Excited to chat with David as the has grown from a DTC mushroom coffee brand into a retail, now in Ocado, Boots, Holland & Barrett, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and has just launched its first ready to drink can.

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You were MD for a year and a bit before stepping up to CEO. How did you and Founder Matt work out that now was the right time to make the change?

"The right time was clear before either of us said it out loud, it was the moment Matt found himself pulled into P&L reviews and hiring plans instead of brand, NPD and marketing campaigns. That's the trap a lot of founders fall into, because stepping back from the CEO title feels like stepping back from the company. Matt never stepped back from anything, he moved to what he's best at and it's a move that takes a lot of courage as a founder.

My year and a bit as MD gave us proof rather than theory. I could run the operational and commercial side, he could disappear into product and brand for weeks without the business stalling. Once that was proven, making it official was the easy part. Now Matt is back doing the work that built Spacegoods in the first place, and I'm doing the work that scales it. Neither of us is doing both jobs badly. We're each doing one job well”

Spacegoods has been in the functional mushroom and adaptogen space since 2022, and it's got a lot more crowded since. How do you keep the brand differentiated?

"We stopped trying to win the mushroom conversation, because it was never really about mushrooms. Reishi, lion's mane, cordyceps: they're ingredients on a label, and once every new entrant carries the same three or four adaptogens, the ingredient stops being a reason to choose anyone. So yes, our answer has changed. In 2022, sitting inside functional mushrooms and adaptogens made us the natural leader as we were first to market in a new category. Three years and dozens of similar pouches later, we're building around what those ingredients do for someone, not what's in them. That's why the brand now leads with coffee, focus and energy rather than fungi. Nobody buys L-theanine. They buy the version of themselves that shows up sharper. That is a more inspiring vision and brand to build and it is why our consumers keep coming back."

Spacegoods built its base as a DTC brand and has since moved onto shelf in Ocado, Boots, Holland & Barrett, Tesco and Sainsbury's. What's been the biggest adjustment?

"The biggest adjustment isn't operational, it's psychological. On DTC you hold someone's attention for as long as an email or a page lasts. On shelf, you get about two seconds and the pack must do all the work your CRM and landing page used to do. We had to relearn how to sell without a conversation.

That discipline changed what actually goes on pack. The outcome, not the ingredient story, has to land instantly next to brands that have owned that shelf for a decade.

My advice to a DTC brand eyeing retail would be, don't take your full range, take your best answer to one question. Shoppers in Boots or Tesco aren't browsing your product architecture, they're deciding in a couple of seconds whether to pick you up. Prove one entry point works before asking a retailer, or a shopper, to trust you with the rest."

You've just brought Rainbow Dust into a ready to drink can, moving into the UK's £6.1 billion coffee to go market. Why was this the right moment?

"Retail gave us the distribution, and distribution is what makes a can make sense. Once you're already in Boots, Holland & Barrett, Tesco and Sainsbury's, a ready-to-drink sits next to a coffee-to-go occasion worth £6.1 billion that a pouch can't reach. You can't add hot water to a powder on the way to a meeting!

Powder to can is a different business, not a different SKU. We had to move from a shelf-stable dry format to a liquid that holds its taste and its actives through pasteurisation, months in a can, and being drunk cold. It meant new co-packing partners, new quality processes, and rebuilding the recipe rather than repackaging it. The upside is a format that enables our customer to drink functional coffee on the move, not just at a kitchen counter."

What does the next 12 to 18 months look like for Spacegoods?

“More coffee, less mushroom. We built our name in functional mushrooms and adaptogens, but that category has contracted while functional coffee keeps growing, so the next year is about leading with what we actually are: coffee that does more, for people who do more. Expect that shift to show up on pack, in how we talk about the range, and in what we launch next.

Retail keeps expanding beyond Boots, Holland & Barrett, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and the ready-to-drink can becomes a proper range rather than a single launch, because that format meets people where they already buy iced coffee. Our D2C subscription business will continue to be a major part of our brand, but a major part of our growth story over the next year and a half will be retail and ready-to-drink.”

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