This Commerce Life

What does it look like to bootstrap a CPG brand from your kitchen, survive an acquisition, and then pivot into a category that barely existed? Melissa L'Heureux-Hache, co-founder of Vegain — a Vancouver-based plant-based sports nutrition company — shares the full story with Phil and Kenny on This Commerce Life.

From launching a vegan hemp skincare brand in Toronto (with zero ability to advertise on any major digital platform), to doing 40+ trade shows in a single year, to getting acquired by a public company in 2019, to co-creating Surge — North America's first clear vegan protein in a can — Melissa's entrepreneurial journey is one of the most honest and energizing stories we've told on this podcast.

And if that wasn't enough? She also opened a café and retail storefront on Vancouver's Seawall. Because why not.

In this episode, we get into:

How Melissa and her partner Eden bootstrapped and sold their first CPG company with no science background

The challenge of advertising a hemp-based product when the internet thought you were selling drugs

What it actually feels like to go through an acquisition and work for the acquiring company for a year

The origin story of Vegain and why they launched with one of the most niche SKUs possible — a vegan mass gainer

The accidental innovation behind Surge — and why they pitched it at CHFA Launchpad before the product even existed

Why they opened a café (and what it taught them about food service, staff culture, and community)

The retail expansion push and what's next for Vegain

Connect with Vegain: 🌐 vegain.ca 📍 Find them on the Vancouver Seawall

Connect with This Commerce Life: 🌐 thiscommercelife.com 📱 Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube

Phil and Kenny pull up a chair for a candid check-in — no guest, no agenda, just an honest conversation about where This Commerce Life has been, where it's going, and why what they do matters more than ever for Canadian food and beverage brands.

After 460+ episodes and eight years in, Phil and Kenny reflect on a pivotal shift: This Commerce Life was never just a podcast — it was always an education platform, and they're now building it that way. From a refreshed website and updated brand positioning to formal curricula, national accelerator programs, and a growing roster of food association partnerships, TCL is levelling up.

In this episode:

Why TCL is repositioning as a retail education platform — not just a podcast

The honest truth about how most CPG brands fail (and what to do about it)

Why brokers and distributors should be sending unready brands their way

TCL's plans to bring retail fundamentals workshops to Ontario, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland

Partnerships with BC Food & Beverage, Food & Beverage Manitoba, and beyond

Their upcoming trip to Expo Antad & Alimentaria in Guadalajara, Mexico (May 19–21) — why Canadian brands can't ignore the Mexican market

Why SIAL Paris is next on the radar — and what European trade intelligence means for Canadian exporters

The loneliness of running a food brand — and why community is the underrated competitive advantage

TCL's real download numbers (15,000 in a week — yes, really), and why Kenny still doesn't believe it

Whether you're a food entrepreneur just getting started, a broker looking for retail-ready brands, or a food association supporting Canadian CPG — this episode is your invitation to work with Phil and Kenny.

🌐 Visit: www.thiscommercelife.com 📩 Reach out if you're a brand under $1M trying to grow, or a food association looking for a teaching partner.

What if you could invest in promising Canadian startups for as little as $5,000 — and help a food or CPG brand scale to retail shelves at the same time?

 

In this episode of This Commerce Life, Phil and Kenny sit down with Jesse Wiebe, Community Development Manager and key figure at Startup TNT — an Edmonton-based angel investing syndicate that's democratizing early-stage investment across Canada.

 

Jesse shares his unconventional path: from growing up on a Saskatchewan farm to working in Gordon Ramsay's kitchen, bartending through an economics degree at York University, and eventually returning home after COVID wiped out his job, his apartment (fire above his unit), and his relationship — all at once. Out of that reset came a mission to activate Canadian capital and build a real startup ecosystem outside of Toronto.

 

In this episode:

✅ What Startup TNT is and how their stage-gate investment model works

✅ Why Canada is losing its best founders to the U.S. — and what to do about it

✅ How CPG industry veterans can put their retail skills to work as angel investors

✅ The difference between VC, angel investing, and family offices (explained simply)

✅ How early-stage food and beverage brands can apply for funding

✅ Why "playing Moneyball" is the right strategy for Canadian startups

✅ Portfolio companies to watch: Vegain, Seven Summit Snacks, Toothpod, Scription, and more

 

If you work in Canadian CPG, retail buying, or food and beverage — this episode is your introduction to a funding model that could change how brands you love get built.

 

🎙️ Guest: Jesse Wiebe | Startup TNT | Saskatoon, SK

🎙️ Hosts: Phil Chang & Kenny Vannucci | This Commerce Life

 

📩 Interested in investing or applying for funding?

Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn or visit startuptnt.com

 

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🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

 

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What do the Canadian Shield, a fourth-generation family business, and a trade show floor in Germany have in common? Wild rice — and one of the most remarkable food origin stories you've never heard.

In this episode of This Commerce Life, Phil Chang and Kenny Vannucci sit down with Matt Ratuski, fourth-generation owner of Floating Leaf Fine Foods, whose family has been harvesting Canadian wild rice since 1935. From his great-grandfather trading fish with First Nations communities in Keewatin, Ontario, to building one of Canada's first wild rice processing facilities, Matt's story is equal parts frontier history and modern food entrepreneurship.

We dig into how Canadian wild rice is still harvested the old-fashioned way — in remote rivers, streams, and bogs across northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario — and why that makes it fundamentally different from the cultivated rice grown in the U.S. We also cover the deep, multi-generational relationships with First Nations harvesters, the wild crop's two-to-three-week harvest window, and why Europe discovered this superfood long before Canadians did.

Plus: why innovation in food always requires education, what it takes to build a Canadian food brand with global reach, and why Phil is about to start cooking wild rice on camera.

 

check out Floating Leaf here: https://eatwildrice.ca/

What do you do when the soda you started making to complement your craft brewery ends up outgrowing the brewery itself? That's exactly what happened to Diana, co-founder of Callister Soda. 

In this episode, Diana walks us through her unlikely journey — from office worker dreaming of a sustainable farm, to opening Callister Brewing in Vancouver in 2015, to hand-capping bottles and hand-seaming cans as her natural soda line quietly took on a life of its own. She shares the hard lessons of navigating supply chain chaos, a craft beer market in decline, and a rent increase that tripled over a decade — and how a perfectly timed facility opportunity in Port Coquitlam gave Callister Soda the home it needed to grow. If you're a food or beverage founder wondering whether to follow the momentum or stay the course, Diana's story is one you'll want to hear.

 

Check out Callister here: https://callistersoda.com/