Founder Feature: Marilyn Yang of Popadelics

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Grace Kennedy chats with Marilyn Yang, co-founder and CEO of Popadelics—the first-of-its-kind crunchy shiitake mushroom chip brand. Marilyn shares the story of how she and her husband turned a pandemic-era idea into a nationwide retail brand, detailing their journey from finance to CPG, and the behind-the-scenes grind of product development, branding, pivoting from DTC to retail, and navigating funding without losing creative control.

She dives into how they created bold, edgy branding to change perceptions around mushrooms, launched with eye-catching flavors like Rosemary + Salt and Twisted Thai Chili, and scaled the brand through demos, trade shows, and sheer hustle. Plus, she shares what it’s like getting on shelves at places like Whole Foods, Urban Outfitters, and even airport stores, all while building a company rooted in a bigger mission to make all mushrooms—culinary and psychedelic—mainstream.

Follow along for more founder stories and behind-the-scenes startup wisdom—tune in now!

Listen in as they share about:

Popadelics Founding Story
Flavor Development
Initial Launch Strategy
Go-to-Market Strategy
Funding & Self-Financing
Pitching & Investor Readiness
Biggest Challenges and Future Goals

Episode Links:

Website: https://popadelics.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/popadelics/

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Show Links:

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Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

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0:00.0	And so, you know, the economics of digital advertising weren't at all the same when we finally launched.
0:15.7	Neither was the competitive landscape.
0:17.7	And so while we initially launched, I guess, in 2022, planning to be really
0:24.3	D to C within, I think, a month, we were like, okay, this doesn't really make sense anymore,
0:30.6	not only because of the economics, but the world opened back up. There were opportunities now in
0:34.2	retail and farmers markets, and we were going to close ourselves off to that
0:37.8	obviously. But that did require us to actually do a number of changes or make a number of changes
0:43.9	to our product. So our original launch was in 2022, but I would say our more retail appropriate
0:49.3	product wasn't launched until 2023. And so that's kind of how the shift happened from, I think,
0:56.3	us thinking that we would be due to see to us now being over 90% of our business is retail.
1:04.3	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the start of CPG podcast.
1:08.6	This is Grace, and I'm here with another founder feature.
1:12.4	Today I'm talking to Marilyn Yang, the co-founder of Papadelix's crunchy mushroom chips.
1:19.1	Papadelix takes Chitaki mushrooms and reimagines them for the modern superfood snacker,
1:24.6	creating mushroom chips with three delicious flavors, truffle parm, Thai chili,
1:30.1	and rosemary and salt. Papadelix launched in 2022, and they are now in over 3,000 stores
1:36.7	from Whole Foods to CVS and an airport chain. We chat all about their road to retail,
1:43.0	bootstrapping their early stage business, and so much more.
1:47.1	I hope you enjoy this episode, and as always, let me know what you think.
1:53.6	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the start of CPG podcast.
1:58.2	This is Grace, and I'm joined by Marilyn, the founder of Papadelix. Welcome to the show,
2:04.2	Marilyn. Yeah, thanks again, Grace, for having me. So excited to have you. I'm a fan of Papadelix,
	...

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