Checkout Chats: Ricky Silver, CEO Daily Harvest

If you’ve ever found yourself scrolling the depths of a CPG CEO’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll likely uncover a mix of management consulting, corporate tech, and Big Business. But Ricky Silver, Daily Harvest's CEO, took a different path—one that started in a chemistry lab and wound through R&D before landing in the C-suite. 

And it’s this unconventional path—and refreshingly different perspective—that have helped Ricky lead one of the fastest-growing food companies.

The Accidental Career Switch

After ditching his chemistry PhD plans (still got his master's, though), Ricky landed at PepsiCo during "a really interesting time.” The company was investing heavily in long-term R&D, giving him a front-row seat to the tensions between business goals, consumer demands, and supply chain constraints.

But something was missing. Despite working for one of the biggest names in food & beverage, Ricky was craving a deeper connection to food. This led him to Vita Coco, where he straddled the line between innovation and operations, reporting to both the CMO and chief supply chain officer.

Then he met Rachel Drori, Daily Harvest's founder, tried the food, and everything changed. What drew him in wasn't just the food—it was Rachel's simple vision: change how we eat to change how food is grown. She challenged him to build something unique: a physical product organization that could move with the speed and adaptability of a digital one, using DTC's direct line to consumers to rapidly iterate on products.

"I called my wife and said ‘I found the next company I'm working for,’" he recalled. "She said, 'I didn't even know you were looking to leave.' I didn't really know either."

For the first six years, Ricky worked alongside Rachel, first as Chief Supply Chain Officer and then as President, focusing on operationalizing that vision through new product development, food safety, sourcing, and manufacturing. When Rachel stepped back from day-to-day operations, Ricky took the helm as CEO, ready to lead Daily Harvest into its next chapter.

From DTC to Retail: A Data-Driven Evolution

That next chapter? Omnichannel expansion. As Ricky quickly learned, roughly 85% of consumers aren't shopping for food online—and even fewer are actively seeking subscription services. So, rather than trying to convert everyone to DTC, Ricky steered Daily Harvest to meet consumers where they are—literally—by using retail as a massive trial driver. 

Their DTC data has revealed an interesting pattern in how customers engage with the brand: they typically start with just a few core products, but over time, they explore more categories and try different items. This insight has shaped their retail strategy: they launch with a focused initial assortment to drive trial, then gradually expand their retail offerings based on how they've seen customers naturally broaden their Daily Harvest horizons in DTC.

This data-driven approach extends to their product launches too. When something takes off in DTC, like their Chickpea Curry, they can take those performance metrics straight to retailers and make a case for shelf space—even months ahead of planned reset windows.

Daily Harvest isn't precious about which channel customers choose—they're focused on making their products available wherever people want to buy them. And with steady growth in both DTC and retail repeat purchases, this flexible approach seems to be working.

Optimizing Packaging for Retail

For emerging brands, every detail of retail expansion—from forecasting to logistics to shelf placement—can make or break your business. And perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in packaging, which has become one of Daily Harvest's biggest focus areas this past year.

While their DTC packaging could lean into aesthetics (their website did the heavy lifting on messaging), retail required a complete rethink. After all, when your product is sitting on a frozen shelf, that package becomes your entire sales pitch. The challenge? Making their differentiation crystal clear to new retail customers while maintaining the visual identity their DTC fans fell in love with.

Their solution? A clever harvest bowl packaging refresh that gives them more real estate to tell their story—like speaking two languages at once: catching the retail browser's eye while feeling familiar to their loyal community.

The Future of Frozen

But packaging is just the beginning of Daily Harvest's retail evolution. Want to see their full strategy in action? Look no further than their recent product innovation play: a new Protein Smoothie line.

They didn't just randomly decide to jump on the protein trend—they'd been hearing this request from their customers for ages (which, honestly, shouldn't surprise anyone in CPG). 

And listening to customers is seriously paying off: 51% of new customers are grabbing a protein smoothie, and all three protein flavors have already shot into their top 10 SKUs across their entire portfolio. Instead of just cannibalizing their existing smoothie sales, these protein offerings are driving true incrementality—customers are actually adding these to their boxes on top of their usual orders. 

And the retail story? Just as strong. These protein smoothies just hit Kroger shelves and they're already seeing their highest velocities in the smoothie category. It's yet another example of their time-tested playbook: validate with your DTC customers before betting big on retail.

Turns out the best business strategy might just be thinking like a scientist: form bold hypotheses, test relentlessly, and let the data guide your next move.