Wandering Bear Almost Lost It All. Then It Brewed A Second Act.

0:10Hello friends, I'm Ray Lateef and you're tuned into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. A$7 ,000 startup, a business that nearly vanished, a brand that's still growing 12 years later. In this episode, Wandering Bear co-founder and CEO Matt Bachman shares the hard-earned lessons behind building one of Cold Brew's original success stories, from surviving the collapse of its office business during the pandemic to reinventing the company through e-commerce and strategic retail expansion. Matt also discusses the thinking behind the brand's latest innovations, how to time new product launches, and why staying relentlessly focused on consumers has been the key to long-term growth.

1:05Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Matt Bachman, who is the co-founder and CEO of Wandering Bear. Matt, great to see you. Great to be here. Yeah, we sat down a couple months ago at our Taste Radio NYC meetup, and I was so thrilled by the conversation. I'm like, we're going to do a longer format version of this. And here we are in New York City. We've just wrapped up BevNet Live NYC 2026, and I thought I would be exhausted, but I'm feeling good. You know why? I think it's just the beverage industry is making me feel good. I get a lot of optimism.

1:40That's great to hear. Yeah, yeah. You've been at this for a while. What was the year that you guys launched? 2014, so it's been 12 years. 12 years. A lot of brands have come and gone in that time. A lot of coffee brands have come and gone in that time. And you must have seen your share of peers and competitors come to market, leave the market, scale, recede, do all these different things. And Wandering Bear has evolved quite a bit as a coffee company itself, but you're still here. And I think longevity means a lot in our game. 12 years is no joke. It's tough to make it one year. How have you waited so long?

2:20Matt Bachmann:At the core, it's been about staying true to who we are as a brand. I mean, we've always aimed to take inspiration from what we're seeing happen in coffee shops and bring that to consumers at home and at the office. Over the years, how we've done that has changed. But staying core to what we've always believed the consumer wants or a segment of the consumer wants, which is a coffee shop in their fridge, has allowed us to make decisions that over time have kept us in the current moving with the category and growing with it. The relevance factor is really important. You want to stay relevant to consumers, your core base, and then those beyond.

3:03And I think the idea of a coffee shop in your fridge is brilliant because you know who your customer is. Obviously, it's a premium customer. Someone who goes to a coffee shop is expecting to pay a premium for their coffee. And having that in your fridge is just a more convenient way of doing that. But going back to who your core audience is and how you identified them, at the time of launch, cold brew was just getting some legs and getting into the mainstream. How did you realize or identify that cold brew could be an opportunity to find some white space in a category where RTD beverages and coffee, there was one brand and one brand only, and that was Starbucks.

3:39So where did you see that opportunity to take cold brew from where it was, which was nowhere, to becoming a mainstream or at least part of the mainstream coffee set?

3:48Matt Bachmann:Many of us saw this at the time. I mean, it was a first sip type of thing. If people can go back to whenever it was, 2012, 13, 14, when you first had your first great cold brew versus any of the iced coffee you'd ever drank before, you knew it was better. And so just trusting that premium iced coffee, just based on taste and quality alone, was going to capture demand and drive growth in the category, to us felt very intuitive. And that has proven to be correct. If you look at two of the biggest growth drivers in coffee, the emergence of cold and the preference for cold drinks and cold coffee, as well as the emergence of premium and specialty coffee over these years.

4:29Matt Bachmann:I mean, those are two very powerful trends that we have been fortunate to help drive and be a part of since the very beginning. Your tribe, though, the Wandering Bear tribe, the Cold Brew tribe, I guess in the aggregate, helped propel you to get beyond that year one and year two mark when it is a real touch and go for beverage companies. What made your brand different? What made it exciting? What made it attractive to those early customers of yours? Yeah, I mean, we started small. We started the business with a$7 ,000 pitch check. We went at Columbia, bought some equipment, set up a nights and weekends operation, making premium cold brew in the style that we had been making it at home and boxing it.

5:13Matt Bachmann:We had brought the cold brew box with tap to market. And you did all this on seven grand? We did all this on inflation. And maybe inflation, maybe low barriers to entry. Maybe That speaks to some of what we've seen in terms of the number of, you referenced the number of brands that have come in and out of this category over time. But that was our story. That's what we did. And we saw an opportunity to bring that cold brew from coffee shops into offices. And so our early adopters initially were offices in New York City that expanded to a national office coffee business that right up until the pandemic was humming and then went to zero.

5:47Matt Bachmann:The first real transition of the brand to really addressing the consumer audience was the pandemic, where we began in 2020, the work to build WanderingBear.com as a direct-to-consumer engine. And that's really where it clicked for us that what the consumer is looking for at home was not that different than the promise we were bringing to offices of a coffee shop in the fridge. But what it did do was expand our thinking about formats and function and how those two things needed to play into product innovation and growth to help expand both distribution and the number of occasions for consumers that we could serve.

6:21I'm glad you brought up format because I recall Wandering Bear as being a multi-serve, large format brand when it first launched. And you were one of the only ones. And we're talking about, you know, at the time, the only multi-serve format was that bag and box. It wasn't even a bag. It was just a box that you would get from like a Dunkin' Donuts or a Starbucks for catering. The idea of having a product like that in your fridge was new and interesting to a lot of folks. But again, it's for a very specific set of consumers who not only know what they're getting, but appreciate what they're getting in that format.

6:59Why did you think that that was a scalable concept, that that bag and box was something that you could sell to a broad range of consumers?

7:08Matt Bachmann:It solved a real problem, which was freshness. Eliminating air and light exposure keeps the coffee fresh for longer. And so with large format, with multiserve, that was a critical component. It also had the convenience function of having the tap and without equipment, being able to put coffee in a tap like experience in any fridge. As we expanded and needed to serve and wanted to serve more consumers, though, that size, to your point, doesn't work for everyone, doesn't work for every retailer shelf, doesn't work for every refrigerator shelf. And so working and figuring out how to stay true to the promise of freshness and coffee shop quality while expanding formats became part of the game.

7:44Matt Bachmann:And to your point, again, we were very focused on serving the home and the office occasion. And so multi-serve really was where we built our brand. That category, since 2020, has been a major growth driver for RTD Coffee overall. And so again, back to authenticity and where we've earned the right and built the capability to play over the years. Some of those early decisions, focus in multi-serve, focus in some of the less competitive segments of the market like office, have actually enabled us with authenticity. and with relationships and with kind of a right to play scale and some of the faster growing parts of the category.

8:21A couple of years into the development of Wandering Bear, I recall us as an organization, BevNet, where maybe specific members of the team asking you guys, well, when are you coming out with a single serve? When are you coming out with a single serve? And eventually you did come out with a single serve and it was beautiful. That Tetra Pak with the Bear logo on front. I don't even think you had the words Wandering Bear on the front of the pack. It was just this beautiful looking package. Then I wondered, because it was on the market and then it was off the market relatively quickly, whether you regret doing that.

8:56And I imagine that you do. Did you feel like that might have been a stumble as sort of a distraction for what you were doing?

9:02Matt Bachmann:I don't think it hits the level of regret. It was a very quick decision to discontinue that line because of the focus we had to have during the pandemic to survive. you know, the loss of 80 % of our business with office closures. And so that was a beginning of an entry to a grocery market to the retail consumer. It was at an early stage in the brand. And very quickly, when we looked at where our focus needed to go to, again, live by the things that have served us well, which is staying true to who we are and focusing on the core consumer and that coffee shop at home occasion, there just wasn't room to continue focusing on that And that expansion while also doing what was needed to transition what was an office-based coffee business to a direct-to-consumer online coffee business.

9:51Well, I imagine it really helped inform you about getting into RTDs in different formats and different flavors, which I'm looking at your cold brew latte right now. This is your vanilla latte, which looks beautiful. It's in a slim 8-ounce can. It's got 11 grams of protein per can, and it's made with, quote, super premium coffee. And I think the quality of your coffee, you've referenced it a number of times, but the functional value of your coffee was also a reason why people really loved Wandering Bear. You had a strong coffee. Always have. And cold brew in general, people associated with a strong, high caffeinated coffee.

10:27How much of that was part of your messaging or at least the love that people had for Wandering Bear?

10:33Matt Bachmann:We never sought out to make the highest caffeine coffee possible. but when you only have two ingredients, coffee and water, getting more flavor means using more coffee. Using more coffee means more caffeine and that's just what happened. That's a big part of what makes our products taste the way they do. It's the amount of coffee we use and the quality of coffee that we use. When we went to create the ready to drink line, the high protein coffee lattes, we had two things we were balancing. We had to stay true to the premium coffee and coffee shop inspired texture, flavor, sweetness level of a coffee shop latte.

11:07Matt Bachmann:But when we looked at the RTD coffee category, the truth was personally, as a team, these were not drinks we were drinking. And it was primarily because of the relationship between sugar and protein in the drinks, right? They were too high in sugar and didn't have necessarily enough other macronutrients to make up for that sugar load. So we really focused on creating a premium latte formulation that we would drink every day that met our, let's just call it like centerline standards of nutritional value. And so formulated the lattes with five grams of sugar, 11 grams of protein, only a hundred calories, but really focused on underlying coffee quality, coffee impact, and overall taste and texture, aiming to replicate the coffee shop in a can.

11:49And these products came out last September, September of 2025. It seems like they're doing well up in national and Whole Foods for nine, 10 months,

11:57Matt Bachmann:something like that. Yeah. So Whole Foods is a wonderful launch partner, really got behind our vision for the category, which again, wasn't about protein maxing, but it was about bringing modern nutritional common sense into the RTD coffee category. And there's been a ton of interest and it's really, you know, it's been a big growth driver for us this year. Products will be rolling out nationally with Target in August, which we're excited about. Also taking our new black coffee can so to the point of launching the rtd the original product the very first thing we ever made this summer will be available in the same eight ounce can format which we're very excited about that is exciting it's black coffee in a can but tastes freaking phenomenal i can't wait for you to try some what it tells me is that a lot of innovation is about timing and it's got to be right for the company it's got to be right for the consumer it's got to be right for the retailer And I am curious about the lattes in particular as being in the right format, that being can, launching at the right time with the right retailer.

13:01How much of that perspective goes into your new product development strategy?

13:06Matt Bachmann:Our new product development strategy tries to balance and be ready to balance exactly that. timing for all of the parties, right? Company included isn't something you always control, but what you can control is your readiness with innovation. And so our innovation sandbox, our roadmap is many years long at this point and really focused on all of the different things, flavor, format, variety that we can do to fulfill our mission of bringing coffee shop quality to consumers at home and at work in ways that taste great and are good for you. And so with that mandate, we are now always working. This is the latte in front of you is the product of two years of innovation work that was then ready to launch at the right time.

13:46Matt Bachmann:And so our goal is to be ready when we, when the market, when the retailers are ready to launch new innovation, but also to your point, you know, and maybe some of what, you know, implicit referenced earlier, like launching things too soon or at the wrong time for the businesses can be really negative. And so being ready and then balanced and ready to go, I think is two different objectives, but serve the same goal of continuing to grow the brand and expand usage occasions. Going to Whole Foods, they must have been really bullish and excited about the opportunity for your lattes in their stores.

14:16Do you feel like you could have launched it without that kind of partner, though?

14:20Matt Bachmann:It's just a balance of risk. The level of conviction you have and that is being played back to you by the market, the willingness of a retailer to really get behind a launch, These are things that lower the risk. And that is one of the biggest factors I think you have to manage when undertaking any new venture, because you also have to have the bandwidth as a team to support it with marketing, with focus. It all consumes time and energy. And so they are thoughtful decisions. And yes, so having a retail partner like Whole Foods behind it, of course, that is one great chip on the side of do it. Prior experience in retailers and prior success in retailers can help guide you through that process.

14:58process. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys did a bunch of business at Costco for some time. And it is interesting that the - Still part of the business. Yeah. The relationship between Costco and Whole Foods is closer than people think is because essentially you're buying the same products at Whole Foods or a lot of the same products just in larger formats or larger pack sizes at Costco. What did that experience or how has that experience taught you about getting into places like Target, for example, and what you want to do right, how you talk to those retail buyers, how you merchandise and market.

15:32Clearly, again, different channels, but a lot of the same consumers, a lot of the same folks shopping at those places.

15:38Matt Bachmann:It's all about creating opportunities to drive trial with the consumer, to gain exposure for the brand that'll give an opportunity for them to put your liquid in the cup for the first time. Costco is excellent for many reasons. Whether it's the demo opportunities or just the sheer scale of the opportunities with Costco, it's a great visibility and trial driver that we've absolutely seen benefit other retail accounts. Because to your point, they're getting exposed to the brand and products they can find elsewhere. It all works together. And I think your earlier point around time and market does so many things because that trial compounds over time.

16:14Matt Bachmann:And then as you expand distribution, places that the consumer finds you, as you innovate to drive new formats, flavors, products that create new reasons for a consumer who's had a positive experience with the brand to find and try, those things create our virtuous cycle over time. It's so crazy to me when people talk about the demoing opportunities at Costco. Because everyone knows you go to Costco and you can go have lunch just based on samples. But for early stage brands or just emerging brands, challenger brands, you can call them. to do so in Costco seems expensive. It seems like it might be time consuming, but it seems like it might be worth it.

16:50So for early stage brands and founders that are listening right now, how do you do it effectively? How do you do it in a way that's actually going to benefit your company in the short term and long?

16:59Matt Bachmann:Every case has to be so individual. So like this year is only from our experience and really shouldn't be taken as advice. Well, you did roadshows first, right? This goes into the philosophy with how we build Costco, sure. So which is bite off what you can chew, what you know you can deliver on successfully, and no more, so that you can build a case study of success year after year that grows year after year. A big challenge with Costco, they're one of the most honest and transparent retailers you can work with, and that expectation goes the other way too. So if you commit to something, price, volume, timing, you have to hit those dates and the velocity hurdles that they expect you to meet are no joke either and so launching before the brand is ready to deliver on anything including performance on the floor which does require both a mix of marketing investment in the clubs to drive trial but then also a degree of brand awareness so that members walking the floor can find you on that treasure hunt find until a brand is ready to deliver on all those metrics costco i think can become actually a very expensive detour that could serve as a bit of a watch out for because the numbers are very big.

18:15But you did it. You've been doing it. And I think the demo opportunity is so critical to the success of an emerging brand. How do you demo well? How do you demo in a way that is going to communicate differentiation, that's going to communicate, this is a product that you haven't tasted before that has to be in your fridge?

18:34Matt Bachmann:Totally. Passion and preparation. One of the things we and other, you know, every brand at BevNet has in their corner is the passion and the story behind the brand and figuring out how to prepare whoever is going to be on the floor in front of members to convey as much of that founder and brand-led passion as possible with concise talking points, scripted sample recommendations for how the product should be displayed, appropriate training. Often Costco will allow you to go in and have brand ambassador reps standing side by side with the paid reps within Costco. Any of those things that a brand can afford to do, have the time to do, to make sure that that interaction with the Costco member conveys as much of that authenticity, passion as possible is probably one of the bigger investments in the brand's control with respect to demoing at Costco.

19:27Did you do all this internally? Were you outsourcing demo teams?

19:31Matt Bachmann:Primarily internally, but then, yeah, there are some great partners we've worked with that can help you staff up brand ambassadors and support teams for Costco. And if anyone listening wants more specifics, I'm happy to talk offline. Okay. Matt Bachman, just find him on LinkedIn. All this costs money. And getting investment after the company went through its struggles because of the pandemic, it took some, I'm sure, convincing of investors that there really was a path forward. you can talk about going from a lot of revenue to going to a place where I'm sure you didn't know if the brand would make it or not.

20:08And then going to a place where you're raising$5 million, you know, two years after 2020, that must've been some kind of roller coaster. Again, knowing throughout the process that you're going to need to raise money. How did you go from a place where the brand was really struggling because of the pandemic to a place where, well, we've got to figure something out and right the ship to a place where you are able to go and talk to investors and raise $5 billion as you did in 2022. I mean, it all hinged on us actually righting the ship.

20:37Matt Bachmann:So, I mean, the business went to near zero when the office crashed, but we were able to, over the course of six months, effectively launch and begin scaling WanderingBear.com with great metrics and a very healthy subscription business that still drives a large part of our business today. Can I pause right there? Because I definitely want to talk about righting the ship. Yeah. But there must have been some harrowing times. And look, every single founder I've ever spoken with says, you know, they will go through these periods where they just don't sleep. And when your business goes to nearly zero, you've got two options.