How I Financed It
How I Financed It brings you the real, in-depth, and vulnerable stories of founders who’ve built — and financed — their businesses. From the spark of an idea to the financing that fueled their journey, each episode reveals the strategies, successes, setbacks, and mindset shifts that drove their growth.
Hosted by Keith Kohler, your financing and mindset strategist, this show explores what it takes — and how it feels — to secure the right financing at the right time.
Episodes
21 episodes
Defy-ning a New Type of Chocolate
Buckwheat in chocolate sounds like a weird idea until you hear the story behind it. I’m joined by Tatyana Jones, founder of Defy Snacks, who explains how she turned a “misfit” ingredient into a better-for-you snacking brand and a real early-sta...
The Future of Private Markets: Accredited Investors, Blockchain, and Tokenized Assets
Billions were raised “overnight” during the ICO era and it exposed a hard truth: when technology moves faster than securities law, founders and investors both get burned. That collision is where Herwig “Happy” Koenigs built his edge, first by l...
How Matt McLean Financed Uncle Matt’s Through Growth, Crisis, PE, and a Buyback
Taking “Florida” off a Florida citrus label sounds like a branding tweak until you live it. Matt McLean, founder of Uncle Matt’s Organics and a fourth-generation citrus grower, walks us through the real cost of building an organic orange juice ...
OMG!: Rebuilding After Their Co-Packer Went Sideways
A snack brand can do everything “right” and still get rocked by one thing going wrong at the wrong time. We sit down with Stephanie from OMG Pretzels to unpack how a family garlic pretzel recipe grew from two pans in her mom’s kitchen into a pr...
The Hidden Impact of Hormone Decline—and the Reality of Financing a Beauty Brand
Nobody tells you hormone decline can start in your early 30s or that it can change your face, your sleep, your weight, and even your confidence at work. We sit down with Lorrie King, founder of Caire Beauty, for a candid talk that connects meno...
The OG of Organic Coffee: 30+ Years of Growth
Organic coffee wasn’t a trend when Jim Cannell started roasting it. It was a belief and a bet, made years before most shoppers could even explain what “certified organic” meant. I’m joined by Jim from Jim’s Organic Coffee as we trace the real o...
From DMs to Froco: The Smearcase Journey (to date)
Cottage cheese ice cream sounds like a dare until you hear how Smearcase made it taste great, look shelf-ready, and sell like a real brand. Keith sits down with founders Joe and Drew to unpack the full arc: a marathon-training craving for a hea...
Monsoon Kitchens: Consistent, Safe, and Financeable
A lot of founders can tell you how they made something delicious. Swati Elavia can tell you how she made it consistent, safe, and financeable. Swati is the founder of Monsoon Kitchens, and her story runs from a PhD in nutrition to the unglamoro...
From Warehouse To Walmart: Financing Growth
Ever wonder how a distributor scales from a single pallet favor to pro seller status on a major marketplace? We sit down with Noslen Anaya of Great Deals 21 to unpack the real mechanics of financing growth in logistics and distribution—where Mi...
Merge To Grow: When Mission Outweighs Ego
A spiky cactus and a crowded snack aisle sparked a bigger mission: rewrite the story of Latin flavors on U.S. shelves. We sit down with Regina Trillo to unpack how Nemi Snacks emerged from representation, health, and heart—and why money wasn’t ...
A Different Kind of Mojo: Building A Mission-Driven Medtech Without Venture Capital
What if you could slash a medical device’s cost by 75 percent, scale to 39 countries, and still avoid venture capital? That’s the story we unpack with Keto-Mojo’s cofounder, Mr. Mojo himself, who turned a personal health crisis into a mission-d...
From the Lowest of Lows to the Good Journey
What if a donut could change how you feel, think, and show up each day? Kristoffer from Good Journey Foods joins us to explore a path that threads through a rocket-ship startup, a painful collapse, and a return built on purpose, taste, and smar...
Franchising Will Make the (Cookie) Dough
Two hours into their first Nashville event, the line still hadn’t died. That moment convinced Jimmy Feeman to go all-in with his co-founder and wife, Megan, on a wild idea: build a dessert brand from scratch and figure out the financing on the ...
Rebel with a Cause
A cashew, a cave, and a credit line changed everything. We sit down with Rebel Cheese co‑founders Fred and Kirsten to map the real path from an elegant 1,200‑square‑foot deli in Austin to a D2C‑first brand backed by Mark Cuban—without losing si...
The Persistence Needed to Build Hiatus Cheesecake
A hit song funded a hit dessert. Matt, the founder of Hiatus Cheesecake, went from baking with his mom to serving fine dining rooms, then navigated a leap into Whole Foods and, later, Kroger’s Go Fresh & Local Accelerator. We unpack the rea...
Creating Power: Disrupting Traditional Film Financing Models and Building Community
The most dangerous myth in entertainment is the lone genius. We sit down with LA creators Byron Manuel and Rich Morrow to show how community, discipline, and smarter money beat that myth—and how filmmakers can keep far more of their work.
From Tokenization To An Oil Deal: Building Global Settlement
What if your fundraising edge isn’t a prettier deck, but the energy you bring into the room? We sit down with Miami operator and “crypto guy” Kyle Sonlin to unpack how conviction, curiosity, and consistent behavior become the signals investors ...
How Nutty Made It
What if your financing strategy was as clean and simple as your ingredient list? We sit down with Hector Gutierrez of JOI, the plant base brand built on “just one ingredient,” to unpack how a concentrated product, a flexible channel mix, and di...
Building a Supplement Juggernaut: Ora Organic's 10-Year Financing Journey
Keith Kohler launches his new podcast "How I Financed It" with a candid conversation featuring Ora Organic co-founders Ron and Will, who share their decade-long journey from maxed-out credit cards in the beginning to sustainable profitability t...
An Empanada Story Filled with Family, Growth, and Dedication
Margarita Womack never intended to build a frozen empanada empire. Eight years ago, she was a PhD scientist with Colombian roots who simply wanted to help a friend secure a visa through a small catering business. Today, she's the founder of Mas...
Myles to Go: Surviving, Thriving, and Resiliency in the Entrepreneurial Journey
From a comfortable engineering career to the brink of financial collapse and back again, Myles Powell's entrepreneurial story embodies both the exhilarating highs and crushing lows of building a CPG food brand from scratch.What begins a...
