Shelf to Scale

Devesh Tilokani
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Shelf to Scale is a podcast featuring conversations with the founders, operators, and industry leaders behind today’s growing consumer products. Each episode explores how brands expand distribution, navigate retail partnerships, and scale across new channels and markets. From emerging CPG/FMCG startups to established manufacturers, we unpack the real-world challenges of growing consumer products across retailers, regions, and distribution networks. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani, Shelf to Scale brings together perspectives from across the consumer goods ecosystem to share what it takes to scale

  1. From 0 to 1,500 Stores With Cottage Cheese Ice Cream

    5d ago

    From 0 to 1,500 Stores With Cottage Cheese Ice Cream

    He made ice cream out of cottage cheese. It's now headed for 1,500 stores. How do you build a frozen category that didn't exist, then get Sprouts, Whole Foods, and a 500-store retail win in your first year? Smear Case is the first and only frozen cottage cheese ice cream. Half the fat, half the calories, and the most protein of any pint on the shelf. Joe coined and trademarked the word "Froco" before he'd sold a single unit, won the Albertsons Innovation Launchpad pitch at Expo West (and 500 stores with it), and is closing in on 1,500 doors nationwide. If you're a CPG founder trying to create a category instead of fighting for shelf space in an existing one, this conversation is the playbook. GUESTJoe Rotondo - Smear CaseLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephrrotondo/Website: https://smearcase.com/ SHELF TO SCALEWeekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani | Silvertop Trading.

    31 min
  2. He Lost 1,500 Stores Overnight. Here's What He Did Next.

    Jun 18

    He Lost 1,500 Stores Overnight. Here's What He Did Next.

    Arshad Bahl built Amrita Health Foods into 1,500 stores across Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Wegmans. Then lost all of it overnight to a product recall. What came next changed how he thinks about everything.In this episode: - Why a product recall was actually the best thing that happened to Arshad's business- The real role of distributors in your supply chain and why it's not what most founders think- How he built his own manufacturing facility for $150,000 using eBay and Facebook Marketplace- Why $10M in revenue at 15% margin beats $100M at 3% and the math behind staying small- What Peter Rahal, the Tom's Shoes founder, and dozens of other big exits have in commonArshad has been in CPG for over a decade — ran co-packers, ran his own factory, ran DTC, ran retail. He's one of the few founders in the space who has operated at every level of the value chain. This conversation is not about inspiration. It's about the structural decisions that actually determine whether a food brand survives. Guest links:- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arshad-bahl-61206373/- Website: https://www.amritahealthfoods.com/ Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani.

    37 min
  3. The Freezer Aisle Is The Hardest Shelf In Retail. Here's How To Get In | Stush Patty

    Jun 11

    The Freezer Aisle Is The Hardest Shelf In Retail. Here's How To Get In | Stush Patty

    The buyer conversation most CPG founders get completely wrong — and what to say instead. Opal Rowe started Stush Patty during COVID, delivering hot patties out of her car. Today she's in Whole Foods, RABBA, and four provinces across Canada. In this episode, she breaks down exactly how she got there: two rejections from RABBA before getting inlanding Whole Foods at her very first trade showthe co-packing nightmare behind a product that looks simple.the one mindset shift that changed how she talks to buyers. If you're building a frozen CPG brand or any retail brand, this is the episode. Guest: Opal Rowe, Founder of Stush Patty Website: https://stushpatties.com/ Instagram: @stushpatty New episodes every week. Subscribe for conversations with CPG founders on distribution, retail and the real mechanics of scaling a physical product brand.

    32 min
  4. A 26-Year China Veteran's Complete Guide to Asia Sourcing

    Jun 4

    A 26-Year China Veteran's Complete Guide to Asia Sourcing

    Paul Weedman has spent 26 years on the ground in Shenzhen sourcing products for brands from the West. He says 60–80% of Vietnam factory inputs still come from China. So what is China + 1 actually solving? In this episode, Paul breaks down the manufacturing ecosystem concept — why a factory is the smallest part of the supply chainwhy industrial clusters make China nearly impossible to replicatewhat actually happens when a brand finds a "good factory" and thinks the hard part is over. He also explains the human side of sourcing: why AI can teach you everything and still get you burned, why a translator is the wrong hire, and how a $10M business still comes down to two people walking a street in Shenzhen and sharing a beer. GUEST Paul Weedman — Victure Group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-weedman/ Website: www.victuregroup.com SHELF TO SCALE Weekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani

    38 min
  5. A Distributor Blocked Her For Years. She's Still Here. They Aren't. Here's How

    May 28

    A Distributor Blocked Her For Years. She's Still Here. They Aren't. Here's How

    Miriam built Delicious Without Gluten from her basement to coast-to-coast distribution, an 8-year Boston Pizza contract, and a Wegmans pretzel that their own buyers couldn't tell was gluten-free. In this episode: Why the word "gluten-free" killed her Costco demo sales (and what she said instead)How a distributor exclusivity blocked her from Metro for years, and why she's still standing while that competitor isn'tThe pivot from retail to food service that saved her business after COVIDThe Wegmans private-label deal that almost died when Trump's tariffs hitThe one financial mistake she made on day one that cost her 13 years of clean dataMiriam started in fashion, moved into packaging design for food importers, then opened a peanut-free bakery for her daughter. When her two kids were diagnosed with celiac, she rebuilt everything from scratch. The factory had to have drains in the floor and lockers outside the production room. The certification took six months. The pretzel that pulled her into retail came from a kitchen experiment her kids actually wanted to eat. If you're a CPG founder who has been told the same retail playbook for years, this episode is the other side of the argument. Guest links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriampearl/Website: https://www.deliciouswithout.com/ Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani.

    39 min
  6. He Went From Zero to Sold Out on Amazon in 4 Months

    May 21

    He Went From Zero to Sold Out on Amazon in 4 Months

    Peanut butter is down 30% a year. Pistachio butter is up 500%. Utsab Roychowdhury and his partner quit investment banking to bet on the gap. In four months he went from a blender in his New York apartment to live on Amazon. Two-person team. No mass retail. $20 a jar. Sold out for two months straight. This conversation breaks down the exact moves: how he found a co-packer in 20 callswhy he turned down big retail on purposethe pricing rule that keeps his margins alive while other CPG founders bleed out at the shelf. GUESTUtsab Roychowdhury - Stesh Pistachio ButterLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utsab-roychowdhury/Website: https://steshbutter.com/ SHELF TO SCALE Weekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani

    36 min
  7. The Laziest Way to Make UGC Ads in 2026 (Zero Creators)

    May 14

    The Laziest Way to Make UGC Ads in 2026 (Zero Creators)

    David, 21 years old, just built three full UGC ad campaigns for Olipop, Feastables, and Rhode in under an hour. No creators. No studio. Just one product image and an AI prompt. In this episode, you will learn: Why the $150 to $500 UGC creator model is officially deadThe Pixar trend that's flipping AI ad strategy on its head (it works because it doesn't try to look real)How Petco Labs is running 100% AI ads at scale, right nowThe "context rule" that's the difference between a viral ad and a broken oneThe 13 formats every physical product brand should be testingWhy one operator with AI now does the job of ten David, founder of StarPop AI, walks through live demos of Feastables Mr Beast bar ASMR ads, Olipop fridge-grab voiceovers, and Rhode lip balm cinematics, then breaks down a Petco Labs ad where every single frame was AI generated. If you sell a physical product and you're still paying $5,000 to test 10 ad hooks, this is the episode that ends that math. Guest links: David Ishag, co-founder of StarPop AITry Starpop - https://starpop.ai/?via=shelftoscale Links that David mentioned on the episode Claude Prompting System YT video - https://youtu.be/f83UH-qmNUs?si=LQQN3jzw3cDjmsKq Claude Agent - https://starpop.ai/claude-agent Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani.

    50 min
  8. His Hot Sauce Exploded. Then He SOLD 100,000 BOTTLES. Here's How

    May 7

    His Hot Sauce Exploded. Then He SOLD 100,000 BOTTLES. Here's How

    A customer opened a bottle of Lost in the Sauce and it exploded. Fresh mangoes were fermenting inside sealed glass. Karthy pulled every bottle, went back to the drawing board, and rebuilt. Eight years later, he's sold over 100,000 bottles across retail, DTC, and farmers markets in Canada. Karthy started making sauce in 2017 after his best friend Brandon passed away. Brandon's Trinidadian father taught him the recipe. Blank bottles, e-transfers, cash sales to friends. Then retailers came calling. Then TJX wanted 20x his production volume in a single order. That forced him to scale from kitchen blenders to a HACCP-certified co-packer, and nearly broke the business in the process. This conversation covers the real math behind retail margins, every hidden cost most CPG founders miss, and why Karthy believes revenue without profit is the fastest way to kill your brand. GUESTKarthy Subramaniam - Lost in the Sauce (LITS)Instagram: @litssauceWebsite: https://lostinthesauce.ca/ SHELF TO SCALEWeekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling.Hosted by Devesh Tilokani

    45 min
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Shelf to Scale is a podcast featuring conversations with the founders, operators, and industry leaders behind today’s growing consumer products. Each episode explores how brands expand distribution, navigate retail partnerships, and scale across new channels and markets. From emerging CPG/FMCG startups to established manufacturers, we unpack the real-world challenges of growing consumer products across retailers, regions, and distribution networks. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani, Shelf to Scale brings together perspectives from across the consumer goods ecosystem to share what it takes to scale

Information

  • Creator
    Devesh Tilokani
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Devesh Tilokani
  • Show Website
    Shelf to Scale