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Jesse Merrill shared thisWe have spent the past few months building a ridiculously talented leadership team to support our growth plans. Yes, these folks are amazing athletes, but they are also incredibly special humans who energize our team every day. I'm so thrilled to build with this group! Bringing on Kirk Jensen as Chief Operating Officer, Samantha Famous as Chief People Officer, and Sofia Salvadore as Chief of Staff is a deliberate investment in how we operate, how we grow our people, and how we execute. Together, they bring the leadership and expertise we need to support good culture's next phase while staying true to what makes us special. #NewLeadership #Growth #HiringWithPurpose #GoodCultureJesse Merrill shared thisgood culture is growing fast, so we’ve spent the last year searching for the best C-Suite team to support our journey. We’re so excited to announce Kirk Jensen as Chief Operating Officer, Samantha Famous as Chief People Officer, and Sofia Salvadore as Chief of Staff. Together, this team will strengthen our leadership across operations, people, and executive strategy. #NewLeadership #Growth #HiringWithPurpose #GoodCulture https://lnkd.in/gPRnuN8GGood Culture Expands C-Suite to Strengthen Leadership Team for Continued GrowthGood Culture Expands C-Suite to Strengthen Leadership Team for Continued Growth
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Jesse Merrill shared thisIt’s moments like these that make me feel great about our obsession with the perfect curd! After testing over 2 dozen varieties, The New York Times Wirecutter deemed good culture one of The Best Cottage Cheeses. #GoodCultureJesse Merrill shared thisTurns out The New York Times Wirecutter is obsessed with us too 🎉 Our team was ecstatic to find out that good culture ranked us as one of The Best Cottage Cheeses! https://lnkd.in/gWecW3CyWe Tested 27 Tubs of Cottage Cheese, but Not Because It’s Viral. We Just Like It.We Tested 27 Tubs of Cottage Cheese, but Not Because It’s Viral. We Just Like It.
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Jesse Merrill shared thisI’m excited to sit down with some of the best leaders in the business at Better Bites Food Forum next week. I’ll discuss growth at good culture and how we’ve been able to scale the business in our own way. Looking forward to this panel! #CPG #Founders #GoodCulture
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Jesse Merrill shared thisSo honored to share that good culture made the 2026 #Inc5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. None of this could have been possible without our incredible team, our dedicated partners, and every single one of our obsessed Good Culture fans. Thank you to everyone who believes in our mission and who’s part of the journey. We are so excited about the path forward. #CPG #Founders #GoodCultureJesse Merrill shared thisThe Obsession is Real 🥄 We’re so pumped to announce that Good Culture made the 2026 #Inc5000 list! Thank you to Inc. Magazine for the honor. Let’s celebrate 🎉 See our rank and the full list here: inc.com/inc5000
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Jesse Merrill reposted thisJesse Merrill reposted thisUnique role to become an SME in the exciting world of cottage cheese while helping me on our journey to zero defects.
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Jesse Merrill shared thisGrateful for this Inc. Magazine feature. $500M+ is a milestone. But what it really represents is a decade of teammates, farmers, and cottage cheese believers who never cut corners. That's what matters most 🙌🏻 This big moment also couldn't have happened without the smart and dedicated partners at Manna Tree and SEMCAP, who helped us build something that made this next chapter possible - thank you for your belief and unwavering support. Link in comments 👇 #realfood #entrepreneurship #growth
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Jesse Merrill shared thisLast night meant a lot. Being named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year® Gulf South award winner is an incredible honor - but having my daughter there with me made it something I’ll never forget. We bet on a category that everyone had written off. What’s happened since we launched good culture - the team, the growth, the moment cottage cheese became THE “it” food - still catches me off guard sometimes, in the best way possible. To the entire Good Culture team: this is yours. You show up every day with the same obsession for doing things right, pushing all of us to be better. Together we are working towards greatness and I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far. Grateful doesn’t cover it. This award represents everything I care about most: building a company that creates impact, a team that never lets me settle, and my family who reminds me every day why it’s all worth it. #EOYUS #EOYGulfSouth #Entrepreneur
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Jesse Merrill shared thisSat down with the #InTheSauce podcast to talk about good culture and the exciting growth we’ve experienced over the last ten years. We dive into the cottage cheese craze, how brand values build GOOD brands, and more. Thanks, Alison Cayne and Naturally New York, for having me! Link in the comments 👇 #CPG #FoodBusiness #CottageCheese #GoodCulture #FounderStory
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Jesse Merrill shared thisI’m proud to share that good culture has been included on Bain & Company's 2026 list of Insurgent Brands that are powering the next wave of growth. This year's list highlights 113 brands across food, beverage, beauty, and personal care. Together, we represent less than 2% of overall share yet capture roughly 36% of total market growth. That level of impact is extraordinary. Since day one, we've believed in high protein, clean and simple ingredients, and cultured dairy that people genuinely crave. Seeing our cottage cheese go viral and show up organically in people's meals, recipes, and everyday routines has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey. It proves that when you make something people truly love, they can't help but share it. Being recognized several years in a row reinforces that our team, our partners, and our consumers are building something special. Proving that better-for-you dairy never has to mean compromise 💥 #CPG #GoodCulture #BrandGrowth
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Walter Kalmans thanks, Walter!
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Donna Serio thanks so much! Happy you found some and hoping you find more soon!
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Jesse Merrill liked thisJesse Merrill liked thisMost people know Seth Goldman as the co-founder of Honest Tea and a pioneer in building food and beverage businesses around health, sustainability, and fair trade. I first knew him as my English teacher in Beijing, where he taught fresh out of college. A few years later, when I arrived in Washington, DC, for graduate school, my first lunch was with Seth on Capitol Hill, where he was working at the time. Quite an introduction to Washington—and America. Catching up in DC this week felt especially full circle. While in town for work, I reconnected with Seth and, as luck would have it, sat in on part of a business meeting for Just Ice Tea, his latest venture. Watching him in action as a business leader, I felt like his student again. Over the years, I’ve admired not just what Seth’s built, but how steady he’s been about WHY he builds. Using business as a force for healthier choices, sustainability, and positive impact. Companies change, products come and go, but purpose, when it’s real, has a way of enduring. That resonates with me. Whether I’m convening strategy and revenue leaders at large companies or advising startup founders and investors, I’m drawn to the same question: How do we grow while creating value beyond revenue and EBITDA? Funny how some of the people who once taught us still shape how we think years later. #PurposeDrivenBusiness #Entrepreneurship #Leadership
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Jesse Merrill reacted on thisJesse Merrill reacted on thisYou know what's cool? Opening my fridge and seeing this lineup of brands that Sircle Media has worked with at some point in their journey staring me right in the face. Beyond the work, they have become staples in my home. I always say that behind every B2B there is a B2C, and all three of these brands have converted the Brown household for life. I would also say that Jesse Merrill and Jason Bronstad are two of my all-time favorite CPG leaders, so there is the ancillary benefit of having those all-stars in my life, too. Any other fans out there? #cpg #socialmediaagency #socialmediacontent
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Jesse Merrill reacted on thisJesse Merrill reacted on this“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you figure out why.” 💜💜💜 Here’s a little story about finding mine… Two years ago, after years of trying, 8 rounds of IVF, and ultimately welcoming our perfect little Max via surrogate because I couldn’t carry a pregnancy myself, I became a mom 🥹. At almost exactly the same time, I was giving birth to another baby of sorts… Harken Sweets TWINS if you will… Fast forward two years and we were in the middle of the surrogacy process AGAIN when…SURPRISE!!!! Somehow, impossibly, I was pregnant. There are a million theories about what changed (including some VERY interesting ones involving the truly unhinged quantity of dates I consume thanks to Harken lol!!). I do know that Max and Harken first came into my life in the most chaotic way. Somehow, being a mom and being a founder have been tangled together ever since. So, here is to one little guy who arrived right alongside Harken, one still cooking (but SEE YA IN NOVEMBER!), one husband who has made ALLLL of it possible (but, actually, truly…), and a whole lotta candy 🥹🍫🥹🍫🥹🍫🥹🍫
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Jesse Merrill liked thisJesse Merrill liked thisStoked to see all the brand friends at Founderland in Malibu this Thursday (10/1) 🌴!!! Big ups to the inimitable Josh Wand and his incredible team for doing such a great job getting industry folks together in a beautiful place!!
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Jesse Merrill liked thisJesse Merrill liked thisI’ve written before about personal energy being more important than time to an entrepreneur. But the American University Women’s Volleyball team taught me to be even more specific – energy on its own is not enough – the kind of energy you spread makes all the difference. This past Saturday Marcene Mitchelll of the World Wildlife Fund and I had the opportunity to serve as honorary coaches for the team. Though I wish I could say we earned the assignment due to our volleyball skills, it’s because the Amy and Alan Meltzer Center is one of a handful of D-1 athletic facilities that are certified LEED Platinum, and since Marcene and I are members of the Kogod School of Business’s Sustainability Advisory Council, we got the nod. After the warm-ups and before the start of the game, the AU women shared and spread an upbeat energy and joy that made us feel like we were already celebrating a win. We were exchanging high-fives, not because they were cocky but because they genuinely enjoyed being with each other and the chance to play together at such a high level. There were substitutions almost every point but whichever six women were on the court, they seemed to move seamlessly – rapidly shifting positions and roles (set, spike) without confusion. Like any good competition, there were lost points and lost opportunities but their body language between good and bad points was indistinguishable. The first time an AU player made a short serve into the net, I put my hands on my head in disappointment, but when I looked around, I saw the team and (professional) coaches lifting each other up as if no setback had happened. They displayed the best kind of short memory, so the players could focus on having a positive mindset for the next play. Momentum can be so important in a volleyball match, and the team’s positive mindset made sure they never lost control of the match. So how does this relate to being a CEO? Winning takes more than good vibes, but a positive mindset helps create the right conditions for success. As with most leaders, I know my energy can be contagious, but I tend to be more aware when I’m spreading positive vibes. I’m less attuned to how negative gestures, comments and decisions can radiate. As I head into Just Ice Tea’s annual team meeting this week, I will challenge myself and our team to develop an awareness of the personal energy we radiate: - When we challenge our team to do better, are we also challenging ourselves to improve? - When we face setbacks, how do we bounce back and make ourselves better? The team ended the day 3-0, and Marcene and I were able to end our coaching careers undefeated. Big thanks and congrats to AU President David Marchick and kudos to Sustainability Director Megan Litke for bringing an amazing center to completion – I might have been most impressed by the ventilation in the wrestling locker room. As a high school wrestler, I know that keeping that room fresh might be the most amazing engineering feat of all!
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Jesse Merrill liked thisHard to believe this actually happened last night on Fallon. Great awareness for Riff and congrats to Daniel Humm, Mark Ramadan and the team. It really is a great product.Jesse Merrill liked thisIt was an absolutely surreal feeling to see my co-founder Daniel Humm cooking Riff with Jimmy Fallon last night! After 18+ months of building the company in near-silence, the surround sound support over the last week has been incredible. Thank you to Questlove for being a great judge and picking the right dish...but really, with Riff, anyone can be a great cook in only 15 minutes 😁 https://lnkd.in/g8_rHMBMChef Daniel Humm Cooks a Pasta Dish with Jimmy, Calls His Food Brand Riff a Friend in the KitchenChef Daniel Humm Cooks a Pasta Dish with Jimmy, Calls His Food Brand Riff a Friend in the Kitchen
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Jesse Merrill liked thisJesse Merrill liked thisHeyday Canning Co. is searching for a FRACTIONAL SALES LEAD! We're looking for an experienced sales person with a background in emerging CPG to join our small and very mighty team of bean fiends. You will work directly with me and my cofounder Jaime Lynne Tulley along with our wonderful broker partners at Critical Mass Group to run point on all things sales. If you are: 🥫 deeply familiar with Whole Foods, Target, and regional grocery 🥫 a trade expert -- developing trade plans, analyzing promos, working with a deductions team to claw back dollars, and making sure we're tracking to annual budget 🥫 comfortable being the voice of sales for a small, cross functional team 🥫 seeking part-time fractional work in the realm of 10-15 hours per week...and last but not least.. 🥫 a lover of delightfully easy peasy meals... then let's chat! send an email to careers@heydaycanning.com and we'll get in touch if there's a fit.
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Jesse Merrill liked thisJesse Merrill liked thisWhat do weddings and Seattle Seahawks fans have in common? Ring Pop, of course! That range of possibilities is what makes the work Bazooka Brands' marketing team is doing so powerful. They are taking everything people have always loved about this iconic, nostalgic brand and finding fresh, relevant places for it to play. From bringing Ring Pop into wedding culture through our collaboration with the amazing Mindy Weiss to tapping into sports fandom through our recent partnership with the Seattle Seahawks, the team is creating new occasions, reaching new consumers, and supporting it all with bold marketing that breaks through. What makes me especially proud is not only the execution, but the strategic thinking behind it. The best brand building doesn’t leave heritage behind. It uses it as a springboard for what comes next. And our team is showing just how much opportunity there is to take an icon like Ring Pop into new and exciting places. Dave Dreyer, Joanna Sanfilippo Firestone, Nicole Schwartz, House 17, Tracy-Locke
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David Zhao
Chubby Cattle’s expansion into San Antonio’s North Star Mall highlights a larger shift happening in retail and dining. Malls are no longer just shopping destinations — they are becoming experience-driven hubs where food plays a central role in driving traffic and engagement. Positioning a premium wagyu concept like Chubby Cattle inside a high-volume retail environment is not just about visibility, but about capturing demand at scale. For Chubby Group, this move reflects a clear strategy: combine strong brand positioning with high-traffic locations to accelerate growth while maintaining a differentiated dining experience. As the industry evolves, the brands that win will be those that understand both experience and placement — and execute both consistently.
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