Brand Builder

What if you could take 15 years of CPG experience, distill it down in a 30 minute podcast interview - would you be interested? If you said yes, you're in luck, because that's precisely what's on deck on this week's Brand Builder. We interview Dustin Finkel, the CEO at the Ancient inGRAINed Snack Co., makers of Ka-Pop! snacks. Dustin is a 15+ year veteran of the CPG business. He’s got an MBA from Northwestern, and he’s an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

This week's episode is all about hard choices. For many, their first introduction to McClure’s was their great tasting pickle-flavored potato chips. And many were super surprised when they discontinued them. Pivoting away from a popular product in order to focus on doing one thing really well is never  an easy decision. But Bob explains that diversifying their offering in that way wasn’t quite the right move - even though they had a fantastic product that a lot of people loved.

This week, SANS Mealbar co-founder and CEO Nathan Gordon sits down to talk about becoming a product leader in a massive category, differentiating in a saturated D2C landscape, and the power of trial and sampling. 

Wine RayZyn Company founder Andrew Cates lost his home, vineyard, and all his possessions during the 2017 Napa fires. Here's how he's turned tragedy into triumph. 

We just wrapped four epic days at the Natural Products EXPO West, the center of the CPG universe. We came, we saw, we sampled. EXPO is a big deal. According to New Hope Network, who puts on the show every year, there were more than 3,500 exhibitors and 85,000 attendees at last year’s EXPO. And I heard estimates that there were more than 90,0000 this year. Rather than getting caught up in the madness of Expo, we narrowed our focus to one topic: data.

Inspired by the success of Amazon and other customer-centric organizations, brands of all shapes and sizes are realizing that putting the customer's needs first is a recipe of success. At a surface level, being obsessed with your customer creates exceptional experiences and generates goodwill for your brand. But when it's really working as it should, being customer-obsessed actually drives innovation, and expands your organization's capabilities. Learn how in this episode.

How do you go from side-hustle to CEO? This week's Brand Builder guest Kelly LeVeque can tell you - because she's done exactly that. Kelly is a health coach and holistic nutritionist to the stars, advising celebrity clients like Jessica Alba and Jennifer Garner, and the owner & CEO of Be Well by Kelly, a full-service nutrition, wellness and lifestyle company.

Greg McKeown is a renowned speaker and author. His New York Times best selling book, Essentialism, is all about helping readers discover the disciplined pursuit of less - that is, helping them find their unique abilities and highest leverage activities, and realigning their lives to focus on making the highest contribution possible. He share his top tips to living like an Essentialist.

The first thing you notice about Watermelon Road is that it's a beautiful product. From the pastel packaging to the vibrant strips of fruit jerky itself, Watermelon Road almost looks tailor-made for Instagram. Turns out it's no accident - and a big reason why the product has resonated with consumers. This week on Brand Builder we have Jamie Melzer, the brand's founder and CEO to talk about that strategy.

Wellness can sometimes be a confusing space, with dubious or contradictory claims, and even pseudo science. Which is a shame - because focusing on health and wellbeing is one of the best things anyone can do. This week on Brand Builder we have two people who are helping consumers and entrepreneurs navigate the sometimes confusing landscape of wellness. We’re talking to Erica Huss and Zoë Sakoutis, the hosts of Highway to Well, a podcast that we are very big fans of.

You know we’re all about company culture on Brand Builder - because brand is culture and culture is brand. In that vein we have a very special episode this week. It’s a conversation between two extraordinary leaders about a very specific cultural topic - one that will help you become a better leader, and build the team your business needs to level-up in 2019. We’re talking about Radical Candor. To discuss it we’ve got Chelsie Lee, a culture expert and the SVP of Customer Strategy at S

This week on Brand Builder. Protes, the pea-protein infused chip that’s pushing the envelope when it comes to functional food. Co-founder and CEO Krik Angacian is a self described “no-B.S. guy” - and that trait actually shows up in the brand. Protes is all about transparency. They don’t claim to be anything other than what they are - a better-for-you functional product, packed with high quality protein. It also showed up in this interview, in the form of no-B.S. tips for growing your business.

and former athletes came up with an idea that’s so smart and so simple, it’s kind of a shock that no one else was really doing it yet - Greek Frozen Yogurt. Amanda and Drew seized their moment in 2011, founding the brand and becoming the first mover in the category. Today Yasso has about 30 employees and closed out 2018 with north of $80M in revenue.

Welcome to the 4th installment of our founder’s bootcamp series. To round out our program we have Blake Cadwell, Vice President at Day One Agency. Day One is a Creative Communications Agency with offices in New York and LA. They’ve done outstanding work for big name clients like Nike, YouTube, American Express, and Chipotle. What Day One does best - and why we had to have them on this series - is find creative ways to make headlines.

Prepare to get really smart, because this week's Brand Builder is all about fueling your brain for peak performance. Our guest is  Will Nitze, the founder and CEO of IQ Bar. Based in Boston, IQ has the distinction of being the first and only "brain food bar" that leverages nutrition and neuroscience to boost everyday brain function. The concept resonated immediately. A successful Kickstarter campaign saw $90,000 worth of orders... before Will and his team really had a fully dialed product.