In this week’s episode, I sat down with Ilay Karateke, Co-founder & CEO of Bezi, the Labneh brand working to introduce an entirely new category to U.S. grocery shelves. We dig into what Labneh actually is, why it hasn’t historically broken through in mainstream retail, and what it takes to introduce a new category rather than compete in an already understood space.
We talk through the realities of building a refrigerated CPG brand without DTC, why Bezi made a retail-first, New York-first bet, and how relentless in-store demos and community events became the backbone of customer acquisition. İlay also shares what it means to be bootstrapped while competing next to massive, well-funded category players, how her co-founder’s family dairy business shapes Bezi’s manufacturing and shelf-life advantages, and what scaling inside Whole Foods actually looks like when the roadmap isn’t obvious.
We also get into tariffs, distribution tradeoffs, the decision to avoid big national brokers (for now), and how she thinks about timing fundraising vs. staying disciplined on cash flow. It’s an honest look at what it takes to build a food brand when demand doesn’t already exist — and what it looks like to try to bring an entirely new grocery category to life.
