How I Financed It

Keith Kohler
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship

How I Financed It brings you the real, in-depth, and vulnerable stories of founders who’ve built — and financed — their businesses. From the spark of an idea to the financing that fueled their journey, each episode reveals the strategies, successes, setbacks, and mindset shifts that drove their growth. Hosted by Keith Kohler, your financing and mindset strategist, this show explores what it takes — and how it feels — to secure the right financing at the right time.

  1. Sep 2

    From Data Analyst To Salvadorian Food Founder

    Salvadorian pupusas in the mainstream freezer aisle sound inevitable now, but Cynthia Duran had to build that reality from scratch. For our season one finale, we sit down with the founder of Xinca Foods to unpack how a former Fortune 500 data analyst turned a personal problem into a fast-growing CPG brand: moving around the country and realizing her comfort food was nearly impossible to find at stores like Whole Foods, Safeway, or Kroger. We get specific about the product choices that made Xinca click, from launching with pupusas to betting on flavors like loroco and cheese that are deeply rooted in Salvadorian cuisine. Cynthia shares the lessons that only show up once you’re actually selling, including the USDA learning curve, why a plant-based SKU didn’t stay in the lineup, and how demos became her most valuable source of customer feedback. You’ll hear how shoppers really eat pupusas, what packaging changes mattered, and why resizing the product helped address price pushback. Then we go deep on startup financing and operations. Cynthia explains bootstrapping with savings and a 401(k) withdrawal, reinvesting cash flow, and making disciplined spend decisions like skipping pricey trade shows when the ROI isn’t there. We also talk self-manufacturing, investing in equipment, and the unglamorous but essential work of boundaries, operating agreements, bookkeeping cadence, and paying for legal and accounting support. If you’re building a food startup, scaling a CPG brand, or figuring out how to finance growth without losing control, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    From Data Analyst To Salvadorian Food Founder

  2. Aug 19

    What If Fearlessness Is A Business Strategy

    A student founder builds a CPG brand, bootstraps the finances, and still finds the courage to cold email 137 brokers. That’s the kind of early-stage hustle we get into with Jessica Zhu, the founder of Zen Broth, an umami seasoning brand designed to bring deeper flavor to everyday meals and to connect cultures through food. We talk about what shaped Jessica’s entrepreneur mindset, from growing up in a family business to moving to the United States at 14 and learning how powerful storytelling can be. She breaks down how she explains “umami” to customers, why education is part of the marketing strategy, and how she turns authenticity into a clear brand message instead of vague inspiration. If you care about brand building, product positioning, and finding your edge as an immigrant founder or young founder, you’ll hear a lot to borrow. Then we go practical: using UPenn Venture Lab and a food innovation lab, building a business plan that constantly updates, and facing the numbers when you’re bootstrapping. Jessica shares her customer discovery process, including running roughly 1,500 surveys, iterating questions by audience, and selling in real life at farmers markets. We also dig into distribution strategy, from direct-to-consumer and retailer learning calls to restaurant partnerships, plus influencer marketing and recipe content that helps customers actually use the product. If this conversation helps you think bigger or execute faster, subscribe to the show, share it with a founder friend, and leave a review so more builders can find it. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    What If Fearlessness Is A Business Strategy

  3. Aug 5

    The Business Opportunity Inside Every Church: Turning Church Space Into Neighborhood Infrastructure

    Church buildings are everywhere, but most of their square footage sits unused most of the week. That’s not just a real estate problem, it’s a neighborhood problem and a massive opportunity hiding in plain sight. I sit down with Emmanuel Brown, co-founder of ChurchSpace, to explore how underutilized church real estate can become something bigger than rentals: local infrastructure that creates jobs and makes daily life easier. Emmanuel shares how ChurchSpace began as a marketplace model people dubbed “the Airbnb for churches,” helping churches rent kitchens, auditoriums, and offices for short-term use. Then came a key insight: the real value isn’t only empty space, it’s proximity. Churches are already embedded close to where people live, which makes them powerful anchors for micro-fulfillment, last-mile logistics, and same-day delivery. We talk through what it looks like when a fellowship hall becomes a delivery hub, and how employing congregants can turn logistics into meaningful local work. We also get practical about startup financing and what it really takes to raise venture capital as a first-time founder. Emmanuel breaks down reverse-engineering milestones, why SAFE notes are common early on, how pitch competitions and the A16Z accelerator helped unlock momentum, and what “investor psychology” has to do with getting to a yes. If you care about community impact, church innovation, venture funding, or last-mile delivery strategy, you’ll come away with a clearer map and plenty to think about. Subscribe, share this with a founder or faith leader who needs it, and leave a review if the conversation helps you see church real estate and neighborhood infrastructure in a new way. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    The Business Opportunity Inside Every Church: Turning Church Space Into Neighborhood Infrastructure

  4. Jul 22

    What Every CPG Founder Should Know About Private Label

    Empty shelves during the pandemic created a brutal test for every CPG operator: could you find capacity, move fast, and still deliver quality? We talk with Hima Pal, co-founder of American Food Solutions, about the moment a Sam’s Club buyer called in a panic and how that single demand for speed helped spark a private label business that now runs massive programs across salty snacks and more. We dig into AFS’s “broker plus model” and why it works. Hima breaks down what it means to own innovation, packaging, specs, quality, and the customer relationship while coordinating a co-packer network and carrying the operational risk. Then we get specific about cash conversion cycles, retailer terms, and why thin margins force a different financing mindset. If you have ever wondered when factoring helps and when it quietly destroys profitability, this conversation gets honest fast. The most powerful part is the human side: building a company with a deeply aligned partner, learning from the debt spiral of a first brand, and treating payroll and employee stability as a non-negotiable responsibility. We also cover the shift toward in-house manufacturing after acquiring a Texas facility, how private label is pushing premium quality at 25% to 40% below branded pricing, and how they manage inflation with constant re-quoting and transparency. If you care about entrepreneurship, private label, manufacturing, and capital-efficient growth, subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    What Every CPG Founder Should Know About Private Label

  5. Jul 8

    How Burlap And Barrel Built Growth Without VC Money

    Your spice cabinet is probably lying to you and your financing offers might be too. Keith Kohler sits down with Ori Zohar, co-founder and co-CEO of Burlap and Barrel, to trace a 10-year path from packing spices in a Queens living room to building a nationally known single origin spice company with a real social enterprise backbone. We talk about what “single origin” actually means in spices, why supply chain transparency is still rare in this corner of the food industry, and how direct relationships with farmers can raise quality while creating mutual long-term value.  We also get brutally practical about small business finance and CPG cash flow. Ori shares the bootstrap reality of reinvesting instead of paying yourself, the moment minimum wage feels like a milestone, and why they chose profitability over venture capital even after going through Techstars. We unpack the working capital challenge of paying farmers months before revenue shows up, how a bank line of credit can match seasonal inventory needs, and why factoring and “fee-based” cash advances can quietly behave like high APR debt that wipes out margin. If you run an e-commerce brand, the retention lessons land too: spices are low-frequency purchases, so the team expands breadth with salts, blends, and pantry products to keep customers coming back.  Then the story gets bigger than food. Ori explains Burlap and Barrel’s public stance on tariffs, filing legal briefs, and joining litigation as a small business voice, plus what that experience teaches about risk, joy, and building for the long term. If you care about ethical sourcing, direct trade, bootstrapping, and smarter financing decisions, this conversation delivers. Subscribe, share with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about funding growth. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    How Burlap And Barrel Built Growth Without VC Money

  6. Jun 24

    Defi-ning a New Type of Chocolate

    Buckwheat in chocolate sounds like a weird idea until you hear the story behind it. I’m joined by Tatyana Jones, founder of Defy Snacks, who explains how she turned a “misfit” ingredient into a better-for-you snacking brand and a real early-stage CPG company with a clear financing path. We dig into the leap from corporate brand building to founder life, including the parts nobody misses: politics, managing up, and spending more time getting approvals than building. Tatyana shares why she started Defy as a side hustle, how she stayed thoughtful about non-compete constraints, and what it felt like to go from a $100M budget world to fighting for every dollar as a bootstrapped founder. Then we get tactical on startup funding and growth. You’ll hear how she prioritized inventory and brand foundations (including trademarks), found “free” marketing through founder communities, and used pitch competitions for far more than prize money. We also unpack how to work with high-caliber advisors in a cash-starved business, why standard agreements matter, and what she’s learning while raising a $1M SAFE round to fund product Gen 2, retail expansion, and focused DTC growth. If you’re building a consumer packaged goods brand, thinking about fundraising, or trying to stand out in a crowded snack aisle, this one is packed with practical insight. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest CPG financing question. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    Defi-ning a New Type of Chocolate

  7. Jun 10

    The Future of Private Markets: Accredited Investors, Blockchain, and Tokenized Assets

    Billions were raised “overnight” during the ICO era and it exposed a hard truth: when technology moves faster than securities law, founders and investors both get burned. That collision is where Herwig “Happy” Koenigs built his edge, first by learning the compliance rules that govern private fundraising and then by helping shape what compliant tokenization can look like as finance moves on chain. We walk through Herwig’s path from the University of Miami Launchpad to co-founding InvestReady, a RegTech platform for accredited investor verification. Along the way, he breaks down what “accredited” actually means, why the SEC designed guardrails for private markets, and how founders can structure early progress without blowing up their burn. You’ll hear how a modest angel raise, tight co-founder alignment, and a deliberately lean “zombie strategy” helped InvestReady survive long enough to expand into KYC, AML, and on-chain identity. From there, we jump into Bitcoin, Ethereum, smart contracts, and the ICO boom that convinced Herwig tokenization was bigger than a trend. He shares the story of advising one of the early legal security token offerings and then building Security Token Market (STM) with a Bloomberg-style vision for tokenized asset data, research, and community. We also get specific about startup financing mechanics: family office capital, preferred shares, board seats, Series A dynamics, and how timing can matter as much as product. If you’re building in fintech, blockchain, tokenization, or just trying to raise smart money without losing control, you’ll come away with clearer language, sharper questions, and real founder lessons. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    The Future of Private Markets: Accredited Investors, Blockchain, and Tokenized Assets

  8. May 27

    How Matt McLean Financed Uncle Matt’s Through Growth, Crisis, PE, and a Buyback

    Taking “Florida” off a Florida citrus label sounds like a branding tweak until you live it. Matt McLean, founder of Uncle Matt’s Organics and a fourth-generation citrus grower, walks us through the real cost of building an organic orange juice company when nature, cash flow, and supply chains refuse to cooperate. From the early days of learning juice quality through an import-export brokerage to launching a perishable CPG product with short shelf life and tight working capital, Matt shares what it actually takes to survive the cash conversion cycle. We dig into what “organic” means on the farm, why European demand tipped him off early, and how he financed growth with a mix of scrappy self-funding, a small family loan, and eventually a borrowing-base line of credit. Then the story turns: Publix becomes a breakthrough, the business expands into fresh organic citrus, and private equity helps professionalize operations with KPIs, board discipline, and longer-term planning. The biggest curveball is citrus greening, an industry-wide crisis that forces a global sourcing pivot across Mexico, Texas, California, and beyond. Matt also tells the wild second act: selling the company to Dean Foods, facing their bankruptcy as COVID hits, and choosing to buy the brand back through a one and final sealed bid, then rebuilding with aligned investors, Farm Credit financing, and a new Texas manufacturing footprint that unlocks faster innovation in teas, lemonades, and more. If you like founder stories with real numbers, hard trade-offs, and practical financing lessons, subscribe, share this with a builder friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/

    How Matt McLean Financed Uncle Matt’s Through Growth, Crisis, PE, and a Buyback
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
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About

How I Financed It brings you the real, in-depth, and vulnerable stories of founders who’ve built — and financed — their businesses. From the spark of an idea to the financing that fueled their journey, each episode reveals the strategies, successes, setbacks, and mindset shifts that drove their growth. Hosted by Keith Kohler, your financing and mindset strategist, this show explores what it takes — and how it feels — to secure the right financing at the right time.

Information

  • Creator
    Keith Kohler
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 How I Financed It
  • Show Website
    How I Financed It