Shelf Help: The Tactical CPG Podcast

On this episode, we're joined by Adam Brown, Founder & President of Sircle Media - the go-to social media agency for CPG brands. Adam has been in and around digital since 1999, starting Sircle in 2012 after a decade running sales and marketing in the mortgage industry.

Adam walks through what it takes for social to impact retail velocity. One brand told him: move 10,000 units at Walmart and I do not care what it costs. He breaks down how his team proves that lift with control regions, geofencing and hyperlocal creator support, and why the Costco parking lot video every creative director hates keeps beating the polished stuff.

He also shares the seeding math most founders never hear, one or two posts out of ten when you gift cold, and the college campus playbook he would run instead.

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Episode Highlights:

💡 The light bulb moment behind Sircle Media
💸 Pricing an agency at the cost of one hire
⚠️ The messy middle and the toughest year in CPG in 14 years
✂️ Why a 10% haircut beats cutting a partner
🔀 Social as a horizontal, not a vertical
📱 Two primary platforms, two secondary
🛒 What it takes for social to move retail velocity
📸 Scrappy UGC versus studio content
🎓 The college campus playbook for seeding
💳 The hot take that it is all paid now
🛍️ TikTok Shop and who it actually fits
💬 Community management as the most common miss
🔮 Trends: a return to fundamentals

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:05 – The light bulb moment behind Sircle Media
03:19 – Pricing an agency at the cost of one hire
04:54 – When a brand is ready for an agency
06:19 – The messy middle and the toughest year in CPG
07:47 – The 10% haircut across partners
09:37 – Social as a horizontal, not a vertical
11:59 – Two primary platforms, two secondary
14:56 – Making social drive retail velocity
18:34 – UGC versus studio when money is tight
20:00 – The college campus playbook
22:42 – Building for constant algorithm change
25:26 – The hot take that it is all paid
27:56 – TikTok Shop and who it actually fits
31:23 – Vetting influencers and creators
34:53 – Why most seeding programs flop
37:52 – Community management as table stakes
39:56 – Trends: a return to fundamentals

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Links:

Sircle Media – https://www.sircle.me/
Follow Adam Brown on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjbrown23/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

Looking to dominate the cognitive health space? Upgrade your formula with Cognizin. It’s the branded, clinically backed citicoline trusted by top innovators in supplements, foods, and beverages. Differentiate your brand today at Cognizin.com.

On this episode, we're joined by Eric Schnell, Founder of BeyondBrands - the 40-plus partner operating group that works as a fractional management team for early stage CPG brands. Eric co-founded Steaz in 2002 and has since co-founded or helped launch Good Catch, GoodSAM, Cool Beans, and Free Bird.

Eric breaks down the Quintuple Bottom Line model the firm runs on and the one test every brand they co-found has to pass: can it sit in front of any buyer and credibly claim it will be a category captain?

We get into the Good Catch story, from the seafood thesis they wrote with the Good Food Institute to extrusion R&D with help from friends at Beyond Meat, a Whole Foods launch, roughly $6 million in revenue, and a full exit inside three and a half years. Eric also walks through GoodSAM, where the team built direct trade relationships with regenerative organic farmers in Colombia and brought Thrive Market onto the cap table weeks before COVID shut down retail.

We also spend time talking about why most brands die from running out of capital rather than product fit, what a believable five-year plan shows an investor, the 17 seconds a shopper spends scanning a cooler door, and how freight and geography quietly eat a P&L.

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Episode Highlights:

🫖 Selling $30 vitamins before selling $4 organic tea
🤝 The lawyer question that turned a favor into a firm
🌱 The Quintuple Bottom Line: passion, purpose, people, planet, prosperity
🐟 Why seafood, not meat, was the plant-based white space
🏆 The category captain test every new brand has to pass
🌎 Direct trade vs fair trade with farmers in Colombia
🛒 Putting Thrive Market on the cap table right before COVID
💸 Why most brands die in year one (it is capital, not product)
⏱️ The 17-second shelf window and the rainbow effect
📦 Why packaging gets fixed two or three times in year one
📈 56 equity positions and the ESOP model behind them
🧮 What a fundable five-year plan actually shows
🚚 Freight and geography, the black hole in the middle of the P&L

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:06 – From $30 vitamins to $4 organic tea
02:19 – Exiting Steaz and choosing the next chapter
03:32 – The lawyer question that created BeyondBrands
04:45 – Backing pre-revenue founders nobody else would touch
06:34 – The Quintuple Bottom Line business model
08:22 – How BeyondBrands decides what to co-found
09:11 – The plant-based seafood thesis behind Good Catch
10:23 – Building flaky plant-based tuna from legumes
11:35 – Whole Foods, $6M, and a fast exit
12:48 – The category captain test
14:49 – GoodSAM, regenerative organic, and direct trade
18:38 – Thrive Market on the cap table before COVID
20:53 – Why most early brands run out of capital
24:35 – The 17-second shelf window and the rainbow effect
26:53 – 56 equity positions and the ESOP model
30:55 – What a fundable five-year plan looks like
34:37 – Freight, geography, and the P&L black hole

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Links:

BeyondBrands – https://beyondbrands.org/
Follow Eric on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-schnell-b133a425/
BeyondBrands on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyondbrands/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

Looking to dominate the cognitive health space? Upgrade your formula with Cognizin. It’s the branded, clinically backed citicoline trusted by top innovators in supplements, foods, and beverages. Differentiate your brand today at Cognizin.com.

On this episode, we're joined by Keith Bearden, CEO of Alter Eco, No Cow and Good Karma - the Trek One Capital portfolio spanning organic Swiss-made chocolate, plant-based protein bars and flax milk. Keith previously led Yogi Tea's international division, served as CEO of Lifebrands US and American Botanicals, and spent 15 years at Dow Chemical.

Keith walks through how he went from Alter Eco board member to buyer, flying to Houston to pitch his path-to-profitability plan to Trek One Capital and closing on December 22, 2023. He breaks down the three levers behind a profitable first quarter of 2024: cutting headcount and outsourcing, moving the warehouse from Oakland to Columbus, Ohio (saving over $1M a year and roughly 20 days of lead time), and cutting trade spend from about 25% of sales to 19%.

We get into managing a cocoa market that more than tripled after the deal closed, a 39% tariff on Swiss imports, and Keith's bet to take a 12% price increase while competitors took 30 to 40%. We also dig into SKU rationalization without losing shelf space and why Alter Eco doesn't chase trends.

Keith also shares how a moment on a granola production floor in Canada became Oat Clusters, why his CMO pushed "delicious" over "organic" and moved "Made in Switzerland" to the front of pack, and how Alter Eco hit 1,400 Publix doors on day one by putting inventory on a plane.

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Episode Highlights:

🍫 Alter Eco's origin and "taste is the price of admission"
🤝 From board seat to buyer: the Houston lunch that closed the deal
✂️ Turnaround lever one: headcount, outsourced QA and back office
🚚 Moving the warehouse from Oakland to Columbus, Ohio
💸 Cutting trade spend on truffles that saw no incremental lift
🔄 SKU rationalization and proactive swaps to protect shelf space
🌱 Pre-bought beans and loyal farmers through the cocoa spike
🧾 Eating a 39% tariff on Swiss-made chocolate in 2025
🏷️ The 12% price increase bet when competitors took 30 to 40%
✈️ From granola production floor to airport shelves: Oat Clusters
🇨🇭 Why "delicious" beat "organic" and put a Swiss logo on the front of pack
🛒 Landing 1,400 Publix doors on day one (and air-freighting inventory to do it)
🔮 GLP-1 tailwinds and why No Cow is built for that shopper

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:04 – Alter Eco's origin and three core principles
03:36 – Running three brands as one CEO
06:30 – From board member to buyer
08:54 – Turnaround lever one: headcount and outsourcing
10:20 – Moving the warehouse to Columbus, Ohio
11:20 – Cutting trade spend that wasn't driving lift
12:36 – SKU rationalization without losing shelf space
14:16 – Hedging against cocoa's price spike
16:25 – Absorbing a 39% tariff on Swiss imports
19:56 – The 12% price increase bet
22:25 – From natural into conventional grocery
23:33 – Product roadmap and not chasing trends
26:44 – Granola and the Oat Clusters origin story
29:50 – The say-do gap and why "delicious" won
32:18 – Practical Magic 2 and brand collaborations
33:27 – Scaling doors and landing 1,400 at Publix
36:02 – No Cow, GLP-1 and what Keith's watching

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Links:

Alter Eco - https://www.alterecofoods.com/
No Cow - https://www.nocow.com/
Good Karma - https://www.goodkarmafoods.com/
Follow Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-bearden-736821/
Follow me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

Looking to dominate the cognitive health space? Upgrade your formula with Cognizin. It’s the branded, clinically backed citicoline trusted by top innovators in supplements, foods, and beverages. Differentiate your brand today at Cognizin.com.

On this episode, we're joined by Akash Raju, Co-founder & CEO of Glimpse - the AI platform that automates deductions, revenue recovery, and cash application for CPG brands selling into retail. 

Akash and his two Purdue classmates started Glimpse in 2020 as an Airbnb product placement business before hard pivoting into retail finance in 2024.

Akash breaks down the split between trade and non-trade, why brands hand back 20 to 30 percent of their margin to retailers, and why one to two percent of top line revenue gets written off as invalid whether you are doing $10 million or a billion. We get into what actually breaks scaling from $20 million to $200 million, and what a finance leader should triage in their first 90 days.

Akash explains why the industry missed the last decade of enterprise software entirely, why so many brands are stuck in pilot purgatory, and why he thinks real transformation starts at the data layer rather than the workflow layer.

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Episode Highlights:

🏠 Placing CPG products inside luxury Airbnbs
🔄 Walking away from a seven-figure business to hard pivot
🗣️ 500 brand conversations across 15 months of pivot hell
📉 Why 20 to 30 percent of margin goes to retail deductions
⚖️ Trade vs non-trade and where invalid claims hide
🏪 Why mass retailers and distributors break differently
🧾 A finance leader's first 90 days on a messy deduction book
🎯 The 4x ROI pilot and the crawl, walk, run approach
🖥️ Why CPG missed the last decade of enterprise software
🤖 Getting out of pilot purgatory with measurable ROI
🧱 Why AI transformation starts at the data layer
📦 The shipping shortage dispute, line by line
🔍 Brands he's watching (BERO, Leisure Hydration, Create)

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:10 – Purdue, Airbnbs, and the first business
03:01 – The hard pivot and 15 months in pivot hell
05:03 – Why deductions became the wedge
05:59 – The power imbalance between brands and retailers
08:42 – How the deduction profile changes as brands scale
09:30 – Trade vs non-trade deductions
11:42 – Concentrated retailers or death by a thousand cuts
13:44 – A finance leader's first 90 days
16:01 – The 4x ROI pilot and crawl, walk, run
17:23 – Why CPG missed the last enterprise software wave
21:04 – Getting out of pilot purgatory
24:56 – What AI transformation actually requires
27:43 – What breaks between $20M and $200M
30:15 – The shipping shortage deduction, line by line
34:52 – Trustworthy AI, human in the loop, build vs buy
37:33 – Faster, better, cheaper and the $40 deduction
39:45 – Brands he's watching and Martha Stewart's old test kitchen

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Links:

Glimpse – https://www.tryglimpse.com/
Follow Akash on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-raju/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

Looking to dominate the cognitive health space? Upgrade your formula with Cognizin. It’s the branded, clinically backed citicoline trusted by top innovators in supplements, foods, and beverages. Differentiate your brand today at Cognizin.com.

On this episode, we're joined by Simon Solis-Cohen, Founder of Huxley - the Minneapolis-based plant-powered energy refresher made with real fruit juice and caffeine from upcycled cascara superfruit. Simon is a chef by training who ran a wine marketing agency for years before selling it and going all in on Huxley.

We dive into the pivots that got the brand here, starting with the fact that Huxley launched as a coffee company. Simon breaks down why he left the coffee behind when Huxley debuted at Expo West, and how the team went from idea to a finished can in 130 days.

A big part of the conversation focuses on cascara, the upcycled coffee cherry husk that supplies Huxley's 90 milligrams of caffeine. Simon walks through why synthetic caffeine tastes bitter, why that bitterness pushes most energy brands into heavy sugar or sucralose, and why real fruit juice had to be the second ingredient in every can.

We also get into the packaging story. A conventional buyer told Simon his award-winning national parks illustrations would cap Huxley at hobby scale, and he rebranded a year in rather than wait. Simon shares what that unlocked at Sprouts, where Huxley now ranks number three in velocity among nationwide energy brands, plus the new Kroger natural and organic end cap and the AI tools he built to kill hours of distributor accounting every week.

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Episode Highlights:

☕ Starting as a coffee company and killing it fast
⏱️ Idea to finished can in 130 days
🍒 Why cascara superfruit beats synthetic caffeine
♻️ The landfill math behind coffee cherry waste
🧪 How bitterness forces energy brands into sugar
⚡ Dosing at 90 milligrams and why that number
🥭 Making real fruit juice the second ingredient
🎨 The national parks cans and the alliteration
🛒 The buyer who said the design capped them at hobby scale
📦 Rebranding at year one instead of waiting it out
💸 Seed strapping and saying no to retailers
📈 Hitting number three velocity at Sprouts
🤖 Automating distributor remittances with AI

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:52 – Why Huxley is an energy refresher, not an energy drink
03:31 – Idea to finished can in 130 days
05:02 – The pivot away from coffee
06:58 – Dropping the coffee line at Expo West
08:34 – Choosing cascara over synthetic caffeine
09:45 – What Bai proved about coffee fruit
12:11 – The landfill problem cascara solves
15:03 – Why bitter caffeine forces brands into sugar
16:59 – Dosing at 90 milligrams
17:56 – Real fruit juice as the second ingredient
20:39 – Building the V1 brand identity
24:07 – The buyer who rejected the packaging
26:52 – Why rebrand at year one instead of waiting
29:45 – Seed strapping and saying no to retailers
32:01 – Going nationwide with Sprouts
35:48 – The Kroger natural and organic end cap
38:10 – Automating distributor remittances with AI

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Links:

Huxley – https://drinkhuxley.com/
Follow Simon on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-solis-cohen/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we're joined by Belle Robinson, Founder of ROXII Supercube - the functional wellness brand putting superfoods, collagen and electrolytes into nutrient-infused ice cubes that melt into whatever you're drinking. 

Belle is a certified nutritional therapist who spent years freezing superfoods into her own water before turning that habit into a four SKU lineup now sitting in Sprouts and Wegmans.

We dive into why frozen was the right format for a functional product and what it cost to get there. Belle breaks down the realities of a cold chain business, why ROXII went straight to retail instead of building a D2C audience first, and what that decision took away in consumer learning.

Belle walks through the formulation process across nutrition, taste and format, and why narrowing to four functions was the hardest part of development. We get into pricing at just under $3 a cube in Sprouts against $5 immunity shots, everyday low price at Wegmans, and the question every single buyer asks in every pitch about where a functional ice cube actually belongs in the store.

We also cover Expo West, how Belle turns skeptical buyers into believers, the brand ambassador and pop-up program driving trial around Sprouts stores, and what it takes to run a US brand from London while staying bootstrapped.

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Episode Highlights:

🧊 Turning a messy powder routine into a frozen cube
❄️ Why frozen locks in nutrients better than fresh
🚫 The D2C learning curve ROXII skipped by going straight to retail
🧪 Formulating across nutrition, taste and format
📦 The Expo West buyer who thought it was a smoothie cube
✏️ Where the ROXII name came from (on the rocks)
💸 Pricing a cube against $5 immunity shots
🛒 Finding a home in the frozen wellness set
🤝 Turning skeptical buyers into believers
🧭 Merchandising frozen around occasions instead of formats
📈 Landing Sprouts and Wegmans nationally
🚶 Brand ambassadors and pop-ups driving trial
🔮 Brands and trends Belle is watching

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:48 – Origin story
01:41 – Why frozen and what it does for nutrients
03:10 – The trade-offs of frozen and skipping D2C
04:11 – Advice for launching a new product format
05:38 – Formulation and R&D
07:47 – Building the brand identity
08:53 – The Expo West buyer who thought it was a smoothie cube
09:30 – Where the ROXII name came from
10:48 – Pricing against shots, powders and RTDs
11:46 – Where ROXII sits in the frozen set
13:30 – Turning skeptical buyers into believers
15:39 – Redesigning the frozen aisle around occasions
16:43 – Landing Sprouts and Wegmans
18:05 – Driving velocity with ambassadors and pop-ups
19:26 – Running a US brand from London
20:58 – Bootstrapping and the fundraising question
21:31 – Brands and trends Belle is watching

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Links:

ROXII Supercube – https://roxiisupercube.com/
Follow Belle on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/belle-robinson-672a59261/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we're joined by Jasen Urena, Vice President at NestFresh, the humane egg brand that just became the first national brand in the US to move its entire retail lineup to in-ovo sexed Humanely Hatched eggs. 

Jasen has spent 20 years with the company across marketing, sales, and operations. He breaks down what in-ovo sexing actually is, why only about 10% of Americans know what happens to male chicks at the hatchery, and how NestFresh brought AAT's Cheggy technology over from Europe and scaled it with Hy-Line North America. Accuracy is now running above 97% in live production, and NestFresh did not raise a single retailer price to pay for the transition.

We get into the economics, the certification stack behind the claims, and why Jasen refuses to chase the easiest certifier. He also walks through the terminology problem in the egg aisle, why radical transparency beats polished marketing, and how NestFresh moves velocity with packaging, shelf tags, carton inserts, and TPRs when most retailers will not let you touch the set.

We also dig into the 2024 packaging redesign, the six-month social teaser campaign that brought shoppers along with it, and the unusual asset-only structure behind the New Barn Organics acquisition.

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Episode Highlights:

🥚 The 1976 founding story and 50 years of the business
🐥 What in-ovo sexing actually is and why it matters
🌍 Bringing Cheggy over from Europe and scaling it for the US
📈 Accuracy above 97% in live production
🤝 The partner stack: AAT, Hy-Line, HFAC, ASPCA, Innovate Animal Ag
💸 Why NestFresh held retailer pricing flat through the transition
🔁 Why in-ovo sexing follows the cage-free playbook
🏷️ The terminology problem in the egg aisle
🔍 Radical transparency as an education strategy
✅ Not all certifiers are equal (and why ROA took 18 months)
🛒 In-store levers when retailers will not let you touch the set
🎨 The 2024 redesign and the six-month social teaser rollout
🔭 Brands and trends Jasen is watching

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:54 – NestFresh origin story and the 1976 founding
03:19 – Consolidation and the small family farm model
04:29 – What in-ovo sexing actually is
06:03 – Why male chicks get culled on day one
07:23 – The hardest part of scaling the technology
09:02 – The surprise: accuracy above 97%
09:44 – AAT, Cheggy, and Hy-Line North America
10:30 – The economics of in-ovo sexing
11:59 – The first domino and the cage-free parallel
13:15 – Why retailer prices did not go up
14:26 – Consumer confusion in the egg aisle
17:29 – Radical transparency as an education strategy
18:57 – Choosing certifiers and the Humanely Hatched trademark
23:32 – In-store strategy and shelf levers
26:00 – Promoting without eroding premium
27:00 – The 2024 packaging redesign
31:51 – Inside the New Barn Organics acquisition
36:14 – Brands and trends worth watching

---------------

Links:

NestFresh – https://nestfresh.com/
Follow Jasen on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasen-urena-27179013/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we're joined by Jesse Arntson, Director of Sales, Mass & Club at SLATE Milk - the high protein, lactose-free shake and iced coffee brand.

Jesse has spent close to two decades on the commercial side of beverage, with stops at Red Bull, ZOA Energy, Fever-Tree and Bobo's before landing at Slate.

Jesse breaks down what actually separates mass from club, and why the two get lumped together far more often than they should. Mass is broad distribution, assortment strategy and item productivity across thousands of doors. Club is fewer items, bigger packs, bigger bets and almost no margin for error.

We get into what a buyer actually needs to see instead of a 50-page deck, and the short list of questions Jesse answers before he walks into a meeting. He walks through the Bobo's PB&J bar that caught lightning in a bottle at Costco, what happens when a great headline number hides softening velocity, and why past success makes teams slow to act.

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Episode Highlights:

🥛 What Slate sells and where it can live on shelf
🏬 Mass vs club: complexity beats you, velocity beats you
🧭 Picking your first big channel (and what a win costs)
🎤 What a buyer needs instead of a 50-slide deck
🍫 Bobo's at Costco: lightning in a bottle, then the slide
🔁 When to save a SKU and when to let it rotate out
🧪 Innovation has to solve a commercial problem
📦 Never selling ahead of what operations can ship
🎯 Dollars per club, base velocity, and reorder patterns
🛒 Strike zone placement, demos, and promo discipline
📱 Retail media and in-store as one plan, not two
🤝 When you need a broker and when to go direct
💸 The equity questions nobody asks

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:58 – What Slate is and the protein lineup
02:18 – Mass vs club: two different games
03:49 – Which is harder to enter, and harder to hold
05:04 – Choosing your first big channel
06:50 – What a buyer actually needs to see
09:45 – Bobo's, Costco, and lightning in a bottle
11:54 – When to save a SKU and when to kill it
13:32 – Three things to watch on a hot club item
15:00 – Innovation that solves a commercial problem
18:23 – The Slate playbook for mass and club
20:25 – Never sell ahead of the operation
22:12 – Picking which SKUs earn the pitch
23:41 – Velocity levers: placement, demos, promo
25:22 – Retail media, in-store, and asking "so what"
27:47 – Brokers, going direct, and owning the account
32:22 – The equity questions nobody asks
33:54 – Protein, functional beverage, and GLP-1s

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Links:

SLATE Milk – https://slatemilk.com/
Follow Jesse on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-arntson/
SLATE Milk on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/slate-milk/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we're joined by Aviv and Michelle Schor, Co-Founders of HUNDY! - the frozen fruit pop brand made from a single ingredient: 100% organic whole fruit.

We dig into the R&D reality of a one-ingredient product, sourcing organic tropical fruit through brokers and growers across Latin America, and commercialization (they searched for months and could not find a co-packer anywhere with the right equipment, so they spent about a year building their own machinery.)

We dive into the recent rebrand, going deep with independents like Nugget Markets for a full year of learning before scaling, plus landing Costco off a first Expo West booth that cost $800. They also share the Shark Tank story, including pitching two and a half weeks after having their daughter and walking out without a deal.

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Episode Highlights:

🧊 Reformatting the frozen pop aisle with one ingredient
💼 Building a business with your spouse (and the dinner rule)
🧪 Why one-ingredient R&D is harder than it sounds
🍍 Brix, pH, and which fruits actually freeze well
🌎 Sourcing organic tropical fruit through brokers and growers
💸 The hidden COGS lines: packaging and frozen storage
🏭 No co-packer had the equipment, so they built their own
✍️ How the HUNDY! name got validated by a five-year-old
📦 The rebrand: merchandising complaints and unclear shelf messaging
🛒 Going deep with independents before going wide
🎯 Landing Costco off an $800 Expo West booth
📺 Shark Tank two and a half weeks postpartum
🔮 The brands and trends they're watching

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:59 – Origin story and the agency years
02:47 – Building a business with your spouse
05:24 – Who owns what between the two of them
06:34 – One-ingredient formulation and R&D
07:52 – Hand-made R&D in Mexico and the first Expo West
09:48 – Sourcing and consistency across seasons
11:55 – Why they lean tropical, and the sustainability angle
12:59 – No co-packer had the equipment
14:35 – What really drives COGS
15:44 – Locking fruit contracts and rates
16:22 – Building the original brand identity
17:29 – How the name got validated
18:21 – The why behind the rebrand
21:56 – Managing old and new packaging on shelf
23:18 – First pitches: Costco and Nugget Markets
24:51 – Pricing strategy and right-sizing the tube
30:58 – Driving velocity, and the Shark Tank story

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Links:

HUNDY! – https://hundy.com/
Follow Aviv on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/avivschor/
Follow Michelle on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleschor/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we're joined by Beau Bergman, Executive Director of SKU - the CPG accelerator that has put more than 150 consumer brands through its program over the past 15 years, including Siete Foods, DUDE Wipes and EPIC. 

Before SKU, Beau spent several years at VentureFuel building corporate backed accelerators for Comcast, NBCUniversal, Dick's Sporting Goods and the California Milk Advisory Board.

We dive into how the SKU program works: a 12 week track, eight companies per cohort, and the revenue band where Beau says SKU drives the most value, roughly $300,000 to $2.5 million. 

We get into what founders get wrong once they are in the room, why fundraising strategy and hands on financial modeling are the most consistent knowledge gaps, and the value of mentors.

We also cover what corporate strategics look for in emerging brands, why chasing retail doors can be the kiss of death, and why a successful raise can make problems more complex instead of fewer.

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Episode Highlights:

🚀 SKU's origin in Austin and 15 years of CPG alumni
📈 The revenue range where the program drives the most value
🧭 What a coachable founder actually looks like on day one
🔍 Diligence questions to ask before applying to any accelerator
🤝 How 800+ mentors get matched to eight companies
🗳️ The two rounds of mentor voting behind every cohort
⚠️ The fastest way to waste a mentor team
📊 Fundraising strategy and financial modeling as the recurring gap
🏭 Founders who switched co-packers mid-program
🥤 A beverage brand that moved from NA to RTD in 12 weeks
🏢 What corporate strategics screen for in emerging brands
💸 Why a successful raise can make problems more complex
🔭 TikTok Shop, protein, pet hydration and gut health

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:06 – SKU's origin story and 15 years in Austin
02:10 – 150+ alumni brands and where they landed
02:42 – The revenue range SKU looks for
03:26 – What breakout founders look like on day one
05:09 – Diligence questions to ask any accelerator
07:39 – The mentor network and why it is the secret sauce
08:32 – Inside the mentor matching process
11:06 – How founders waste their mentorship
12:19 – Biggest knowledge gaps, from modeling to co-packers
14:27 – A beverage brand pivot from NA to RTD
15:35 – What corporate strategics actually look for
19:53 – What is broken in the accelerator model
21:35 – Where SKU grows next and the pet opportunity
24:24 – Know your numbers before anything else
26:18 – Which brands are VC fit and which never will be
28:53 – Alternative financing beyond equity
29:56 – The biggest opportunities in CPG right now

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Links:

SKU – https://sku.is/
Follow Beau on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/beaubergman/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.