Founder's Circle

The two people who've held Rebel together for five years
Over the years we've pulled more all-nighters than I'd like to admit. Opening the restaurant was one of them. So was the night our Shark Tank episode aired, and then again during COVID, when ecommerce was brand new for us and everything happened at once. The way we always knew a night had gotten out of hand was Curtis. He'd come walking in to start his shift in the morning, and we'd look up, see him, and realize we hadn't gone home at all.This month, both DJ and Curtis are hitting... Read more...
We're in Whole Foods. It only took seven years.
Seven years ago, Whole Foods found us. We'd opened our restaurant in Austin. A few months in, a buyer reached out. We hadn't pitched them or sent a single sample. They'd heard about the cheese and wanted to talk. We met, they were eager to get us on shelves, and I remember being amazed that they'd come looking for us.Then the pandemic hit a few months later, and everything went on hold.When things reopened, we reached out again. But Whole Foods had changed. Amazon owned it now, and the buyer... Read more...
One writer killed vegan cheese this week. Another revived it.
Two articles came out this week about vegan cheese. One said the category was failing. The other said it had finally gotten good. They were looking at different things. The Economist spent four thousand words explaining why vegan cheese is a disappointment. Their main example was a Silicon Valley startup that pitched itself as a data-science company for cheese. By the end, you'd think the category was done. Several people reached out to me after they read it. They told me I should contact the writer directly. Based on what... Read more...
Our harshest critic graduates next week
My daughter Aanika graduates next week. She’s 22. She was also our harshest critic when Fred and I started making cheese in our kitchen. The first taste tester. She told us, plainly, when something was off. She helped us tweak the recipes you eat now. The notes you taste, she pushed for those. I’ve been thinking about that this week, with Mother’s Day coming. The version of Rebel Cheese that exists today exists partly because she didn’t let us settle. She also has Obie. Obie is a mix we rescued... Read more...
Kirsten Maitland, Rebel Cheese CEO, on a backhoe.
I practiced our Shark Tank pitch on a backhoe
You could call us control freaks. We make the cheese, age it, package it, and fulfill it. Little is automated. It's the only way we can make sure everything meets our... Read more...
assorted dairy-free cheeses on a white cheese board
A lifelong dairy cheese writer tried our cheese. Here's what happened.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a message from a writer who has spent decades covering dairy cheese for a national magazine. Someone who has eaten more good cheese... Read more...
Tracey and Kirsten on a field with three cows around them
The Women Behind Rebel Cheese
It’s Women’s History Month, and I’ve been thinking about the women who built this company. Not me. The ones behind the scenes. A lot has happened since we started. The... Read more...
Kirsten Maitland, Rebel Cheese CEO, at our Essex Market cheese shop in New York City.
Meet Kirsten, Co-Founder of Rebel Cheese
In honor of Women’s History Month, we sat down with Kirsten Maitland—a US Navy veteran turned agile tech consultant and now the force behind Rebel Cheese—to discuss her unconventional journey,... Read more...