Gary Hirshberg on building consumer brands and staying focused

Executive overview

Early-stage founders consistently spread too thin across channels, missions, and roles before the core business is stable. Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of Stonyfield, joins Guy Raz to advise three founders on CPG growth, brand positioning, and hiring.

The recurring theme: protect the mothership first. Mission and brand are inseparable in the early years — but only if cashflow is secure enough to pursue them.

Lock in your core business before pursuing adjacent opportunities — mission can't survive without revenue.

Building consumer pull before retail

• Consumers pulling product into stores is more powerful than pushing into distribution
• Tell a retailer you have 10,000 online customers in their market — they'll listen
• Loyalty drives word of mouth; word of mouth is the holy grail of CPG
• Mission and environmental values are a competitive advantage for premium, niche brands
• For commodity-dominated categories, mission is the path to trial and sustained loyalty

Kate Hauser-Cassad — Range Revolution (regenerative leather goods)

• Business dilemma: build the DTC brand vs. pivot resources to B2B hide supply
• Gary's advice: don't pursue the B2B material play until the $10M brand trajectory is locked in
• Hire a strong operator (brand manager or COO equivalent) before shifting founder attention
• The brand story — farming background, regenerative sourcing — is the competitive moat
• Consider nonprofit or partner structures to move hides at scale without diluting brand focus
• Guy's suggestion: explore a founder-name brand (like Kate Spade, Tory Burch) to appeal to fashion buyers
• Gary's counter: Range Revolution's mission IS the brand — pursue celebrity and environmental media endorsements instead

Jamie Poe — Po & Co Folk Foods (vegan dried camping meals)

• Designed for comfort campers; discovered by hardcore backpackers who want more protein and calories
• Core challenge: reaching target customers who don't know the category exists
• The outdoor camping food market is $2.5B and growing at 7.5% CAGR — room for gourmet positioning
• Gary's advice: build consumer pull through hiking clubs, demos, and community events before chasing REI
• Unique asset: founders are trained chefs — lead with that in messaging and on the website
• Consider one high-protein SKU to serve the backpacker segment that has already found them
• Testimonials from chefs, hikers, and food writers will do more than packaging copy

Diana Dahr — Cult Crackers (organic seeded crackers)

• Seven years in, approaching $1M revenue; team of four; founder still doing sales, HR, ops, social media
• Needs a "Swiss army knife" hire — operations, admin, light HR — to free up time for sales and R&D
• Gary's framing: the role is a COO in early form, even if the title isn't that yet
• Finding the right person takes trial and error — chemistry matters more than résumé
• Sources: network through banker and accountant, community college listings, customers at local retailers
• Mission-driven candidates are easier to retain; don't underestimate the brand's pull on talent
• Retention structure: market salary + equity incentives + profit sharing (the "three-legged stool")

Gary Hirshberg's reflection on Stonyfield's early years

• Biggest mistake: saying yes to too many things — "pathological optimism" is the founder's curse
• Doing fewer things better would have shortened the path to stability
• Wisdom comes just after you needed it — the Churchill paradox of entrepreneurship