<p><strong>This episode is brought to you by The Hidden Gems.</strong><br />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.</p><p>Free for Consumer VC listeners → <a href="https://thehiddengems.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://thehiddengems.com/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Building a food brand through DTC sounds great.</p><p>Until you realize… it might not actually work.</p><p>In this episode, Mike sits down with <strong>Krishna Kalyan</strong>, Founder of <strong>Catalina Crunch</strong>, the high-protein, low-sugar cereal brand that went from a personal health experiment to a multi-million dollar business sold in major retailers.</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>You’ll learn:</p><p>✅ Why DTC is hard for food brands (and when it works)<br />✅ The real economics of shipping low-cost products<br />✅ How Krishna validated demand before scaling<br />✅ Why retail became the core growth channel<br />✅ The importance of word-of-mouth in grocery<br />✅ How to balance taste vs function in CPG<br />✅ Why most “functional” products don’t actually deliver<br />✅ How to think about trends vs fads (keto, protein, etc.)<br />✅ The right way to expand SKUs and categories</p><p><br /></p><p>👉 If you’re building a food or beverage brand, this episode is a real look at what actually works beyond the DTC hype. </p><p><br /></p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 Intro<br />01:00 The problem with DTC food economics<br />02:00 Krishna’s diabetes diagnosis<br />05:00 Changing diet and lifestyle<br />07:30 Getting tired of eating eggs<br />08:00 Why cereal became the focus<br />10:00 Experimenting with protein ingredients<br />12:00 The first “aha” business moment<br />14:00 Realizing the market opportunity<br />17:00 Launching online from his kitchen<br />19:30 Early demand and validation<br />22:00 Scaling beyond a home kitchen<br />24:00 Raising capital from angel investors<br />27:00 The original DTC strategy<br />29:00 Why DTC didn’t work long-term<br />32:00 The shift to retail<br />34:00 Getting into Whole Foods<br />37:00 What actually drives shelf velocity<br />40:00 Expanding into new categories<br />43:00 Managing complexity in CPG<br />46:00 The time he almost quit<br />49:00 Building in-house manufacturing<br />52:00 Taste vs function trade-offs<br />56:00 The rise of functional foods<br />59:00 Trends vs fads (keto, protein)<br />01:03:00 Rebranding Catalina Crunch<br />01:06:00 When to follow trends vs ignore them<br />01:09:00 Book recommendations &amp; final thoughts<br />01:12:00 Outro</p><p><br /></p><p>📬 Subscribe for more founder stories &amp; scaling insights:<br />👉 The Consumer VC Newsletter – <a href="https://www.theconsumervc.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.theconsumervc.com/</a></p><p>Follow Mike Gelb:<br />Twitter / IG / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc</p>