The Food Startups Podcast

Tom Spier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Boulder Food Group(BFG), a venture capital firm that seeks partnerships with early stage food and beverage consumer product companies. Tom previously co-founded EVOL Foods and was the COO of Bear Naked Granola. Under Tom’s management, both businesses were successfully sold to public companies. In addition to his role at BFG, Tom proudly serves on the board of directors of three non-p...

Jessica Levison is the Founder and CEO of Pekaboo Ice Cream. In her search to get veggies into her three toddlers, this lawyer turned Ice Cream Confectionist started infusing vegetables in ice cream and ended up starting a successful ice cream brand called Peekaboo Ice Cream. In this episode, Jessica talks about how she used her artisanal ice cream stores in Surfside and Wynwood to launch Peekaboo Ice Cream and how she managed to g...

Francisco Pavan is the Co-Founder of Kumana, a company that makes Avocado Sauces inspired by Venezuelan cuisine. 

After traveling the world and experiencing different cultures through food, he decided to change career paths from being an automotive parts supplier, to a food startup entrepreneur. His passion and desire to bring light back to the image of Venezuela(Francisco’s home country), led him to team up with Jeremy Smith(Presi...

Kenneth Park is the founder and CEO of Detoxwater, an Aloe Vera water brand that started as a home remedy that his mom used for digestive problems and other illnesses. Ken eventually introduced Aloe water to the market, originally branded as Superleaf Aloe Juice, selling from his dorm room and later on becoming a household name with a nationwide distribution. Detoxwater is now famously known to be an aloe drink offering the best of...

Mark Cohen is the founder and CEO of Kidfresh, a food brand that was inspired by Matt's goal to provide a line of better-for-you and tasty kids meals to-go made with the same quality ingredients enjoyed by parents but for children.

In this episode, he shares several key insights for shelf strategy, as well as the importance of perseverance and vision.

A few other takeaways:

• Production and packaging: Find co-packers who are wil...

Sadie Scheffer is the founder and CEO of Bread Srsly, a wholesale sourdough bread company that wants to reunite gluten-free eaters with their beloved sourdough bread.

All of their bread rises for more than 12 hours, breaking down hard-to-digest grains and plus, Bread SRSLY gluten-free sourdough contains a host of bioavailable nutrients, promoting digestive health and healing.

Sadie has had a different ap...

Matt Bachmann is the co-founder of Wandering Bear Coffee, a company that produces and distributes cold brew beverages. The company started back in 2013 and is now sold in over 750 retailers, including Target, Costco and Whole Foods and is distributed nationally to offices via their website.

Matt shares the experience of how an obsession with coffee ended up becoming a successful business.

3:18 How and why Matt Bachmann got into the...

Annie is an activist, writer, scientist, and marketing manager dedicated to environmental issues related to food, water, and agriculture. She works with consumers, suppliers, and purchasers to drive demand for regenerative products, transition farms to regenerative agriculture, and inspire brands to invest in regenerative supply lines.

5:00 - Overview of Kiss The Ground as an organization
7:30 - What dam...

Don Morton is a bartender, WSET trained wine nerd, cocktail geek, fermentation enthusiast, and an eager host. After 10 years of working in public policy, Don founded Shrub District to bring a little more happiness into the world. Today, their cocktail vinegars (aka shrubs) and 'built cocktails' (A “built” cocktail is a cocktail you build in the same glass in which you serve it) are available online, restaurants and ba...

John “Sonic” Ban has worn many hats, is a serial entrepreneur and shares valuable lessons from his experience, in this episode. Also known as DJ Sonic, due to 10+ years in a hip hop radio station, his first brush with starting his own business was with the Indianapolis food truck scene and becoming one of the first successful food truck business owners.

Grass Fed Coffee began in 2014 when John “Sonic” Ba...

Hema Reddy is the Founder & CEO of Crafty Counter, an innovative packaged food products company, and their first product line is available in the market today, and they called Wundernuggets.

She is also the Founder & CEO of Epicurate Media - a digital marketing firm that is hyper-focused on helping food & beverage brands achieve their growth targets via carefully designed marketing blueprints ...

There is no denying the inventory and logistics benefits of Whole Foods being purchased by Amazon. Any spreadsheet or report can show that.

But what is often overlooked in the history of acquisitions is culture.

Jeremy Smith believes there is a high probability that Whole Foods will fail post-Amazon purchase because of it.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has already acknowledged the cultural challenges.

We talk about Online vs Ret...

In just a few years, nutpods is on fire. A dairy-free coffee creamer, they have passed Coffee Mate on Amazon.com for # of reviews. Talk about "review capital"!

She entered the food space as an outsider. With a beginner’s mindset and the ability to develop die-hard fans, nutpods has become a great success.

Awarded as “Editor’s Pick” at the Natural Products Expo in her debut year, nutpods has quickly grown online and in traditional b...

Andrew Lynch is co-founder and president of the Zipline Logistics, an award-winning North American 3PL that specializes exclusively in the transportation of retail consumer goods and food and beverage products.

Zipline Logistics works with popular brands such as Vita Coco, Chameleon Cold Brew, Avitae Water, Vegan Rob’s, and Barney Butter.

Starting his career in carrier procurement and management within a Fortune 100 logistics comp...

Jeanne David has created a company by taking a long-used veggie as a replacement for pizza crust and bread.

By cutting out refined carbs, one can transform health. We talk about the anti-inflammatory diet, getting on restaurant menus, dealing with unexpected sales spikes via a popular blog, and more.

More about Jeanne:

Jeanne David is the Founder, Head of Product Development and President of Outer Aisle Gourmet, LLC.
Jeanne is a bo...

Mindset, packaging, food labeling, logistics, innovation, systems thinking, sustainability, traceability, and big e-commerce in the delivery space. This episode has it all.

I don't say this lightly, but this episode should be listened to by all food entrepreneurs.

Michael Joseph is the CEO of Green Chef, his 3rd food startup. Green Chef is a a USDA-certified organic meal kit company. They work with farmers to source sustainable, no...

Steve Broad is on his second startup in the food space.

He previously had Co-Founded and was CEO of Annie Chun’s Inc. with his wife, Annie Chun. They started at the Farmer’s Market in 1992 and built it into a national brand, then sold the company in 2008 to CJ Corp, Korea’s largest food company.

They began gimMe in 2012 and the brand has quickly become the #1 seaweed snack.

We talk seaweed and Steve's ideas on how to thrive in the ...