This episode is brought to you by The Hidden Gems.Hiring agencies is risky. Most overpromise and underdeliver. The Hidden Gems connects founders with highly vetted, brand-loved boutique agencies across media, creative, dev/design, events, and more — at preferred rates.Free for Consumer VC listeners → https://thehiddengems.com/Building a food brand through DTC sounds great.Until you realize… it might not actually work.In this episode, Mike sits down with Krishna Kalyan, Founder of Catalina Crunch, the high-protein, low-sugar cereal brand that went from a personal health experiment to a multi-million dollar business sold in major retailers.Krishna shares how being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes forced him to rethink everything he ate, why he spent years eating eggs before creating his own cereal, and how a simple Venmo from a friend turned into the start of a company. They break down the realities of building a food brand from scratch, why DTC doesn’t always work for low-price products, and how Catalina Crunch scaled through retail instead. The conversation also dives deep into product development, functional foods, category expansion, and the balance between taste and nutrition.You’ll learn:✅ Why DTC is hard for food brands (and when it works)✅ The real economics of shipping low-cost products✅ How Krishna validated demand before scaling✅ Why retail became the core growth channel✅ The importance of word-of-mouth in grocery✅ How to balance taste vs function in CPG✅ Why most “functional” products don’t actually deliver✅ How to think about trends vs fads (keto, protein, etc.)✅ The right way to expand SKUs and categories👉 If you’re building a food or beverage brand, this episode is a real look at what actually works beyond the DTC hype. Timestamps00:00 Intro01:00 The problem with DTC food economics02:00 Krishna’s diabetes diagnosis05:00 Changing diet and lifestyle07:30 Getting tired of eating eggs08:00 Why cereal became the focus10:00 Experimenting with protein ingredients12:00 The first “aha” business moment14:00 Realizing the market opportunity17:00 Launching online from his kitchen19:30 Early demand and validation22:00 Scaling beyond a home kitchen24:00 Raising capital from angel investors27:00 The original DTC strategy29:00 Why DTC didn’t work long-term32:00 The shift to retail34:00 Getting into Whole Foods37:00 What actually drives shelf velocity40:00 Expanding into new categories43:00 Managing complexity in CPG46:00 The time he almost quit49:00 Building in-house manufacturing52:00 Taste vs function trade-offs56:00 The rise of functional foods59:00 Trends vs fads (keto, protein)01:03:00 Rebranding Catalina Crunch01:06:00 When to follow trends vs ignore them01:09:00 Book recommendations & final thoughts01:12:00 Outro📬 Subscribe for more founder stories & scaling insights:👉 The Consumer VC Newsletter – https://www.theconsumervc.com/Follow Mike Gelb:Twitter / IG / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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