The Lululemon hire is more nuanced than the headlines. Plus Nomio, Mel Robbins at Target, and a strong funding week across CPG.
Hey DTC family and Happy Friday,
Most of the moves I am looking at, whether it is brands getting funded, operators making big hires, or founders pushing into new categories, are bets on something specific that others overlooked or walked past.
Lululemon going outside to find someone who knows how to rebuild brand momentum at scale. Leisure Hydration and Frozen One finding lanes bigger brands never bothered with. Nomio raising money off the back of an Olympic moment. Mid-Day Squares expanding a flavor because customers kept asking for it.
None of these are moonshots. They are sharp, specific bets. And that is usually how the most interesting brands get started.
Let us get into it.
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Mid-Day Squares just dropped a Grape flavor for its No Bread PB&J line, and the reason it exists is worth understanding.
MDS launched the No Bread PB&J in January and it immediately became their top-selling product. In four months they produced over a million Strawberry units out of their own facility. The Grape launch is a direct response to customers who were already buying and consistently asking for more variety.
What stands out about MDS is how they actually operate. They manufacture in-house, which gives them the ability to move quickly without depending on a co-manufacturer. They share real financials and business updates publicly in a way most CPG brands never do. And they have built a community that is genuinely invested in the success of the company, not just the product.
The Grape flavor is available now on their site. The No Bread PB&J line is carried at Target and Hy-Vee in the U.S. and Walmart in Canada.
Peanut butter hasn’t been this exciting since... ever.
Jason Spyrides and Georgia Park are the co-founders behind Drizzy, a modern peanut butter brand that ditched the jar and put it in a squeeze bottle. The idea came from their morning smoothie routine, a honey bottle moment, and a simple question: why can’t peanut butter work like this?
Five months from idea to launch. A lid engineering challenge that almost killed the concept. A DTC first strategy built around community and proving demand before retail. And something big on the horizon that starts with a “U” and ends with “nited States of America.” 👀
The full story is in the post below.
Give them a follow at @getdrizzy.
O’Neill spent 27 years at Nike, most recently running Consumer, Product, and Brand, and was part of the leadership team during Nike’s aggressive DTC pivot under John Donahoe. That strategy pulled back hard from wholesale, created friction with retail partners, and eventually got walked back by current CEO Elliott Hill. O’Neill left before the correction fully played out.
You can read this hire two ways. Either she was part of a strategy that did not work and Lululemon is taking a calculated risk. Or she brings a firsthand understanding of what happens when a brand over-rotates away from wholesale that very few other candidates could offer.
What Lululemon needs is not hard to name: fresher product, cultural reconnection, and international growth. Whether O’Neill delivers on that, we will find out. But the board wanted someone with real scale experience, and that is what they got. Shares fell 5% on the announcement. → Full story
Nomio is a 60ml broccoli sprout shot built around compounds called isothiocyanates, ITCs, developed over eight years at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. The core claim is that it reduces blood lactate during exercise by 12% and accelerates how the body adapts to hard training over time. The same researchers behind the foundational nitrate and beetroot performance work built this product.
It gained serious traction at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where elite endurance athletes across Europe were using it openly. Tom Pidcock’s cycling team entered a formal research partnership with the brand. American distance runner Cole Hocker has been a vocal advocate. That is meaningful credibility for a supplement this early.
The research is promising but still building. Some of what athletes experience may be placebo effect, and the evidence base is not yet as deep as more established ergogenics. But beetroot and nitrates followed the same path; elite sport adoption first, mainstream category second. The $4M goes toward expanding the brand’s North American presence through The Feed, its exclusive U.S. reseller. One to watch as the science continues to develop. → Fitt Insider
Laird Superfood acquired Terrasoul Superfoods for $48 million, funded through a $60 million preferred equity investment from Nexus Capital, which now holds roughly 71.7% of Laird on a diluted basis. Terrasoul generated approximately $65.8 million in net sales in 2025 and brings a strong e-commerce presence along with a broad portfolio across nuts, seeds, dried fruits, powders, and functional mix-ins. Laird is clearly building toward a scaled multi-brand platform in functional nutrition. The Nexus ownership concentration is worth monitoring as that strategy develops.
Leisure Hydration closed an oversubscribed Series A led by Midnight Venture Partners. Founded in 2022 by brothers Alex and Steve Michaelsen, the brand makes electrolyte refreshers in recyclable aluminum cans and has posted over 1,300% revenue growth over the past two years. It holds the top dollar velocity in the enhanced water category within the natural channel and is on pace to double revenue again in 2026, which would mark four consecutive years of triple-digit growth. Backers include the CEOs of Nutrabolt and Bloom Nutrition, along with Asahi. The capital goes toward a brand refresh and expansion into Target, Whole Foods, and HEB.
Frozen One closed a $2M seed round led by Supernatural Ventures and The Angel Group, both of whom previously backed Siete, Poppi, and Olipop. Founded in 2025 by Alan Chen and Conner Mennig, the brand makes high-protein ice cream at 40 grams of protein and 380 calories per pint. By May, the brand expects to be in 2,300 retail doors including a nationwide Target rollout. Early stage, but the investor pedigree here is serious and the protein-in-ice-cream format is pulling real consumer demand.
Pure Genius Protein, co-founded by Mel Robbins, just launched nationwide at Target. The brand debuted in January as a 23-gram protein shot, sold out immediately, and has sold out four additional times since. Target is its first national retail placement, reached in under four months from launch. Mel has 40 million followers across platforms and the early sales velocity suggests her audience was already primed before the product hit shelves. Founder-led brands with real community backing moving this quickly into major retail is a pattern worth tracking closely. → More
MUG Root Beer and George Kittle dropped MUG Brotein this week: a bundle pairing MUG Zero Sugar with a vanilla protein shake, positioned as a “dirty protein” hack for people who take fitness seriously but are not willing to give up their root beer. Available on Walmart.com now with a second TikTok Shop drop on April 28. Kittle is a genuine MUG fan and that authenticity comes through. The concept taps directly into proteinmaxx culture while staying true to the brand’s personality, which is a genuinely hard balance to get right. → More
GoodPop just launched Fruit Sours, their first sour candy-inspired frozen pop line, in four flavors: green apple, lemonade, cherry, and melon. Sour has been one of the strongest rising flavor trends across food and beverage, with sour candy challenge content up over 80% on social year over year and the category projected to grow at a 7.5% annual rate through 2033. GoodPop spotted this early. Their SmartSweets sour collab sold out in minutes last summer and built a permanent product around the demand signal. Good category timing from a brand that consistently reads the market well. → More
If your business runs on recurring revenue, subscriptions, or loyalty, this is the room to be in this May.
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That is Field Notes for Issue 006.
What brand story or funding move from this week has your attention? And if you want to be featured in a future Unwrapped, hit reply and tell us what you are working on.
See you Tuesday.
— Zach and the 1800 Hotline Team
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