PORTFOLIO

Joel Paglione

Joel Paglione is an entrepreneur, product innovator, and sourcing leader known for bringing consumer products from concept to market with speed, precision, and strong commercial results. He has founded and scaled multiple brands, including Oak Bottle, LevitatingX, Sleeve Sipper, and other innovations across consumer goods, wellness, and specialty retail.

Joel operates with a “bootstrap, quick-to-market” product development approach—focusing on rapid iteration, practical design, and capital-efficient execution. Over the past two decades, this methodology has enabled him to launch and commercialize a wide range of products, from patented drinkware and tableware innovations to emerging concepts in health, wellness, and supplements.

As a Global Buyer at Walgreens, he manages hundreds of items across 9,000+ stores, representing over $1.5B in sales, leading product development, supplier strategy, and retail execution across health & wellness. He clearly understands how products are evaluated, prioritized, and sustained in large retail—from broker and vendor dynamics to aligning with category needs and executing reliably against forecasts. Combining retail decision-making with hands-on product development and sourcing experience, Joel helps translate what retailers need into products that can launch, scale, and stay competitive on shelf. Both his decades of entrepreneurship and enterprise retail experience allows him to operate seamlessly between startup agility and large-scale execution.

Joel is also actively involved in mentoring early-stage founders, CPG companies, and established brands, sharing practical insights on product development, sourcing, and go-to-market strategy. He is passionate about simplifying the path from idea to shelf and helping others build commercially viable products.

He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Windsor and an MBA from the Odette School of Business.

At his core, Joel is driven by solving real-world problems through thoughtful product design, efficient execution, and a relentless focus on what actually works in market.