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

Episodes

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

    1d ago

    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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. Astronauts on ARTEMIS II ate his cereal brand. Here is how he did it...

    Apr 30

    Astronauts on ARTEMIS II ate his cereal brand. Here is how he did it...

    Daniel Carson almost deleted the email that put his cereal on the Artemis II mission. The Canadian Space Agency picked Goldy's strawberry lavender flavor and orders started pinging in during live TV interviews. This episode covers the real mechanics behind getting from a commercial kitchen to 700+ retail doors and a Walmart launch in August 2026. Daniel breaks down the CPG pricing chain most founders don't understand until they're already losing marginwhy getting INTO Sobeys was the easy partthe co-founder dynamic that lets him and his best friend Schreiber tell each other to shut up with zero ego. If you're building a consumer brand and trying to figure out what comes after the first listing, this one matters. GUEST Daniel Carson - Goldy's Website: https://goldys.ca/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldysjustright Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goldysjustright SHELF TO SCALE Weekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani 00:00 — The email we thought was spam (from the Canadian Space Agency) 06:24 — Running events at Drake's house every two weeks 08:36 — The David's Tea of oatmeal that almost existed 14:14 — Mixing oatmeal in a commercial kitchen until 2 AM 17:41 — How Sobeys said yes before we'd even launched 19:27 — The pricing mistake that kills most CPG brands 34:20 — Watching our cereal launch into space 39:42 — Why Walmart in August is the real test 45:25 — The one thing I'd tell myself on day one

    47 min
  7. She Built a Popcorn Brand From Prison. Now in 4,500+ Stores Across Canada

    Apr 23

    She Built a Popcorn Brand From Prison. Now in 4,500+ Stores Across Canada

    She walked out of a federal prison with no money, no manufacturer, and no retail relationships. Today Comeback Snacks is in 4,500+ stores across Canada and Walmart is next. Emily O'Brien built the entire foundation of her brand from inside Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener. No internet. No laptop. Just handwritten letters, a prison library, and a business partner mailing her logo sketches through the post. In this conversation, Emily breaks down the full journey: from popping flavoured kernels in a prison kitchen, to walking cold into a Mississauga factory with no appointment and leaving with a manufacturer, to navigating her first Sobeys listing and learning that getting on the shelf is only half the battle. She also covers why she renamed the brand from Cons and Kernelshow tariffs killed their US business overnightthe brand licensing deal she stumbled into through a podcast appearancewhy employees with criminal records often outperform those without — backed by research. 4,500 stores. Built from a mailbox and a library card. Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani. Comeback Snacks Instagram - @comebacksnacks Emily's Instagram - @emz.obrien Website - https://comebacksnacks.com/

    22 min
  8. He Sold 12,000,000 DUBAI CHOCOLATE Bars and Outsold Cadbury in the UK

    Apr 16

    He Sold 12,000,000 DUBAI CHOCOLATE Bars and Outsold Cadbury in the UK

    For a month in 2025, a Dubai chocolate brand outsold Cadbury Dairy Milk in the UK . They launched just months earlier, with nine flavours, zero retailhistory, and a founder who'd failed six times before getting here.In this episode, we discuss: The distributor strategy that contradicts everything the big FMCG brands taught him and why it got Meltz to 48 countries fasterWhat a signed distribution agreement actually signals about the person across the table (it's not what most founders think)The story of a founder who handed over North and South America before selling a single unit and the 16 months he'll never get backWhy building a premium product isn't enough — and the brutal lesson six failed brands finally taught himThe exact threshold that told Mohit it was time to stop contract manufacturing and buy the factory outright Mohit Mirpuri spent 15 years in FMCG trading before building Meltz — a Dubai chocolate brand now in 48 countries with 12 million bars sold and 62 SKUs in its portfolio. He launched in four months, hit 200,000 bars a week in the UK alone, and reached the 12 million bar milestone by February 2025. This episode is the unfiltered version of how that happened — andwhat almost stopped it. Guest links:- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meltz_dubai/- Website: https://meltzdubai.com/ Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for consumer brand founders navigating distribution, retail, and international scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani.

    34 min
  9. Ex-Software Engineer Hits $100K/Month Selling Clay?

    Apr 9

    Ex-Software Engineer Hits $100K/Month Selling Clay?

    A software engineer turned e-commerce founder walks through how Claymoo scaled from $5–10K to $100K a month in under two years and why his technical background was the first thing he had to stop relying on.Matthew Wong covers:- the creative production ladder they use to test every ad before spending real time on it- the meta ad strategy that drives their growth- how manufacturing in-house became a strategic advantage- where AI is actually useful for a brand at this stage — and where it's still a distraction.GUESTMatthew Wong — ClaymooLinkedIn: @ithinkwongWebsite: claymoo.coSHELF TO SCALEWeekly conversations with consumer brand founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh TilokaniTimestamps: 00:29 — From software engineer to selling clay kits — the pivot nobody saw coming04:11 — $5K to $100K/month in under two years: the honest numbers08:15 — How they de-risk every product launch (and the mystery kit trick for dead inventory)11:56 — The meta ads strategy behind all their growth15:00 — The static ad system: one customer review becomes three steps of content18:48 — Stop making polished videos until you prove this first23:31 — You're advertising to the wrong person — the targeting shift that changed everything25:38 — Why his tech background was a distraction, not an advantage36:30 — The one piece of advice for early-stage founders: maniacal focus

    38 min
  10. He Got Into 2,000 Stores Before Colgate Copied Him

    Apr 9

    He Got Into 2,000 Stores Before Colgate Copied Him

    Rohit Kumar found a bamboo toothbrush listed only in Japanese on a website in 2011, validated it by walking into Bay Area farmers markets with physical samples, and built it into 2,000 store accounts before Colgate and Oral-B released their own versions. In 2026, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude still name his brand as the best.In this episode:• Why the early retail stores are actually the easiest to close and the specific free fill strategy that gets a buyer to say yes with zero risk• How Rohit validates every new SKU across four brands before risking a dollar of inventory• Why first mover advantage is now a six-month window, not a three-year runway and what to build instead.The Indian factory in Gujarat running Chinese machines with Indian workers • • What the India supply chain shift actually looks like on the groundWhy taking VC funding for a CPG brand with no IP or moat could cost you 15 years of your lifeRohit went from Deloitte consulting to a failed web startup to discovering a Japanese-language toothbrush listing online and built a brand that still dominates AI search results more than a decade later. This episode is the real mechanics: how the first stores happened, what free fill actually means, how he sources across India and China, and what he'd do differently at 25.Guest links:Instagram: @itsrohitkumarWebsite: neworigins.comShelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for consumer brand founders navigating distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani.

    1 hr

  11. Trailer

    TRAILER: Shelf to Scale

    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 successfully in an ever-changing market.

    1 min

Trailer

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About

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
    11
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Devesh Tilokani
  • Show Website
    Shelf to Scale