Breaking the Monopoly: How Founders Can Navigate a Consolidated Market
Release Date: 03/10/2025
BABOYOT with People's Choice Beef Jerky: Crafting Legacy on Their Own Terms
The Good Food CFO podcast
In a world where food startups chase rapid growth and quick exits, People's Choice Beef Jerky stands as a refreshing counterexample. This Los Angeles-based company has been crafting premium meat products since 1929, and is now thriving under fourth-generation leadership. Their story offers valuable lessons for food founders looking to build sustainable, profitable businesses that can withstand the test of time. In this episode of the Good Food CFO podcast, Sarah Delevan sits down with owners and siblings Brian and Sara Bianchetti as they share all that they have learned while continuing to...
info_outline
Community, not FOMO: Sarah Returns to Expo West After 10 Years Away
The Good Food CFO podcast
After more than 10 years away, Sarah decided to return to natural foods' biggest industry event - but why now? In this candid Season 14 opener, Sarah takes you behind the scenes of her Expo West experience, revealing what's changed, what hasn't, and whether the industry hype actually lives up to reality. The conversation also explores the striking contrast between the big business of Expo West and the Intense Conference for farmers market founders, managers and vendors Sarah attended just days later. This juxtaposition frames an honest discussion about what really matters in our food systems -...
info_outline
Breaking the Monopoly: How Founders Can Navigate a Consolidated Market
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this eye-opening episode of the Good Food CFO podcast, Sarah Delevan talks with Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, about the myths of market consolidation and how food founders can fight back against corporate monopolies. Stacy Mitchell is a writer, strategist, and policy advocate whose work focuses on dismantling concentrated corporate power and building thriving local economies. As co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, she has played a leading role in today's growing anti-monopoly movement and has authored influential...
info_outline
Ask The Good Food CFO: Is Rent a COGS, How to Establish Channel Margins, and the Hidden Costs of Co-Packers
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this special episode of The Good Food CFO podcast, we’re sharing highlights from our live Q&A session with BABOYOT members. These quarterly events are an awesome opportunity to connect with Founders and answer their most pressing financial questions. Some of the topics we tackled: Food Service vs. Wholesale Pricing: Discover why conventional wisdom about which channel is most profitable doesn't always hold true. One founder shares how running her numbers completely changed her channel strategy. The COGS “Gray Area”: Is your kitchen rental really part of your Cost...
info_outline
Building a Profitable Business: Advice from a $400 Million Brand Founder
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this episode of The Good Food CFO Podcast, Sarah Delevan shares candid insights from a recent meeting with the founder of a brand generating over $400 million in annual revenue, and doing it profitably. Through a series of powerful "sound bites" captured during their conversation, Sarah reveals how this founder's approach challenges traditional industry wisdom while delivering remarkable results. You’ll hear: Why marketing shouldn't drive your offers and how to structure profitable promotions The surprising truth about driving trial in e-commerce vs retail How to identify and...
info_outline
BABOYOT with Hope Lawrence of Hudson Henry Baking Co.: Building and Selling a Million Dollar Brand
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this episode of the Good Food CFO Podcast, Sarah Delavan sits down with Hope Lawrence, founder of Hudson Henry Baking Co., who shares her remarkable journey of building a profitable granola business on her own terms. From starting with just $4,000 in her farmhouse kitchen to reaching $1.25M in annual revenue, Hope's story proves that sustainable growth and profitability are possible without outside investment. In this conversation, Hope shares: The strategic reason she chose granola Why she was laser focus on profitability from day one, and the sales channel strategy that enabled...
info_outline
Pivot Tables: A Secret Weapon for Food Business Profitability
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this episode, Sarah is sharing her favorite tool for quickly and easily transforming your basic data into actionable business intelligence - Pivot Tables. From helping you recognize sales patterns and trends, to identifying issues and opportunities, and seeing your customer and sales channel profitability, pivot tables are truly a secret weapon for improving your business profitability and cashflow! Tune into this episode to explore all of the valuable insights that pivot tables can provide and hear real world examples of how pivot tables helped Sarah’s clients. ...
info_outline
Values over Volume: Why Big Spoon Roasters is Breaking up with Big Grocery
The Good Food CFO podcast
After a decade of national growth, Big Spoon Roasters made a decision that has the CPG industry talking: they're walking away from Whole Foods, UNFI, and other national grocery chains. But this isn't a story about failure – it's about what happens when a good food brand chooses values over volume. In this episode of The Good Food CFO podcast, we dive into the pivot that has founders across the industry applauding. Discover why this prestigious nut butter brand is saying goodbye to national distribution despite consistent growth, and how AI-driven pricing systems, automated...
info_outline
Revolutionizing Local Food: The Story of Argus Farm Stop
The Good Food CFO podcast
When Bill Brinkerhoff and his wife stumbled upon a unique store model during a college drop-off trip, they had no idea it would lead them to transform an abandoned gas station into a revolutionary market that's paid out over $22 million to local farms. In this episode, discover how Argus Farm Stop flipped the traditional retail model on its head, giving farmers 70% of sales and complete control over pricing, and hear how they navigated legal battles over egg sales (and won!), and why farmers are actually moving TO their county instead of leaving. From University of Michigan...
info_outline
6 Strategic Questions to Drive Personal & Business Growth
The Good Food CFO podcast
Ready to dig into some questions that could transform the way you think about your business? In this episode, Sarah and Chelsea share six questions that every founder should ask themselves. They tackle everything from "If we close 100 more deals like this, will we be happy?" to "What's one thing I'm afraid to ask my team, but probably should?" Through real world examples and their own experiences, they explore how these questions can help you understand what your customers really want, when to kill a project that's not working, and how to spot (and break through!) those tricky revenue...
info_outlineIn this eye-opening episode of the Good Food CFO podcast, Sarah Delevan talks with Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, about the myths of market consolidation and how food founders can fight back against corporate monopolies.
Stacy Mitchell is a writer, strategist, and policy advocate whose work focuses on dismantling concentrated corporate power and building thriving local economies. As co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, she has played a leading role in today's growing anti-monopoly movement and has authored influential works including "Big Box Swindle" and "Amazon's Stranglehold."
You’ll hear:
-
The Invisible Rules: How corporations have made market rules invisible, positioning us as consumers rather than citizens with power to change policies
-
Myth-Busting: Hard evidence disproving the "bigger is better" narrative, including the North Dakota pharmacy model that outperforms corporate chains
-
Food System Consolidation: How the suspension of the Robinson-Patman Act in 1980 allowed big retailers to demand preferential treatment, squeezing independent grocers
-
Beyond Consumer Power: Why "voting with your dollars" is important but insufficient for creating systemic change
-
Paths Forward: Practical actions for founders to engage with local policymakers and join the growing movement to enforce antitrust laws
-
Signs of Hope: Recent shifts in policy approach showing how the tide is turning against unchecked consolidation
More from Stacy:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
"The Great Grocery Squeeze" in The Atlantic
Stacy's TED Talk: "Why We Can't Shop Our Way to a Better Economy"
This episode is brought to you by Settle.
Settle helps you make smarter decisions, and keep your business on track to grow sustainably. Head over to settle.com/goodfood to learn how brands like Carnivore Snax use Settle to manage their cash flow and growth.
Join The Good Food CFO Community:
Follow us on Instagram: @thegoodfoodcfo
Connect on LinkedIn: @sarahdelevan
Watch on YouTube: @thegoodfoodcfo
Become a Member: BABOYOT