The LinkedIn Message They Almost Ignored For Target Nationwide

The LinkedIn Message They Almost Ignored For Target Nationwide

What happens when a high-protein, clean-ingredient frozen pizza brand spends two years grinding through cold chain nightmares, supply chain restarts, and a fundraising carousel, and then lands at number one in the frozen pizza category at Target? Michael Rolland, Co-Founder of Yough!, joins In The Money to tell one of the more honest origin stories in better-for-you frozen food, a brand built around a simple thesis that you shouldn't have to choose between eating pizza and feeling good afterward, and the long road it took to get that product in front of the right retailers at the right moment. 700 calories. 46 grams of protein. No junk ingredients. An anytime meal that people are eating pre-workout, post-workout, and at 2am after a night out, without the guilt. We cover: * Why DTC was the wrong model for frozen and what Yough! learned the expensive way * The supply chain issues that forced a full relaunch and why it ultimately made the product better * How Yough! built into boutique specialty retail first before going mass * The LinkedIn message they almost ignored and how it turned into a meeting at Target HQ * What it actually looks like when a national retailer offers you a launch before you've pitched them * Going from specialty to Target and Sprouts on organic momentum alone, no broker, no traditional pitch * What number one in frozen pizza at Target actually means for a brand at this stage * The fundraising reality for better-for-you frozen: what investors want to see and when the timing is right * Protein in frozen as the next major category wave and why the timing is right now * What Michael would do differently in the first 12-24 months if he started over * What's next for Yough! heading into the back half of 2026 If you're building in frozen, better-for-you, or any category where the product has to earn its place on a cold shelf, this episode is a candid look at what the grind before the breakthrough actually costs.

No Formula. No Co-Man. No Branding. Nationwide Whole Foods in Three Months.

What does it look like to sell a brand to Kraft Heinz for a reported $200 million, and then build the second one with three kids under seven and no social media on your phone? Morgan Zanotti, Founder and CEO of Waay, joins In The Money to break down what changed and what stayed the same the second time around. Waay is a fizzy, clear sparkling protein water, 10 grams of protein, 45 calories, zero sugar, built for women who are tired of choking down chalky shakes to hit their protein goals. Before Waay, Morgan co-founded Primal Kitchen alongside Mark Sisson, bootstrapped it to $50M in revenue profitably, and led the company through its $200 million acquisition by Kraft Heinz in 2019. We cover: * Why Morgan built Waay after watching the protein trend get sold entirely to men * The Primal Kitchen playbook: bootstrapping to $50M before the exit * What she learned inside Kraft Heinz about scale, GLP-1s, and category timing * Why she pitched Whole Foods with a silver can, no final formula, no co-manufacturer, and no branding, and how they said yes nationwide anyway * 18 months of formulation: getting real protein, zero sucralose, and a taste that doesn't announce itself * Building the entire brand identity in three months and launching by October * Why she went Whole Foods first instead of Target, and how that sequencing shaped everything that followed * The clear protein category: how it's exploding globally and why the US is just catching up * Building lean the second time: a small remote team built through referrals, no agency * Raising capital on traction versus raising on hopes and dreams * What she'd do exactly the same the second time, and what she's doing completely differently * Balancing three kids under seven with building a fast-scaling consumer brand If you're building a consumer brand, thinking about a second act after an exit, or trying to figure out how to build with intention instead of urgency, this episode is one of the most grounded founder conversations I've put out this year.

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.