The Energy Tea That Was Born Out Of A Friend's Near-Death Experience | Mitch Jacobsen, Rviita

On this episode, we’re joined by Mitch Jacobsen, P.Eng., Co-Founder & CEO of Rviita, a Calgary-based energy tea brand packaged in lightweight, resealable spouted pouches. Mitch went from petroleum engineer to beverage entrepreneur after a friend’s energy drink-related near-death experience. He walks us through the hard-won lessons of product development as a CPG newbie and why he chose to vertically integrate early and build a custom filling line. We also get tactical on distributor relationships in Canada, how to prep for buyer meetings, and channel strategies for Costco and Amazon.—---------------Episode Highlights: 🍵 The “why” behind Rviita’s tea-based energy and low-sugar formulation 🧪 Early R&D mistakes and how a bad taste test improved the product 🧴 Why a spouted pouch (and how it became a moat) 🏭 Building a custom filling line - costs, headaches, and speed advantages 🔌 When vertical integration makes sense (and when it doesn’t) 🛒 First retail commitments, buyer outreach, and meeting prep 🚚 The Canadian distributor landscape and how to be a great partner 💸 What distribution really does to your margins 🏬 Costco realities: packaging, sampling, and velocity expectations 🛍️ Amazon playbook: positioning, reviews, and ops basics 🎨 Brand identity and packaging design choices that drive trial 👥 Internal vs external resources as the team scales 📈 CPG trends Mitch is watching next—---------------Table of Contents: 00:41:10 - Rviita intro and origin story 02:37:22 - The early days of R&D and formulation as a CPG newbie 03:31:13 - Mitch’s two core product requirements 04:10:06 - Ranking dead last in a friend and family taste-test 05:53:26 - The path to a unique packaging form factor 09:32:06 - The decision to vertically integrate early 10:24:23 - Building the custom filling line, the pros and cons 12:35:17 - Recs for early operators considering going vertical 15:17:22 - How investors view the vertical integration decision now 15:22:04 - Brand identity, packaging design 18:04:00 - Getting the first retail commitment 20:00:09 - Mitch’s cold call approach for buyers, how it’s evolved 21:13:08 - Buyer meeting prep 22:33:27 - The distributor landscape in Canada 24:49:03 - How to be a good partner to your distributor 26:20:17 - A distributor’s impact on margin 27:17:25 - Costco 30:25:29 - Amazon 34:47:22 - Internal vs external resources 36:20:10 - Trends Mitch is tracking—---------------Links:Rviita – https://rviitalize.com/Follow Mitch on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-jacobsen-p-eng-89277649/ Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.