler sits down with Ori Zohar, co-founder and co-CEO of Burlap and Barrel, to trace a 10-year path from packing spices in a Queens living room to building a nationally known single origin spice company with a real social enterprise backbone. We talk about what “single origin” actually means in spices, why supply chain transparency is still rare in this corner of the food industry, and how direct relationships with farmers can raise quality while creating mutual long-term value. 

We also get brutally practical about small business finance and CPG cash flow. Ori shares the bootstrap reality of reinvesting instead of paying yourself, the moment minimum wage feels like a milestone, and why they chose profitability over venture capital even after going through Techstars. We unpack the working capital challenge of paying farmers months before revenue shows up, how a bank line of credit can match seasonal inventory needs, and why factoring and “fee-based” cash advances can quietly behave like high APR debt that wipes out margin. If you run an e-commerce brand, the retention lessons land too: spices are low-frequency purchases, so the team expands breadth with salts, blends, and pantry products to keep customers coming back. 

Then the story gets bigger than food. Ori explains Burlap and Barrel’s public stance on tariffs, filing legal briefs, and joining litigation as a small business voice, plus what that experience teaches about risk, joy, and building for the long term. If you care about ethical sourcing, direct trade, bootstrapping, and smarter financing decisions, this conversation delivers. Subscribe, share with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about funding growth.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

Buckwheat in chocolate sounds like a weird idea until you hear the story behind it. I’m joined by Tatyana Jones, founder of Defy Snacks, who explains how she turned a “misfit” ingredient into a better-for-you snacking brand and a real early-stage CPG company with a clear financing path.

We dig into the leap from corporate brand building to founder life, including the parts nobody misses: politics, managing up, and spending more time getting approvals than building. Tatyana shares why she started Defy as a side hustle, how she stayed thoughtful about non-compete constraints, and what it felt like to go from a $100M budget world to fighting for every dollar as a bootstrapped founder.

Then we get tactical on startup funding and growth. You’ll hear how she prioritized inventory and brand foundations (including trademarks), found “free” marketing through founder communities, and used pitch competitions for far more than prize money. We also unpack how to work with high-caliber advisors in a cash-starved business, why standard agreements matter, and what she’s learning while raising a $1M SAFE round to fund product Gen 2, retail expansion, and focused DTC growth.

If you’re building a consumer packaged goods brand, thinking about fundraising, or trying to stand out in a crowded snack aisle, this one is packed with practical insight. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest CPG financing question.

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Billions were raised “overnight” during the ICO era and it exposed a hard truth: when technology moves faster than securities law, founders and investors both get burned. That collision is where Herwig “Happy” Koenigs built his edge, first by learning the compliance rules that govern private fundraising and then by helping shape what compliant tokenization can look like as finance moves on chain.

We walk through Herwig’s path from the University of Miami Launchpad to co-founding InvestReady, a RegTech platform for accredited investor verification. Along the way, he breaks down what “accredited” actually means, why the SEC designed guardrails for private markets, and how founders can structure early progress without blowing up their burn. You’ll hear how a modest angel raise, tight co-founder alignment, and a deliberately lean “zombie strategy” helped InvestReady survive long enough to expand into KYC, AML, and on-chain identity.

From there, we jump into Bitcoin, Ethereum, smart contracts, and the ICO boom that convinced Herwig tokenization was bigger than a trend. He shares the story of advising one of the early legal security token offerings and then building Security Token Market (STM) with a Bloomberg-style vision for tokenized asset data, research, and community. We also get specific about startup financing mechanics: family office capital, preferred shares, board seats, Series A dynamics, and how timing can matter as much as product.

If you’re building in fintech, blockchain, tokenization, or just trying to raise smart money without losing control, you’ll come away with clearer language, sharper questions, and real founder lessons. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

Taking “Florida” off a Florida citrus label sounds like a branding tweak until you live it. Matt McLean, founder of Uncle Matt’s Organics and a fourth-generation citrus grower, walks us through the real cost of building an organic orange juice company when nature, cash flow, and supply chains refuse to cooperate. From the early days of learning juice quality through an import-export brokerage to launching a perishable CPG product with short shelf life and tight working capital, Matt shares what it actually takes to survive the cash conversion cycle.

We dig into what “organic” means on the farm, why European demand tipped him off early, and how he financed growth with a mix of scrappy self-funding, a small family loan, and eventually a borrowing-base line of credit. Then the story turns: Publix becomes a breakthrough, the business expands into fresh organic citrus, and private equity helps professionalize operations with KPIs, board discipline, and longer-term planning.

The biggest curveball is citrus greening, an industry-wide crisis that forces a global sourcing pivot across Mexico, Texas, California, and beyond. Matt also tells the wild second act: selling the company to Dean Foods, facing their bankruptcy as COVID hits, and choosing to buy the brand back through a one and final sealed bid, then rebuilding with aligned investors, Farm Credit financing, and a new Texas manufacturing footprint that unlocks faster innovation in teas, lemonades, and more.

If you like founder stories with real numbers, hard trade-offs, and practical financing lessons, subscribe, share this with a builder friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

A snack brand can do everything “right” and still get rocked by one thing going wrong at the wrong time. We sit down with Stephanie from OMG Pretzels to unpack how a family garlic pretzel recipe grew from two pans in her mom’s kitchen into a premium seasoned sourdough pretzel nuggets business selling through local retailers, distributors, and grocery accounts, and what it really takes to keep going when operations get messy.

We trace the build step-by-step: early bootstrapping with credit cards, landing that first crucial shelf space, moving into commercial kitchens, and expanding through a regional distributor while also growing wholesale with Faire and testing Amazon. Stephanie explains why packaging decisions matter in grocery retail, how premium pricing collides with legacy snack brands, and how co-packer selection can make or break your supply chain.

Then we get into the financing stack behind the growth: a bank line of credit that increases with revenue, an SBA term loan used to support larger production runs and expansion, plus pandemic-era EIDL and PPP support. Stephanie also shares what happened when a co-packer leadership change triggered long out-of-stocks and prepay terms, and how she rebuilt momentum with a new women-owned co-packer, tighter SKU focus, lower cost of goods, and a pivot toward in-person events and festivals for faster cash flow and brand awareness.

If you’re building a CPG brand, navigating working capital, or evaluating co-packers and retail readiness, this conversation is packed with hard-earned lessons. Subscribe for more founder financing stories, share this with a CPG friend, and leave a review with your biggest scaling challenge.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

Nobody tells you hormone decline can start in your early 30s or that it can change your face, your sleep, your weight, and even your confidence at work. We sit down with Lorrie King, founder of Caire Beauty, for a candid talk that connects menopause education to skincare science and the realities of building a consumer brand with limited capital. 

We unpack why so many “anti-aging” promises miss the root cause, how perimenopause and menopause show up through dozens of symptoms, and why women often feel dismissed or confused when medical training and public conversation lag behind lived experience. Lorrie shares what finally made the pattern click for her, the resources she trusts, and why healthier skin starts with telling the truth about what’s happening inside the body. 

Then we move into the money: discovery versus distribution, retail and marketplace pay-to-play fees, why QVC beauty can run on consignment purchase orders, and what it really costs to launch in beauty from packaging minimums to clinical testing. Along the way, we talk founder mindset, time boundaries, SEO, Google ads, and the constant balancing act of growth versus capital preservation. 

If you’re building a CPG brand, navigating menopause skincare, or simply trying to understand what hormone decline means for everyday life, you’ll leave with clearer language, sharper strategy, and a few hard-earned lessons about financing. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

Organic coffee wasn’t a trend when Jim Cannell started roasting it. It was a belief and a bet, made years before most shoppers could even explain what “certified organic” meant. I’m joined by Jim from Jim’s Organic Coffee as we trace the real origin story: starting in the early natural foods trade, educating buyers who assumed all coffee was organic, and building demand store by store until the brand grew into a semi-national footprint.

We get specific about the money side, because coffee is a working-capital business. Jim breaks down how vendor terms and net-30 purchasing helped him manage the cash conversion cycle when every bean is imported, and why a traditional bank line of credit only makes sense once inventory turns quickly. He also shares how a merger early in his career created the nest egg that helped launch Jim’s Organic Coffee in 1996, plus how bank financing supported equipment purchases so the company could roast in-house rather than rely on co-packing.

From there, we talk about scaling with intent: expanding from one unit to five, shifting from rent to real estate ownership, and growing beyond grocery into foodservice accounts like cafes, bakeries, and hotels where service, calibration, and consistency matter. We also walk through volatility, including COVID demand shifts, tariff pressure, and serious commodity price spikes, plus the hard-won lessons from 2008 that pushed tighter terms, smarter SKU choices, and more disciplined operations.

If you care about entrepreneurship, CPG financing, organic food, or how a mission-led coffee roaster survives three decades of swings, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

Cottage cheese ice cream sounds like a dare until you hear how Smearcase made it taste great, look shelf-ready, and sell like a real brand. Keith sits down with founders Joe and Drew to unpack the full arc: a marathon-training craving for a healthier dessert becomes “Froco,” a high-protein frozen treat built around casein and a surprisingly powerful ingredient choice, collagen, to support creaminess without leaning on a long list of gums and stabilizers.

We also get specific about what most founders actually need: a financing and execution plan that matches reality. Joe and Drew share how they bootstrapped product development, kept spend tight, and pushed for speed over perfection by getting an MVP into market before overbuilding the logo, website, or “perfect” brand world. They walk through early capital decisions, including paid-in capital, zero-interest credit cards, and the moment they felt ready to open a friends-and-family round using SAFE notes, an FAQ, and honest talk about risk and portfolio fit.

From there, the conversation expands into practical CPG funding and growth levers: investor update emails as a duty and a network engine, the value of being visible and asking for help, and how non-dilutive funding can matter just as much as equity. Drew and Joe also talk next-step tools like SBA loans, AR factoring, PO financing, private credit, and strategic partnerships, plus what they’re most proud of as the business reaches more doors.

If you’re building a CPG startup or thinking about retail distribution, startup funding, and working capital, you’ll walk away with a clearer playbook and a stronger founder mindset. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about financing your next stage.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/