Episode Details

Makor Coffee founder Eli Mash joins GroceryPulse to share how he built a functional organic coffee brand on the side, going from Shopify to 42 grocery doors and Amazon while still working full-time in tech.

Host George Goodwin (4th-generation grocer and founder of Kōbu Kombucha Powder) sits down founder-to-founder with Eli to taste each other's products and talk honestly about building in the functional food space. Makor Coffee is 93% organic coffee blended with organic cacao, turmeric, Ceylon cinnamon, ginger, chaga, and cayenne, and it's on shelves at Kowalski's and Lunds & Byerlys in Minnesota.

In this episode you'll learn:

- Why new CPG brands should know their customer acquisition cost and repeat purchase rate before scaling paid ads, and why reviews and social proof should come first

- How to use online customer feedback to pick and pitch the right retailers

- Why Makor prices its retail bag below online and cut down to three SKUs

- How retail, Meta, and Amazon work together as one discovery-to-repurchase cycle

- Why third-party testing and ingredient transparency are becoming a real edge with today's label-reading shoppers

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Functional Coffee and Wellness

03:03 What's in the Makor Coffee Blend

05:58 The Rise of Functional Foods and Beverages

08:55 From Tech to Coffee

12:14 Online Launch and Retail Expansion

15:00 Navigating the Retail Landscape

18:09 Testing and Quality Assurance in Coffee

21:01 Why Organic Certification Matters

25:12 Transparency in Consumer Products

29:06 Building a Brand: Advice for Emerging Founders

32:14 Retail Challenges and Customer Feedback

37:12 The Future of Functional Foods

39:08 Fire Round: Brewing Methods and Favorite Ingredients

42:16 The Heart Behind the Brand

Grocery buyers: Eli wants to hear how you evaluate functional brands. Reach him at [eli@makorcoffee.com – CONFIRM]

Try Makor Coffee: [makorcoffee.com – CONFIRM]

Try Kōbu: https://enjoykobu.com

Full episodes: https://www.innovaragency.com/grocerypodcastgrocerypulse

Be a guest: https://www.innovaragency.com/grocerypulse-podcast-guest

Innovar Agency: https://www.innovaragency.com/

Pitch the show: Podcast@InnovarAgency.com

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and follow GroceryPulse for more conversations with the leaders shaping grocery, entrepreneurship, nutrition, and performance.

Order Kōbu Kombucha Powder (gut health made easy): enjoykobu.com/discount/podcast10! — code PODCAST10! for 10% off