Unit Economics

The Unit Economics Podcast

The real mechanics behind your favorite brands. Conversations with founders on how products are designed, manufactured, priced, and distributed — with a focus on the decisions, economics, and tradeoffs behind the scenes. Hosted by Josh Stabinsky. 🎧 New episodes every week. 🌐 More at uepod.com Want to get in touch? hello@uepod.com

  1. [Something Sweet] Brittney Cook

    -1 DIA

    [Something Sweet] Brittney Cook

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Brittney Cook, co-founder and CEO of Something Sweet, a frozen dessert brand built around pre-portioned, ready-to-bake brown butter cookie dough. In this conversation, we talk about what it looked like to turn a family recipe into a real CPG business with no prior food background, the challenge of scaling something as technical as brown butter without losing what made the product special, and why Something Sweet chose to build around frozen dough rather than refrigerated or pre-baked cookies. We also get into the realities of shipping a frozen product DTC, breaking into retail from scratch, why velocity matters more than just piling up doors, and how the team has tried to stay disciplined around growth, distribution, and SKU expansion as the business has scaled. I learned a lot during my conversation with Brittney, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    40 min
  2. [Sway] Julia Marsh

    -3 DIAS

    [Sway] Julia Marsh

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Julia Marsh, co-founder and CEO of Sway, a materials company using seaweed to build compostable replacements for plastic packaging. In this conversation, we talk about why flexible plastic is such a difficult category to replace, how Julia went from a background in packaging design to building a company around seaweed as a feedstock, and what it actually takes to turn a raw natural material into something that can run on traditional plastic manufacturing equipment. We also get into sourcing seaweed globally, the challenge of working within legacy industrial systems without compromising the long-term mission, why existing infrastructure was such a critical part of the strategy, and what demand looks like from brands trying to move away from conventional plastic without sacrificing performance. I learned so much during my conversation with Julia, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    49 min
  3. [MADRE] Shay Carrillo

    2/04

    [MADRE] Shay Carrillo

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Shay Carrillo, Founder & CEO of Madre Linen, a home goods brand focused on building a fully traceable, ethically sourced linen supply chain from the ground up. In this conversation, we talk about how the business actually came together, starting with hand-sewn napkins and an early wholesale order from Heath Ceramics that forced Shay to figure out manufacturing almost overnight. We also get into how linen is produced at a material level, what it takes to source fabric with a transparent supply chain, and why she ultimately built a new brand after realizing she couldn’t trace where her original materials were coming from. We spend time on the economics of producing domestically, how tariffs and input costs impact margins, and why wholesale, despite reaching over 100 stores, ultimately didn’t work as a profitable channel. Shay also walks through how she’s thinking about distribution today across DTC, rentals, and B2B, and what needs to happen operationally to grow the business from here. I learned so much during my conversation with Shay, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    35 min
  4. [Laurel's Coffee] Isabel Washington

    31/03

    [Laurel's Coffee] Isabel Washington

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Isabel Washington, Founder & CEO of Laurel's Coffee, a canned ready-to-drink latte brand built around A2 dairy. In this conversation, we talk about what led Isabel to bet on A2 milk as a core ingredient, why she saw a gap between what people are actually ordering in coffee shops and what exists on shelf, and how she went from idea to launching in Erewhon in a matter of months. We also get into the realities of building a beverage business from scratch, including early production decisions, slotting fees, demo strategy, pricing and promo mechanics, and the operational tradeoffs behind scaling quickly into retailers like Whole Foods. I learned so much during my conversation with Isabel, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    49 min
  5. [Loftie] Matt Hassett

    25/03

    [Loftie] Matt Hassett

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Matt Hassett, Founder and CEO of Loftie, a consumer sleep tech company best known for its design-forward, connected alarm clock aimed at helping people use their phones less and sleep better at night. In this conversation, we talk about how the business actually got off the ground, including what it took to move from an initial concept into a physical product, how Matt got the first units manufactured and into customers’ hands, and what it looked like to build a hardware company without venture backing. We get into the realities of working with overseas manufacturers, managing inventory and cash flow, and trying to grow while operating with real capital constraints. We also spend time on how the company has evolved since those early days, expanding beyond a single product into a broader set of offerings. A big part of the conversation focuses on tariffs and the impact they had on the business, what it actually means when your costs effectively triple overnight, why relocating one's manufacturing presence isn’t as simple as it sounds, and how those constraints forced a meaningful shift in strategy, including moving a large portion of the business toward international markets. I learned so much from Matt, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

    47 min
  6. [Lottie's Meats] Chelsey & Cassie Maschhoff

    19/03

    [Lottie's Meats] Chelsey & Cassie Maschhoff

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Chelsey & Cassie Maschhoff, the co-founders of Lottie’s Meats, a company built around a simple idea: making sausage feel like a product worth rethinking. In our conversation, we talk about what they saw when they looked at the category early on, why so much of the sausage aisle felt visually dated and operationally stagnant, and how they set out to build something more modern around whole-muscle cuts, a cleaner ingredient list, and a clearer point of view on quality. We get into the early product development process, what it looked like to take recipes that worked in a kitchen and translate them into real production runs, and why the path to market ended up being more complicated than just making a better product. We also spend a lot of time on the actual mechanics of the business: the realities of working with multiple USDA facilities, why meat production creates constraints that a lot of other CPG brands never have to think about, what they learned very quickly about the economics of frozen DTC, and how retail, food service, farmers markets, and pop-ups each served a different purpose in helping them get the company off the ground. This is a conversation about category positioning, supply chain complexity, and what it really takes to build a premium product in a part of the store where consumers are used to thinking mostly about price. I learned so much from my conversation with Chelsey and Cassie, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    48 min
  7. [Byte'm] Jack Davis & Jacob Tubis

    17/03

    [Byte'm] Jack Davis & Jacob Tubis

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Jack Davis and Jacob Tubis, co-founders of Byte'm, a company built around a simple idea: bringing a true bakery-quality brownie to the grocery store in a bite-sized form factor. Jack and Jacob met as freshmen at American University and bonded over a shared interest in food and business. The idea for Byte'm started with Jack’s mom’s brownie recipe and an observation that, despite how beloved brownies are, the versions you find in most grocery stores rarely resemble the homemade ones people actually love. In this conversation, we talk about how they translated a home recipe into a product that could be manufactured at scale, what it was like to source early feedback from the market, and what it looked like to go from baking small batches in a kitchen to working with food scientists and co-packers. We also discuss the technical challenges of producing a brownie with a crispy edge and chewy center in a commercial production environment, how ingredient choices impact manufacturing costs and unit economics, the critical role packaging plays in communicating quality on a crowded shelf, and what it takes to start building retail distribution from scratch. I learned so much during my conversation with Jack and Jacob and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    47 min
  8. [Armada] Seamus Meniahane

    12/03

    [Armada] Seamus Meniahane

    On today’s episode, I sit down with Seamus Menihane, Co-Founder and CEO of Armada, an entertainment merchandise company that works with artists and brands to design, manufacture, and distribute merchandise across e-commerce and live touring. Seamus started his career as a touring musician, playing drums in bands for years before becoming interested in the business mechanics behind the scenes, particularly the role merchandise plays in how working artists actually make money. In 2017 he launched Downright Merchandise, originally as a scrappy operation helping bands run their own online stores and sell tour inventory directly to fans. Last year, the company merged with Overcast Merchandise to form Armada. In this conversation, we talk about how the modern band merch ecosystem actually works, from product design and sourcing blank garments to screen printing, fulfillment, and the logistics of getting inventory onto a tour with almost no margin for error. We also explore Armada’s evolution as a company, including lessons from attempting to vertically integrate manufacturing, how the company thinks about financing larger artist deals, and why Seamus believes customer data will become increasingly important for artists over time. I learned so much from my conversation with Seamus and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    39 min
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Sobre

The real mechanics behind your favorite brands. Conversations with founders on how products are designed, manufactured, priced, and distributed — with a focus on the decisions, economics, and tradeoffs behind the scenes. Hosted by Josh Stabinsky. 🎧 New episodes every week. 🌐 More at uepod.com Want to get in touch? hello@uepod.com

Informação

  • Autoria
    The Unit Economics Podcast
  • Anos em atividade
    2025 - 2026
  • Episódios
    34
  • Classificação
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © The Unit Economics Podcast
  • Site do programa
    Unit Economics

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