Shelf Help: The Tactical CPG Podcast

On this episode, we’re joined by Paige Billings, VP of Marketing at Anthem Snacks - the veteran-owned jerky brand started by a former Green Beret - and Founder of Dot Digital Media.

We dive into how Anthem has pushed into unconventional retail channels and the strategies for succeeding in limited shelf space environments - from Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Dick’s Sporting Goods to United Airlines’ in-flight program - proving that discovery doesn’t have to happen in the grocery aisle.

We also explore how Anthem leverages Pinterest as an underrated growth engine, persona mapping, and Costco.

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Episode Highlights:

🥩 Building a veteran-owned brand rooted in service and authenticity
🧱 How Anthem broke into channels like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and United Airlines
📦 Packaging that balances brand story and retail practicality
📌 Why Pinterest is an underrated platform
💬 Turning mission-driven storytelling into measurable marketing
🔥 Trends shaping the future of better-for-you snacking

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Table of Contents:

00:45:17 - Anthem origin story
03:15:13 - The early days, creating differentiation
06:48:21 - Target personas
11:10:09 - Packaging design
15:08:20 - United Airlines partnership
20:24:29 - Selling into unconventional channels
27:53:21 - Costco
32:32:08 - Pinterest, the under-the-radar channel
37:59:13 - Trends

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Links:

Anthem Snacks – https://www.anthemsnacks.com
Follow Paige on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-billings-34623698/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ 

Try Anthem Snacks with code SHELFPOD20 until 1/31/26 (not valid on subscription products and cannot be stacked).

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 Amy Collins, the Co-Founder and CEO of RoRo’s Baking Company, a Dallas-based brand bringing her grandmother’s beloved cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls to freezers across the country. What started as a family recipe baked by hand in a shared kitchen has grown into a nationally distributed brand carried in Whole Foods, H-E-B, Harris Teeter, and more.

Amy shares her journey from ICU nurse to food entrepreneur, how she scaled from self-manufacturing to partnering with a copacker, and what she’s learned about preserving authenticity while building a frozen brand at scale.

We get into the decision behind frozen vs. refrigerated vs. ready-to-eat and some of the learning lessons that Amy has gathered during the journey thus far.

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Episode Highlights:

🥣 The family legacy behind RoRo’s Baking Company
🍞 Pre-baked & frozen vs. refrigerated vs. ready-to-eat formats
📦 Packaging & brand identity lessons learned the hard way
🏭 From shared kitchen to building a commercial facility
⚙️ Transitioning from self-manufacturing to a copacker
🧊 Competing and winning in the frozen category
🛒 The role of demos in driving retail velocity
💻 DTC and national shipping via Goldbelly
🎯 Managing expectations and staying scrappy
🌟 Trends and brands Amy’s keeping an eye on

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Table of Contents:

00:00 - Intro & RoRo’s Overview
00:41 - Origin Story
03:53 - Pre-baked & Frozen vs. Refrigerated vs. Ready-to-Eat
05:24 - Brand Identity & Packaging Design
09:12 - Kickstarter & Building Out a Commercial Space
12:32 - Commercial Kitchen vs. Copacker
18:38 - Searching for & Choosing a Copacker
22:56 - The Frozen Category
26:36 - Demos
27:48 - DTC & Goldbelly
31:16 - Learning Lessons & Expectations
32:41 - Trade Shows
34:18 - Trends & Brands Amy’s Watching

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Links:

RoRo’s Baking Company - https://rorosbakingcompany.com
Follow Amy Collins on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-collins-4a200216/
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 Katie Hill, the longtime marketing leader at Upslope Brewing - Boulder’s outdoors-first craft brewery known for cans-only packaging, community-driven events, and a “beer, people, planet” ethos. 

Katie has spent the last decade steering Upslope through the craft beer roller coaster, widening the aperture beyond beer while protecting the brand’s core identity.

With deep experience across portfolio strategy, taproom-to-retail activation, and cause-led community building, Katie offers a practical perspective on what it takes to keep a 2008-era craft brand fresh in 2025.

Katie unpacks the next decade in craft brewing (beer, NA, and beyond), why Upslope went hard on Hard Yerba Mate, and how they launched a hop-boosted IPA using BevBoost widget tech that releases a fresh burst of hop aroma at crack. We dig into the taproom + retail flywheel and how she’d approach starting a new brand today.

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Episode Highlights:

🏔️ Upslope’s “après everything” positioning
🎢 What the craft beer roller coaster taught the team
🔭 The next 10 years
🎯 Widening the aperture without losing the core brand
🍋 Why Hard Yerba Mate (5% ABV) fits the outdoor occasion
🧊 Hard seltzer lessons from Spiked Snowmelt
🧪 Hop-Boosted IPA with BevBoost: telling a “tech” story in beer
🏪 The taproom <> retail flywheel that converts trial to velocity
📣 Lean, repeatable, community-first field marketing plays
🚀 If starting a craft brand today: formats, occasions, and white space
👀 Trends Katie’s watching across craft and adjacent categories

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Table of Contents:

00:46:07 - Origin story
03:49:18 - The craft beer roller coaster
06:15:09 - The next 10 years in craft brewing
07:52:00 - Widening the aperture
10:57:08 - Hard Yerba Mate
14:48:16 - Hard seltzer
16:20:24 - The hop boosted IPA, BevBoost tech
21:08:08 - The tap house <> retail flywheel
24:16:10 - Getting scrappy, lean marketing strategy
29:07:16 - If Katie was starting a brand in the craft brewery space
30:38:21 - Brands and/or trends Katie is watching

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Links:

Upslope Brewing - https://upslopebrewing.com
Follow Katie on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/khill29/
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 Gardar Stefansson, Co-founder & CEO of GOOD GOOD - the fastest-growing spread brand in the U.S.

Born in Iceland, GOOD GOOD offers no-added-sugar, fruit-first jams, jellies, chocolate spreads, and a vegan lemon curd, among others.

Gardar shares how a looming write-off in a stevia/erythritol drops business sparked the pivot to spreads. He lays out the playbook on formulation, packaging that signals “indulgent but better,” moving from Amazon discovery to national retail, and what it actually takes to earn and hold more facings in conventional grocery. 

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Episode Highlights:

🍓 The “inventory crisis” that led to GOOD GOOD’s jam breakthrough
🧪 The R&D journey
🥄 Alternative sweeteners
🧂 Lessons from prior CPG ventures
📦 Packaging & claims that drive trial and repeat without confusing shoppers
🛍️ Amazon as the first wedge, and what still works there in 2025
🏪 Translating ecomm proof into retail wins and cleaner resets
🧱 How to capture shelf space over time
🛒 Kroger, H-E-B, Publix - how to win
📈 Trends

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:49:14 – Origin story, the big pivot
03:47:10 – R&D and formulation
06:41:29 – Sweetener testing
09:25:25 – Learning lessons from previous CPG experience
12:53:18 – Brand identity and packaging design
17:41:26 – Amazon
24:08:26 – Expanding into retail
29:19:27 – Capturing more shelf space
32:41:09 – Kroger, H-E-B, Publix
37:12:24 – Trends Garðar is watching

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Links:

GOOD GOOD - https://goodgoodbrand.com
Follow Garðar on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gardar-stefansson/ 
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 Marshall Rabil, CEO of Hubbard Peanut Company (“Hubs”), the Virginia heritage brand that commercialized blister-fried, Super Extra Large peanuts, and became one of the earliest premium mail-order/DTC success stories. 

From Dot & H.J. Hubbard’s 1950s home kitchen to a modern mix of DTC, retail, and private label, Marshall shares how Hubs has maintained a craft feel as they’ve growth over the past ~75 years

With experience as a Whole Foods specialty buyer and a decade leading Hubs’ marketing and partnerships, Marshall unpacks sourcing the top 1–2% of Virginia peanuts, why terroir matters for flavor and texture, and how the team balances premium pricing, seasonality, and channel conflicts without diluting the brand.

By the way, is it me or does Marshall sound a lot like Matthew McConaughey

—---------------

Episode Highlights:

🥜 Hubs’ origin story and what “blister-fried” really means
🌱 Terroir: how region, curing, and grade shape flavor and crunch
📈 From catalog era to modern DTC
💸 Holding a premium price
🗓️ Running a heavily seasonal business
🛒 Retail lessons from Marshall’s time as a Whole Foods buyer
🏷️ Private label & co-branded: where it works (and where it conflicts)
⚖️ Margin realities across private label vs. branded vs. DTC
🎨 Visual identity & packaging that drive trial, gifting, and loyalty
👥 Building the team, lessons learned, and the future of the peanut

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Table of Contents:

00:44:03 – Hubs origin story
03:41:01 – Taking over a legacy family business
06:01:14 – The effect of terroir on peanuts
07:30:17 – Extra Large Virginia Peanuts, focusing on the top 1–2%
09:13:24 – Pioneering the blister-fried peanut at scale
11:27:07 – The early days of DTC to today
12:55:01 – Selling peanuts at a premium price point
14:44:11 – Building a heavily seasonal business
17:19:28 – The retail channel, Marshall’s experience as a Whole Foods buyer
20:37:27 – The private label and co-branded business
22:45:27 – Private label vs. branded retail vs. DTC conflicts
24:42:19 – Margin differences between private label, co-branded, branded
27:22:23 – Visual identity and packaging design
29:58:11 – The team
31:37:22 – Learning lessons
33:49:20 – The future of the peanut

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Links:

Hubs Peanuts - https://www.hubspeanuts.com
Follow Marshall on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshall-rabil-83a24a15/
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 Chris Robb and Adam Spriggs, the duo behind The Angel Group - one of the most influential early-stage investment communities in CPG - and Supernatural Ventures.

Between them, they’ve backed breakout brands like Siete, Poppi, Bachan’s, Garage Beer, and Painterland Sisters. They’ve built a reputation for spotting winning founders long before the rest of the industry takes notice.

Chris and Adam unpack what they’re seeing across today’s early-stage CPG landscape - from what categories they’re most intrigued by, to how they evaluate founders, products, and data when there’s very little of it to go on. They share their frameworks for diligence, talk through the stories behind some of their flagship investments, and outline what truly differentiated brands have in common.

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Episode Highlights:

💸 How The Angel Group and Supernatural Ventures identify breakout brands early
🥇 The story behind their investments in Siete, Poppi, and Bachan’s
📊 How founders get forecasting wrong, and how to fix it
🚀 Why speed is becoming the new differentiator in CPG
📦 The importance of merchandising and store-level excellence
🧠 What truly makes a brand “differentiated” in 2025
📋 How to brief an agency the right way
💬 The biggest fundraising mistakes founders make

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Table of Contents:

00:42:14 - The Angel Group overview
03:14:02 - Supernatural Ventures overview
06:06:12 - The early stage CPG landscape today
09:34:04 - Overhyped and underhyped categories
13:07:24 - Investment philosophy and eval process
20:52:21 - Forecasting, how founders get it wrong
23:10:20 - How and why they invested in Siete so early
25:12:22 - How and why they invested in Poppi so early
27:11:01 - How and why they invested in Bachan’s so early
30:47:20 - Founders, green and red flags
34:30:08 - Will they make a bet on a founder new to CPG
37:50:07 - What a truly differentiated brand looks like
39:42:24 - Speed is now going to be the big differentiator
40:11:28 - Don’t let the copacker dictate your product
42:58:09 - What a good agency brief looks like
44:49:24 - The importance of merchandising
47:50:02 - Chris’ best advice for founders
48:42:27 - A good fundraising process, how to screw it up
50:44:28 - The biggest mistake founders make with fundraising
51:43:17 - Why Chris likes fundraising

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Links:

The Angel Group - https://www.wearetheangelgroup.com
Supernatural Ventures - https://www.supernatural.ventures
Follow Adam Spriggs on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-spriggs-69a91b53/
Follow Chris Robb on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-robb-9a522931/
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 Sean Campbell, COO at Semifreddi’s - the Bay Area-based beloved artisan bakery known for its sourdough.

Before Semifreddi’s helped scale one of the nation’s top cannabis edibles brands from ~$20M to ~$150M in revenue, and held ops roles at Double Rainbow Ice Cream and San Francisco Salt Company. 

He’s a rare operator who’s scaled ops in traditional food, frozen, ambient, and regulated cannabis, bringing a cross-category playbook for formulation, production lines, co-manufacturing, and NPD.

Sean lays out the margin levers that actually move the P&L, how to build supply-chain redundancy, and the tradeoffs between in-house manufacturing vs. co-packing. We dig into the ops leader’s evolving role from $20M to $150M+, and the nitty-gritty of forecasting COGS and margins.

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Episode Highlights:

🥖 Semifreddi’s origin story and what makes a 40-year bakery scalable today
🍫 Scaling operations at Kiva from ~$20M to ~$150M
📉 The 5 levers
👤 The ops leader’s role from startup to scale
🌿 Making the pivot from traditional CPG to cannabis (and back again)
📊 Forecasting COGS & margins
🛡️ Supplier redundancy, tariffs, and de-risking your BOM
🏭 In-house manufacturing vs. co-manufacturing
🗺️ Expanding geographically
🧪 NPD best practices: stage-gates
🧠 Hard-won lessons: what Sean would have done differently

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:49:09 - Semifreddi’s origin story
02:52:03 - Scaling ops at cannabis edibles company: $20M - $150M
11:32:08 - Key margin levers
17:40:08 - COVID supply chain disruptions
18:50:27 - An ops leader’s role as a company scales
23:14:07 - Making the pivot from traditional CPG to cannabis
27:38:16 - Forecasting COGS and margins, where things go wrong
31:30:22 - Supply chain redundancy, tariffs
34:11:25 - In-house manufacturing vs co-manufacturing
40:02:00 - Ops and expanding geographically
44:48:01 - NPD (new product development)
49:07:11 - Learning lessons

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Links:

Semifreddi’s - https://www.semifreddis.com
Follow Sean on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-campbell-87393021/
Follow Adam 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 Nate Cooper, Founder & Managing Partner at Barrel Ventures, and OLIPOP pre-seed investor. 

He tells the story behind investing in OLIPOP at pre-seed, what changed between the early brand and the rocket ship it became, and the hemp beverage bet he believes is far bigger than most people expect. 

Nate unpacks why venture is not a fit for most brands, what founders with no operating background consistently miss, and how to raise around milestones instead of “months of runway.” 

We also get Nate’s high-level investment checklist and some advice for breaking into consumer VC.

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Episode Highlights:

🧭 Venture as a tool: when to raise equity vs. when to use debt
🧵 Upstream excitement: ingredients, packaging, and infra that remove friction
🥤 OLIPOP at pre-seed: conviction, category, and the early brand arc
🌿 Why hemp beverages may be a much bigger wave than expected
🧾 Nate’s investment checklist: shelf benchmarking, unit economics, repeat, team
💸 Fundraising that works: milestone-led plans, realistic pricing, exit math
🎯 Careers: how to position yourself for a role in consumer VC

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:51:28 - Intro to Nate and his path into CPG
02:06:05 - Investing in Olipop at pre-seed
05:22:29 - What investors with no operating experience miss
08:17:27 - A tale of two cities when it comes to fundraising (or not)
10:22:27 - Upstream excitement
12:40:27 - Easing friction is the key
14:34:01 - Investing in a product you don’t personally enjoy
15:26:11 - The biggest opportunity in CPG right now
21:04:18 - The bet Nate made in the hemp beverage category
23:54:09 - Nate’s investment checklist
26:36:17 - The early Olipop brand (not great)
27:23:16 - What founders have to get right to have a successful fundraise
29:51:03 - How to land a role in consumer VC

—---------------

Links:

Barrel Ventures – https://www.barrelvc.com
Follow Nate on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-cooper-2ba9aa19/
Follow Adam 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 Amy Zitelman, Co-Founder & CEO of Soom Foods, the chef-quality tahini brand she built with her two sisters. 

Amy and her team went with a foodservice-first go-to-market strategy that earned brand credibility with top chefs and eventually generated demand at the consumer and retail level, before launching on Amazon and eventually into national retail.

She shares how a COVID home-cooking surge kicked things into another gear, ultimately leading to her first fundraise 8-10 years after launch, a big rebrand, a national Whole Foods rollout, and eventually an expansion into other major retailers like Walmart and Publix.

—---------------

Episode Highlights:

🥄 What makes Soom’s tahini different
🍽️ Why foodservice was the fastest path to credibility and pull-through
🛒 Expanding into Amazon
📈 COVID’s demand spike and inventory strategy that accelerate growth
💸 The first fundraise 8-10 years in
🎨 Rebrand lessons that set up a Whole Foods leap
🏷️ Shelf placement, promos, and driving velocity in center store
🏬 Walmart expansion
🔭 Trends Amy’s watching across global flavors and better-for-you

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:24:18 – Origin story
02:09:11 – Building Soom with Amy’s two sisters
05:10:11 – Building a differentiated Tahini brand
09:30:20 – Foodservice
19:06:10 – Expanding into Amazon
24:43:04 – COVID accelerated growth
28:05:19 – 1st fundraise 8–10 years in, the what and why
29:15:24 – Rebrand, recs, catapulting into Whole Foods
3514:04 – Whole Foods national launch
38:31:29 – Where Soom sits in the store
42:09:07 – Walmart
44:14:18 – Trends and brands Amy’s tracking

—---------------

Links:

Soom Foods - https://soomfoods.com
Follow Amy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-zitelman/
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 Mehek Khera, the Founder & CEO of Niramaya Foods, heritage-inspired Indian foods built for modern eating.

Mehek takes us inside her two-year R&D sprint to turn homestyle recipes into clean-label, shelf-stable dips (no artificial preservatives) and then expands the platform with Naan Pretzels designed for snackable trial.

We go deep on formulation and process controls (pH, water activity, hot-fill), the oil-free reformulation and how she kept texture and flavor, and the packaging decisions that balance consumer perception and landed cost. 

We also talk retail strategy and her contrarian take on velocity vs door count, demo tactics that actually move the needle, and what “buyer empathy” looks like in practice. Plus: the “Walmart Golden Ticket,” what’s on her daily dashboard, and the CPG trends she’s watching.

—---------------

Episode Highlights:

🥘 Shelf-stable homestyle recipes without artificial preservatives
🛢️ Why she removed oils, and how she rebuilt body and mouthfeel without them
🏭 Co-packer search
🥫 Visual identity choices and packaging design
🫙 Glass jar trade-offs
📈 Going wide vs going deep: going against the grain
🧑‍🍳 Demo cadence
🛒 Buyer empathy, retailer communication, and setting the right expectations
🧾 Specialty aisle vs. center store: finding the right home and the right shopper
🥨 New product: Naan Pretzels and how they pair with the dips
🛍️ The Walmart “Golden Ticket”
📊 What’s on Mehek’s daily dashboard (velocity, deductions, fill rate, and more)
👀 The brands and trends Mehek is tracking

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:41:23 - Niramaya intro and origin story
03:21:00 - Formulation and R&D
08:40:22 - Achieving shelf stability without artificial preservatives
09:44:44 - Maintaining the fresh product variable at scale
11:44:04 - Copackers
15:20:29 - Removing oils from the formulation
18:34:07 - Visual identity and packaging design
21:29:10 - Deciding on glass jars
22:46:23 - Velocity vs doors, going against the grain
25:39:03 - Launching in, focusing on the NYC market
29:45:06 - Demos
31:06:06 - Maintaining momentum after a big blitz
32:29:04 - Buyer empathy
34:43:18 - Specialty aisle vs center store
36:41:05 - New product: Naan pretzels
39:19:01 - The Walmart Golden Ticket
39:43:05 - Mehek’s daily dashboard
41:03:07 - Brands and trends Mehek is tracking

—---------------

Links:

Niramaya Foods - https://www.niramayafoods.com
Follow Mehek on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehekkhera/
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.