Shelf Help: The Tactical CPG Podcast

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...

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 t...

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. A...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 m...

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...

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.
<...

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...

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...

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.<...

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...

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 ent...

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 t...

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 y...

On this episode, we're joined by Chris Fenster, Founder and Executive Chairman of Propeller Industries - the embedded finance and accounting partner behind some of the most iconic emerging consumer brands of the last 18 years. 

Propeller has served more than 1,000 companies, including over a dozen unicorns, with a team of 250+ across three continents.

Chris breaks down why the 40% margin founders pitch often lands closer to 12 to 18% once promos, slotting, and trade deductions come out of revenue, and why margins counterintuitively fall before they rise as brands push from natural i...

On this episode, we're joined by Brad Woodgate, Founder and CEO of the No Sugar Company, Joyburst, and Wellnx Life Sciences - the serial entrepreneur behind six companies and billions in lifetime sales. 

Brad has spent 25 years building across supplements, snacks, and beverages, turning a thirty-thousand-dollar start into a self-funded portfolio.

We start with the full origin story, from launching Wellnx Life Sciences in 2000 and scaling it to roughly 150 million a year, to the 2008 collapse that brought nine-figure lawsuits, mass layoffs, and a near-death rebuild. Brad breaks d...

On this episode, we're joined by Mason Domecq, Founder of DIVINI, the Scottsdale honey kombucha brand that's about to take over Sprouts in the Southwest. 

We get into the formulation that makes the product scalable: ferment the kombucha base to zero sugar, then add back honey, fruit juice, nootropics, and a probiotic strain.

We dig into why he chose cans over glass and went after people stuck on energy drinks and soda rather than the high-end Whole Foods shopper, the recent rebrand that helps the cans jump o...

On this episode, we're joined by Isabel Washington, Founder & CEO of Laurel's - the canned latte brand made, built for people who actually look forward to their RTD coffee. 

Isabel spotted the gap while working at McKinsey, noticing that roughly 90% of the RTD coffee aisle was non-dairy, ultimately leaving in early 2024 to build the dairy-forward latte she wanted to see on the shelf.

We get into formulation, why decaf was the wrong white space, why every can lands at 80mg of caffeine instead of the category's usual 200, and why s...

On this episode, we're joined by Jason Wright, Founder and CEO of WILDE Protein Snacks - the brand that figured out how to turn chicken breast into a thin, crispy chip (and now crackers!) and has since grown into a $100M+ business across 20,000+ retail doors. 

Jason walks through the full journey - from a failed meat-based protein bar to the eureka moment at the bottom of a potato chip bag, through R&D at Colorado State's meat science lab, a disastrous test run at a pork rind facility, and the moment t...

On this episode, we're joined by Bar Bruhis, Founder and CEO of Boostcous, the gluten-free, high-protein couscous brand that packs 18 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber into a five-minute meal. 

Before going all in on Boostcous, Bar spent a decade in SaaS and DTC, running day to day at KnoCommerce and helping start Sumo.com.

Bar walks through the two-year formulation grind: roughly a hundred failed kitchen batches, a promising overseas manufacturer that collapsed the moment tariffs hit, and the decision to rebuild the supply chain and vertically i...

On this episode, we're joined by Morgan Zanotti, Founder and CEO of Waay - the sparkling protein water brand with 10 grams of protein, zero sugar, and 45 calories a can.

Morgan co-founded Primal Kitchen, which she helped grow from a kitchen to roughly $50 million in revenue before a $200 million exit to Kraft Heinz.

We get into the origin of Waay, starting with the clear whey protein isolate that made Morgan wonder why no one had put it in a sparkling water. Morgan walks through the rapid launch timeline, the rollout...

On this episode, we're joined by Rogers Healy, Founder and CEO of Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, the Dallas-based venture firm backing consumer and CPG brands like Waterloo, MOSH, WHOOP, and G.O.A.T. Fuel. 

Before going all in on venture, Rogers spent two decades building one of Texas' largest independently owned real estate brokerages.

We dive into how Rogers built Morrison Seger as a deal-by-deal SPV firm, and how he only writes checks for simple, non-controversial consumer products he can authentically pitch himself. He breaks down his t...

On this episode, we're joined by Alan Chen and Conner Mennig, Co-founders of Frozen One, the high-protein ice cream brand packing 40 grams of protein, under 400 calories, 75% less fat and 62% less sugar than traditional ice cream into every pint.

Alan and Conner walk through the formulation journey from flavored protein powders and Oreos to milk protein concentrate, and how they tested 50 grams of protein per pint but landed at 40 as the functional ceiling.

We also get into finding their first co-packer outside Austin, the in-house packaging...

On this episode, we're joined by Russell and Julia Menez, husband-and-wife Co-Founders of RJ Naturals, makers of Nature's Candy Bar, the refrigerated, organic, whole-food snack bar made with grass-fed butter. 

The brand was born out of Russell's stage 4 cancer journey, when Julia started making bars from scratch to support his recovery.

We dive into how those homemade bars turned into a SoCal brand now in some of most iconic retailers in the region, including Mother's Market, Lassen's Natural Foods, Clark's Nutrition, Fermentation Farm, a...

On this episode, we're joined by William Underwood, Founder of Talent Brew - the CPG-focused recruiting and headhunting firm helping scaling beverage and food brands find the right talent through competitive-set focused outreach.

William breaks down what the CPG talent market looks like right now. With post-COVID reorgs, acquisitions, and layoffs, brands have historic access to exceptional talent, but many don't know how to vet or retain it. 

We get into the roles trending up, from DTC and TikTok Shop managers to channel-specific account roles, and why AI fluency i...

On this episode, we're joined by Hannah Awada, Co-founder and CEO of Hummus Goodness - the Michigan-based brand making authentic, clean-label Lebanese-style hummus with real ingredients and zero preservatives.

We talk about selling hummus out of her kitchen window in Shanghai to expats on WeChat, to re-launching Hummus Goodness in a church kitchen in Michigan in 2019. Hannah walks through the formulation decisions that keep the product authentic - olive oil over soybean oil, fresh lemon juice, no citric acid - and how a made-to-order production model protects cash and margin.
<...

On this episode, we're joined by Rob Johnson, Co-Founder & CEO of Born Simple and Head of Innovation at Mizkan America - the protein-forward shelf-stable complete, prepared meals brand that pivoted from barbecue sauces and broth concentrates into a category that every buyer in the country says is desperate for a makeover. 

Rob spent years running small natural and organic brands inside Conagra before leaving to build Born Simple, selling it to Mizkan in 2021, and sticking around for nearly five years - one of the longer founder tenures p...

On this episode, we're joined by Griffin Spolansky, Co-Founder & CEO of Mezcla - the plant-based puff crispy protein bar brand that's gone from Boston bodegas to 9,000+ doors and $17M raised.

We dive into how Griffin started iterating in a co-founder's kitchen at 20 years old, how they landed on the puff crispy format, and the gut-driven flavor decisions behind their launch lineup. 

Griffin shares hard-earned advice on formulation, finding co-packers, and why keeping things simple beats trying to look sophisticated.

We also get into the real mechanics of s...

On this episode, we're joined by Jason Bronstad, CEO of MALK Organics, the fast-growing organic plant-based milk brand built on clean, simple ingredients with no gums, oils, or fillers. 

Jason brings two decades of CPG experience across brands like Sara Lee, Mike's Hard, and Swell Cocktail Company.

Jason initially came in as a consultant in late 2020, stepping into the CEO role in mid-2021. Two decades in bev alc shaped his CPG playbook: earn shelf space every review, obsess over velocity, protect trust with your consumer.

W...

On this episode, we're joined by Jonathan Skaare, Founder & CEO of Scout CPG - the fractional sales and channel support firm built specifically for better-for-you CPG brands. 

Jonathan spent over 20 years in sales leadership roles at Kellogg's, Annie's, Vital Farms, and Acme Provisions before channeling all of that experience into helping emerging brands scale smarter without breaking the bank.

We dig into the real mechanics of how emerging brands should think about sales infrastructure - when to use a broker, when to go fractional, and when to bring someone i...

On this episode, we're joined by Phyllis Rothschild, CMO of Pete & Gerry's Organics - the #1 organic egg brand and #1 free range egg brand in the U.S. 

Phyllis spent nearly 30 years in consulting at firms like McKinsey and Oliver Wyman before making the jump in-house to lead marketing.

Phyllis breaks down the "word soup" problem in the egg aisle - where terms like cage free, free range, organic, and pasture raised all blur together - and the education-first strategy the team uses to cut through it, including b...

On this episode, we're joined by Harry McKaig, CEO of Double Cross Vodka - the premium vodka brand distilled in the Tatras Mountains of Slovakia by an 11th-generation distilling family, and one of the few vodkas to ever score 95 points from Wine Enthusiast. 

Harry brings over 20 years of beverage industry experience spanning Anheuser-Busch, Diageo, Southern Glazer's, Pernod Ricard, and The Wine Group, where he oversaw a $250M+ business.

We get into the full arc of vodka premiumization from Smirnoff in the '50s through Absolut's legendary print campaigns, Grey G...

On this episode, we're joined by Tia Ellis, Founder of Wildflower Insight - the retail strategy and education company that teaches CPG founders how to pitch buyers and win purchase orders. 

Tia is a former broker who has helped brands sell well over $100 million worth of product into major U.S. retailers.
 
Tia walks through the buyer psychology that drives purchasing decisions, including why buyers care most about category performance and internal KPIs, not whether they personally like your product. We get into her winning pitch deck structure, including th...

On this episode, we're joined by Hovik Azadkhanian, CEO of Heirloom Coffee Roasters - the fastest-growing coffee brand in the natural channel and the first nationally available 100% regenerative organic certified specialty coffee. 

Hovik has been in the coffee roasting business for over 30 years, starting alongside his dad as a kid and spending years in private label and toll roasting before launching Heirloom.

We dive into how roasting millions of pounds of coffee for other brands gave Hovik the data to develop Heirloom's proprietary Culinary Roast - a technique that m...

On this episode, we're joined by Cassie Maschhoff, Co-Founder of Lottie's Meats - the sister-owned, chef-crafted premium pork sausage brand. 

Cassie left a career in tech (including time at Google) to team up with her sister Chelsea, a CIA-trained chef, to reintroduce pork the way it should be.

We dive into what it takes to build a premium meat brand from scratch, from three years of recipe experimentation to working with eleven different co-packers. Cassie walks through USDA facility requirements, the "messy middle" of co-packer hunting, and h...

On this episode, we're joined by Mike Fransz, Director of Marketing at Nova Naturals - the naturals division of Novamex (the company behind Jarritos) that's home to C2O Pure Coconut Water and Steaz organic tea. 

Mike brings 25 years of beverage marketing experience, including early days at Red Bull and Neuro Brands.

We dive into what Mike learned building Red Bull from 1,500 cases a month to 150,000 in Orange County, including how they found "opinion leaders" before influencers existed and why everyone at Red Bull was t...

On this episode, we're joined by Corey Dickinson, VP of Marketing at Wilding Brands - the Colorado-based craft beverage platform that's brought together Denver Beer Co, Great Divide, Upslope, Stem Ciders, Funkwerks, and more under one roof. 

Corey spent over a decade building leading marketing at some of Colorado's most well-known craft breweries before stepping into the VP role across the full Wilding portfolio.

We dive into how Wilding came together through a series of mergers and a...

On this episode, we're joined by Elan Halpern, Co-Founder of Sourmilk - the NYC-based functional greek yogurt brand designed to actually deliver real probiotic benefits, not just the perception of them. Elan is a Stanford CS grad and former tech PM who, alongside co-founder Kiki, started out selling yogurt on bikes out of backpacks across New York City.

We dive into the science behind why most yogurts fall into one of three probiotic traps, and how Elan narrowed forty thousand bacteria strains down to the handful that are probiotic...