UGLY TALK: FOOD & BEV FOUNDERS 2025 LESSONS AND 2026 PREDICTIONS
Food and beverage is more crowded and more demanding than ever. Shoppers expect excitement, health, and real value at the same time. Trends move fast and signals get buried in noise. Ugly Talk focuses on what matters for 2026. Clear demand drivers. Channels that convert. Price and pack choices that protect margin. Tactics that move cases on shelf and repeat online. Real stories from builders who are winning right now.
🎯 Why You Should Attend
Get first hand and unfiltered insight from current operators about what is working today
Learn how winning teams turn ideas into products you can start building and testing immediately
See the skills and resources you need before you scale beyond a first launch
Build a high intent network of advisors partners collaborators and investors
Take home practical playbooks you can apply this quarter
🙋 Who You’ll Meet
Founders building and scaling food and beverage brands across retail and ecommerce
Ecosystem enablers including co packers distributors brokers retail buyers and marketplace leads
Investors and advisors who value design brand and product quality as drivers of growth
🎤 Who’s on the Panel
Joe Rotondo - Founder & CEO of SMEARCASE
Joe Rotondo spent the past decade working with high-growth startups, specializing in brand strategy, digital marketing, and eCommerce operations. While in college, he founded Rocky Clark, a sustainable men’s luxury denim brand focused on craftsmanship and ethical production. Being Italian, Joe grew up around food — with pasta Sundays as a family ritual — and got his start in his father’s New Jersey deli, where he earned recognition for making the Best Bagel in NJ. He later helped scale multiple eCommerce businesses from $20M to $150M in annual revenue, combining creative vision with data-driven growth expertise. Joe loves a morning workout and sauna session along with cooking healthy meals at home. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Kabir Kurani - Founder & CEO of GetUp Nutrition Inc.
Kabir Kurani is a born-and-raised New Yorker from Manhattan who grew up competing in tennis tournaments across the country. Always active and fueled by caffeine, he turned that lifestyle into an idea while studying at NYU, a caffeinated granola snack made for people always on the move. With no business experience, he bootstrapped GetUp from scratch, relying on what he knew best: the hustle and grit of New York City.
Will Custis - Founder of HoopFuel
Will Custis aka The Corporate Hooper is the founder of HoopFuel, the first supplement brand specifically for basketball players. From building his own personal brand to launching a product and now raising to grow HoopFuel into a premier national brand, Will has leveraged modern marketing strategies and a content first approach to scale the brand to over $10k a month organically.
Moderator:
Glenn Johnson - Marketing Consultant at Fractional CMO
Glenn Johnson works with small brands, startups, and founders to address their marketing needs. “Everyone needs something different, I craft a plan to help you address what you need, and a strategy to get it done.”
A former VP/Creative Director at a Madison Avenue agency specializing in luxury and bespoke audiences, he brings expertise across multiple verticals. As a category-agnostic brand storyteller, he helps founders define their mission, vision and develop their brand business.
💬 What We’ll Talk About
What teams tried in 2025 that did not pay off and what they are doubling down on next
Which consumer signals deserve focus for 2026 and how to decide where to place your bets
New tools that speed product development demand planning content and retail execution including practical AI workflows and prompts you can use right away
The difference between building a product and building a company and how that changes hiring finance and distribution
How leaders are preparing now for 2026 including channel mix pricing promotion calendars and capital planning
🤝 Partner Brand
Opply is the industry leader in AI-powered operations for CPG brands.
Built for growing brands, Opply is your end-to-end ops autopilot - saving you hundreds of hours a month, increasing profit margins, and strengthening cash flow so you can scale faster.
As your outsourced operations team, Opply runs your entire ops stack; managing all your orders from PO to delivery, predicting forecasts and ordering patterns, owning all supplier communications and consolidating payments into one monthly invoice paid on 60-90 day terms - even from your existing suppliers.
Trusted by thousands of F&B brands, Opply uses collective operations and buying power to give you access to unbeatable ingredient prices - typically reserved for global giants.
Exclusive Offers To Ugly Talk Members
Book a meeting with Opply and get entered to win a spotlight at our next sponsored event — limited to the first 20 brands!
Become an Opply customer and step into an exclusive 1-2-1 “How to Run a Funding Round” call with our Founder & CEO, Helen Murphy!
🤝 Supported By
GREY Journal – Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
🤝 Venue Partner
The Yard - Private offices & coworking spaces for individuals and teams.
⭐ 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