Today is our fifth episode in the "First Hire" series where we’ve so far covered making first hires in marketing, finance, operations, and retail sales. Now we get to cover foodservice sales! Here to help us learn more about first hires in foodservice sales is Jenna Cameron. Jenna is currently the sales lead at SIMULATE and has years of experience in foodservice sales for growing brands. Listen in as Jenna answers: When to hire help in foodservice sales and how full-time employees, consultants, ...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 51
We’re coming at you this week from the archives. Many of you found this pod just this year, so I’m sharing one of our greatest hits from last year, 2021, in case you missed it. It’s one of my personal favorites, and I hope you enjoy! Kirk Visola is an active member of our Startup CPG community with a heart for sharing his design expertise and helping people navigate the complex world of packaging and branding. He has a no-nonsense approach to life and client work. With over 20 years of design ex...
Dec 21, 2022•37 min
Let’s talk demos! In-store demonstrations are an important tool in a CPG company toolbox, so we brought our favorite team of demo experts to help us navigate this topic: Bridget Aragon & David Heiser - Co-founders of Grassroots Demos. Grassroots Demos help brands boost sales and reach more customers by sampling their items in-stores. Shoppers get to taste items in a safe environment and give feedback, and brands get super valuable insights and support sell-through. Listen in as David and Bri...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 50
I once received a check from a distributor for $500, but it listed a ton of invoices. I dug in and that check was for $40,000 worth of product - it was a combination of unauthorized free fills that led to a broker conversation and double charges for a big distributor promotion plan that was expensive before doubling it. But the amount of time it took to track down all the info, dispute, follow up, and receive a check back was astronomical, and that was just one of the many instances to investiga...
Dec 06, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 49
Content creation. We all know it’s more important than ever. But how do you actually create great content as a brand and measure success? To help us answer these questions, we have David Greenfeld of Dream Pops joining us today. Dream Pops is re-imagining cult classic desserts with plant based ingredients - my current favorite is the frozen cookie dough bites. At the time of recording, Dream Pops has created thousands of TikTok videos with nearly 200,000 followers and over 5 million likes, an In...
Dec 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 48
You’ve all let me know that fundraising content is some of your favorite, so I thought I would bring my favorite angel investing expert on the show, Marcia Dawood, for a 101 level episode on angel investing. Marcia currently serves as the Chair of the Board of the Angel Capital Association, the professional society for angel investors in the US and globally. She is an investor in several early stage private companies, and in addition to her own investing, she is a Venture Partner with Mindshift ...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 47
It’s November and we’re entering the biggest online shopping season of the year in the US. How is your ecommerce site functioning? Or are you thinking about launching a new website? Black Friday is in a few weeks, so hopefully you can take away some actionable tips for the upcoming holiday months or this can help you start thinking through your 2023 website planning. Here to help us navigate the topic of building a high-converting ecommerce site today is Kelly Ferris, Director of Sales for Small...
Nov 15, 2022•55 min•Season 3Ep. 46
Today’s hot topic is fundraising. And what could be better than talking fundraising with our favorite weird sparkling water brand, Aura Bora. Aura Bora just raised a Series A round, led by Siddhi capital, bringing their lifetime funding as a brand to $10 million, and co-founder Paul Voge is here to share the details with us. Paul and his wife Maddie founded Aura Bora in 2019, and they make sparkling water from herbs, fruits, and flowers for earthly tastes and heavenly feelings. They use unique i...
Nov 08, 2022•58 min•Season 3Ep. 45
What could you learn from one of the largest snack companies in the world? Lonny James Ruben from Bunny James Boxes got to learn just that this year as a member of the 2022 CoLab cohort. Bunny James Boxes make gift boxes for people with specialty diets, allergies, and eating styles. And they provide this niche gifting solution for individuals, businesses, and retailers. They were already on a fast path to growth when Lonny decided to apply for Mondelēz International’s CoLab program. With iconic ...
Nov 01, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 44
What's it like to build out a new section at the grocery store? We saw Perfect Bar create a refrigerated bar section, so why not a refrigerated, delicious, easy-squeezy sauce section? That's what Haven's Kitchen is bringing to a store near you - fresh sauces that help home cooks feel like a champion in their kitchen. I became a Haven's Kitchen fan through our Startup CPG partner Social Nature and can attest that it's leveled up my home cooking significantly and even inspired me to cook more and ...
Oct 25, 2022•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 43
What does it take to build the next household chocolate brand name like Hershey or Cadbury? The team at Mid-Day Squares is on the road to find out, and today we’re joined by Jake Karls, Co-Founder and Rainmaker. If you aren’t familiar with Mid-Day Squares, head to your nearest Target produce section, grab a square of incredible functional chocolate, and give their product a little quick merchandising love in Startup CPG community fashion. My favorite flavor on the market is Peanut Butta, but as ...
Oct 18, 2022•50 min•Season 3Ep. 42
“'Tis the week post-Expo and all through the land… CPGers have full tummies, full hearts, and half-closed eyes.” I stole that line from Jenna on the Startup CPG team’s recap of Expo East that I’ll link in the show notes, but it captures post-Expo feelings really well. Coming at you a day earlier than normal, so you get the tea faster, this was the first Expo where Startup CPG had a booth, and we had so much fun seeing so many of you in person. I asked our resident Startup CPG friend and press ex...
Oct 10, 2022•50 min•Season 3Ep. 41
A couple weeks ago, Startup CPG hosted the 2nd Annual Shelfie Awards, where we recognized 14 brands across 13 categories. We’ll be talking with more of the finalists and winners in the coming months on the show, but I wanted to give you all a chance to briefly meet each of our lovely winners. Today’s episode is a special format with clips submitted by each winning brand. I’ll still be here listening along with you and adding my 2cents. If you haven’t listened to episode #61 yet, Jenna from the S...
Sep 27, 2022•18 min•Season 3Ep. 40
Influencer and affiliate marketing. Topics with a lot of opinions, a lot of success stories, and unfortunately a lot of wasted time and energy when executed poorly. Thankfully, we've got resident expert Kim Biddle, founder of Clutch Affiliate to walk us through what we need to know. At Clutch Affiliate, Kim focuses on consulting with emerging brands on how to build and scale profitable affiliate programs for their DTC business. I got to meet Kim in real life at Expo West this year and she is an ...
Sep 20, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 39
If you are listening to this episode on release day, you may notice it's not Tuesday! That's because I wanted to bring you the Startup CPG news hot off the press: a recap of the 2022 Shelfie Awards! If you aren't aware, we have our very own annual industry award competition at Startup CPG, and yesterday was the Second Annual Shelfies Awards Ceremony, proudly sponsored by Trax Retail, where we recognized the most promising emerging food & beverage brands. Startup CPG wanted to create opportun...
Sep 15, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Venture capital - a term we've all heard but maybe don't fully understand (this is a safe space to admit what we don't know and I'll be the first to say that fundraising and private equity are pretty confusing). What we do know is that many of the consumer brands we love that have had successful exits have received funding from VMG Partners - like Perfect Bar, KIND Bar, Pirates Booty, and Justin's to name a few. So we're lucky to have joining us today Wayne Wu, Managing Director at VMG Partners....
Sep 06, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Today's guest you may recognize for a number of reasons but specifically from the cover of the Startup CPG Spotlight magazine! Ali Bonar, Co-Founder, CEO, and Chief Vibes Officer of Oat Haus and other members of the Oat Haus team were featured in last winter's magazine edition, so today we get to hear the latest news podcast style! Oat Haus makes the world's first oat-based spread: Granola Butter. Born out of Ali's eating disorder recovery, the mission behind the brand is to bring fun & play...
Aug 30, 2022•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 36
Today we get to chat about one of my favorite topics - ingredients. While the consumer sees a nice tidy ingredient list on the back of the package, the other side of finding the right ingredients with the right taste at the right price from the right supplier at the right time is no easy task. And we've got just the right expert to talk us through it - Lillian Cartwright the co-founder and CEO of ShelfLife, a B2B marketplace for wholesale ingredients built with emerging brands in mind. Listen in...
Aug 23, 2022•49 min•Season 3Ep. 35
We've got a really fun episode today that I think will bring you a lot of joy and inspiration. It's probably no surprise but your Startup CPG team members are big Shark Tank fans. Our Startup CPG founder Daniel was watching Shark Tank a few months ago and he just knew today's guest was someone we all needed to know. From the Season 13 finale, where he landed a $600,000 deal from Mark Cuban and Kevin Hart, today's guest is Alexiou Gibson. You don't need to have seen the Shark Tank episode to enjo...
Aug 16, 2022•54 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Today is our fourth episode in the "First Hire" series where we talk about making first hires in marketing, finance, sales, and operations. So far we've covered sales, marketing, and operations, so be sure to check out those episodes, and today's subject is hiring for finance. When is it time to hire a full time finance person? How early do you need a bookkeeper? What functions within finance do you need to think about hiring for? Here to help us answer these questions is William Finkelstein, th...
Aug 09, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Did you know that for the FDA to consider a product a jam, it needs to be 55% sugar content? When Anna Peck found this out, she thought it was wild and started experimenting in her kitchen. In 2019, Anna teamed up with co-founder Steve Ford to bring Chia Smash to market; a jam with 75% FRUIT content (and that's Upcycled Certified)! Full disclosure, Anna sent me some samples to try and my spouse is obsessed. And me? I've just been eating it the raspberry jam out of the jar with a spoon. Listen in...
Aug 02, 2022•33 min•Season 3Ep. 32
What if you could leverage the resources and experience of one of the largest snack companies in the world to grow your brand? Today we get to hear from two brands who did just that as members the 2022 CoLab cohort by SnackFutures at Mondelēz International. In this episode you'll hear from Brigette Wolf and Jackie Haney from SnackFutures, who are returning guests, and from the co-founders of GoNanas (Annie Slabotsky & Morgan Lerner) & Pan's Mushroom Jerky (Michael Pan & Shannon Lehot...
Jul 26, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Have you seen those "how it started; how it's going" posts? Today we basically get to do that as we catch up with one of the brands from Startup CPG's second pitch competition in November of 2020: Tsubi Soup, which since then, has really utilized the Slack community to make many helpful connections. Started by Tsubasa Nishitani, whose nickname is Tsubi, Tsubi Soups are gourmet plant-based instant soups made with premium vegetables and state of the art freeze drying technology. Today we're joined...
Jul 19, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 30
Today is our third episode in the "First Hire" series where we talk about making first hires in marketing, finance, sales, and operations. So far we've covered sales and operations, so be sure to check out those episodes, and today's subject is hiring for marketing. When is it time to hire a full-time marketing person? When and how do you hire a marketing agency? What functions should a first marketing hire cover? Here to help us answer these questions is Vanessa Ting, Owner of CPG Growth Partne...
Jul 12, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Today is Part 6 our podcast series with Seth Goldman, Startup CPG's Entrepreneur-in-Residence, who has been joining us once a month to talk hot topics in CPG. This episode's questions came from you because for the first time ever, we had listeners call and write in questions for Seth! Also, last time we talked to Seth, Coca-Cola had just announced their decision to discontinue Honest Tea, and since then, Seth and team at Eat the Change have decided to launch the Just Ice Tea line, so we get the ...
Jul 06, 2022•37 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Do you really know your consumer? What if you had access to data about one million natural products consumers? Today we get a look at that data with Jessica Malach, VP of Marketing & Insights, at Social Nature, a product discovery and trial platform in the better-for-you space. With over one million users in their community, they've gleaned incredible insights about the "modern wellness consumer." Listen in to hear Jessica share all things about the modern wellness consumer including: how th...
Jun 28, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 27
I'm so excited to share a conversation with you about kombucha and operations - two of my favorite topics! I recently was the moderator for a session that was held at UCLA Anderson by The Food & Agriculture Business Association for a group of MBA candidates where I had a fireside chat with Justin Trout, co-founder and former COO of Health-Ade Kombucha. In this conversation, Justin dives into the nitty gritty, behind-the-scenes stories about growing a kombucha business from a single farmers m...
Jun 21, 2022•51 min•Season 3Ep. 26
If you saw Encanto (which even if you haven't, you've probably have heard the song "We don't talk about Bruno"), you may remember the arepitas that can cure anything. Lucky for us, TOAST-IT is bringing delicious arepas to a store near you, and after trying, I think they also might be magical. Behind the magic is the hard work, vision, and story of co-founders and sisters Mafe and Coco, who wanted to bring the arepas from their childhood to the US. Listen in as Coco & Mafe share about pivotin...
Jun 14, 2022•38 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Today I'm thrilled to share a conversation with Miguel Leal, Co-Founder and CEO of SOMOS, a new brand bringing food from the heart of Mexico to your home. Miguel co-founded SOMOS alongside two former co-workers and KIND Snacks executives, Daniel Lubetzky and Rodrigo Zuloaga. With decades of food industry experience, Miguel most recently spent two years as the Chief Marketing Officer at Cholula following his three years as the CMO at KIND. As you'll hear in the episode, I may have developed a sli...
Jun 07, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Today is Part 5 our podcast series with Seth Goldman, Startup CPG's Entrepreneur-in-Residence, who has been joining us once a month to talk hot topics in CPG. At the time of recording, Coca-Cola had just announced their decision to discontinue Honest Tea, so we pivoted this episode to cover Seth's thoughts on the news. As the co-founder of Honest Tea and author of Mission in a Bottle, Seth shares his reaction, stories that he's been thinking of, and what's on his mind during a time like this. Se...
Jun 01, 2022•25 min•Season 3Ep. 23
