Annie Chun and Steve Broad, founders of Annie Chun’s and gimMe Snacks, spoke about their entrepreneurial journey from selling at farmer’s markets to building category leading brands, why operational efficiency is critical to achieve sustainable margins and the importance of “discovering new experiences for the consumer.”

Ashley Thompson, co-founder and CEO of innovative ready-to-eat oat brand MUSH, spoke about why she set out to create a “best for you” product, why she likes having a “polarizing” brand name, how she prepared for her first meeting with Whole Foods and why the company has pivoted from being “product first” to “team first.”

Trey Zoeller, founder of pioneering whiskey brand Jefferson’s Bourbon, spoke about overcoming initial criticism of his experimental methods for aging bourbon, why he doesn’t consider himself a distiller, balancing consumer demand for diversity, consistency and predictability and why he’ll “never create a brand or an expression out of a boardroom.”

We’re joined this week by Jordan Salcito, founder of acclaimed canned wine brand Ramona, who spoke about the inspiration behind her disruptive concept, why she’s not prescriptive about how and when people should drink the products and how cultivating industry relationships prior to the brand’s launch was critical to its fast start.

Bantam Bagels co-founders Nick & Elyse Oleksek spoke about their transition from Wall Street analysts to bagel entrepreneurs, why they’ve said “yes” to everything and why effective cold-emailing works. They also explained why investing in PR has been crucial to the brand’s success and how they assessed opportunities to scale the brand.