Adam Farmer / The Farmer Companies
Adam Farmer is the CEO of The Farmer Companies. Also known as the team behind Cabot Mac & Cheese, Nathan’s Beef Sticks, and Guinness Pretzel Pieces. He joins Start Here to talk about scaling in the food space, striking smart partnerships, and what it really takes to get snacks on shelves everywhere. If CPG is your thing, you gotta tune in.
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Nicole Eaton
Welcome to the Start Here podcast, sharing the stories of active, aspiring, and accidental entrepreneurs.
Nicole Eaton
Today we’re sitting down with Adam Farmer, CEO and founder of Farmer Companies, Vermont’s most active investor and operator of iconic food and CPG brands. Welcome, Adam. I’m Nicole.
Dave Bradbury
I’m Dave Bradbury.
Nicole Eaton
And we’re recording live from the VCET Start Here podcast room.
Dave Bradbury
Welcome, Adam.
Adam Farmer
Thanks for having me. This is my first podcast.
Nicole Eaton
Really?
Dave Bradbury
I thought he made that up on the way up the stairs.
Adam Farmer
I try to stay under the radar.
Dave Bradbury
This is our 104th episode, but I’m feeling like a rookie today, so we’ll do our best.
Nicole Eaton
I feel like a rookie too.
Dave Bradbury
Let’s do this together.
Nicole Eaton
To start high-level and set the stage, what is Farmer Companies?
Adam Farmer
In simple terms, we have a straightforward business model: we love iconic brands that can quickly expand into new market verticals. It started with Cabot Cheese, a Vermont staple known for making the best cheddar in the world. We saw an opportunity for Cabot to excel in cheese-based products beyond cheese itself. Through a licensing agreement, we turned that into one of the fastest-growing popcorn brands in the country. Our model is replicable—find a great brand that can extend into an adjacent category with lots of white space. We expand our portfolio through licensing and, more recently, acquisitions. Last summer, we acquired Wisps, the number-one cheese crisp in the United States, which was exciting.
Nicole Eaton
Why do you look shocked?
Dave Bradbury
That’s awesome to hear. How does it feel to have bought that?
Adam Farmer
We’re thrilled. It made perfect sense for our portfolio. Now we have five brands—one owned, four licensed—and we’re working on other exciting projects, all under one company with a talented team.
Dave Bradbury
Can you name the brands alphabetically?
Adam Farmer
Cabot, Guinness, Nathan’s, Newman’s Own, Wisps.
Dave Bradbury
Nathan’s Famous, right? Sorry, just a brain teaser.
Adam Farmer
These aren’t even out yet—our first production run. I brought them for a live taste test.
Dave Bradbury
So this is a premium beef stick you’re launching with Nathan’s Famous because they weren’t doing this themselves. This is how you extend their brand and product line.
Adam Farmer
Exactly. Our business isn’t rocket science. Nathan’s is the number-one hot dog in the U.S., and beef sticks are the fastest-growing category. It just makes sense. These are made locally at Vermont Smoke & Cure, a great partner. We’ve been developing them for over a year, working closely with Nathan’s to use their secret hot dog spice in the sticks. We’re launching with three unique flavors: Original, Deli Mustard, and Chili Cheese. It’s a phenomenal product.
Dave Bradbury
This is July 4th week. Are you going to Coney Island for their hot dog contest?
Adam Farmer
There’s a meat stick eating contest planned. Shout out to Badlands Booker, who’s set to crush it on the 4th. Our team will be there handing out product. We’re betting internally on how many sticks someone can eat—over/under 100 is the line.
Nicole Eaton
Does unwrapping count?
Adam Farmer
We’re still figuring that out. Are they pre-unwrapped, snapped in half, or held in a bundle? It’s a science project.
Dave Bradbury
You won’t get it perfect the first time, right?
Adam Farmer
Next year, we’ll streamline it.
Dave Bradbury
Back to the company. You formed it around 2020, right? How many people are on the team now, and what’s the reach of your products?
Adam Farmer
We have 14 people, and I’m proud of the team we’ve built. Established CPG experts have left their jobs to join us, which says a lot. I’m now the least educated person on our team when it comes to consumer packaged goods.
Dave Bradbury
You grew up in South Burlington, went to Castleton University. How did you attract that expertise? Did you build the team to convince brands like Newman’s Own you were credible, or did the brands come first?
Adam Farmer
It’s a long story. I have an associate’s degree in marketing from Castleton. In college, I was always inventing things, even getting a few patents. I cold-called Dave at VCET with one of my ideas, “Safe to Sit,” a sanitizing spray for public toilets. It was ahead of its time—COVID would’ve been perfect for it. I quit college to make 5,000 units and sold them on Church Street. It wasn’t a success, but it taught me I needed to learn business. I cold-called Merrill Lynch, stapled a Safe to Sit to my resume, and pitched myself despite knowing nothing about finance. They told me to get my Series 7 license and come back. I sold insurance at Northwestern Mutual with my friend Ben, our Chief Growth Officer, then got investment licenses and joined Merrill Lynch.
Dave Bradbury
Selling is tough for many inventors. You’ve got that knack.
Adam Farmer
After being a financial advisor, I built a network of people who believed in me. I got obsessed with brand extensions after buying a Tempur-Pedic mattress, thinking they could make sleepwear. I realized no one was putting capital behind licensing deals, which were typically big company transactions. That’s when I saw an opportunity to structure deals differently. While in investment banking, raising money for others, I thought of Cabot as the perfect brand to start with, being from Vermont.
Dave Bradbury
What was the pitch to Cabot, and why wouldn’t they do it themselves, like making popcorn or mac and cheese?
Adam Farmer
Shout out to Roberta McDonald at Cabot—she’s amazing. I cold-called farmers, and they pointed me to her. My presentation was terrible, like something out of Tommy Boy. I proposed wrapping a van in Cabot cow print to sell popcorn—not how you run a CPG business. But I promised to bring in the best people. Evan Metropolis, who’s turned around brands like Pabst and Hostess, came out of retirement to join us. His expertise in cheese and CPG was critical. Roberta likely said yes because of Evan’s involvement, as Cabot, a dairy cooperative, wouldn’t take the risk without a credible team.
Dave Bradbury
Is that a Vermont thing—companies like Cabot taking meetings with upstarts like you?
Adam Farmer
Vermont’s a small community where connections overlap, but it’s more about people respecting hustle. Some embrace it; others don’t. I’ve made countless cold calls—some people respect the effort, others don’t.
Nicole Eaton
How has your network helped scale Farmer Companies to work with brands like Nathan’s, Guinness, and Wisps?
Adam Farmer
We set up our business to scale quickly and efficiently. For Cabot, we use their trim cheese—waste from cheddar bars—mixed with aged blocks to create powder for our popcorn. We work with top manufacturers who can scale without constraints and use a third-party logistics provider in Chicago that connects seamlessly to retailers nationwide. This asset-light approach avoids manufacturing bottlenecks.
Dave Bradbury
You also brought in business owners as investors and board members who knew distribution and retail. Is that the key to CPG success—manufacturing, distribution, or in-store support?
Adam Farmer
People are everything. Shout out to Farrell Distributing—Dave Farrell, Doug Brossard, and Brian Cairns. They invested and helped us sell everywhere. At our first meeting with Doug, we had popcorn in a Ziploc bag and a drawing, and he said, “That’ll sell.” Our brands’ quality sets us apart. Cabot popcorn, at $5.99 a bag, uses real 12-month-aged cheddar—28% of the bag’s weight is cheese powder, compared to 12-15% for competitors. It’s twice as cheesy with better cheese, and customers love it.
Dave Bradbury
When we considered investing, I tested your popcorn and chips on a mountain biking trip. Everyone devoured them. That showed potential for repeat purchases.
Adam Farmer
Investors always ask for samples. You have to believe in the product. We’re launching three new Cabot popcorn flavors in September, part of our New England Collection, pairing iconic regional flavors with cheese.
Dave Bradbury
Please, no pumpkin spice.
Nicole Eaton
I was just going to say that!
Adam Farmer
We tried a pumpkin cheddar—it was delicious but felt too niche. Our maple cheddar is a hit, though.
Dave Bradbury
You recently acquired Wisps and relaunched it nationally. Where’s it sold, and how’s it doing?
Adam Farmer
Wisps is perfect for the “better-for-you” trend. It’s made with one ingredient—parmesan cheese—offering 24-26 grams of protein per 2.12-ounce bag. It’s in high-end stores like Costco and Sprouts, plus CVS in Puerto Rico. We relaunched it in under three months with a new supply chain, focusing on top SKUs for profitability. It’s in most states, except maybe Alaska and Hawaii.
Nicole Eaton
Three months is fast. How did you pull that off?
Adam Farmer
Wisps led the cheese crisp category for a decade, growing big during the 2017-2018 keto craze. When keto faded, the brand, owned by a private equity firm, struggled. We bought it and relaunched it, emphasizing its single-ingredient simplicity, high-quality taste, and clean protein. Our operations team worked magic to rebuild the supply chain quickly.
Dave Bradbury
How do you compete for shelf space when snack sales are down due to diet trends or economic factors, yet your sales and footprint are growing?
Adam Farmer
Our direct store delivery (DSD) model gives us an edge, especially in the Northeast. With partners like Farrell Distributing, we stock shelves ourselves, unlike most new brands reliant on distributors like KeHE or UNFI. DSD lets us build displays and racks to get products in customers’ faces. Pairing our brands with beverage distributors, who see snacks as complementary, allows cool promos and wider reach.
Dave Bradbury
Guinness pretzels—why did it take 200 years for them to do that?
Adam Farmer
It’s a natural fit with beer distributors. DSD is expensive, but it lets us do things startups can’t, like the big players—Frito, Utz, Campbell’s.
Nicole Eaton
That’s so cool.
Dave Bradbury
I’m starving now.
Nicole Eaton
I can’t stop looking at these meat sticks.
Dave Bradbury
Nobody builds a business alone. You’ve mentioned your team and partners. Where do you turn to grow as a CEO and keep learning?
Adam Farmer
It’s tough. I realized early I needed experts. Our COO, Rob Bellezza, formerly of Ben & Jerry’s, and our president, Bill Hooker, a 30-year snack veteran from Snyder’s-Lance, have been game-changers. Bill handles go-to-market strategy and day-to-day operations, freeing me to focus on big ideas. I had no experience managing teams or processes like sales and operations planning, so bringing in people who know more than me was critical.
Dave Bradbury
Your ability to recruit someone like Bill was a big reason we invested. Great founders attract top talent to their vision. For aspiring food entrepreneurs, what’s your advice on licensing versus owning brands?
Adam Farmer
Licensing makes sense when buying is too expensive or complex for the ROI, like with Cabot, a dairy cooperative. Licensing lets you leverage brand value without building plants. Owning, like with Wisps, builds our reputation as capital stewards. For new food companies, focus on branding, not manufacturing early on. Manufacturing is about maximizing asset efficiency, but branding requires marketing, promotions, and slotting fees. Spend your dollars building the brand first, then consider manufacturing once you’ve scaled to justify the investment.
Dave Bradbury
That’s like Lost Lantern Whiskey—they built the brand and distribution before investing in a distillery.
Adam Farmer
Exactly. It depends on the product. Niche products like craft brews may need manufacturing sooner, but for traditional CPG, brand first.
Nicole Eaton
What’s next? Any iconic brands you want to add to Farmer Companies?
Adam Farmer
We’re always looking for synergistic brands that add value without cannibalizing our portfolio. We have big things in the works, but I don’t want to jinx them. Maybe we’ll talk about it on episode 115.
Nicole Eaton
Cool!
Dave Bradbury
You’ve scaled fast. We’ll have you back. Bring more than meat sticks.
Nicole Eaton
This is episode 104, so 115 might be next year.
Dave Bradbury
What do you do for fun? Your website mentions making music—what’s that about?
Adam Farmer
I rap for fun, privately. I record legit music as a creative outlet. It’s like a mental workout. My rap name is The Pharmer, spelled with an F and a dollar sign.
Nicole Eaton
Do you have a SoundCloud?
Adam Farmer
No, it’s just for me.
Dave Bradbury
How many meat sticks do I have to eat to hear you rap?
Nicole Eaton
That’s so important, keeping that creative side alive.
Dave Bradbury
Nicole’s a hip-hop dancer, and I’m the world’s worst ukulele player. Could you use a ukulele track for your rap?
Nicole Eaton
Do you make tracks too, or just rap?
Adam Farmer
I record songs about selling popcorn and what I do. Maybe the podcast needs a theme song.
Nicole Eaton
Play it into your mic!
Adam Farmer
This is my rap debut. From April 11, 2025, unfinished and clean:
“I’m on the ground floor, stepping up the brownstone. Moving on the down-low, nobody knows better. I get cheddar from cheddar from cheddar.”
That’s all you get. I’m pretty good, but I stay out of the limelight.
Nicole Eaton
You’re good! Maybe Cabot could use it for an ad.
Dave Bradbury
Don’t risk the crossover. Final question: Magic wand, what founder or leader, past or present, would you chat with and why?
Adam Farmer
Warren Buffett. He’s humble, not flashy, and built Berkshire Hathaway from Omaha, not Wall Street. His approach to investing in brands while staying grounded resonates with me. He’d probably love Nathan’s meat sticks.
Dave Bradbury
You’re the first to pick Buffett, partly because we just changed the question. Adam, thanks for joining us. This was fun, especially after that rap.
Nicole Eaton
We’re a little out of sorts now.
Dave Bradbury
This has been the Start Here podcast, sharing the stories of active, aspiring, and accidental entrepreneurs, brought to you by the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies. Let’s get back to work.
