Welcome to the Community Call Podcast.
I am Melissa Travers, Director of Community here at BevNET & NOSH, here with my co-host Jackie Brugliera and Mike Schneider.
If you're enjoying the show, please follow and review us on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice.
Jackie and Mike, great to see you.
You know, I was actually listening to Taste Radio on my way in today.
I heard Ray comment on Jackie's wonderful summer tan, and I have to admit, you're just like glowing over there.
She is glowing.
All the freckles are really going ham right now.
I've been at the beach a lot this summer, which was like my priority because sometimes the summer gets too busy and then I just miss it.
But it's right down the street for me.
So I have no like no excuse.
Are you a freckle embracer or do you?
I grew into my freckles.
I used to hate them.
I used to hate that I had like wavy hair.
I would straighten my hair and I'd put makeup on my face.
Oh my gosh, when I was a kid, I used to think freckles were so cute.
I love them now.
I love them now.
If I had a nickel for every time I saw an influencer paint fake freckles on their nose, I'd be a rich woman.
So you're a big beach person, Jackie.
I mean, I would assume if you live in California, you're a beach person, right?
I'm definitely a beach person, but I'm like a small quantities beach person.
I can be there for like two to three hours and then I get hot, tired, bored, and then I got to keep moving on.
But I love going to the beach.
Well, I actually hit the beach this past weekend.
I'm sort of like equidistant from the Rhode Island beaches and from Cape Cod.
So we went to the East Matunic Beach in South Kingstown near Narragansett, and it was a great time.
Rhode Island is certainly a special place for me.
I feel like it has a different vibe from the rest of New England.
And if you're in Rhode Island, I mean, there are plenty of CPG delights.
For example, at the East Matunic Beach alone, there was Dell's Lemonade, of course, and Party Pizza.
Are you guys familiar with Party Pizza?
I'm not familiar with Party Pizza.
What is Party Pizza?
Party Pizza is a shelf stable pizza.
It's just the bread and the tomato sauce, and it can sit on the shelf.
I mean, it is shelf stable.
I saw people at the beach eating it, and I thought to myself, this is the perfect pizza to be eating.
It's like square pizza.
That's so Rhode Island.
They just do things their own way.
The first time I went to Rhode Island, and I ordered chowder, and I got Rhode Island style chowder, I was like, what is this?
Because it's not the thick, white, awesome, creamy clam chowder that New England is famous for, but it is amazing.
And then also, with that, tends to come something else, which is like a donut, a savory donut that has a clam inside.
It's called a clam fritter.
Have you ever had clam fritters?
No.
Oh my God.
If you have been to Rhode Island and not had clam fritters, go back to Rhode Island.
ASAP.
I think, Nate, was that a thumbs up for clam fritters?
You don't eat clam fritters, do you?
You're vegan, Nate.
Would you make an exception to your vegan diet for a clam fritter?
That's the kind of thing that if once you've had a clam fritter, even if you're like, oh, I'm against it, you'd be like, I'm still thinking about it.
I'm still thinking.
See, Nate, it's even Nate, our vegan director and Ministry of Photographic Arts thinks about clam fritters.
That's how powerful they are.
If Nate's given the clam fritter a thumbs up, I'm going back to the beach next weekend.
That's shocking to me that he came in with the thumbs up.
I know, right?
That rarely happens.
They're so good, and sometimes they'll seep into Massachusetts, too.
Like, you can get them a new Bedford.
I'm heading right back down there to get myself a clam fritter.
I also, you guys, I think I might be cheating on Market Basket.
With?
Dave's Fresh Marketplace.
Really?
I mean, I don't know.
I'm just saying it's like it's a new flirtation.
I feel like my relationship with Market Basket has been longstanding.
So time will tell.
I went to a Dave's Fresh Marketplace for the first time and I absolutely loved it.
It had like the vibe of a Roach Brothers, which is another New England chain.
That's another great New England chain.
But the prices were great and they had some really interesting brands.
Like they had, I stocked up on Totopo's Tortilla Chips, which are now also my new favorite tortilla chip.
Wow.
And this is why Market Basket's been blown up my text.
I've been in back to back to back to back back to back meetings and I haven't been able to check, but this has got to be it.
Let me check.
Oh yeah, they're pissed.
They found out.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe you've cheated on Market Basket.
I mean, I still, I like whenever Market Basket post something on social, I always like put a comment in, I love you Market Basket and they always love it back.
Okay, so as long as you're showing them love, they don't mind that you're cheating.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
It's not the same.
I do think-
What's great about this place, Dave's?
Yeah, and where is it?
Is it like a local chain or?
So it's local to Rhode Island.
I believe there are 10 or so.
I feel like they invested a lot of time and effort in the decor of the store and making it visually appealing.
And the prices were pretty good.
I feel like they were very reasonable compared to some of the other-
Rhode Islanders wouldn't stand for it otherwise.
Right, right.
Exactly.
So I don't know, that was my newest favorite grocery visit of the past week or so.
But you were on vacation.
So vacation grocery shopping is different than traditional day-to-day grocery shopping.
Isn't it the best?
Jackie, you were just on vacation too, right?
Yeah, I was just in Yosemite, and I was stocking up for my campground, and I walked into Yosemite Village expecting just traditional, not-great-for-you options, and I found just a plethora of amazing CPG brands, from vegan options to beverages.
It was stocked.
I came away with hayday canning beans to just warm up over the fire.
Perfect.
They had Miele soup dumplings in the frozen section.
Like, what?
It was kind of cool.
They had everything.
Did you warm them in the can?
Did you set the can on fire?
I should have done that, but no, I put it in the pot.
I didn't want to ruin them.
Isn't cooking beans over the fire just like a total awesome camping move?
It harkens back to the time of the hobo, right?
It does certainly harken back to those old timey visuals I have.
We used to make hobo pies.
They were called hobo pies, where you just take pie mix, put it in like this wicked hot frisbee, and smash it together and then put it into the fire and then take it out.
Wait, an actual frisbee?
Well, it was like, okay, so it's not really a frisbee, but it looks like a big pie pan that smashes together, and then you turn it and it looks like a frisbee when you put it in to the fire.
You'll see.
Just look for...
It flips over like folds in half?
Yeah, you got to Google this thing, and it has a really long handle on it.
Kind of like a calzone.
Pan pie, hobo pie.
Yummy.
Well, I definitely have to check those out.
Jackie, was it a co-op?
What was it?
It was literally just their camp store, and they had a whole grocery section for people that are camping there.
It was a pop-up on the campground because they knew Jackie was coming.
They were bringing the brands.
They even had a fish wife.
I had a bunch of fish tins.
They pulled out the red carpet and I was impressed.
So job well done, Yosemite.
So cool.
They didn't roll it out.
They pulled out the red carpet.
Jackie was standing on it and they pulled it out.
They're like, you're done now.
Oh my God.
Poor Jackie.
She's like laying there.
Oh, she's flopping around.
As long as I got food in my hand, it doesn't matter.
Right.
As long as she got hayday canning.
It's a hero move.
Well, I don't know if they happen to have Papa's custard at all, but I have some right here.
I tasted this for the first time at the Fancy Food Show this summer.
Joshua, the co-founder of Papa's Custard, is the newest member of our Slack community, which all of you can join at slack.bevnet.com.
I think we definitely need to taste these.
You've got the dragon fruit.
Yeah.
Yep.
The proof is in the custard.
forget the pudding.
Proof is in the custard.
This stuff is really good.
The chocolate coconut is vegan.
Oh, it's so good.
So is the dragon fruit hibiscus.
And the thing about the dragon fruit hibiscus is they were kind of like, it was kind of behind the booth because I think it's a special skew that they're testing, if I'm not mistaken, but or a seasonal skew or something like that.
But it's just like an explosion of awesome.
It's so the color is so bright and the flavor is also so bright.
The custard is DNS.
Like it is very, very good stuff.
And it's strange how you think, oh, nothing could be better than that.
And then you try the dragon fruit hibiscus and just sits with you.
I can't think of a lot of other custards that, you know, you typically find in a dairy case.
I mean, there's Petit Pot, of course, which is pudding.
Petit Pot.
Well, the Papa's Custard Team is from Philly.
One of their co-founders, Jewel, has been working in the New York restaurant scene for over a decade.
She's the head of pastry at Dirty French, and she she's been on a number of food network shows and she bested Bobby Flay, which I know we talk about food network celebrities sometimes.
She got him.
Yeah, she got him.
She got him.
Yeah.
And I can I mean, I can certainly see why.
So she's aptly named because this was like the gem of the show, too.
I mean, I couldn't believe how amazing this was.
Just walk up and like, hey, have you tried this custard?
Everyone was talking about it.
I was directed over there by somebody else.
I think it was the Ajay's team that directed me over to Papa's Custard because they were all in that same area.
And I'm so glad that they did.
So Papa's Custard, thank you so much for sending those samples.
They are they're notably delicious.
I can see how bright it is from here, though, and I'm on the complete opposite coast of you.
I'm trying to teleport you over here.
It's not working.
Do we teleport Jackie over here, or do we teleport the samples to Jackie?
I think we teleport ourselves to San Diego.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Duh.
Come on over.
And I think you're allowed to take at least one item when you teleport.
Let's try.
TSA might stop you.
Does TSA regulate the teleportation?
Teleportation Security Association.
Well, Notable is the name of the game for this Community Call.
Monica Watress, NOSH's Managing Editor and Jeff Kleinman, BevNET's Editor-in-Chief, joined this episode to announce the most influential people in CPG for our annual NOSH Notables list.
These folks make the industry enjoyable, successful, and fulfilling.
And we were so thrilled to be able to shine a light on them and their valuable contributions to CPG.
Please enjoy.
On Community Call today, I am joined by my esteemed colleagues, Monica Watrous, NOSH's Managing Editor, and Jeff Kleinman, BevNET's Editor-in-Chief, for a special announcement of the 2024 NOSH Notables list.
This is NOSH's annual list of truly outstanding people in CPG, and I am so excited to find out who made the list.
Monica and Jeff, thank you so much for doing this on Community Call.
Thanks for giving us a platform for announcing these winners.
It is a terrific pleasure to be here.
Okay, so first of all, NOSH Notables, what do we need to know?
This is a list of amazing people in CPG.
What else should we know about this list of people?
Well, it's the second year that we've done this, and this year we were able to really open it up to the readers and community around NOSH, which was pretty hard to do the first year.
So it was really nice to be able to hear who people in the business thought were worthy of just knowing about.
You know, and I just want to stress, with these kinds of lists, there's nothing that's ever definitive forever.
You know, and it's the kind of thing that that arguments are made of.
You know, the only thing that's constant about them is what the arguments that follow.
But the idea of a notable is, this is someone who's worthy of discussing or who are either in the news, making the news, or defining what's going to happen in the years to come.
I would just add to that, we had a lot of really great submissions, and we're so grateful for all the participation within the community.
And it was a little tough to have to whittle down the list a little bit to 24 in 24.
That's how we determined it this year.
We're doing the class of 2024.
And technically, there are 25 people, but two people share one designation.
And because it is the class of 2024, it is yearbook inspired.
So when folks can check out the official articles on nosh.com, they will see some really fun imagery to go with it.
Yeah, and thank you to Erin Ouellette and our art staff for pulling that together, because it is just delightful to look at.
It looks so cool.
It definitely makes me feel like I'm back in the 90s, maybe watching Saved by the Bell in the best possible way.
Well, I'm sure it was really difficult to narrow down this list.
Was there a lot of fight it?
Like, did you did it come to fisticuffs?
Did you did anybody get into a fight over who made the list?
No, fortunately, we keep Monica and I on different sides of the Mississippi River.
So, it's a...
No fisticuffs.
Yeah, there are no fisticuffs.
I actually think we had a lot of agreement on a lot of these things.
I think the hardest part was probably whittling it down to a list of this size, rather than arguing over who should or shouldn't be in.
Wouldn't you agree?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, you nailed it.
And also, if somebody didn't make the list, it's no shade to them.
It's just, you know, we wanted to represent a diverse cohort of different jobs, different roles, different influences in the industry, different forces.
And so we wanted to make sure that the investment community was represented, the retail buyer community was represented, as well as a number of entrepreneurs and operators in CPG.
So I think as we go through the winners, you'll see that there is quite a range of folks.
And I'm really proud of the fact that we could feature so many people.
Although I will tell you, for those of you who paid attention last year, Barbie's reign of terror over the CPG community is now officially ended.
That's good to know.
Yeah, that's old news.
That's old news.
I mean, let's face it, like the idea that that Barbie and Ollie Pop would be together is, well, you know, I find it a little too on the nose of the dominant paradigm.
And I'm going to have a talk with both of them, both with Ollie Pop and with Barbie.
I'm now understanding the benefit of the Mississippi River.
So before we get to the list, which we'll do momentarily, if you're going to be whittling, you're going to need some guidelines.
What were some of the qualifications that made the people who did make the list stand out?
I think to Jeff's point, if they were in the news recently, if they're doing something this year that is really standing out, we kind of look at it like sort of Time Magazine People of the Year.
We wanted to be as relevant and as resonant as we could be, but also, like I said, represent a lot of diversity, both in terms of job function and in people.
Sometimes, you want to recognize someone for their long-term contributions to the space.
And sometimes, it's the fact that they're having an immediate impact.
They're facing a challenge that people are going to be talking about, that they've overcome something that's significant in the past year.
And this is the first year that we solicited input from our audience, is that right?
Yeah, it's probably the last.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
I do want to thank everyone from the audience because there was some terrific sourcing that took place.
Absolutely.
It definitely put some folks on our radar that we were already acquainted with, so that was also really great.
Well, the people have spoken.
Let's hear what they have to say.
Who's the first person we want to mention as a NOSH Notable?
Yeah, so we did these, you know, with a lot of the senior superlatives kind of plays in mind.
So first one was Dion Laszlo-Baker, who's the founder and CEO of the of DB's Organics, and she was selected as being the hottest nerd in the freezer.
Now, the heat is coming from DB's Organics itself, which has been growing and taken on a lot of interest from investors.
But at the same time, Dion is very well qualified as a nerd.
She's a natal toxicologist, a PhD who started the company while she was while she was studying and has really done incredible work both as a businesswoman and as someone who supports other people in the business community and her employees.
One thing that I love is that anyone who works at Debeze, who has an idea that can give back to the community, gets support and often funding from the company's dream launcher program.
And it's just, it's that kind of brilliance, I think, that makes Dion Laszlo-Baker the hottest nerd in the freezer.
I love it.
Certainly giving back to your team and to the community is something I did see replicated throughout many of the folks who made this list.
All right, who's next?
So, our next notable is most likely to bring breakfast for the whole class.
It's Asha Abelija, the founder and CEO of Mason Dixie Foods.
She is also a co-founder of Project Potluck, a nonprofit organization that exists to elevate and support people of color in CPG.
And her whole mission is democratizing access to clean, convenient, comfort foods.
She grew her company from a small food hall stall to a multi-million dollar CPG brand.
And she's just a delight.
So we just were very excited to include her on the list.
She was nominated, but we didn't question it.
We were very much in agreement.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, this is also represents an incredible pivot of an early stage idea of a, you know, just a plain old restaurant into something that's really tearing up the freezer aisle and continues to grow.
Yeah, she's in 6,000 doors now and expanding into food service with partnerships.
So definitely a very impressive business and a very impressive business person.
Absolutely.
Another really impressive person was Annie Streit, the Chief Commercial Officer of Daily Harvest.
She's got the most homework of anyone in the class of 2024.
So, you know, this is one of those people who are notable, not just because of what they've done, but because of what they're supposed to do.
And, you know, Annie's got a job that I certainly wouldn't want to have, which is taking Daily Harvest and turning it into something that's as much of a brick-and-mortar CPG product as it's been a direct-to-consumer diet program.
And it's coming in the wake of some tough news that the company had in 2022, where there was some issues around the ingredients causing, of one particular product causing some illness.
This is a chance not just for the brand to grow, but to rebound.
And so she is someone who's been doing it for years.
She's known for really setting your team loose on retailers, and it's going to be an amazing thing to watch, and it's notable because of the task at hand.
And then with the designation of player coach, John Foraker, the co-founder and CEO of Once Upon a Farm, everybody knows this ubiquitous baby food and children's snacks brand that just continues to expand under his leadership.
He, of course, was with Annie's before that, and General Mills oversaw that transaction and led the Annie's business at General Mills for a number of years.
And he's one of those mentors and leaders of the industry who is quick to share a lesson on LinkedIn or provide one-on-one counsel to entrepreneurs.
He's very eager to share his hard-earned wisdom with anyone in need and we really appreciate him for all of that guidance that he bestows upon us on the regular.
John Foricker and Asha are two people that I oftentimes hear folks who are starting up emerging brands mention as mentors and folks who have helped them along the way.
Yep, exactly.
The next one is one of my personal favorites in the CPG business.
The crunchiest class clown is Louis Goldstein, who's the CEO of Main Crisp, which is now known as Better With Buckwheat.
And this is a guy who's done amazing work over the years, largely in marketing.
People who've paid attention to BevNET, or who've just looked up at times, have seen the Save the Bros campaign that he did with Organic Valley.
And he once turned Snapple Bottles into an animated bachelorette party.
So he's got just the most forward sense of humor, I think, in a marketing sense.
And in the CPG business.
And now he's running pretty much a legacy natural foods brand, and is trying to zero in on the buckwheat aspect of it, and take it to the next level.
And we really, you know, there's a big task here, and we can't wait to see what he does with it.
Before this call, I watched the Save the Bros commercial for Organic Valley, and if anyone out there hasn't seen it, it is really so funny.
Another one is the most likely to quote Michael Corleone in Godfather III, and, you know, of course, the quote there is, just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in, and that is poor Steve Wangler, who is now the Senior Vice President of Sales for Better Sour.
Steve had quit, he was done, he was working with The Good Crisp for about building it up over the past decade, and he's got a ton of guitars and a really nice place in Hawaii.
And unfortunately, he's just been too good a guy over the years and had become too valuable to Bella Hughes, who had started up this pretty interesting low-sugar sour candy business.
And he'd been a mentor to her for years, and somehow she convinced him to put down the guitar and pick up the cell sheets.
So good luck, Steve.
She made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Yeah, that's funny.
One of our next notables here.
Homecoming Queen is Emily Schilt, the founder and CEO of Pop-Up Grocer, who through her unique reimagination of retail, has put a lot of local brands on the map, who may not otherwise get a shot.
For those who aren't familiar, Pop-Up Grocer is, it originated as a month-long retail concept that would pop up in various metropolitans around the country, and it has now a flagship permanent store in New York.
And just the way that she has worked to elevate emerging brands and make shoppers fall in love with a retail experience after a very omni-channel period during the pandemic.
So we're really excited to see what comes next from Emily.
Yeah, the question is, will it sort of push retailers, larger retailers, to change the way that they approach some of their displays themselves?
I think it's starting to catch on.
Kartik, the founder of Doosra, just wrote in that he's sitting in Pop-Up Grocery right now listening to this.
Hi, Kartik.
One of the strangest strategic acquisitions I've heard of over the years is when Bush's Baked Beans acquired The Good Bean.
And The Good Bean was a classic sort of natural, organic, sustainable, healthy brand started by Sarah Wallace, who's another one of our notables.
She's most ready to move on from the bean jokes.
She spent a couple of years working with Bush's after the acquisition to build up some of their innovation plays.
And now she's started a consulting organization called Vitamin B to work with brands.
Sarah is a brilliant first-generation American fighter from California.
And we're excited to see who she works with or if she takes another position in the years to come.
But she's definitely leading, you know, a next-generation leader for this space.
Our next notable is Genevieve Gilbreth, the co-founder and general partner at Springdale Ventures.
Also, we're calling her class treasurer because, well, she's good with money.
She's got a lot of it.
She's got a lot of it.
So her nominator said about her, she is a champion for female founders and those often under-represented, and is always willing to take a call to help founders navigate a challenge.
So she's willing to get her hands dirty and offer operational expertise.
She's an entrepreneur herself who had businesses in the supplement category, and she's got an eye for identifying and backing some really powerful brands.
So yeah, we're happy to see Jen make the list.
One of the things I think is interesting is she's working with sort of underdogs and female founders, but also with a couple of pretty notable celebrity brands as well.
So there's a lot of range there.
Most likely to speed date is Karen Yvonis Rogers, who's the Senior Director of Ventures for Albertsons Companies.
I have always been fascinated by what Karen Yvonis Rogers and her partner, Jim Faults, have done over the years because it's been this kind of open secret in the CPG world that the Safeway Albertsons have their own little fund that they use to support brands.
But of course, if you're a retailer, you don't want to let other retailers know which brands are supporting because they might not want to give that space to those brands.
Right in the past couple of years, though, Albertsons is really, and Karen and Jim's program has really come out of the woodwork and run these massive showdowns for brands called the Innovation Launchpad Competition.
And it's almost like the NCAAs at this point for entrepreneurial brands.
I'd like to interject quickly.
Elaine Thurio-Currier says, first of all, thanks so much for the recognition.
She's trying to figure out how the bros come back to help Buckwheat.
And then, Jeff, she said, you might be a potential Buckwheat bro.
So that's certainly a point to consider for all of us.
Thanks, Elaine.
I've always loved Buckwheat products and have actually done the...
What is it?
Buck Sacks or whatever.
I have no idea what that is.
So that's Louis Goldstein using Elaine's link.
So that actually makes more sense now.
Thanks, Louis.
Smartass.
So we actually have a notable on the call.
That's wonderful.
Okay, moving on to our next announcement here.
Most likely to cosplay as Willy Wonka could also be most likely to keep the Hershey C-Suite up at night.
We had to have a fun one.
A semi-celebrity, pseudo-celebrity, whatever you want to call him.
Jimmy MrBeast Donaldson, the founder of Feastables.
He's also a renowned YouTuber with the most subscribed channel on the platform.
And he's known for his stunts and games and spectacles.
But the way that he's approached his business, this chocolate bar brand, has been really interesting.
And it's enough to sort of nip away at the market share of the categories, dominators, and the way that he's mobilized his massive following to sort of help merchandise his products, clean up the displays in Walmart stores.
It's a really smart move that could really seem to be paying off.
He's got a cult of personality that could challenge even the greatest merchandising force out there.
So it's really neat to see.
And he's done some pretty amazing things.
Like the Willy Wonka idea really applies for Mr.
Beast.
I'm going to say this just to mortify my two sons who are big Mr.
Beast fans.
He's got some mad riz that Mr.
Beast.
Oh, gosh.
As do you.
Marissa.
Your new nickname.
You're welcome.
I love it.
So, best terms is Keith Kohler, president of the K2 Group.
Keith has, you know, is one of these people who kind of, in the past couple of years, decided that what he'd been doing was great, but he wanted to really bear down.
And this guy drove across the country, basically learning and meeting with hundreds of brands.
And, you know, this coincided with a lot of the move toward margin awareness and getting the most out of every dollar in a company, fiscal discipline.
And so, when you go to Keith, who basically helps arrange lending for consumer brands, you get a real lesson in the ways you can use that financing wisely for growth.
And he's really active in in counseling brands.
He meets with everyone and has become a real rabbi for a lot of companies.
So good for you, Keith.
Yeah, Keith.
Our next notable, she got the most nominations.
I mean, you know, several people on the list got multiple nominations.
She got like 17.
So obviously a very popular person.
That's why we deemed her most popular.
Alison Ball, the founder and CEO of FoodBizWiz and RetailReady.
And her nominator said, Ali has been a guiding presence in the food business and works to help others climb the ladder to success.
Jeff, you actually talked to Ali after we saw this.
Yeah, this flood of nominations come through.
Yeah.
Well, so I mean, that's what the great part about, you know, using the wisdom of crowds here is like, I mean, I knew the name, but we didn't really know who she was.
And so, of course, you know, being reporters, we're going to find out who she is so that no one else has to.
So I call her up, and she's late to the call.
Why?
Because she's been on the phone with a founder who's been crying.
And apparently, this is what she does, you know.
She runs classes on retail preparedness for founders and then continues to work with them in group and individual situations.
She's got, she's run 3000 brands through her program.
She's got a roster of about 1300 actives.
And, you know, we're just happy to be on her radar as much as we are to have her on ours.
Absolutely.
Our next notable, we are calling head cheerleader.
It is Natalie Schmulich, the chief incubation officer at the Hatchery and ICNC in Chicago.
She is a force.
She is a supporter of so many female and BIPOC founders.
And she has this crazy diverse background across retail, food service, culinary publications.
She got a degree from, I think, Boston University in gastronomy.
And she's just a wonderful person.
I consider her a friend.
I'm always eager to catch up with her when I see her at trade shows.
And there's a lot of love for Natalie and what she has brought to the community of emerging CPG brands.
Yeah, Midwest, yo.
Represent.
Most likely to show founders how to stretch a buck is Rachel Hirsch, who's the founder and managing partner of Wellness Growth Ventures.
She's new to a lot of the folks here, but she's part of this small fund investor class of people who value added angels to a lot of startup brands.
But Rachel is sort of beyond that because she's a founder herself.
She runs a couple of yoga studios in LA, and she's a terrific person to have on a cap table because she knows finance inside and out.
She worked with TIGER, which is one of the world's leading private equity firms, before leaving to do this kind of small investing and LOHAS entrepreneurship.
So, stretch a buck is really, you know, sort of a double entendre for her.
I just got it.
I didn't...
Get it?
Yeah, now I do.
I'm still trying to figure out...
Flexible approach to spending.
I'm still trying to figure out what buck sacks are.
We lost Melissa like 10 minutes ago.
Thanks, Louis.
Our next notable is Jane Miller, the CEO, the second time around CEO of Rudy's Rocky Mountain Bakery.
And we are deeming her best track record for her superlative.
Her nominator said her biggest impact, aside from her incredible business acumen and revitalization of brands, including Lily's and Rudy's, is her impact on those around her through her mentorship and philanthropy efforts.
And yeah, Jane is just, she's just incredible.
And the way that she gives back, she's got a scholarship program at the Denver University of Colorado School of Business.
And is it the University of Colorado?
I might have misspoke there.
But yeah, no, she's just, she has really led this amazing turnaround at Rudy's, following some struggles there after the Hain Celestial acquisition.
And they're entering new spaces, they've got new product lines.
And she was described by her colleague, Adam, an orchestra conductor for the way that she keeps everything going.
And yeah, there's a lot of love for Jane.
Absolutely, just one of the best known, like John Fork, or one of the sort of long-term leaders in the industry and long-term examples of someone who continues to go back and demonstrate leadership by doing it.
And we're proud to say that she's going to be joining us for NOSH Live, along with Justin Gold.
Yes.
So sign up now.
Discount room blocks are still available.
That's right.
So this being sort of a throwback high school kind of thing, most likely to be your one phone call is Ryan Lewenden, a partner at Giannuzzi Lewenden.
Ryan has really stepped up as his co-founder of that firm.
Nick Giannuzzi has sort of moved more toward the finance side with his recently launched fund.
And the guy's just omnipresent.
You know, he's constantly traveling the country and the world and just doing deals for CPG brands and continuing to uphold a specialty that Giannuzzi Lewenden has built over the years as one of the premier deal-making firms in CPG.
So, congratulations, Ryan.
For the Gutsiest Founder designation, Mark Washington is the founder and CEO of SuperGut, formerly branded as Munich.
And while so many food makers are trying to figure out this GLP1 slash Ozempic craze and how consumers are going to keep buying food when they're eating less.
And Mark and his team at SuperGut have identified positioning around Ozempic by marketing their products, which rely on a prebiotic fiber to boost gut microbiome diversity.
And their sales, I think, quadrupled within months of embracing that branding.
And so, leaning on that positioning, and really, beyond that, SuperGut has really walked the walk when it comes to delivering results, as far as proving the efficacy of their ingredient through gold standard clinical trials.
And they really take the science seriously.
And Mark, he used to be an executive at Beachbody, the fitness company, and he was inspired to launch this brand after his sister passed away from metabolic health conditions.
So, a really inspiring founder, but also a really savvy one.
Yeah, it's going to be interesting and inspiring to see what happens in the next couple of years, now that they've found, you know, that they've zeroed in with this approach, to see what kind of, you know, how they grow it more broadly.
Speaking of zeroing in, Scott Romano are most likely to be really, really, really busy, as the vice president and lead forager at Sprouts Farmers Market.
And again, this is a retailer that's really doubled down on bringing innovation into the stores and Scott is sort of leading that push with a pretty big team on behalf of Sprouts.
And he's wrestling with the problem that a lot of brands face, which is once you're in, how do you stay in?
And how do you bridge the gap with your wholesaler?
In this case, it's often Cahey.
How do you make sure that you're producing enough so that when you're off shelf the first time, that second run, you can afford that second run and continue to grow?
So as Sprouts has doubled down on innovation and on new brands, Scott's been trying to forge a lot of partnerships with other organizations to help these brands understand what it's going to take both financially and operationally to continue to grow.
Our next notable is, we're saying, most likely to succeed again.
It's Peter Rahal, the founder of RxBar, but also of David Protein, which is a new ProteinBar brand that he's launching this fall.
And it is interesting to see a person who staged the most lucrative exit in recent CPG history with selling his business to Kellogg in 2017 for $600 million, and now getting right back into the ProteinBar business with a different sort of ethos.
You know, instead of this clean, simple, three dates, four almonds sort of philosophy, they're going into this kind of food tech approach with very low, if any, sugar and a high amount of protein.
If anybody knows the bar business, it's Peter, and now he has all kinds of resources and experience that he can leverage to really drive success here.
Certainly not a high goal when you call a brand David.
Our next notable is who we are calling Empire Builder.
It's Norma Chu, the founder and CEO of Day Day Cook.
I don't think a lot of people were familiar with Day Day Cook about a year ago, and in the past 12 months, has really commanded a lot of interests and news around three high-profile acquisitions.
I say high-profile because these are some very trending and important brands to Asian-American consumers as well as the broader population.
So Day Day Cook, it's a publicly traded company based in Hong Kong, but has acquired within the last year Nona Lim, Yai Tsai, and Aum Sam most recently.
And her vision that she shared with us here at NOSH is to build the general mills of Asian food.
And it's really impressive to see how prolific this deal-making, we'll call it an empire, this platform that she's built over the past year.
And I can't wait to see what comes next.
Yeah, it's such a big bet that these brands, which are still fairly small, but are ahead of the curve in the way that American eating is changing, you know, it could pay off a thousandfold if the demand is there.
These are leading brands that can fill it.
So we're going to the money with new bucks on the block.
Young Matt Leeds, the managing partner of Forward Consumer Partners, is our next notable.
And Matt looks like he's ready for his bar mitzvah.
But I think he's 40.
And at a time when a lot of funds have had trouble either raising or closing raises, Forward Consumer Partners debuted with about a $425 million fund.
And that's based on a lot of the work that Matt Leeds has done in the past at El Catterton.
He was involved in the purchase and sale of Cholula, for example.
And the push is to find very well, you know, very deeply entrenched small brands and bring them to scale.
And he's doing that with two investments already.
One's Firehook Bakery, and one is a Zochitl, which is a very high-end tortilla chip brand.
And it's going to be great to see how he spends his money.
And, you know, another thing that's really interesting about Matt Leeds is that he's a founder himself.
He started a ready-to-drink cocktail line based on the restaurant Via Corota in New York.
So many bucks given today.
All of the bucks.
And sacks of bucks.
So our next notable, we're calling her the band leader.
It is Amrit Richman, the founder of NDCPG and also Super Mercado Insights.
She's a consultant.
She's really well known, I think, across the industry for the lists that she publishes, the roundups, the guidebooks to Expo West.
She brings so much creativity and flair to these presentations.
Her nominator said she's constantly highlighting new and emerging brands, providing thoughtful and data-based insights on the industry and sharing fundraising themes, and she's been a friend to NOSH.
She also has some really fun activations at Expo West.
I remember, I think, a couple of years ago, she made temporary tattoos of different brands and logos and was handing them out at the Ouroboros booth.
So she's very creative, but also really has her finger on the pulse and is constantly scouring social media and trade pubs and everything else to get the scoop on all of the latest and greatest new product news, as well as other things, like we do at NOSH.
Yeah, one thing, there's some notable competition for us in these lists.
Most likely to ignore the side of our last of the 24 of 24.
Most likely to ignore conventional thinking around a crowded category.
And that's Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali, the co-CEOs of Chomps.
And, you know, all you got to think of is, we're going to sell meat sticks to women, is the unconventional thinking around what's been a really crowded category, the meat snack category.
But they've found this kind of whole 30 approach to the Slim Jim with Chomps.
And it's really paid off, you know, they've pulled in 80 million from Stride Consumer Partners a couple of years ago.
And the convenience store channel Beckins, which is a place that none of this next generation, the Epics and Craves and Chef's Cut, have been able to reformat.
But as convenience starts to, continues to aim for female customers, this could be one of those brands that legitimizes the channel as a place that takes it beyond Bubba.
So it'll be really interesting to see.
We have a question from Amanda Cohen, who is cheering everybody on, on the list.
Amanda wants to know when can everybody share news of the winners on their social media channels?
You could do it now.
It's if you go to nosh.com, the full list has been published now, and we'll also be sharing with the winners some assets that they can use on their LinkedIn profiles and their social media pages to highlight this designation of a NOSH Notable Class of 2024.
All right.
So nosh.com, head over there.
This has been great, Monica and Jeff.
Thank you so much for joining Community Call and sharing this list live.
Well, thanks for having us.
This was a hoot.
A hoot and a holler.
So many bucks.
That concludes another episode of the Community Call Podcast.
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