High Stakes Growth
High Stakes Growth® takes you inside the boldest decisions behind today’s most exciting consumer brands. We bring you candid conversations with the founders, CEOs, and CMOs who built them—unpacking the high-stakes moments, tough calls, and game-changing strategies that made these brands what they are today. No fluff. No surface-level insights. Just real stories from the leaders who made it happen. Hosted by Forest Bronzan and Leah Lloyd, they bring a combined four decades of consumer brand expertise to these conversations.
Meenakshi Lala: Winning in One of DTC's Most Operationally Difficult Categories
Meenakshi Lala is the CEO of UrbanStems, a premium DTC flower and gifting brand. She spent 20 years in fashion retail before joining UrbanStems as COO in 2022 and transitioning to CEO in 2023.
Expect to hear about:
– Fashion to Flowers: Why she left fashion for fresh-flower gifting and the new challenge it brought.
– The Perishable Problem: Why delivering fresh flowers on a deadline is one of DTC's hardest operational jobs.
– Brand Over Paid: Why she shifted from paid-heavy buying to brand-building and partnering with brands like Levain Cookies.
– Beyond Google: How disc...
Lauren Wang: Selling 185M Menstrual Discs and Reaching 30,000+ Stores
Lauren Wang is the founder and CEO of The Flex Company, a sustainable period-care brand built around its signature Flex Disc.
Expect to hear about:
– The Reluctant CEO: How she pitched others to be CEO, before realizing she had to step into the role.
– Inside Y Combinator: Interviewing with Sam Altman and the Demo Day investor frenzy.
– Surviving the SVB Collapse: How she got through the Silicon Valley Bank collapse by covering payroll from her savings.
– The Retail Bet: Why she pushed into Target against her investors' advice, and how...
Katie Sturino: From Starting in a Garage to Running an 8-Figure Body Care Brand
Katie Sturino is the founder and CEO of Megababe, the body-care brand behind Thigh Rescue, its signature anti-chafe stick, plus deodorants, sweat powders, cooling products, and more.
Expect to hear about:
– Launching while Divorcing: Why she decided to launch Megababe during a difficult personal time.
– The Today Show Sellout: How a man-on-the-street TV segment sold out 20,000 units in a few weeks.
– Five Years, Zero Ads: How Megababe grew through PR, organic social, and retail before spending a dollar on paid.
Shizu Okusa: Exiting Her First CPG Brand and Raising $35M for the Next
Shizu Okusa is the founder and CEO of Apothékary, a liquid herbal supplement brand that bridges Eastern medicine with modern Western science. Before then, she launched, scaled, and exited JRINK, a juice brand.
Expect to hear about:
– Losing a Co-Founder: Why her best friend's exit from JRINK was emotionally difficult and changed how she approaches partnerships.
– The Form Factor Bet: Why she built Apothékary on liquid tinctures when pills, powders, and gummies rule the supplement space.
– $1M a Month on TikTok...
Andrei Negrau: Why Empathic AI Agents Now Outperform Human Support
Andrei Negrau is the co-founder and CEO of Siena AI, an empathic AI agent that handles customer service for consumer brands. He built luxury apparel Shopify brands out of Romania starting in 2014, exiting his first in 2018, then founded the SMS marketing startup Cartloop before betting everything on AI-native CX.
Expect to hear about:
– CX as the Edge: Why he texted stuck-at-checkout shoppers instead of outspending rivals on ads.
– Burning the Boats: How one GPT-3 test convinced him to kill Cartloop and rebuild on AI from scratch.
– Beating Human Agents: Why his em...
Scott Dancy: How He Built Azuna From 10 Orders a Day to Nine Figures
Scott Dancy is the founder and CEO of Azuna, an all-natural odor eliminator built on Australian tea tree oil.
Expect to hear about:
– The Month the World Changed: How COVID took Azuna from $12K to $105K a month almost overnight.
– Betting the Farm on Glass: How a $1M glass jar order became the brand's turning point.
– Landing Josh Allen: How the NFL MVP went from a "maybe" to Azuna's official partner.
– Built to Sell: Why Scott has planned to exit Azuna since the start and is now building data roo...
Ari Murray: Getting Brand-Agency Partnerships Right, From Someone Who's Done Both
Ari Murray is the Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone, the premium personal care brand reinventing the deodorant category. Previously, she was Chief Growth Officer at Sharma Brands, where she led growth across dozens of consumer brands.
Expect to hear about:
– Law School to Ecom: Why she dropped out of law school, then found her footing at an ecom brand.
– Working With Celebrity Brands: What working at Kourtney Kardashian's and Halsey's beauty brands taught her.
– Agency or In-House: Her take that growth marketers should start brand-side first, and how kindness to age...
Hari Ranganathan: Why Growth Is a Machine, Not a Single Star Hire or Lever
Hari Ranganathan is the Chief Digital Officer at KilgourMD, a dermatologist-founded brand tackling hormonal hair loss in women. Previously, he held senior roles at celebrity-backed brands like Haus Labs and The Honest Company.
Expect to hear about:
– Engineer to Marketer: How a Dartmouth mechanical engineer fell in love with the world of ecommerce and analytics.
– Lean and Hybrid: Why 60+ person teams in Ecom circa 2012 are giving way to agile in-house leads plus agency support.
– Love the Game: Hari's take that since growth marketing changes so fast, you have to love the ga...
Jess Hauff: Scaling PrettyLitter From Its DTC Roots Into a Household Name
Jess Hauff is the General Manager of PrettyLitter, a cat litter brand acquired by Mars in 2021 that uses silica crystals that change color to flag early signs of health issues in cats.
Expect to hear about:
– A Decade in Madrid: Why Jess spent 10 years in Spain before returning to the U.S., and the work culture differences she noticed.
– Leading the Merger: How Jess steered PrettyLitter's integration with Mars, and how she got the "soft tissue" of culture right.
– Becoming a Household Name: How PrettyLitter is expanding into retail and why being...
Daniel Brady: The Neuroscientist Building AI Segmentation for DTC Brands
Daniel Brady (DB) is the co-founder and co-CEO of Orita, an AI segmentation platform that helps DTC brands target their maximally addressable audience across email, SMS, and direct mail.
Expect to hear about:
– From Neuro to AI: Why DB left a career in neurobiology after graduating Harvard after realizing he enjoyed the faster pace of startup work.
– Consulting to Product: How DB ran Orita as an ecom consulting shop for years to find the AI-related services worth productizing.
– No Shortcut at Scale: Why brands with multi-million-profile CRM lists can't replace real human...
Will Nitze: Building IQBAR to $125M+ in Sales With a 15-Person Team
Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a functional health CPG brand built around protein bars, electrolyte mixes, mushroom coffee, and more.
Expect to hear about:
– Harvard Connections: Why Will scraped Harvard's red book to send thousands of alumni his first fundraising emails.
– Value Over Premium: Why Will optimizes for units sold over revenue, and how value pricing unlocked Walmart, Costco, and Sam's Club.
– The Hub and Spoke Model: How a flat 15-person team and agency partnerships scale revenue without scaling the team.
– Marriage and Business: What it...
Marnie Rabinovitch: Building Thigh Society from Side Hustle to 3M Pairs Sold
Marnie Rabinovitch is the founder and CEO of Thigh Society, a Toronto-based brand making slip shorts that prevent thigh chafing for women.
Expect to hear about:
– The Baby Powder Moment: How a hot Toronto day in 2008 convinced Marnie to invent her own slip short solution.
– Quitting at 40: Why she applied for backup corporate jobs, set a $1M sales goal, and only went all-in with a real safety net.
– One Hero Product: Why she resisted pressure to expand into camisoles and bralettes and stayed in the slip-short lane.
– Lean and Remo...
Shawn LaRowe: Modernizing Pelican While Protecting the Values That Built It
Shawn LaRowe is the Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Pelican, the 50-year-old brand known for its ultra-durable protective cases. Previously, he spent 17 years at Nike and has also held executive roles at Dakine, KUIU, and Filson.
Expect to hear about:
– 74 Product Launches in 2025: How Pelican is expanding past its protective case core into categories like travel while protecting the values that built the brand.
– Broadening the Base: Why Pelican's professional-grade reputation signals quality but can feel intimidating, and how they're making the brand accessible to a wider audience.
– Listening Becomes...
Melissa Mash: Building a Global Bag Brand and How They Achieved 50% Organic Site Traffic
Melissa Mash is the co-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover, a New York-based performance bag brand creating functional bags for work, travel, parenting, and everything in between.
Expect to hear about:
– A 14-Year Partnership: How three co-founders built a lasting business together by putting their egos to the side and showing up as their full selves.
– Product Over Paid: Why Melissa bet on making higher quality bags instead of bigger ad budgets, driving 50% organic site traffic through word of mouth.
– Tariffs as a Reset: How tariffs forced price increases, supply chain...
Isaac Mertens: Building a $40M+ Footwear Brand Without Debt or Raising Capital
Isaac Mertens is the co-founder and CEO of Flux Footwear, a minimalist shoe brand that focuses on style and performance doing mid-8-figure annual revenue.
Expect to hear about:
– Etsy to Ecom: How Isaac scaled a furniture brand to 7 figures on Etsy, and why not owning demand pushed him to start Flux.
– Financial Discipline: How his accounting background shaped a zero-debt, no-VC business with a focus on contribution margin and cash flow.
– Amazon Breakout: The playbook behind going from $0 to $10M on Amazon in 2025.
– Finding Hidden Growth: How niche persona...
Hector Hughes: How His Tech-Free Cabins Test (and Sometimes End) Relationships
Hector Hughes is the co-founder and CEO of Unplugged, a company offering tech-free cabin stays that help people disconnect from their phones and reset in nature.
Expect to hear about:
– Origin Moment: How a 10-day silent retreat in the Himalayas in 2019 pushed Hector to quit his job and start Unplugged just weeks later.
– The Hard Part: Why it took 5 years to truly figure out the unit economics and revenue model, and his lessons from asset-heavy scaling.
– Who It’s Really For: Why 80% of guests are couples, and how three days offline c...
Lomit Patel: Why Retention, Community, and Brand Win in 2026
Lomit Patel is the CMO of Try Your Best (TYB), a commnunity rewards platform that helps brands reward its biggest fans and build community. He previously held senior roles at Tynker, IMVU, Texture, TrustedID, and Roku.
Expect to hear about:
– From Operator to Leader: How your way of work evolves as you transition from growth operator to strategic leader.
– Community as Growth Engine: Why he believes efficient growth starts with retention, and how community drives LTV, referrals, and trust.
– Being Early to AI: How Lomit used AI at IMVU circa 2018 to sca...
Ramon Vela: 1,000+ Founder Interviews & the 5 Lessons That Matter Most
Ramon Vela is the host of The Story of a Brand podcast, where he’s interviewed 1,000+ brand founders and operators across the consumer and ecommerce landscape. We break down 5 of the most important brand-building lessons he’s learned from those conversations.
Expect to hear about:
– The Power of Saying No: Why Chomps focused on one channel to build operational strength before scaling.
– Building for Generations: How Hammitt’s long-term thinking turns durability into trust and repeat customers.
– Surviving the Avalanche: How the Kuli Kuli founder's near-death experience shaped her ability to stay calm...
Jesse Eisenberg & Josh Suggs: Building the World's Biggest Street Interview Ad Agency
Josh Suggs and Jesse Eisenberg are co-founders of StreetTalk, a fast-growing agency producing street interview ads for brands like Dr. Squatch, Grüns, and Ridge Wallet.
Expect to hear about:
– Dropping Out to Go All-In: How Josh left college, moved to NYC, and bet on street interview ads, and why Jesse told his mom to let him drop out.
– Corporate to Scrappy: Why Jesse left a large agency to bet on StreetTalk, trading big teams and boardrooms for startup build mode.
– The Rise of Unscripted Creative: Why influencer fatigue and AI-heav...
"The Climb" with Michael Fisher: Growing a Candy Brand 10x in 12 Months
Michael Fisher is the founder and CEO of Rotten, a sour gummy candy brand launched in 2023 that's a better-for-you product, but also with fun, nostalgic 90s kids-cartoon branding. This episode is part of "The Climb," our series featuring founders in the early stages of building their brands.
Expect to hear about:
– Candy-First Brand: Why he rejected looking like a “diet candy” and built a weird 90s cartoon universe around Dr. Rotten.
– Learning CPG from Scratch: Spending 2.5 years recipe testing, running focus groups, and launching a Kickstarter before selling a bag.
– TikTok to...
Mark Samuel: Building IWON to 6,000 Doors—Then Starting Over
Mark Samuel is the founder of Mark’s Snacks, a seed-oil-free kettle chip brand he launched in 2025, and previously the founder of IWON Organics.
Expect to hear about:
– Scaling IWON to 6,000 Doors: How Mark started IWON and grew the brand to thousands of retail doors.
– Knowing When to Walk Away: How Mark knew it was the right time to license the brand out to a manufacturer in 2024.
– Building in Public: How years of daily LinkedIn posting grew a 70,000+ follower base and helped launch Mark’s Snacks.
– Health as a Founder Ed...
Dinah Chapman: Turning a Maternity Leave Side Project into a $10M Brand
Dinah Chapman is the founder of Little Trouble, an 8-figure kids clothing brand that has a fun and punk-inspired aesthetic.
Expect to hear about:
– Starting on Maternity Leave: Why Dinah launched Little Trouble in 2022 while pregnant and still working full-time in corporate marketing.
– Scaling to $10M: How product expansion, retention, and paid media drove rapid growth.
– Building Abroad: How traveling with her family to New Zealand, Bali, and Japan helped her leave her old routine in the U.S. and unlock bigger picture thinking for Little Trouble.
– Building a Great...
Allison Taylor: How a Chrissy Teigen Shoutout Sparked 30,000 Orders
Allison Taylor is the co-founder of Le Prunier, a plum-powered skincare brand that partners with her family’s plum farm in northern California.
Expect to hear about:
– Growing Up on the Farm: Allison's childhood memories of the farm and the deep tie to the land that later shaped the brand.
– Early Retail Breakthroughs: Meeting Neiman Marcus early on and quickly earning credibility with retailers like Credo and Goop.
– 30,000 Orders Overnight: How an organic Chrissy Teigen post sent demand through the roof, and their sprint to scale operations.
– Sustained Growth: Ho...
AJ Patel: Inside the Growth Engine of a Luxury Skincare Brand
AJ Patel is the SVP of Global Growth at U Beauty, a fast-scaling luxury skincare brand that just launched a Sephora partnership.
Expect to hear about:
– Career Shifts: Why AJ moved from analytics into commercial growth, and from Unilever to a startup.
– Growing Without Promos: Why U Beauty limits discounts and focuses on education over price cuts to build long-term brand trust.
– Sephora: How the Sephora partnership came together and why AJ sees it as an awareness and credibility engine.
– Creative > Targeting: Why creative is now the primary growth l...
Charles Brun: Building IZIPIZI into a Global Eyewear Brand Sold in 80+ Countries
Charles Brun is the co-founder of IZIPIZI, a Paris-based eyewear brand designing stylish, affordable glasses now sold in over 80 countries worldwide.
Expect to hear about:
– Founding with Friends: How Charles and two high school friends of his launched IZIPIZI in 2010, and the rules they set to protect their friendship.
– Beyond Wholesale: Why wholesale worked early, and how they layered in DTC and retail channels to build a lasting brand.
– The Rebrand Bet: The 18-month switch from “See Concept” to IZIPIZI, and how they picked their new name.
– Cracking the U.S. Mar...
Ryan Rouse: Scaling Factor and Now Taking MALK from $40M to $100M
Ryan Rouse is a co-founder of Factor (a ready-to-eat meal delivery brand sold in 2020), and has also served in executive roles at Serenity Kids and Highkey. Today, he's President at MALK Organics, a plant-based milk brand leading the dairy-alternative space.
Expect to hear about:
– Leaving “Safety”: Why Ryan walked away from a lucrative finance career after the 2008 financial crisis reshaped how he viewed risk and ownership.
– Building Factor: Co-founding Factor, bootstrapping through the early years, and how him and his partner grew the business despite capital pressure.
– A Hard Tradeoff: Why Ryan s...
Myriam Belzile-Maguire: The Rise, Setbacks, and Reinvention of Maguire Shoes
Myriam Belzile-Maguire is the co-founder of Maguire Shoes, a Montreal-based brand she started with her sister in 2016 that makes fashion footwear for women.
Expect to hear about:
– The Origin Story: How seeing a pair of shoes that were produced for $20 but sold for $500 convinced her there was room for high-quality shoes at affordable prices.
– Betting Her Savings: How she launched with $15K in savings and kept Maguire alive by working a part-time job for two years.
– Two Loss Years: Operating at a loss in 2023 and 2024, the toll it took emotionally, and the...
Joe Welstead: From Pro Swimmer to Exiting His First Brand and Launching His Second
Joe Welstead is a former pro swimmer and co-founder of Motion Nutrition, sold in 2022. Today, he's the co-founder of Oshun, a brand that offers electrolyte and magnesium supplements in a pump dispenser bottle.
Expect to hear about:
– Athlete vs. Founder: The similarities and differences between being a pro athlete and an entrepreneur.
– Lessons from his First Brand: Why, if he could do it all over again, he'd launch Motion Nutrition with one hero product instead of 15 SKUs.
– Rethinking Hydration Branding: Why Oshun positions electrolytes for daily brain fog, skin health, and sl...
"The Climb" with Meredith Mills-Merritt: Starting a Gin Cocktail Brand From a Family Recipe
Meredith Mills-Merritt is the founder and CEO of The Original Southside, a canned gin cocktail brand made from a family recipe. This episode is part of "The Climb," our series featuring founders in the early stages of building their brands.
Expect to hear about:
– From Beauty to Booze: Why Meredith left her corporate career in beauty brand management to start her own consumer brand.
– 13 Months to Perfect: The long R&D process to commercialize her family recipe while keeping it organic and true to the original recipe.
– Stadium Deals: How an Instagr...
"The Climb" with Ben Dancer: Building One of the World's First Performance Sleepwear Brands
Ben Dancer is the founder of Zed Sleep, a new brand creating performance sleepwear designed to help people sleep better. This episode is part of “The Climb,” our series featuring founders in the earliest stages of building their brands.
Expect to hear about:
– From Harry’s to Founder Life: Why Ben left his role as Director of Brand at Harry’s after six years to start his first venture.
– Why Sleepwear: How opportunity in the sleepwear category and a lifelong interest in wellness inspired him to start Zed Sleep.
– Technical Apparel: How B...
Steven Sashen: From Stand-Up Comedian to Building a $70M Footwear Brand
Steven Sashen is the co-founder and CEO of Xero Shoes, a barefoot-inspired footwear brand doing about $70M in annual revenue.
Expect to hear about:
– From Stand-Up to Start-Up: What Steven learned as a professional stand-up comedian and how solving his own running injuries led to Xero Shoes.
– Shark Tank: Why he turned down Kevin O’Leary’s $400K offer for 50% of the company, and how this experience convinced him to go all in on Xero Shoes.
– Scaling: How Xero hit $70M in annual sales and maintains one of the highest repeat-pur...
Aaron Zagha: How Smart Marketing Turned a Bootstrapped Brand Into a Category Leader
Aaron Zagha is the CMO of Newton Baby, one of the largest DTC baby sleep brands in the U.S., known for its innovative baby mattresses, cribs, and more.
Expect to hear about:
– From Banking to Ecom: How Aaron went from M&A to e-commerce after two failed startups, and found his calling in data-driven marketing.
– Bootstrapped Growth: Why Newton Baby scaled to 8-figure sales without outside funding, and how Aaron thinks about profit-first marketing.
– The Influencer Bet: How leaning into Instagram creators early helped Newton dominate a premium, trust-based catego...
Brad Woodgate: How He Built Three $100M CPG Brands Without Raising a Dollar
Brad Woodgate is the founder and CEO of Joyburst and The No Sugar Company, the two latest brands in Brad's long history in CPG, beginning with Wellnx Life Sciences in 2000.
Expect to hear about:
– Bootstrapped from Day 1: Why Brad never raised outside capital, and how each brand he started built the financial foundation for the next one.
– The No Sugar Bet: How Brad recognized that “no sugar” would be a lasting global health movement, and built a brand to lead it.
– Disney x Joyburst: The story of how Disney’s executive team d...
Henrik Jonsson: Building the World’s First Circular Phone Case Company
Henrik Jonsson is the CEO of agood company, a Swedish brand that creates truly sustainable or "circular" phone cases and other products, hitting profitability in 2025 under his leadership.
Expect to hear about:
– The Circular Revolution: How agood company turns old phone cases into new ones using a circular model, creating products that are truly sustainable.
– The Retail Pivot: How agood company shifted from DTC to 85% retail sales after realizing online acquisition wasn’t profitable.
– Breaking the Premium Myth: Realizing that reports from consumers saying they'll pay more for sustainable products are simply n...
Human Thread: Emotional Content—When Does It Become Too Much in Marketing?
Dr. Andrew Hughes returns to the "Human Thread" series to help Forest and Leah tackle one of marketing’s most delicate frontiers: emotion. Where’s the line between resonance and manipulation? Together, they unpack how emotion captures attention, why overload leads to burnout, and how brands can use emotion responsibly in an always-on digital world.
Expect to hear about:
Nick Saltarelli: How He Built a $40M Brand with Family—and the Push Toward $100M
Nick Saltarelli is the co-founder and co-CEO of Mid-Day Squares, a functional chocolate brand doing $40M in annual revenue across North America.
Expect to hear about:
– Family as Cofounders: The journey of building with his wife and brother-in-law, and why weekly therapy was non-negotiable.
– Starting with Constraints: Why they made a self-imposed rule to not use Facebooks ads in year one and still hit $1M in sales.
– Building in Public: How transparency and a commitment to authenticity shaped Mid-Day Squares’ bold content strategy.
– Securing Costco: How they relied on their f...
Jillian Chisari: Selling $100K Watches Online and Building Trust in Luxury Ecommerce
Jillian Chisari is the VP of Digital at Bucherer, the global luxury watch retailer known for selling everything from $1,000 timepieces to six-figure collectibles.
Expect to hear about:
– (Very) High-Ticket Ecommerce: Why selling $5K-100K watches online requires a different playbook than apparel or beauty.
– Building Trust: The authentication, servicing, and CX strategies that make customers comfortable buying luxury watches digitally.
– Testing at Low Volume: How Jillian approaches running marketing experiments with high-AOV but low-volume tests.
– Leadership & Boundaries: The lessons she’s taken from past bosses, her direct-yet-flexible management style, and...
"The Climb" with Jenny Casson & Manuella Widjaja: Redesigning Bras for Broad Shoulders
Jenny Casson, a two-time Olympic rower with team Canada, and Manuella Widjaja, a former YC startup operator, are the co-founders of Daylilie, a new apparel brand rethinking bras for broad-shouldered women. This episode is part of "The Climb," our series featuring founders in the early stages of building their brands.
Expect to hear about:
– Meet-Cute to Cofounders: How a cold DM about fit surveys turned into a partnership that led to Daylilie’s founding.
– Silhouettes, Not Sizes: Why they’re challenging outdated bra design by focusing on body shape, not just cup and band...
“The Climb” with Tiana Ravden: Eroe’s 10-Year Journey and a Today Show Breakthrough
Tiana Ravden is the founder and CEO of Eroe, a lingerie brand that keeps sweat stains off your clothes with an innovative, patented bra design that's been 10 years in the making and launched February 2025. This episode is part of "The Climb," our series featuring founders in the earliest stages of building their brands.
Expect to hear about:
– The DIY Spark: How Tiana cut up a T-shirt and slipped it under a silk dress, sparking the idea that became Eroe.
– Fabric Failures: Losing her “perfect fabric” right before launch and why the timing delay du...
Wylie Robinson: The Rumpl Journey—Kickstarter, Shark Tank, and Stepping Down as CEO
Wylie Robinson is the founder, former CEO, and Chairman of Rumpl, an 8-figure brand that makes performance blankets and sleeping bags for the outdoors.
Expect to hear about:
– Frozen Van Epiphany: How a night stranded in the Sierras inspired the idea for Rumpl.
– Kickstarter Launch: Turning a “sleeping bag blanket” prototype into $250K of preorders in 30 days.
– Co-Founder Split: Why diverging visions led to an early breakup, and Wylie’s advice for navigating founder separations.
– Shark Tank Spotlight: The reality of pitching on national TV, walking away from offers, and wh...
