The Startup CPG Podcast

In this special New Year's episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff invites three founders from the Startup CPG community to share their 2026 brand resolutions—offering practical wisdom on focus, authenticity, and strategic growth for emerging CPG brands.


Rebecca Styn, founder of Blind Tiger Spirit Free Cocktails, discusses her resolution to eliminate noise by being more intentional about opportunities. After initially going wide geographically and saying yes to numerous opportunities—from celebrity gifting to event activations—Rebecca shares why she's now focusing deep in her regional markets and being strategic about what aligns with her business goals. She emphasizes the hidden costs of "free" opportunities in beverage, where shipping often exceeds product cost and consumer purchase behavior doesn't support random sampling.


Dava Guthmiller, founder of A Dash of (a taste education platform and curated shop specializing in salt, butter, and chocolate), shares her resolution to step into the spotlight. Despite her passion for interviewing makers and sharing their stories, Dava struggles to apply the same approach to her own brand on social media. She discusses the importance of authenticity, why sharing her personal passion matters for building trust, and how she's working to showcase herself and her story online, not just the products she curates.


Andrew Schundler, co-founder of CH Matcha (a canned ceremonial-grade matcha latte), discusses his resolution to double down on what works in retail. Launching in July 2025, Andrew and his wife Chloe quickly learned that most consumers don't buy heavy beverage online. By focusing on in-person tastings and strategic retail placement—particularly sandwich shops—they've found their formula. Andrew emphasizes going deep rather than wide, learning from data, and knowing when to say "not yet" to opportunities that could stretch the business too thin.


Listen in as they discuss:

  • Rebecca: eliminating noise, being intentional with opportunities, saying no strategically
  • The hidden costs of "free" opportunities: celebrity gifting, events, product donations
  • Why beverage brands struggle with online sales and shipping economics
  • Dava: stepping into the spotlight and sharing her personal story on social media
  • The importance of authenticity and putting a face behind your brand
  • Salt education: terroir, texture, and why single ingredients deserve storytelling
  • Andrew: doubling down on retail execution and in-person demos
  • Learning from early data and finding your best-performing channels
  • The lily-pad growth strategy: leveraging each success to unlock the next opportunity
  • Going deep versus wide: strategic growth and knowing when to say "not yet"


Episode Links:


Blind Tiger Spirit Free Cocktails:


A Dash Of:


CHUH Matcha:


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Show Links:
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  • Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
  • Episode music by Super Fantastics

Creators and Guests

Host
Daniel Scharff
Founder/CEO, Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Rebecca Styn
So for a long time, I said yes to a lot of things. Right. Growing a brand, having things develop, and there's a lot of noise when you're doing that. So the resolution is to eliminate the noise this year. Right. Like, it's all tied to my values. Saying yes to everything doesn't mean you're losing your value connection if you say no. But I'm trying to be more intentional this year. Saying yes when it's appropriate, no when it's appropriate, and really, you know, digging down deep into the opportunities that exist.

00:40
Daniel Scharff
Hello, everyone. It's a new year. It's a new you. Recently, I asked in our startup CPG Slack channel, what is everyone's 2026 brand resolution? The responses were so great, I had to invite a few of the brands onto the podcast to tell us more. These resolutions are great ones. They're all about making better choices with resources, doubling down on what's working, casting aside your fears and stepping into the limelight. I can't wait for you to hear how everyone is stepping it up for their brands in 2026. Our very best wishes to all of you for a wonderful 2026 ahead. And I know you're going to love this episode as much as I did here. All right, New Year, new you. Rebecca, welcome to the podcast. Do you mind just starting off with an introduction?

01:28
Rebecca Styn
Absolutely. Rebecca Stein, I'm the founder of Blind Tiger Spirit Free Cocktails, and we create classic cocktails that are inspired by the pre and post prohibition era.

01:37
Daniel Scharff
I love these cocktails, by the way. I know I've had them in my fridge and I've served them at parties that I've had at my house where a lot of people are looking for non elk options. And there's actually a bar near me here in the West Village called Blind Tiger. So I think people feel like it looks like something that they recognize. And the design is beautiful. How would you describe the design to everybody?

01:57
Rebecca Styn
So I had a speakeasy restaurant and bar. So everything was tied to the pre and post prohibition era. Some reason that's a hard word for me to say. Today we kind of married that into more of the roaring twenties meets art deco. Right. So you kind of see the feathers on the cans, the colors, the glamorous little aspect to it. But yeah, it's just kind of. We've just mashed it all together into its own thing.

02:19
Daniel Scharff
That's so good. It looks just like so pro on the can. And maybe because I lived in Miami, I just love that art deco style as well. Sort of like, I loved it, but I didn't know why I loved it so much. And now I do because you've explained it. So thank you. Okay. So, Rebecca, what is your brand resolution for 2026?

02:36
Rebecca Styn
So for a long time, I said yes to a lot of things. Right? Growing a brand, making, having things develop. And there's a lot of noise when you're doing that. So the resolution is to eliminate the noise this year. Right. Like, it's all tied to my values. Saying yes to everything doesn't mean you're losing your value connection if you say no. I'm trying to be more intentional this year, saying yes when it's appropriate, know when it's appropriate, and really, you know, digging down deep into the opportunities that exist.

03:04
Daniel Scharff
So what are some things that you might have said yes to before that you might not now that you're being more intentional as there's so many things.

03:10
Rebecca Styn
I probably said yes to. Right. A lot of people tell you to go deep, not go wide, right when you're building a brand. And I went wide. So it's really hard to build a brand from northwest Pennsylvania. Like, it's not an area where it's really deep into the CPG arena. And not everybody understands kind of geography plays a critical role when you're working to develop something and the resources available to you and the population and the density and the. Just the channels. So I said yes to a lot of things in a lot of ways. And then I kind of scaled back a little bit and went from everywhere closer to where I'm at. So now I'm really digging down into those areas, staying focused unless something miraculous happens and, like, tens of millions of dollars come my way. Right?

03:53
Rebecca Styn
Like, it's really just building what I have.

03:55
Daniel Scharff
I gotcha. And I can kind of read between the lines on this one, where you have this cool product, and people are always asking for product for stuff, like, hey, we're doing this event. Could you send us a bunch of product? And it'll be really good for you too. We have this cool audience, and it's always tempting to do it. Like, yeah, I could see that'd be valuable. Or do you wanna come and, like, demo at this thing? Is that part of what you're talking about, Daniel?

04:14
Rebecca Styn
That's so much of what I'm talking about. Right. I honestly think sometimes people don't really realize as a growing brand, you're not like, making a ton of money. Right. Like, capital is not only king, but product is as well. So you have to be scarce and resourceful when you're trying to get your name out there. But you're also trying to get your name out there.

04:32
Daniel Scharff
And it's fun too, also, because you made this thing because you love it and it's so much fun to get to share it. Yeah. But I think especially with beverage, people don't realize how much it actually costs for me to send you a couple cases of something. Like, the shipping is more expensive than the actual product. And even if they love it, people don't really go and buy a lot of beverage online. So unless you're in a lot of stores around them, like, what's it really going to lead to? So I really applaud you for making that decision unless it's just exactly aligned with your marketing strategy. And, and we actually try to help brands with this a little bit proactively.

05:09
Daniel Scharff
There's this growing trend where, like, anytime there's a bachelorette party or something, you'll get a bunch of emails from them that's like, hey, we're going on this thing. Wouldn't you like to send us a bunch of free stuff? Like, isn't that a good idea? And why wouldn't you? It's free and we're going to post it on social media and we get a little bit of that. In the startup CPG Slack, there are a lot of requests for product from brands and I get them personally from tons of people that I know. Like, hey, I'm doing this event. Wouldn't your brands like to give free stuff? So we actually do in the channel, because there's so many of those, we have specific guidelines for it where we're like, okay, hey, if you're going to ask for product, it must meet all of these criteria.

05:44
Daniel Scharff
Number one, it must be a free opportunity. You can't try to get brands to pay you to give you free product. Number two, you must very clearly say what all the benefits are. Are there social media benefits? Who is the audience for this? What are you going to do for them? How many people are coming? How much product do you need? Where do you need it? All of this stuff. So at least it's like a very tightly organized thing that you make that decision, yes or no, whether or not it aligns.

06:08
Rebecca Styn
And I'll tell you, like a really quick story like you may have seen these two. You get these opportunities with famous people, right? Like, oh, Charlize Theron is having this event. Only 500 for you to participate. And then we're going to do this whole social media reel and I sadly, I bought into it and down the 500, and I've given the product, and then you see the reel, and there's no product in the real world. Like, you can kind of see it in the background, but there's no focus, and you're like, so. So those are the things, right, that you have to be like, is this really. What's the roi?

06:39
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, that's a really tough one. You almost have to look at it as just entertainment value that you get to go to something like that. It's just all of these things. Unless there's a really consistent strategy behind it's hard to make it make sense, which I think can be true with a lot of marketing stuff in general. So I think, yeah, really at least helps to have a good strategy. But I really like how you're thinking about it. Just so people out there know. What is something that you would absolutely say yes to?

07:06
Rebecca Styn
Candidly, I'd say yes to an airline.

07:08
Daniel Scharff
All right. I think it would go great on an airline.

07:11
Andrew Schundler
I hope so.

07:12
Rebecca Styn
I'm just going big, right? I love our product on an airline. That's a really good question. I mean, the Charlize Theron thing, I was not invited to. It was just my product and my money. If I was invited, that might be different as well.

07:24
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, you're just, like, mailing something into the void. Okay, so because you like the airline opportunity, if somebody was like, hey, do you want to send product for a golf tournament for airline buyers? Then you would say yes to that because that's aligned with your strategy. But, yeah, anyways, I think your product would be perfect for airlines. So if anybody out there has contacts in that airline world, and I'll give you one privately after this, because I think there's a good one for you, then definitely let Rebecca know. I've seen some really great brands from our community crushing with airlines. I flew on JetBlue recently and got to snack on some Tantos chips while I was there. I was very excited. Felt like having a friend on the flight. So I love that opportunity for you. That's great.

08:07
Daniel Scharff
Okay, Rebecca, I want to say thank you so much for sharing your brand resolution with us in 2026, and then maybe we'll check in at the end of the year and see how good you were, how much you stuck to your guests.

08:18
Rebecca Styn
I was going to tell you.

08:20
Daniel Scharff
All right, perfect. Cool. Thank you, Rebecca. All right, let's go right to our next guest here. Okay. I am bringing on Deva. Here we go, Deva. Welcome to the Podcast.

08:33
Dava Guthmiller
Hello.

08:35
Daniel Scharff
How's it going? Where are we finding you today?

08:37
Dava Guthmiller
I'm in San Francisco. All right, Obviously, a little bit of sunshine finally. So very excited about that.

08:43
Daniel Scharff
Oh, very nice here in New York as well. I'm loving it. So, Deva, what is your 2026 brand resolution? And also, please tell us about your brand.

08:53
Dava Guthmiller
Yeah, so I have a brand called A Dash of, which started from my own personal, ridiculous salt collection. I started doing taste education. So teaching people how to taste. And when you're thinking about a single ingredient and tasting, it's about terroir, it's about texture, it's about the stories and doing that kind of work for six months or so, everybody kept asking, where do I buy these things? Right. Whatever I was bringing to the tastings. And. And so I started a little online shop to kind of supplement that. So A Dash of was born. So it's a combination of taste education classes and an online store.

09:31
Daniel Scharff
And I just have to ask, before we get into the resolution, can you tell me a little bit more that I don't know about salt that I should know? Whether it's just, hey, here's some really basic tips for a beginner chef, or here are a couple pairings you've never thought of with specific kinds of salt or just a favorite salt that you have from your brand or from your collection, or a salt fun fact.

09:54
Dava Guthmiller
Oh, my God. There's. We could talk about software, I would say. One of the things I learned a lot, even just going through the 50, 60 salts that I had before I started this and then started interviewing makers and, you know, other brands, was that mer war is an actual thing, just like terroir. And a lot of people will tell you salt is salt, but I think where something is and the extra minerals that are sort of in those areas can change the flavor, change the color. The other thing that really adjusts salt a lot, I mean, there's a Florida cell, and there's a flake salt, but there's a hundred things in between. Right. So the way the salt is dried kind of changes the texture, and different textures are used for different things.

10:37
Dava Guthmiller
So a lot of what we talk about is that kind of stuff. I will say a huge fan of just like a grape flake. You know, Maldon's fabulous. But one of my favorites is blackthorn, which is from Scotland, and it is a flake salt, but it's a super delicate flake salt. They actually built this crazy three, four story tower full of blackthorn branches. You know, Scotland is Not, you know, a super sunny place. So we're not laying our salt out in the sun to dry. And those blackthorn branches give a tannin to just like wine would to the salt. And they actually break it down. They use gravity and wind to sort of create the brine, blah, blah. But again, a lot of it is about story, right? You know, every brand, you know, there's competitors out there for everything.

11:24
Dava Guthmiller
And the sense of place and the storytelling and the information about those makers is really, it's like going to the farmer's market. Right. But people don't think about single ingredients that way as much.

11:35
Daniel Scharff
So that's very beautiful.

11:37
Dava Guthmiller
Judge for the Good Food Awards. I've been doing that for 15 years and sort of taking that tasting knowledge and sharing it with people about these things that I find super interesting and just kind of sharing my passions.

11:49
Daniel Scharff
So that's your resolution, is to be out there telling more of these stories?

11:53
Dava Guthmiller
Exactly. I love learning about the brands and doing the curation and finding the companies. I'm not a huge fan of the white label. You know, there's a lot of amazing companies out there who find salts and seasonings and a lot of other things and they kind of package it for you and you have this fabulous collection all in one place. There's absolutely a use case for that. But my background is in branding and in storytelling. And so I love to meet the maker. The person who's drawing salt, who cares about it, is going through the process. I also do butter and I also do chocolate and all these other things. But learning about the actual maker and the people who put the passion into it is something I care about a ton.

12:32
Dava Guthmiller
And I started by doing interviews of a couple of the brands that I like the most. And I have, you know, many lined up for the new year. And the interview process is wonderful. I do it online like you're doing now. You know, I record it and I write an article. But just like with my other company, I'm behind the scenes always, right. So I'm there to kind of build other people's brands or I'm there to tell other people's stories. And with a dash of, you know, especially having a retail store or like an online shop, I've realized how important it is that I have to put myself out there. Right. My passion has to shine through and absolutely have no problem doing that in these in person events when I'm tasting and doing all this fun stuff.

13:15
Dava Guthmiller
But I have a real problem with that online.

13:17
Rebecca Styn
Right.

13:17
Dava Guthmiller
I need to practice What I preach and, like, tell my own story of why it's important to me that this is a big passion, and I'm not just some random person selling ingredients. So the storytelling is really important, and I have to learn to be comfortable putting myself out there and sharing my passion. So that's a huge thing for me to share.

13:40
Daniel Scharff
Well, Deva, I'm really glad to hear that is your resolution for this year. And I think you can just check it right off, because you're here already on this podcast telling exactly that story, and you crushed it. It was really great to listen to. I find you to be an incredibly engaging and passionate speaker. So check. Got it. Now you just accelerate.

13:59
Dava Guthmiller
I just have to do it more. I have to put it online. Right. I mean, social is something that, you know, if you look at any of my social media, it's like they're all pictures of things. It's not pictures of people. It's hardly ever my face or myself. And in this age of AI and all these other things, I think authenticity and the real and putting a face behind the project is super important. I mean, I'm doing that for the brands that I highlight and I showcase, but I'm not doing it for myself. It's like, practice what you preach, right?

14:28
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. I love it. And there is something very tricky about finding the way to make sure that story comes across to people. I was just remembering, you know, I went on a trip to Scotland with my family last year, and we did whiskey tasting. My mother's from Scotland, so It was the 50th anniversary of her leaving Scotland. So we did kind of a route trip driving up around the north coast, and we stopped at all these incredible places and whiskey distilleries. It was an amazing trip. The drive, it's so beautiful up around there, all the cliffs and. Yeah, it's pretty gray a lot of the time in very rainy. But, you know, that's part of the beauty of it. It's a very Scottish thing, and it's incredible. But, yeah, my sister was just reminding me the other day.

15:07
Daniel Scharff
She's like, yeah, don't you remember when were learning about the whiskey, how they talk a lot about the water and how the water just really carries the flavor of the region that it's in, and that gives a lot of the character to the scotch.

15:18
Dava Guthmiller
I mean, they say that about New York bagels.

15:20
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. The New York City water. The good stuff. Right?

15:24
Dava Guthmiller
I know, but you're right. It's, you know, a lot of food is like, that, right. Wine is like that. There's coffee beans, chocolate. All of that stuff is sort of a sense of place. And this passion of salt particularly started from my travels and something I would collect as I go. And as I've kind of leaned into things like chocolate or butter. You know, with butter, it's about the milk, and the milk is about the grass, and the grass is about the air. It's one of the. But you don't think about it with this basic things that you're just like, yeah, butter's butter, Salt is salt. But a peach is not a peach. So why would these other ingredients be that way?

16:04
Daniel Scharff
So you're making me hungry and also just making me feel like I should never eat something like Fritos again, because I can eat other stuff that has all this character in it that comes from such a complex chain of interesting regional, beautiful things.

16:17
Dava Guthmiller
Speaking of, like favorite salts, what is some style of food you cook the most?

16:21
Daniel Scharff
I honestly this. Maybe it should get added to my resolutions. I do not cook a lot. It's not something that I love to do. I would say I love way more to just sit there and watch TV until the Uber Eats arrives. But I at least did start making breakfast again and was just examining my salt shaker and wondering if I should make an upgrade. So I might talk to you about how I'm stocking up salt to go best. What is your kind of recommended salt? Let's say in the morning I am scrambling up a couple eggs, putting it on. I've been doing white bread, but I don't know. I guess we are not supposed to do that anymore according to the new food pyramid. But so let's say I'll put it on some kind of a bread and with some cheese.

17:02
Daniel Scharff
What is just the absolute banger of assault that I need to hit that with.

17:06
Dava Guthmiller
I mean, if you want super straightforward, your eggs are amazing. You want all of those things to shine through something like the blackthorn or other kind of really clean flake salt. There's also an Icelandic salt from saltvark, which I also love. Those are great. If you want like a next level up, I would go with a smoked salt. But I would. I have a whole lecture on smoked salts. Don't use salts that have liquid smoke. Look for ones that are actually smoked with wood. And for something as delicate as eggs, I would go with a really mild smoked salt. Like again, saltwork makes one that's from Birchwood, right.

17:39
Dava Guthmiller
Which is one of the lightest smoked salts that I've found San Juan island salt does another one with madrona wood, which is a little bit more intense and heavier, which I think is too much for eggs, but you can kind of play around with flavor there. But finishing flake salt is really great for eggs. Cause it's kind of on top. And then again, if you're a little bit health conscious, those who love packaged foods marginal. But obviously I own like almost 200 different salts. It's not that I use more salt than anybody else. I just use it really strategically. So obviously if you finish with it's really fresh and it's right at the end, it's like putting a squeeze of citrus. Right. And so you can use less if you're just kind of topping it. So something delicate. I would use a finishing salt.

18:22
Daniel Scharff
I love it. And interesting anecdote is I used to work for a plant based egg company and we actually tried not to do this too much. But if you used black salt on the product, even if it, like wasn't that good, it would make it taste exactly like eggs. Because I think the sulfuric nature of it is it has a really eggy taste to it. I mean, we didn't need that. The product was very good. But like, you can almost put that black salt on anything and you'd be like, yes, this is an exact.

18:50
Dava Guthmiller
And it's beautiful. But black salt is like the charcoal in there. I mean, it's gorgeous, right? It looks nice on the top of something. But yeah, it adds a little flavor and it kind of mellows out the salt because it's got that extra ingredient. But yeah, good stuff. I could go on forever.

19:06
Daniel Scharff
Absolutely. I would love to. But I really appreciate you coming on the show today for this salt University, by the way. Yeah, what a good. Yeah, what a great one. All right, well, thank you so much. And again, we'll look forward to hearing how you stuck to your resolution at the end of the year. So thanks so much for coming on.

19:22
Dava Guthmiller
All right.

19:22
Daniel Scharff
All right. Bye, Deva. And we are now bringing up our third and final resolution to hear about. So welcome to the podcast. Andrew, how you doing? Where we finding you?

19:34
Andrew Schundler
I'm doing well. How you doing, Daniel?

19:36
Daniel Scharff
Very, very good. Really excited to have you here. Do you mind just doing a little bit of an intro, please?

19:42
Andrew Schundler
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So my wife and I launched a ch. Got one right here. Oh, it's a little blurry, but ch, it's a canned shelf stable matcha latte. And we use ceremonial grade matcha and organic ingredients. And our goal with CH is To make Matcha fun and approachable. So we've got flavors like spiced vanilla, which is kind of a Chai vibe, and a blueberry, which is a nod to our home state of Maine.

20:07
Daniel Scharff
Interesting. That sounds cool. Fun fact for everybody. When you use a blur background when you're on zoom or something like that, if you want to show that your product, you have to put it in front of you because it blurs stuff around you. But yeah, exactly. If you put it right in front of your face, then you can see it perfectly. I learned that on, like, demoing product on too many zooms. So little tidbit. I hope it helps somebody out there. Okay, Andrew, aside from showing your product in front of you when your screen is blurred, what is your 2026 brand resolution?

20:37
Andrew Schundler
Yeah, so I think for us, we launched in July of this last year, so we're a baby company just getting going. But we, I think, really want to double down in 2026 on what works in stores and in retail and moving the needle there. You know, I think when we launched, it was kind of trying everything, which isn't a bad thing, right? It's, you know, let's do meta ads, let's do like an Instagram campaign, let's do a weird video series, let's do in store demos. And I think trying to take all that data and to see what worked in 2026 in those first six months and to just really lean into it.

21:15
Andrew Schundler
And so I think one of the things we found obviously worked best was just Chloe and I going out there and doing tastings ourselves and meeting people and getting to know customers. And I think it's really important to us to figure out how to transition from just being a cool new product on the shelf to being a brand that actually has a loyal following. And I think that loyal following is what helps transition to moving product off the shelf.

21:41
Daniel Scharff
How do you know that's what worked the best from all the stuff that you were trying?

21:45
Andrew Schundler
Yeah, that's a really good question. I think when we launched, it's one of those hindsight 20, but most people listen to this podcast. Most people in the country buy beverage in person. And so I think when we launched, we did think, oh, like, we'll have, you know, a really nice four pack and we'll have the website and we'll really push social media, and people are just going to be shipping heavy beverage, which cost a lot on shipping, to their door. And we did get online sales, and we're thankful for those. But I think when we started to lean more into retail and getting out there doing tastings. I think I was pleasantly surprised at how well it would receive when were out there ourselves doing it.

22:27
Andrew Schundler
I think of one example, were at this cool, like kind of organic farm stand grocery store in Wenham, Massachusetts, and we moved in a tasting, like 45 cans in two hours. And it was like, wow, like just being here, meeting people is great. You know, it's like this is how you get, you know, get out there and. And I think too, because Matcha is, you know, it's certainly huge in popularity now in the United States and it's certainly you can find it at every coffee shop. But I do still think people can be a little hesitant towards canned products. Right. I think people also come into Matcha with their own perception of like, oh, it's Matcha so grassy. Or like, oh, they have a very specific idea in mind.

23:09
Andrew Schundler
So I think to get out there and to try to convince people when they're walking by you and they have a grocery list of like, hey, you want to try this? And I think that's been really fun. So I think doubling down on that and then trying new things, right. It's like, does promo work? Does in store floor displays work? I think it's just really learning what works in the retail space is what we want to drill into.

23:30
Daniel Scharff
I like it. This kind of calls back to our first guest today, Rebecca, who also has a beverage company and was talking about just being more choiceful about what she would say yes to. I think it is kind of in line.

23:42
Andrew Schundler
I really added a lot to that.

23:43
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. Not just doing like a one off Instagram post with some random person that. Is that really part of my strategy? I don't know. Great way to like just, you know, death by a thousand cuts to just say yes to a bunch of small stuff. But I think a lot of brands think about it the way that you did when they're just starting like, yeah, isn't everyone going to love this and start ordering it online? But if you really look at yourself like, hey, what beverages do I order directly from their website on a consistent basis? None. Because it's just not a consumer behavior yet. At this point, I think what you do see is, okay, like I, plenty of people probably have Celsius on repeat at this point, but that takes a long time to get to that level.

24:22
Daniel Scharff
And it's because it's cheap and they have this habit now of it. And the other one that I see a lot would be the what's the water. That's the black one.

24:32
Andrew Schundler
Oh, liquid death. No, no.

24:33
Daniel Scharff
It's a plastic bottle. It's.

24:35
Andrew Schundler
Yeah, I'm trying to think.

24:36
Daniel Scharff
It's on the tip of my tongue. You guys know what I'm talking about. I see cases of that show up wherever I'm living. Like, people have that on subscription, but I think probably it starts with, like, because the stuff is heavy and you don't want to carry that from grocery store, and you have a habit. So you first maybe get it off, like, Instacart or Amazon Fresh or something like that, and then maybe eventually you just get a subscription directly with them because it's cheaper. But, yeah, that's a long journey to get to. You have to be already firmly entrenched in their fridge before they just are looking for ways to save money on their habit.

25:06
Dava Guthmiller
Yeah, no. I related a ton to what Rebecca was saying earlier of just trying, like, being too wide and not deep. And I think it went on the retail side perspective of that. I think it was very easy when we launched, like, let's just go to, you know, like, we started working with two regional distributors in New England, and they gave us their account list, and it was like, let's go to every single store on their list. And it's a meat shop, it's a cigar shop. It's, you know, let's just get you anywhere we can. And I think in some ways, I think it's good to have a trial period of seeing what sticks and what works. But I think now it's time to really drill into the data. And it's like, okay.

25:43
Dava Guthmiller
Admittedly, when we started, I didn't, you know, there was a few sandwich shops near us that I was like, oh, yeah, maybe they would do well there. And those have been our best performing is like, the sandwich shop. Someone's coming in, grabbing a sandwich during the lunch break, doesn't have time to go to the coffee shop to also get a matcha, and so they grab one from the cold case. So I think it's like learning from that data and not as we hopefully continue to grow and bring matcha to New York or to Connecticut or beyond. It's not just saying yes to every single store that's interested and not saying yes and not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but just trying to focus, as you said, not dying by a thousand cuts because beverages expensive.

26:23
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. I mean, it's. At least you'll have some beverage to pour on those cuts. But it's a tough one. And by the way the brand that I was trying to think of is called Essentia. I just googled it.

26:31
Dava Guthmiller
Oh yeah.

26:31
Daniel Scharff
Essential. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good branding. But maybe they figure out a way to get their name more stuck in our heads. I really liked what you said also about the demos. And for me, doing demos is such a joy if you love the product. You know what's funny is I used to run a beverage company. I'd go out there and demo and I had formulated the product with the team and I loved how it tasted. And so it was so much fun to go out and demo because I loved it so much and generally people really liked it also. And I would crush on these demos. Oh my gosh. And I'm competitive about it. And I would go to Central market. One time at Central market, I sold 200 cans in a two hour window, which that's the most fun I've ever had.

27:07
Daniel Scharff
I cleared off this huge end cap and like, I think it did so well. Well, one, it means a good product. People thought it tasted really good. Central market shoppers are fantastic because I would demo sometimes at very high end stores in SoCal and people are like. And turn up their nose and examine every ingredient and find an obscure one to have a problem with. But then in Central market, they're like, sips, tastes good. Okay, grab two cans. Yeah, let me just fill up my shopping cart. I like met a former professional football player. He's like, give me 20. And I love that. These people are awesome. And also it's really good if you're on promo because were on 2 for 5 and 0, people then would only buy one. They would all go on multiples. Love doing that. So yeah, I love demoing.

27:52
Daniel Scharff
But then, you know what's funny is I had this idea of like, oh, we could do this cool startup CPG content series called let us do your demo. And I stepped in for one brand who I saw demoing once at a store. I was like, let me do it. Like, I'm so good at demos. I love doing it and. But like out of this particular brand, I think had a little bit more of a polarizing product. And I. So I sampled for like four or five people who didn't like it. I was like, this is not fun. This is not as fun.

28:17
Dava Guthmiller
Yeah, exactly. No, you certainly need to be really own it and be passionate and I think that'll be interesting too. Of when we get to a point where maybe can't do the tastings ourselves or samplings, how you communicate that passion and excitement to someone on the team or a company. But I loved getting someone who, you know, maybe I'm set up, like, right near the cash register. So there's a line. So it's not just like a fleeting moment where they're passing by and they're like, no, I don't want it. And then it's like, oh, like, well, why don't you want it? And then they give us a story of why they don't like matcha or this different thing. And it's like, well, like, you know, our spice vanilla's kind of got like a chai vibe. Do you like chai?

28:54
Dava Guthmiller
They're like, oh, actually, I do kind of like chai. And then they chart. They're like, wow, this is great. And then they grab two cans. And so I think, yeah, getting out there, and I think, you know better than me. But I think all of us are experiencing. There's just so many cool brands out there now. And 20, 26, and there's so many options. You know, when I go to the grocery store now or to convenience store, there's just. You're inundated with a ton of really cool brands and products. And so I think to be a brand that survives on the shelf long term, continue. You know, you get those reorders. I do think you just need to build that loyal following and people who really love it and believe in it and want to choose you over something else.

29:33
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, I love the journey that you're on because it's one that I have been on. And it's so much fun where you're basically figuring out how to go lily pad to lily pad. You're like, all right, I'm going to get into this one store. We're going to crush it. We're going to do demos there, make people super fans. And then it's all about figuring out how do you leverage that into the next opportunity? Because I'm doing well in that store, then another store nearby would hear about that. Or I could tell them about our performance and take us. Or I can ask that store who their distributor is and get in with that distributor because they hear how good we are. And then I ask the distributor what other stores they service, and I can get into those. Right.

30:07
Daniel Scharff
It's really like when you're in it and when probably people hear about it feels like, wow, that's like you're starting very kind of creep step. Like, it's very slow to do it that way, but that is actually how you start. It's A great way to start to just build it slowly.

30:23
Andrew Schundler
You know, you've got to love the journey. I think for us, like, we've tried, and it's hard. You can easily kind of get, like, oh, cool, now we're in. In a hundred stores, we've sold 10,000 cans. But I still try to hold on to, like, when we landed our first store, Morning Glory Natural Foods in Brunswick, Maine, like, were so excited. I still have the check for their order, like, in my office, like, trying to hold on to that excitement because, yeah, it is a long journey. It can be tough. You know, you have highs and lows, and in tastings or you go to stores, they say no, or someone doesn't like the product. But I think it's continuing to hold to your mission. It's continue to hold that you believe in your product and there are people out there that like it and.

30:59
Andrew Schundler
Yeah, but it's been a ton of fun. And I think for us, one of the questions you asked ahead of time was what I want to look back on the year in that lily pad. I think we want to continue to pop and figure out where to go and grow, but I think we also don't want to go too fast. Right. And I think that's key. It's like, I want to look back almost, if we talk in December, and I tell you, yeah, we had this opportunity to go in this store, and we said, not yet. Like, we said, like, we'd love to be there one day, but, like, we're not ready for it, because we don't.

31:30
Andrew Schundler
We want to make sure that we're prepared to make it a huge win for us and you and because you want the store to be excited to have you as well. So.

31:38
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, I love that. And I just was reflecting a little bit on how important it is to know than where to jump. Like, okay, we did this thing. How do I use this? Like, where should I go with it? What should I be trying to ask for and from who and who has that relationship that I might be able to ask for a favor right now because of how much we just crushed it here. But for me, with my businesses, that is where I've seen the biggest step level changes, is figuring out how to get to the next rung on the ladder from there. Because you've done the work, you've been there, you've executed, and what do you do with that? So I hope that is helpful for people.

32:13
Andrew Schundler
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

32:15
Daniel Scharff
All right. Well, Andrew, I wish you lots of luck. I'm very confident that out there while you're demoing that lots of people will feel like they've met their matcha.

32:27
Andrew Schundler
Yeah, exactly.

32:29
Daniel Scharff
I'd like to end on it. Another run of my resolutions is probably better puns.

32:34
Andrew Schundler
That's better puns. No. Well, thank you, Daniel. I mean, this podcast has been amazing for Chloe and I and such a help to us. So I appreciate all that you do.

32:42
Daniel Scharff
All right. Thank you so much. I want to say thank you again to all of our guests today. What a fun one this has been. And I will see you all on the Slack. Bye Bye. Well, my friends, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, the top globally ranked podcast in cpg. As you may know, we're not just a podcast. We're a community of brands and experts and you should join. You can sign up@startupcpg.com you'll then get an invite to our online Slack community. You're going to hear about amazing events near you, all of our special opportunities to get you in front of buyers, investors, brands and more. It's a free community. So what are you waiting for? I will see you there or on our next episode. Bye Bye.