Shelf Space

Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony
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  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Conversations with CPG founders at the top of their game. Gathering unique insights and having impactful conversations to help guide the next generation of founders.

  1. 2d ago

    The Seltzer That Outgrew the Nelk Boys - Alex Isby on Happy Dad's Next Chapter

    What does it actually take to make a creator brand last longer than the hype? On this episode of ShelfSpace, Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony sit down with Alex Isby, Director of Product and Innovation at Happy Dad, the hard seltzer founded by the Nelk Boys in 2021. Alex left E. & J. Gallo, where he developed liquids for High Noon, after a coffee chat with a friend turned into a job offer within days. He joined a team of about eight people and was immediately sent to Memphis for the first Snoop Dogg Death Row Grape production run. Demand was exploding, but co-manufacturers kept pushing Happy Dad down the schedule for bigger customers. Alex breaks down how he and the team visited more than 70 co-manufacturers across the US to build a four-site network, why early-stage brands should start with a turnkey co-man to protect cash flow, and how combining raw material runs saves 10 to 15 cents per unit. He shares the real reason behind the fat can and low carbonation (hint: "claw throat"), why they removed electrolyte claims, and how the team tastes samples from every single batch tank. He also goes inside Happy Dad 2.0: moving from the Nelk Boys' gut instinct to scan data, the upcoming hard lemonade launch, and how they moved from idea to production in months when it would have taken two years at Gallo. Plus floods, lightning strikes, a CO2 force majeure, and why Happy Dad is still growing while the seltzer category shrinks.If you're building a beverage brand or working with co-manufacturers, this one is packed with operational lessons.Shop Happy Dad: https://happydad.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link#ShelfSpace #HappyDad #NelkBoys #HardSeltzer #CPG #BeverageIndustry #CoManufacturing #SupplyChain #ProductInnovation #CreatorBrands #FoundersPodcast #BeverageBrands #Entrepreneurship

    The Seltzer That Outgrew the Nelk Boys - Alex Isby on Happy Dad's Next Chapter

  2. Oct 8

    Built and Sold in Five Years - Jon Sebastiani on KRAVE, selling to Hersey and Sonoma Brands

    How do you take a "gas station" snack, make it premium, and sell it to Hershey in just five years?On this episode of Shelf Space, Connor Macpherson sits down with Jon Sebastiani, founder of KRAVE Jerky and founder of Sonoma Brands Capital, the growth equity firm behind brands like Oats Overnight, Touchland and Beekeeper's Naturals.Jon grew up in his family's multi-generational wine business. While training for the 2009 New York City Marathon, he found a local butcher's jerky that changed how he thought about protein, and realized what was on store shelves was nowhere near premium. So he built KRAVE: whole muscle cuts, culinary flavors, no artificial junk, and a brand designed for a customer jerky had never spoken to.Jon breaks down how he validated the idea with a tiny test audience before spending big, how a first-of-its-kind Safeway deal took KRAVE from 200 stores to 2,000 doors, and how that data opened the door to Target, Walmart and Costco. He also gets honest about the hard parts: margins sinking to single digits, a supplier recall that put KRAVE in headlines from Hawaii to New York, and a bad batch so overcooked it was "like chewing a rock." Then it's the Hershey story, from an unsolicited "what's your number?" to a deal closed in a matter of months, and why Jon jumped back in as an investor. He shares the mistakes from Fund 1, Sonoma Brands' four-category thesis, their $10M to $50M revenue strike zone, and exactly what he looks for in a founder before writing a check.If you're building an early or mid-stage CPG brand, or getting ready to raise, this one's packed with lessons you can use right away.Connect with Jon Sebastiani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsebastiani/Learn more about Sonoma Brands Capital: https://www.sonomabrands.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link #ShelfSpace #CPG #KRAVE #JonSebastiani #SonomaBrands #Hershey #FoodAndBeverage #CPGFounders #RetailStrategy #Fundraising #ConsumerBrands #Entrepreneurship #StartupPodcast

    Built and Sold in Five Years - Jon Sebastiani on KRAVE, selling to Hersey and Sonoma Brands

  3. Oct 1

    Stolen Trucks, Broken Bottles, and a Billion-Dollar Vision - Jared Pobre on Caldera + Lab

    Most men's skincare brands buy an existing formula off the shelf and slap a label on it. Jared Pobre, founder and CEO of Caldera + Lab, did the opposite — and it cost him two extra years. In this episode, Jared breaks down how he validated a men's skincare brand using anonymous freelance consultants before telling a single person his real idea, why he chose to build a proprietary formula from scratch instead of buying an existing one, and why he ran a full third-party clinical trial before ever launching a product. He gets into the launch strategy behind Caldera + Lab's hero serum "The Good," how the brand found its real audience (men 40-60, not the twenty-somethings everyone else was chasing), and the years it took to actually crack paid ads on Meta. Jared also opens up about the expensive mistakes along the way — a beautiful but impractical glass bottle, an oversized web agency bill, and a full truck of inventory stolen right before Black Friday — plus how Caldera + Lab built an in-house team from scratch, hit a 70% repeat purchase rate, and is now closing in on $60 million in profitable revenue with a Nordstrom retail launch and a billion-dollar goal ahead. What we cover: Validating a business idea anonymously before committing to itWhy proprietary formulas take years longer than off-the-shelf ones — and why that's the pointRunning an actual third-party clinical trial before launchFinding your real customer (and ignoring the "obvious" demographic)What actually makes a winning Meta adThe CAC-to-LTV math that keeps a DTC brand aliveBuilding an in-house team without hiring "experienced" peopleThe expensive mistakes: bad packaging, an oversized agency, a stolen truck of inventoryWhat's next: Nordstrom, biotech ingredients, and a billion-dollar roadmap Connect with Jared Pobre: https://www.instagram.com/jaredpobre/Shop Caldera + Lab: https://calderalab.com/ Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/ Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link

    Stolen Trucks, Broken Bottles, and a Billion-Dollar Vision - Jared Pobre on Caldera + Lab

  4. Sep 22

    Building the Dyson of Drinking Water - Charlie Carlisle on Rorra's Vision

    Charlie Carlisle went from building and selling Love Your Melon, to spending his days reviewing 30 to 40 acquisition decks a week as a portfolio strategist at WIN Brands Group, to co-founding Rorra: a premium water filtration brand built on stainless steel and glass instead of the plastic the rest of the category leans on. In this episode, Charlie joins Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony to unpack how his co-founder's daughter's unexplained eczema turned into a two and a half year build process, why he canvassed 40 to 50 filter manufacturers before landing on the right partner, and how Rorra earned a relationship with Andrew Huberman's team. They also get into: Why the countertop water filter category hadn't been touched since the Berkey brand collapsedThe post-COVID shift in how consumers think about heavy metals, microplastics, and forever chemicalsWhy a premium hardware brand almost never does influencer seedingThe subscription economics behind Rorra's filter replenishment businessWhy Charlie thinks Rorra can become "the Dyson of water," expanding into hotels, gyms, offices, and airportsThe 10,000 person waitlist for Rorra's new filtered pitcher, launching this week Connect with Charlie Carlisle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-carlisle/Shop Rorra: https://rorra.com/ Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/ Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link

    Building the Dyson of Drinking Water - Charlie Carlisle on Rorra's Vision

  5. Sep 11

    The VC Behind Your Favorite Celebrity Brand - Scott Van den Berg on HotStart's Investment Thesis

    Everyone wants a celebrity co-founder. Almost nobody knows how to structure that deal without blowing up their company. Scott van den Berg is the founder of Hot Start (formerly Influencer Capital), a venture fund that exclusively invests in and builds brands with celebrities and creators. Before this, Scott worked at an investment bank helping European startups raise US capital, which is where he first started brokering equity deals between celebrities and consumer brands, years before "celebrity equity" became a buzzword.In this episode, Scott breaks down why fame is not a business model, why JLo's alcohol-free cocktail line collapsed while a creator with 2 million followers built a $40M hair care brand in her first year, and why the best celebrity brands are always product first, never celebrity first. We also get into: Why follower count means nothing without "authentic creator product fit"The real story behind Sasha Pieterse joining Hot Start and investing in HydrantWhy Hot Start's due diligence looks at product and team before it ever looks at the celebrityHow equity splits actually work, from ambassador deals to true co-foundersWhy "you need to date before you get married" when bringing a celebrity onto your cap tableWhy CPG celebrity brands cap out around a billion dollars, and why tech is the next frontierHot Start's first company already incubating with 20 creators on the cap table If you've ever wondered whether attaching a celebrity to your brand is genius or a trap, this one lays out exactly how the smartest operators in the space actually think about it. Connect with Scott van den Berg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Visit HotStart: https://hotstart.vc Listen to The HotStart VC Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5u8fxPrbmH0RjqhTv0ZDBG Subscribe to The Fame Game newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/ Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/ Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/ Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/ Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link

    The VC Behind Your Favorite Celebrity Brand - Scott Van den Berg on HotStart's Investment Thesis

  6. Sep 3

    From Gourmet Pies to Teen Skincare - Maree Glading on Building Evre. Skincare

    \Maree Glading has built two companies from nothing, sold one before she turned 40, and is now taking on the US beauty market all the way from New Zealand. In this episode of ShelfSpace, she sits down with Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony to unpack 28 years in CPG and the playbook behind it all.Maree launched her first business, gourmet pie company I Love Pie Co, with just $3,000 and a van that broke down so often the AA refused to keep towing it. She grew it into every supermarket in New Zealand, exported across Australia, Asia and China, expanded into better-for-you biscuits, and sold the business roughly eleven years later.Then came evre. (pronounced "Every"), a 100% natural skincare brand for teens and tweens, born when her 12-year-old daughter asked for a $100 moisturiser and Maree realised the market had nothing gentle, clean and actually made for young skin. Today evre. is in Whole Foods nationwide, and the story of how she got there is wild. She landed the yes without even pitching, watched it fall apart when the buyer got promoted, and came back a year later stronger with more SKUs on shelf.Inside the episode: The "three Ps" she runs every business on: passion, problem, purposeHer domino strategy for US retail: Grove and Thrive, to natural independents, to Sprouts, to Whole FoodsWhy she is deliberately saying no to Australia and to new customers right nowBuilding for two shoppers at once: the mum who pays and the teen who choosesFunding a capital-heavy brand mostly herself, and why a raise is still comingWords over goals: why "intentional" and "community" beat a resolution listThe tenacity it really takes to keep going when the money is slow and the knocks keep comingWhether you are building your first brand or scaling your next one, Maree's honesty about retail, funding, focus and staying power is the kind you rarely hear on the record.#evre #TeenSkincare #CPG #ConsumerGoods #WholeFoods #FounderStory #RetailStrategy #FMCG #BeautyBusiness #Entrepreneurship #NewZealandBusiness #ScalingBrands #ShelfSpace #PlusForty #PodcastConnect with Maree Glading: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mareeglading/Shop evre.: https://www.evreselfcare.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/ Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link

    From Gourmet Pies to Teen Skincare - Maree Glading on Building Evre. Skincare

  7. Aug 27

    From Instagram DM to 1,200 Stores - Sean Knecht on Inventing a New Snack Category with Tantos

    What happens when you DM a Top Chef finalist about pasta dough and end up co-founding a snack brand? Sean Knecht is the co-founder of Tantos, the first and only puffed pasta chip, built alongside celebrity chef Joe Sasto. What started as a happy accident called "pasta nachos" at a pop-up dinner turned into a brand new snack category now sitting in over 1,200 stores including Kroger, H-E-B, The Fresh Market, and World Market. Oh, and it became the first class snack on every JetBlue flight within three months of launch. Sean is also a two-time Shark Tank alum. In this episode, he breaks down exactly what happened in the Tank the second time around, why Daniel Lubetzky's failed pasta chip venture from the 90s soured the room, and why walking away with no deal still triggered 3,000 orders in 72 hours. This is a masterclass in building a CPG brand lean: a core team of three, everything else outsourced, and a supply chain built to scale from day one. In this episode: The Instagram DM that started it all (and the birthday tortellini class that sealed it)Selling out 1,500 units in 13 minutes from Joe's apartmentGetting rejected by co-packers everywhere, then finding a mentor who became lead investorWhy "first and only" beats chasing protein and fibre trendsHow to vet brokers: owner background, realistic timelines, and the reference questions nobody asksThe JetBlue deal that kept manufacturing aliveInside the 400-store Kroger test across 13 divisionsPricing for national scale before you have itTwo Shark Tank appearances, ten years apart, and what changedRaising capital as a long game: quarterly updates, data rooms, and selling yourself, not just the businessJuggling two businesses without burning out" Whether you're launching a CPG brand, hunting for a co-packer, or wondering if Shark Tank is worth it, Sean's playbook is one of the most tactical we've had on the show. Connect with Sean Knecht: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-knecht-a1398b11 Shop Tantos: https://www.eattantos.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link

    From Instagram DM to 1,200 Stores - Sean Knecht on Inventing a New Snack Category with Tantos

  8. Aug 21

    The Fractional Operator Behind Brooklyn Beckham's Cloud 23 - Mac McAvoy on Building CPG Ops

    Most CPG founders can tell you how many cases they have on hand. Almost none can tell you how many days that actually buys them. In this episode, Connor and Luke sit down with Mac McAvoy, founder of DeepWorks CPG and one of the sharpest operators in consumer goods, to unpack the unglamorous backend work that quietly decides whether a brand scales or stalls.Mac has done it in the deep end. He packed two duffel bags, moved from Florida to LA to run operations for Dirty Lemon, took a cold-chain, HPP beverage all the way to shelf-stable so it could land in Walmart, and did it partly living out of an Escalade during COVID. From there he ran operations for one of California's top cannabis brands with 125 people and over 200 SKUs across three shifts a day, helped build Barcode's hydration story, and now runs DeepWorks, a fractional operations firm for CPG brands, with clients including Stiller's Soda, HY.Q, Buffs, Sauz, and Habiza Hummus.Inside the conversation: How to track inventory in days on hand instead of cases, and the weighted velocity burn formula Mac builds first for every client (25% last 14 days, 25% quarter to date, 50% year to date). Why the 75% shelf life rule forces you to clear your floor every 90 days. The build, fix, or enhance framework for knowing exactly where a brand needs help. How to actually manage a co-packer relationship, why "you'll be back" is a threat you should never make true, and the break-room trick that gets a facility to care about your product. Where COGS reduction really comes from, and why Mac reviews it quarter by quarter, not week by week. Why taste has to come first and function second, plus the wild story of a brand filling its packaging with water because the product tasted so bad. And the cross-functional truth that operations is a thankless, zero-sum game, so the real win is giving founders their sleep back.If you are a founder running and gunning with nothing on the backend, or scaling faster than your systems can handle, this one is a masterclass in the work nobody claps for but every brand needs.Connect with Mac McAvoy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mac-mcavoy-2a230365/Work with DeepWorks CPG: https://www.deepworkscpg.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link#CPG #ConsumerPackagedGoods #CPGoperations #SupplyChain #InventoryManagement #DTCtoRetail #BeverageIndustry #FractionalCOO #RetailStrategy #COGS #Walmart #FoundersJourney #OperationsLeadership #ShelfSpacePodcast #DirtyLemon #DeepWorks

    The Fractional Operator Behind Brooklyn Beckham's Cloud 23 - Mac McAvoy on Building CPG Ops
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About

Conversations with CPG founders at the top of their game. Gathering unique insights and having impactful conversations to help guide the next generation of founders.

Information

  • Creator
    Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony
  • Show Website
    Shelf Space

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