EP 281 — Pete Olander: Building Wellness Brands at the Edge of What’s Next

If you’ve ever stared down a crowded market and thought, “How on earth do I stand out—ethically, profitably, and sustainably?”, Pete Olander’s story is going to land. Pete is the founder behind multiple wellness and cannabis-adjacent consumer brands, including Happie (a better-for-you cannabis seltzer brand) and Natural Recovery Greens (an early CBD-forward greens product). He cut his teeth in the nutrition industry designing performance supplements, then followed the data—and the customer outcomes—into functional beverages that blend taste, efficacy, and regulatory discipline. That arc is classic entrepreneur: find the pain, ship the fix, iterate faster than the market.  

Pete’s path started with a simple observation from R&D work in the mid-2010s: consumers wanted recovery and calm without compromise. That insight led to Natural Recovery Greens—single-serve formats, travel-friendly, and positioned at the intersection of superfoods, probiotics, BCAAs, and THC-free CBD—years before “functional everything” exploded across CPG. From there, he pushed into ready-to-drink with Happie, translating the same wellness-first thesis into a sparkling experience people actually enjoy (and re-buy). The throughline: make the right thing the easy thing.  

What makes Pete especially relevant for founders and leaders isn’t just that he launched cool products—it’s how he operates in ambiguity. Regulated categories force you to build with constraints: supply chains that can break, rules that change mid-flight, consumer education gaps, and capital that prefers yesterday’s winners. Pete’s playbook under those conditions is remarkably transferable: stay maniacally close to the customer signal, design for real-life use (single-serve, great taste, predictable effect), and build an operating cadence that assumes volatility. In other words: product-market fit is a moving target—so build your business to move.  

There’s also a leadership layer here. Pete has operated across banking, high-performance nutrition, and even motorsports—contexts that demand quick decisions, clear role clarity, and team trust under time pressure. Those muscles show up when you’re navigating evolving rules, fragmented distribution, and new-category education. You don’t need to be in beverages or cannabis to use this; any founder in a “category-creation” or “category-rewrite” moment will recognize the pattern: simplify the value prop, obsess over experience, and scale the parts that customers prove they love.  

Finally, there’s a mindset piece. Pete builds with optimism but budgets for turbulence. That balance—vision + constraints—is what keeps the mission moving when the novelty wears off. If your team is stretched by growth, regulation, or just plain speed, this episode is a clinic in staying resolute without getting rigid. 

 

5 Key Takeaways (with Take Action for leaders & entrepreneurs) 

1. Design for real-life usage, not ideal scenarios 
   Great products fit messy lives: single-serve, consistent effect, easy to carry, easy to explain. That’s why they get used daily.  
   Take Action: Audit your top SKU/offer. Where does friction creep in (prep, dosing, onboarding, first-value)? Remove one friction point this week. 

2. Make the right thing the easy thing 
   Behavior change sticks when the better choice is also the simpler choice. Pete’s formats and flavor-first approach reduce the willpower tax.  
   Take Action: Rewrite your product’s “90-second habit.” If a new user has 90 seconds, what’s the zero-confusion path from “curious” to “experienced value”? 

3. Build for volatility 
   Regulated or fast-evolving categories require redundancy, compliance muscle, and rapid iteration. Treat change as an input, not an interruption.  
   Take Action: Run a “Rule Change Drill.” If a core assumption flips tomorrow (pricing, channel, ingredient, policy), what’s your 30-day continuity plan? 

4. Tell a clear, experience-first story 
   Claims don’t convert—clarity does. Customers want to know what it does, when they’ll feel it, and how to fit it into their day.  
   Take Action: Replace one feature list with a “Day-in-the-Life” use case on your site or sales deck. Measure engagement and conversion lift. 

5. Hire for decision speed and role clarity 
   Cross-industry stints taught Pete the value of crisp roles and quick calls. In unstable markets, slow decisions are hidden costs.  
   Take Action: Adopt a “two-way door” policy for reversible decisions. Set a 48-hour SLA and empower owners to ship without committee. 

About the Guest  

Connect with Pete here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-olander-580a657/