From Surviving a Plane Crash to Building Baby Formula and Energy Drink Brands: Richard Lavar

This episode is brought to you by Highbeam.Highbeam is the all-in-one banking and cash management platform built for consumer brands – https://www.highbeam.co/capital?partn...Richard Laver isn't your typical founder.At age 12, he survived a plane crash that killed 137 people—including his father. Years later, he built Kate Farms to save his daughter's life, scaling it to hospitals nationwide and raising $75M. Then he walked away from it all.Now, he’s back with Lucky Energy—a clean, purpose-driven energy drink brand that just raised $14M.In this powerful episode, Richard shares:The personal tragedy that shaped his missionHow he scaled a life-saving formula into a national brandWhy he believes the energy drink industry is brokenThe strategy behind launching Lucky Energy in a saturated marketHow to build trust, win retail, and raise capital in 2024If you're in CPG, startup land, or just love founder stories with real heart and hustle—this is the one. Topics:Surviving tragedy and finding purposeBuilding Kate Farms from kitchen to $75M Series CWhat makes energy drinks so hard to win inWhy most brands fail at retail (and how to fix it)Richard’s $14M raise and plans for Lucky Energy🎧 Subscribe & Listen: 🌐 Website & Newsletter → https://www.theconsumervc.com/ 🎧 Youtube→ https://www.youtube.com/@consumervc  🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...📱 Follow Mike Gelb Instagram → @mikegelb TikTok → @consumervc Twitter → @mikegelb#richardlaver #energydrinkstartup #founderstory #consumerbrands #katFarms #luckyenergy #cleanenergy #startuplife #venturecapital #founderjourney #consumervc