On this episode, we’re joined by Juan Niño, the Director of Marketing at Artisan Tropic, a family-owned, better-for-you snack brand rooted in Colombian heritage and powered by plantains, cassava, and regenerative agriculture.

Juan’s journey is anything but typical. After a career as a professional fútbol player in Colombia, he found himself helping his aunt and uncle fulfill e-commerce orders for a small snack startup. That startup is now Artisan Tropic, a national brand found in Whole Foods, Sprouts, H-E-B, and Costco, and Juan is at the heart of its marketing, storytelling, and operational strategy.

We dive deep on Artisan Tropic’s founding story, how the family transitioned from distributing Takis to launching their own clean-label snack brand, and what it really takes to build and scale a vertically integrated CPG business that owns its own farms, believes in regenerative agriculture, and still manages to thrive in mainstream retail.

Juan also shares real-world lessons on family business dynamics, packaging refreshes, Costco launch strategy, and how to market plantains and cassava to an American audience.

Episode Highlights:
🌱 From family health crisis to mission-driven CPG brand
🇨🇴 Why Artisan Tropic built their supply chain in Colombia
📦 What they learned from doing their packaging redesign in-house
📊 How they balance storytelling with paid shopper marketing
🛒 Lessons from landing in 5,000+ doors, including Costco and Thrive
🔁 The long game of regenerative agriculture and vertical integration
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Why working with 15+ family members actually works for them
🧪 How third-party certifications (like seed oil free) shape consumer trust
💰 When and why to go all-in on retail-specific formats, media, and SKUs

⏱️ Table of Contents:
00:00 – Intro & Juan’s Fútbol-to-CPG Origin Story
04:00 – From Takis Distributors to Better-For-You Founders
07:30 – Building a Brand With 15 Family Members
12:00 – Bringing Plantains & Cassava to U.S. Retail
14:00 – Regenerative Ag, Vertical Integration & Soil Health
19:00 – Marketing That Educates (and Converts)
22:00 – Cracking Costco
26:00 – Retail Sales Tactics
30:00 – Packaging Lessons & Brand vs. Product Hierarchy
34:00 – Hiring for Integrity and Learning By Doing

Links:
📦 Artisan Tropic – https://www.artisantropic.com
📸 Follow Artisan Tropic on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/artisantropic
📬 Contact Juan – jnino@artisantropic.com
🔗 Follow Juan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-nino-7a47ba304/

🎧 Follow Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg
📐 Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.

On this episode, we’re joined by Hannah Perez, the Co-Founder and Brand Visionary behind SEEQ — the clear protein brand that’s pioneering one of the most refreshing (literally) new categories in sports nutrition.

What started with a college friendship has turned into a rocketship brand that's now stocked nationwide at Target, growing a cult following on TikTok, and giving legacy supplement brands a serious wake-up call. In this episode, Hannah breaks down how she and co-founder Ben Zaver went from blending samples in a Minneapolis apartment to building a vertically integrated DTC and retail business, all while staying true to their vision of “bringing the juice” and making wellness more approachable.

We get tactical on everything from formulation and co-packers to launching new SKUs in retail, hiring a CEO within 18 months, and why she believes storytelling is more important than features when it comes to building in public.

Episode Highlights:
💧 What clear protein actually is — and why it’s not just a gimmick
🧪 The 3 biggest R&D hurdles in clear protein formulation
📦 Why they passed on dozens of co-packers before going back to the first one
📲 The TikTok strategy that sold out 4,000 units in 60 days
🛠️ How they kept building during a 4-month stockout
🚀 Getting into Target via a cold email — and what they did to stand out
🛍️ Why front-of-store placement drove massive velocity
📚 Lessons from launching a new format just for retail
🏗️ How EOS helped them plan, prioritize, and stay focused
👥 Why they hired a President and CEO just 18 months in
🔥 Hannah’s shift from CMO to Brand Visionary — and what she’s building next

⏱️ Table of Contents:
00:00 – Intro & Clear Protein 101
02:30 – Founding Story: From Marketing Agency to CPG Startup
06:00 – The Formulation Process: What Makes Clear Protein Work
11:00 – Viral TikTok Growth, Street Sampling, and Early Sellouts
15:00 – Finding the Right Co-Packer & Building the Product Backbone
17:00 – Landing Target: Cold Emails, Broker Help & Buyer Pitch
21:00 – What It Takes to Succeed in Retail: Velocity, Displays & Education
26:00 – Packaging Lessons for DTC Brands Entering Retail
30:00 – Staying Focused: Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome
32:00 – Operating with EOS & North Star Goal-Setting
34:00 – Hiring a CEO and Letting Go of Ego
38:00 – How Hannah’s Role Evolved & Why Brand is Bigger Than Product
45:00 – Where to Follow Hannah & Try SEEQ

🔗 Links:
SEEQ – https://seeqsupply.com
Follow Hannah on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-perez013
Follow Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg
Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.

On this episode, we’re joined by Douglas Raggio, the founder of Pass the Honey and author of So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business.

Douglas spent a decade as an investor reviewing over 12,000 food and beverage deals before launching Pass the Honey — a single-serve honeycomb brand on a mission to combat one of the most pervasive forms of food fraud in the world. Today, the brand is scaling rapidly in Kroger, Albertsons, and Sprouts, all while pushing a regenerative beekeeping agenda that goes far beyond what “organic” can promise.

We go deep on Douglas’s non-traditional approach to CPG - from why he believes in margin over virality, to how he’s building a new category in the produce aisle, not the honey shelf. We also unpack key decision points from his book and why most founders misunderstand what “success” really means in food.

Episode Highlights:
🍯 Why 70% of honey on the shelf is fake
🐝 The problem with “organic” honey, and what regenerative apiculture offers instead
📦 Building a new category in the produce aisle, not the honey set
💸 Margin vs. consumption: the only two numbers that matter
🔁 Why Pass the Honey doubled sales after doubling their price
🔍 Why some products shouldn’t “fit” anywhere in the store
🏪 How dump bins unlocked 50–70 unit weeks at Kroger
📊 Top-down vs bottom-up pricing strategy
🚪 Saying no to accounts that don’t meet minimums
⚖️ How Douglas thinks about store count vs velocity
📉 Why 95% of CPG brands fail, and how to avoid being one of them

⏱️ Table of Contents:
00:00 – Intro & Origin Story
03:00 – Honey Fraud & Broken Standards
08:00 – Building Pass the Honey’s Regenerative Supply Chain
13:00 – Advice for Founders Entering CPG
15:00 – Book Lessons: Endgame Clarity & Critical Decisions
21:00 – What Retailers Want: Profit, Not Just Velocity
28:00 – Managing Margins & Avoiding “Store Count FOMO”
36:00 – Brands & Trends Douglas is Watching
38:00 – Final Thoughts & Where to Find Douglas

Links:
Pass the Honey – https://www.freshhoneycomb.com
Buy the book – https://a.co/d/ibCGJbs
Follow Douglas on LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/douglasraggio

Follow Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg
Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.