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Hey friends,
On today’s episode, I chat with Michelle Razavi, founder and CEO of Elavi, the better-for-you snack brand known for its protein brownies and dessert-inspired products made with clean ingredients.
Michelle started Elavi while working long days at Sephora and teaching fitness classes at Equinox, struggling to find protein snacks that didn’t upset her stomach. That frustration led her to start making her own products at home, which eventually turned into a fast-growing CPG brand now sold in retailers like Costco, Whole Foods, and H-E-B.
Elavi evolved from protein bars to cashew spreads to protein brownies. But in order to get to protein brownies, Michelle made the tough decision to kill her first product line. They figured out product-market fit through “permissible indulgence.”
She also shares how Elavi scaled quickly through Costco, how she thinks about profitable growth vs vanity retail, and why discipline around unit economics matters more than ever in today’s funding environment.
If you’re interested in building a food brand, retail strategy, or how to navigate product pivots, this episode is a great look at what it really takes to build and scale in CPG.
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Here’s what you’ll learn:
✅ Why Michelle killed her first product line (and why it was the right move)
✅ How Elavi found product-market fit with protein brownies
✅ Why “permissible indulgence” is working in today’s market
✅ How to use Costco as a growth and validation channel
✅ The difference between profitable vs vanity retail accounts
✅ How to think about channel strategy across mass vs natural
✅ Why timing matters when expanding into retailers like Whole Foods
✅ How to approach fundraising as a first-time founder
✅ Why building in public can attract the right investors
✅ How to balance growth with profitability in CPG
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:00 Working 16-hour days before starting
03:00 The problem with protein snacks
05:00 Building products at home
07:00 Launching right before COVID
10:00 Losing in-person sampling overnight
14:00 Why the first product didn’t scale
18:00 Finding product-market fit with a new category
22:00 Killing the original product line
27:00 The “permissible indulgence” thesis
31:00 Launching protein brownies
35:00 Getting into Costco
39:00 How Costco changed the business
43:00 Retail strategy: profitability first
47:00 The dangers of bad retail deals
51:00 Channel strategy & cash flow realities
55:00 Cold outreach that actually worked
59:00 Why demos matter more than you think
01:03:00 Packaging that converts instantly
01:07:00 Fundraising mistakes founders make
01:11:00 Why chasing investors doesn’t work
Thanks for listening!
