Naming, Emotion and the Hello Breakthrough

This episode is brought to you by The Hidden Gems.Hiring agencies is risky — most overpromise and underdeliver. The Hidden Gems connects founders with highly vetted, brand-beloved boutique agencies across media, creative, dev/design, events, social, and more — at preferred rates.

They’ve supported brands like Dr. Squatch, Monster Energy, Gorilla Mind, FIGS, and Saatva.

David Drexler is offering his service free forever to anyone in the Consumer VC community who mentions the show.Learn more: https://thehiddengems.com/

Most consumer brands don’t fail because of product.
They fail because they forget how to connect.

In this episode, Mike sits down with Craig Dubitsky, founder of EOS, hello products, and now Happy Coffee. Craig has built multiple category-defining brands by turning everyday commodities into emotional, playful, design-forward experiences.

From reinventing lip balm to reimagining toothpaste — and now taking on coffee — Craig shares how he thinks about brand personality, retail, packaging, and creating products people genuinely love.

This conversation goes deep into creativity, mass retail strategy, pricing, storytelling, and why joy is actually a serious competitive advantage.

You’ll learn:
✅ How Craig turned EOS into a cultural phenomenon
✅ Why branding is about emotion, not features
✅ The real secret behind hello’s success in oral care
✅ How to win in “boring” categories
✅ Why mass doesn’t have to mean generic
✅ The role of design in driving retail velocity
✅ What most founders misunderstand about differentiation
✅ Why Craig is building Happy Coffee differently
✅ How to build brands people feel something for

👉 If you're building in consumer and want to understand how emotional connection drives scale, this episode is a masterclass.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
02:00 Craig’s early career & first entrepreneurial instincts
05:00 The idea behind EOS
10:00 Making lip balm emotional & design-led
15:00 Scaling EOS into mass retail
20:00 The power of playfulness in branding
25:00 Founding hello products
30:00 Reinventing toothpaste & oral care
35:00 Competing in commoditized categories
40:00 Packaging as a strategic weapon
45:00 How to win shelf space in mass retail
50:00 Why most brands overcomplicate messaging
55:00 Emotional connection vs functional benefits
01:00:00 Retail relationships & long-term brand building
01:05:00 Mistakes founders make scaling too fast
01:10:00 How Craig evaluates new ideas
01:15:00 The origin of Happy Coffee
01:20:00 Rethinking coffee positioning
01:25:00 What Craig is doing differently this time
01:30:00 Lessons from building multiple brands
01:34:00 Advice for consumer founders01:37:00 Final thoughts

📬 Subscribe for more founder stories & scaling insights:
👉 The Consumer VC Newsletter – https://www.theconsumervc.com/

Follow Mike Gelb:Twitter / IG / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc