On this episode, we’re joined by Ryan Provost, the Co-Founder and CEO of Booz Box Cocktails, a boxed RTD cocktail brand disrupting the spirits industry with bold packaging, craft mixology, and a form factor nobody saw coming.

What started as a pandemic dinner-table idea between roommates in Jersey City has grown into a multi-market brand now sold in six states including New Jersey, Florida, California, and Texas. Booz Box Cocktails are 1.75L boxed cocktails that deliver bar-quality drinks—like the Pineapple Mule and Watermelon Cooler—straight from your fridge tap.

In this episode, Ryan shares how they landed on boxed cocktails as a form factor, why branding for Gen Z was a non-negotiable, and how a co-packer pivot unlocked their go-to-market. We also talk through fundraising challenges, working with a tiny team, and why good taste (literally) is still the most important growth lever.

We chat with Ryan about standing out in a crowded RTD category, refining flavor formulations, convincing skeptical distributors, and lessons learned from a crowdfunding campaign that didn’t quite go to plan.

🎧 Episode Highlights: 🍹 Why boxed cocktails were the winning form factor
📦 What it took to get a co-packer to take a chance
🎯 Branding lessons for Gen Z and millennial appeal
👨‍🍳 From bartending notebooks to scaleable SKUs
🧃 Flavor challenges (and the cucumber misstep)
💡 Form factor as both differentiation and a moat
📉 What didn't go as planned with their crowdfunding campaign
🚚 Building a self-distribution playbook
🌍 Expanding into 6 markets in under 12 months
🔥 Why “taste” still trumps branding

⏱️ Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro & Booz Box origin story
02:30 – Choosing boxed cocktails over cans
06:00 – Form factor, branding & Gen Z appeal
11:00 – Working with their designer, Kyle Perry
13:00 – Recipe formulation & co-packer challenges
17:30 – Manufacturing woes & their redemption story
21:00 – Distribution strategy & key markets
25:00 – Balancing velocity vs. distribution
28:00 – Crowdfunding lessons
30:00 – Where to follow Booz Box & invest

🔗 Links:
Booz Box Cocktails – https://www.boozbox.co
Follow Ryan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanprovostofficial
Crowdfunding campaign on Loupt – https://loupt.co/offering/booz-box

Follow Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.

On this episode, we’re joined by Ana Kornegay, the VP of Marketing at Santo Spirits, the premium tequila brand co-founded by Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar.

Before leading the charge at Santo, Ana spent over 15 years at Brown-Forman overseeing iconic spirits like Gentleman Jack and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. She's also the founder of Hummingbird Branding & Marketing, and holds a Master’s in Medical Cannabis Science & Therapeutics.

We cover a ton of actionable insights and tactics.

Episode Highlights:
🌵 How Santo turned a “what if?” into the world’s first “Mezquila”
📦 The 3 biggest packaging mistakes she sees new brands make
🚀 What to expect if you want to jump from “Big CPG” to an “upstart brand”, and where should new grads start
🧩 “Build vs buy” (hiring internally our outsource?)
⚖️ Siloing agencies vs spreading across multiple in-house brands
🤘 Building a celebrity brand without losing authenticity
🧠 When and why to refresh packaging (and when to leave it alone)
🔮 The rise of NA and functional beverages

⏱️ Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro & Ana’s Career in Spirits
03:00 – Santo’s Origin Story & Mezquila Launch
07:00 – Startup vs. Corporate Marketing Life
12:00 – Celebrity-Backed Brands: Behind the Curtain
18:00 – Trends in Low/No Proof & Functional Beverages
24:00 – Packaging Frameworks for Spirit Brands
30:00 – When a Packaging Refresh is the Right Move
35:00 – Campaigns That Flopped & What She Learned
39:00 – AI in Marketing: Love it or Hate it?

Links:
Santo Spirits – https://www.santospirits.com
Follow Ana on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-kornegay

Follow Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.

On this episode, we’re joined by Jennifer Barney, the founder of Barney Butter and one of the sharpest minds in CPG today.

Jennifer launched Barney Butter back in 2006—well before almond butter went mainstream—and scaled it into a household name before exiting the business in 2011. Since then, she’s become a go-to advisor to emerging food brands like Hero Bread and Oat Haus, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Mills' venture studio, a Director at Positively Good Snacks, and a Substack author (The Business of Food).

In this episode, Jennifer drops serious knowledge on how early-stage brands can navigate retail, boost velocity, and avoid the cash traps of over-distribution. We dive into packaging strategy (why it’s often a band-aid for deeper issues), the foodservice channel, demo execution, bootstrapping vs fundraising, and her take on why A2 dairy is the trend she regrets not jumping on.

Episode Highlights:
🌰 How Barney Butter helped take almond butter mainstream
🛻 Picking up almonds in a Suburban (literally)
📈 Why early-stage brands should focus on velocity, not doors
💸 The dangerous lag in distributor cash flow
📦 When you should (and shouldn’t) rebrand
🎯 How to actually execute demos and merchandising at scale
🏪 What “retail readiness” really means for emerging brands
🥛 Why she’s bullish on A2 dairy (and missed the window)
🧃 The Trojan horse approach to packaging
💰 Bootstrapping tips in a tough funding environment
📦 Amazon
🧠 Why great packaging still won’t save you from poor execution

⏱️ Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro
03:00 – Buying Ingredients Direct & Building Relationships with Processors
05:00 – Why Velocity > Distribution
10:00 – Cash Flow Pitfalls in Retail
14:00 – Demo Strategy, Broker Coordination, and In-Store Tactics
18:00 – Foodservice Channel: Pros, Cons, & Guerilla Selling
22:00 – Trojan Horse Packaging & What Makes Design Actually Work
27:00 – Rebrand Readiness & Strategic Brand Identity Shifts
33:00 – Bootstrapping Smart: Premium Pricing and Efficient Growth
36:00 – The Amazon Beast: Common Pitfalls & Inventory Woes
38:00 – Trends She Missed (A2 Milk!)
41:00 – Where to Follow Jennifer

Links:
Follow Jennifer on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbarney/
The Business of Food – https://jenniferbarney.substack.com

Follow Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.