Episodes

Natalie Shmulik, the chief strategy and incubation officer of The Hatchery Chicago, spoke about the incubator’s origins, the most pressing needs and challenges facing small businesses and how she and her team are advising brands on scaling and investment. She also discussed the typical attributes of a company that has successfully scaled beyond The Hatchery and how high-profile strategic partners, including Pepsico and Mondelez International, are involved in its development.

The hosts discussed BevNET’s new partnership with Naturally San Diego, how brands can amplify their presence at Expo West 2023, MALK’s clever ad campaign and notable new products including pancake cereal and a neon green hot sauce. This episode also features a conversation with investor Maxine Kozler Koven, who spoke about how founders can navigate an increasingly tighter market for private capital.

James Beard award-winning chef Stephanie Izard spoke about the origins of her globally inspired consumer brand This Little Goat, how taste and accessibility guide its thoughtful product and marketing strategy, why the company turned to self-manufacturing and how she became more comfortable as the primary spokesperson for her restaurants and brand.

Wholly Veggie co-founders John Bonnell and David Gaucher spoke about how a comprehensive brand brief enabled them to better understand their products’ value to retailers and consumers and the impact of a striking design revamp. They also discussed their adherence to business fundamentals, a challenging environment for private capital and how the most commonly consumed ingredients factor into their innovation strategy.

Fresh off the conclusion of the 2023 Winter Fancy Food Show, Taste Radio editor Ray Latif highlighted new, innovative and better-for-you products from over a dozen exhibitors at the annual event, including a plant-centric soup brand, spicy and chewy candy, sunflower seed-based milk, non-alcoholic wine alternatives and gourmet marshmallows.

Tara Bosch, the founder of better-for-you candy brand SmartSweets, explained how prioritizing a lean business model in its early development enabled the company to be nimble and outpace its competitors, why its growth strategy is built around “patient urgency” and how the brand’s highly effective social media strategy drives consumers to its retailers.

Greater Than co-founders Mark and Jon Sider spoke about how timing and humility played into the brand’s dramatic repositioning, a shift that elicited over $8 million in DTC sales in each of the past two years. They also explained how they effectively incorporated user-generated content into digital media initiatives and opened up about how their relationship and those with others have been impacted by the challenges of entrepreneurship.

Taste Radio’s hosts discussed the relative value of making resolutions and shared advice from a highly successful entrepreneur on how to set achievable goals. They also spoke about the arrival of 2023 trade shows, an effective way that early-stage brands can build awareness and riffed on a handful of new products and brand updates.

This special edition of the podcast features highlights from interviews with seven founders, creators and innovators who joined us on the show during the second half of 2022. Our guests include Alison Cayne, the founder and CEO of Haven’s Kitchen; Dan Lourenco and Ryan Hughes, the co-founders of Ghost; Anna-Lena Kamenetzky, the founder and CEO of Touch Capital; Ibraheem Basir, the founder and CEO of A Dozen Cousins; Chitra Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Brooklyn Delhi; and Maxime Pouvreau, the founder of Petit Pot.