It’s rare for a brand to be picked up by a retailer just three months after the retailer’s buyers first laid eyes on its products, but that’s just what happened for Storage Theory, a Monticello, Iowa-based manufacturer of innovative home organization products run by CEO & Owner Liz Garcia with Midwest grocery chain Hy-Vee.
Within just three months from Garcia’s RangeMe Immediate Opportunity submission for Hy-Vee’s Opportunity Summit (one of more than 1,200), her brand was approved for an initial virtual meeting with Hy-Vee buyers, which resulted in an invite to the Summit, where she pitched Hy-Vee buyers and execs in-person and landed a spot in the retailer’s warehouse. Storage Theory was the only general merchandise brand to earn a coveted Hy-Vee Smile.
I had the chance to chat with Garcia – who is an engaging bundle of energy, by the way! – and learn the story behind the brand as well as her recent RangeMe Immediate Opportunity experiences, both with the Hy-Vee Opportunity Summit as well as her recent meeting with buyers from Lowe’s at ECRM’s General Merchandise Sessions. You can watch our full video interview below!
Garcia’s Path to Entrepreneurship: Turning ‘One Day’ Into ‘Now’
Behind every high-growth consumer brand lies a pivotal moment that redefines risk tolerance. For Liz Garcia, that moment came not in a corporate boardroom, but in a physician’s office in 2021. At the time, Garcia possessed a rich career background spanning graphic design, hospitality, and corporate publishing sales – skills that honed her ability to connect with people and close deals. Yet, entrepreneurship remained a distant goal.
In 2021, while seven months pregnant with their son Luca, Garcia’s husband received a diagnosis of stage one testicular cancer. Following surgery and an elective round of chemotherapy to prevent recurrence, he achieved full remission in February 2022. While terrifying, the ordeal fundamentally shifted the couple’s perspective on career timelines and personal ambitions.
“It woke us the hell up that life is way too damn short not to be chasing the things that light you up,” Garcia recalls. “What used to be a pipe dream for us of the quote ‘one day’ – like I’ll start a business one day, whether it’s five years from now – that was kind of our mentality back then. And when going through this cancer diagnosis, it totally flipped the script on us. What once used to be that pipe dream, it turned into asking ourselves, ‘Well, what can we do today to make this happen?'”
Driven by newfound urgency, Garcia launched her own podcast, The Liz Garcia Show, just two months after her husband was declared cancer-free. Together, the couple co-founded GW Spice Co., a fundraising dip and seasoning company that remains active today. By July 2024, searching for an established platform with high growth potential, Garcia’s husband came across a local listing while searching for Iowa-based businesses for sale. That discovery led to negotiations and the acquisition of Storage Theory – a housewares manufacturing company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Solving Everyday Chaos: The Storage Theory Product Philosophy
Originally founded by an Iowa engineer seeking practical home organization solutions for his own family, Storage Theory addresses everyday household clutter through utility-driven design, focusing on transforming underutilized residential space into functional organization zones.
Garcia’s personal favorite and the brand’s hero SKU is the Power Perch Outlet Shelf, an innovative wall plate modification that mounts directly over standard electrical outlets to create immediate storage real estate.
“The outlet shelf has been a godsend for our marriage because before, our bathroom would be a disaster with everything on the counter,” Garcia says. “That way we actually have two of our outlet shelves in our bathroom to hold all of my makeup and stuff, and then it holds our Alexa home on the other side. When you install two of them in your home, you’ll start to scan the other rooms in your house and ask yourself, ‘Where else can I declutter this space?'”
The brand’s secondary bestseller is a specialized holder for Scrub Daddy sponges that uses suction to affix directly to the interior wall of kitchen sinks, keeping sponges clean, elevated, and dry. Anchored by the central catchphrase to “let us help you declutter the chaos in your life,” Storage Theory built early momentum across digital channels – including Amazon, Walmart.com, and TikTok Shop – before setting its sights squarely on major brick-and-mortar retail expansion.
The 3-Month Blueprint: Landing the Hy-Vee Retail Deal via RangeMe Immediate Opportunities
While many digital-native brands spend years attempting to capture the attention of buyers from large retail chains, Storage Theory secured distribution across one of the Midwest’s most dominant grocery chains in just three months.
Hy-Vee, an employee-owned supermarket chain operating more than 300 stores across nine Midwestern states, maintains a unique store-director autonomy model. While individual store directors hold the authority to select localized inventory, gaining access to the regional Lomar warehouse system enables centralized bulk purchasing orders across all locations simultaneously.
The Summit Experience
Storage Theory had maintained a basic, free account on RangeMe for roughly a year. In June 2026, after consulting with RangeMe representatives, Garcia upgraded the company to RangeMe Premium, gaining access to Immediate Opportunity submissions and the RangeMe Verified badge (Note: Starter subscribers can also participate in RangeMe Immediate Opportunities).
In July 2026, Garcia submitted Storage Theory for Hy-Vee’s Opportunity Summit – a competitive vendor pitch event designed to help Hy-Vee buyers discover innovative new products. She was approved to move forward with a virtual pitch to Hy-Vee buyers the following month. Following the virtual pitch, she was invited to meet with the buyers in person at the Opportunity Summit.
“It really was only a matter of weeks of us signing up for Premium to land the chance of attending Hy-Vee’s Opportunity Summit,” Garcia says. “The RangeMe team in general was just fantastic for facilitating everything as a whole, whether it was communicating with our category manager and knowing what to expect, what to bring, how to be prepared, and how to best place ourselves in a situation where we could get that Hy-Vee smile. And luckily, we were one of the few folks that did end up walking away with a Hy-Vee smile that day.”
The Hy-Vee Opportunity Summit combined educational buyer briefings with direct supplier pitches:
- Day One (Logistical & Cultural Orientation): Hy-Vee leadership, store directors, and Lomar warehouse executives briefed participating founders on supply chain requirements, vendor expectations, and store-level merchandising strategies. Suppliers networked with experienced brand owners already distributed in major chains.
- Day Two (The Trade Show & Category Pitches): An expansive pitch floor featured 85 finalist booths visited by VPs, store directors, and buyers. Each brand received a dedicated, scheduled pitch slot with their respective category manager. Storage Theory delivered its pitch at the conclusion of the day, successfully securing approval to enter Hy-Vee’s central warehousing pipeline.
Turning a 20-Minute Pitch into a Retail Gateway: The Lowe’s Sourcing Strategy
Fresh off her success at the Hy-Vee Summit, Garcia secured a chance to pitch Lowe’s at ECRM’s Home Week Sessions from another Immediate Opportunity listed on RangeMe.
Operating as a lean, two-person team alongside her husband, Garcia managed every aspect of the trip with tight fiscal discipline, keeping total travel and event costs to roughly $1,000.
- Registration & Pitch Fee: $500
- Airfare: $0 (Covered via frequent flyer miles)
- Lodging (2 Nights Near Airport): ~$200
- Ground Transportation (Uber): ~$167
- Total Investment: ~$867
The Elevator Networking Masterclass
Arriving at the hotel where ECRM buyer meetings were taking place, Garcia turned a single 20-minute buyer presentation into an impromptu masterclass in strategic networking. Arriving early, she set up her workspace at a free table situated directly outside the main conference room elevators.
“I joke that I turned a 20-minute pitch into my own networking event because the pitches were held in this one wing of the hotel, and everybody had to come out of the same set of elevators,” Garcia Says. “People started coming to my table because they thought I was an ECRM representative. So they naturally would come, ask for directions to the pitch rooms, and then I would excuse myself and say, ‘Well, I’m not with ECRM, but…’ And so ultimately, that led to conversations, we swapped business cards, and I was able to actually network and meet both buyers and suppliers before my actual pitch.”
While waiting, Garcia struck up a conversation with a supplier who was already distributed within Lowe’s stores nationwide. The supplier shared crucial insider nuances regarding buyer priorities and category positioning, which Garcia immediately wove into her upcoming pitch.
The pitch proved successful: Storage Theory was invited into Lowe’s Provis portal, initiating the official vendor vetting and facility verification process required prior to national store placement.
RangeMe Immediate Opportunities Compress the Buyer Engagement Timeframe
For Garcia, RangeMe Immediate Opportunities have been a godsend for her business, as they enable Storage Theory to get in front of the right buyers quickly with minimal resources. “RangeMe helps compress that timeframe down,” says Garcia. “RangeMe is that third party, that middleman, if you will, to help you make those connections sooner. And we’re a lean, mean machine. It’s just my husband and I. We don’t have this big marketing team. We don’t have a sales team. It’s just us. And so having RangeMe take this work off of our plate, you can’t really put a price tag on it. It’s amazing to be able to have these opportunities come up.”
Indeed, RangeMe Immediate Opportunities are all about speed. For retailers and foodservice operators, they are a way to quickly and efficiently find innovative brands within a specific category, or even a niche across categories, such as women-owned or sustainable. That’s why RangeMe hosts several hundred Immediate Opportunities for them each year. For brands, RangeMe Immediate Opportunities enable them to put their products in front of the right buyers AT THE EXACT MOMENT they are looking for products in their category. The RangeMe platform makes the entire process efficient, which is why these deals happen so fast.
Garcia typically logs in to RangeMe daily or every other day at a minimum to check out what opportunities are coming up for her categories, as well as to manage the progress of her existing outreach and engagement with buyers.
“Ultimately, the biggest reason I love RangeMe is it genuinely is that one-stop shop,” says Garcia. “Otherwise, you’re having to go to all these sites, tabulating, physically writing down, okay, when can I apply to this opportunity? When can I apply to this one? When’s the due date? Everything is in one location and you know exactly what’s going on exactly when you need to.”
Masterclass for Founders: 3 Hard-Won Lessons from the Retail Frontlines
Reflecting on her journey as a brand owner and CEO, Garcia highlights three operational principles that every early-stage entrepreneur must adopt to scale efficiently.
1. Done is Better Than Perfect
Coming from a graphic design background, Garcia initially struggled with perfectionism regarding website design, product packaging, and branding assets. She quickly recognized that over-analyzing cosmetic details stalls real-world revenue traction.
“Done is better than perfect,” says Garcia. “I like when stuff looks pretty and perfect, and I had to get over that real quick because at the end of the day, if you’re so focused on the little details, you’re going to be pushing yourself out years from now when you could have actually made traction somewhere. Just start somewhere and refine later.”
2. Eliminate Friction in Everyday Operations
In the early days of owning Storage Theory, Garcia personally packed Amazon orders fulfilled directly by the merchant (FBM) and drove them to a local UPS store daily. Despite burning gas, wasting time, and disrupting her schedule, she resisted setting up a recurring UPS daily pickup under the false assumption that it would be cost-prohibitive.
When the local UPS store permanently closed, Garcia finally inquired about scheduled pickups and learned the service cost just $20 per week.
“As business owners, we tend to make things a little bit more difficult on ourselves than we need to,” Garcia admits. “I just assumed it was going to be really costly, and we’re in the stage where we’re still reinvesting every dollar back into the business. At only 20 bucks a week, especially with the cost of gas, it is so worth it. It has changed our daily routine so much. It’s taken so much of a burden off of my plate to then focus on other things.”
3. Embrace Calculated Risk and Treat Failure as a Learning Opportunity
Growing a physical product business requires constant experimentation, calculated risk-taking, and a willingness to pivot when initial strategies flounder.
“Taking risks is something you will need to do if you want to grow,” says Garcia. “My husband doesn’t like the phrase ‘throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks,’ but I love that phrase because in life and business you have to try new things if you want to potentially have a different outcome. When you fail, that is the quickest way to grow and to learn. So as long as you’re learning, it’s not really a failure in my eyes. It’s really more of just a learning opportunity of what not to do next.”
Building in Public: Social Media, Authenticity, and the “Trust Recession”
In an era dominated by hyper-curated feeds, polished corporate PR, and AI-generated content, Garcia believes authentic founder storytelling is a brand’s single greatest competitive moat. To build consistency, Garcia participated in the “Yap Challenge” – a six-week social media commitment created by Jesse Jean encouraging founders to show up daily on video with authentic, value-driven content.
For Garcia, sharing the “messy middle” of her entrepreneurial journey – including operational blunders, logistics hurdles, and initial retail rejections – builds trust with consumers and retail buyers alike.
“In a trust recession with all of the AI and the graphics and imaging, it’s kind of hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t nowadays,” Garcia says. “People like authentic people. People want you to share your failures because it makes you more human at the end of the day. This perfectly curated content isn’t real life. It’s only a small part of that puzzle of the entire spectrum of life.”
Garcia notes that personal branding and corporate branding are fundamentally intertwined. “Don’t forget that your personal brand is also your company’s brand a little bit,” she says. “People want to buy from somebody that they trust. That’s why I spend so much time on social media, building up the brand, building up the business, and just having them live in one cohesive ecosystem. At the end of the day, as long as you’re likable, that’s who people want to be working with.”
Expanding Shelf Space & Product Pipeline
Looking ahead over the next two to three years, Storage Theory aims to build upon its momentum with Hy-Vee and Lowe’s while expanding into major national chains such as Target and The Container Store.
On the product development front, the brand is currently engineering a new line of tool-free floating shelves utilizing heavy-duty 3M Command Strips. Designed for consumers who want sleek, damage-free wall organization without drilling or anchor installation, the upcoming launch reflects Storage Theory’s commitment to making everyday organization effortless.
By pairing innovative, American-made home solutions with aggressive retail sourcing platforms and unfiltered founder transparency, Storage Theory is proving that lean brands can compete – and win – on retail’s biggest stages.
Executive Summary
Navigating the transition from an e-commerce brand to a physical retail staple is often a multi-year journey fraught with bureaucratic delays, high customer acquisition costs, and endless buyer chasing. However, Liz Garcia, owner and CEO of home organization brand Storage Theory, condensed that timeline into just 90 days.
After upgrading to RangeMe Premium in June 2026, Garcia secured an invitation to Hy-Vee’s Opportunity Summit in September 2026, emerging as the sole general merchandise supplier out of 85 finalists (and 1,200 total applicants) to earn the coveted “Hy-Vee Smile” deal approval.
Key Strategic Insights & Takeaways
- Targeted Platform Sourcing: Transitioning from passive directory listings to active digital sourcing tools like RangeMe and participating in ECRM Sessions compresses retail timelines, bypassing traditional cold outreach gatekeepers.
- Agile Execution Over Perfection: Garcia highlights that brand founders routinely stall growth by obsessing over aesthetic micro-details. Adopting a mindset where “done is better than perfect” enables small, agile teams to move quickly and capitalize on immediate buyer calls.
- Low-Cost Sourcing Events: A single 20-minute buyer pitch can yield high ROI if maximized. By spending roughly $1,000 all-in on travel and pitch registration for an ECRM meeting, Storage Theory initiated onboarding into Lowe’s Provis potential supplier portal while building critical vendor connections.
- Hustle and Opportunistic Networking: Positioned outside meeting room elevators, Garcia converted waiting time into high-value peer-to-peer networking, gaining actionable insider advice from suppliers already distributed in major big-box chains.