The Kelces get saucy 🌶️

+ Instacart's $60M settlement, THC soda, and our 2025 year in review

Happy Holidays from all of us at Express Checkout (AKA, Nate and Jenna ◡̈).

2025 has been a transformative year for us: Nate officially went full-time, leaning fulling into his moniker as the CPG Guy. We brought Jenna fully into the fold, instantly making the newsletter sharper, funnier, and more nuanced. We doubled down on short-form video/our IG presence.

We launched a podcast, The Curious Consumer, and—though Jenna is still embarrassed to admit she co-hosts a podcast—people are not only listening, but seriously enjoying and learning from it. And somehow, we found ourselves hosting events where people actually showed up and walked away with new, meaningful connections.

What started as a side project is now a real media company. Together, we’ve built something we’re really dang proud of. And though we failed to whip up our own version of Spotify Wrapped (unlike every app, even Uber), we do have a few exciting stats to share 🎉:

• 89 newsletters sent (including this one) with ~700,000 total views on our Substack content

• Doubled our average monthly growth since switching to Substack in April

  • 66% year-over-year subscriber growth

• 3,000 podcast downloads since launching our show in September 2025 (P.S. If anyone has tips on viewing listens, not just downloads, please let us know!!)

• 14 events hosted, with over 1,000 attendees across them

• 3k to 22,000 Instagram followers in the past 3 months alone (pinch us?!)

  • 7 million views on our Instagram content

• 4.2M TikTok views, 300K likes, and 41K shares—turns out people really love CPG

So… what’s next for Express Checkout? In 2026, we’re going bigger. We’re expanding the podcast with guests and new series. We’re finally launching a YouTube channel. We’re hosting more in-person events, and getting seriously crafty with them (email us at hello@expresscheckout.co if you want to partner!).

And we’re dedicating even more time + resources to help you do your job better. As a reminder, we currently offer all of content for free. But in 2026, we’re going to be offering even more to our lovely paid subscribers!! We’ll be relaunching our Checkout Chat interview series with some of the coolest folks in consumer, and offering reports and long-form content exclusively for our paid subscribers.

It’s only $65/year or $6/month—less than an NYC latte—and can very likely be expensed (here’s a template of the email you can send your manager to request that, inspired by Rachel Karten ). As we ramp up our content output, we’ll adjust pricing, so….

Regardless of if you’re a paid or free subscriber, we want to hear from you: what you want more of, less of, and what we haven’t thought of yet. Take our 2-minute audience survey here.

Thank you for reading, showing up, and making this year as incredible as it was. We’ll see you in 2026!

—Nate & Jenna

---

News From the Week

CPG & Consumer Goods

• The energy drink wars: Alix vs Alex. Mega-influencer (and DWTS star) Alix Earle is joining GORGIE Energy—a female-founded and -focused energy drink brand—as a strategic investor. The brand was founded in 2023 by Michelle Cordeiro Grant, a serial entrepreneur known for previously founding the successful lingerie brand LIVELY. It’s quickly become the fastest-growing energy drink brand in natural channels, and has raised nearly $40 million in funding since launch.

  

  Someone tell us why this launch photo feels like a self-taken passport photo…

  • If this sounds like news from last week… close one! But you’re actually thinking of Alex Cooper launching Unwell Energy. And yes, the timing is…notable. Both Al(i)exs—who, as the chronically-online already know, apparently have some beef—are playing in the fast-growing energy drink space, particularly those targeting female consumers. We talked about this subcategory’s explosive growth in last weeks newsletter here!

• Every athlete needs a beverage brand. And that’s exactly why Bengals’ star Ja’Marr Chase is joining Flerish Hydration as an owner, representing the shift of celeb-backed brands from endorsements to equity.

  • Flerish is apparently a lot more than an electrolyte drink, boasting “next-level hydration” with ingredients like l-theanine, B and E vitamins, and zinc + magnesium. It’s sweetened with watermelon juice and cane sugar instead of artificial sweeteners—a trend we’re closely watching in 2026.

  • It’s also incredibly tasty! I got to try it about a year ago pre-launch. The liquid is SOLID - Nate

• Same, but different. Stateside Brands, the company behind Surfside—one of the fastest-growing alcohol brands in the US—is launching Super Lyte, a vodka + ade line with flavors like Fruit Punch and Lemon Lime. At 4.5% ABV, it’s sugar-free, 90-calories, and uncarbonated (which I predict is going to be another 2026 trend… - J). The spring release targets the Northeast and Southeast markets.

  

  • Does Super Lyte sound like Surfside? Yes, yes it does. But it seems like they’re differentiating on lower calories (well, 10 cal lower), no sugar (vs 2-3g), and more… let’s say… “diet-friendly” branding (though what we want to say is that it’s honestly quite sterile-looking and no fun).

• Just when we thought there were too many supplements… Rae returns. After a two-year hiatus, women-focused supplement brand Rae Wellness is relaunching. Its 2023 pause, which came after a highly successful 2019 DTC launch and expansion into Target, Whole Foods, and Walmart—was apparently due to retail challenges and investor misalignment. After thousands of customer requests, Founder Angie Tebbe reacquired the company, and is rebuilding it with eight core products focused on women’s wellness. It will be available direct-to-consumer initially.

• It’s tallow time for men’s skincare. Online creator Sahil Bloom launched Wild Roman, a natural men’s skincare brand inspired by his Indian grandmother’s coconut oil remedy and made with grass-fed tallow (of course), cold-pressed oils, and “wild-harvested botanicals” (fancy).

  

  • For those unfamiliar, Sahil Bloom is an author, entrepreneur, and investor known for his frameworks on personal growth, productivity, and wealth. He reaches millions of people weekly… but not because he’s a skincare guru.

  • Mass market—or even “masstige” (mass + prestige)—men’s skincare is a tough nut to crack. There isn’t the same breadth of brands and products targeting men as women (even if the products are identical). Sure, there are winning brands like Dr. Squatch and Harry’s, plus newer entrants like Jack Fir, Huron, and Geologie, but they’re still few and far between.

  • With Sahil’s following, this may help tip the scale—but will beef tallow be enough to get men to swap from Walgreens private-label Cerave dupes to coughing up $42 for face moisturizer?

• Now that’s what we call functional soda! Uncle Arnie’s, one of the fastest-growing THC beverage brands in the U.S., launched SodaPop, a THC-infused soda line in Strawberry, Orange, and Grape flavors.

  • As functional soda brands rise in the ranks, it was only a matter of time until something more functional came along 😉. Of course, Uncle Arnie’s isn’t the only THC soda brand—Cantrip and Flowerboy (the sub-brand of Summer House’s own Loverboy) both have THC-infused sodas, and there are plenty of THC sparkling bevs, like Cann.

eCommerce

• The only thing better than a Christmas check from Grandma? A TikTok Shop gift card. TikTok Shop launched digital gift cards, likely to compete with Amazon.

  • Apparently, this launch will also include an “interactive unboxing that captures [the recipient’s] reaction in real-time,” which is low key creepy but probably makes for good marketing material. 🤷‍♀️

  • TikTok is seriously doubling down on commerce, especially following its insane success over Black Friday/Cyber Monday—when the app recorded more than $500 million of sales in the U.S.

• Instacart’s in hot water… again. Instacart settled with the FTC for $60 million over allegations of deceptive practices, including false “free delivery” claims, misleading satisfaction guarantees, and unclear subscription terms (charging customers after their free trial of Instacart+)

  • Unfortunately for Instacart, this case is separate from the deceptive pricing allegations we discussed last week, which the company has apparently since ended in response to (a lot of) backlash.

• The Honest Company hits reset. Jessica Alba’s baby and beauty brand, The Honest Company, is stopping direct-to-consumer sales and shutting its mobile app by December 28, shifting to retail partnerships with Walmart and Target to focus on profitability and streamline operations amid a 6.7% revenue decline.

• Temu teams up with Shopify. Temu launched an app for Shopify merchants, which will enable US businesses to list products on its marketplace. The idea is to help boost local inventories and delivery speeds amid rising import costs and regulatory scrutiny with the app’s mostly Chinese brands.

  • This will be an interesting one to watch. Existing Temu shoppers are used to (very) low prices, and competing with Chinese merchants on this app may prove difficult for US brands. I’m curious to see how Temu will market US merchants—if they’ll be tagged/categorized, where they’ll land on search results, etc. - J

Retail

So ominous…

• Compost in-store. Amazon is teaming up with Mill, the at-home compost machine, to deploy commercial food waste technology at Whole Foods Market, converting in-store scraps into chicken feed. Mill also received investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.

  • While this may seem overdue, it’s encouraging to see a major grocery retailer tackle food waste at the store level. Food waste is a significant problem in the US: ~30% of food in grocery stores gets thrown away, and US retail stores generate roughly 16 billion pounds of food waste annually.

  • While retail waste is significant, home composting presents an even larger opportunity. American households generate 43% of all food waste—nearly 40 million tons annually, representing ~30% of the entire US food supply. We’re optimistic that this investment could help Mill expand awareness of home composting solutions.

• Collab szn incoming. Starbucks hired Neiv Toledano from E.l.f. Cosmetics as its first “senior marketing manager of fashion and beauty.” If you’re double-taking right now, yes, we are talking about the same Starbucks. This move doesn’t mean that Starbucks locations will have beauty bars anytime soon, but it is signaling a bold move into cultural collaborations that could boost brand engagement amid stagnant sales.

Funding

• From media partner to equity partner. Foodbeast Ventures, the new venture arm of Foodbeast Media—a food-focused media company and influencer network with 2M followers on IG—made its first investment in Habiza Hummus, a Gen Z-founded hummus brand that became Erewhon’s top seller and has recently launched in Target.

  • It’s a smart setup for both sides: Habiza avoids the overhead of building an in-house content team, while Foodbeast does what it does best—storytelling, audience building, and creating content that moves product. As Jonathan Srour, the now 23-year-old founder of Habiza, told us:

    “Part of this investment is Foodbeast’s amazing infrastructure becoming Habiza’s full time marketing team with [Foodbeast’s founder] Elie being the Chief Content Officer. This allows us to grow the organizations marketing output while still being a lean team amidst rapid growth."

    

  • The hummus aisle is pretty competitive right now, with some great new-age players on the scene (including Little Sesame, Ithaca, and of course, Habiza). This post from Entrepreneur’s Jason Feifer—and its subsequent comments from Ithaca’s Chris Kirby—gave us a lot to chew on re: standing out in the crowded hummus aisle.

• $15M for science-backed beauty. Molly Sims’s skincare brand YSE Beauty—which targets women over 35—just closed a $15M Series A funding round to boost its growth at Sephora and expand e-commerce. With 120% revenue growth in 2025, they’re on track for nearly $30M next year.

  • This funding comes as we’ve been seeing a major rise in clinically backed and science-driven skincare. We’re seeing brands reject the “clean beauty” fear-mongering in favor of proven synthetic actives like urea, hypochlorous acid, and glycerin. Brands like dermatologist-founded Prequel are leaning heavily into this through their accessible and educational marketing and their mass market pricing and distribution. Skincare brand BYOMA has generated over $500 million in retail sales since its 2022 launch, driven by its focus on affordable, science-backed skin barrier repair. Following rapid growth, the brand was acquired by the Bansk Group in September 2025. This all reflects growing consumer demand for transparent, and more importantly efficacy-driven products backed by testing.

• The Kelces are heating things up. Winnie Capital, the private family office of NFL and podcast star Jason Kelce and equally-famed podcast star Kylie Kelce, made a strategic equity investment (for an undisclosed amount) in Hank Sauce, a New Jersey-based hot sauce maker.

  • Hank was made by two college roommates who didn’t like hot sauce, and sought out to create a more flavor-forward (not just heat-forward) option—claiming they’re “the hot sauce for people who don’t like hot sauce.” The brand has grown exclusively through markets, word-of-mouth, and local restaurants (including their own).

    

    SO TASTY

  • I actually discovered Hank Sauce at a farmers market on the Jersey Shore this summer, and proceeded to chat with their team for a half hour, nerding out on all things CPG (as one does). I love their sauce, but I also love their story, and it’s so cool to see Philly icons Jason and Kylie invest in a brand made in their backyard. - J

• Laird Superfood makes a big bet on superfoods. The creamer, coffee, and snack brand just acquired Navitas—an organic brand offering plant-based superfood powders, berries, seeds, blends—for $38.5 million (in cash?!).

  • Laird was able to fund this acquisition through the sale of $50 million of Series A convertible preferred stock to affiliates of private equity firm Nexus Capital Management.

• Starface eyes strategic opportunities. Starface, the skincare brand known for its star-shaped pimple patches—hired investment bank Baird to explore deal options, with a potential exit in 2027 as it aims to diversify beyond pimple patches, which make up 70% of sales. The brand’s estimated net sales exceed $100 million.

• It’s getting saucy in here! Pasta sauce brand Hoboken Farms raised $4 million, a majority of which came direct from their own customer base.

  • Hoboken Farms isn’t one of those new-age fancy brands—they’ve been around since 1992 (like Rao’s) when musician Brad Finkel started it as a side-hustle. The brand earned its cult following through New Jersey farmers markets, and in 2023, successfully transitioned to supermarket shelf. It’s now available at retailers like Whole Foods, Wegmans, and Stop & Shop.

  • The pasta sauce category has been heating up. Just last week, Campbell’s invested $286M for a 49% stake in La Regina, the manufacturer of Rao’s—just one year after acquiring Rao’s parent company Sovos Brands for $2.7B. We dove into this saucy category in a recent newsletter.

• Shoot your shot. Hot Box Pretzels, a direct-to-consumer pretzel brand featured on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, has received a minority investment from Founders Row—after the founder, a then 20-year-old college dropout with a pretzel food truck, cold DM’d the creator of Founders Row (and founder of Sweathouz), Jamie Weeks.

  • Hot Box Pretzels ships fresh not frozen, but I could see the brand pushing into the frozen aisle to simplify logistics as they head to retail. And I hope they get their pretzels everywhere because I fucking love a soft pretzel more than anything. - N

• NextFoods secures its NextDollar. The brand behind GoodBelly and Cheribundi raised $10 million in funding led by ECP Growth.

  • This could be the start of the next massive functional CPG brand. NextFoods was started by industry veterans Steve Demos (who founded Silk Soymilk) and Todd Beckman in 2006. That same year, they launched GoodBelly, a line of probiotic juice drinks and shots, and later acquired Cheribundi, a tart cherry juice, in 2023.

Check out our recent episode of The Curious Consumer! We covered everything from zero-sugar Oreos to Alex Cooper’s (aforementioned) energy drink and the business of beauty brands launching lip care.

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe, like, leave a comment, and share it! It helps us continue to bring you the most interesting news + nuance in consumer and retail every week.