Shelf Space

How do you break into a billion-dollar category controlled by just a handful of brands? Christopher Jane, co-founder and CEO of Proper Good, did it by taking the sleepy canned soup aisle head on.In this episode of Shelf Space, Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony sit down with Chris, a two-time CPG founder and Shark Tank alum, to unpack how Proper Good went from a direct-to-consumer startup launched during COVID to a national Walmart partnership, with no middle ground in between. Chris shares why he deliberately chose a “boring” category with massive TAM, how retailers came to him looking for a solution to a declining soup set, and why his first retail packaging failed on shelf even though the product itself was winning.We also get into the side of CPG that rarely gets airtime: the brutal working capital cycles, retailer deductions, a product-filled train derailing mid-order, and why one VC friend called CPG the only industry where you can do everything right and still lose. Chris breaks down how to pitch mass retailers with data instead of story, how to market inside Walmart’s everyday low price model, how to raise from angels and family offices without signing a bad deal, and the pre-mortem framework his team runs on nearly every big decision.In this episode:Why Chris picked a category owned by five brands instead of a crowded one with 600Going from DTC straight to Walmart nationwide after Shark TankThe packaging changes that turned a DTC pouch into a retail-ready productHow to drive sales in an EDLP retailer with no promos, displays or demosThe biggest mistakes founders make when pitching retail buyersWhat “hard” actually looks like in CPG, and the math behind scalingRaising capital the right way and avoiding the “fox in the hen house” investorThe pre-mortem: planning for failure before it happensWhat a good outcome looks like for Proper GoodIf you’re building a food, beverage or consumer brand and eyeing big-box retail, this one is packed with tactical, no-fluff lessons from a founder who has done it twice.Connect with Christopher Jane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisofthejane/Shop Proper Good: https://eatpropergood.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link#ShelfSpace #ProperGood #CPG #SharkTank #Walmart #RetailStrategy #FoodStartup #FoundersPodcast #ConsumerBrands #Entrepreneurship

Moth started as little glass bottles made above a pub. Today it’s the UK’s largest independent RTD brand, the third biggest overall, and the name behind most of the margaritas drunk in the UK.In this episode of Shelf Space, Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony sit down with Rob Wallis, co-founder of Moth, to unpack how two friends in their mid-twenties went from pitching Waitrose for feedback on a product that didn’t exist yet, to landing 180 stores with three months to deliver, hand-labelling the first 30,000 cans themselves in the middle of COVID.Rob breaks down why Moth spent its entire first year with a single retailer, how they launched Tesco and Sainsbury’s within two weeks of each other (going from 200 to 2,000 stores), and why Tesco actually has more “Waitrose shoppers” than Waitrose. He also shares how they held the line on a £4+ price point when every buyer pushed back, and why competing with Diageo on quality beats competing on price.We also get into:• Bringing buyers into product development and why humility wins listings• The fine line between perseverance and annoyance in buyer outreach• How convenience went from half a million a year to half a million a month• Treating the US like 50 countries (and why California is bigger than Europe for RTD)•  Margaritas on draft and the role of on-trade as a brand-building engine• Raising £11M: why it’s the founder’s job, why it takes 9 to 12 months, and the “don’t be a dick” investor test• Balancing founder life with a newbornWhether you’re a CPG founder chasing your first grocery listing or scaling into new markets, this is a masterclass in building a premium brand without cutting corners on quality.Connect with Rob Wallis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/🍸-rob-wallis-162801113/Shop Moth: https://mothdrinks.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link#ShelfSpace #MothDrinks #RTD #CannedCocktails #CPG #RetailStrategy #Waitrose #Tesco #BeverageBrand #FounderStory #Fundraising #ConsumerBrands #Podcast

What does it actually take to make a creator brand last longer than the hype?On this episode of ShelfSpace, Connor Macpherson and Luke Anthony sit down with Alex Isby, Director of Product and Innovation at Happy Dad, the hard seltzer founded by the Nelk Boys in 2021.Alex left E. & J. Gallo, where he developed liquids for High Noon, after a coffee chat with a friend turned into a job offer within days. He joined a team of about eight people and was immediately sent to Memphis for the first Snoop Dogg Death Row Grape production run. Demand was exploding, but co-manufacturers kept pushing Happy Dad down the schedule for bigger customers.Alex breaks down how he and the team visited more than 70 co-manufacturers across the US to build a four-site network, why early-stage brands should start with a turnkey co-man to protect cash flow, and how combining raw material runs saves 10 to 15 cents per unit. He shares the real reason behind the fat can and low carbonation (hint: "claw throat"), why they removed electrolyte claims, and how the team tastes samples from every single batch tank.He also goes inside Happy Dad 2.0: moving from the Nelk Boys' gut instinct to scan data, the upcoming hard lemonade launch, and how they moved from idea to production in months when it would have taken two years at Gallo. Plus floods, lightning strikes, a CO2 force majeure, and why Happy Dad is still growing while the seltzer category shrinks.If you're building a beverage brand or working with co-manufacturers, this one is packed with operational lessons.Shop Happy Dad: https://happydad.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link#ShelfSpace #HappyDad #NelkBoys #HardSeltzer #CPG #BeverageIndustry #CoManufacturing #SupplyChain #ProductInnovation #CreatorBrands #FoundersPodcast #BeverageBrands #Entrepreneurship

How do you take a "gas station" snack, make it premium, and sell it to Hershey in just five years?On this episode of Shelf Space, Connor Macpherson sits down with Jon Sebastiani, founder of KRAVE Jerky and founder of Sonoma Brands Capital, the growth equity firm behind brands like Oats Overnight, Touchland and Beekeeper's Naturals.Jon grew up in his family's multi-generational wine business. While training for the 2009 New York City Marathon, he found a local butcher's jerky that changed how he thought about protein, and realized what was on store shelves was nowhere near premium. So he built KRAVE: whole muscle cuts, culinary flavors, no artificial junk, and a brand designed for a customer jerky had never spoken to.Jon breaks down how he validated the idea with a tiny test audience before spending big, how a first-of-its-kind Safeway deal took KRAVE from 200 stores to 2,000 doors, and how that data opened the door to Target, Walmart and Costco. He also gets honest about the hard parts: margins sinking to single digits, a supplier recall that put KRAVE in headlines from Hawaii to New York, and a bad batch so overcooked it was "like chewing a rock."Then it's the Hershey story, from an unsolicited "what's your number?" to a deal closed in a matter of months, and why Jon jumped back in as an investor. He shares the mistakes from Fund 1, Sonoma Brands' four-category thesis, their $10M to $50M revenue strike zone, and exactly what he looks for in a founder before writing a check.If you're building an early or mid-stage CPG brand, or getting ready to raise, this one's packed with lessons you can use right away.Connect with Jon Sebastiani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsebastiani/Learn more about Sonoma Brands Capital: https://www.sonomabrands.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link#ShelfSpace #CPG #KRAVE #JonSebastiani #SonomaBrands #Hershey #FoodAndBeverage #CPGFounders #RetailStrategy #Fundraising #ConsumerBrands #Entrepreneurship #StartupPodcast

Most men's skincare brands buy an existing formula off the shelf and slap a label on it. Jared Pobre, founder and CEO of Caldera + Lab, did the opposite — and it cost him two extra years.In this episode, Jared breaks down how he validated a men's skincare brand using anonymous freelance consultants before telling a single person his real idea, why he chose to build a proprietary formula from scratch instead of buying an existing one, and why he ran a full third-party clinical trial before ever launching a product. He gets into the launch strategy behind Caldera + Lab's hero serum "The Good," how the brand found its real audience (men 40-60, not the twenty-somethings everyone else was chasing), and the years it took to actually crack paid ads on Meta.Jared also opens up about the expensive mistakes along the way — a beautiful but impractical glass bottle, an oversized web agency bill, and a full truck of inventory stolen right before Black Friday — plus how Caldera + Lab built an in-house team from scratch, hit a 70% repeat purchase rate, and is now closing in on $60 million in profitable revenue with a Nordstrom retail launch and a billion-dollar goal ahead.What we cover:Validating a business idea anonymously before committing to itWhy proprietary formulas take years longer than off-the-shelf ones — and why that's the pointRunning an actual third-party clinical trial before launchFinding your real customer (and ignoring the "obvious" demographic)What actually makes a winning Meta adThe CAC-to-LTV math that keeps a DTC brand aliveBuilding an in-house team without hiring "experienced" peopleThe expensive mistakes: bad packaging, an oversized agency, a stolen truck of inventoryWhat's next: Nordstrom, biotech ingredients, and a billion-dollar roadmapConnect with Jared Pobre: https://www.instagram.com/jaredpobre/Shop Caldera + Lab: https://calderalab.com/Connect with Connor Macpherson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-retail/Connect with Luke Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-anthony-🍵-394052131/Powered by Plus Forty: http://plusforty.co/Book a call with Plus Forty: https://calendly.com/d/cr89-stz-hcy/shared-booking-link