Gheelish

Overview

Gheelish is Darren Alpert’s organic ghee-based snack brand and the first caller case in Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop.

Current Profile

The source presents Gheelish as a young wholesale-first snack company with fast store growth and a messaging problem. Its products have an unfamiliar ingredient story around ghee, but Goodwin and Guy Raz argue that mainstream trial should be led by taste and simple comparative nutrition before deeper education.

Key Characteristics

• Makes organic snacks based on ghee, starting with popcorn and expanding into a pop chip or PopCorners-style product.
• Reached about 4,000 stores within roughly two years.
• Began with homemade samples and a cold email that led to nationwide Sprouts placement.
• Reported about $1.8 million in 2025 sales and expected about $3.5 million in the current year.
• Sells wholesale without DTC or Amazon in the source account.
• Faces a communication challenge because many shoppers recognize ghee only as clarified butter in a jar.

Evidence

• Product and channel - Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop describes Gheelish as an organic ghee snack company with popcorn, a pop-chip-style product, a planned sweet snack, and wholesale distribution.
• Early traction - Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop says Alpert began with homemade samples, cold-emailed Sprouts, and reached about 4,000 stores in two years.
• Sales and financing - Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop reports about $1.8 million in 2025 sales, about $3.5 million expected in the current year, and funding from Gary Vaynerchuk plus friends and family.
• Positioning problem - Advice Line with Ben Goodwin of Olipop has Goodwin and Guy recommend leading with taste, 30% fewer calories, 60% less fat, and real ingredients rather than starting with ghee education.

Qualifications

Store count, sales, investor participation, and comparative nutrition are source-scoped. The episode does not provide gross margin, velocity, retailer-by-retailer performance, or evidence from blind taste tests.

What Changed

• Initial profile records Gheelish as the ghee-snack caller case for taste-led and front-pack positioning.

Relationships

• Darren Alpert - founder and CEO.
• Ben Goodwin - Advice Line guest who gives positioning advice.
• Taste-First CPG Positioning - central operating rule applied to Gheelish.
• Front-Pack Conversion Education - communication pattern created from the Gheelish advice.
• Retail Shelf Appeal - shelf-level constraint behind the front-of-pack recommendation.
• CPG Distribution - wholesale and store-growth context for the company.