👉🏼 Description:
Tune in as Ashwin talks about creating a category of healthy eating before it existed, telling customers about the tough decision to add meat to their plant-based service, and more!\
👉🏼 About the Guest:
Ashwin (Ash) is CEO & Co-Founder of Thistle, the tech-enabled organic meal delivery company focused on healthy, plant-based food to address health and climate concerns. Coming from a family of medical doctors, Ash brings a unique perspective to the business, utilizing his leadership to help the modern consumer invest in their own health and that of the planet. Ash and his wife, Shiri, were driven to found Thistle because two of the greatest challenges of our generation – our growing health crisis and the current climate emergency – pointed to a common solution: eating more plants and consuming less meat. Thistle aims to make eating healthy, plant-forward, and planet-friendly meals easy, with irresistible meals delivered directly to your door. He received his B.A. in Economics from Brown University and his JD from the University of Texas School of Law.
👉🏼 About the Host:
Shriya Nevatia (50K+ followers on LI and X) has been building community for 12+ years for founders, investors, and builders around the world. She launched the On Deck Catalyst community for elite global young leaders, helped hundreds of women start angel investing at The Council Capital, and founded The Violet Society, a pre-accelerator for female & non-binary startup founders.
👉🏼 Timestamps:
- 00:00: Episode Highlight
- 00:18: Intro to Taste & Tactics
- 00:32: Intro to Ashwin Cheriyan, co-founder and CEO of Thistle
- 02:43: How to choose the problem you want to solve
- 07:41: Choosing your audience and users
- 10:59: Being the first mover in a market, before the audience is ready
- 14:35: Why all-in-one products are important
- 16:35: How to roll out product changes and gauge customer needs
- 18:57: Catering to customers' stated (and unstated!) desires
- 25:00: Carving out a niche when the market doesn't even exist
- 29:10: How authenticity in marketing made Thistle's growth trajectory shoot up
- 33:23: How to make product decisions as a founder
- 37:47: How personal taste can (and sometimes should!) take over data
- 39:35: Learnings and takeaways from the episode
- 41:50: Outro
👉🏼 Where to find Ashwin:
👉🏼 Where to find Shriya:
What is Taste & Tactics?
Taste & Tactics breaks down the real playbooks behind iconic products, told by the people who built them.
Each episode goes deep on one bold launch: what sparked the idea, how it reached the right audience, and the moves that made it stick.
Hosted by Shriya Nevatia, the show is made for founders, marketers, and brand builders who are sick of vague advice and want practical frameworks.