Sponsors
Title Sponsor
Investment Banking Partner
Whipstitch Capital is the largest, independent investment bank in the U.S. solely focused on the better-for-you consumer sector. We are full-service bankers providing unmatched experience, industry knowledge, relationships and ability to execute optimal transaction outcomes. Since 2004, the Whipstitch team has closed over 100 transactions and provides private placement and buy-side / sell-side mergers & acquisitions advisory services for leading consumer products companies in the healthy, organic, natural and/or functional food, beverage, supplements, personal care and related retail companies. The Whipstitch team has completed transactions with innovative consumer companies over the past 10+ years, including KeVita, Core Nutrition, Purple Carrot, Country Archer, Blake’s All Natural Foods, GoodBelly, Yasso, Spindrift, Lesser Evil Snacks, Essentia Water, Saffron Road, Fermented Sciences (Flying Embers), The Switch, Otter Creek Brewing, Peeled Snacks and more. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter highlighting M&A and private placement transactions announced during the previous week at www.whipstitchcapital.com/newsletter
Annual Sponsors
Retail Growth Partner
Advantage Solutions leads from the heart of
commerce as the unifying force connecting brands,
retailers, and people – shaping every way people shop. As the strategic advisors for brands and retailers, they deliver the best returns and create momentum in the marketplace by leading with a people-first, purpose driven, performance-focused approach to grow sales, transform businesses, and enrich lives.
FDM, an Advantage Solutions company, is the leading brokerage agency providing commercialization and headquarter sales representation for emerging, insurgent, and mid-sized brands across conventional, natural/specialty, and independent channels. With a team averaging over 20 years of industry experience, we help brands navigate every stage of the retail journey — from concept and first placement to sustained distribution growth — through a dedicated single point of contact model. A people-first, performance-focused team with the deep retail expertise and passion to help emerging brands win.
Ingredients Supplier/Distributor Partner
Analyze. Invest. Develop. Partner. For over 25 years AIDP, (Advanced Ingredient’s for Dietary Products) has been distributing specialty and functional ingredients to the nutrition, food, and beverage markets. At AIDP, we specialize in clinically researched brands that provide benefits for immune health, cognitive wellness, digestive health, joint support, healthy aging, cosmeceuticals and more. Our novel brands are carefully evaluated based on intellectual property, clinical support, sustainable sourcing methods, safety, and rigorous quality control. At AIDP, we work with market leading brands as well as emerging companies. We are there to help you at every step and meet every challenge you have with innovative solutions to grow your business. Our global footprint and distinguished suppliers enable us to react fast and be responsive to your specialty and commodity ingredient needs. Time and again, we helped early-stage brands become market leaders.
Product Development & Supply Chain Management Partner
The CalNutri leadership team has owned and operated several contract manufacturing companies and has been responsible for developing, manufacturing and commercializing hundreds of CPG brands successfully over the years. With this vast experience in their portfolios, they decided to join forces and create CalNutri so they could leverage their skills in offering turn-key operations management services on behalf of CPG brands.
Most CPG brands spend many months vetting raw material suppliers, contract manufacturers and supply chain vendors. This frustrating vetting process results in several months of sunk capital and extreme delays in ‘time to market’. Our primary objective is to streamline and manage this process allowing the CPG company and their creative team to develop their ‘go-to-market’ strategy and rapidly acquire market share.
The CalNutri team is composed of food, beverage, supplements, and natural products industry veterans who have cultivated trusted relationships throughout the value chain over the past 20+ years. The CalNutri team has built, led, and serviced some of the most respected consumer brands and contract manufacturing companies in these respective industries.
From Ideation to Commercialization, the team at CalNutri empowers Brands to focus on building their brand & distribution, while CalNutri focuses on the product development, manufacturing & supply chain operations.
Recruiting Partner
Creative Alignments turned the recruiting industry on its
head—about time, right? We make hiring easier, quicker, more transparent, and
actually enjoyable. Our hourly Time-Based Recruiting® model has saved natural
products/CPG companies nearly $20 million (and a whole bunch of headaches) over
the past 15 years. Because we are not incentivized by commissions (we charge by
the hour for our time), we are fully aligned with our client’s specific needs,
goals and culture. We’ve partnered with hundreds of growing brands — taking
many from startup to exit, like RXBAR, HaloTop and Ritual Zero Proof. Creative
Alignments is B Corp certified, using recruiting as a force for good.
Legal & Regulatory Partner
At Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT), a 600+ attorney national law firm, our commitment to the natural products industry runs deep. DWT’s team of 40+ Food + Beverage lawyers spends all day, every day helping food and beverage clients seize opportunities and solve the unique challenges of their industry. Our Food Venture Financing team works with emerging “seed” (0-$2mm annual revenue) and “scaling” ($2mm-$20mm) food and beverage brands and the investors who fund them. Our clients are based in all of the major food innovation hubs in the United States, from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. We created DWT’s Food Venture Legal Lab specifically for them, to provide a one-stop shop for all of their food industry legal needs. DWT took a leadership role in forming Naturally Bay Area, the first regional affiliate of Natural Boulder. We’re helping the next affiliates of the Naturally Network launch in Chicago, Austin, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, and the Pacific Northwest. Whether you’re an emerging food and beverage or natural products company looking to stand out, or an investor in the sector, we can help you craft a recipe for success.
Insurance Partner
Heffernan Insurance Brokers, established in 1988, is a leading independent brokerage firm in the U.S. With a nationwide and London UK presence, we provide a full range of insurance and financial services to businesses and individuals. Our collaborative and consultative approach delivers effective risk management and cost control through innovative solutions tailored for the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry. With expertise in Employee Benefits, Retirement and 401(k), Financial Services, Personal Insurance, Compliance, and Claims Support, Heffernan is dedicated to protecting our clients and helping them thrive. For more information, visit www.heffins.com.
SEO, SEM & Shopify Partner
At Know Agency, we specialize in providing supplement and health companies with SEO, PPC, and digital marketing expertise that gets you connected and resonating with your customers. Rely on us to give you proven SEO and search strategies based on Google data. We crunch the numbers, analyze the search terms, and audit your digital brand, giving you honest professional feedback on what you need to do to meet your goals. Our deep knowledge of the supplement and health niche gives you a competitive advantage so you can stand out and get noticed by Google and your prospects.
Flavor Partner
Consumers today want it all and they expect their food and beverages to do more for them. Brands have to balance the demands of great taste, regulatory hurdles and consumer acceptance. The experts at McCormick Flavor Solutions can help. McCormick Flavor Solutions creates and produces complete taste solutions including flavors; taste modification; extracts; seasonings; spices & herbs; and culinary flavor, broth and stock bases for food, beverage, and nutrition companies around the world. Leveraging McCormick’s global footprint and expertise in building consumer-beloved brands, while maintaining its award-winning culture and quality, McCormick Flavor Solutions is a unique proposition in the flavor industry. We support our customers’ growth through both cutting-edge technology and personalized customer service. Design, develop and scale up using our Innovation Studios in Geneva, IL and Irvine, CA. From ideation to launch, we help create a seamless, winning path for our customers, both large and small.
Co-Manufacturing, Development, & Innovation Partner
Nutracom combines world class manufacturing with scientific
formulations and innovation around market trends to drive successful product
launches for CPG brands, private label retailers and entrepreneurs in the
sports nutrition, performance nutrition, GLP1 support and general pet and human
nutrition spaces.
The company was recently relaunched by Nutrition Innovation
Inc. dba, Nutracom, in 2025 as the first “CIDMO(tm)”
co-manufacturing, co-innovation, co-development organization, born as a
spin-out of a successful MLM company.
With over 100,000 square feet of NSF certified manufacturing
and temperature-controlled warehousing space, Nutracom is the partner of choice
to launch products in jugs, capsules, bottles, stick packs, pouches or even
sustainable composite cans with reasonable MOQ’s. We have space designed to facilitate new
product innovation for brand managers and operate 4 laboratories on site for
innovation, quality and testing. Our
plant is perfectly located in St. Louis in the center of the U.S. providing
ideal logistics.
Please reach out to one of our senior leaders and industry
veterans, Dr. Hasmukh Patel (Chief Science and Innovation Officer), Steve
Snyder (CEO) or Steve Hastings (Marketing Lead) to discuss how we can build
your business with you.
Innovation & Commercialization Partner
PLT Health Solutions is a discoverer, developer, and marketer of high-quality, scientifically-supported ingredient solutions for the natural products, food & beverage, and cosmeceuticals markets. PLT’s ability to drive product development and clinical strategy based on the specific needs of leading consumer brands is a key reason why both major manufacturers and early-stage ingredient innovators choose to work so closely with us. With 70 years of experience, we have the expertise and infrastructure to help you successfully commercialize your ingredient or technology and access many of the leading consumer products companies across the world.
Branding Partner
Pure Branding is a high-impact brand strategy, research, and growth consultancy exclusively serving dietary supplement and functional food brands. Since 1999, we’ve helped companies deepen loyalty, increase market share, and grow enterprise value through proprietary research and actionable insights. Our clients include Gaia Herbs, MegaFood (acquired by Pharmavite), Nature’s Sunshine, Standard Process, Nordic Naturals, Xymogen, NeoCell (acquired by Clorox), and Persona Nutrition (acquired by Nestlé Health Science following our brand strategy work and early investment). In the past year, our rebrand of Biocidin Botanicals led to their acquisition by Kainos Capital, while our strategy supported WM Partners’ acquisition of Metabolic Maintenance.
Technology Commercialization Partner
Specialty Nutrition Consulting, Inc. is a nutrition brand-building firm focused on commercializing innovative, IP-protected nutritional and health-promoting technologies. SNG acts as co-development partner with large consumer products and nutrition companies to rapidly commercialize nutrition innovations, represents academic institutions and individual inventors to find new commercial applications for their inventions, and develops its own brands for commercial launch in the commercial market. The professionals of Specialty Nutrition Group, Inc. have been responsible for launching new nutraceuticals products with current annual retail sales for over $2.8 billion.
