A bigger order can leave you with a smaller margin. That is an ugly way to learn what growth costs.
CPG founders will unpack the calls shaping their brands in 2026. The channels that moved product. The partners that mattered. The pivots they had to make.
Bring the decisions you are still wrestling with. Hear what these founders are changing as they finish Q4 and plan for 2027.
🎯 Why you should be in this room.
- Hear which channels moved product and which ate margin.
- Learn what founders wish they had asked before choosing a co-packer or distributor.
- Explore where food service and alternative distribution could fit your brand.
- Hear how founders responded when their customers, markets, or plans changed.
- Pressure-test your 2027 assumptions against what these founders are seeing in 2026.
💬 What's on the table.
- Production and partners. Refining the recipe, choosing co-manufacturers, and finding partners who deliver what they promise.
- Distribution and margin. Which channels earned their place, which disappointed, and what founders changed in response.
- Finding the customer. What urban and suburban markets taught founders about who actually buys their products.
- Food service and other routes. Where founders are looking beyond familiar shelves to move product.
- The 2027 calls. Which trends held up, which missed, and what founders are carrying into next year.
🎤 Featured speakes.
Liv Truesdell - Founder, FROST Buttercream
Liv Truesdell started her career in consumer investment banking, working with food & beverage companies, which ultimately led her to launch FROST Buttercream. FROST is an all-natural Italian Meringue Buttercream made with real butter and egg whites, with ~57% less sugar than a leading buttercream and no palm oils, artificial dyes or preservatives. After hundreds of iterations, Liv created a new premium, refrigerated frosting segment in a category unchanged for ~71 years. FROST launched in NY/NJ retail in 2025, has since expanded across the country, and won the Startup CPG Shelfie Award within its first six months.
Aaron Sager - Founder, Caltein
Aaron Sager traded rocket ships for chocolate chips. A mechanical engineer who previously worked at SpaceX, he founded Caltein to bring better taste and texture to protein snacks. He formulated the company’s signature butter shortbread protein cookies himself, recruited bakers from Reddit, and grew an apartment kitchen experiment into a brand sold in hundreds of stores nationwide. Along the way, he’s tackled everything from product development to production and retail sales. His biggest discovery so far: building a cookie empire might be harder than building a rocket.
🤝 Who's hosting it.
Glenn Johnson - Marketing Consultant/Fractional CMO
As a fractional CMO, Glenn Johnson works on a scalable basis with founders who are tired of bad execution, broken strategies, and agencies that just don’t get it.
Whether launching from scratch or fixing a brand, packaging, and positioning that fails to translate, Glenn steps in to repair what’s broken and build what’s next.
Operating as Chief Storyteller, Creative Director, and Brand Strategist, he bridges high-level strategy with hands-on execution. From naming, logo design, and packaging to pricing architecture and true ICP targeting, Glenn nails how your brand looks, feels, and scales.
A former Madison Avenue VP/Creative Director specializing in luxury and bespoke audiences, Glenn is the trusted sounding board founders rely on to turn complex ideas into scalable brand equity. “Moderating Ugly Talks for me is about unpacking the messy truths and hard lessons of entrepreneurship—sharing insights in an engaged and entertaining way.”
🙋 Who's getting in.
- Food and beverage founders building in crowded categories.
- Early-stage CPG founders moving from commercial kitchens to co-manufacturing.
- Operators working through production, distribution, pricing, and margin decisions.
- Buyers and investors who want to understand what helps a brand move product and stay in business.
⭐ About Ugly Talk
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough "aha!" moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons and insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami, we've built a vibrant community of thousands of founders and industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Official Website: UglyTalk.com
Ugly Talk: CPG Founders, What Worked, What Didn't & The 2027 Outlook
Host
Wed, Nov 18, 06:30 PM - 08:30 PM (EST)
To be shared on approval (New York)
1000 attendees
A bigger order can leave you with a smaller margin. That is an ugly way to learn what growth costs.
CPG founders will unpack the calls shaping their brands in 2026. The channels that moved product. The partners that mattered. The pivots they had to make.
Bring the decisions you are still wrestling with. Hear what these founders are changing as they finish Q4 and plan for 2027.
🎯 Why you should be in this room.
💬 What's on the table.
🎤 Featured speakes.
Liv Truesdell - Founder, FROST Buttercream
Liv Truesdell started her career in consumer investment banking, working with food & beverage companies, which ultimately led her to launch FROST Buttercream. FROST is an all-natural Italian Meringue Buttercream made with real butter and egg whites, with ~57% less sugar than a leading buttercream and no palm oils, artificial dyes or preservatives. After hundreds of iterations, Liv created a new premium, refrigerated frosting segment in a category unchanged for ~71 years. FROST launched in NY/NJ retail in 2025, has since expanded across the country, and won the Startup CPG Shelfie Award within its first six months.
Aaron Sager - Founder, Caltein
Aaron Sager traded rocket ships for chocolate chips. A mechanical engineer who previously worked at SpaceX, he founded Caltein to bring better taste and texture to protein snacks. He formulated the company’s signature butter shortbread protein cookies himself, recruited bakers from Reddit, and grew an apartment kitchen experiment into a brand sold in hundreds of stores nationwide. Along the way, he’s tackled everything from product development to production and retail sales. His biggest discovery so far: building a cookie empire might be harder than building a rocket.
🤝 Who's hosting it.
Glenn Johnson - Marketing Consultant/Fractional CMO
As a fractional CMO, Glenn Johnson works on a scalable basis with founders who are tired of bad execution, broken strategies, and agencies that just don’t get it.
Whether launching from scratch or fixing a brand, packaging, and positioning that fails to translate, Glenn steps in to repair what’s broken and build what’s next.
Operating as Chief Storyteller, Creative Director, and Brand Strategist, he bridges high-level strategy with hands-on execution. From naming, logo design, and packaging to pricing architecture and true ICP targeting, Glenn nails how your brand looks, feels, and scales.
A former Madison Avenue VP/Creative Director specializing in luxury and bespoke audiences, Glenn is the trusted sounding board founders rely on to turn complex ideas into scalable brand equity. “Moderating Ugly Talks for me is about unpacking the messy truths and hard lessons of entrepreneurship—sharing insights in an engaged and entertaining way.”
🙋 Who's getting in.
⭐ About Ugly Talk
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough "aha!" moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons and insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami, we've built a vibrant community of thousands of founders and industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Official Website: UglyTalk.com