In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG

Fifty years in business. Zero unprofitable years. Is that still possible for a consumer brand starting today? Andrew Faris, founder of AJF Growth, returns to In The Money for round two, landing right as BFCM season kicks off, with the tactical holiday playbook and a much bigger question about what kind of consumer business is still available to build. Andrew runs one of the most respected growth agencies in eCommerce with a media buying point of view built in public across hundreds of episodes of the Andrew Faris Podcast. We cover: The “economy is cooked” take making the rounds, and why Andrew thinks the data says otherwise heading into the holidays The BFCM playbook: spend aggressively now, adjust ROAS targets down, and why October cohorts rebuy 80-100% more often in month one Gifting creative, offer-forward messaging, and why “it’s discounted” is the most compelling ad message of the season Launch your sale very early or very late, never in the middle, and the share-of-wallet problem that punishes the…

Three years stuck at $1.4 million in revenue. A warehouse and tech build that cost double the projections. A Stripe loan, a B2B check, and a family bridge loan landing back-to-back just to survive. Michael Robinov, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm to People, joins In The Money to tell one of the most honest bootstrapped stories in food, thirteen years building a Brooklyn-based online farmers market that delivers fresh, seasonal groceries from over 200 farms and producers within 300 miles of New York City to more than 13,000 customers across the tri-state. Today the business is at mid-eight figures, growing nearly 100% year over year and just announced its first outside capital ever, a $5 million round led by New Fare Partners, complete with a full New York Times feature. But this is the opposite of an overnight success story. We cover: Dropping out of NYU at twenty-one and paying himself $20K a year, for years The three years of stagnation at $1.4M and what kept him going through the doldrums Funding holiday…

The meal delivery industry lost $20 billion last year. Feast & Fettle is profitable, growing 40%+, and just launched in Manhattan. Carlos Ventura, CEO of Feast & Fettle, joins In The Money to break down how a $200K personal chef service in Providence, Rhode Island became one of the only profitable players in the most capital-destructive category in consumer, through full vertical integration, patient family office capital, and an obsessive refusal to compromise on product. Carlos came from Goldman Sachs and Deliveroo with no plans to stay in food delivery. Then he tried the product, saw retention curves like nothing he'd ever seen, and joined as professional CEO alongside founder Maggie Mulvena Pearson. Five years later: 25x revenue growth, high single-digit EBITDA margins, and seventy sprinter vans covering the Northeast corridor. We cover: Why Carlos left Wall Street and what sold him on a $200K personal chef service The case for vertical integration: owning the kitchens, the vans, and the custom tech…

What if your next customer acquisition channel isn't a platform, it's a licensing catalog? David Born, brand licensing consultant, joins In The Money to demystify one of the most overlooked growth levers available to consumer brands in the $5M to $30M range: licensing world-famous IP like John Deere, Peanuts, Disney, Batman, and Toy Story. The proof point that anchors the whole conversation: 80% of the customers who bought Everyman Jack's John Deere collection had never bought Everyman Jack before. We cover: How brand licensing actually works: royalty rates, minimum guarantees, marketing commitments, and territory restrictions The Everyman Jack x John Deere case study and why 80% net-new customers is the number that should make every DTC founder pay attention Why licensing functions as a customer acquisition channel borrowing trust instead of renting attention at rising CACs What IP actually costs at the $5-30M brand level — and how the economics pencil What makes a brand ready for licensing and the warning…

What does it take to hold your ROAS floor for six years, through COVID, rising CACs, and the collapse of most of your 2019 launch cohort? Jordan Nathan, Founder and CEO of Caraway, joins In The Money to break down the discipline behind one of the most successful DTC homeware brands of the last decade, from the fundraise that required sixty checks, to the rolling thunder marketing calendar that keeps the brand impossible to ignore every single month. Caraway launched in November 2019 with non-toxic ceramic cookware and a vision that was always bigger than pans, Caraway Home, a full home ecosystem, planned years before the first product shipped. Today they're running one of the most sophisticated marketing operations in consumer, sending millions of direct mail pieces a month, and planning product launches five years out. We cover: The 2018 fundraise: starting a year and a half before launch, five to eight funded competitors, and sixty checks to close the round Why Jordan's pricing rule is to price higher than…

Joe Welstead, Co-Founder of Oshun, returns to In The Money for a deeper conversation on the systems behind one of the fastest-growing hydration brands, still just two people, still profitable, still cash generative, and now launching a second brand. Since launching in April 2024, Joe and co-founder Jack Atkinson have built Oshun to mid-seven figures with no institutional capital, an unflavored electrolyte concentrate in a pump bottle, positioned closer to skincare than sports nutrition. This episode gets into the decisions most founders never talk about publicly. We cover: The profitability versus growth conversation: how Joe and Jack decide between paying themselves more and funding the next phase The stage-based framework: why percentage margin matters early and hard cash margin matters later Seasonality in hydration: when to push aggressively and when to harvest profitability Why Joe is skeptical of brands that claim they've "chosen" a $300 CAC and what the Meta machine actually controls Running 110 ads…

What's the difference between brand and branding and why is confusing the two one of the most expensive mistakes a consumer founder can make? Rick Desai, Managing Partner at Listen Ventures, joins In The Money to break down the investing philosophy behind one of the most concentrated consumer portfolios in venture. Listen manages $130 million across four funds, backs just twelve brands per fund, and has been behind some of the most recognizable outcomes in modern consumer, Calm, now valued at over $2 billion, and Factor, which HelloFresh acquired for $277 million after Listen backed it from inception to exit. Rick also teaches entrepreneurship and digital marketing at Kellogg, and what he's seeing across the portfolio right now is shaping some of the sharpest perspectives on brand, TikTok, AI, and what separates consumer companies that last from ones that just had a great launch. We cover: Brand versus branding: why they're not the same thing and why the confusion is so expensive Why brand is internal before…

What does it actually cost to hold an uncompromising product standard in premium homeware? Joe Parenteau, Co-Founder and CEO of Fable, joins In The Money to break down how a former accountant with no design background built one of North America's most design-forward homeware brands, and why they've walked away from roughly 30% of supplier relationships mid-development rather than ship a product that didn't meet standard. Fable designs in Vancouver and crafts through family-owned artisan makers in Portugal, Belgium, and Japan. Dinnerware, glassware, flatware, and rugs built around a thesis the rest of the industry ignores: you shouldn't have to choose between beautiful and durable. Full wool rugs that are machine washable. Glassware elegant enough for a dinner party and tough enough for a Tuesday night. B Corp certified, backed by Listen Ventures, True, Sandpiper, and Techstars. We cover: How a Bench Accounting operations director ended up building a premium homeware brand The founding insight: why buying…

Sahand Dilmaghani, Founder and CEO of Terra Cafe, joins In The Money to tell one of the more quietly impressive origin stories in consumer hardware, a founder who spent months recording conversations with strangers in retail stores, carried espresso machines door to door across New York City, and built a relationship with a Chinese manufacturer just weeks before the world shut down during COVID. Terra Cafe makes premium automatic bean-to-cup espresso machines, 400-plus moving parts, a hardware-plus-consumables ecosystem, and a customer base where nearly half are converting directly from a pod machine to a $2,000 device. The category had been full of machines nobody could explain, priced anywhere from $1,200 to $6,000, with no brand making the transition from pods feel accessible. Sahand saw the missing link. He spent three years building the product to fill it. We cover: Why Sahand moved to New York, lived on one meal a day, and carried espresso machines door to door before spending a dollar on ads Recording…

What happens when a former consumer brand founder gets tired of the working capital grind, spots a broken format in adult recreational sports leagues, and decides to engineer the conditions for adults to actually make new friends? Tommy Flaim, Founder of Silly Pickles, joins In The Money to break down one of the more unexpected growth stories in the consumer space, a pickleball league that started as a side hustle managed on Microsoft Excel, hit a waitlist of over a thousand players in its first few seasons, and is now in 75 metro areas across the US, Canada, and Australia doing $6 million in run rate on just $750K raised. We cover: Why adult recreational sports leagues have a broken format and the dynamic ladder system Tommy built to fix it How to engineer a social outcome: skill-based matchups, repeat exposure, happy hours, and the magic of a great local host Why 50% of Silly Pickles players have never played in another adult rec league and 30% had never even played pickleball before their first night The…

What does it look like to send 25 to 30 cold emails to a founder you've never met because you believe in a product so much you're willing to bet your career on it? Kieran Mathew, CEO of Equip Foods, joins In The Money to break down one of the more unconventional origin stories in better-for-you supplements, an operator who joined an existing business, took over day-to-day functions from the founder, and helped scale it from low seven figures to well into eight on a growth model that barely touched Meta spend. Equip makes animal-based protein products built around one standard: real food ingredients, nothing the brand wouldn't stand behind completely. No fillers. No shortcuts. A product built for a customer who reads labels and doesn't forgive compromises. We cover: Why Kieran sent 25-30 emails to founder Anthony Gustin before getting a response and what he said to finally get one What it actually looks like to join a business as an operator-partner rather than a founder How to take over day-to-day operations…

What happens when a high-protein, clean-ingredient frozen pizza brand spends two years grinding through cold chain nightmares, supply chain restarts, and a fundraising carousel, and then lands at number one in the frozen pizza category at Target? Michael Rolland, Co-Founder of Yough!, joins In The Money to tell one of the more honest origin stories in better-for-you frozen food, a brand built around a simple thesis that you shouldn't have to choose between eating pizza and feeling good afterward, and the long road it took to get that product in front of the right retailers at the right moment. 700 calories. 46 grams of protein. No junk ingredients. An anytime meal that people are eating pre-workout, post-workout, and at 2am after a night out, without the guilt. We cover: Why DTC was the wrong model for frozen and what Yough! learned the expensive way The supply chain issues that forced a full relaunch and why it ultimately made the product better How Yough! built into boutique specialty retail first before…

What does it look like to sell a brand to Kraft Heinz for a reported $200 million, and then build the second one with three kids under seven and no social media on your phone? Morgan Zanotti, Founder and CEO of Waay, joins In The Money to break down what changed and what stayed the same the second time around. Waay is a fizzy, clear sparkling protein water, 10 grams of protein, 45 calories, zero sugar, built for women who are tired of choking down chalky shakes to hit their protein goals. Before Waay, Morgan co-founded Primal Kitchen alongside Mark Sisson, bootstrapped it to $50M in revenue profitably, and led the company through its $200 million acquisition by Kraft Heinz in 2019. We cover: Why Morgan built Waay after watching the protein trend get sold entirely to men The Primal Kitchen playbook: bootstrapping to $50M before the exit What she learned inside Kraft Heinz about scale, GLP-1s, and category timing Why she pitched Whole Foods with a silver can, no final formula, no co-manufacturer, and no…

What does it look like to build a premium hydration brand in one of the most crowded categories in consumer health, and win by doing almost everything differently? Joe Welstead, Co-Founder of Oshun, joins In The Money to break down how a repeat founder took every assumption about the electrolyte category and threw them out. No sachets. No citrus. No agency. No VC. Just a pump dispenser, an unflavored formula, and a brand positioning that owes more to skincare than sports nutrition. Joe built Motion Nutrition before this. He came out of that experience with one lesson above all others: launch one product, nail it completely, and resist every temptation to expand before you've earned the right to. At Oshun, he's done exactly that, and it's working. We cover: Why Joe looked at LMNT, Liquid IV, Nuun, Hydrant, and Prime and saw an opportunity hiding in plain sight The pump dispenser decision: why form factor is a marketing strategy, not just a packaging choice Why Oshun has no flavor, and how that single decision…

What does it actually mean to invest in brand before it's measurable? Florian Wojewodzki, Partner at Iris, joins In The Money to break down one of the most distinctive approaches to consumer investing in Europe and the US, a fund that tracks over 5,000 brands, backs founders they've known for years before writing a check, and won't hire anyone who isn't genuinely obsessed with brand. Iris sits at the intersection of health, wellness, and better-for-you consumer, with a portfolio that includes some of the most interesting brands in CPG right now. Their thesis is built around three things every winning consumer brand needs: product, brand, and community. Miss any one of them and the other two can't save you. We cover: Why Iris describes itself as brand junkies, and why that's a hiring requirement, not a marketing line The holy trinity: product, brand, and community as the non-negotiable framework for every investment decision Why Iris builds a category view before it ever meets a company, and what that looks…

What happens when a tech founder walks away from a successful exit, spends time drinking wine in Southern Europe, and comes back convinced the American wine industry is getting it completely wrong? Stephen Vlahos, Co-Founder and CEO of Gratsi, joins In The Money to tell the story of building an eight-figure, no-additive, zero-sugar wine brand from scratch, through a pivot that COVID forced on him, a format that nobody thought would work for a premium brand, and a subscriber base of over 30,000 people who keep coming back every month. Before Gratsi, Stephen co-founded Bellhops, a venture-backed two-sided marketplace that scaled to $15 million in revenue before he handed the keys to a team from Uber. What he learned about co-founder dynamics, internal conflict, and what kills companies from the inside shaped everything about how he built Gratsi. We cover: Why Stephen left tech to sell wine, and what time in Southern Europe taught him about how Americans drink wrong The Bellhops lessons: what happens when a…

What does it actually look like to grind for a decade in CPG before the category finally catches up to you? Jason Burke, Founder and CEO of New Primal, joins In The Money to tell one of the most honest origin stories in better-for-you snacking; twelve years of building, a lot of expensive mistakes, and a front-row seat to one of the biggest category inflections in modern grocery. New Primal commercialized the first grass-fed beef jerky for retail. Jason bet on the family lunchbox a decade before mom entered the meat snack category. He's now approaching $100 million in revenue, heading into 1,900 Target stores with six products, and running one of the leanest operations relative to revenue in the space. He pitched Target for ten years before they said yes. We cover: Why the four-to-five year CPG startup-to-exit myth is just that, a myth What the decade of grinding actually looked like: too many SKUs, too many retail markets, too many rabbits chased Why Jason has never had self-doubt, and how that same quality…

Corporate venture capital has a reputation problem. And according to Brian Bernstein, that reputation is mostly earned. Brian Bernstein, Investor at Rich Products Ventures, joins In The Money to make the case for why corporate VC doesn't have to work the way founders fear and to explain exactly how Rich Products Ventures is structured to be different. Rich's is an 80-year-old privately held food company. Over 95% frozen. Dozens of manufacturing plants, deep cold chain expertise, and food service and retail distribution spanning 110 countries. Their venture arm has been investing for eight years and they're leaning harder into branded CPG than ever before. We cover: Why corporate VC has a mixed reputation and why those concerns are legitimate How Rich Products Ventures maintains investment autonomy without business unit sign-off The honest version of the pitch: patient capital, no LP pressure, no exit clock Why all three members of the investing team are former operators and why that matters How the strategic…

What does it look like to build a hardware brand to eight figures with two employees, no VC, and a rule that every product must be first order profitable from day one? Sam Coxe, Founder and CEO of Flaus, joins In The Money to tell one of the most disciplined founder stories in the DTC space; a Skadden M&A attorney who put her entire life savings into a consumer electronics company, got told no by every professional investor, and built her way to $10M+ in revenue on a foundation of margins, focus, and relentless customer research. Flaus is the world's first electric flosser. Sam didn't just build the product, she built the category. And she did it one deliberate step at a time. We cover: Why Sam left one of the world's most prestigious law firms to build a consumer hardware company The $120K life savings bet: how she funded the first million dollars of product development Why she got told no by every professional investor The 10x bill of materials rule: how she engineered hardware margins before she had a…

What happens to your cash when you land a purchase order from Target, Walmart, or Costco? Ben Brachot, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Dwight Funding, joins In The Money for round two to break down the working capital reality that most consumer founders discover too late and the financial infrastructure decisions that separate the brands that scale from the ones that quietly run out of runway. Dwight is one of the most active asset-based lenders to high-growth consumer brands, working alongside companies from their first $2M facility all the way through exits, IPOs, and everything in between. Their portfolio includes Olipop, Chubbies, Birch Benders, and dozens of the most recognizable names in modern CPG. We cover: Why 2026 is shaping up to be one of the busiest years Dwight has seen and what's driving investor excitement back into consumer The retail-first shift: why today's best founders are launching into Target, Walmart, Costco, and Sephora before building DTC How Dwight underwrites brands as young…

What if the best family technology isn't the most powerful one, it's the most purposeful one? Mei Lin Ng, Co-Founder and CEO of Hearth Display, joins In The Money to tell the story of building a hardware startup for families from the ground up, two years of customer research before a single line of code, three years of pre-orders before ready-to-ship inventory, and a $10M raise doing what most hardware companies need $40M to accomplish. Hearth is a purpose-built family display that sits at the intersection of behavioral science, childhood development, and consumer hardware. Not a tablet. Not a whiteboard. A dedicated family operating system designed around one insight: the most painful moments of the family day aren't logistics problems, they're power struggles. We cover: Why the most painful moments of the family day are getting ready for school and going to bed and how Hearth was designed around that Two years of customer research before writing a line of code and why those early Facebook community members…

What does it actually look like to build a mid-eight figure consumer brand with seven people and zero venture capital? Alex Schinasi, Co-Founder and President of Hulken, joins In The Money to break down the Minimum Viable Company, a model she's built from scratch after two VC-backed SaaS companies taught him everything she didn't want to do again. Hulken hit $50M+ in revenue with fewer than 10 people. The goal is $100M with the same headcount. This is a conversation about what's actually possible when you strip a business down to its highest-leverage elements and refuse to hire your way to growth. We cover: What the Minimum Viable Company actually is and why Alex thinks it's the future of building brands How Hulken went from zero to $5M in revenue without spending a dollar on paid ads The niche communities that found Hulken first: thrifters, makeup artists, professional organizers and what that signal meant Why Supreme reached out before Alex was even working on Hulken full-time How to vet agencies like…

What happens when a made-to-order brand tries to sell custom shirts online and discovers that guys won't do homework before buying clothes? Kirk Keel, Co-Founder of Stantt, joins In The Money to trace one of the more honest origin stories in menswear: a DTC-first vision that quietly died at checkout, a flea market in Chelsea that accidentally proved the model, and a decade of wholesale growth through Nordstrom, Saks, and Dillard's that nobody originally planned for. Now they've come full circle, and Meta is finally working. We cover: Why made-to-order hasn't gone mainstream (and what it would take) The Chelsea Market moment that changed everything How Stantt went from DTC-only to wholesale-first almost by accident Why their original pricing model was completely wrong for retail, and how they fixed it The double hit of de minimis removal and tariffs: how Stantt navigated 20-25% price increases Why bootstrapping longer is advice Kirk wishes he'd taken Sell-through as the only metric that actually matters in…

What does it actually take to get a brand onto a retail shelf, and keep it there? Erin Wall spent nearly a decade as a buyer and merchant at Target before becoming a broker, and now runs Lunr, a capital provider purpose-built for the most dangerous moment in a consumer brand's life: the gap between a purchase order and a fully stocked, actually-selling shelf. This is a conversation about what most founders get catastrophically wrong about retail, and what the ones who get it right have figured out. We cover: Why sell-in is the easy part and sell-through is everything How to walk into a buyer meeting prepared (and what kills your credibility fast) The $6M end cap moment: what happens when your eyes glaze over instead of light up Why building your margins correctly on day one is non-negotiable, and why hoping they improve later is a strategy that fails Where Lunr fits in the capital stack and why PO financing is still massively underserved How Lunr underwrites: touching the product, connecting to bank…

What happens when a top Amazon operator walks away from a great agency business to try to help dogs live longer, healthier lives? Jonathan Willbanks, Founder and CEO of Arterra Pet Science, joins In The Money to break down the leap from building Cartograph, one of the best-known Amazon agencies in CPG, to founding a pet wellness brand built around one mission: extending canine healthspan. This is a conversation about product obsession, category white space, channel strategy, and the difference between a product that’s “interesting” and one that truly has product-market fit. We cover: Why Jonathan left Cartograph to start Arterra “Brian Johnson for dogs”: how he got his dog to nearly 17 in remarkable health Why the pet supplement market felt clinically underwhelming The gap between good branding and real product substance in pet Lessons from advising 100+ brands on Amazon How founders should think about Amazon today Why Arterra stayed focused on DTC, Amazon, and Chewy Why Arterra’s first supplement line was…

What’s the difference between a great European consumer founder and a great American one? A lot more than you’d think. Sam Kaplan returns to In The Money to break down the biggest differences between U.S. and European consumer investing; from founder psychology and capital efficiency to TAM, exit paths, and what growth really looks like on each side of the Atlantic. This is a sharp conversation about how consumer brands scale, why Europe produces a different type of operator, and what investors are actually looking for in 2026. We cover: The real founder differences between the U.S., UK, and Europe Why American founders pitch bigger and European founders often build more durable businesses Why UK founders look more like U.S. founders than continental Europeans How role models shape founder ambition Why many European founders don’t need outside capital at all The rise of secondary deals in consumer because the best founders don’t need primaries How Five Seasons thinks about stage, check size, and underwriting…

What does it actually take to build a durable apparel brand in 2026? Matt Scanlan, Co-Founder of Naadam, joins In The Money to break down the real economics behind building a modern apparel business, from hero products and inventory discipline to channel mix and financing strategy. Naadam became famous for its $98 cashmere sweater, challenging luxury pricing while maintaining quality and ethical sourcing. But a decade later, Matt says the biggest lesson isn’t expansion, it’s discipline. This episode is a candid operator’s playbook on product focus, capital structure, and surviving the constant shifts in consumer, marketing, and retail. We cover: Why Naadam has resisted expanding too far beyond its hero product The power of a single SKU that anchors 20% of a company’s revenue Managing inventory, gross margins, and contribution margins in apparel Why lifetime value (~$500–$600 per customer) shapes everything in DTC The challenge of seasonality and cash flow in fashion businesses Navigating the K-shaped…

Building a consumer brand looks very different depending on where you start. Jeremy Evans of Era Ventures joins In The Money to break down how they invest in seed-stage consumer brands across the U.S., Australia, and the UK, and why geography shapes everything from founder psychology to capital strategy. This episode dives into global consumer investing, capital efficiency, omnichannel strategy, and what it really takes to build a $100M brand. We cover: Why Australian and European founders tend to be more capital efficient The venture constraint: why some great businesses shouldn’t raise VC When profitable brands raise capital anyway (and why investors still matter) Leading vs co-investing in global consumer deals Case studies from Era’s portfolio: Seed, science-backed probiotics that scaled to hundreds of millions in revenue Pillar Performance, a premium athlete recovery brand built through specialty retail Why brand and community are often the real moat in consumer The challenges of measuring performance…

Revenue is not product-market fit. Unit economics are. Connor Ryan of Bridge joins In The Money to break down how they underwrite seed-stage consumer brands and why artificially manufactured revenue doesn’t impress them. We cover: Why unit economics are a higher bar for product-market fit than revenue How founders can “manufacture” revenue and why that’s dangerous Consumer as a discrete math problem (inventory, CAC, forecasting, payback) Why Bridge prefers quant-driven founders with fingers on keyboards Distribution moats vs product differentiation The seed-stage capital gap in consumer Optionality > underwriting future Series B capital Simple Mills & Caraway case studies: Psychographic unmet need Millennial aesthetic shift Operational rigor Why smaller TAMs can actually be more attractive A differentiated distribution hack (Rainwalk Pet Insurance example) Consumer enablement tech and the attribution problem The role of AI in consumer acquisition (and why it’s fleeting) How founders should run a fundraising…

What happens when a national TV weatherman decides most umbrellas are junk and builds a better one? Rick Reichmuth, Chief Meteorologist at FOX and Founder of Weatherman Umbrella, joins In The Money to break down how he turned credibility, distribution, and product obsession into a profitable consumer brand in one of the most overlooked categories in retail. This isn’t a vanity influencer story. It’s a case study in turning attention into distribution and distribution into a real business. We cover: From national television to founder: why Rick started Weatherman Leveraging credibility without turning the brand into a gimmick How Weatherman landed major logos like the U.S. Open and PGA early on Getting into the room without paying Rolex-level sponsorship dollars Donating in-kind vs cash sponsorships as a growth strategy Differentiation in a crowded umbrella market: Wind resistance Durability engineering Quality materials at a fair price Positioning: premium performance without luxury pricing The LTV challenge…

Freestyle pivoted twice before it found real velocity. Russ Wallace joins In The Money to break down how his seven-figure brand that wasn’t quite clicking transformed into one of the fastest-growing challenger diaper brands in mass retail, by letting go of a story that mattered to the founders and obsessing over what actually mattered to customers. We cover: The two major pivots that changed Freestyle’s trajectory Why the original bamboo sustainability story wasn’t enough Building SkinShield: a performance-first diaper that outperforms incumbents Letting go of founder ego to chase mass appeal What retailers actually respond to (and why bamboo didn’t scale in mass) The 12–18 month retail sales cycle and surviving missed windows Learning for three years before earning distribution Walmart as a five-year “at bat” that finally hit The J-curve of retail profitability Why over-delivering early matters more than near-term margin Driving velocity without clear attribution Community building IRL: mom walks, coffee…

Chickens are now the third-most popular pet in America and almost no one in tech or venture is paying attention. Sean Warner, Co-Founder of Grubbly Farms, joins In The Money to break down how he built an 8-figure consumer business by leaning into one of the fastest-growing and most overlooked pet categories in the U.S.: backyard chickens. What started as an insect-protein experiment turned into a $4B+ niche market opportunity driven by habit, subscription, and education, not hype. We cover: Why pet chickens are one of the fastest-growing pet categories in the U.S. How Grubbly discovered the category through customer discovery (not a pitch deck) Why insect protein found product-market fit in pet chickens before dogs or cats The economics of niche markets: higher willingness to pay, lower CAC volatility Community as a moat: blending customer service, education, and product development Subscription dynamics and why Grubbly’s 12-month retention (~55%) is well above category averages Product expansion that…

Can premium consumer brands still scale in a K-shaped economy even if they never reach most Americans? In this episode of In The Money, Tyler Morgan of BFG breaks down how seed and Series A consumer investing has changed and why some brands can now reach $100M+ in revenue by serving a smaller, more affluent customer base. We cover: The K-shaped economy and why premium brands can still win How “aspirational consumption” survives downturns Why some categories no longer need mass-market penetration Case studies: Ollipop and underwriting fiber before it was cultural Vacation and world-building as a growth lever Oats Overnight and one of the strongest community flywheels in consumer Seed vs Series A today: Revenue ranges Check sizes Valuation expectations Why founder quality is still the true X-factor Product moats vs brand moats in food & beverage Protein, fiber, and functionality as acceptable price-increase levers Why volume doesn’t fix bad margins Contribution margin by channel (DTC, Amazon, retail, Costco)…

Branch almost died in March 2020. A $4M B2B pipeline collapsed to $30K in ten days, and the company had to reinvent itself overnight. In this episode, Greg Hayes, co-founder of Branch, walks through one of the most consequential pivots in modern consumer: going from B2B office furniture to DTC at the height of COVID, and then rebuilding the company again into a multi-channel, profitable, capital-efficient business. This is a rare, deeply tactical conversation about what it actually takes to scale an asset-heavy consumer brand without blowing up the balance sheet. We cover: The near-death pivot from B2B to DTC, and why speed mattered more than perfection How COVID supply chain chaos forced real product quality discipline Channel strategy across DTC, B2B, Amazon, and wholesale (West Elm) Why product line expansion + channel expansion unlocked continued growth The hidden economics of furniture: tooling, MOQs, inventory, damage rates How Branch improved gross margins by ~35% in two years Engineering products…

Food is capital-intensive, margin-compressed, and brutally hard, so why do some investors still believe it’s one of the most underfunded opportunities in venture? Nate Cooper, founder of Barrel Ventures, joins In The Money to break down how he underwrites food and beverage businesses, from pre-revenue to Series A, and why velocity, habit, and lifetime value matter more than software-style margins. This episode is a clear-eyed look at food as a venture-backable asset class, what most founders misunderstand, and how to think about scale realistically in 2025–2026. We cover: Why food is one of the hardest, and most misunderstood, venture categories Habitual consumption and why LTV can outweigh lower margins Velocity vs door count (and why door count is a vanity metric) What makes a food brand venture-scale vs just a “good business” How Barrel underwrites from pre-revenue through Series A Case studies: Ollipop and filling the soda → better-for-you gap Nowadays and the decline of alcohol consumption LoveCorn and…

Is growth a marketing problem or a market problem? Isaac Mertens, founder of Flux Footwear, joins In The Money for one of the most honest operator conversations of the year. Isaac has trained as a media buyer, worked at a top-tier agency, spent eight figures on paid media, and still says this plainly: great marketing can’t save you from a bad market and no agency is coming to rescue your business. This episode is a deep dive into founder accountability, profit-first thinking, and what actually moves the needle for mid-market DTC brands when growth stalls. We cover: Market vs marketing, and why even elite media buyers still struggle Why founders must deeply understand paid media (even if they outsource it) The myth that switching agencies fixes growth Why “ending flat” can be a win in today’s environment How Flux unlocked profit using cashback instead of discounts (BFCM breakdown) Why 50% off doesn’t always mean 50% margin loss Price testing as an underrated profit lever Why outside capital can quietly…

How do you actually underwrite early-stage consumer when the data is thin, capital is tighter, and durability matters more than hype? Lori Cashman, Founding Partner at Visible Ventures, breaks down how she evaluates founders from Seed to Series A, and why founder-market fit, retention, and demographic tailwinds matter more than vanity metrics. This episode is a masterclass in investor judgment, capital allocation, and building consumer businesses that last. We cover: Balancing early data with intuition in consumer investing What founder-market fit really means and how to spot blind spots early Why there’s no single “right” founder profile (and the one archetype Lori avoids) Retention vs acquisition in the earliest innings The demographic shifts shaping the next decade of consumer: Wealth transfer to women and Gen Z Gen Z as the next engine of GDP growth Health, longevity, financial literacy, and upward mobility Case studies from the Visible portfolio (pet, beauty, devices, science-backed consumer) When to…

How did two non-parents build one of the most design-forward, community-trusted baby brands in America and then blow the doors off retail with a 43-SKU Target launch? Greg Davidson, co-founder & CEO of Lalo, breaks down the entire playbook. This episode goes deep into consumer insight, design taste, category white space, SKU expansion, operational pain, retail rollout strategy, and the fundraising reality of a modern DTC/CPG brand. Greg is unusually transparent, especially about what worked, what didn’t, and what he’d do differently. We get into: Why Lalo’s original superpower was naivete and why it still matters How two guys with no kids built a category-defining aesthetic Designing baby products using zero baby-product inspiration The “Mastige” positioning strategy: premium feel, mass-market appeal Why Lalo’s mood boards never include competitors; only furniture, art, architecture Building a connected product ecosystem (high chair → play kit → tableware → bathroom → whole home) The real risks of SKU…

What actually makes a consumer brand break out and stay durable in a world where attention spans are collapsing and CAC is chaos? Shamin Walsh has spent a decade underwriting early-stage consumer bets at BAM Ventures. She’s backed companies like Honey and Pretty Litter before they became household names and she breaks down exactly what separates the winners from everyone else. This episode goes deep into how founders should think about product vs distribution, paid acquisition vs brand, fundraising sequencing, customer psychology, and why timing can make (or destroy) an outcome. In this episode: The biggest shift in founder–investor dynamics over the last decade Why the best founders are deep psychologists of their customers How Honey and Pretty Litter cracked consumer behavior in totally different ways The real definition of “solving a problem” in CPG (it’s not what people think) The pendulum swing back toward brand marketing and emotional resonance When performance marketing matters and when it becomes a…

In this episode of In The Money, we sit down with David Gaylord, Co-Founder & CEO of Bushbalm, one of the fastest-growing skincare brands in North America and a case study in how disciplined, product-led consumer companies scale from zero to tens of millions. David breaks down the real economics behind building a modern beauty brand, from pricing and margins to channel contribution and how Bushbalm engineered a high-retention, high-LTV product ecosystem in one of the most competitive categories in consumer. We dive deep into: How Bushbalm identified a massive underserved problem and built a category around it The real margin structure of creams, serums, and body-care products How the brand expanded from pure DTC into retail and professional channels What contribution margin looks like across DTC, Amazon, pro, and retail CAC, LTV, attribution, and the creative strategies that actually work Why subscription only explains part of their LTV and what really drives the rest How David thinks about scaling SKUs,…

In this episode of In The Money, we sit down with Andrew Barone at Rosenthal & Rosenthal, one of the leading privately held asset-based lenders. Andrew has financed hundreds of consumer and eCommerce brands through every stage of growth. We dive deep into the real financial mechanics behind consumer brands: inventory cycles, margin truth, receivables risk, retail payment terms, PO financing, seasonal cash crunches, and what actually happens when a brand runs out of runway. Whether you’re a founder, CFO, investor, or operator, this is a masterclass in non-dilutive capital, credit underwriting, and how to fund growth without blowing up your balance sheet. What We Cover: How asset-based lending really works for DTC & omnichannel brands When to use inventory financing, PO financing, or receivables factoring How lenders evaluate risk: margin structure, customer concentration, and operational maturity What causes working capital crises in consumer brands The biggest mistakes founders make with cash flow…

In this episode, I sit down with Amanda Schutzbank, Co-Founder and General Partner at Willow Growth Partners, one of the most thesis-driven and disciplined early-stage consumer funds in the market. Willow specializes in backing health, wellness, and essential-category brands in the $2m–5m revenue range, often before they’re household names. Their portfolio includes hits like Coterie, Goodles, Bubble, Parallel, and others that have since become category leaders. Amanda breaks down: How consumer investing has shifted from peak 2020–2021 froth to today’s slow, selective, fundamentals-first environment. What a “truly great asset” looks like: strong margins, authentic emotional resonance, real product differentiation, and the seeds of a platform brand. Why community is the ultimate moat, from micro-influencers to insider Facebook groups to immersive IRL experiences. The difference between venture-backable brands and “great but non-VC” lifestyle businesses and how founders should think about which path they’re…

How Wildgrain Built a Profitable, High 8-Figure Food Brand With Just 18 Employees In this episode, I sit down with Ismail Salhi, co-founder & CEO of Wildgrain, one of the most impressive subscription food businesses of the last decade; profitable, high eight figures in revenue, and run by a shockingly lean team. Ismail breaks down how Wildgrain escaped the classic DTC plateaus at $3M, $10M, and $30M+ by combining:- Subscription economics that smooth CAC volatility- Channel-by-channel marketing arbitrage (some channels only work two months a year)- Constant 1–2% improvements in AOV, COGS, retention, and pricing- Aggressive product innovation (e.g., gluten-free launch = massive CAC unlock)- A tech-first mindset; building internal tools for forecasting, CX, merchandising, shipping, and more- A ruthlessly lean team (just 18 people + automation + AI everywhere) If you’re building a CPG or subscription brand or want a masterclass in resourceful, operationally excellent, AI-enabled eCommerce this one is a…

The consumer investing landscape has shifted and few people have a better view of that evolution than Drew Skolnik, Partner at KarpReilly, one of the most respected growth equity investors in consumer, retail, and CPG. In this episode, Drew breaks down how capital discipline, focus, and brand fundamentals have become the new edge in consumer investing. We cover: How investor expectations have changed since the 2021 boom Why sustainable growth now beats blitzscaling The “hand-to-mouth tax” founders pay for undercapitalization How KarpReilly evaluates brands between $20M–$100M in revenue Case studies like Boxycharm, Spindrift, and Made In Why protein is a durable macro trend and what GLP-1 drugs mean for food and beverage The rising role of AI in portfolio operations and marketing Drew also shares what he looks for in founders, the importance of execution as a moat, and why the best businesses are often built in tough environments.

What happens when one of the most iconic brand-building agencies in the world spins out its own venture capital business? In this episode, I sit down with Daniel Faierman, Partner at Habitat Partners, the venture firm incubated out of Red Antler, the brand and creative powerhouse behind breakout names like Allbirds, Hims, and Casper. We talk about how Habitat approaches investing at the intersection of brand, behavior, and capital, what they’ve learned from years of shaping cultural category leaders, and why today’s best early-stage consumer bets often blur the line between product and narrative. Key topics we cover: How Red Antler’s DNA shaped Habitat’s investment philosophy The shift from brand-led to insight-led investing What early signals make a founder or concept stand out in 2025 Why “brand is distribution” is no longer just a slogan, it’s a moat Where the next wave of breakout consumer companies will come from 🎧 Tune in for a masterclass on how brand-first investing is evolving for the next decade.

Kevin Lee, co-founder of Immi, joins In The Money to talk about how he and his co-founder took one of the world’s most iconic comfort foods, instant ramen, and rebuilt it for modern consumers. From tech to CPG, Kevin shares what surprised him about running a food brand, how Immi evolved from “healthy ramen” to a taste-first protein brand, and what he’s learned about navigating product innovation, retail expansion, and celebrity partnerships. We go deep on: How Immi pivoted its brand identity to feel authentic and founder-led Why food brands must “live long enough to catch a trend” What most founders misunderstand about food margins and channel mix How Immi raised from top VCs and landed investors like Naomi Osaka and Usher Why diversification beyond China was their biggest operational win If you’re building in food, CPG, or modern consumer goods, this episode is a masterclass in brand building, discipline, and timing.

In this episode of In The Money, we sit down with Ben Perkins, Founder of &Collar, the fast-growing direct-to-consumer menswear brand known for reinventing the classic white dress shirt.Ben shares how &Collar went from being overlevered and on the brink, with $10M in revenue and $2M in debt, to becoming a profitable, eight-figure business growing double digits year-over-year. He talks candidly about:- The painful lessons of taking expensive MCA debt and refinancing through an SBA-backed bank loan- How he drove accountability by assigning every employee a personal P&L- The discipline of cutting Meta spend by 35% and still growing revenue- Unlocking new growth through wholesale and Amazon while holding the DTC line- Building a “rule of 40” business, growth plus profit, instead of chasing unicorn outcomes- The art of focusing on your “white shirt” equivalent and scaling the product that truly drives profitBen’s story is a masterclass in turning around a consumer brand, from financial literacy to capital…

In this episode, I sit down with Alex Yancher, Co-founder and CEO of Passport Global, the logistics platform powering cross-border commerce for some of the world’s fastest-growing brands.Alex breaks down the new rules of international eCommerce as the U.S. ends the de minimis exemption and tariffs rise globally. He explains how brands can turn geopolitical risk into strategic advantage through localized operations, better contribution modeling, and thoughtful channel expansion.You’ll learn:🌎 What the end of the de minimis exemption means for global DTC brands📦 Why U.S. brands must rethink fulfillment, tariffs, and landed cost modeling📊 The “laddering” framework to scale from 1% to 30% of sales internationally💰 How to think about P&L resilience and contribution margin in a volatile trade worldWhether you’re a founder, operator, or investor, this episode is a masterclass in navigating global eCommerce in 2025.

In this episode, I sit down with Cam Mehr, Founder of Vital Plus, one of the fastest-scaling wellness hardware brands redefining the cold plunge category.Cam shares how he built an eight-figure eCommerce business with no outside capital and a lean team, proving that focus, efficiency, and operational discipline can beat headcount and hype.We cover:⚙️ How to run an ultra-lean DTC company that punches above its weight📊 Why reporting is a low-value task and what to do instead💡 How deep founder-level understanding of every function creates “alpha” in operations📈 The mechanics behind scaling cold plunge products globally, across four regions🌏 What Australian founders get right about entering the U.S. market🤖 How AI literacy is now a must-have in every new hireCam also explains his philosophy of “engineering the P&L,” reinvesting every operational efficiency back into growth and why staying small and obsessed with your category can be a superpower in consumer wellness.