The archive
What founders say
Every answer from the show, sorted by the problem it solves — so you can read them side by side instead of watching every episode end to end.
On getting into retail
“I would go into my local grocery stores or liquor stores and pretty much just pitch my product… we had so many places say yes, we had some places say no.”
Isabella Hoag, A.J. Calvin
How founders actually got their first doors — what the conversation looked like, what it cost, and what they would skip if they did it again.
Read the answers →2 founders · 2 answersOn convenience and on-premise
“In the beginning we were selling to a lot of liquor stores, and obviously liquor stores are trying to sell liquor. And so then it's kind of showcasing why they need to improve their NA set.”
Isabella Hoag, A.J. Calvin
Cafés, restaurants, hotels, liquor stores and c-store. The channels most brands are told to avoid, and what it takes to hold that shelf.
Read the answers →1 founder · 2 answersOn pricing and margin
“in the beginning we were selling our a single can wholesale for six dollars, and now we're selling retail for four ninety nine. So you can just imagine the trial and error it took.”
Isabella Hoag
What founders wish they had known before they set a wholesale price, and the numbers they defend when a buyer pushes.
Read the answers →1 founder · 3 answersOn co-packers and MOQs
“I didn't add one very specific section, distributed by OSIA… that really held us up in a lot of different ways. We couldn't get it into distributors. And so we had to self-distribute for a long time.”
Isabella Hoag
Finding someone to make your product, what a first run should actually cost you, and the label details that quietly cost founders their distribution.
Read the answers →1 founder · 4 answersOn trade shows
“I created the booth in my garage… I creatively built it in AI first… out of like eight hundred and fifty vendors we won the showstopper, the best booth award.”
A.J. Calvin
Whether the booth is worth it, what makes someone stop walking, and where the leads are really won — which is almost never at the show itself.
Read the answers →1 founder · 3 answersOn Amazon
“it's the keyword selection more than anything. Organic rank on your keyword is everything… we rank like number seven or eight on wellness shots. So we're on the first page.”
A.J. Calvin
Why founders treat Amazon as retail rather than DTC, what actually moves rank, and the ad maths that lets the channel pay for itself.
Read the answers →1 founder · 4 answersOn what actually converts
“I had a hundred and ten videos made for us on TikTok and we converted two units.”
A.J. Calvin
Where the money really came from, and the marketing founders paid for that returned nothing.
Read the answers →1 founder · 3 answersOn systems and SOPs
“if you want to sell your business one day, it needs to be a business in a box… The people who are getting three X for the business are the ones that don't have the SOPs, they just have sales… The people who get six have the SOPs locked in.”
A.J. Calvin
The unglamorous infrastructure founders skip, and what it is worth at the point somebody values the business.
Read the answers →