In this episode of R&D Radio, hosted by food scientist Adam Yee, Adam sits down with Monte Ammons, founder of Liquid Sherpas. With more than 30 years spanning food service, Coca-Cola, Community Coffee, and natural ingredient sales at Dohler, Monte brings a uniquely operational lens to product development — one built not in a lab, but on the floor of real businesses learning hard lessons the hard way.

Monte makes the case that most founders jump straight into formulation when they should be doing the opposite: starting with a product brief, understanding the business, and doing the competitive homework before a single ingredient is sourced. He walks through how one client nearly launched into a saturated market — then pivoted his entire proposition 35 degrees by doing the upfront work first.

Listen in as they discuss:

Why formulation should be one of the last steps in product development, not the first
What a technical product brief is and how it prevents costly downstream surprises
How a client shifted consumer target, functional benefit, format, and channel — before spending real money
The realities of natural ingredient supply chains: seasonality, tariffs, sedimentation, and more
Why founders should start small, stay flexible, and invest as little as possible early on
How to research your category by talking to founders, breweries, and operators who've done it
The role of AI as a research accelerator — and why you still shouldn't ask it to develop your formula
Why the beverage industry's failure rate is so high, and what separates founders who make it

Episode Links:
Monte Ammons — Founder, Liquid Sherpas
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ammons/
🔗 Website: www.liquidsherpas.com

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Show Links:

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Episode music by Super Fantastics