Shelf Help: The Tactical CPG Podcast

On this episode, we're joined by Melaina Balbo, Founder & CEO of Bis - the frozen Italian sauce brand selling handmade Pomodoro al Basilico and Pesto Genovese in two ounce pucks. 

Melaina was deep in a PhD in Italian literature and cinema before she traded the library for the kitchen.

We dive into the origin of the brand, starting with the frozen care packages her parents shipped on dry ice when she was a graduate student, and why Melaina became convinced that processing for shelf stability is what makes a jarred sauce taste like it came off a shelf.

A big part of the conversation focuses on packaging. Melaina shares what it took to find an individually sealable portion cup, roughly 15 versions in, and how hard it was to get large packaging suppliers to call a small brand back. She breaks down what the new labels finally communicate on shelf, with the hero ingredient front and center.

We also get into the accidental first order at her local co-op, why specialty and gourmet stores fit a product nobody expects to find in the freezer aisle, and the buyer feedback that frozen pasta sales lift when Bis sits next to them. Melaina closes with the advice she would give a founder a year behind her.

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Episode Highlights:

🇮🇹 What Bis means and why the name works
❄️ The dry ice care packages that started everything
🥗 Why processing for shelf stability changes the flavor
🍝 Two ounce pucks built for cooking for one or two
📦 Testing 15 portion cups before landing on recyclable PET
🍳 Three years in an incubator kitchen 80 miles from home
🏭 The co-man matrix: frozen, format, and state lines
🎨 Why the old packaging was capping the brand
🛒 The sample drop that turned into a first order
📞 Getting large packaging suppliers to call a small brand back
🏷️ Hero ingredients front and center on the label
🧊 Frozen pasta sales lifting next to the pucks
🔮 Home shopping, 3PL, and national distribution ahead

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:59 – What Bis means and the why behind the brand
02:55 – Care packages on dry ice and the frozen insight
04:29 – Portioning the sauce into two ounce pucks
05:42 – The long search for the right portion cup
07:58 – Chef Space and the 80 mile drive to an incubator kitchen
10:41 – What to look for in a co-manufacturing partner
12:21 – The packaging that was holding the brand back
13:01 – The accidental first order at the co-op
14:22 – Getting packaging suppliers to take a small brand seriously
16:06 – What the new labels communicate on shelf
18:23 – Not reinventing the wheel
21:36 – Specialty markets, demos, and local visibility
22:48 – DTC, 3PL, and the cost of shipping frozen
23:39 – Winning shoppers away from the shelf stable jar
24:57 – Why frozen is making a resurgence
25:40 – Hardest lessons as a first time founder
28:35 – Home shopping, national distribution, and what is next

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Links:

Bis – https://eatbis.com/
Follow Melaina on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaina-balbo/
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 Bryan Mitchiner, Co-founder of Peasy - the free wholesale operating system built for independent CPG brands. Before Peasy, Bryan spent a decade building and selling Mustard and Co., then met his co-founder Ryan Conti at Shelf Engine, the Seattle startup that helped grocers optimize ordering.

We dive into the decade Bryan spent running Mustard and Co., where he tested every inventory platform on the market, never found one that understood how he actually worked, and kept rebuilding his own spreadsheets until they became the product he wished existed. That tinkering is the direct blueprint for Peasy.

Bryan breaks down the business model. Peasy is free with no contract, monetizing transaction volume the way Square, Shopify and QuickBooks do, and he walks through why that made sense when your real competitor is a free spreadsheet. He is also candid about the counterintuitive downside. When signing up is that easy, walking away is just as easy, so the product has to prove value in days instead of months.

We also get into how the roadmap gets prioritized against a flood of user feedback, why most feature requests are not what the user actually needs, and the operational mistake Bryan sees sink early stage brands: growing the top line while the margins quietly go underwater.

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Episode Highlights:

🥫 A decade running Mustard and Co. and never finding the right software
📊 Why spreadsheets are still the default tool at every company size
🏢 What Shelf Engine taught him about the data behind the software
🤝 Meeting co-founder Ryan Conti and deciding to build together
🛒 Building the Shopify for the wholesale side of the house
💸 Why Peasy is free and monetizes transaction volume instead
🎣 Answering the "if it's free, what's the catch" objection
⚠️ The hidden downside of free (easy to join, easy to leave)
🗺️ How the roadmap gets prioritized against constant feedback
🔍 Separating what users ask for from what they actually need
🧮 The mistake that kills brands: selling more and losing more
📉 Mapping every cost line before the volume shows up
👀 Trends and brands he's watching (Graza, Ayoh)

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:56 – A decade running Mustard and Co.
02:24 – When spreadsheets stop working
04:10 – What Shelf Engine taught him about operations
05:31 – Meeting Ryan Conti and starting Peasy
06:28 – The Shopify for wholesale operations
07:43 – A year in: how brands actually use the platform
09:26 – Why Peasy is free and monetizes transactions
11:30 – Answering the "what's the catch" objection
12:26 – The hidden downside of free
13:55 – Advice on picking a pricing model
14:52 – How the roadmap gets prioritized
16:14 – Separating requests from real needs
17:13 – The feedback loop that converts users
19:50 – Advice for SaaS founders selling into CPG
21:06 – The operational mistakes that quietly kill brands
24:23 – Know every cost before you scale
26:00 – Brands and trends he's watching

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Links:

Peasy – https://peasyos.com/
Follow Bryan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanmitchiner/
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 AJ Anderson, Founder and CEO of Fast Pickle, the 3 ounce pickle juice shot brand bringing real brine into electrolyte replacement. AJ spent five years at Coca-Cola before becoming a serial entrepenenur.

AJ breaks down the formulation proces, copacker sourcing, and why the new label says "intentionally hypertonic" instead of calling itself hydration. We get into the packaging design journey too, from a first label he designed himself, through public critique on BevNET's Elevator Pitch, to the black and electric green look he has now.

We also cover the tactical stuff. Packing pallets in his garage, cold emailing roughly a thousand specialty stores, using Amazon Market Basket data to find climbing gyms, and the Danny Wimmer Presents festival partnership he expects will drive 25 to 30 percent of revenue this year.

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Episode Highlights:

🏃 The family health scare that reset everything
🥒 Why pickle juice instead of another sweet powder
🧪 Formulating a 570mg sodium shot, no added sugar
📚 Hypertonic vs isotonic, and why "hydration" is wrong
📦 Packing pallets in a garage at the top of a hill
⚠️ Shelving the preservative free version on purpose
🥫 The Recovery Seltzer and its pickle margarita flavor
🎨 Three label iterations, flat green to street black
🛒 Cold emailing 1,000 specialty stores, and the reply math
🎸 Selling shots across 80+ bars at rock festivals
📊 Amazon Market Basket data leading to climbing gyms
🔮 Building a challenger brand in a challenger category

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:16 – Origin story
04:32 – Why pickle juice
05:35 – Launching January 2025
06:24 – Formulation and the 3 ounce format
06:58 – Co-packer selection and real brine
08:43 – Hypertonic vs hydration
10:44 – A polarizing taste
12:37 – Garage fulfillment and the first pallets
15:14 – The preservative decision and natural retail
17:02 – The Recovery Seltzer idea
18:23 – Specialty channels and Fleet Feet
19:23 – Packaging design iterations
23:55 – Advice on brand identity
26:00 – Go to market and profitable growth
29:27 – The Danny Wimmer Presents partnership
36:07 – Cold emailing 1,000 specialty stores
38:56 – Climbing gyms and Market Basket data

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Links:

Fast Pickle – https://fastpickle.com/
Follow AJ on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/helloaj/
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 Thomas Odermatt, Founder & CEO of Butcher's Bone Broth, the leading fresh, organic bone broth brand sold refrigerated at Costco, Whole Foods, Publix, and more. Thomas is a third-generation Swiss butcher who built Roli Roti, America's first gourmet rotisserie food truck, before spinning Butcher's out as a standalone brand.

After deboning chicken for Bay Area tech giants, Thomas found himself staring at 10,000 pounds of leftover bones a week and, as a butcher's son, refused to throw them away. That became Butcher's Bone Broth, launched into retail around 2015 as a fresh, refrigerated product in an aisle dominated by shelf-stable aseptic cartons.

Thomas walks through landing his first account at Berkeley Bowl, why he's raised the price only once in nearly 12 years, and why he still makes every bottle in-house with no co-packers and no venture capital. We get into winning the club channel at Costco without cheapening the product, pushing velocity instead of chasing margin in the expensive fresh aisle, and adding 800+ new Albertsons doors.

We also cover the recent decision to spin Butcher's out as a standalone brand, the packaging thinking behind earning a female shopper's trust, and Thomas's people-first take on management.

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Episode Highlights:

🚚 The farmers market loophole behind the food truck
🥼 The white chef's coat that killed the "roach coach" label
🍗 Deboning chicken for Bay Area tech giants
🦴 10,000 pounds of leftover bones a week
🛒 Landing the first account at Berkeley Bowl
💰 Raising the price just once in 12 years
🏭 No co-packers, no VC, every bottle made in-house
🚂 The "Union Pacific" slow-and-reliable growth model
🧊 Winning the fresh aisle on velocity, not margin
🎨 Spinning Butcher's out as a standalone brand
📦 Packaging a butcher's brand that women trust
🏬 800+ new Albertsons doors and product-market fit
🐂 "Grab the bull by the horn" as a management value

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:49 – From a Swiss butcher shop to a Berkeley business plan
02:51 – The farmers market loophole behind the food truck
03:59 – The white chef's coat that beat the "roach coach" label
06:27 – "Five products, five fingers" (and catering Paris Hilton)
07:25 – The leap from food truck to retail CPG
10:57 – 10,000 pounds of leftover bones, and why bone broth
14:29 – Landing the first account at Berkeley Bowl
16:35 – Raising the price just once in 12 years
19:29 – No co-packers: every bottle made in-house
20:57 – Self-funded, and the "Union Pacific" growth model
22:46 – Winning the fresh aisle on velocity, not margin
24:55 – Spinning Butcher's out as a standalone brand
27:22 – Packaging a butcher's brand women trust
29:04 – Winning the club channel without getting greedy
31:34 – 800+ Albertsons doors and product-market fit
33:31 – Listening, culture, and the bull by the horn
37:09 – Where to follow Thomas

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Links:

Butcher's Bone Broth – https://www.butchers.co/
Follow Thomas on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-odermatt-656a1449/
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 KitPrint.

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 John McGuckin, CEO of Clio Snacks - the first and only refrigerated Greek yogurt bar - a chocolate-dipped, cheesecake-textured snack.

John took the seat as Clio's CEO in 2021 after a long track record of C-suite roles at brands like Sabra, Tribe Mediterranean Foods, and Maya Kaimal.

John breaks down why he took the job, how he read the post-COVID shift toward high-protein, permissibly indulgent snacking, and what operators should stress-test before stepping into a founder-led company.

John walks through the bet that changed everything: retiring the $1.19 single bar and moving retailers to four-packs and minis at $5.99, which fixed cash flow and unlocked a capital raise. 

We dig into going multi-channel across colleges, C-stores, and airports, building a dedicated refrigerated snacking set at retail, running cold chain at a 98% service level through a disciplined S&OP process, and Clios' 86,000 sqft plant.

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Episode Highlights:

🇺🇦 The garage origin story behind Clio (yes, a real syrok)
🪑 Taking the CEO seat as the first non-founder leader
🤝 What to stress-test before running a founder-led brand
📊 Reading the consumer shift that made yogurt bars work
💵 The singles-to-multipacks bet that fixed cash flow
🚀 Going multi-channel: 450+ colleges, 20,000+ C-stores, 65+ airports
🛒 Building a refrigerated snacking set at retail
🎃 Why seasonal flavors and end caps drive trial
❄️ Running cold chain at a 98% service level
🏭 Owning an 86,000 sq ft plant instead of co-packing
🎯 The single biggest velocity driver (hint: shelf position)
🚚 Getting distributors and brokers to actually work for you
👶 The kids' yogurt gap he's chasing next

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:58 – Clio's origin story (Ukraine, a garage, a syrok)
03:26 – Where the Clio name came from
04:45 – Why John took the CEO seat
07:33 – Advice for stepping into a founder-led brand
10:18 – Betting on a new category: the Sabra parallel
13:00 – From $23M to a projected $120M: the multipack bet
15:42 – Going multi-channel: food service, colleges, airports
18:39 – The new-product and innovation process
19:24 – Building a refrigerated snacking set at retail
21:08 – Seasonal flavors and end-cap wins
23:14 – Cold chain and the S&OP discipline
26:33 – Where the brand sits in-store (and GLP-1)
29:38 – Owning manufacturing and self-funding growth
32:28 – Scaling from 1,000 to 60,000 doors
34:59 – The biggest velocity driver: shelf position
35:49 – Working with distributors and brokers
38:15 – The kids' category he's chasing next

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Links:

Clio Snacks - https://cliosnacks.com/
Follow John on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfmcguckin/
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 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 Sara Hendershot, VP of Marketing at Loonen - the glass bottled water brand that starts with a spring source, purifies it, remineralizes it, and tests every batch for over 350 contaminants. Sara was previously Director of Marketing at Momentous, and before that a two time world champion and 2012 Olympic rower for Team USA.

Sara breaks down how Loonen pairs a high quality spring source with purification, remineralization using Celtic sea salt, glass only bottling, and third party testing for 350+ contaminants printed on every bottle.

We get into the brand build: designing for heritage instead of trend (Levi's and L.L.Bean were the references), choosing yellow and blue to cut through a shelf of clear glass and white labels, and engineering a six pack box that can actually ship glass, and which storytelling hooks landed once they hit market.

A big part of the conversation focuses on go to market: pricing at $3.79 at Sprouts versus the Amazon six pack, consolidating still and sparkling under one parent listing, growing almost entirely organic with zero paid influencers, and landing a first national account six months after launch.

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Episode Highlights:

🐦 The loon: monogamous to one lake until it gets contaminated
💧 The first water that is both spring sourced and purified
🧪 Testing for 350+ contaminants when the FDA requires almost none
🍼 Clara's IVF story and the water lab on her kitchen counter
🏭 Ripping out PVC pipes and replacing them with stainless steel
🎨 Building a heritage brand (Levi's, L.L.Bean, yellow and blue)
📦 Engineering a six pack box that ships glass without breaking
💸 $3.79 at Sprouts vs the Amazon six pack sticker shock
📈 The storytelling hooks that landed and the ones that didn't
🛒 Landing Sprouts off cycle six months after launch
🛻 Route rides, field blitzes, and why every new hire sells
📊 The Amazon playbook: parent listings and organic traffic
🔮 Raising the standard for the entire bottled water category

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:37 – Loonen origin story and what the brand actually is
03:20 – Clara and David: IVF, endocrine disruptors, and Spindrift
05:15 – Why an Olympian started paying attention to her water
06:35 – The bottled water category and why nobody fixed it
09:30 – Sourcing springs and the story behind the loon
12:05 – Educating consumers without fear mongering
14:00 – Competing inside the glass bottled water set
16:20 – Building a heritage brand and standing out on shelf
18:15 – Pricing at Sprouts vs pricing on Amazon
20:15 – The storytelling hooks that actually landed
22:35 – Channel sequencing and the Sprouts launch
25:15 – Route rides and selling in the field
29:20 – The Amazon playbook
32:45 – Demos, field blitzes, and organic social
36:45 – Distributors and brokers
39:15 – Lessons from David Kimmell on scaling beverage
41:45 – Success, standards, and what keeps her up at night

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Links:

Loonen – https://loonen.com/
Follow Sara on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahendershot/
Loonen on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/loonen/
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 KitPrint.

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 Rachel Krupa, Founder of The Goods Mart, the better-for-you convenience store that's reimagining what a 7-Eleven can be. Rachel is also the founder of Krupa Consulting, the CPG and wellness PR agency she's run since 2010, working with brands like Thrive Market, Our Place, and Goop Kitchen.

We dig into how Rachel went from running her PR agency to opening a convenience store after founders kept telling her they had no strategy for the convenience channel and The Goods Mart's core bet: a tightly curated shelf of better-for-you brands, no GMOs, no artificial colors or flavors, and accessible pricing so the store never feels precious.

Rachel walks through what she actually looks for in a brand, the packaging iterations every product goes through before it scales, and why a small-format store surfaces feedback that velocity numbers alone can't.

We also get into the curation business that now drives much of The Goods Mart, placing emerging brands in hotel minibars and corporate pantries for clients like the Fifth Avenue Hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, and OpenAI New York. Rachel shares her honest take on fundraising, her grocery consulting work, and the brands she can't stop watching.

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Episode Highlights:

🏪 From PR agency to convenience store
🥫 The better-for-you gap in convenience retail
🎨 Brand pillars and the case for curation
🛠️ Building the first store with no playbook
☕ Accessible pricing and $2 coffee
🚫 Why The Goods Mart charges no slotting fees
💸 Getting creative with revenue instead
📦 The packaging iterations every brand faces
📊 Small-format stores and real-time customer data
🏨 Curating hotel minibars and corporate pantries
🏬 Consulting on grocery concepts like Flow Grocer
👀 The flat drinks and gummies she's watching

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:51 – Origin story: from PR to convenience store
02:55 – Brand pillars and the case for curation
04:49 – Building the first Silver Lake store
06:38 – Accessible pricing and everyday value
07:48 – Being first to carry emerging brands
08:37 – Why The Goods Mart charges no slotting fees
10:58 – The financial model without slotting fees
12:14 – The curation vertical and COVID pivot
13:50 – Small-format stores and real-time data
16:15 – What brands need buttoned up before pitching
18:56 – Why it's not a shoppy shop
20:19 – Everyday low price over promotions
22:08 – The new Williamsburg flagship
24:15 – Operating in LA vs New York
25:34 – Hotel minibars and corporate pantries
29:17 – Fundraising and consulting for grocers
31:08 – Brands and trends she's watching

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Links:

The Goods Mart – https://www.thegoodsmart.com/
Krupa Consulting – https://www.krupaconsulting.com/
Follow Rachel on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkrupa/
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 KitPrint.

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 Ashley Cameron, Founder & CEO of Love&Cookies - the clean-label frozen gourmet cookie dough brand you bake straight from the freezer in  ess than 15 minutes. 

Ashley was a labor and delivery nurse with no CPG background before her cookies landed on H-E-B shelves. Baking with her son Charlie during his recovery turned into a clean-label product built on a simple insight: freeze the dough and you no longer need preservatives or shelf stabilizers. 

Ashley shares how a customer pushed her to enter H-E-B's Quest for Texas Best, which she won six months after opening her Lakeway store, catapulting her into 250+ H-E-B locations.

We get into hard pivots, co-packers' resistance to run her stand-up pouch which led Ashley build her own manufacturing facility and the tough call to eventually move to a co-packer.

Ashley walks through resizing each cookie by half an ounce to make pricing work, and closing three brick-and-mortar stores to put capital behind retail.

Ashley also breaks down the packaging decisions that set the brand apart, from color-coding every flavor (because most stockers were merchandising by color) to dropping her kids' names off the cookies to lift velocity.

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Episode Highlights:

🍪 Baking with her son after a Kawasaki diagnosis becomes a brand
❄️ Why freezing the dough replaces preservatives and shelf stabilizers
🏆 Winning H-E-B's Quest for Texas Best six months after opening
🏭 Building an in-house facility when no co-packer would take her
🔄 The hard pivot from own factory to co-manufacturer for margin
🎨 Color-coding every flavor so stockers and shoppers find it
💸 Resizing the cookie half an ounce to fix distribution pricing
🏷️ Dropping the kids'-names branding to lift velocity
🛒 Live demos and the BOGO that cleared the shelf in three days
🔪 Closing three brick-and-mortar stores to fund retail growth
🤝 The key hires that put the business on solid footing
💰 Scaling on under $500K, then a seed round toward profitability
👀 The clean-label white space she's watching next

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

Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:56 – Origin story and Charlie's diagnosis
02:26 – Designing a clean-label frozen cookie dough
03:46 – Opening the store and finding Quest for Texas Best
04:32 – Scaling the recipe and sourcing at volume
05:57 – Nailing the 13 to 15 minute bake
07:24 – Building an in-house manufacturing facility
10:03 – Outgrowing it and pivoting to a co-manufacturer
12:04 – Packaging design and color differentiation
15:53 – Removing barriers at the freezer door
16:29 – Pricing strategy and resizing the cookie
18:57 – Inside the Quest for Texas Best pitch
22:11 – Dropping the cookie names for velocity
24:24 – Driving trial with demos and BOGOs
26:09 – Closing the brick-and-mortar stores
28:22 – Key hires that steadied the business
30:45 – Financing growth and the seed round
33:47 – Why the whole store is your competition

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

Links:

Love&Cookies – https://cookiesilove.com/
Follow Ashley on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-cameron-534b00238/
Love&Cookies on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/getloveandcookies/
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 KitPrint.

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 Chrisi Hammer, Co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Buns, the frozen cinnamon roll brand built upon a family recipe her mom started perfecting in the late 1970s. 

Chrisi brings an interior design background to CPG, and it shows up in everything from the packaging to the trade show booths.

We get into how Sunshine Buns went from home deliveries out of Chrisi's kitchen to thousands of doors in under two years, and why owning a commercial kitchen and storefront first gave them hundreds of hours to perfect the product. Chrisi breaks down the packaging journey, how she rebuilt the entire pack into a box that fits the frozen breakfast set while keeping the hero image consistent after being told at ExpoWest they were a breakfast product not a bread.

We dig into the retail strategy putting them on track for roughly 4,500 doors by year end  how their broker at Critical Mass Group reverse-engineered a mass-market price so the product could actually move, and hiring fractional operators from bigger brands early.

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Episode Highlights:

🌅 The family recipe born from a 1970s cinnamon roll
🚪 From 750 doors to 4,500 by year end
🏠 Home kitchen to commercial to co-packer
🧪 Why cinnamon roll dough is so finicky
🎨 Bringing an interior design eye to the brand
📦 The rebrand from bread bags to breakfast box
🛒 Owning one spot on the shelf before expanding
💰 Pricing for volume instead of chasing margin
🏬 Using the retail store as live R&D
🧊 Why frozen is hard and worth it
🎪 The Expo West booth that stopped traffic
👀 The brands reinventing the frozen aisle

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:59 – Origin story: Mema's recipe
03:33 – The parking lot decision to start the business
04:48 – From 750 doors to 4,500 by year end
05:45 – Home kitchen to co-packer and the science of the dough
09:39 – Building the brand with an interior design eye
11:40 – Bags to boxes: the packaging rebrand
14:20 – Keeping the pack simple: no oven, ready fast
15:51 – Advice: own one spot on the shelf first
17:51 – Pricing strategy for the frozen set
19:36 – Reverse-engineering price with their broker
21:52 – The Orem storefront as R&D
24:56 – The corporate store playbook
26:22 – Convenience as the differentiator
28:31 – Why frozen is hard and worth it
30:09 – LinkedIn, influencers, and Hummingbirds
32:57 – The Expo West booth that stopped traffic
37:19 – Building the team and fractional hires

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Links:

Sunshine Buns – https://www.sunshinebuns.com/
Follow Chrisi on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisi-hammer-b7b954326/
Sunshine Buns on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/sunshine-buns/
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 KitPrint.

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 Steven Kessler, Chief Sales Officer at Beyond Brands, the natural products consulting collective that acts as an outsourced management team for emerging CPG brands. 

Steven co-founded Steaz, the organic green tea brand behind the first USDA Organic certified soda, and scaled it across the natural channel and into Costco and Target before a 2016 exit to Novamex.

We dig into the Steaz journey, from spotting that carbonated soft drinks were sliding and deciding to carbonate green tea, to landing early yes's from UNFI and Whole Foods because nobody had done it before. We walk through the pivot to cans after a Whole Foods buyer told him to get rid of the bubbles, and the freight and sustainability math that made the switch obvious.

Steven gets candid about the "top line, baby" years, when he and co-founder Eric Schnell chased quarterly numbers and handed out discounts to push purchase orders until their investors finally cut them off. We talk about the turn toward a path to profitability, why margin and EBITDA decided the exit, and what acquirers like Novamex actually look for: trajectory and profit, not just a great product.

On the Beyond Brands side, Steven breaks down the fractional sales model, the channel, geography, and money framework he uses to slow founders down, and how to think like a retailer who treats every inch of shelf as real estate. He also shares the brands and categories he's watching right now.

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Episode Highlights:

🍵 Carbonating green tea to build a healthier soda
🏪 Why UNFI and Whole Foods said yes fast
🥫 Ditching glass bottles for cans (freight and sustainability)
📈 The "top line, baby" growth-at-all-costs trap
💸 When investors finally cut off the money
🧮 Turning toward margin, EBITDA, and profitability
🤝 Selling Steaz to Novamex in 2016
🎯 What acquirers really look for (trajectory and profit)
🧑‍🏫 Coming back to advise their own brand
🧭 The channel, geography, and money framework
🪑 Fractional sales vs hiring a $200K VP
🛒 Retail as a real estate game
👀 The brands and categories Steven is watching

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

Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
01:14 – What Beyond Brands does
03:38 – The Steaz origin story
05:17 – Creating a healthy green tea soda
08:19 – The pivot to cans with Whole Foods
10:27 – Top line obsession and when investors pulled back
14:24 – Turning toward a path to profitability
15:46 – Deciding to sell, and why Novamex
17:58 – Preparing for an exit and what acquirers look for
19:36 – Coming back to advise their own brand
22:55 – The Beyond Brands fractional model
24:59 – Channel, geography, and money
27:32 – Fractional sales vs hiring a broker
30:55 – Questions to ask a fractional partner
32:41 – Being a good distributor partner
34:23 – How retail buyers really decide
37:29 – Cracking an off-cycle category review
39:02 – Brands, trends, and where to follow

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Links:

Beyond Brands – https://beyondbrands.org/
Follow Steven on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-kessler-aa9b445/
Beyond Brands 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.