This Commerce Life

What does it look like to bootstrap a CPG brand from your kitchen, survive an acquisition, and then pivot into a category that barely existed? Melissa L'Heureux-Hache, co-founder of Vegain — a Vancouver-based plant-based sports nutrition company — shares the full story with Phil and Kenny on This Commerce Life. From launching a vegan hemp skincare brand in Toronto (with zero ability to advertise on any major digital platform), to doing 40+ trade shows in a single year, to getting acquired by a public company in 2019, to co-creating Surge — North America's first clear vegan protein in a can — Melissa's entrepreneurial journey is one of the most honest and energizing stories we've told on this podcast. And if that wasn't enough? She also opened a café and retail storefront on Vancouver's Seawall. Because why not. In this episode, we get into: How Melissa and her partner Eden bootstrapped and sold their first CPG company with no science background The challenge of advertising a hemp-based product when the int