How This Addictive Cheese Brand Turned Startup Mistakes Into a $20M Empire | Entrepreneurship | How We Profit | E1
episodePreviously titled “The Founder Who Built a $20M+ Business and Kept 90% Ownership | Entrepreneurship | How We Profit | E1” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha: Entrepreneurship and Self-Improvement Podcast
1h 28m
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 3 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, Yap Fam, we're about to launch something that might be my favorite thing we've ever done on the podcast, a brand new series called How We Profit. Now, I've been doing Young and Profiting podcasts for eight years, and my listeners are successful. We are real entrepreneurs with real businesses, and a lot of you guys are crushing it behind the scenes.
How did Kirsten Maitland start Rebel Cheese?
You may not be super famous, you may not be a billionaire yet, but you've got a business that you've learned how to scale, and we wanna hear from you. One of the best ways to learn as an entrepreneur is from your peers. And I found it super helpful to be in these peer entrepreneurship groups and learn from other entrepreneurs who are at my level, but just in a different industry. So that's what I want to bring to this podcast. I want this to be our own peer group, but on the podcast. And so I'm going to be interviewing people who are making anywhere from $500,000 to $10 million a year. They're not super famous. They're not the typical billionaires that are on my show. These are real entrepreneurs who are crushing it behind the scenes, and we're going to uncover what they do to sell, how they get their customers, what their profit margin looks like, how they market, and so much more.
If this sounds like you and you wanna be featured on Young and Profiting podcast for our How We Profit series, just head to youngandprofiting.com slash apply and share your story.
What challenges did Rebel Cheese face during COVID-19?
Let me know why you think you should be featured on the show. Again, that's youngandprofiting.com slash apply. And who knows, maybe you'll be our next guest on Young and Profiting podcast.
We've built a $20 million company from $750K. We've doubled our growth year over year the last couple years. Our valuation now is actually $40 million. I love that.
Today's guest is Kirsten Maitland, co-founder and CEO of Rebel Cheese, a premium plant-based cheese brand with e-commerce, wholesale, and retail revenue streams that saw explosive growth after a Shark Tank appearance.
We actually started as a restaurant in Austin.
How did Shark Tank impact Rebel Cheese's growth?
That was 100% of our revenue. And a few months later, COVID hit. Today, 90% of our revenue is from e-commerce.
You go on Shark Tank and Mark Cuban invested like right away.
What marketing strategies did Rebel Cheese implement?
Like you didn't even finish your pitch. Yeah, it was his fastest deal ever. How much profit are you making every month?
Right now we're hovering around 61% profit margin.
Wow, that's really high. Traditionally, this industry has very low profit margins with the shipping. What are you doing differently? I honestly believe it's because... So talk to me about how you compensate yourself as a business owner. We didn't pay ourselves for years. Really? What would you say is the reason for doubling? Well... What are the most important KPIs for you? We're looking at our customers. You are raising another $20 million. Not $20 million. Oh, okay. How much are you raising? We're raising... Welcome to the How We Profit series. Real Yap listeners, real numbers, and real businesses. In every episode of this series, an entrepreneur you've never heard of breaks down exactly how they profit.
Real revenue, real margins, employee count, marketing strategy, sales strategy, you name it.
How does Rebel Cheese manage shipping and logistics?
No highlight reel, no motivational fluff, just how the business actually works so you can steal what's relevant for yours. Young and Profiting isn't just about learning from billionaires and millionaires. It's about becoming one. Most business podcasts interview people after they've made it. I mean, I've been doing that with Yap for the last eight years. But by then, the story is polished, the numbers can be vague, and the advice is sometimes just follow your passion. but that's not useful to somebody trying to figure out pricing or wondering if they should hire their first employee or deciding whether they can quit their job. How We Profit is the opposite. We're gonna be sitting down with the real entrepreneurs, Yap listeners who have been studying growth on this show and who are actually applying it in real time.
We're gonna ask them to open their books.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–0:21
2
How did Kirsten Maitland start Rebel Cheese?
0:21–1:17
3
What challenges did Rebel Cheese face during COVID-19?
1:17–1:57
4
How did Shark Tank impact Rebel Cheese's growth?
1:57–2:09
5
What marketing strategies did Rebel Cheese implement?
2:09–3:07
6
How does Rebel Cheese manage shipping and logistics?
3:07–4:01
7
What is the importance of AI in Rebel Cheese's operations?
4:01–4:33
8
How does Kirsten maintain ownership of her company?
4:33–1:28:15
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha: Entrepreneurship and Self-Improvement Podcast
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