Hello hello!
In case you didn’t hear, we had some BIG news to share today: we’re officially part of Morning Brew Inc.!
As a two-person team running this media biz for the past 2 years, this is the wildest, most exciting moment of our careers. Today, we officially become part of something much larger than ourselves and the business we built, and we are SO excited for what this means for the future of our content.
To us, Morning Brew Inc is the true pioneer of creative, engaging business media—just look at creators like Dan Toomey (Good Work), Macy Gilliam (Out There), Neal Freyman and Toby Howell (Morning Brew Daily). Express Checkout always aspired to that unique lens: speaking to professionals while being approachable to consumers. In building an audience of CPG professionals, we organically reached an audience of “curious consumers” too—the people who nerd out about the coolest new snacks, have a LOT to say about wellness trends, and are really annoying to grocery shop with.
Like MBI, we believe that thoughtfully curated, accessibly presented information makes professional audiences better at their jobs, and equally brings value and joy to consumer audiences.
That’s why this move makes so much sense, and why we are thrilled to share it with you. Here’s what it means for you:
Nothing about your experience of Express Checkout is changing. We’ll still be the two people behind our twice-weekly newsletter + weekly podcast, maintaining our unique voice and perspective. We’ll still gather the CPG + retail community through events, and we’ll still share our beloved carousels and short-form videos. :) It’ll still be the two of us leading the charge, and prioritizing our community above all else.
What will change is our ability to reach a larger audience, significantly improve the quality of our content, and put on more creative + larger-scale events. We’ll finally be able to execute some of the ideas that we’ve been sitting on, because we’ll have a whole team of incredible media professionals supporting us.
If you’re curious about why MBI went with us, check out CEO Robert Dippell’s LinkedIn post and this ADWEEK piece!
We’ve had a crazy few days preparing for this moment, so we’ll be keeping this newsletter short and sweet. If you’re a new reader, check out our past editions for a better sense of the Express Checkout experience! ✨
CPG & Consumer Goods
From Peloton instructor to CPG founder. Former Peloton instructor Kendall Toole and partner Alexander Brzozowski launched DRESSi, a dressing-and-drizzle line with 4g of protein per serving (via whey protein isolate) made with 100% olive oil. The dressings contain no seed oils, gums, or added sugar and come in four flavors: Chipotle Lime, Lemon Caesar, Green Goddess, and Bang Bang.
Probably not shocking to anyone reading this, but DRESSi isn’t the first sexy BFY sauce we’ve seen. In the past fews years we’ve seen She’s The Sauce, Sauce Revival and the soon-to-launch Lighten Up Foods, made with EPG—one of the first non-David products to use it!
Companies like Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods already proved out the demand for BFY salad dressings. But in Kendall’s announcement video, she specifically called out the other “healthy salad dressings” that included “avocado oil” (with air quotes) which we’ve now discovered is often a blend of oils. The differentiator here is that it’s 100% olive oil, with a few grams of added protein, and a cutesy squeeze bottle donning millennial pink. It’s a smart move for Kendall’s wellness-obsessed audience and an increasingly discerning cohort of BFY shoppers.
The final boss of protein. There we have it folks, Mars has finally released protein Cheez-Its. There will have 7g of protein per serving and 100% real cheese, rolling out to retail shelves nationwide this month.
Mars isn’t first to this party, though—in fact, they were beat at their own game. In May, WILDE launched protein cheese crackers made with chicken breast, bone broth and real cheese, with 12g of protein per serving vs. Cheez-It’s 7g. The WILDE ones are seriously tasty and I’m curious to see how the legit Cheez-It ones will compare to both WILDE’s and to the OG Cheez-It.
THC founders, zero THC. Nowadays founders Justin Tidwell and Anthony Puterman launched Unwind, a caffeine-free sparkling drink made with magnesium L-threonate and L-theanine for “everyday calm.” It’s in ~1,000 Walmart stores now, with a TikTok Shop launch in mid-October. The duo previously scaled Nowadays to $100M+ in sales in 3.5 years.
This is becoming a pattern. In July, the makers of Cantrip launched On the Brightside, a zero-THC “feel-good soda” made with Zembrin. Around the same time, Cann launched 0MG, its first zero-THC line, made with magnesium, L-theanine and passion flower. It’s all about finding a way to keep the “take the edge off” occasion but drop the THC.
A lot of this likely comes down to how uncertain things are with THC right now. The federal hemp ban is supposed to take effect this fall, with drinks getting an extra month until December, and some states, like New Jersey, have set their own deadlines on top of that. With that much up in the air, it makes sense that these founders would want a THC-free product to lean on, and it doesn’t hurt that it opens the door to retailers like Walmart, which have mostly steered clear of THC to date. We spoke in depth about this with Adam Terry founder of On the Brightside here in our podcast interview with him.
Finally, some REAL gummy supplement innovation. OLLY, the gummy supplement brand owned by Unilever, has launched Mochi Bites in four formulas: Beauty, Sleep, Multi and Energy. They have a soft, chewy mochi texture, just 1g of sugar per serving, and they’re vegan.
It’s great to see a brand like OLLY, which Unilever acquired seven years ago, come out with a new format before any emerging brand has. Usually it’s the startups that test something new and the bigger brands that follow, so this is a nice change. Mochi is such a unique and interesting take on the gummy, and the data seems to back it up, with interest in mochi-related products up 17.1% year over year, and up 45.1% on TikTok, according to Spate.nyc.
What this really validates, though, is that gummy supplement brands know they’re selling a treat just as much as they’re selling a wellness product. If OLLY was just about the benefits, R&D would focus on ingredient innovation, and launches would be propped up by claims, not by new foodie formats.
As from Punam Patel, OLLY’s VP of Product told us: **
“We were drawn to mochi’s soft, pillowy texture and the unique experience it creates, but the challenge was figuring out how to pair that experience with the functional benefits consumers expect from a daily supplement. We worked on bringing these two worlds together for over three years, rethinking what a supplement could look, feel and taste like, while still delivering on what’s inside. For us, Mochi Bites are about pushing the boundaries of the category and giving consumers more choice in how they support their wellness goals.”
Making fiber fun. Physician’s Choice, the supplement brand best known for its probiotics, is launching Fiber Jelly, a new snackable fiber treat with 6g of prebiotic fiber, 30 calories and 1g of sugar per serving. It hits TikTok Shop on 10/15 and Walmart on 10/24, where it’ll sell for $9.97 for a 7-count.
Fiber obviously isn’t new, and Physician’s Choice already sells a fiber powder and a fiber gummy. But this format feels like a peek into where fiber is going next. Launching on TikTok Shop first says a lot: the product itself is fun and unique in a way the rest of the lineup really isn’t. Most of Physician’s Choice’s products look pretty clinical and dry, while Fiber Jelly looks much more playful and social-first, which is exactly the kind of product that has a shot at going viral!
Celebrity doesn’t always pay the bills. Scarlett Johansson’s clean skincare brand, The Outset, is shutting down after four years in business. The brand hasn’t shared why, but co-founder and CEO Kate Foster stepped down in 2025. It launched DTC in 2022 before expanding into Sephora, Nordstrom and Amazon.
From what we saw, ScarJo was pretty involved in The Outset, so this might have just been a case of the brand never getting to the scale it needed. Still, it’s a good reminder that a famous name can only take you so far as a brand. The Outset now joins a long list of celebrity beauty brands that have shut down, like Kim Kardashian’s KKW Beauty, Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty, and Gwen Stefani’s GXVE Beauty.
TikTok <3s K-beauty. Dr.G, Korea’s No. 1 skincare brand, is pushing forward with its U.S. expansion with a TikTok Shop launch. The dermatologist-founded brand, which L’Oréal acquired in 2024, first debuted stateside on Amazon and is now bringing seven of its best-sellers and five exclusive bundles to TikTok Shop.
K-beauty keeps growing, with global sales up 53% year over year according to NielsenIQ, so it makes sense that L’Oréal picked TikTok Shop as Dr.G’s next stop.
At this point TikTok Shop is pretty clearly becoming the new Amazon. EMARKETER projects it’ll hit $23.4B in U.S. sales this year, up 48%, which would put it ahead of the U.S. ecommerce businesses of Target, Costco, Best Buy and Kroger. Retailers like Ulta, Sephora, Ralph Lauren, Olaplex and Best Buy have all opened TikTok storefronts recently to get in on the surge of sales.
Retail
Walmart’s making pricing digital. Walmart announced a customer-facing upgrade to its in-store digital price tags: shoppers can now use the Walmart app to flash a green light on the shelf label for any item they’re searching for. But because these are digital price tags, it’s raised concerns that these labels could enable “surge pricing.” Our new coworkers (🥹) covered this on the Morning Brew Daily podcast on Friday.
Funding, Mergers, Acquisitions
More creators on the cap table! Comedian and Therapuss podcast host Jake Shane has invested in Dolce Glow, the self-tanning brand that became Sephora’s No. 1 self-tanner within six months of launching there. It’s his first brand investment, but not his first foray into CPG—Shane is also the Chief Creative Officer of Katje’s, a vegan gummy candy company.
We’ve been seeing creator CPG investments more and more. Creators used to mostly launch their own brands, but now many are doing both. Alix Earle launched her skincare line, Reale Actives, and has also backed SipMargs and invested in Cymbiotika this summer. Jake Shane isn’t even the first big name on Dolce Glow’s cap table—Sofia Richie Grainge and Olivia Culpo joined the brand’s $11M Series A back in August. Brands are leaning into the trend, too! ESW Beauty recently named TikTok creators Katie Fang and Aliya Rachinski its first “creator equity partners.” There’s even a dinner series built around it, with Bulletpitch hosting a monthly “Influence Meets Venture” dinner connecting early-stage founders with top creators.
Clean milk finds a clean home. Three Trees, a 14-year-old clean-label plant-based milk brand, has been acquired by Next in Natural for an undisclosed sum. Next in Natural also owns Chameleon Cold Brew, pairing the brands as a coffee-and-milk duo poised to expand distribution nationwide.
The functional NA boom. Hiyo, a functional non-alcoholic “tonic” brand, raised an oversubscribed $20.8M Series B to expand its retail footprint and push deeper into live entertainment and nightlife.
Just as we mentioned above with the launch of Unwind, functional non-alc is a massively growing category of bevs—it almost feels like the next version of the prebiotic soda boom. Hiyo was ahead of the game—it was co-founded in 2019, developed for two years, then launched in 2021. Since then, its rolled out into over 11,000 retail locations nationwide (including Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and more) and secured a major multi-year national partnership with Live Nation (the same strategy that pushed Liquid Death to success).
Now, the brand seems to want to double down on that Live Nation strategy. If it can succeed at a concert, why not at a bar or a club?
Boujee soda bucks. Something & Nothing, a premium soda brand, raised $6.4M led by Venrex to fund its first national US consumer marketing campaign, bringing total raised to $15.7M. The UK-founded modern soda brand now generates 65%+ of revenue in the US, with 70% revenue growth in June–July 2026 and Amazon sales more than doubling.
There are a lot of modern soda brands out there. But Something & Nothing lives by its name: it offers a little something special in flavor (really unique, fruit-forward flavors like Hibiscus & Rose and Mango & Thai Basil) but nothing in terms of added sugar of sweeteners—just a natural base of fruit juice and botanicals.
The design itself rejects modern soda. Instead of leaning into the playful designs of its shelf companions, this brand is minimalist and art-driven, a sophisticated older cousin of the pops of the set.
AMAZING! We are so happy for y'all!!!
This is insane and amazing! Beyond excited for the future of express checkout!!!