The CPG Operator Podcast

When your product has several compelling benefits, which one should lead?Jous founders Nicolas Jeffery and Camilo Ortiz sit down with Chris Robb of Supernatural Ventures and The Angel Group to work through how to sharpen the story behind their magnesium-infused juice, make the product easier to understand, and build a stronger strategy for growth.You Will Learn:How to determine which of your product’s benefits should lead your positioningWhen a functional ingredient strengthens your story and when it complicates itHow to make an unfamiliar product immediately understandable to consumersHow positioning can change your competitive set, shelf placement, and growth opportunitiesHow to test whether your current brand story is actually driving trial and repeat purchase

Building products with better ingredients is easy to talk about. Building a successful business around them is much harder. Join Tom First, Founder of Culture Pop, and Heather Wood, SVP of Marketing at Goodles, as they discuss the realities of formulation, sourcing, branding, retail growth, and operations, and how they’ve turned clean label products into brands that drive trial, repeat purchase, and sustainable growth.You will learn:How to decide whether an innovation solves a real consumer need or is simply chasing a trendHow to make ingredient decisions that balance taste, consumer value, manufacturing feasibility, and brand positioningHow to simplify an unconventional production process so it can scale without compromising the productHow to choose the right pace and path for growth based on your capital, team, and ability to support new distributionHow to make sure your product and packaging can drive trial and repeat before spending heavily on marketing

Functional ingredients are everywhere, but adding a trending ingredient to a label doesn't guarantee a product that actually works—or one consumers will buy again.Philip Bromley, CEO and co-founder of Virun, and Sara Fenn, Virun's Director of Marketing, explain the science that separates effective functional products from those that simply make functional claims. Drawing on decades of experience in formulation, ingredient stabilization, and delivery systems, they explain why bioavailability, stability, packaging, and format matter just as much as the ingredient itself.You'll learn:Why bioavailability matters more than adding another functional ingredientHow formulation and packaging affect ingredient stability and efficacyWhich delivery formats work best for different functional ingredientsThe biggest formulation mistakes brands make—and how to avoid themHow to evaluate ingredient quality, sourcing, and clinical supportWhy taste and consumer experience drive repeat purchasesWhat separates functional products that consumers try from the ones they come back for

Expo West is a massive event, and it can take weeks to fully process what you saw and what it actually means. There is a lot of noise, but if you look closely, the real signals start to emerge and point to where the industry is headed next. In this episode, we sit down with Sherry Frey of NielsenIQ to make sense of it all through the lens of real consumer data. We break down what is really happening with protein and how consumers are thinking about it in their diets, why regenerative and transparent sourcing are gaining traction, which flavor trends are sticking, and how the ongoing GLP 1 conversation is reshaping product design around satiety and nutrient density.