The Startup CPG Podcast

In this special episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff and Managing Editor Caitlin Bricker — a former retail buyer — run a live pitch practice session recorded on YouTube Live, where founders jumped up to deliver their 30-second pitch and got direct, actionable feedback in real time. The result is one of the most broadly useful episodes we've ever put out: whether you pitched or just watched, the feedback applies to you.

Eleven brands across food, beverage, supplements, and pet stepped up: an Ayurvedic wellness tea, a kava seltzer, a low-carb donut and cookie brand, an umami seasoning, a women's hormonal health supplement powder, a pet training treat in a portable tube, a dessert butter, and a salon-quality cuticle oil line. Every pitch got something different — and every piece of feedback is worth hearing.

Together, Daniel and Caitlin break down the mechanics of a strong pitch: why your energy matters more than your talking points, how to proactively answer the buyer's unspoken questions, why uptalk will quietly kill your credibility, and what it means to actually lead with your product.

Listen in as they cover:
Why energy and confidence beat a perfectly memorized script every time
The single question every buyer is thinking but won't always ask: will this actually sell?
Camera setup, lighting, and the small technical details that make a big impression on Zoom pitches
Why "first ever" is a phrase to avoid — and what to say instead
How to use proof points, velocity data, and repeat purchase rates to earn trust fast
What adaptogenic actually means — and why you need to know before you say it
When your founding story helps you and when it costs you valuable pitch time
Why D2C traction and social following should come up earlier than most founders think

Brands featured: 
Ayursome Wellness, Kaviva, Good Journey, Zenbroth, Bagelverse, Ramen Bae, Cali Nutrition, Doggo Sessions, Oh My! Dessert Butter, Theniya, Tiara Natural Deodorant

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 
Visit host Caitlin's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics

If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind Cognizin,
Head to www.cognizin.com to learn more.

In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Travis Zissu, founder of Scale Food Labs — an FDA-registered pilot food manufacturing facility in Golden, Colorado helping emerging brands turn benchtop formulas into scalable, production-ready products. With over a decade of food industry experience spanning culinary school at the CIA, GNT Natural Colors, and Chew Innovation, Travis has made it his mission to democratize the product development knowledge he's accumulated and make scalability a first principle, not an afterthought.

Travis walks through his end-to-end process — from ingredient sourcing and prototype development to consumer testing, pilot runs, and full production — and explains why discovering problems before you hit a manufacturer is worth far more than any single formula tweak. He also shares why 90% acceptance is the real launch threshold, and what founders get dangerously wrong when they fall in love with their home kitchen recipe.

He also dives into two standout client stories: a founder who came to Expo West with four vague ideas and left with a launched, distributor-ready hot-filled acidified product — and a farmer's market entrepreneur who went from buying spice jars at Whole Foods to opening a $12 million facility.

Listen in as they discuss:
Why sourcing from scalable suppliers must happen before you ever touch the bench
The danger of switching ingredient suppliers at scale — and the real cost of finding out too late
Why you'll never launch exactly what you made at home, and why that's okay
How Scale Food Labs stress tests pilots: turning up heat, skipping stirs, and pouring off at multiple intervals
Protein trends: the rise of animal-based protein, BLG (beta-lactoglobulin) whey, and a supply chain already running dry through 2027
Fiber as a parallel trend — and why GI distress is the thing that kills fiber-forward products
Cell-based meats: what it's actually like to taste cultured chicken, and why Travis is rooting hard for the category

Episode Links:
Travis Zissu – Founder, Scale Food Labs
🌐 Website: www.scalefoodlabs.com
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zissu

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 Adam's Linkedin 
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected]
Episode music by Super Fantastics

If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind Cognizin,
Head to www.cognizin.com to learn more.

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Elly Truesdell, founder and Managing Partner at New Fare Partners — a seed and Series A venture fund investing exclusively in food and beverage across the value chain. Elly brings one of the most distinctive full-stack perspectives in consumer investing: she spent nearly a decade at Whole Foods leading local brands and product innovation across the Northeast region and then globally, ran a co-manufacturing facility for 18 months, and co-founded Made by Nacho — a premium cat food brand launched with Bobby Flay that recently closed a successful acquisition. That rare combination of retail buying, operating, and founding experience is the backbone of what New Fare brings to its portfolio.

New Fare Fund 1 is a $20M vehicle (plus a couple of SPVs, bringing total AUM to around $25M), and the fund writes first checks of $500K to $1M at seed and Series A, with the intention of getting to know founders for months — and often years — before investing.

Hannah and Elly dig into what the Venn diagram between retail buying diligence and investor diligence actually looks like, how founders should adjust their pitch when moving from buyer conversations to investor conversations, and what the right team structure looks like when gearing up for a fundraise. They also tackle the question straight from the Startup CPG Slack community: what matters more — sales growth or profitability?

Listen in as they cover:
Elly's path from Whole Foods local brands and innovation to co-manufacturing to co-founding Made by Nacho with Bobby Flay to launching New Fare Partners
New Fare's fund structure, check size, stage focus, and investment thesis around the modern eater and premiumization
The Venn diagram between retail buyer diligence and investor diligence — where they overlap and where they diverge
How founders should adjust their pitch when moving from buyer conversations to investor conversations
The power dynamic difference: why your investor relationship should not look like your retailer relationship
What Elly looks for in founders — motivation, conviction, and why she wants to see a little pushback in term sheet negotiations
Portfolio spotlights: Lucille (senior nutrition), NARA Organics (infant formula), and Bachan's (Japanese BBQ sauce)
Team structure advice: two paths to building — formidable infrastructure from day one vs. lean and fractional with finance as the non-negotiable first hire
The Slack community case study question answered: sales growth vs. profitability — and why it's life stage dependent
Why the overcorrection toward profitability has not lowered growth expectations — the bar is just higher now
Consumer behavior and macro trends driving New Fare's thesis: premiumization, time collapse, and the shift in how people receive food

Whether you're a founder preparing for your first fundraise, an operator navigating the retail-to-investor pivot, or someone building in food and bev who wants to understand how the smartest investors in the room are actually thinking — this episode is a must listen.

Episode Links: 

New Fare Partners: https://www.newfarepartners.com
Elly Truesdell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elly-truesdell-5106b65b/ 
New Fare Partners on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-fare/ 

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

If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind Cognizin,
Head to www.cognizin.com to learn more.

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Hannah Pollack, founder and CEO of Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches—a high-quality ice cream novelty brand celebrating its 10th anniversary. Nightingale crafts elevated ice cream sandwiches using non-GMO, sustainably sourced ingredients in flavors like key lime pie, banana pudding, and caramel churro that melt the way real ice cream should.
Hannah shares how leaving the Marine Corps led her to culinary school, where she met her husband—a classically trained Belgian chef she lovingly calls Belgian Santa Claus—and how a dessert on their restaurant menu became the foundation of a nationally distributed brand. Caitlin shares how she first encountered Nightingale at the UNFI trade show in June 2025, courtesy of a very enthusiastic fellow exhibitor, and has been a devoted fan ever since.
Together, they dig into what real ice cream actually is (and what frozen dairy desserts are trying to get away with), the strict temperature logistics of scaling a frozen novelty from Richmond, Virginia to California, and why doing site visits with distribution partners is non-negotiable. Plus, Hannah shares breaking news about Nightingale's expansion into 175 Whole Foods center store locations.

Listen in as they cover:
How a restaurant dessert became a nationally recognized ice cream sandwich brand
The real difference between ice cream and frozen dairy desserts—and why it matters
Why Nightingale's ice cream melts like ice cream should, and the challenge of keeping it that way through distribution
The red flags and green flags Hannah looks for when vetting distribution partners
How a culinary background and mise en place mentality shaped the way they run their facility
Seasonality in frozen: what April through August looks like for a brand like Nightingale
The breaking news on their Whole Foods center store expansion into 175 locations
What 10 years of growth looks like—from hand-stamped packages at farmers markets to Food Network and Food & Wine recognition

Whether you're a founder navigating the frozen aisle, a buyer looking for the next standout novelty brand, or someone who's been burned by a frozen dairy dessert pretending to be ice cream, this episode is for you.
Episode Links:
Nightingale Ice Cream Website: https://www.nightingaleicecream.com 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nightingaleicecream/ 
Hannah Pollack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-pollack-a231b12b2/ 
Nightingale Ice Cream on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nightingale-ice-cream-sandwiches/

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

If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind Cognizin,
Head to www.cognizin.com to learn more.

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Blake Horn and Ryan Hall, both partners at CPG-exclusive law firm Giannuzzi Lewendon, to dig into one of the most overlooked parts of building a brand: doing it legally right from day one. From horror stories at the closing table to the nuances of vesting schedules and co-founder agreements, Blake and Ryan share hard-won lessons and cautionary tales that every founder — at any stage — needs to hear.

Blake opens with a jaw-dropping story of a founder at a multi-hundred-million-dollar exit who got a call from someone they hadn't thought about in 20 years claiming to own half the company — based on a napkin agreement. Ryan follows with a tale of informal equity promises that produced costly litigation and wiped out a significant chunk of sale proceeds. Both stories drive home the same lesson: the problems you ignore early on don't disappear — they compound.

The conversation covers the most common early-stage mistakes: misclassifying employees as independent contractors, failing to put basic offer letters and IP agreements in place, and making informal equity promises without documentation. Blake and Ryan explain why these issues are the number one thing that surfaces in investor and acquirer diligence — and why cleaning them up gets exponentially harder the longer you wait.

They also get into the nuances that make CPG uniquely complex: hourly vs. salaried employees, field reps vs. office staff, co-manufacturer relationships, and why co-founder vesting looks very different in CPG than in tech. Blake and Ryan walk through how to structure equity grants using performance-based and time-based vesting schedules, what acceleration clauses mean at exit, and what to say — and not say — when you have to let someone go.

Whether you're hiring your first employee, bringing on a co-founder, or getting ready to raise a round, this episode is the legal foundation you didn't know you needed.

Listen in as they discuss:
Why informal equity promises and napkin agreements can resurface at the worst possible moment — decades later
The real risks of misclassifying employees as independent contractors, and why it's the #1 thing acquirers look for in diligence
The essential documents every early-stage brand should have in place: offer letters, IP/NDA agreements, equity plans, and employee handbooks
Why CPG companies face unique employment complexity — hourly vs. salaried, field reps, contract manufacturers, and more
How vesting schedules work — and when to use performance-based vs. time-based structures
The co-founder vesting conversation: why it's different in CPG, and why you still need to have it
What to do (and what not to do) when you have to terminate an employee — and why a separation agreement is a powerful cleanup tool
How to audit your employment practices before a fundraise or acquisition so you're not scrambling at the last minute
Why using AI or generic templates for employment documents is a false economy — and what it actually costs to fix them later

Episode Links:
Blake Horn – Partner, Giannuzzi Lewendon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-horn-45034020/
Ryan Hall – Partner, Giannuzzi Lewendon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-hall-3517344/
Giannuzzi Lewendon
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/giannuzzi-lewendon-llp/
Website: https://gllaw.us/ or email either of them at [email protected] and [email protected].

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

If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind Cognizin,
Head to www.cognizin.com to learn more.