Episodes

Included in our first episode as Taste Radio is a conversation with Jordan Gaspar and Lauren Jupiter, the founders of venture capital fund AccelFoods, which invests in early-stage and innovative food and beverage companies. Gaspar and Jupiter discussed the evolution of AccelFoods’ investment and business strategy and shared their take on nascent trends in food and beverage.

Over his three decades as an executive and consultant in the natural products industry, Bob Burke has been recognized as one of the foremost experts in the space. He recently joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of the industry and its transformative impact on the grocery business, his thoughts on the keys to success for startups and how he defines truly innovative ideas.

In this episode, we sat down with Mark Mahoney, the co-founder of premium cocktail mixer brand Powell & Mahoney, who discussed his background as a beverage entrepreneur and the rapid development of the mixer space. We also examined recent investment deals in food and beverage, including a funding round for snack brand Hippeas, one that included Leonardo DiCaprio.

In this episode of the BevNET Podcast, Marcus Antebi, who launched cold-pressed juice chain Juice Press in 2010 and now presides over a chain of 62 stores across the Northeast, explained his belief that “common innovation is complete” and that it’s incumbent upon food and beverage manufacturers to up the ante with nutrient-dense ingredients and formulations.

In this episode of the BevNET Podcast, Sperry, along with Carol Ortenberg, the editor of BevNET sister site Project NOSH, discussed Whole Foods’ efforts to revitalize its brand and assuage key investors in light of its announcement of changes to its board of directors, category management, and the launch of a loyalty program.

In this edition, we sat down with Gigi Lee Chang, the managing director of cause-oriented food business accelerator FoodFutureCo. Chang, who also founded baby food brand Plum Organics, explained FoodFutureCo’s work in advising and supporting early- and mid-stage food and beverage companies that are providing unique products and solutions for the food system.

In this episode of the podcast, we discuss some of the big stories in the food and beverage business, including tough press for Juicero, operational issues for brands like Soylent and Reed’s, and the ways the largest, publicly-traded food and beverage companies are attempting to refresh their lineups through transactions -- and through change at the top.

In a recent interview recorded for this edition of the BevNET podcast, Hippeas founder Livio Bisterzo credited the rapid success of the brand to marketing that’s less about the functional attributes of the snacks and more about reaching a broad base of consumers.

Last week BevNET sat down with IRI CEO and president Andrew Appel who discussed the global market research firm efforts to detangle and optimize an ever-evolving and complex web of sales and consumer data, why he believes that “voice is the next platform” for data collection and how IRI is expanding its use of artificial intelligence to "automate away the simple."

Adam Melonas has a pretty simple mission: he wants you to eat tasty, healthy snacks. The Australian-born chef and entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of Chew LLC, a Boston-based food incubator, whose primary focus is to recreate legacy snack brands from “the ground up, inventing new processes to make them more nutritious and delicious every time.”