Felt + Fat

About

In today's episode, I sit down with Nate Mell, founder of Felt + Fat, a Philadelphia-based ceramics company producing tableware for both restaurants and direct-to-consumer customers.

We talk about how Felt + Fat began supplying custom tableware to restaurants, why ceramics made sense as a business from a unit-economics perspective, and how debt-financed equipment shaped the company’s growth and risk profile. Nate walks through the operational realities of scaling a labor-intensive manufacturing business, the shift from wholesale to direct-to-consumer, and how capital decisions around space, equipment, and staffing affected margins and cash flow. We also get into the limits of vertical integration, what rapid expansion exposed about the business model, and how a period of financial distress forced a clear-eyed reassessment of what the company actually does best — ultimately leading to a narrower, more sustainable operating scope.

This was a candid, detailed look at the mechanics of running a U.S.-based manufacturing business and I can't thank Nate enough for his transparency around some pretty sensitive topics. I learned so much during our conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This episode is brought to you in part by Rho, a paid partner of the show. Rho is the modern banking platform built for the AI era. Startups and growth-stage companies can open accounts in minutes, issue cards, manage expenses, pay bills, and close the books, all in one connected platform, backed by real human support that founders love. Right now, qualified Unit Economics listeners can get $100 when they open and fund an account at uepod.com/rho. Terms apply.