The Startup CPG Podcast

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Lindsay Hancock, founder of My Better Batch—a clean label cookie mix made with non-GMO ingredients, designed to taste just like homemade cookies. Caitlin and Lindsay dig into the winding road that led Lindsay from helping build a company acquired by Kind Snacks, to navigating divorce as a single mom at 40, to shipping her very first order in April 2024 and baking thousands of cookies in an Airbnb to prepare for her first-ever trade show.

Lindsay shares how nearly two decades in food—starting on the retail side, then moving to manufacturing—gave her both the expertise and the courage to bet on herself. After the acquisition of her previous company by Kind Snacks and the unexpected upheaval of a divorce, she found herself at a crossroads: keep climbing the corporate ladder or build something of her own. She chose the latter. My Better Batch was born from a simple but powerful insight: there's a massive gap between the cookie mix you grab off the grocery store shelf and the homemade cookie you actually want to eat. Lindsay set out to bridge that gap—delivering a shortcut that moms can feel genuinely good about.

In less than two years in market, the results have been remarkable. My Better Batch landed in the Sprouts Forager set, Thrive Market, Lowe's Foods, the Fresh Market, Metropolitan Market, and Target—where Lindsay was accepted into the Target Accelerator program after meeting the team at a trade show. She also won the Good Housekeeping Best Snack Award and earned feature coverage in Parade magazine and All Recipes. And she did most of it as a solopreneur with a lean team of fractional consultants.

Lindsay reflects on what it takes to build momentum quickly as a small brand, why getting the product into people's mouths is everything, and how community—through networks like Startup CPG—provides the validation and feedback that a solo founder can't always find internally.

Listen in as they discuss:

Lindsay's career path: retail → manufacturing → building a company sold to Kind Snacks → solopreneur at 40
How divorce became an unexpected catalyst for building My Better Batch
What makes My Better Batch different: clean label, non-GMO, homemade taste without the effort
Shipping the first order in April 2024 and growing from DTC to national retail in under two years
The Sprouts Forager set, Thrive Market, Target, Lowe's Foods, the Fresh Market, and Metropolitan Market
Getting accepted into the Target Accelerator program
Baking thousands of cookies in an Airbnb to prep for her first trade show
Why quality of connections matters more than quantity
The Good Housekeeping Best Snack Award and major press in Parade and All Recipes
Dream retailers on the wishlist: Wegmans and H-E-B
Operating as a solopreneur: fractional teams, LinkedIn's "Real CPG Journey" series, and finding validation in community

Episode Links:

My Better Batch

Website: https://mybetterbatch.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mybetterbatch

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mybetterbatch/

Lindsay Hancock — Founder, My Better Batch

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayhancock/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Caitlin's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff recaps the biggest investor event of the year—Founders & Funders—with two standout guests: Alex Malamatinas, founder of Melitas Ventures, and Alex Michealsen, founder and CEO of Leisure Hydration. Together, they pull back the curtain on what it's really like to be in the room: from the 10-minute speed dating meetings to the panel content, the VC dinner, and the hard-won fundraising lessons early-stage founders need to hear.
Alex Malamatinas shares what makes a founder truly stand out in a short meeting—charisma, clear vision, and product differentiation—and why meeting in person unlocks things a deck simply can't. Alex Michealsen breaks down his methodical approach to pitching: leading with questions for the investor, then firing off the numbers that matter most (velocity, contribution margin, channel performance) before the bell rings. He also introduces the "CPG triangle"—margin, velocity, and cash flow management—as the framework every operator should run every decision through.
The conversation covers the nuances of margin (why contribution margin is the only one that truly matters when running a business), how to build investor relationships over years rather than days, and why the prep work before an event like Founders & Funders is just as important as the meetings themselves. Both guests also offer candid feedback on how to make the event even better next year.
Whether you're an early-stage brand trying to break into the investor ecosystem, a founder preparing your first pitch, or just trying to understand what VCs are actually looking for, this episode delivers honest, tactical insight from two people who've been on both sides of the table.
Listen in as they discuss:
The Founders & Funders format: curated one-on-one meetings, 70 VCs, 160 brands, and 600+ meetings in a day
What makes a founder stand out in a 10-minute meeting: vision, charisma, and knowing your numbers cold
Alex Michealsen's pitch framework: interview the investor first, then lead with velocity and contribution margin
The CPG triangle: why margin, velocity, and cash flow management are the only three things that matter as an operator
Margin explained clearly: product margin vs. gross margin vs. contribution margin—and why contribution is king
Why beverage brands' Amazon contribution margin is often lower than retail despite higher gross margin
Building investor relationships over years, not days—and why most of Leisure's investors took two years to close
PR and content from the event: hot deals of 2025, trends vs. fads, real talk on margins, deal terms 101, and a keynote with Paul Vogue
Ideas for leveling up Founders & Funders: wildcard meetings for early-stage brands and mixed founder-investor social events
The Startup CPG Roadshow: a mobile version of Founders & Funders coming to major cities in 2025

Episode Links: 

Founders and Funders: fandf.startupcpg.com
Alex Malamatinas – Founder & Managing Partner, Melitas Ventures
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-malamatinas-17a25124/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/melitasventures/
Alex Michealsen – Co- Founder & CEO, Leisure Hydration 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-michaelsen-35b395162/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/leisure-hydration/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Daniel's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Ryan Williams, founder of Northhall, to demystify CPG finance and accounting for early-stage consumer brands. The conversation covers everything from the bare minimum financial foundations a founder needs to get right, to the metrics investors care about most—and the hard-earned lessons Ryan has picked up from years of working hands-on with hundreds of brands across stages.

Ryan shares his path from investment banking at Houlihan Lokey (advising on the sell-side of Snack Factory/Pretzel Crisps) to CFO of a venture-backed coffee brand, to building Northhall—a full-cycle accounting and finance partner exclusively focused on CPG companies. Northhall serves brands from pre-revenue through approaching nine figures of revenue, acting as a one-stop shop for bookkeeping, controller functions, financial modeling, FP&A, and fundraising readiness.

Throughout the episode, Ryan breaks down critical concepts founders often hear but don't fully understand: gross-to-net revenue, chart of accounts and the general ledger, gross margin vs. contribution margin, and how to think about channel-level economics. He explains the three-stage accounting lifecycle of a CPG brand, why connecting the GL directly to your financial model speeds up decision-making, and why adding software too early can do more harm than good.

Ryan also offers a framework for fundraising readiness—including why optimizing for valuation while your bank account is declining is one of the most common and dangerous traps founders fall into, why capital efficiency (revenue divided by capital burned) is one of the clearest signals of value creation, and why early-stage brands should prioritize 3x growth over near-term profitability.

Whether you're a founder picking up QuickBooks for the first time, preparing for your first institutional raise, or just trying to understand what investors are actually looking at when they review your financials, this episode offers clear, grounded, and immediately actionable guidance.

Listen in as they discuss:

Ryan's path: Houlihan Lokey investment banking → CFO of a venture-backed coffee brand → founding Northhall
Northhall's focus: full-cycle accounting + finance for CPG brands from $3M–$100M+ in revenue
Why CPG finance is different: inventory, sell-in vs. sell-through, gross-to-net spreads, accruals, trade deductions
The three-stage accounting lifecycle: family bookkeeper → QuickBooks + quality spreadsheets → full enterprise reporting
Gross-to-net revenue: why booking your Shopify or Amazon payout as revenue understates your true sales
Chart of accounts / GL 101: what it is, why it matters, and how to structure it
Gross margin vs. contribution margin: a clear, step-by-step breakdown with examples
Channel-level economics: why understanding margin by channel (DTC, Amazon, distributor, retail) is the right level of detail for sub-$10M brands
Offline deductions: UNFI/KeHE chargebacks, trade rates, and how to peel back the layers over time
The "what happened to my $1" framework for conceptualizing unit economics
Fundraising traps: anchoring to outlier deal terms, optimizing valuation while burning cash
Key investor KPIs: capital efficiency ratio (revenue ÷ capital burned), growth rate, and why 3x early beats near-term profitability
Advice for founders: find real product-market fit, take bigger pivots instead of incremental tweaks
How to break into CPG finance: the "give first" philosophy and building the Food and Beverage Investor Database

Episode Links:

Ryan Williams — Founder, Northhall
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanstuartwill/

🌐 Website: https://www.northhall.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/northhall/
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com
Show Links:
Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Hannah's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Kun Yang, co-founder of Pricklee—a natural hydration drink powered by prickly pear cactus fruit with no artificial dyes, no artificial sugars, and no plastic. Caitlin and Kun crack open the brand-new Pricklee 2.0 cans live on the podcast and dive into the four-and-a-half-year journey from launching in Boston in 2021 to hitting what Kun describes as a true product-market fit moment.

Kun shares how he and his co-founder Mo—both doctors of pharmacy—were living with a roommate studying heart health in 2019 when the Framingham Heart Study caught their attention. The data showed that people consuming one artificially sweetened drink per day had a 3x increased risk of stroke and dementia compared to those drinking full-sugar beverages. That finding, combined with mounting evidence on artificial dyes, lit a fire under them to build something better—especially as they were starting their own families and looking around at the same legacy, neon-colored hydration drinks that had filled grocery aisles since their childhoods.

Rather than raising institutional capital and hitting the gas immediately, Kun and Mo applied a scientific approach to brand building: test, iterate, improve, and keep going without ego. They launched with a cactus water positioning that got them into key accounts like Sprouts, Whole Foods, and H-E-B, then spent the next four years refining formulation, repositioning, and listening hard to customer feedback. The single greatest challenge, Kun reflects, was education—explaining the prickly pear ingredient itself slowed them down. Repositioning to lead with "natural hydration" unlocked a whole new level of resonance with their target consumer: young families who love better-for-you soda and energy drinks but haven't yet had a natural hydration option they'd actually reach for.

Throughout the conversation, Kun and Caitlin discuss the parallels between Pricklee's journey and Poppy's pivot from apple cider vinegar to soda, why coconut water built the demand for natural hydration without fully capitalizing on it, and why the category sequence of better-for-you soda → energy → hydration makes Pricklee's timing feel inevitable. Kun also shares the velocity growth Pricklee is seeing since launching 2.0 (200–400% depending on the channel), a fully subscribed (and oversubscribed) seed round, new distribution through Vistar, and two brand-new flavors debuting at Expo West 2026: Mixed Wild Berry and Juicy Watermelon.

Listen in as they cover:
Why two pharmacists decided to disrupt the legacy hydration category
What the Framingham Heart Study revealed about artificial sweeteners and brain health
How Pricklee applied the scientific method to brand building and product-market fit
The education challenge of leading with a prickly pear ingredient vs. a natural hydration benefit
Why families are Pricklee's core target—and why toddlers are the ultimate product validators
How coconut water created demand that Pricklee is positioned to capture
The case for aluminum over plastic and why sustainability has become a growth driver
Pricklee's distribution expansion into Vistar and the food service channel
What's new with Pricklee 2.0: new formulation, new packaging, new flavors
Two flavor announcements: Mixed Wild Berry and Juicy Watermelon debuting at Expo West 2026
A fully subscribed seed round—and what's next for the brand

Whether you're a founder trying to find product-market fit, a buyer looking for the next natural hydration brand, or a consumer who's been searching for a better option than neon-colored plastic bottles, this episode is for you.
Note: Pricklee will be at Expo West Booth #8920 (ACC, Level 3)

Episode Links:

Website: www.pricklee.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkpricklee/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Caitlin's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics

In this solo episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff—Founder & CEO of Startup CPG—shares his complete playbook for winning at Expo West.

After exhibiting at Expo West (and Expo East) more times than he can count, Daniel breaks down exactly how emerging brands can maximize ROI at one of the most overwhelming trade shows in the world: 70,000 attendees, 3,000 booths, and buyers with limited time.

From pre-show strategy and proactive buyer outreach to booth setup hacks, follow-up timing, scrappy sampling tricks, and how to avoid “stripping the screw” with buyers—this episode is a tactical, no-fluff guide for founders who want to turn booth investment into real retail traction.

Whether it’s your first Expo or your tenth, this episode will help you walk in with intention—and walk out with momentum.

Listen in as Daniel covers:

• Why you must build a real buyer target list before the show
• How to identify which buyers and distributors are attending
• Smart, proactive outreach strategies that actually get responses
• Pre-show marketing tactics to build buyer FOMO
• Booth design advice for early brands (don’t overspend!)
• Why product is always the hero—not your backdrop
• The #1 sampling mistake brands make (temperature matters)
• How to serve ice-cold beverages without buying booth electricity
• Using volunteers strategically so you don’t burn out
• How to spot and approach buyers—even if you don’t know their name
• The exact way to ask for buyer contact info without being pushy
• Lead scanners vs. scrappy note-taking: what Daniel recommends
• How and when to follow up after the show
• Playing the long game with retail relationships
• Booth logistics checklist: test your setup before you go
• The one thing you don’t want to be hunting for at Home Depot at 9pm
• Why you should bring two pairs of shoes (seriously)
• Applying to pitch competitions and retailer programs
• Leveraging LinkedIn in real-time during the show
• Why you should always carry product—even off the show floor
• Creative (and slightly sneaky) aisle strategies to intercept buyers

Expo is a massive investment. Daniel’s goal with this episode: help you make sure the magic moment happens when the right buyer walks into your booth.
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Daniel's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics