R&D Radio: Monte Ammons from Liquid Sherpas

In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by food scientist Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Monte Ammons, founder of Liquid Sherpas. With more than 30 years spanning food service, Coca-Cola, Community Coffee, and natural ingredient sales at Dohler, Monte brings a uniquely operational lens to product development — one built not in a lab, but on the floor of real businesses learning hard lessons the hard way.Monte makes the case that most founders jump straight into formulation when they should be doing the opposite: starting with a product brief, understanding the business, and doing the competitive homework before a single ingredient is sourced. He walks through how one client nearly launched into a saturated market — then pivoted his entire proposition 35 degrees by doing the upfront work first.Listen in as they discuss:Why formulation should be one of the last steps in product development, not the firstWhat a technical product brief is and how it prevents costly downstream surprisesHow a client shifted consumer target, functional benefit, format, and channel — before spending real moneyThe realities of natural ingredient supply chains: seasonality, tariffs, sedimentation, and moreWhy founders should start small, stay flexible, and invest as little as possible early onHow to research your category by talking to founders, breweries, and operators who've done itThe role of AI as a research accelerator — and why you still shouldn't ask it to develop your formulaWhy the beverage industry's failure rate is so high, and what separates founders who make itEpisode Links:Monte Ammons — Founder, Liquid Sherpas 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ammons/ 🔗 Website: www.liquidsherpas.comDon't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.Show Links:Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)Follow @startupcpgVisit host Adam's Linkedin Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [email protected] music by Super Fantastics