About this episode

Louis D'Angelo discusses the founding and growth of Foundation Foods, emphasizing their strict ingredient standards and business practices.

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Louis D'Angelo, founder of Foundation Foods, a beloved natural products distributor serving Southern California's most quality-focused retailers, to talk about how the company was built, what it takes to get on their shelves, and why strict ingredient standards have always been non-negotiable. Louis got his start freelancing as a de facto sales rep for small organic brands before ever knowing what a broker was. His path to founding Foundation Foods took a dramatic turn when a rattlesnake bite left him hospitalized for two weeks, during which the distributor he'd been working for stopped paying him and every brand he represented. That crisis - paired with a sudden sense of clarity - led him to take out a $25,000 loan, get his own warehouse in 2018, and build Foundation Foods from the ground up. Daniel and Louis dig into the strict organic ingredient standards Foundation Foods holds brands to, why they never charge brands beyond their margin, how they've grown from a scrappy one-truck operation into a trusted distributor for retailers like Erewhon, Jimbo's, PCC, and now Whole Foods, and exactly what…

People in this episode

Host: Daniel Scharff

Guest: Louis D'Angelo

Topics covered

• grocery distribution
• organic standards
• entrepreneurship
• business growth
• Southern California

Keywords

• Foundation Foods
• grocery distributor
• organic ingredients
• Southern California
• entrepreneurship
• business growth
• retailers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Foundation Foods, Erewhon, Jimbo's, PCC, Whole Foods

More episodes of The Startup CPG Podcast

• #265: Marion Nestle on Food Politics and the Cereal Aisle · September 8, 2026 · 42 min
• Turning Customers Into Investors: A Popcorn Brand's Crowdfunding Playbook · September 5, 2026 · 38 min
• She Couldn't Find a Clean Electrolyte Brand, So She Created One · September 4, 2026 · 31 min
• R&D RADIO: Building a Reliable Formula Brand with Casey Bauer, COO, Bobbie · August 31, 2026 · 25 min
• From Hand Sanitizer to Tomato Sauce - How Sauz Went From 10 Doors to 3,500 in a Year · August 29, 2026 · 51 min
• Happy Caapi: The First Non-Hallucinogenic Ayahuasca Vine Supplement · August 28, 2026 · 34 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Startup CPG Podcast podcast page.