How to Build a Product Business Without Owning the Factory - Jen Millard
July 4, 2026
How do you build a national beverage brand without owning a factory? In this episode of the eCom Ops Podcast, Norbert Strappler sits down with Jen Millard (Co-founder of Mainelove) to explore her unconventional approach.
How to Build a Product Business Without Owning the Factory
Jen Millard doesn't follow playbooks, she rewrites them, across retail, fintech, and now CPG.
Jen Millard
Jen has built companies across retail, fintech, and CPG. She started at Sears, rose to SVP at Saks Fifth Avenue, then moved into fintech, serving as VP at Mastercard after selling her card-linked offers startup, and later became an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures. She holds two U.S. patents and has contributed to multiple successful exits.
Jen has built companies across retail, fintech, and CPG. She started at Sears, rose to SVP at Saks Fifth Avenue, then moved into fintech, serving as VP at Mastercard after selling her card-linked offers startup, and later became an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures. She holds two U.S. patents and has contributed to multiple successful exits.
Mainelove
Mainelove is a Maine-based premium canned water company built on one idea: great water deserves a smarter distribution model. Instead of building its own bottling plant, Mainelove partners with local Maine breweries that have access to pristine water sources, creating an asset-light production network.
Mainelove is a Maine-based premium canned water company built on one idea: great water deserves a smarter distribution model. Instead of building its own bottling plant, Mainelove partners with local Maine breweries that have access to pristine water sources, creating an asset-light production network.
- You Will Learn:
- How Mainelove built an asset-light model through brewery partnerships
- Why every workflow gets documented in Asana before it's automated
- Common mistakes first-time CPG founders make, and how to dodge them
- How moving fast helped land nationwide distribution
- Why sales and logistics still run on people, even in the AI era
- The one process Jen refuses to automate
- The No.1 eCom Operations hack
- “You have a thesis, you have signals, but you know, you're probably 80% right. You're not going to be a hundred.”
- “You have a thesis, you have signals, but you know, you're probably 80% right. You're not going to be a hundred.”
- This episode is sponsored by B2Bware the B2B commerce platform that replaces your email orders, your manual data entry, and your integration mess with one system that runs on your ERP. Check them out at b2bware.com.
Let’s keep learning and growing together in the world of eCommerce!
If you want to learn more about our podcast or have an exciting story to share with our audience, check SyncSpider’s website for more info.
If you want to learn more about our podcast or have an exciting story to share with our audience, check SyncSpider’s website for more info.