#251 - Scaling the Brand: Ops, Systems, and Simplicity with Mezcla and Doss

About this episode

The episode discusses the operational strategies and growth of Mezcla in the protein bar market, featuring insights from its President and COO and the operations cloud Doss.

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Yoga Charya, President and COO of Mezcla, and Sebastiaan Debrouwe from Doss, the operations cloud built for fast-growing CPG brands. Together, they trace the rise of Mezcla — one of the breakout brands in the crowded protein bar category — and unpack the operational philosophy that made it possible: simplicity scales. Yoga shares how Mezcla has grown 2–3x annually for several years running, earned a cult following in specialty retail before breaking into Target, Publix, Costco, and Whole Foods (where they've expanded from 3 SKUs in 3 regions to 11–12 SKUs nationwide), and recently closed a Series B to fuel continued growth. The secret? Relentless focus on product quality, an ultra-lean team of tier-one operators, and a deliberate effort to keep the supply chain as simple as possible at every stage. Sebastiaan adds the systems perspective — what Doss sees across the fast-growing brands they work with, why the real danger isn't complexity itself but the failure to design against it, and what separates brands that scale cleanly from those that get buried in operational debt. Whether you're just figuring…

People in this episode

Host: Daniel Scharff

Guests: Yoga Charya, Sebastiaan Debrouwe

Topics covered

• brand scaling
• operations
• simplicity in business
• CPG industry
• product quality
• growth strategies

Keywords

• Mezcla
• Doss
• protein bar
• operational philosophy
• product-led growth
• supply chain
• Series B funding

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mezcla, Doss, Target, Publix, Costco, Whole Foods

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