Meet Steph and Juli, the founders behind Pola Pops that will reinvigorate you with their resilient energy as they bootstrap their functional line of paletas, injecting new life and function into a Latin American staple. In this interview, we chat about the challenges of building a clean functional frozen product as well as their aspirations as their brand grows.

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You can find so much content produced at the intersection of fear mongering and misinformation when it comes to food and beverage, particularly in the US, where the majority of the population isn’t born with a connection to what feeds them, but whatever BigBox grocer has in store for them. Now more than ever, accounts like Hydroxide are necessary to break through the noise and bullshit that many “green screen detectives” cook up, with the lens of an actual food scientist.

We discuss her background and starting her account, David protein, raw milk and other controversial food products.

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On a quest to emulate Julia Child, Greer Hiltabidle came to be dubbed, ‘the GenZ Martha Stewart’ an honor she does not take for granted, but it was a combination of love for French cuisine meets anxiety eventually led Greer to start churning her own butter, eventually becoming Butter Girl NYC. Her unique compound butter flavors like French Onion Soup or Ceasar Salad paired with salt packaged in what looks like dime bags (appropriately labeled “Not Coke”) have the internet craving more—her Kickstarter is only a few weeks old and she’s already over halfway there.

As a new wave of GenZ brands permeate into CPG, Greer takes us on her journey bootstrapping her business, leveraging social media to her advantage as well as her aspirations for her brand.

**There’s a little mishap in this episode, consider it an intermission. I’m looking for a sponsor/sponsors to help give this podcast a glow up in 2026, if you want to support our storytelling and creative vision, shoot me an email andrea@snaxshot.com**

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Tune in as Leah and Yasaman discuss how they bootstrapped their way to building a popular pickle brand, how amassing 100K followers on Instagram helped them prove early demand, what it took to get into the aisles of Whole Foods, why USC is a breeding ground for new CPG, how they managed to close their seed round so quickly and what comes next for Good Girl Snacks.

Photos for Snaxshot by the incomparable Anna Arnet.

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For Snaxshot, Anne Arnet captured the duo that is based out of NYC.

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For Snaxshot, Soon Tani Beccaria Mochizuki captured the Michaelsen brothers at Leisure HQ in Venice, LA.

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Snax photographer Anna Niederleitner spent an afternoon with PJ Monte following him across italian markets and getting a home cooked meal with PJ and friends.

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