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July 3, 2025 42 mins

How do you launch a new product brand into retail, before it even exists?

 

In this episode of Innovator Insights, we sit down with Jim and Melissa Schifman, co-founders of Project Hive Pet Company, to unpack their unconventional go-to-market journey: launching a full line of toys and treats into retail before COVID hit, and before they’d even completed manufacturing.

 

We explore:

  • Why they skipped the DTC-first playbook and went straight to mass retail
  • The challenges of making sustainable products in the U.S., and why they insisted on doing it anyway
  • How their mission to save bees is embedded into every product design
  • What it’s really like to build a company with your spouse

 

Whether you’re a product founder, retail operator, or mission-driven entrepreneur, this conversation will challenge your assumptions about what it takes to get from idea to shelf.

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