Avsnitt
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Alexandra Pauly, founder of Biche, a luxury pet grooming brand bringing beauty-industry standards to dog care.
After working in fashion and beauty media, Alex started Biche out of frustration with the grooming products she was using on her own dog.
She spent roughly a year and a half developing their first two products, and in April, went to market with a gentle shampoo and leave-in conditioning oil designed to be better for a dog’s skin and coat while creating a more enjoyable experience for the owner.
In this conversation, we talk about what translates from human beauty into pet care, the challenge of developing a fragrance that works for both dogs and their owners, how Alex approached pricing without many direct comparisons, the roles of DTC and retail in the earliest stages of building the brand, as well as how she's thinking about customer acquisition, fundraising, and expanding the product line without losing focus.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Alex, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Aishwarya Iyer, founder and CEO of Brightland, a brand best known for its high-quality, California-sourced olive oils, vinegars, and other pantry items.
Ash started Brightland after a career spanning beauty, technology, and venture capital, combining her interest in olive oil with a desire to build products that encourage people to live a little more offline. Eight years later, Brightland has become one of the most recognized names in the space while managing to remain remarkably deliberate about how the business grows.
In this conversation, we talk about the realities of entering the olive oil industry without a traditional food background, how Ash approached pricing and product development, as well as why she's been so selective about retail expansion.
We also discuss gifting, collaborations, fundraising, personnel management, and how her approach to building Brightland has evolved over time.
Without giving away too much, I think Ash’s philosophy is one of the most unique I’ve come across to date, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I learned a lot during our conversation. As always, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Mahsa Darabi, founder of MAHSA CHAI®, a premium chai company built around high-quality ingredients, and a powdered format designed to be easier for both consumers and cafes.
What started as a personal blend Mahsa made for herself during a period of postpartum anxiety eventually became a product people in her community kept asking for, and today MAHSA CHAI® has moved from hand-filled tins and local pop-ups to retail, cafes, production partners, and customers across the country.
In this conversation, we talk about what actually goes into making chai at scale: sourcing dozens of premium ingredients, working with spice and tea suppliers, how tariffs, packaging, and shipping create real fragility for small food businesses, and why MAHSA CHAI® has chosen a powdered chai format instead of the concentrates most cafes use. We also get into pricing, margins, consumer education, retail expansion, the decision to launch a caffeinated blend, and what it means to scale a business while staying extremely protective of the product, the customer, and the values behind the brand.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Mahsa, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Erin Forden and Maddie Nehlen, co-founders of Betty Jo’s, a small-batch, pastry-inspired ice cream brand based in Brooklyn.
Betty Jo’s makes hand-packed pints built around dessert-inspired flavors, with eye-catching handmade toppings like pie lattices, buttercream, jam, and other pastry elements. The business started with small drops for friends and family, then grew quickly after its cherry pie pint went viral. Today, Erin and Maddie are producing roughly 1,500 pints a month, selling primarily through monthly drops and local pickup.
In this conversation, we talk about what it takes to scale a handmade food business without turning it into a conventional CPG brand. We get into kitchen capacity, freezer space, pickup logistics, repeat customers, pricing, collaborations, events, wholesale licensing, retail ambitions, and why the next version of Betty Jo’s may look more like a pint shop and production space than a national grocery brand.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Erin and Maddie, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today's episode, I sit down with Sahand Dilmaghani, founder and CEO of Terra Kaffe, a company building connected, bean-to-cup espresso machines for people who want better coffee at home without relying on pods or manual barista equipment.
In this conversation, we talk about how Terra Kaffe brought its first machine to market through contract manufacturing, what changed between TK-01 and TK-02, and how the company uses connected-device data, customer feedback, and firmware updates to improve the product after it ships. We also get into pricing, product-line expansion, the risk of cannibalization with Demi, coffee subscriptions, rentals, B2B demand, and why offices, hotels, showrooms, and bars may become important channels for the business.
I learned a during my conversation with Sahand, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
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On today's episode, I sit down with Jamie Kim, founder of Jamie’s Farm, a premium granola company based in New York.
Jamie started the business while she was at Cornell, first baking every batch herself and sourcing ingredients like butter and honey from nearby farms. Since then, Jamie’s Farm has grown into about 250 doors, including Whole Foods, Central Market, FreshDirect, Farm to People, Amazon, and independent retailers.
In this conversation, we talk about the operational realities of scaling a product that many consumers might assume is simple: sourcing oats, almonds, coconut, ghee, vanilla, cherries, and honey; finding a manufacturer that could handle dairy; dealing with ingredient shortages and tariffs; financing inventory for retail growth; and deciding where to preserve quality versus where to make practical compromises.
We also get into Jamie’s views on bootstrapping, regional growth, seasonal flavors, brand collaborations, and building a business around her own definition of success.
I learned a lot from my conversation with Jamie, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Nico and Fran, co-founders of Pistakio.
Pistakio makes pistachio spread built around real pistachio flavor, but the product is really built around a harder question: how do you take an ingredient that is already loved in Italy, and turn it into a pantry staple for American consumers who mostly know pistachios as a snack, a gelato flavor, or a recent Dubai chocolate trend?
In this conversation, we get into the early pivot from pistachio mayo to sweet spread, what they learned from launching into New Seasons, how demos shaped the product and packaging, why food service has become such an important discovery channel, the role of TikTok and influencer seeding, and what changed when they moved from making the product themselves to working with a co-packer.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Nico and Fran, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Brendan Flannery is the co-founder and CEO of RIP Cold Brew, a ready-to-drink cold brew brand built around smooth coffee, shelf-stable cans, and a more active, on-the-go use case.
In this episode, we get into how Brendan and his co-founders developed the first RIP product, why making shelf-stable canned coffee taste good is harder than it looks, and why the brand leads with energy and lifestyle rather than traditional coffee language. We also talk about early retail testing across premium grocers, convenience stores, restaurants, bars, and lifestyle spaces, how RIP thinks about energy drinks without positioning directly against them, the economics of DTC when you are shipping cans of liquid, and the company’s upcoming expansion into half-caf, latte, and flavored black coffee.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Brendan, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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This episode of Unit Economics is a little different.
At a CPGD dinner party hosted at Maxwell Social, I tested out a new pop-up podcast format with the help of Theorist Studios. Instead of a traditional long-form interview, founders sat down for quick, two-to-four-minute conversations answering a couple questions each.
The result is a fast-moving collection of mini interviews with emerging founders across hospitality, food, beverage, alcohol, skincare, and better-for-you products.
Guests include David Litwack of Maxwell Social, Sofia Paloma Juarez of Casa J Tequila, Erin Barrett of Goldilocks, Anna Zesbaugh of Corpse Reviver, Joe Rotondo of Smearcase, Ilay Karateke of Bezi, Aaron Sager of Caltein, Liv Truesdell of Frost Buttercream, and Megan Black of Sonni.
Together, they share what people misunderstand about their industries, what the CPG world gets wrong, and the small decisions that shaped their brands.
It’s not a typical Unit Economics episode, but it was a fun experiment in capturing founder insights in real time, and as always I still managed to learn a lot.
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On today's episode, I sit down with Basil Beshkov, co-founder of YUZUCO. YUZUCO is importing specialty citrus juice and makes citrus ingredients with yuzu at the center of the business. Yuzu has been used across Asia for a long time, and it's recently become more visible in the U.S. through fine dining, cocktails, bakeries, and specialty food.
But YUZUCO is built around a harder question: how do you take an ingredient that chefs and bartenders already want and make it available in formats, quantities, and prices that can actually work across restaurants, beverage programs, bakeries, and consumer products?
In this conversation, we get into the early decision around launching with Super Juice for bartenders, the work of sourcing from Japan and other growing regions, why peel, powder, oil, and ready-to-drink products all play a role in the business, and what happened when a random sample request turned into a Starbucks bakery launch.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Basil, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today's episode, I sit down with Jane Wong, co-founder of NOON.
NOON is making functional mushroom gummies for focus, stress, sleep, and energy, but the product is really built around a harder question: how do you take ingredients that can feel medicinal, earthy, or unfamiliar and make them easy enough for someone to use every day?
This creates a lot of hard operating questions. Gummies are familiar and easy to try, but they're also a difficult vehicle for serious functional ingredients. NOON had to find a manufacturer that could handle a dual-layer gummy, preserve the strength of the formulation, make the product taste good, and still create something that could sit on shelf without being mistaken for candy.
In this conversation, we get into all the formulation work behind making the product taste good, the trade-off between gummies, tinctures, pills, and powders when thinking about form factor, how packaging can help explain an unfamiliar product, and what changes when a young supplement brand needs to start preparing for a launch at Target.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Jane, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today's episode, I sit down with Gabriella Labi and Tonya Reznikovich, the co-founders of Gato Dates.
Gato makes chocolate-covered stuffed Medjool dates using organic ingredients, premium nut butters, and a clean-label approach that makes the product feel more like a boxed chocolate than a conventional snack.
What started as something Gabi made at home for friends and family quickly turned into a business with demand across farmers markets, coffee shops, specialty grocery, and gifting.
In this conversation, we get into what it actually takes to build that kind of product into a real CPG brand: sourcing expensive ingredients, managing handmade production, improving labor costs through automation, navigating cold-chain shipping, and figuring out how to price a product that works as both an everyday treat and a gift.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Gabi and Tonya, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Matt Sims, co-founder of Courier, a performance sock company building technical socks for running, cycling, and training.
I first found Courier at a boutique running store in San Francisco called Running Wylder, and they very quickly became my favorite socks, so much so that I wear them every single day. So needless to say, I was really excited to sit down with Matt and talk about what actually goes into building a better version of a product most people do not think very much about.
In this conversation, we get into how Courier thinks about sensation instead of sport-specific categories, why they filed patents around their cushioning system, how they approached pricing across their different SKUs, and their deliberate approach to retail strategy, brand positioning, and pace of expansion.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Matt, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Katharine Leitch, Co-Founder and COO of Esspo, a company making espresso soda in a ready-to-drink format.
Espresso soda is not a new behavior. People have been mixing espresso with soda or sparkling water at home, and versions of espresso tonics have been showing up on coffee shop menus for years. What Esspo is trying to do is turn that behavior into a packaged beverage that can work in retail.
Kat and I talk about what it takes to bring that kind of product to market, from narrowing the company’s original coffee platform down to one core product, to rebranding around a more focused idea, to figuring out what the can needs to communicate in just a few seconds on shelf.
We also get into the economics of beverage, including why retail matters so much, why DTC is difficult when you are shipping liquid, how TikTok Shop fits into the early customer acquisition strategy, and where margin pressure shows up across packaging, freight, and fulfillment.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Kat, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Zoya Virani, head of growth at CPGD, one of the longest-running consumer brand discovery platforms focused on emerging CPG companies.
We get into what it actually looks like to build a business around curation in consumer, including how CPGD decides which brands make it into the newsletter, what they’ve learned from operating a highly engaged founder and investor audience, and why restraint has become a core part of the company’s strategy.
We also talk through the mechanics behind the business itself: sponsorships, events, investor newsletters, deal flow, and the early infrastructure they’re building around connecting founders with capital. Zoya explains how they think about scaling without diluting trust, what makes a founder or pitch stand out in a crowded market, and why durability matters more than ever in today’s fundraising environment.
There’s also a broader conversation around taste as a business model, the tradeoffs between curation and scale, and how emerging consumer brands are increasingly being built around systems and behaviors rather than single products.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Zoya, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Clarke Pennington, founder of Lasso, a better-for-you gelatin brand built around protein and fiber.
We get into what it actually takes to build a product like this from scratch, including the formulation challenges behind texture, why adding protein and fiber makes the system significantly harder to build, and how many iterations it took to land on something viable. We also talk through how Clarke approached pricing, benchmarking against other protein snacks and working backward from cost and margin targets early on, along with how he’s thinking about positioning the product across DTC and retail.
We also spend time on some of the less obvious constraints in the business, particularly around packaging and manufacturing. Unlike most categories, there isn’t an off-the-shelf solution for something like a single-serve gelatin cup, which means navigating material limitations, equipment requirements, and a supply chain largely controlled by incumbents.
I learned so much during my conversation with Clarke, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Tenley Fitzgerald, the creator of Yes! Apples, a consumer brand built to bring clarity and differentiation to the apple category.
If you’ve ever walked into a grocery store and felt overwhelmed by the number of apple varieties, that’s exactly the problem Tenley is trying to solve. Yes! Apples is built around making the category easier to navigate, using branding and packaging to help make consumers make more informed decisions at shelf.
In this conversation, we get into how apples are sourced and sold at scale, how the business works across retail and direct-to-consumer, and what it looks like to build a brand in a category where most products are still treated as commodities.
I learned so much during my conversation with Tenley, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Saif Khawaja, founder and CEO of Shinkei Systems and Seremoni, two companies that together form a vertically integrated seafood business, where Shinkei builds robots that change how fish are handled right after they’re caught (resulting in longer shelf life and better quality) and Seremoni is the brand and standard under which that fish is sold.
This was, without a doubt, one of the most compelling conversations I've had on the show to date. We talk about the inspiration behind starting the business, the early days of building hardware that could actually run on boats, and how that’s turned into a system now being deployed across vessels in the U.S., with a plan to sit on roughly 25 by the end of the year.
We also get into the mechanics of how the business actually works - why their machines are deployed for free, where they actually make money in the system, the decision to buy a processing plant, what it looks like to work with distributors, restaurants, and retailers, and how all of it ties back to controlling quality from the moment the fish is caught.
I learned so much during my conversation with Saif, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Gabe Turner, co-founder of Fjord, a floating sauna and cold plunge experience built on the water in Sausalito.
In this conversation, we talk about how the business actually came together, from early experiments with a mobile sauna to navigating an 18-month permitting process across multiple agencies and ultimately building their first unit in the Bay using repurposed materials.
We also get into how the experience is designed, including why they chose to keep it simple, root it in nature, and avoid layering on additional services typically associated with spas.
We spend time on how the business works today, from session structure and capacity to pricing, and what changed when a model that was expected to be difficult to fill ended up fully booked from day one.
Gabe also walks through how they are thinking about expansion, the complexities around scaling business like theirs, and how they plan to grow without compromising the core experience.
I learned so much during my conversation with Gabe, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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On today’s episode, I sit down with Noah Phillips, founder of Honey Department, a recently launched brand selling creamed honey in a tube.
Honey Department started with a pretty simple observation: everyone uses honey, but almost no one thinks about the product or the brand, and it’s still mostly sold the same way it always has been.
But what looked like a pretty straightforward idea quickly turned into a much more complex product and supply chain for Noah to develop.
We walk through the decision to use creamed honey so the product would actually work in a tube, how he built a supply chain that runs from a co-op in Mexico to an apiary in Texas to a separate co-manufacturer, and what it took to go from zero to a finished product in a category with very little standardization.
Lastly, we also spend a good amount of time on branding and positioning, as it's a huge part of this story.
I learned a lot during my conversation with Noah, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
- Visa fler
![[Biche] Alexandra Pauly](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts221/v4/80/0e/14/800e143e-2d51-8644-3044-1cb3bda93356/mza_4849443104146237121.jpg/80x80bb.jpg)