by Jeff Slater | Aug 30, 2026 | Foodpreneurs, Marketing Advice
Early in my career, I was the one walking into a buyer’s office with samples in a cooler bag and a pitch deck I’d rewritten four times the night before. Later, I spent years advising founders on how to survive that same meeting. I have talked with enough...
by Jeff Slater | Aug 16, 2026 | Foodpreneurs, Marketing Advice
How two founders built a $30 million DTC business by rethinking how amazing artisan bread gets from the oven to your table. There is a business hiding inside the food industry that most people don’t notice, and it has nothing to do with restaurants, grocery...
by Jeff Slater | Jun 28, 2026 | Foodpreneurs, Marketing Advice
How Kirsten Maitland and Fred Zwar built something the food industry said couldn’t be done Everyone in the food business had the same advice for Kirsten Maitland and Fred Zwar. It was delivered with authority, sometimes with pity, always with the same basic...
by Jeff Slater | Jun 21, 2026 | Foodpreneurs, Marketing Advice
The Surprising Origin Story Behind One of Specialty Retail’s Favorite Popcorn Brands Some of the best brand origin stories start with a memory, not a business plan. For Ginger Frank, it was popcorn. Growing up, popcorn wasn’t a snack. It was a...
by Jeff Slater | Jun 14, 2026 | Foodpreneurs
How the founder of Nana Joes Granola learned to trust her own instincts and quiet confidence as she built something. There is a black-and-white photograph on every bag of Nana Joes Granola. It shows two young people laughing after a home-cooked meal, taken in...
by Jeff Slater | May 10, 2026 | Foodpreneurs, Marketing Advice
Venmathy McMahan has a PhD in chemical engineering from Rice University. She spent years at Intel optimizing semiconductor processes. And then, in 2020, she bought a granola company. Not as a side project. Not as a passive investment. She bought Little Red Wagon...
