melanie kaplan & oPPal

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Parker Emerson, CEO and co-founder of BOROUX, the family-run water filter company in Pueblo, Colorado, making gravity-fed filtration systems from stainless steel.Parker started in his family's customer service department in 2012. For 25 years his parents ran one of the biggest Berkey dealers in the country, until an EPA inspection in 2022 shut them down and took a thriving direct-to-consumer business to almost zero overnight. He walks through what the silver in a filter has to do with federal pesticide rules, why they chose to build their own product instead of waiting, and how they launched BOROUX in about 10 months while keeping more than half the team.He also gets into testing every contaminant claim until the filter fails and publishing the failure point, what it cost to relaunch, and why they launch new products only after heavy market research. Plus running a flat team where the CEO is also the IT guy, what it's really like to work with your family, keeping plastic away from the water, and a pet water filter on the way.For 20% off BOROUX, use code READRECEIPT.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Brynn MacLennan, founder and CEO of Slate Flosser, the 3-in-1 electric flosser and flossing system invented by a dentist and approved by hygienists. Her pitch is simple: everyone knows they need to floss, and Slate just made it easy.Brynn has run companies since she was a kid, became a mom of five, and took over Slate the same month as its 2021 Kickstarter. She walks through launching in 147 Target doors this February, why the playbook that works online didn't work on a store shelf, and how 36% of people who buy a Slate Mini come back for the Pro within a month. She also gets into the hardest part of growing up as a founder: hiring a chief growth officer and letting the team move at their own speed.She also digs into why Slate keeps fulfillment in-house in Spokane, staffed by refugees, why Meta stopped being a money-making channel, and why TikTok doesn't fit a buyer who already invests in taking care of themselves. Plus what Amazon can take away in a week, what innovation costs in a device category, and the investor who said "don't follow up with me," then called three weeks later.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Daniel Goetz, founder and CEO of GoodPop, the Austin frozen pop brand making cleaned-up versions of the classics: creamsicles, bomb pops and strawberry shortcakes, built on real fruit and simple ingredients.Daniel started GoodPop as a senior at the University of Texas at Austin in 2009, after a trip to Mexico and a fresh fruit paleta from a street cart. He funded the first batches with his middle school lawn mowing savings and sold pops at farmers markets and the Austin bat bridge. Then came Austin City Limits, the festival he planned the whole launch around: 18,000 pops made over three weeks, cold rain, and four sold. A 3am fix to the website the next year turned into a 50,000-pop order and the money to print the first boxes.He also gets into why GoodPop stayed bootstrapped for 17 years, why the goal was always to be the best performer in every store and never the fastest growing, and what in-store sampling teaches you that ads can't. Plus a decade inside the factory protecting product quality, sourcing fruit directly from farmers, keeping a team of 35 lean, and why he finally started asking for advice.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Melanie Kaplan, founder of oPPal, the platform that matches a mom who is pregnant or freshly postpartum (a Little oPPal) with a trained mom a couple of steps ahead of her (a Big oPPal). Their slogan says it plainly: "A mom who gets it because she's been there too."Melanie spent her career in entertainment, lifestyle and impact PR and never wanted to start a company. That changed after her own postpartum experience, and an Instagram post that filled her inbox overnight. She walks through going down to 10 hours a week at her agency, a survey that drew 300 responses in 48 hours, and a free beta run on Squarespace, Typeform and iMessage that she calls "Love is Blind for moms."She also gets into the $20 model, a friends and family round, a PR-led launch built around a practical baby shower, the seven-video training every Big oPPal takes, and why growth comes from showing up in person, not ads. Plus why oPPal is web-based instead of another app, and why, in a world of AI chatbots, she is betting on one human connection.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Jeff Lee, co-founder and CEO of DIBS Beauty, the makeup brand that promises it will never be the brand that says "beautiful before, beautiful after," and builds for women in all 50 states, not just the coasts.Jeff traces his path from Stanford, Yale Law and corporate law to running A-Rod Corp as COO, where he says he learned how to be a CEO from Alex Rodriguez and spent two seasons producing Sunday Night Baseball from the seat next to him. He gets into the gap DIBS filled, visiting an Ulta Beauty in every state, and working the retail floor because, as he puts it, he is not the customer.He also digs into the CEO job itself: 15 to 25 decisions a day, hiring with case studies instead of rehearsed interview answers, bringing the team back to the office, and deleting his own job every year. Plus how AI is separating talent, and what happens to critical thinking for the next generation.For 10% off DIBS Beauty, use code READRECEIPT.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Angela Vranich, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Little Spoon, the brand that launched the first fresh baby food in 2017 and now feeds kids from infant formula through big kid snacks.Angela traces the build from two years of hacking together custom packaging and making baby food by hand in a tamale factory outside LA, to a Whole Foods launch that stalled and a pivot to direct-to-consumer that sold over a million meals in year one. She gets into branding for the parent instead of the kid, Operation Gravity, where every employee spends 45 minutes with a customer once a year, and the Target launch that became the largest food and beverage launch in the retailer's history.She also digs into why earning a parent's trust on first bites gives you the right to win every category after, launching infant formula to age down with customers, running an operation built on almost 20 co-packers, and how aging up with customers made direct-to-consumer work as ad costs kept rising.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Will Nitze, founder and CEO of IQBAR, the brain and body nutrition brand behind plant protein bars, IQMIX hydration, and instant coffee. Will traces the build from buckets of fiber syrup in his kitchen to a Kickstarter he treated as proof of concept, riding the keto wave on Amazon, the CVS launch that went sideways, and running a lean 15-person hub-and-spoke company. He digs into his idea of trend surface area, why being on shelf is a free Facebook ad, and why you should only take advice from people who did what you want to do in the last 24 months.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Rachel Hochhauser, co-founder of Piecework Puzzles, the art-forward puzzle brand whose puzzles look more like coffee table books than anything you'd find in a toy aisle.Rachel started Piecework in 2019 with her co-founder Jena Wolfe as a creative side project while she was running her agency, Major Studio. It started with a rained-in cabin full of old jigsaw puzzles and four puzzles made with no shot list and no business plan. Then the pandemic puzzle boom hit, and Piecework had to grow up fast.She gets into what came next: bringing on a president as co-owner to run the operations side, bootstrapping through tight cash cycles, and acquiring Areaware, the iconic design house Piecework had admired and stocked for years, while keeping it its own brand. She also shares why cocktail napkins, matches, and textiles now carry real weight next to puzzles, and her two pieces of advice for any brand going into wholesale: get to the right trade show, and get on Faire.Tune in for an honest look at running two brands at once, writing a debut novel on the side, and why every small business is held together with tape and bubblegum.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean reconnects with Joe Hollier, co-founder of The Light Phone, the intentionally simple phone built to do less on purpose. It handles calls, texts, maps, and music, with no social media, email, or browser to check or recheck.More than two years after their first conversation, Joe catches Sean up on what has changed. The Light Phone III is now the flagship, and the company just announced a flip phone that ships in 2027.Joe walks through the brutal supply-chain gauntlet of the last two years: 150 percent tariffs that forced a full production halt, then the AI-driven memory shortage he calls Ramageddon, which pushed a component that normally costs under $40 past $450 and forced another pause and a price increase.He also gets into the new open-source developer program he is most excited about, why a younger crowd is opting out through movements like the Summer of Ludd, and how a $299 flip phone and a $25-a-month plan try to lower the barrier for first-time and kids' phones.

In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean sits down with Michelle Arnau, co-founder and co-CEO of Mimikai, the first plant-based insect repellent proven to match DEET and Picaridin without the toxic chemistry.Michelle traces an unlikely path to founder: Wells Fargo commercial real estate workouts, a Kellogg MBA, twelve years at Method scaling it from unprofitable startup to an SC Johnson acquisition, then co-founding the clean pet care brand Rowan before winding it down. When a college friend introduced her to Stephanie Watson, who had spent years fighting the EPA to register undecanone, a compound from wild tomato plants and the first new repellent active in twenty-five years, she got on a plane to Australia the next week.She gets into the launch strategy behind a category-first product: why they led with Credo and REI before chasing mass shelf space, how they used velocity and repeat over door count, why she turned down a major retailer this year, and what it looks like to build with investors who back the long game over short-term revenue.Tune in for an honest look at building a regulatory moat, knowing a category cold before entering it, and what it takes to finally change an aisle your dad used as a kid!