Launching a consumer packaged goods venture is both exciting and uniquely complex. To help founders navigate everything from sourcing to storytelling, the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship partnered with Johnnie Yu of Listen Ventures to deliver a three-part CPG Workshop Series designed to demystify the earliest stages of building a physical product company. Across six hours of content, the program blended actionable frameworks with candid founder insights, giving participants a clearer path from early idea to real-world traction.
The series opened with Session 1: Set the Scene, where Johnnie grounded founders in the realities of the consumer landscape and the importance of understanding one’s own entrepreneurial strengths. Through a Creative Tensions exercise, participants surfaced strategic assumptions and explored the tradeoffs inherent to shaping a brand. Guest speaker Alex Fine, CEO and co-founder of Dame Products, underscored the power of resourcefulness and speed, illustrating how scrappiness, earned media, and thoughtful risk-taking fueled her company’s growth.
In Session 2: Zoom In, the focus shifted to the consumer—how to listen deeply, test quickly, and build resonance long before scaling. Julia Nimocks, founder of Freaks of Nature, shared how authentic conversations with early customers helped refine both product and brand. Johnnie emphasized the irreplaceable value of qualitative insight and encouraged founders to embrace experimentation as a defining part of the process, not a hurdle to clear.
Session 3: Zoom Out invited founders to step back and examine the operational engine required to support growth. From inventory planning to managing working capital, participants explored the mechanics that underpin every successful consumer brand. Vanessa Pham, co-founder of Omsom, offered practical advice on navigating early retail opportunities and staying grounded in a mission-driven identity even as the business scales. Johnnie closed the series by weaving together the strategic, operational, and creative elements discussed throughout, reminding founders that clarity comes from action—not theory.
Across all three sessions, participants were encouraged to evaluate advice thoughtfully, define their entrepreneurial superpower, understand the interplay between margin and velocity, learn through continuous testing, and make decisive moves even when uncertainty persists. The series equipped founders not just with information, but with a more confident, holistic approach to building a CPG company from the ground up.
Tips & takeaways
- Identify and cultivate your one core superpower, whether in operations, finance, brand, or entrepreneurship, to anchor your leadership.
- Treat margin and velocity as interconnected forces that ultimately determine the health of your cash flow.
- Let continuous, qualitative testing guide your understanding of what sparks discovery, engagement, and conversion.
- Favor action over deliberation, recognizing that meaningful insight emerges through doing, not theorizing.
