Kitchen to 4,000 Stores: The Cold Email That Launched a Ghee Snack Brand

In this Founder Feature, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Darin Alpert, founder of Gheelish, a snack brand built around ghee, the clarified butter, as its star ingredient, for the story of how a cold email to Sprouts turned a kitchen popcorn recipe into a nationwide launch.

Darin co-created Find Me Gluten Free about 12 years ago, an app that now has roughly 3 million users, and spent 15 years selling enterprise software to companies like Caterpillar, IBM, T-Mobile, and Costco before building a CPG brand of his own. With severe gluten and lactose intolerances, he struggled to find snacks free of seed oils, and a single SKU of ghee popcorn, discovered while his wife was pregnant, sparked the idea of building a whole platform around ghee.

Caitlin and Darin dig into how Gheelish went from a kitchen to Sprouts nationwide in 2024, why second-time founders often focus on distribution before product, how ghee compares with tallow, what makes the brand’s air-popped popcorn lower in calories and fat than leading brands, and the sales-training science behind the cold outreach message that earned Darin a spot on the show.

Listen in as they discuss:

• How his wife’s pregnancy and a single ghee popcorn SKU sparked the idea to build a snack platform around ghee
• What ghee actually is, and why its butyric acid has earned a reputation for gut-friendly benefits
• How Gheelish’s air-popped approach delivers about 30% fewer calories and nearly 60% less fat than leading popcorn brands
• Why second-time founders tend to focus on distribution before product
• How a cold email to the Sprouts forager team and hand-labeled Sharpie bags led to a nationwide launch
• Growth from roughly $300K in 2024 to about $2M in wholesale sales in 2025, with no D2C or Amazon
• The protein cookie launching at Sprouts nationwide in December, and why Darin wishes he had launched cookies first
• How ghee and tallow compare, and why Darin calls ghee the “cousin” of the tallow movement
• The science behind outbound messaging: lead with the lead, keep it short, and have a reason to exist
• How Startup CPG connected Darin with Grassroots Marketing for in-store sampling at Sprouts

Want to connect with buyers, investors, and industry experts in real time? Join our free Slack community with over 40,000 members. Get access to exclusive events and trade shows where you can meet buyers and investors in person, plus free resources and more. Just text CPG to 833-605-7002 and we’ll get in touch.

Episode Links:

• Darin Alpert LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/darinalpert
• Gheelish LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gheelish
• Gheelish Website: www.gheelish.com
• Gheelish Instagram: @eatgheelish
  
  

Don’t forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

• Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
• Join the Startup CPG Slack community (40K+ members and growing!)
• Follow @startupcpg
• Visit host Caitlin’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/caitlinbricker
• Questions or comments about the episode? Email [email protected]
• Episode music by Super Fantastics
  
  

Get holiday-ready with Walmart Marketplace