On this episode, we’re joined by Chris Robb and Adam Spriggs, the duo behind The Angel Group - one of the most influential early-stage investment communities in CPG - and Supernatural Ventures.

Between them, they’ve backed breakout brands like Siete, Poppi, Bachan’s, Garage Beer, and Painterland Sisters. They’ve built a reputation for spotting winning founders long before the rest of the industry takes notice.

Chris and Adam unpack what they’re seeing across today’s early-stage CPG landscape - from what categories they’re most intrigued by, to how they evaluate founders, products, and data when there’s very little of it to go on. They share their frameworks for diligence, talk through the stories behind some of their flagship investments, and outline what truly differentiated brands have in common.

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Episode Highlights:

💸 How The Angel Group and Supernatural Ventures identify breakout brands early
🥇 The story behind their investments in Siete, Poppi, and Bachan’s
📊 How founders get forecasting wrong, and how to fix it
🚀 Why speed is becoming the new differentiator in CPG
📦 The importance of merchandising and store-level excellence
🧠 What truly makes a brand “differentiated” in 2025
📋 How to brief an agency the right way
💬 The biggest fundraising mistakes founders make
❤️ Why Chris actually enjoys the fundraising process

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Table of Contents:
00:42:14 - The Angel Group overview
03:14:02 - Supernatural Ventures overview
06:06:12 - The early stage CPG landscape today
09:34:04 - Overhyped and underhyped categories
13:07:24 - Investment philosophy and eval process
20:52:21 - Forecasting, how founders get it wrong
23:10:20 - How and why they invested in Siete so early
25:12:22 - How and why they invested in Poppi so early
27:11:01 - How and why they invested in Bachan’s so early
30:47:20 - Founders, green and red flags
34:30:08 - Will they make a bet on a founder new to CPG
37:50:07 - What a truly differentiated brand looks like
39:42:24 - Speed is now going to be the big differentiator
40:11:28 - Don’t let the copacker dictate your product
42:58:09 - What a good agency brief looks like
44:49:24 - The importance of merchandising
47:50:02 - Chris’ best advice for founders
48:42:27 - A good fundraising process, how to screw it up
50:44:28 - The biggest mistake founders make with fundraising
51:43:17 - Why Chris likes fundraising

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Links:
The Angel Group - https://www.wearetheangelgroup.com
Supernatural Ventures - https://www.supernatural.ventures
Follow Adam Spriggs on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-spriggs-69a91b53/
Follow Chris Robb on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-robb-9a522931/
Follow me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

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