{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Startup CPG Podcast","title":"Founder Fundraising Journey: Craig Dubitsky, Happy Products","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3619,"description":"\nIn this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Craig Dubitsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Happy Products — a modern beverage brand reimagining how coffee can make us feel. Craig is one of CPG's most iconic brand builders, having created category-defining household staples like eos and hello. With hello, he built the fastest-growing oral care brand in North America before its acquisition by Colgate, where he went on to serve as Chief Innovation Officer. His newest venture, Happy Products, was co-founded alongside Robert Downey Jr. and launched in partnership with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) — the largest grassroots mental health organization in America.\n\nCraig brings decades of hard-won experience across brand building, capital management, fundraising, and navigating strategic partnerships through acquisition. In this episode, he shares the lessons that shaped him, what founders should have in place before embarking on a fundraise, and the mental models he uses to build things people genuinely fall in love with.\n\nCraig and Hannah dig into the full arc of building a brand from zero: why advisory boards are one of the most underused fundraising tools, how to pitch investors without your hat in hand, and why the obsession with valuation and dilution often misses the point entirely. He also unpacks what made hello attractive to Colgate, why \"exit\" is the wrong word for what happens when a strategic acquires your company, and why everything costs more and takes longer than you think — no matter how many times you've done it.\n\nListen in as they cover:\n\nCraig's winding career path: derivatives trading, relocation startups, Method, eos, hello, Colgate, and now Happy ProductsWhy Happy isn't a coffee company — it's in the \"Happy business,\" with coffee as the delivery systemHow NAMI ended up on Happy's cap table from day zero — and what makes that different from typical purpose-driven brand partnershipsWhy the magic of a brand is...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/pMuUaMpWaAi3tfCEgC2OkLBVzokuLjLsIzwDIbGFqi4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hMTFl/MTgxNTNlZTAwZjU1/ZmNmNWM1ZjkwMDg5/NTU4MS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}