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“I have a one-page manifesto called The Book of Uri. Rule one: no cheese unless it’s on pizza. Rule two: nothing purple.”

In this episode of Founder’s Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch sits down with Uri Geva, CEO of Cookie Dough Bliss, to talk about what it means to build a dessert franchise empire while eating like a kid. From buying and scaling franchise locations to leading a national brand with 27 stores sold (and counting), Uri shares how he’s raising capital through creative rounds, building culture with personality, and turning cookie dough into a public company.

He also opens up about growing up in Israel, the family meals that shaped him, and why he still eats to live (not live to eat). Expect stories about well-done steaks, plain burgers, Friday night Shabbat dinners, and why cookie dough might just be the perfect metaphor for entrepreneurship: comforting, simple, and a little messy.

🎧 Listen for:

• How Uri built Cookie Dough Bliss from a local brand to a national franchise
• What it takes to raise micro-rounds from accredited investors
• Why comfort food connects to culture, family, and faith
• The business lessons behind “The Book of Uri”

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"I stockpile food as a comfort. I'm never out of any type of pasta. Never."

Courtney Zaugg, founder of VentureVets—a 501(c)(3) accelerator supporting veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs—and co-owner of The Contractors, a general contracting company in Indianapolis, on why her pantry drawers won't close and why she made thirty different freezer meals in one week to prep for her husband's shoulder surgery.

This conversation gets real about what founders actually eat. Courtney comes from a lineage of food entrepreneurs—great grandfather, then grandparents with catering and wholesale, then parents with restaurants that ultimately failed—which shaped everything about how she thinks about food, comfort, and survival. Growing up poor after her parents lost their restaurants taught her: you never throw away food. You freeze it.

Her morning? Skip breakfast. Just coffee. Lots of coffee. Then up and at it, traveling often for work. Her lunch? Small meal at home or meetings on the road. But dinner? That's sacred. Home-cooked meals from batch cooking on Sundays—a tradition since early in her relationship with her Marine Corps veteran husband.

Her system: Make big meals on weekends. Tacos, wonton soup, chicken soup, grilled meats. Make extras. Freeze the rest. Pull them out when it's busy. Because Courtney does not like making a meal every night. She loves making big meals from her Greek-American upbringing where food brought everyone together. Just not every single night.

Her fridge? Dairy everywhere—eggs, cheese sticks, cottage cheese, yogurt, lunch meat—even though her husband is allergic to milk. Her pantry? Overflowing with pasta (never runs out), cereal, trail mix, Cheez-Its, applesauce, protein bars—so full she can't close the drawers. Her freezer? A frozen turkey from Easter. Thirty different meals prepped in July (because her family demands variety, not fifteen identical chicken soups).

But here's what matters: Courtney protects Dessert First Fridays. School pickup, ice cream at the local spot, home for pizza and a movie in PJs. Food isn't restricted. It's celebrated. Nothing is off limits. Creating positive memories around food for her daughter.

Courtney also shares how her parents shut down after losing their restaurants and never taught her to cook (she learned from her grandmother), why her husband quarterbacks the morning routine so everyone gets fed, and how batch cooking isn't just efficiency—it's paying homage to her family while fueling a life building multiple businesses.

CONNECT WITH VENTUREVETS: Website: TheVentureVets.com LinkedIn: VentureVets

MORE FOUNDERS FRIDGE: Website: www.foundersfridge.com Substack: https://substack.com/@foundersfridge Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535711

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What do selling wild fruit in Albania and building a global tech company have in common?

In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch sits down with Arbër Kadia, Co-founder of Patoko, to talk about growing up in a resourceful family, learning entrepreneurship through necessity, and turning that same creativity into a company building a “super app” for everyday life.

Arbër grew up in communist Albania, where his grandfather taught him how to work with what you have—and his grandmother taught him how to make it taste good. From selling fruit at an open market as a kid to cooking for ten roommates in college just to skip paying for food, Arbër’s story is about hustle.

Arbër talks about the invention behind survival cooking, the patience behind good eggplant casserole, and the dream of making life simpler through tech built in Tirana and designed for the world.

Listen to hear:

• How Arbër learned business by selling wild fruit as a child
• The story behind Patoko and its vision for a connected daily life
• What Albanian food taught him about care and craft
• Why greasy burgers are his comfort food on tough days
• What’s actually in his fridge (feta, salami, and too many avocados)

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What if staying connected to home means filling your entire trunk with Chinese food and driving it three hours north?

In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch sits down with Jane Chen, founder and CEO of Letterly, to talk about what happens when you can't just eat any food. You need the food from your childhood to keep going.

Jane grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, five minutes from Flushing, now the largest Chinatown in the USA. As a scholarship kid and elite competitive swimmer, she was crushing 3,000-4,000 calories a day at all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets. Food was fuel, plain and simple. That relationship carried her through Wall Street, where she lived on Seamless budgets during M&A heydays, and later to Germany, where she finally learned that maybe you can't sustain yourself on pizza and beer alone.

Today, as Jane scales Letterly (an AI-enabled writing platform that grew from 30 students in a Saratoga classroom to 4,000 students nationwide, including Brooklyn Tech and Stuyvesant), she still makes regular runs to Flushing. Her trunk comes back loaded. Her freezer holds carp heads and frozen fish balls. And her cooking style? "Boiling things in flavorful broth."

But there's one thing Jane protects fiercely: dinner. Not as fuel, but as connection. It's where she reconnects with friends and family after days that start with European dev team calls before coffee and end with evening walks with her dog pack.

This conversation is about food as identity, fuel as strategy, and why some meals matter more than others when you're building something from the ground up.

Listen to hear:

• How Letterly went from brick-and-mortar writing school to venture-backed platform
• Why Jane can't just eat "food generally." It has to be authentic Chinese food from Flushing
• What a former investment banker who never learned to cook actually eats while building a startup
• The one routine Jane refuses to compromise (hint: it involves dogs and hiking)
• What's really in a busy founder's fridge and freezer

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What does startup life look like when your boardroom is a barn and your coworkers are three donkeys named Sassy Ass, Sir Assalot, and Total Ass?

In this episode of Founder’s Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch sits down with Hailee Greene, founder and Chief Everything Officer of GreeneAcres Processing, which aims to become New York’s first full-scale industrial hemp processing company.

Hailee shares her journey from working in politics—where she learned that every campaign is basically a startup—to building two companies, including a Cornell-backed spinout, Pomace Plus, that transforms grape pomace (the byproduct of winemaking) into a superfood and antibiotic alternative.

From growing up in a Rockland County deli family to running a 265-acre farm in Boonville, Hailee’s story is about building from the ground up—literally. She opens up about her food rituals, rural life, startup lessons, and the now-famous Bacon Blueberry Shallot Jam Burger with Grilled Halloumi that stole the show.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Hailee is leading hemp innovation in New York State
• The connection between farming, food, and entrepreneurship
• What it is really like to build startups from a rural community
• The habits and rituals that keep her balanced
• The story (and recipe) behind her twelve-out-of-ten burger

📖 Get the full burger recipe on Substack: https://substack.com/@foundersfridge

🎧 Listen to more episodes of Founder’s Fridge: www.foundersfridge.com

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What if the meal you grew up with is what gets you through the hardest parts of building a company?

In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch sits down with Sumorwuo Zaza, co-founder of nicklpass, to explore how childhood meals and family traditions can shape the way founders lead and persevere.

Zaza grew up in a Liberian household where “food is medicine.” Meals weren’t just for eating—they were preparation. Rice, protein, and greens fueled long days of learning and work, while Friday night burgers and once-in-a-while pizza became symbols of celebration and progress.

Today, as Zaza builds Nicklpass—a B2B platform that gives professionals single sign-on access to hundreds of premium news and data sources—he still leans on those lessons. When things are going well, it is a burger. When things are tough, he goes back to basics: rice, spinach, and focus.

This conversation explores the connection between food, culture, and entrepreneurship—and how the rituals we learn early in life can carry us through the hardest moments of building something new.

Listen to hear:

• How Nicklpass evolved from a blockchain micropayments startup to a patented SaaS platform
• Why food and leadership are more connected than we think
• The meaning of “food is medicine” in Zaza’s life and work
• What is really in his fridge

Subscribe to Founders Fridge for more conversations about the meals that feed founders—and the habits that hold everything together.

#FoundersFridge #Nicklpass #Entrepreneurship #StartupStories #Leadership #FoodIsMedicine #LiberianFood

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In our debut episode, I sit down with Amy Gurske, founder and CEO of sayhii, to explore the roots of her entrepreneurial journey. From cleaning horse stalls as a child to selling trained horses to pay for college, Amy’s early ventures shaped the resilient, creative mindset that drives her work today.

We talk about the founding of sayhii, her experience with burnout, and the reset that led her to build healthier habits — including protein-packed routines and structured meal prep that now anchor her busy weeks. Tune in to hear what Amy is building in Rochester, NY!

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Nine years ago, host Heidi Knoblauch opened an oyster bar in a small town in upstate New York—fresh off a PhD from Yale and against all conventional wisdom. That leap into entrepreneurship revealed something she has carried with her ever since: food sits at the center of the founder journey.

In this introductory episode, Heidi shares her path from running a restaurant to launching a startup, to building a venture readiness program that helps communities activate local risk capital. Along the way, she reflects on how meals, snacks, and late-night rituals show up in every stage of entrepreneurship—from investor dinners to post-pitch tiramisu.

In this season, you will hear from entrepreneurs across the country about the foods that shaped them, the snacks that keep them going, and the secrets hiding inside their fridges.

Pull up a chair, open the fridge, and join us for Founder’s Fridge.

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