S2/Ep 8: Do You Actually Know How to Ship a Pallet? Retail Execution and Co-Founder Survival with Jenny from Ohme Foods
In this episode of Resilient as F*k!, Vivian Perez sits down with Jenny, the co-founder of Ohme Foods, to explore the operational realities of scaling a CPG brand. Jenny’s journey didn't start in a boardroom; it started with a post-pandemic New Year's resolution to eat a healthier breakfast.
Fast forward two years, and her freeze-dried fruit snacks are stocked in over 450 stores across North America, including major retailers like Urban Outfitters and London Drugs. But scaling from a weekend pop-up side hustle to a massive retail operation required Jenny and her husband to face some critical blind spots—especially when it came to their packaging architecture and co-founder dynamics.
Available on Spotify and Apple Podcast
Key Takeaways:
Stop Designing for Canva, Start Designing for Retail: Early on, Ohme Foods used DIY packaging with clear windows to show off the vibrant colors of their freeze-dried fruits. It looked beautiful, but it was a structural disaster for retail. The light exposure severely reduced the product's shelf life, forcing a complete brand pivot to protect the product inside.
Implement a RACI Chart: Transitioning from husband and wife to co-founders in a chaotic startup environment led to crossed wires. Leveraging their corporate backgrounds in IT Project Management, they implemented a RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Informed) to ruthlessly define roles and eliminate overlapping tasks.
Master Your Dependencies: When a launch is delayed or a goal feels stuck, stop spinning your wheels and ask the ultimate project management question: What is the dependency? If you are blocked by a third party, you need to shift your focus to the actionable steps you can actually control.
Start Messy at the Pop-Up: Jenny had two previous business ideas fail at pop-up markets before Ohme Foods gained traction. You do not need perfect branding to validate a concept. You just need a table, your product, and the courage to get brutal, real-time feedback from the public.
Memorable Moments:
The Pallet Panic: Landing major retail accounts is the dream, but fulfilling them is a logistical nightmare for first-timers. Jenny recalls the sheer panic of a retailer asking for a "pallet" of product, and having to frantically figure out what a pallet was, where to get one, and how to dispatch it.
The Accidental Retail Launch: They initially thought this would just be a weekend gig while they worked their 9-to-5s. But just one month into doing pop-ups, local cafes started sliding into their DMs asking to stock their product.
The Ultimate Milestone: Reaching the exact financial and operational benchmarks required to finally quit their corporate Healthcare IT jobs and go all-in on the brand as a family.
Final Thought: Scaling a CPG brand requires you to constantly confront what you don't know. Whether it is redesigning your entire packaging structure to survive a physical shelf, or figuring out how to ship a pallet on a Tuesday afternoon, resilience isn't about avoiding mistakes. It is about how quickly you can check your ego, pivot, adapt, and build a system to ensure that mistake never happens again.