Read Receipt

antidote
  • 5.0 (19)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

We're creating space for the brains behind the brands we love and asking good questions along the way. The result is a deep dive into the how and why of brand-building, from blueprints to launch day, customers as community, and the detours in between. Big lessons, easy listening!

  1. 2d ago

    jeff lee & dibs beauty

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Jeff Lee, co-founder and CEO of DIBS Beauty, the makeup brand that promises it will never be the brand that says "beautiful before, beautiful after," and builds for women in all 50 states, not just the coasts. Jeff traces his path from Stanford, Yale Law and corporate law to running A-Rod Corp as COO, where he says he learned how to be a CEO from Alex Rodriguez and spent two seasons producing Sunday Night Baseball from the seat next to him. He gets into the gap DIBS filled, visiting an Ulta Beauty in every state, and working the retail floor because, as he puts it, he is not the customer. He also digs into the CEO job itself: 15 to 25 decisions a day, hiring with case studies instead of rehearsed interview answers, bringing the team back to the office, and deleting his own job every year. Plus how AI is separating talent, and what happens to critical thinking for the next generation. For 10% off DIBS Beauty, use code READRECEIPT.

  2. Oct 14

    angela vranich & little spoon

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Angela Vranich, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Little Spoon, the brand that launched the first fresh baby food in 2017 and now feeds kids from infant formula through big kid snacks. Angela traces the build from two years of hacking together custom packaging and making baby food by hand in a tamale factory outside LA, to a Whole Foods launch that stalled and a pivot to direct-to-consumer that sold over a million meals in year one. She gets into branding for the parent instead of the kid, Operation Gravity, where every employee spends 45 minutes with a customer once a year, and the Target launch that became the largest food and beverage launch in the retailer's history. She also digs into why earning a parent's trust on first bites gives you the right to win every category after, launching infant formula to age down with customers, running an operation built on almost 20 co-packers, and how aging up with customers made direct-to-consumer work as ad costs kept rising.

  3. Oct 7

    will nitze & iqbar

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Will Nitze, founder and CEO of IQBAR, the brain and body nutrition brand behind plant protein bars, IQMIX hydration, and instant coffee. Will traces the build from buckets of fiber syrup in his kitchen to a Kickstarter he treated as proof of concept, riding the keto wave on Amazon, the CVS launch that went sideways, and running a lean 15-person hub-and-spoke company. He digs into his idea of trend surface area, why being on shelf is a free Facebook ad, and why you should only take advice from people who did what you want to do in the last 24 months.

  4. Sep 30

    rachel hochhauser & piecework puzzles

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Rachel Hochhauser, co-founder of Piecework Puzzles, the art-forward puzzle brand whose puzzles look more like coffee table books than anything you'd find in a toy aisle. Rachel started Piecework in 2019 with her co-founder Jena Wolfe as a creative side project while she was running her agency, Major Studio. It started with a rained-in cabin full of old jigsaw puzzles and four puzzles made with no shot list and no business plan. Then the pandemic puzzle boom hit, and Piecework had to grow up fast. She gets into what came next: bringing on a president as co-owner to run the operations side, bootstrapping through tight cash cycles, and acquiring Areaware, the iconic design house Piecework had admired and stocked for years, while keeping it its own brand. She also shares why cocktail napkins, matches, and textiles now carry real weight next to puzzles, and her two pieces of advice for any brand going into wholesale: get to the right trade show, and get on Faire. Tune in for an honest look at running two brands at once, writing a debut novel on the side, and why every small business is held together with tape and bubblegum.

  5. Sep 25

    joe hollier & the light phone 2.0

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean reconnects with Joe Hollier, co-founder of The Light Phone, the intentionally simple phone built to do less on purpose. It handles calls, texts, maps, and music, with no social media, email, or browser to check or recheck. More than two years after their first conversation, Joe catches Sean up on what has changed. The Light Phone III is now the flagship, and the company just announced a flip phone that ships in 2027. Joe walks through the brutal supply-chain gauntlet of the last two years: 150 percent tariffs that forced a full production halt, then the AI-driven memory shortage he calls Ramageddon, which pushed a component that normally costs under $40 past $450 and forced another pause and a price increase. He also gets into the new open-source developer program he is most excited about, why a younger crowd is opting out through movements like the Summer of Ludd, and how a $299 flip phone and a $25-a-month plan try to lower the barrier for first-time and kids' phones.

  6. Sep 16

    michelle arnau & mimikai

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Michelle Arnau, co-founder and co-CEO of Mimikai, the first plant-based insect repellent proven to match DEET and Picaridin without the toxic chemistry. Michelle traces an unlikely path to founder: Wells Fargo commercial real estate workouts, a Kellogg MBA, twelve years at Method scaling it from unprofitable startup to an SC Johnson acquisition, then co-founding the clean pet care brand Rowan before winding it down. When a college friend introduced her to Stephanie Watson, who had spent years fighting the EPA to register undecanone, a compound from wild tomato plants and the first new repellent active in twenty-five years, she got on a plane to Australia the next week. She gets into the launch strategy behind a category-first product: why they led with Credo and REI before chasing mass shelf space, how they used velocity and repeat over door count, why she turned down a major retailer this year, and what it looks like to build with investors who back the long game over short-term revenue. Tune in for an honest look at building a regulatory moat, knowing a category cold before entering it, and what it takes to finally change an aisle your dad used as a kid!

  7. Sep 14

    john scheer & herman-scheer

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with John Scheer, co-founder and chief creative officer of Herman-Scheer, a strategic branding agency focused on healthcare, self-care, and wellbeing since 2010. John traces the 15-year arc from knocking on doors with a duct-taped WordPress site to a 21-person agency that doubled in a year. He gets into the breakthroughs that turned a scrappy shop into a real business: splitting roles with co-founder Chapin Herman, niching down into health and wellness, and bringing in a strategist, Allison, to back the creative work with real data. It's an honest look at getting your process dialed, doing the work before you know how, why you launch a brand to grow into rather than a single product, and giving yourself room to breathe while the business keeps growing. Tune in for a candid conversation on building a branding agency the slow, deliberate way. Chapters: 00:00 - Cold open 00:39 - Brand self-ID: what Herman-Scheer is 01:00 - Moving to Northeast Ohio, going fully remote 04:00 - Starting right out of college 07:00 - The first video and knocking on doors in LA 11:00 - The breakthrough: splitting roles with Chapin 14:00 - Niching into health, self-care, and wellbeing 17:00 - Adding data and insight, bringing in Allison 22:00 - The shape of the team today 28:00 - Account directors as the real differentiators 33:00 - Clients that come back, and the case-study lag 39:00 - The branding process, step by step 45:00 - How AI fits into the work 48:00 - The longer-term vision for the agency 51:00 - Room to breathe while the business grows 53:00 - Close

  8. Sep 11

    katina mountanos & kosterina 2.0

    In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean checks back in with Katina Mountanos, founder and ceo of Kosterina, the greek olive oil and wellness brand betting the mediterranean diet belongs in every american pantry. two and a half years after her first appearance, she walks through how Kosterina grew from olive oil and vinegar into olive-oil shots, jarred olives, and a retail footprint across whole foods, target, walmart, sprouts and h-e-b. she gets into the walmart inbound that put their drinkable vinegars in 4,300 doors, why she runs the company on operational excellence, the brutal working-capital math of retail growth, and how she's building a founder brand on tiktok and substack. plus siete as her north star, the polyphenol case for early-harvest olive oil, and why a timeless brand also has to be timely.

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5
out of 5
19 Ratings

About

We're creating space for the brains behind the brands we love and asking good questions along the way. The result is a deep dive into the how and why of brand-building, from blueprints to launch day, customers as community, and the detours in between. Big lessons, easy listening!

Information

  • Creator
    antidote
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    203
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 antidote
  • Show Website
    Read Receipt

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