The Long Aisle with Lucas Ballasy: Inside the Minds of CPG Founders Playing the Long Game

Gardar Stefansson, co-founder/CEO of GOOD GOOD, built a no-added-sugar jam brand out of Iceland, a country of 350,000 people, by betting that a sugar-free spread could actually taste like something worth eating. He started with a stevia sweetener company that didn't work, pivoted to jam, and has been scaling ever since.In this conversation, we get into how a follower bet with his marketing team turned into running two marathons in a strawberry jar suit within two weeks of each other, the overconfident retail expansion that taught him why getting into stores is the easy part, and what he's still sitting with at night even after a decade of building.We also talk about what it takes to run a company with co-founders on a different continent, why he thought it would get easier with scale and was completely wrong, and what building something meaningful actually looks like when you strip everything else away.+Find GOOD GOOD: www.goodgoodbrand.comMore about Lucas: www.lucasballasy.com

Michael Fisher, founder/CEO, built Rotten from his kitchen with zero food science background, a 90s gross-out aesthetic, and a belief that better-for-you candy shouldn't have to look the part.In this conversation, we get into what it felt like to receive a cease and desist from Ferrara, makers of Nerds, before a product even launched, how $200K worth of sticky, off-spec gummy worms became a TikTok campaign, and why Michael calls his executive coach "therapy, except you just talk about work."We also talk about the mental game of building, protecting your physical health when the business is consuming everything, and what it means to grow a brand in a way that lasts.Read takeaways from this episode here.+Find Rotten: www.eatrotten.comMore about Lucas: www.lucasballasy.com

Lucas announces the launch of The Long Aisle, while on a run, and what inspired the series.