In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Rebecca Urciuolo, a formulator with over 23 years of food and beverage experience at BevSource (FB Solutions Group), to dig into one of the most exciting and most misunderstood parts of building a CPG brand: working with a formulator to bring your product to life. From how to write a great project brief to what happens when things go sideways at the co-manufacturer, Rebecca shares hard-won lessons and insider knowledge that every founder — at any stage — needs to hear.

Rebecca opens with a clear message: the best founders are partners, not passengers. They come with a firm goal in mind, stay present through the iteration process, and actively want to learn — because understanding what you don't know will inevitably make your product better. Daniel reflects on his own experience formulating a beverage during the early pandemic days, calling it one of the most joyful parts of his CPG career.

The conversation covers the most common early-stage mistakes founders make when approaching a formulator: coming in too vague, being too rigid, or not understanding the regulatory and packaging constraints that shape what's actually possible. Rebecca explains how to write a strong project brief, why reference products are half the job, and how the tasting and feedback process works — including the vocabulary founders need to give useful, actionable notes.

They also get into the nuances that make beverage formulation uniquely complex: the chicken-and-egg relationship between formulation and co-manufacturer selection, how packaging constraints shape your formula, what to do when an ingredient gets discontinued, and how your product will continue to evolve on shelf over its entire life. Rebecca walks through the gold standard process at first production, what to watch for at the co-man, and how to think about COGS and ingredient exposure from the very beginning.

Whether you're developing your first SKU, scaling to a co-manufacturer, or trying to understand why your formula tastes different six months in, this episode gives you the practical framework you didn't know you needed.

Listen in as they discuss:

Why your project brief is the single most important thing you can bring to a formulator — and what it needs to include
How reference products and flavor inspiration cut feedback cycles and unlock a formulator's creativity
The vocabulary of tasting: body, brix, mouthfeel, and why learning to give articulate feedback changes everything
Why packaging and co-manufacturer selection can't be decoupled from formulation — and how to think about the chicken-and-egg problem
What happens at the first production run: the gold standard process, what to watch for, and when to bring your formulator on-site
How your product changes over time on shelf — and how shelf life studies help you understand what you're actually selling at month nine or twelve
COGS 101: novel ingredients, ingredient exposure, and why "welcome to capitalism" is the honest answer

Episode Links:

Rebecca Urciuolo – Formulator, BevSource (FB Solutions Group)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaurciuolo/

BevSource LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bevsource/

Website: https://www.bevsource.com

FB Solutions Group (FBSG) is the strategic partner for food & beverage entrepreneurs, providing end-to-end development, production, and sourcing solutions. Through our specialized divisions—BevSource, AlcSource and iTi Tropicals—we offer the operational expertise and infrastructure needed to optimize supply chains and accelerate growth for emerging brands.

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Show Links:

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Episode music by Super Fantastics