Kirsten on the Young and Profiting Podcast


We've got news we've been waiting to share: this week, our co-founder and CEO, Kirsten Maitland, sat down with Hala Taha on the Young and Profiting (YAP) Podcast to talk about how she built Rebel Cheese, the Austin-based vegan cheese company she co-founded with her husband Fred Zwar.

What is the Young and Profiting Podcast?

If you don't already have YAP in your rotation, it's one of the most popular entrepreneurship and business podcasts in the world. Hala has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field — Gary Vaynerchuk, Alex Hormozi, Mel Robbins, Codie Sanchez — so it meant a lot to us that she wanted to sit down and hear the Rebel Cheese story.

What the episode covers

Kirsten gets honest about the whole journey — from opening the restaurant to the COVID-driven all-hands pivot to e-commerce that changed the trajectory of the company, the Shark Tank deal with Mark Cuban, and beyond.

A few things you'll hear:

  • How we went from one Austin restaurant to a nationwide e-commerce brand
  • The story behind our Shark Tank deal with Mark Cuban
  • How Rebel Cheese grew into a $20M+ business while keeping 90% ownership
  • Why 74% of our customers aren't even vegan (the cheese is just that good)
  • Kirsten's approach to bootstrapping, profitability, and building a company on your own terms

It runs over an hour, and it's a genuinely candid conversation about what it takes to build something from scratch — and keep going when everything feels uncertain.

We're beyond proud of Kirsten — give it a listen, and let us know what you think.

Listen now