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Once Upon a Farm doesn't want to get bogged down by a large corporate parent, and sees its public debut as a way to grow organically, co-founder and CEO John Foraker tells Axios Pro. 

Foraker spoke about what food investors are looking for, the MAHA movement, and those Capital One commercials.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

"If you look at the history of M&A, big CPGs buying smaller, emerging brands, the results are very mixed. Very often the brands don't grow as fast as they used to.

We just came to the conclusion: why don't we just do it ourselves? 

We are a little bit small for an IPO relative to the world of IPOs, but our ambition for this company is just as big."

"We've had a lot of strategic interest in the business for a long time. 

We did not head-fake the IPO to get people to buy us out. We did not talk to a single strategic."

You wanted to do this in Q4? Any thing change between now and then? 

"We never got out on the road. We wanted to, but the government [shut down] the SEC.

We're really proud that we were able to follow through."

"The things that kept coming up over and over again were around how we were going to continue to build distribution on this brand.

We've been putting coolers in the baby aisle, providing fresh baby food as an option for consumers, so there's a lot of interest there. How do the coolers work? Who pays for the cooler? What do the retailers think about the coolers?"

"I won't say never. Never is a long time, but it's very much not a priority for us."

Celebrity-centric brands can turn off investors. Could the relationship with Jennifer Garner be a liability?

"It's definitely not a liability, because it's Jen.

She's been in hundreds of meetings with customers with me. She's worked on our innovation pipeline. She's on every management call every week.

Our ambition was never to build a celebrity brand. And actually, we don't think we have. The number one way consumers find out about our brand is word of mouth."

The brand stars in a prominent Capital One commercial. Is there a financial relationship between the two companies, beyond Garner?

"(laughs) It's a legitimate question and the answer is no."

"There's no question over the last couple years, and last year in particular, there's been a big acceleration around conversations that consumers are having at their kitchen tables, they're reading about why people should eat more fresh food, or eat less ultra-processed food.

Those are all absolutely helping drive awareness and retailer interest in products like us, which are helping make them more and more available."

Once Upon a Farm CEO on choosing IPO over M&A

The CEO discussed food investors, the MAHA movement, and those Capital One commercials.

Cassandra Curtis, co-founder of Once Upon a Farm, left, Jennifer Garner, co-founder of Once Upon a Farm, center, and John Foraker, co-founder and chief executive officer of Once Upon a Farm

Cassandra Curtis, co-founder of Once Upon a Farm, left, Jennifer Garner, co-founder of Once Upon a Farm, center, and John Foraker, co-founder and chief executive officer of Once Upon a Farm. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Once Upon a Farm doesn&#x27;t want to get bogged down by a large corporate parent, and sees <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="its public debut " data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2026/02/06/once-upon-a-farm-ipo-jennifer-garner" data-vars-content-id="330697de-7c8c-4cb9-94d1-4eb6524b681d" data-vars-headline="Once Upon a Farm CEO on choosing IPO over M&amp;A" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2026/02/06/once-upon-a-farm-ipo-jennifer-garner" target="_self">its public debut </a>as a way to grow organically, co-founder and CEO John Foraker tells Axios Pro. Foraker spoke about what food investors are looking for, the MAHA movement, and those Capital One commercials.

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Once Upon a Farm CEO on choosing IPO over M&A

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