1800Hotline 022 // $360M exit to potato chips, BarkBox admits the box isn't the point, and the Yasso founders are back
Tara Bosch's second act is already in Target. Plus BARK's big strategic pivot, Dropout Companies brings in a LesserEvil veteran, and Gleezy raises $2M for premium hot dogs.
Hey and Happy Thursday,
Second acts are having a moment.
Tara Bosch is back. The Yasso founders are back. And BARK is in the middle of redefining its entire model in real time. Big week for watching how the best operators in this space keep moving forward.
Let’s get into it.
Connect w/ the 1800DTC Community
This edition is presented by Patrol.
15,156,490.
That’s the number of accessibility violations (and counting) Patrol shares that they have resolved.
Most accessibility tools obsess over violation counts. Talking with the Patrol team, they’re very proud of that number. But they also realize a clean audit score, once you resolve those violations, doesn’t tell you the whole story. Here’s a big question: Can customers using screen readers move through your store and reach the checkout successfully?
The gap between the assumption of “yes” and the actual journey is where lawsuits and lost revenue live.
Patrol, the only Shopify app that fixes ADA issues directly in your theme code (no overlay band-aids) now ships automated screen reader test recordings every month. Patrol runs the journeys that drive revenue, navigation, product discovery, add-to-cart, and checkout, then hands you recordings of exactly how a screen reader user experiences each one.
First, you get proof your critical flows work for assistive tech, not just a dashboard claiming they pass. Get some peace of mind.
Second, you get visibility into the code-level changes that made those improvements possible. A clear record of what was fixed and why.
Third, you build a documented trail of your accessibility efforts, the kind of paper trail that matters when a demand letter lands. You’ve got evidence.
Traditionally, this has been nearly impossible. This new feature can be used in lawsuits to go back to specific timestamped dates and prove you were compliant by video.
Pair that with Patrol’s ongoing auditing and hourly sync to your live theme, which catches and fixes new violations the moment your team ships a landing page or swaps an image, and accessibility kind of runs itself.
If you’re a Shopify merchant, we’re sharing a link to grab some time with Rick Chavez of the Patrol team to talk it over. If you’re even more inclined, click the button right below this for a free audit.
Want higher ROAS from influencer campaigns? The secret is whitelisting.
At least, according to our partner at Aligned Growth Management. They shared over their whitelisting guide: a FREE 5-day email course + 12-page guide that breaks it all down step-by-step.
It’ll cover what whitelisting is and why you should test it, dive into various methods and how to execute all of them, and then explain how to find creators and more. Perfect for brands & marketers ready to scale.
Brand We’re Watching: Lula Avocado Oil
Most people who cook with avocado oil know it is the better choice. They just do not always act like it.
That was the honest observation behind Lula. Founder Eli Meyer is an avid home cook who noticed that even knowing the culinary and health advantages of avocado oil, it stayed tucked away in the pantry rather than sitting next to the stove where it belonged. It was treated like a utility rather than an ingredient, and that gap between knowing and doing felt like an opportunity worth building around.
So the brand was built to close it. Lula is a clean, subtle-tasting avocado oil designed for everyday cooking at any heat level. It does not compete with your favorite olive oil and it is not trying to. The positioning is simple and it works: start with Lula for the cook, finish with olive oil for the flavor. Avocado oil handles high heat without breaking down or releasing compounds that come from oils pushed past their limits. The subtle flavor means nothing changes about how you cook. You just cook cleaner.
Better meals start with Lula. We like how they think about it.
Courtesy of Lula
The 1800DTC community gets 20% off with code 1800DTC at checkout.
Unwrapped w/ Rytis Lauris from Omnisend
Most brands think the fix for underperforming email is just doing more of it. Rytis Lauris built a whole company around proving that wrong.
Rytis is the co-founder and CEO of Omnisend, an ecommerce marketing automation platform trusted by over 150,000 brands. The tool brings email, SMS, and web push notifications into one workflow built specifically for online stores. The idea came out of years running a digital marketing agency, watching ecommerce brands sit on genuinely useful customer data and reach for tools that could not do anything with it.
The gap was real. He and his co-founder Justas decided to go build the solution themselves. That conversation happened with one of their own clients, who turned out to be Justas.
We sat down with Rytis to talk about relevance versus volume, why the migration fear is mostly overblown, and the book that changed how he thinks about failure.
Main Stories
Tara Bosch sold SmartSweets for $360M and is back. This time she is going after potato chips.
Bosch built SmartSweets from a 22-year-old's kitchen experiment into the number one low-sugar candy brand in North America before TPG Growth acquired it six years ago. Her second act is Snackish, a potato crisp brand launching now at Target nationwide, with Whole Foods Canada and Loblaws rolling out through the summer. Each serving packs 8g of protein and 3g of fiber, cooked in avocado oil and free from seed oils. The brand is entirely women-owned and women-led, with a leadership team pulling from brands like Unreal and LesserEvil. Rather than traditional influencer campaigns, Snackish is bringing creators in as owners. And the whole thing is self-funded with its own manufacturing facility. Bosch took the lessons from the first exit seriously and built accordingly. The second act is off to a strong start.
BARK just wrapped its fiscal year with revenue down nearly 20% and its CEO standing in front of analysts saying the subscription box model alone is no longer enough to win.
Full year revenue landed at $394.8M and the Q4 number came in about 25% below the prior year. CEO Matt Meeker was candid about it: the company had been optimizing a model the market had started to move past. His framing of what comes next is worth paying attention to. He called it Relationship Commerce, the idea that the brand's job is not done when the box arrives but when the dog is actually happy. That sounds like a line, but the strategic implications are real: it means deeper personalization, a rethink of how retention is measured, and a diversification of the business beyond DTC subscriptions into wholesale, marketplace, and services. BARK Air, the dog-friendly charter flight service, is expected to contribute more than $100M in revenue alongside the Commerce segment in fiscal 2027. The subscriber base is getting smaller intentionally. The bet is that the customers who stay are worth more. Whether the market rewards that patience is the story to watch.
Quick Hits
Courtesy of Snack Buddies, Dropout, Gleezy, Spylt, & O.piccola
The founders of Yasso just launched Snack Buddies, a better-for-you mini muffin brand built around 5g of protein, sneaky vegetables, and half the sugar of the leading competitor.
Amanda Klane and Drew Harrington built Yasso into a brand Unilever wanted badly enough to acquire in 2023. They did not slow down long. Snack Buddies launched with four flavors including Chocolate Chip, Fudge Brownie, and Birthday Cake. Serial founders with a proven exit building in a new format is a combination worth paying attention to early.Dropout Companies, the parent brand behind Jams and Bronco, just brought on LesserEvil Snacks co-founder Andrew Strife as CEO.
Strife helped build LesserEvil from the inside before Hershey acquired it for $750M last April. He is now leading Dropout's next chapter as Jams goes after Uncrustables and Bronco challenges Jimmy Dean. The operator experience and M&A track record Strife brings into this role is exactly the kind of signal that suggests Dropout is serious about playing at a different level.Gleezy, a North Carolina-based premium hot dog brand, closed a $2M seed round led by Old Tom Capital.
Founded around three years ago by Bryce Rech, the brand makes double-smoked beef brisket hot dogs now available at Target, Harris Teeter, Food City, and over 350 foodservice accounts across 45 states. They also built their own condiment, a co-branded lager with Hi-Wire Brewing, and a full merch line. That level of brand ecosystem around a hot dog is genuinely rare and the seed raise gives them capital to scale a footprint that is already more developed than most brands at this stage.SPYLT just unveiled a bold new look and launched a campaign to fuel its national expansion.
The functional beverage brand has been building real momentum and the rebrand signals they are ready to push into new markets with a sharper identity. Visual identity updates at this stage usually mean a distribution push is coming right behind it. Worth watching as the brand scales.Olivia Jade just launched o.piccola, a minimalist beauty brand built around a bronze-and-glow balm.
The launch positions the brand as a clean, pared-back beauty line designed for everyday wear. The product is simple, the positioning is specific, and Olivia Jade has a built-in audience that has followed her creative output for years. Early stage but a brand identity that feels considered rather than rushed.
Event Radar
Commerce Unfiltered | 1800DTC x Shopify — Tuesday, June 23 | New York, NY
We are hosting something at Shopify NY on June 23 and want this community there.
The first half of 2026 handed everyone a lot to work through. AI is reshaping how brands reach customers. Acquisition costs are climbing. The retail playbook keeps shifting. And most of the “what to do about it” advice out there is more noise than signal.
Commerce Unfiltered is a night built around the conversations that actually matter. What is driving real results right now, how operators are adapting their acquisition strategy, what it looks like to build through uncertainty, and how the brands that are still growing are doing it.
Joining us on stage: Ben Sharf from Platter, Arda Bulak from Create, and Taylor Prokes from The Big Ass Calendar.
June 23. 6 PM. Shopify NY. Come build with us.
Commerce After Dark — Monday, June 29 | New York, NY
Long day on the Fancy Food floor? We have you covered.
We are taking over the rooftop at the Flight Deck for a drop-in evening with CPG and DTC founders, operators, and friends of the ecosystem. DJ, signature drinks, good people, no agenda. Just the community doing what it does best when you put everyone in the same room.
8 PM to midnight. Come as you are. Stay as long as you want.
Ecomm Coffee Collective: Fancy Food Edition — Tuesday, June 30 | New York, NY
Not every great conversation happens at a panel. Some of them happen over coffee.
Pop in anytime between 9 AM and noon during Fancy Food week for a casual moment of connection, caffeine, and community with ecommerce operators and founders. Drop-in format, no schedule, no pressure. RSVP approval is required.
That’s Field Notes for week 022.
Tara Bosch went from candy to chips. The Yasso founders went from frozen yogurt to mini muffins. Which second-act founder story in CPG do you think has the most upside right now?
We read every reply.
— Zach and the 1800Hotline Team
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