How I Financed It

The Future of Private Markets: Accredited Investors, Blockchain, and Tokenized Assets

Billions were raised “overnight” during the ICO era and it exposed a hard truth: when technology moves faster than securities law, founders and investors both get burned. That collision is where Herwig “Happy” Koenigs built his edge, first by learning the compliance rules that govern private fundraising and then by helping shape what compliant tokenization can look like as finance moves on chain. We walk through Herwig’s path from the University of Miami Launchpad to co-founding InvestReady, a RegTech platform for accredited investor verification. Along the way, he breaks down what “accredited” actually means, why the SEC designed guardrails for private markets, and how founders can structure early progress without blowing up their burn. You’ll hear how a modest angel raise, tight co-founder alignment, and a deliberately lean “zombie strategy” helped InvestReady survive long enough to expand into KYC, AML, and on-chain identity. From there, we jump into Bitcoin, Ethereum, smart contracts, and the ICO boom that convinced Herwig tokenization was bigger than a trend. He shares the story of advising one of the early legal security token offerings and then building Security Token Market (STM) with a Bloomberg-style vision for tokenized asset data, research, and community. We also get specific about startup financing mechanics: family office capital, preferred shares, board seats, Series A dynamics, and how timing can matter as much as product. If you’re building in fintech, blockchain, tokenization, or just trying to raise smart money without losing control, you’ll come away with clearer language, sharper questions, and real founder lessons. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/]

How Matt McLean Financed Uncle Matt’s Through Growth, Crisis, PE, and a Buyback

Taking “Florida” off a Florida citrus label sounds like a branding tweak until you live it. Matt McLean, founder of Uncle Matt’s Organics and a fourth-generation citrus grower, walks us through the real cost of building an organic orange juice company when nature, cash flow, and supply chains refuse to cooperate. From the early days of learning juice quality through an import-export brokerage to launching a perishable CPG product with short shelf life and tight working capital, Matt shares what it actually takes to survive the cash conversion cycle. We dig into what “organic” means on the farm, why European demand tipped him off early, and how he financed growth with a mix of scrappy self-funding, a small family loan, and eventually a borrowing-base line of credit. Then the story turns: Publix becomes a breakthrough, the business expands into fresh organic citrus, and private equity helps professionalize operations with KPIs, board discipline, and longer-term planning. The biggest curveball is citrus greening, an industry-wide crisis that forces a global sourcing pivot across Mexico, Texas, California, and beyond. Matt also tells the wild second act: selling the company to Dean Foods, facing their bankruptcy as COVID hits, and choosing to buy the brand back through a one and final sealed bid, then rebuilding with aligned investors, Farm Credit financing, and a new Texas manufacturing footprint that unlocks faster innovation in teas, lemonades, and more. If you like founder stories with real numbers, hard trade-offs, and practical financing lessons, subscribe, share this with a builder friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/]

OMG!: Rebuilding After Their Co-Packer Went Sideways

A snack brand can do everything “right” and still get rocked by one thing going wrong at the wrong time. We sit down with Stephanie from OMG Pretzels to unpack how a family garlic pretzel recipe grew from two pans in her mom’s kitchen into a premium seasoned sourdough pretzel nuggets business selling through local retailers, distributors, and grocery accounts, and what it really takes to keep going when operations get messy. We trace the build step-by-step: early bootstrapping with credit cards, landing that first crucial shelf space, moving into commercial kitchens, and expanding through a regional distributor while also growing wholesale with Faire and testing Amazon. Stephanie explains why packaging decisions matter in grocery retail, how premium pricing collides with legacy snack brands, and how co-packer selection can make or break your supply chain. Then we get into the financing stack behind the growth: a bank line of credit that increases with revenue, an SBA term loan used to support larger production runs and expansion, plus pandemic-era EIDL and PPP support. Stephanie also shares what happened when a co-packer leadership change triggered long out-of-stocks and prepay terms, and how she rebuilt momentum with a new women-owned co-packer, tighter SKU focus, lower cost of goods, and a pivot toward in-person events and festivals for faster cash flow and brand awareness. If you’re building a CPG brand, navigating working capital, or evaluating co-packers and retail readiness, this conversation is packed with hard-earned lessons. Subscribe for more founder financing stories, share this with a CPG friend, and leave a review with your biggest scaling challenge. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/]

The Hidden Impact of Hormone Decline—and the Reality of Financing a Beauty Brand

Nobody tells you hormone decline can start in your early 30s or that it can change your face, your sleep, your weight, and even your confidence at work. We sit down with Lorrie King, founder of Caire Beauty, for a candid talk that connects menopause education to skincare science and the realities of building a consumer brand with limited capital.  We unpack why so many “anti-aging” promises miss the root cause, how perimenopause and menopause show up through dozens of symptoms, and why women often feel dismissed or confused when medical training and public conversation lag behind lived experience. Lorrie shares what finally made the pattern click for her, the resources she trusts, and why healthier skin starts with telling the truth about what’s happening inside the body.  Then we move into the money: discovery versus distribution, retail and marketplace pay-to-play fees, why QVC beauty can run on consignment purchase orders, and what it really costs to launch in beauty from packaging minimums to clinical testing. Along the way, we talk founder mindset, time boundaries, SEO, Google ads, and the constant balancing act of growth versus capital preservation.  If you’re building a CPG brand, navigating menopause skincare, or simply trying to understand what hormone decline means for everyday life, you’ll leave with clearer language, sharper strategy, and a few hard-earned lessons about financing. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/]

The OG of Organic Coffee: 30+ Years of Growth

Organic coffee wasn’t a trend when Jim Cannell started roasting it. It was a belief and a bet, made years before most shoppers could even explain what “certified organic” meant. I’m joined by Jim from Jim’s Organic Coffee as we trace the real origin story: starting in the early natural foods trade, educating buyers who assumed all coffee was organic, and building demand store by store until the brand grew into a semi-national footprint. We get specific about the money side, because coffee is a working-capital business. Jim breaks down how vendor terms and net-30 purchasing helped him manage the cash conversion cycle when every bean is imported, and why a traditional bank line of credit only makes sense once inventory turns quickly. He also shares how a merger early in his career created the nest egg that helped launch Jim’s Organic Coffee in 1996, plus how bank financing supported equipment purchases so the company could roast in-house rather than rely on co-packing. From there, we talk about scaling with intent: expanding from one unit to five, shifting from rent to real estate ownership, and growing beyond grocery into foodservice accounts like cafes, bakeries, and hotels where service, calibration, and consistency matter. We also walk through volatility, including COVID demand shifts, tariff pressure, and serious commodity price spikes, plus the hard-won lessons from 2008 that pushed tighter terms, smarter SKU choices, and more disciplined operations. If you care about entrepreneurship, CPG financing, organic food, or how a mission-led coffee roaster survives three decades of swings, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/]