Russell went from working in private equity to hand-delivering dog food on the NYC subway at 5 a.m. He didn't start with a VC check; he started with a studio apartment kitchen and a belief that dog food was broken.

In this episode, Russell breaks down how he turned a side hustle into Spot & Tango, a direct-to-consumer giant doing over $100M in revenue.

He reveals the gritty reality of early-stage CPG, why he vertically integrated his own factory when everyone else outsourced, and how a simple "fresh dry" product innovation called UnKibble unlocked massive scale.

Why You Should Listen

• How to scale from a studio apartment kitchen to $100M+ revenue.
• How a simple packaging choice created a premium brand identity.
• Why your second product might become your biggest winner.
• Why the best performing ad creative is often the cheapest.

Keywords

startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, DTC startup, CPG brand, direct to consumer, scaling a startup, founder stories, Spot and Tango

00:00:00 Intro
00:02:30 From Private Equity to Dog Food
00:07:36 Hand-Delivering to the First Customer
00:11:57 The Dark Ages: Cooking in a Shared Kitchen
00:19:17 Pricing Strategy Without Sales Data
00:22:50 The Pink Butcher Paper Brand Identity
00:26:26 Launching UnKibble: The 9-Figure Product
00:31:52 Why Vertical Integration is a Moat
00:40:54 The Best Ad Creative is a Sticky Note
00:47:09 Selling Out Inventory in 4 Days

Send me a message to let me know what you think!