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Food & beverage is more crowded & more demanding than ever. Shoppers expect excitement, health, & real value at the same time. Trends move fast & signals get buried in noise. Ugly Talk focuses on what matters for 2026. Clear demand drivers. Channels that convert. Price & pack choices that protect margin. Tactics that move cases on shelf & repeat online. Real stories from builders who are winning right now.
Why You Should Attend
Get first hand & unfiltered insight from current operators about what is working today
Learn how winning teams turn ideas into products you can start building & testing immediately
See the skills & resources you need before you scale beyond a first launch
Build a high intent network of advisors partners collaborators & investors
Take home practical playbooks you can apply this quarter
Who You'll Meet
Founders building & scaling food & beverage brands across retail & ecommerce
Ecosystem enablers including co packers distributors brokers retail buyers & marketplace leads
Investors & advisors who value design brand & product quality as drivers of growth
Joe Rotondo - Founder & CEO of SMEARCASE
Joe Rotondo spent the past decade working with high-growth startups, specializing in brand strategy, digital marketing, & eCommerce operations. While in college, he founded Rocky Clark, a sustainable men's luxury denim brand focused on craftsmanship & ethical production. Being Italian, Joe grew up around food - with pasta Sundays as a family ritual - & got his start in his father's New Jersey deli, where he earned recognition for making the Best Bagel in NJ. He later helped scale multiple eCommerce businesses from $20M to $150M in annual revenue, combining creative vision with data-driven growth expertise. Joe loves a morning workout & sauna session along with cooking healthy meals at home. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Kabir Kurani - Founder & CEO of GetUp Nutrition
Kabir Kurani is a born-and-raised New Yorker from Manhattan who grew up competing in tennis tournaments across the country. Always active & fueled by caffeine, he turned that lifestyle into an idea while studying at NYU, a caffeinated granola snack made for people always on the move. With no business experience, he bootstrapped GetUp from scratch, relying on what he knew best: the hustle & grit of New York City.
Will Custis - Founder of HoopFuel
Will Custis aka The Corporate Hooper is the founder of HoopFuel, the first supplement brand specifically for basketball players. From building his own personal brand to launching a product & now raising to grow HoopFuel into a premier national brand, Will has leveraged modern marketing strategies & a content first approach to scale the brand to over $10k a month organically.
Glenn Johnson - Marketing Consultant at Fractional CMO
Glenn Johnson works with small brands, startups, & founders to address their marketing needs. Everyone needs something different, I craft a plan to help you address what you need, & a strategy to get it done.
A former VP/Creative Director at a Madison Avenue agency specializing in luxury & bespoke audiences, he brings expertise across multiple verticals. As a category-agnostic brand storyteller, he helps founders define their mission, vision & develop their brand business.
What We'll Talk About
What teams tried in 2025 that did not pay off & what they are doubling down on next
Which consumer signals deserve focus for 2026 & how to decide where to place your bets
New tools that speed product development demand planning content & retail execution including practical AI workflows & prompts you can use right away
The difference between building a product & building a company & how that changes hiring finance & distribution
How leaders are preparing now for 2026 including channel mix pricing promotion calendars & capital planning
Opply is the industry leader in AI-powered operations for CPG brands.
Built for growing brands, Opply is your end-to-end ops autopilot - saving you hundreds of hours a month, increasing profit margins, & strengthening cash flow so you can scale faster.
As your outsourced operations team, Opply runs your entire ops stack; managing all your orders from PO to delivery, predicting forecasts & ordering patterns, owning all supplier communications & consolidating payments into one monthly invoice paid on 60-90 day terms - even from your existing suppliers.
Trusted by thousands of F&B brands, Opply uses collective operations & buying power to give you access to unbeatable ingredient prices - typically reserved for global giants.
Exclusive Offers To Ugly Talk Members
Book a meeting with Opply & get entered to win a spotlight at our next sponsored event - limited to the first 20 brands!
Become an Opply customer & step into an exclusive 1-2-1 How to Run a Funding Round call with our Founder & CEO, Helen Murphy!
[Claim your offer here]
GREY Journal - Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
Venue Partner
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The Yard - Private offices & coworking spaces for individuals & teams.
About Ugly Talk:
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough aha! moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons & insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, & Miami, we've built a vibrant community of thousands of founders & industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Official Website: UglyTalk.com
[Official Event Page]
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