For Steven, it's all about patterns. He has spoken to over 1,000 founders and has developed a sense for which startups are going to flourish.

He focuses on sourcing and evaluating premier brands and coaching entrepreneurs through the fundraising process at CircleUp.

CircleUp is the platform providing capital and resources to innovative, early-stage consumer brands, and opportunities for sophisticated investors to participate in their growth.

From machine learning data to predict CPG success to the do's and don'ts of fundraising, we cover a lot:

• The fallout from Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods
• An 18 billion dollar shift from large brands to small brands in the consumer space from 2011-2015
• Is there a “too early” for Circle Up?
• Characteristics of good brand communication
• Helio - machine learning for the CPG space
• How to attack a trade show.
• Trends Steven sees in 2017
• The 5 buckets of entrepreneurs
• Why some companies can raise money and others can’t

Most Americans are sick. Alex Bayer saw it first hand, dealing insurance policies for AFLAC in southern California.

Born and raised in Palos Verdes, he has followed an extremely healthy and active lifestyle from an early age. In his 20’s, he became ‘too busy’ and was always on the go, never having time to cook a meal or prepare food, and smoothies became a way of life for him.

When the coconut craze hit, he discovered that coconuts were a great source of nutrients and benefits, and he always wondered why the full coconut meat was never included in coconut drinks. He started cold blending coconut water and coconut meat in his vitamix blender, eventually giving birth to the Genius Juice formula with coconut milk.

Alex has persevered through a lot. Now, in over 400 stores, he is ready to take it to the next level:

• Finding simplicity
• The shocking things Alex witnessed at AFLAC
• A lot of times we are “experts” without even knowing it.
• Why did coconut milk receive very little attention in the U.S. coconut craze?
• Subtle changes and market impact
• Sourcing coconuts 101
• Why will Genius continue to succeed once others copy it?

Imagine if, in 1996, you knew that the internet was going to be the next big thing. In hindsight, it seems obvious, but it wasn't at the time.

Now we are on the brink of a new technology that can be as monumental to the world as the internet: the blockchain.

Food and Ag is just one of many industries that will evolve with the technology.

Emma Weston of AgriDigital is applying blockchain technology to transform global agricultural supply chain. She breaks down the blockchain and how it will change food forever:

• What is the blockchain?
• Current state of international food trading
• Tokenizing physical assets
• Smart contracts
• Making trust a commodity
• Why did Emma's pitch win?
• The three main problems the blockchain can solve in agricultural trading
• Traceability, the blockchain, and IoT
• Additional uses of the blockchain in food
• Why CPG brands should learn about the blockchain
• Food marketing potential of the blockchain

Jeremy Smith is back. If you haven't heard the first interview, listen here.

There is trouble in the food broker space. The market has changed dramatically.

Based on listener response to the first episode and Jeremy's intuition, we continued the conversation on Costco, brokers, and how to adapt to the evolving food space:

• Costco pitches: phone vs in-person. Can you do it on the phone?:
• “Does a founder have to live the messaging of the brand before he/she communicates it to the consumer?”
• Hershey’s and Nestle are not driving the categories anymore ..
• Thoughts on Whole Foods “decline” ..
• Why the food brokerage business is broken. The challenge, how is it impacting companies?
• Your broker is not doing a good job it could be you.
• Can you be a food broker?
• Should you sell directly to Costco or use a broker.
• Why do some buyers say you should work directly with them and not use brokers?
• What are Costco Buyers like?
• Why brands fail at Costco?
• “Flavor Fatigue”
• Channel protectors should not sell to Costco.
• Is there a right time for a brand to go to Costco?
• Raising money: How Circle Up has evolved

In the last episode, we spoke with the founder of B'More Organic. This week we interview their secret weapon, Amanda Sains.

Amanda was in the corporate world and wanted a change. She started as a brand ambassador, doing product demos on her lunch break.

She has since rebranded the company, supported growth into over 3000 stores and has gotten placement for B’more on The Rachael Ray Show, collegiate sponsorships, secured NFL athlete endorsements with VaynerSports and coaching from entrepreneur, Barbara Corcoran.

We find out what drives Amanda and how she has been able to excel at B'More Organic:

• What she learned running an Etsy store
• Her decision to go to grad school
• Advice for young people who are unsure of their career path
• What "the hustle" means to Amanda
• Getting the attention of a food company
• How she proved herself to B'more Organic
• Getting in front of superstar entrepreneur Gary Vee
• Landing endorsements with NFL players
• Life on the road..
• Guerrilla marketing