In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG

In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG

A podcast about the real economics of ecommerce, DTC, and CPG. Hosted by Fan Bi, In The Money features honest convos with the people building, growing, and investing in modern consumer brands.

  1. 5d ago

    Brand Is Not Branding, And Other Mistakes in Consumer

    What's the difference between brand and branding and why is confusing the two one of the most expensive mistakes a consumer founder can make? Rick Desai, Managing Partner at Listen Ventures, joins In The Money to break down the investing philosophy behind one of the most concentrated consumer portfolios in venture. Listen manages $130 million across four funds, backs just twelve brands per fund, and has been behind some of the most recognizable outcomes in modern consumer, Calm, now valued at over $2 billion, and Factor, which HelloFresh acquired for $277 million after Listen backed it from inception to exit. Rick also teaches entrepreneurship and digital marketing at Kellogg, and what he's seeing across the portfolio right now is shaping some of the sharpest perspectives on brand, TikTok, AI, and what separates consumer companies that last from ones that just had a great launch. We cover: Brand versus branding: why they're not the same thing and why the confusion is so expensiveWhy brand is internal before it's external and what that actually means in practiceCustomer service as a brand signal, not a cost centerWhy the best founders don't seek risk, they mitigate itScrappiness as the thing you have to protect most aggressively as you scaleWhy TikTok is the new Facebook circa 2014, and what the arbitrage window actually looks likeIf you're not AIing everything right now, you're already behind: what Rick means and where to startInside the Listen Ventures model: twelve brands per fund, up to $5M per check, capital plus creative under one roofThe Factor story: what Listen saw at inception and how the brand was built to a $277M exitWhat Rick looks for at the moment of change: new trends, new frontiers, new channelsLessons from Calm on category creation and staying powerWhat founder psychology reveals about which companies succeed at very close rangeWhat Listen is looking for in new investments heading into the back half of 2026If you're a consumer founder, operator, or investor trying to understand what actually builds durable customer love, this episode is one of the clearest frameworks you'll hear.

  2. Aug 13

    Finding White Space and Scaling to 8-Figures in a Crowded Homewares Category

    What does it actually cost to hold an uncompromising product standard in premium homeware? Joe Parenteau, Co-Founder and CEO of Fable, joins In The Money to break down how a former accountant with no design background built one of North America's most design-forward homeware brands, and why they've walked away from roughly 30% of supplier relationships mid-development rather than ship a product that didn't meet standard. Fable designs in Vancouver and crafts through family-owned artisan makers in Portugal, Belgium, and Japan. Dinnerware, glassware, flatware, and rugs built around a thesis the rest of the industry ignores: you shouldn't have to choose between beautiful and durable. Full wool rugs that are machine washable. Glassware elegant enough for a dinner party and tough enough for a Tuesday night. B Corp certified, backed by Listen Ventures, True, Sandpiper, and Techstars. We cover: How a Bench Accounting operations director ended up building a premium homeware brandThe founding insight: why buying quality home goods was so frustrating it became a businessDesigning in Vancouver, crafting in Portugal: how the supply chain came togetherSeven manufacturers across seven materials and what it takes to manage that complexityWhy Fable has fired roughly 30% of suppliers mid-development, and why Joe would do it againThe premium-but-durable white space: form and function as the category gap everyone else walked pastBuilding taste into a fully remote, flat organizationThe marketing team of one: how Fable runs leanWhy Joe would think twice before joining Techstars as a DTC company and what accelerators actually offer consumer brandsThe path to profitability: thirty incremental operational improvements, not one big unlockNegotiating shipping rates down and the unglamorous work that actually moves marginBalancing an uncompromising product standard against next quarter's revenue numberRetail expansion, new categories, and what's next for FableIf you're building a premium consumer brand, managing a complex multi-country supply chain, or trying to figure out what quality actually costs, this episode is an honest look at the decisions most founders never talk about publicly.

  3. Jul 31

    Reaching Eight Figures by Doing the Unscalable Things First

    Sahand Dilmaghani, Founder and CEO of Terra Cafe, joins In The Money to tell one of the more quietly impressive origin stories in consumer hardware, a founder who spent months recording conversations with strangers in retail stores, carried espresso machines door to door across New York City, and built a relationship with a Chinese manufacturer just weeks before the world shut down during COVID. Terra Cafe makes premium automatic bean-to-cup espresso machines, 400-plus moving parts, a hardware-plus-consumables ecosystem, and a customer base where nearly half are converting directly from a pod machine to a $2,000 device. The category had been full of machines nobody could explain, priced anywhere from $1,200 to $6,000, with no brand making the transition from pods feel accessible. Sahand saw the missing link. He spent three years building the product to fill it. We cover: Why Sahand moved to New York, lived on one meal a day, and carried espresso machines door to door before spending a dollar on adsRecording conversations with strangers in retail stores and how that unscalable customer research shaped every marketing message Terra Cafe has ever runBuilding a manufacturer relationship in China just weeks before COVID shut the world down and how he maintained it for three years without a single visitThe bean-to-cup category: why it's been misunderstood, undermarketed, and wide open for a brand that could make it accessibleHardware plus consumables: how the economics of a recurring revenue model change everything about how you think about CAC and LTVWhy nearly half of Terra Cafe customers are converting from pod machines and what that means for category sizingThe $2,000 considered purchase: how to nurture leads, overcome objections, and convert customers who take months to decideScaling to eight figures while staying obsessively close to the customer at every stageThe marketing stack that's working: what channels are driving acquisition and why If you're building a hardware brand, a considered-purchase DTC business, or anything where the customer research phase is the most important thing you'll ever do, this episode is one of the most honest accounts of what that actually looks like in practice.

  4. Jul 22

    Engineering Adult Friendships to a Billion Dollar Business

    What happens when a former consumer brand founder gets tired of the working capital grind, spots a broken format in adult recreational sports leagues, and decides to engineer the conditions for adults to actually make new friends? Tommy Flaim, Founder of Silly Pickles, joins In The Money to break down one of the more unexpected growth stories in the consumer space, a pickleball league that started as a side hustle managed on Microsoft Excel, hit a waitlist of over a thousand players in its first few seasons, and is now in 75 metro areas across the US, Canada, and Australia doing $6 million in run rate on just $750K raised. We cover: Why adult recreational sports leagues have a broken format and the dynamic ladder system Tommy built to fix itHow to engineer a social outcome: skill-based matchups, repeat exposure, happy hours, and the magic of a great local hostWhy 50% of Silly Pickles players have never played in another adult rec league and 30% had never even played pickleball before their first nightThe bottom 90% thesis: why most competitors target washed-up athletes and why Tommy is going after everyone elseHow Silly Pickles went from one Chicago bar to 75 metro areas with a decentralized hub-and-spoke modelBrand partnerships: Waterboy, an alcohol brand, an iced tea brand and why Silly Pickles is becoming one of the most interesting IRL activation platforms in consumerWhat CPG brands get wrong about IRL activations and the two ingredients that make the difference between a great event and a forgettable oneThe non-technical founder's guide to building software: the agency route, the tradeoffs, and why Tommy chose the most expensive option on purposeThe math to a billion: 200 metro areas, 10 sports, $500K per metro area per sportPickleball as the wedge and what comes next as they layer on volleyball and additional sportsLessons from his consumer apparel brand: what he'd do differently and why he's now a little jaded about inventory-based businessesThe holy trinity for consumer founders: brand, community, differentiated product, and catching a wave before incumbents catch upWhy TikTok is still the most important platform for consumer businesses and what to do if you're not good at it yet If you're building a consumer brand, thinking about IRL community as a channel, or trying to understand what catching a category wave actually looks like from the inside this episode is packed with hard-won lessons from a founder who's done it twice.

  5. Jul 14

    We Thought It Could Be a Modest $10M Business. We Were Very Wrong.

    What does it look like to send 25 to 30 cold emails to a founder you've never met because you believe in a product so much you're willing to bet your career on it? Kieran Mathew, CEO of Equip Foods, joins In The Money to break down one of the more unconventional origin stories in better-for-you supplements, an operator who joined an existing business, took over day-to-day functions from the founder, and helped scale it from low seven figures to well into eight on a growth model that barely touched Meta spend. Equip makes animal-based protein products built around one standard: real food ingredients, nothing the brand wouldn't stand behind completely. No fillers. No shortcuts. A product built for a customer who reads labels and doesn't forgive compromises. We cover: Why Kieran sent 25-30 emails to founder Anthony Gustin before getting a response and what he said to finally get oneWhat it actually looks like to join a business as an operator-partner rather than a founderHow to take over day-to-day operations from a founder without breaking what's already workingThe affiliate flywheel: how Equip built a roster of thousands of partners who became genuine evangelists for the brandHow affiliate seeding trained the algorithm before a dollar of Meta spend and what that did to ROAS when they finally turned it onWhy beef protein is having its moment and how whey margin compression is accelerating the category shiftThe animal-based consumer: who they are, what they believe, and why they're more loyal than almost any other supplement customerWhat Equip would do differently in paid if they were starting the channel from scratch todayOrg structure evolution: why the team design that worked at $3M doesn't work at $15M and what needs to changeHow Equip thinks about SKU expansion without losing the brand clarity that made themRetention, subscription, and what actually drives LTV in the supplement category If you're building in supplements, better-for-you CPG, or thinking about how to join an existing business as an operator rather than start from scratch, this episode is one of the most useful conversations I've had on the pod this year.

  6. Jul 6

    The LinkedIn Message They Almost Ignored For Target Nationwide

    What happens when a high-protein, clean-ingredient frozen pizza brand spends two years grinding through cold chain nightmares, supply chain restarts, and a fundraising carousel, and then lands at number one in the frozen pizza category at Target? Michael Rolland, Co-Founder of Yough!, joins In The Money to tell one of the more honest origin stories in better-for-you frozen food, a brand built around a simple thesis that you shouldn't have to choose between eating pizza and feeling good afterward, and the long road it took to get that product in front of the right retailers at the right moment. 700 calories. 46 grams of protein. No junk ingredients. An anytime meal that people are eating pre-workout, post-workout, and at 2am after a night out, without the guilt. We cover: Why DTC was the wrong model for frozen and what Yough! learned the expensive wayThe supply chain issues that forced a full relaunch and why it ultimately made the product betterHow Yough! built into boutique specialty retail first before going massThe LinkedIn message they almost ignored and how it turned into a meeting at Target HQWhat it actually looks like when a national retailer offers you a launch before you've pitched themGoing from specialty to Target and Sprouts on organic momentum alone, no broker, no traditional pitchWhat number one in frozen pizza at Target actually means for a brand at this stageThe fundraising reality for better-for-you frozen: what investors want to see and when the timing is rightProtein in frozen as the next major category wave and why the timing is right nowWhat Michael would do differently in the first 12-24 months if he started overWhat's next for Yough! heading into the back half of 2026If you're building in frozen, better-for-you, or any category where the product has to earn its place on a cold shelf, this episode is a candid look at what the grind before the breakthrough actually costs.

  7. Jun 30

    No Formula. No Co-Man. No Branding. Nationwide Whole Foods in Three Months.

    What does it look like to sell a brand to Kraft Heinz for a reported $200 million, and then build the second one with three kids under seven and no social media on your phone? Morgan Zanotti, Founder and CEO of Waay, joins In The Money to break down what changed and what stayed the same the second time around. Waay is a fizzy, clear sparkling protein water, 10 grams of protein, 45 calories, zero sugar, built for women who are tired of choking down chalky shakes to hit their protein goals. Before Waay, Morgan co-founded Primal Kitchen alongside Mark Sisson, bootstrapped it to $50M in revenue profitably, and led the company through its $200 million acquisition by Kraft Heinz in 2019. We cover: Why Morgan built Waay after watching the protein trend get sold entirely to menThe Primal Kitchen playbook: bootstrapping to $50M before the exitWhat she learned inside Kraft Heinz about scale, GLP-1s, and category timingWhy she pitched Whole Foods with a silver can, no final formula, no co-manufacturer, and no branding, and how they said yes nationwide anyway18 months of formulation: getting real protein, zero sucralose, and a taste that doesn't announce itselfBuilding the entire brand identity in three months and launching by OctoberWhy she went Whole Foods first instead of Target, and how that sequencing shaped everything that followedThe clear protein category: how it's exploding globally and why the US is just catching upBuilding lean the second time: a small remote team built through referrals, no agencyRaising capital on traction versus raising on hopes and dreamsWhat she'd do exactly the same the second time, and what she's doing completely differentlyBalancing three kids under seven with building a fast-scaling consumer brandIf you're building a consumer brand, thinking about a second act after an exit, or trying to figure out how to build with intention instead of urgency, this episode is one of the most grounded founder conversations I've put out this year.

  8. Jun 22

    The Repeat Founder Who Learned to Focus On One Product that Actually Matters

    What does it look like to build a premium hydration brand in one of the most crowded categories in consumer health, and win by doing almost everything differently? Joe Welstead, Co-Founder of Oshun, joins In The Money to break down how a repeat founder took every assumption about the electrolyte category and threw them out. No sachets. No citrus. No agency. No VC. Just a pump dispenser, an unflavored formula, and a brand positioning that owes more to skincare than sports nutrition. Joe built Motion Nutrition before this. He came out of that experience with one lesson above all others: launch one product, nail it completely, and resist every temptation to expand before you've earned the right to. At Oshun, he's done exactly that, and it's working. We cover: Why Joe looked at LMNT, Liquid IV, Nuun, Hydrant, and Prime and saw an opportunity hiding in plain sightThe pump dispenser decision: why form factor is a marketing strategy, not just a packaging choiceWhy Oshun has no flavor, and how that single decision sidesteps flavor fatigue and the endless SKU trapThe "clear skin, clear mind" moment: how a single conversation with a friend reframed the entire brand positioning overnightBeauty adjacent, not supplement adjacent: why escaping the supplement category unlocks everythingThree months of real-world conversations before running a single ad, and why that made the first Meta campaigns perform from day oneHow Joe learned to run Meta himself without an agency, and why he thinks the learning curve is overstatedThe seeding to Meta funnel: how Oshun uses creator seeding to train the algorithm before spending a dollar on paidTwo co-founders, one product, 75-90% of scope focused entirely on growthWhy Oshun launched a magnesium sleep product, and the surprisingly simple customer reason that accelerated the timelineBuilding in public without sharing revenue: why Joe talks about subscriber count and compound metrics but never top lineProfitable and growing while turning down institutional investors, what that optionality actually feels likeSkio's cancel flow as the single biggest retention unlock of 2026Why a skip or delay beats a discount every time for subscription churnWhat Joe would do differently in the first 12 months of the next brandIf you're building a consumer brand in health, wellness, or any crowded category where the default playbook isn't working — this episode is one of the clearest arguments I've heard for why doing less, better, wins.

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About

A podcast about the real economics of ecommerce, DTC, and CPG. Hosted by Fan Bi, In The Money features honest convos with the people building, growing, and investing in modern consumer brands.

Information

  • Creator
    In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    66
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG
  • Show Website
    In The Money: eCommerce, DTC, and CPG

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