🎙️ What if you stepped away from a rocket ship... just as it was taking off?
Ari Raz co-founded Once Upon a Farm, built it brick by brick, and then gave up the CEO seat… to Jennifer Garner and John Foraker. Most founders would cling tighter. Ari let go.
Why? Because the title wasn’t worth the trade.
And then, he did it again. He took over Coconut Cult, a brand with wild promise and wild problems. No cash. No cushion. Just belief.
This isn’t a story of exits and equity. It’s about identity. It’s about knowing when to build, when to partner, and when to walk away from the thing you created—so you can become the person you’re meant to be.
🎩 Summary
Ari walks us through the journey from hand-labeling jars in a DC kitchen to raising capital, partnering with Jennifer Garner, and scaling one of the most disruptive baby food brands in America. But his real growth came when he stepped away—choosing soul over seat.
Now at Coconut Cult, he’s applying everything he learned: how to restructure a brand, rebuild a culture, and balance risk with responsibility. We explore the emotional toll of dilution, the pain of leaving your “baby,” and why leadership isn’t about control—it’s about contribution.
From ego death to entrepreneurial rebirth, Ari’s story is a mirror for any founder caught between ambition and authenticity.
🎩 Hats Covered
• 🎩 1: The Soul
• 🎩 3: The Servant
• 🎩 4: The Entrepreneur
• 🎩 5: The Investor
• 🎩 7: The Seeker
đź’ˇ Key Takeaways
• 🎩 1: Letting go of control is sometimes the most liberating growth strategy.
• 🎩 4: Being replaced doesn’t mean you failed—it means you built something bigger than you.
• 🎩 5: If your equity no longer matches your contribution, it’s time for a new chapter.
• 🎩 3: Emotional ownership can’t be measured on a cap table—but it still costs something.
• 🎩 7: When you stop trying to be someone else’s version of success, you finally meet yourself.
👤 Guest Bio
Ari Raz is a CPG founder and operator who co-founded Once Upon a Farm, helped scale it nationally alongside Jennifer Garner and John Foraker, and later became CEO of Coconut Cult. With a career spanning baby food to functional fermented yogurt, Ari brings both strategic depth and personal humility to the brands he leads. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two kids—and still finds time to bake sourdough.
⏱️ Timestamps
•
00:02:00 – Childhood in LA, the immigrant household, and mom’s sprouted mung beans
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00:12:00 – From commercial sets to Seoul: How Korea changed his business path
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00:20:00 – First food job at Lotte and the lightbulb moment
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00:25:00 – Moving home to start a baby food brand with no cash and no plan
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00:30:00 – Meeting Cassandra Curtis and merging brands to form Once Upon a Farm
•
00:34:00 – Launching HPP baby food and the power of farmer’s markets
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00:38:00 – Getting Jennifer Garner and John Foraker involved
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00:43:00 – The pain of stepping down as CEO—and choosing to learn instead
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00:50:00 – Why the scale-up phase brought friction, dilution, and identity loss
•
01:00:00 – Leaving the company you co-founded and asking: What now?
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01:05:00 – Enter Coconut Cult: No safety net, just belief and vision
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01:10:00 – Who Ari had to stop being—and the version of himself he’s becoming
âś… Actionables
• Track your dilution and define what’s “enough”—before the next round.
• Ask: “What part of this company still needs me?”
• Audit your leadership: Are you leading, or are you lingering?
• Rebuild your worth independent of your title.
• Cook something from scratch this weekend—it’ll remind you who you are.
🔥 Quotes
“Leaving was the hardest thing—and the most necessary thing.”
“You don’t need to be the CEO forever to prove you were the founder.”
“If you want to stay, you have to evolve. If you can’t evolve, you have to go.”
“Cap table control doesn’t mean soul alignment.”
“I had to stop being someone else’s version of success—and start being mine.”
đź”— Links
If you’ve ever wondered when to stay, when to grow, and when to walk away, Ari’s story is your blueprint.
🎩 Subscribe, share, and keep growing—on your terms.
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