$530M in Firepower, PepsiCo Enters the Chat, and Clooney's Back | EP 019

The firepower is real this week. David Protein gets hit with a class action lawsuit claiming 83% more calories than labeled — but the internet completely missed the science. Coefficient Capital closes $530M across two funds. PepsiCo launches meat sticks and proves they read the Bain insurgent brands report. Hims & Hers goes from GLP-1 victim to GLP-1 distributor in 14 days. George Clooney applies the Casamigos formula to non-alc beer. Monster quietly launches FLRT to chase the female energy consumer. And Once Upon a Farm posts 30% revenue growth — then watches the stock drop 20%. This is the episode that explains why your moat isn't distribution anymore.

In this episode: 

1. The David Protein lawsuit — what the lab got wrong and why EPG changes everything
2. Coefficient Capital's $530M — what it means if you're raising a Series A or B
3. PepsiCo's Good Warrior meat sticks — Big Food just read the Bain report
4. Hims & Hers' 14-day strategic pivot — the most impressive sequence in consumer health in years
5. George Clooney's Crazy Mountain — can the Casamigos formula work twice?
6. Monster's FLRT — can a corporate brand win the female energy consumer on authenticity?
7. Once Upon a Farm's public market reality check — 30% growth gets champagne in a boardroom. On Wall Street it gets a haircut.
8. Rapid fire: Henkel acquires Not Your Mother's, Morinaga buys My/Mochi, Grüns at Costco, Poppi at Starbucks, and more

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're watching Unpackaged Goods. I'm your host, Jonathan Dieter. There was a lot going on this week. So let's get into it. This is Unpackaged Goods, where we unpackage all of the headlines from CPG, consumer health, and wellness, all the trends, all the trends you saw across media. So let's just like dive into it. David Protein got hit with a class action lawsuit, claiming 83% more calories than labeled. Coefficient capital. They raised a huge fund,$530 million. PepsiCo launched into the meat stick space, and George Clooney is back with a non-alcoholic beer. And hims and hers, they went from GLP1 risk to GLP1 distributor in 14 days. So welcome to Unpackaged Goods, where the firepower just got very real. So we're back. Yapping, just finding time for it. You know, I've been prioritizing a lot of the AI things that I've been working on. So if this is new to you, uh I'm going to be rolling out basically an AI concierge model to people. Basically, I've been working with founders to look at their businesses very strategically, to show them some of the tools that I've already built and for investment funds who are utilizing them today. Um, and to say, hey, like, can we figure out tracking your inventory? Can we figure out tracking your cogs by SKU? Can we figure out how to better make all of your systems talk to one another? Um, so that's some of the work that I've been doing. I've been speaking to a ton of founders the last couple of weeks, which has been really valuable. I've learned a ton about different workflows. And by now, and I still haven't learned that I can't use my hands when I'm talking. And I talk with my hands, but then my camera goes crazy. So yeah, the AI conversations have been really valuable. If you're a founder listening to this and AI intrigues you, and if you're thinking about implementing it in your business, I'd love to have a conversation to talk to you about how I can work with you. Um, really save you time. A lot of people just don't have the time to look at these things. And so I need to turn off the email notifications for this. And that's gonna drive me nuts. So, time, resources. I I've just been spending a lot of time dive headfirst into this stuff. And so, um, yeah, I'd love to explore working with you. Alrighty. So the David protein lawsuit. So we touched on this briefly. We're gonna go through all the facts, give you what happened, what's going on, and tell you what I think. So this story really took over the internet last week. I even had like my sister and her friends texting me and be like, Have you heard about David? And to be honest, at first I thought she was talking about ice cream and that they're launching a protein-packed ice cream. And then I saw all the news about the lawsuits, and they just got like eviscerated online. People just came at their throats saying, like, see, we told you, thought it was like the internet's gotcha moment for David. And very quickly, people who were pointing a finger and laughing at David, they were stand corrected and by science. And so we're gonna break down what that science was and uh yeah, go from there. So David Protein got hit with a class action lawsuit, alleging that the bars contain up to 83% more calories and 400% more fat than what's on the label. The bars are marketed at 150 calories and two grams of fat. Independent lab tests found 268 to 275 calories and 11 to 13 and a half grams of fat. Immediately, the internet compared it to mean girls. Regina George getting tricked into eating weight gain bars. Peter Rahole, the founder and CEO of David, he fired back pretty quickly with a letter of his own. No one's getting Regina George tier. So let's go into really what this centers around. So what's interesting is dispute centers around EPG, gastrified propoxylated glycerol, a modified plant-based fat substitute that's supposed to pass through the body without being digested. Rahol's argument, the lab used bomb cloimerty, which measures the total heat when food is burned. That method counts EPG as fully digestible calories, even though the body doesn't metabolize it that way. So the real question here isn't whether the lab found more calories, it's whether the testing method is appropriate for a product containing a fat substitute that the FDA permits different caloric calculations for. This is where the nuances live that social media totally messed. The FDA permits six different calorie calculations. Bomb calormidity works for most foods, but not for ingredients like fiber, certain sweeteners, and fat substitutes like EPG. Rahul is saying the calorie count on the back of David bars reflects what the body actually absorbs, not what burns in a lab. Plaintiffs are saying the label violates FDA standards because the nutrient content exceeds declared value by more than 20%. Regardless of who wins the legal argument, the story has massive implications for the entire protein category as a whole. Consumer trust in nutrition labels is already fragile. The protein bar category has been built on macro marketing, protein to calorie ratios, zero sugar claims, and low fat positioning. So when the hottest brand in the category faces questions about its core claim, it creates doubt across every competitor. This is the regulatory and trust risks that comes with building a brand too good to be true nutritional profiles. We could go back and forth on this for an entire hour on the science, the legal implications, the consumer the consumer trust angle. But the short version is the it's not as simple as the internet made it look. Whether David's labeling holds up depends on the FDA's interpretation of PG caloric values. That's social media outrage. And I think that's a real this was an important story because I think even the food space is very political. And it is wild to see the people who were up in arms about David, who are up in arms about everything, quickly crawled back in their shells because they knew they were wrong. And I think that's a very important lesson with everything, is that it's very important to reserve judgment until all of the facts come out. And I think here we saw David just get crucified online, like gotcha moment, when when the facts came out, they're in the right here. So I'm happy that there is a clean food movement going on. And I think the less that people politicize that, and the more that people realize we're all saying the same thing, I think the better, better off we are. So that's all we're gonna say on that. Um, so yeah, that's that's the David breakdown. Um, we've just been ripping and rolling. Oh, David, David, David. I like the David bars, to be honest. Like they taste really good. You know, I know they've gotten some criticism about like the ingredients and what's in them, but um, and now how many calories and fat's actually in them, but I I like them. I forget which one I really like the best, but maybe I'm just gonna go like full pro David and get all their products, maybe. Alrighty. So there's been a lot of fundraising going on in the last couple weeks. I feel like every other week I'm writing about a new fund reloading and doubling down on the space. And I think that that's really an indicator of what the smart money and the big money thinks about CPG as a whole. I think as just as a not only as a category, but as like a movement, as a consumer trend movement. I think you're seeing so many people who are really paying attention to like what they're putting in their bodies, uh, the labels, the ingredients, where it's coming from. People want transparency, and I think that that starts with their food. I gotta turn these notifications off on my email. It's driving me nuts, especially as I'm recording this and seeing. So, Coefficient Capital, they raised uh two separate funds. So they raised$290 million for fund two and$240 million for their Apex fund. Over$530 million in fresh capital aimed at consumer brands. Let's put that in context because they've been around the block and they've made some good bets. So this is more capital than most CPG companies will ever generate in revenue. And it's sitting with the single firm whose portfolio includes Magic Spoon, Lemmy, Oatley, Gorgie, Trip, Sal's, sincerely yours. Their big wins have included Oatley's IPO, Kate Farms, Num Nom, and Just Spices. So why this matters for founders, co-fishing capital, co-fishing capital isn't writing small checks. This is growth equity capital, which means they're looking for brands who have already proven their product market fit and need fuel to scale. The portfolio thesis is clear. They're backing structural shifts in consumer behavior, not trends, functional nutrition, premium beverages, clean beauty, better for you snacking. Every major behavioral shift of the last five years is represented. Over$530 million in dry powder. Coefficient Capital will be writing some of the most consequential checks in the next three to five years. If you're a founder looking at raising your Series A soon, you should get to know them. You know, I think the bigger question here is like when one firm has that much capital, does it create an unfair advantage? And I think the answer here is yes. If you're competing against coefficient back brands, you need to understand that your competitors got access to a lot of money, expertise, network that most brands can't match. So yeah, I'll keep an eye on them. Um, other things to note in the fundraising space, uh, second slight, they raised$75 million last week. Great circle, they're raising$20 million. Uh cutting horse, they closed their$75 million round. So the capital just keeps flowing in the consumer brands right now, and it's unprecedented. The exit data from the last 12 months, poppy, beatbox, siete, lesser evil is bringing institutional money back into the category at scale. Can we have a segment news? If you saw the Bain insurgent brands report that came out uh about two weeks ago, there were some brands in there, like Chomps, like Archer, that are killing it. The meat stick category as a whole is really growing. And I have to say, I'm a new believer. So I never really like liked meat sticks. I guess it's just like the idea of just like I guess they weren't good. I guess just like growing up, they were just like oh, not very tasty, too meaty, too chewy, like they're really good now though. Like they're really dialed. I got the new primal buffalo chicken sticks. They were incredible. And I've been having the Archer beef sticks really good. So I really like them. Quick protein, I think nine grams of protein. It's not even that. It's like I'm not even having it for protein. It's just like it's a quick snack in the afternoon that's clean, that's healthy, that's good for me. So when I saw this, it's like this makes a lot of sense. So two weeks ago, Bain told us that the insurgent brands drove 25% of all new food growth. So Good Warrior is gonna be PepsiCo's meat stick brand. 10 grams of protein, 100 calories, zero sugar, nationwide distribution. So let me be very clear about what just happened. The company that makes Doritos, Ley's, Cheetos, they looked at the meat stick category and they saw a white space, a category built by insurgent brands like Chomps, Archer, Epic, and said, we want a piece of this. And that's interesting. Usually you'll see them try to acquire brands for areas that they can't innovate in. They're diving in head first. So I want to get my hands on them. I want to try them. Because honestly, in markets like this, where ultimately if there's not too much variation in taste and flavor, the price is gonna win. So if PepsiCo can price themselves more competitively and it tastes pretty much the same as an Archer or a Chomps, they're gonna do better. But they're gonna win over a consumer like even me, who I have a very sophisticated uh taste palette and I like the things that taste good. But I I'm not like like the the frozen pizza section in the grocery store is such a good example for this. Where and I like there are some amazing frozen peep pizza options. I keep trying new ones that I like, but I really have a tough time spending like$12,$14 on a pizza when I can get the um the private label for like four or five dollars with not a whole lot of variance in like taste. The ingredients is where you're gonna see the big thing. You know, the private label isn't gonna have like your super clean everything, this and that, and protein, but it's gonna be like almost ten dollars cheaper. And that's where like when you're getting groceries, like that adds up. So I think in the meat stick category, PepsiC will be a very big player if they can nail the taste, be neck and neck, and then compete on price. And I think that's where you see big CPG where they will be successful. The branding's really good. If you look at it, it's cool, it looks modern, it looks CPG kinda for the most part. So is it good? Brands are gonna win on taste this year. You know, I think that's where you look at a lot of products that have every functional element under the sun, but they don't taste good. I'm not gonna ta I'm not gonna have it again if it doesn't taste good. You'd be amazed how many brands that I haven't bought for a second time because it didn't taste good. And you gotta taste good. And so I'm really sore. I do a workout class in my building on Tuesday nights that uh Lauren teaches. She's a Nike instructor, she does like a cold plunge. It's awesome. It's really fun. So you wanna come, check it out. Um so the good news for insert so the good news for insurgent brands, PepsiCo just validated the category as a whole. Every buyer conversation gets easier when PepsiCo is investing in the same macro trend. The bad news, your new competitor has unlimited shelf space, a sales force ten thousand thousands deep, and a marketing budget that makes your total revenue look like a rounding air. The question every insurgent protein brand needs to answer right now, what's your moat? Because distribution isn't it anymore. PepsiCo just took that off the table. Your moat has to be brand trust, ingredient integrity, and cultural relevance that big food can't replicate. That's exactly what Bain's data showed. Big CPG acquires these brands from scratch. Big CPG acquires these brands because they can't replicate the cultural relevance from scratch. Good warrior is PepsiCo trying to say, we're gonna prove you wrong. So we'll see. We'll see if it works. I think it's gonna work. I think they're gonna be if they, like I said, if they can compete on price, if they can compete on taste and they're competitive, and if they're gonna win on price, they're gonna do well. Rolling. Rolling, rolling on wing. All right, let's just keep let's keep gonna keep it going. So the next segment, we're gonna talk about hims and hers. It feels like they've been in a lot of legal issues the last couple months, but this one with Novo Nordic really was centered around selling Ozempic and Wake Gov directly on their platform. This might be the most impressive strategic sequence I've seen in consumer health in years. So we'll walk through the timeline because it's a little complicated. So two weeks ago, hims and hers spent a billion and a half acquiring eucalyptus, the Australian telehealth company, which we talked about. The stock was getting hammered because GLP 1 fears were real. The Novo Nordic lawsuit was hanging over them. Basically, every analyst was questioning the business model. So this week they settled with Novo Nordic, which will now allow them to offer branded Ozempic and Wigovi directly on their platform. Stock the stock jumped 40% in one day. So the strategic sequence here acquire international infrastructure, settle in the legal dispute, become a branded GLP one distributor, watch the stock recover. They went from being perceived as a GLP one victim to a GLP 1 distribution channel. The compounding and generic play was always the bridge. Branded Ozempic and Wigovi is the destination. This changes the landscape for telehealth companies significantly. So, what does this mean for CPG brands positioning themselves around the GLP1 consumer? Hymns and Hers just became a new distribution channel that you probably haven't been thinking about. If you're making high protein, portion control, clean label products for GLP1 users, the platform is now distributing Ozempic and Wagovi directly, is where those consumers live. The lesson for founders strategic patience and sequencing matter more than any single HIMS didn't panic when the stock dropped. They executed on a plan. As someone who doesn't drink anymore, when I hear about new NA brands launching, I'm always really excited because I want to taste it. I want to try it. I was super excited to see that George Clooney was launching an NA brand and then was quickly disappointed when there were no N or um IPAs available. It's like, what are you doing? You're launching like I think it was like a lager in a Pilsner style. Like, come on. You're literally people who like IPAs, like what I used to enjoy, double IPA, like that's kind of your, I want to say like upper upper echelon of beer drinker. Those are the ones that are really particular on taste, who have a palate for it, can sense different notes, different flavors, different ingredients. And maybe that's not who they're targeting. But if you're NA, you probably used to enjoy drinking. And if you're having a beer, you probably used to enjoy beer. And so I don't know. There are a lot of people who just are big beer drinkers, but have a very, very basic palate when it comes to beer. So I can understand this. Um, so that's fine. We'll give them a little bit of a free pass. But um, George, George Clooney, Randall Gerber, and Mike Meldham are back. So they're launching Crazy Mountain, a premium non-alk beer, two lager style brews, feed of seed for now, and retail coming. So, for those of you that don't know, these three sold Casamigos for over$1 billion to Diago. So when they enter a new category, it deserves attention. When we look at the non-alk beer landscape, it's changing a lot. It's been growing a lot in the last couple of years. Athletic Brew dominates in volume. Tom Holland's Bureau just raised at a reported$100 million valuation and is approaching$10 million in your one of sales at Target. Heineken Double Zero has distribution, but no cultural relevance. I have kind of shifted more towards liking bureau. Um, obviously, I've loved Athletic. They've really been the best for as long as possible. That's usually what you're gonna find at a restaurant, too. Um the Bureau has a really good IPA. So, as we were just saying, the more sophisticated beer drinkers or beer drinkers of the past, or oh geez. We like a little taste. Just give me a little taste. Just give me a little taste. Oh, I'm so excited for some March Madness. I'm going to visit one of my best friends, Bennett, in Chicago, and I'm gonna get to meet his son and his sister's two daughters, and we're gonna watch basketball all the weekend and like have wings and stuff, and it's gonna be great. And we're probably not gonna move from the couch, and that's like the best possible time that I could ask for for it with him. So super, super duper excited. The premium lane, the premium lane is getting crowded. This is a much more competitive entry point than Casamigo's had in tequila. But the Casamigo playbook is proven. Best product, premium pricing, cultural relevance, and let distribution find you. U.S. beer shipments are down 5.9% in 2025, over 8 million fewer barrels. Traditional beer is contracting, and non-alco is growing in double digits. Clooney doesn't need the money. That's the thing. That's exactly why this is credible. They see white space, not a vanity project. The real question is though, is can the Casamigos formula work again in beer? I don't know. I guess we'll see. Um, in a much more competitive category with Athletic Beer, Bureau, Heineken, a dozen others already in the ring. The answer is probably depends on whether the product is genuinely best in class and good. They won the tequila race on taste first, so I hope the beer is the same way. So a couple other stories that we'll touch on because it's just dragging this thing on. Um, so Monsters energy and has entered the energy drink world with a female targeted energy drink called Flirt. Kind of has flown under the radar. They're trying to get into that Celsius uh Alani New World, which has been exploding and with their acquisition. And so they quietly launched Flirt at High V in the Midwest and with Walmart and GoPuff coming soon. So yeah, I'll I'll be interested to see how this does or if they end up canceling it, but we'll see. Once upon a farm, their public market reality checks. So they posted a Q4 net sales up 30% 34% to$64 million. The stock dropped as much as 20%. And that's kind of the rude awakening of being a public company is the slightest best case 30% growth in a private boardroom, that's amazing. On Wall Street, it gets you a haircut. If guidance isn't good, the public market doesn't celebrate revenue growth without margin expansion. Private markets give you five years, public markets give you five quarters. So the scrutiny is going to be relentless. Every miss gets amplified, every metric gets compared to expectations, not just the last year. So if you're a founder, you're inning the public markets, just know what you're signing up for. Rapid fire, bum. Quick hits that deserve attention. Let's go. So the deals. Henkel acquired not your mother's. They were doing$220 million in revenue. Hair care. Um, so affordable hair care's exit moment. You don't need to be prestige, you just need velocity. Uh Moranga and Haichu, we talked about this. They bought My Mochi. So the parent company, Moranga of Haichu, they bought MyMochi uh for an undisclosed amount, but we know they're doing$80 million in sales. Um Tilray, they scored. Scooped up brewdogs assets. So Australian brewing facilities and pubs after UK assets sold for 33 million pounds. SD Lauder, they're completing their 18-year journey to fully acquire Forest Essentials in India. Brita took a minority stake in Hello Clean. Let's go through some of the funding news. So Hooray's Girl Beer, uh,$5 million seed round. They're already at Walmart, Kroger, Albertson's Whole Foods, Perfumer H. They raised four and a half million from the ESOP co-founders. Um Novos Labs, they have backing from Unilever Unilever Ventures for longevity supplements, Good Girl Snacks. They got an undisclosed investment from Nucleus Network. I don't know who they are. Chili Ones. So the uh low ABV beer backed by Tyson Berrios. They NHL player. They also got it back from Neutral. So Living Things. They got an investment from Spadel. Uh let's rip through a couple launches. We got Surfside Creators launched Super Light, an RDD cocktail in 20 states. Yarritos went modern with Sana Sana Prebiotic Soda. Prebiotic soda. Pacons. They have a licensing era continues. Top Brahmin Collab sold at Walmart after spam. Nani's Chai from a 12-year Coca-Cola corporate development vet vet veteran. Let me relax, soft shoes, summer Friday debuts fragrance, and Sniff Times Michaela Naguyar. All right, let's bang through these distribution wins. Um Groons Nationwide at Costco. That's a big one. Uh Poppy at Starbucks, that's another really big one. Bum Energy, nationwide at Walmart. Busy expanded to 1300 doors at Target. Collypuff, Collie Puffs and Skypop, nationwide at Target. Joyride at Publix, Publix, I always say it wrong. Uh Fruit Riot at Tesco in the UK, and Celsius launched in Spain with Sutri uh or Sunatory, right? And then Symbiotica at Ulta Beauty. Um, so before we close, um take a moment to lift up the founder of A Dozen Cousin who passed away last week. I eat this rice like almost every night for dinner. Um so Ibrahim Basir um unexpected unexpectedly passed away. Super sad. I never met him, but um I quite literally use his product almost night every night for dinner, and he has an amazing product and story, and um, you know, the outpouring of love from every corner of the community really tells his story, and so um he built a brand rooted in cultural authenticity and representation at a time when the industry desperately needed both. He didn't just build a product, he built a platform for stories and flavors that the mainstream food industry had ignored for too long. The food industry just lost a good one, food industry lost a good one. Rest in peace, Abraham. So, my closing thoughts. Um, here's the takeaway from this week. So the firepower, it's real. Half a billion from coefficient, PepsiCo entering a new market, Monster building female energy drinks, Henkel acquiring a hair care brand for$220 million, and George Clooney applying his learnings to non-elk beer. The window for emerging brands to build defensible positions before big food arrives is getting smaller every week. PepsiCo read the Bain Insurgent report and they launched their meat sticks. Monster watched Celsius built Monster watched Celsius acquire Lonnie New and they launched Flirt. Incumbents aren't getting sleepy anymore. But here's what the Bain data also show. Big CPG is acquiring insurgent brands because they can't replicate the cultural relevance that the smaller brands can. Good warrior is PepsiCo trying to flip that model on its head. Flirt and monster, same thing. History says they'll struggle. Your motive isn't distribution anymore, it's trust, authenticity. It's a daily habit you build. Consumer who chose you before anyone told them to. Build the faster, build real. That's it. So good to get back in the routine. Uh, if you haven't yet left us a review, please rate us five stars and leave us a review wherever you get your podcast. It really helps with positioning. Um, if you don't follow us on Instagram, TikTok, or subscribe to our Substack, make sure you hit the link in the bio. And um, yeah, if you've made it this far, holy shit. Thank you. You mean that means the world to me and you must really love me. So I appreciate you. And uh, we'll see you next week. We out.