Why Corporate VC Has a Bad Reputation And How Rich Is Different

The Repeat Founder Who Learned to Focus On One Product that Actually Matters

What does it look like to build a premium hydration brand in one of the most crowded categories in consumer health, and win by doing almost everything differently? Joe Welstead, Co-Founder of Oshun, joins In The Money to break down how a repeat founder took every assumption about the electrolyte category and threw them out. No sachets. No citrus. No agency. No VC. Just a pump dispenser, an unflavored formula, and a brand positioning that owes more to skincare than sports nutrition. Joe built Motion Nutrition before this. He came out of that experience with one lesson above all others: launch one product, nail it completely, and resist every temptation to expand before you've earned the right to. At Oshun, he's done exactly that, and it's working. We cover: * Why Joe looked at LMNT, Liquid IV, Nuun, Hydrant, and Prime and saw an opportunity hiding in plain sight * The pump dispenser decision: why form factor is a marketing strategy, not just a packaging choice * Why Oshun has no flavor, and how that single decision sidesteps flavor fatigue and the endless SKU trap * The "clear skin, clear mind" moment: how a single conversation with a friend reframed the entire brand positioning overnight * Beauty adjacent, not supplement adjacent: why escaping the supplement category unlocks everything * Three months of real-world conversations before running a single ad, and why that made the first Meta campaigns perform from day one * How Joe learned to run Meta himself without an agency, and why he thinks the learning curve is overstated * The seeding to Meta funnel: how Oshun uses creator seeding to train the algorithm before spending a dollar on paid * Two co-founders, one product, 75-90% of scope focused entirely on growth * Why Oshun launched a magnesium sleep product, and the surprisingly simple customer reason that accelerated the timeline * Building in public without sharing revenue: why Joe talks about subscriber count and compound metrics but never top line * Profitable and growing while turning down institutional investors, what that optionality actually feels like * Skio's cancel flow as the single biggest retention unlock of 2026 * Why a skip or delay beats a discount every time for subscription churn * What Joe would do differently in the first 12 months of the next brand If you're building a consumer brand in health, wellness, or any crowded category where the default playbook isn't working — this episode is one of the clearest arguments I've heard for why doing less, better, wins.

Product, Brand, Community: The Holy Trinity for Consumer Investing at Iris Ventures

What does it actually mean to invest in brand before it's measurable? Florian Wojewodzki, Partner at Iris, joins In The Money to break down one of the most distinctive approaches to consumer investing in Europe and the US, a fund that tracks over 5,000 brands, backs founders they've known for years before writing a check, and won't hire anyone who isn't genuinely obsessed with brand. Iris sits at the intersection of health, wellness, and better-for-you consumer, with a portfolio that includes some of the most interesting brands in CPG right now. Their thesis is built around three things every winning consumer brand needs: product, brand, and community. Miss any one of them and the other two can't save you. We cover: * Why Iris describes itself as brand junkies, and why that's a hiring requirement, not a marketing line * The holy trinity: product, brand, and community as the non-negotiable framework for every investment decision * Why Iris builds a category view before it ever meets a company, and what that looks like in practice * How to approach a fund like Iris, and why the best time to reach out is years before you're ready to raise * Portfolio deep dive: Biomel and the instant feedback loop that removes the biggest barrier to supplement adoption * Superlativa: clinical credibility in cortisol management and why the stress and recovery category is vastly underserved * Health: the leading online health and wellness retailer in the UK and what international expansion looks like from there * Maurten: endurance nutrition out of Gothenburg and how to build a fanatical community around cyclists, triathletes, and runners * What European consumer investing looks like right now versus two to three years ago * Stage, check size, and what Iris is actively looking for heading into the back half of 2026 * The categories Iris is most excited about right now, and the ones they're actively avoiding If you're a founder, a consumer investor, or anyone trying to understand where the next generation of health and wellness brands is being built, this episode is one of the clearest windows into how the best funds in the space actually think.

COVID Killed 90% of His Accounts. The Pivot That Followed Built an Eight-Figure Wine Brand

What happens when a tech founder walks away from a successful exit, spends time drinking wine in Southern Europe, and comes back convinced the American wine industry is getting it completely wrong? Stephen Vlahos, Co-Founder and CEO of Gratsi, joins In The Money to tell the story of building an eight-figure, no-additive, zero-sugar wine brand from scratch, through a pivot that COVID forced on him, a format that nobody thought would work for a premium brand, and a subscriber base of over 30,000 people who keep coming back every month. Before Gratsi, Stephen co-founded Bellhops, a venture-backed two-sided marketplace that scaled to $15 million in revenue before he handed the keys to a team from Uber. What he learned about co-founder dynamics, internal conflict, and what kills companies from the inside shaped everything about how he built Gratsi. We cover: * Why Stephen left tech to sell wine, and what time in Southern Europe taught him about how Americans drink wrong * The Bellhops lessons: what happens when a founding team fights more internal battles than external ones * How Gratsi launched in Austin bars and restaurants, and why COVID shutting down 90% of his accounts turned out to be the best thing that happened to the business * The bag-in-box pivot: why a format associated with cheap wine became Gratsi's biggest competitive advantage * How Gratsi thinks about zero sugar and no additives as a product truth, not just a marketing claim * The DTC-to-retail sequencing playbook: how Gratsi uses ecommerce data to identify which markets to enter before a single case hits a distributor's truck * Why staying at three SKUs while the rest of the industry chases product proliferation has been one of his best decisions * Building a subscription wine business: what 30,000 subscribers actually means for capital efficiency and forecasting * The wholesale expansion strategy: how DTC revenue warms up a market before retail arrives * Fundraising in beverage alcohol: what investors are looking for and how the category is different from traditional CPG * What Stephen would do differently in the first 12 months if he started over * Where Gratsi is heading in 2026 and beyond If you're building in beverage, alcohol, DTC, or any category where the product format itself is the story, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons from a founder who's done it in two very different industries.

I Pitched Target for Ten Years. Here's What Happened When They Said Yes

What does it actually look like to grind for a decade in CPG before the category finally catches up to you? Jason Burke, Founder and CEO of New Primal, joins In The Money to tell one of the most honest origin stories in better-for-you snacking; twelve years of building, a lot of expensive mistakes, and a front-row seat to one of the biggest category inflections in modern grocery. New Primal commercialized the first grass-fed beef jerky for retail. Jason bet on the family lunchbox a decade before mom entered the meat snack category. He's now approaching $100 million in revenue, heading into 1,900 Target stores with six products, and running one of the leanest operations relative to revenue in the space. He pitched Target for ten years before they said yes. We cover: * Why the four-to-five year CPG startup-to-exit myth is just that, a myth * What the decade of grinding actually looked like: too many SKUs, too many retail markets, too many rabbits chased * Why Jason has never had self-doubt, and how that same quality hurt him in the early years * The crawl-walk-run retail playbook: why you should own your backyard before you go national * Why he'd start DTC-first if he were launching today, and spend two to three years there before calling a single retailer * The real cost of doing business with large retail partners and why going too wide too fast destroys cash * How long the retail J-curve actually is, and why you can't measure it the same way as DTC * The Whole Foods relationship that started with a workout and turned into 40 products on shelf nationally * Why every person at New Primal is an equity owner, and what that does to the culture * The lunchbox bet: how New Primal carved out a category position no other brand can authentically claim * The pantry stocking shift: how consumer behavior changed and why the timing was perfect for New Primal * Why $20 bags of meat sticks are selling at Kroger, and what that says about the premium snack market * The rotisserie chicken stick: from ideation to fastest-growing product in company history by 10x * Six products going into 1,900 Target stores: what that milestone actually means after a decade of pitching * What Jason would do completely differently in the first 24 months * Why survival is a skill, and why staying lean is a requirement, not a choice, in CPG If you're a founder in the grind wondering whether it's still worth it, or an investor trying to understand what category timing actually looks like from the inside, this episode is the most honest answer to both questions I've heard.

Why Corporate VC Has a Bad Reputation And How Rich Is Different

Corporate venture capital has a reputation problem. And according to Brian Bernstein, that reputation is mostly earned. Brian Bernstein, Investor at Rich Products Ventures, joins In The Money to make the case for why corporate VC doesn't have to work the way founders fear and to explain exactly how Rich Products Ventures is structured to be different. Rich's is an 80-year-old privately held food company. Over 95% frozen. Dozens of manufacturing plants, deep cold chain expertise, and food service and retail distribution spanning 110 countries. Their venture arm has been investing for eight years and they're leaning harder into branded CPG than ever before. We cover: * Why corporate VC has a mixed reputation and why those concerns are legitimate * How Rich Products Ventures maintains investment autonomy without business unit sign-off * The honest version of the pitch: patient capital, no LP pressure, no exit clock * Why all three members of the investing team are former operators and why that matters * How the strategic value add actually works in practice: cold chain, food science, R&D, food service channels * Where the value add fails and what founders get wrong when approaching a corporate partner * The shift from generalist food fund to branded CPG focus and what drove it * Portfolio spotlight: Evergreen (better-for-you waffles) and Delicious (permissible indulgence frozen novelty) * Why the freezer aisle is having its most exciting moment in decades * Investment stage and check size: late seed to Series A, $1-3M checks, minority follow-on * Two new strategies: venture incubation and growth equity for bootstrapped scaled businesses * What Rich Products Ventures is actively looking for heading into the back half of 2026 If you're a founder weighing whether to take strategic capital, or an operator trying to understand how corporate venture actually works when it's done right, this episode is the clearest breakdown of the model I've heard.