Blog Archives

Ben Christensen founded Cambium, a company that is building better supply chains, starting with wood, to make it possible to source every material in a regenerative way. This approach creates local jobs and is done just as efficiently, if not more efficiently, than it is today. And Ben and his team put storytelling at the core of their business, so not-surprisingly, their brand design and messaging stand out in an industry that is not known for getting either right.

In this episode, we discuss the power of storytelling, the importance of giving customers a sense of ownership, and the smart move of repositioning something mundane into something attractive. This is a conversation not centered around wood, but around brand, with wood at its core.

Before starting chocolate brand Spring & Mulberry, Kathryn Shah was a brand strategy consultant who served as the Vice President of Global Marketing at Pantone and the Brand Manager for Veuve Clicquot Champagne, two brands 99% of us love and look up to.

It was a trip to India and a cancer diagnosis that led to her launching her startup Spring & Mulberry, a line of date-sweetened chocolate bars. After having Jeni Britton of Floura on the last episode, this is part 2 of another serendipitous series where I have two highly accomplished female founders of innovative health food brands on the show back-to-back.

This episode is filled with insights from Kathryn’s brand-building journey – from working at Unilever on building the Ragu Pasta Sauce brand, to driving brand growth at Veuve Cliquot to launching her own brand in a very poetic and decisive manner.

Many of you know Jeni Britton from episode 28, where we did a deep dive into Jeni’s Ice Creams, which she started at age 22 and now sells in 80 scoop shops and 12,500 retailers with an annual revenue north of 125 million.

Today, we dive into a new chapter of Jeni’s entrepreneurial journey with Floura. Floura is a next-generation fiber company that currently offers fiber bars, which she calls Fruit Crush Bars, in multiple flavors.

As was the case in my previous conversation with Jeni, this episode is us nerding out on all things branding, from focus groups to customer perception, from deriving your brand DNA to naming to organic branding. At the same time, you learn about the power of fiber. A delightful and inspiring conversation you do not want to miss.

Ilay Karateke is on a mission to bring Labneh to kitchens around the United States, or maybe this is more of a sprint than a mission because her brand, BEZI, is moving fast.

Product development started in the kitchen a year ago. Today, they’re in stores across New York City with e-commerce starting in December, and I can almost assure you that national distribution will follow shortly.

This is one of the very few super early-stage startup brands—BEZI has only been on the market for a few weeks—that I invited to this show. And very quickly, during this episode, you will understand why.

We talk about the power of design, data, photography, brand strategy, social media growth strategies, and so much in between. If you are a founder, a marketer, or someone working with brands, this is an episode not to be missed as it will leave you inspired and ready to push on all things ‘brand.’

Together with his brother, Ben Checketts co-founded Rhone, an athleisure wear brand inspired by the quality of Lululemon and the urge to craft a stand-out label for men.

The brand is driven by the pursuit of mental fitness and Ben’s philosophy on branding is both refreshing and insightful.

We talk about naming, focus groups, how brands are shaped yet set free – a lot like children are being raised – and why Rhone’s Co-Founders bought out their investors to see through the next chapter of the fast-growing clothing brand.  

Matt McLean ventured into the organic juice business 25 years ago with one goal: to fuel families with uncompromised nutrition. Today, Uncle Matt’s Organic produces the #1 bestselling organic orange juice nationwide. Matt is hustling the same way he did 25 years ago with new product launches and market expansions happening as we speak.

We talk about how his initial packaging design was hitting the mark for his ideal customer but left the rest of the country wayside, the very moment he learned that his juice would be accepted by a major grocery store chain, and how he exited the business just to repurchase it a few years later. Get ready for a highly entertaining episode with a true entrepreneur who has his heart in the right place and it shows through so many aspects of the Uncle Matt’s brand.

Aleksandra Medina and Katrin Kaurov co-founded Frich (which stands for ‘F***ing rich’), a financial literacy app for Gen Z that breaks the money taboo and makes it a social topic.

Frich busts into the world of corporate finance backed by a brand that could not be any more differentiated and authentic. With their fists in the air, Aleksandra and Katrin lead with transparency in an opaque space and share the truth about how one compares to their peers financially.

The app uses social media to gather that truth while social media is at the very heart of why so many feel financially inadequate. A fascinating startup and an equally fascinating conversation filled with brand insights any founder or marketer should grab onto.

Episode 109 brings us Rockwell Shah, the CEO, and N.B. Patil, the Co-Founder & CTO of Ozlo, an innovation startup in the sleep technology space.

All three of Ozlo’s Co-Founders are former Bose veterans and they acquired and licensed assets from Bose to resurrect the discontinued but beloved Sleepbuds.

This episode is a fascinating conversation about building a new brand on existing IP, the fragile tension between what customers say they want and what they actually need, building a brand not on a singular product but a grander vision, how most consumer startups fail because they are not telling the right story, and how branding, in the end, is all about alignment – a simple but deep thought that we are exploring further together today.

Joan Nguyen is the Co-Founder and CEO of bumo, a brand that provides outstanding on-demand childcare for families and employers.

Bumo considers itself in the business of ‘parent care’ and today you can learn all about the TLC she and her Co-Founder put into crafting the bumo brand very hands-on, strategic, and filled with raw authenticity.

Trust is bumo’s brand DNA, but with an audience of new parents, you show trustworthiness very differently than you would with a financial organization for example.
Listen in as we talk all things branding, but we also dive into the psychology that drives purchasing decisions, data that could point you the wrong way, and how bumo ended up with ‘obsessive users’ despite the many pivots in the brand’s journey.

It was a fascinating conversation and I am excited to share it with all you brand-builders, may you be a founder or a marketer or a designer: This one is not be missed, despite the subpar audio on my end given a slew of technical difficulties. Yes, this can even happen to those who have recorded 100+ episodes. Joan labeled it ‘resilience’ and that is exactly how I see it.

Bennett Maxwell is the Founder and Chairman of Dirty Dough, one of the fastest-growing restaurant concepts in the US with 70 locations and another couple hundred in development.

In this episode, we get to hear how Bennett’s authentic reaction to a lawsuit that could have taken the business out instead created brand buzz, helped build his tribe, and added to the company’s growth.

We dive into the idea of instilling your personal mission into your company, how listening to a team member’s interactions with a customer changed the meaning of this brand’s name, and how color choices can directly affect business success.

That and so much more in this delightful conversation with Dirty Dough’s Founder, stuffed with gooey insights.