The Startup CPG Podcast


In this Founder Feature, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Jacob Cooper, founder of Bagelverse, who's reinventing the classic pizza bagel with real mini New York bagels and bold flavors like spicy vodka and barbecue chicken.


Jacob spent eight years as a CTO in AI and tech before making a complete 180 to chase a childhood nostalgic idea. He launched Bagelverse in April 2026, and in the months since has sold over 80,000 pizza bagels through pop-ups around New York City, won a Shelfie Award, and had one of the most visited booths at Summer Fancy Food.


Caitlin and Jacob dig into his unconventional career pivot, the surprisingly complex supply chain behind a "simple" pizza bagel (which requires two separate co-packers), why packaging might be the single most important investment an emerging brand can make, and how he's building genuine, long-term relationships with retailers a year in advance of launch.


Listen in as they discuss:

  • Jacob's total pivot from eight years as a CTO in AI and tech to founding Bagelverse
  • Why he built the brand entirely through in-person pop-ups and farmer's markets before ever touching CPG
  • The surprising complexity behind a "simple" pizza bagel, and why it requires two separate co-packers
  • Why he intentionally delayed finding a co-packer until he knew the brand had real traction
  • What Jacob learned about follow-up and note-taking after having one of the busiest booths at Summer Fancy Food
  • Why big retailers plan shelf resets up to a year in advance, and how that timeline actually works in a founder's favor
  • Why staying in touch with retailers and buyers without always having an ask builds real, lasting relationships
  • Why Jacob believes packaging is the single most important investment an emerging brand can make
  • How Bagelverse is being intentional about which retailers to pursue first, rather than chasing every opportunity
  • Where to find Bagelverse today, from NYC pop-ups to the brand's farmer's market side project, Little Bagel



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Creators and Guests

Host
Caitlin Bricker
Managing Editor @ 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.

Jacob Cooper
We are reinventing the pizza bagel that people know and love. And most people just haven't had them in a very long time because they're not made with quality ingredients. It's cheese and pepperoni. They're microwave food. If you're a kid, you're probably eating them all the time. If you're a parent, you might be buying them for your kid, but maybe you're sneaking one, but you're not necessarily buying them for yourself. And so we want to create a much better version that also has some more fun flavors. Spicy vodka is our best seller. The people who buy cheese, Bagel Bites or Cheese Annie's, they're not the same buyer who's buying spicy vodka pizza bagels from Begalverse. And we want to bring that joy and that nostalgia, that familiarity.

00:45
Caitlin Bricker
Hey everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature. Today I'm sitting down with Jacob Cooper, founder of Bagelverse. He's reinventing the pizza bagel with quality mini New York bagels and flavors like square spicy vodka and barbecue Chicken. Jacob spent eight years in AI and tech before making a complete 180 to pursue this childhood nostalgic product. He launched in April 2026 and since then he sold 80,000 pizza bagels through pop ups around New York City, won a Shelfie award, and had the most visited booth at Summer Fancy Food. Just ask the people around him. We're diving into his unconventional pivot, navigating supply chain complexity with two C.O. Packers and his strategic retail approach, why packaging is the most critical investment a brand can make and how he's building genuine relationships with retailers months in advance.

01:42
Caitlin Bricker
If you're looking to connect with retail buyers, investors and industry experts in real time, you need to be in our community. Join our free Slack community with over 40,000 members. Get access to exclusive events and trade shows where you can meet those buyers and investors in real life and tap into free resources and more. Text CPG to 833-605-7002. That's 833-605-7002 and we'll get you hooked up. As always, enjoy. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Jacob Cooper, founder of Begalverse. Jacob, welcome to the show.

02:26
Jacob Cooper
Hi Caitlin. I'm very excited to be here. I've been listening to this for years, so it's an honor.

02:30
Caitlin Bricker
I'm so happy you're here. I know our founder Daniel is obsessed with Your products, and you have won a Shelfie Award. You've been in our section at Fancy Food. There's a lot of stuff that we need to talk about, and I just need to make a quick disclaimer to anybody. You are welcome to flame my accent. I don't know why, but I say bagel. What do you say?

02:54
Jacob Cooper
Bagel is great. I thought if you said bagel, then we could have a conversation offline.

02:58
Caitlin Bricker
I mean, I was supposed to say bagel, but I'm forcing it.

03:02
Jacob Cooper
Yeah, there you go.

03:03
Caitlin Bricker
I'm going to try my best to not say bagel, which is how I usually say it. And I will try my best to say bagel.

03:12
Jacob Cooper
You can give three strikes. All right. On the third one, I'm out of here.

03:15
Caitlin Bricker
All right. Anyway, will you tell us what bagel first is?

03:21
Jacob Cooper
Maybe strike one on that one. Yeah. So we are reinventing the pizza bagel. So the classic ones we had as kids frozen, and they're still going. Bagel bites are going strong. Annie's and all these other brands that are doing them haven't changed since the 90s, and we're trying to make them a hell of a lot better.

03:38
Caitlin Bricker
Well, I think you've done that. And like I said, Daniel's obsessed. I feel like he was obsessed before he even tried them. You came on and you did a live pitch for us when we did a live pitch session on YouTube, and he was like, man, I gotta try these. These are great. And he tried them and he was hooked. And I think we all were kind of hooked too. So do you have a jingle to go along with your products yet or what? What's the deal?

04:00
Jacob Cooper
I haven't had a lot of marketing budget to this point, to be honest with you. That'll be the first thing once we get there. But, yeah, there's definitely the Bagel anytime jingle from the old school commercials. We'll make a new one.

04:09
Caitlin Bricker
Of course. Of course. All right, so obviously you're working on Begalverse right now. What were you working on prior to Begalverse and what got you to this point?

04:19
Jacob Cooper
Yeah, so it's not anything remotely similar to this. I studied computer science and AI back before it was as cool or maybe it's so cool it's uncool now. It's about 10 years ago, and we had a startup coming out of college. I think my senior year, me and two guys founded it and grew it. It was like a customer service AI company that answered phone calls with, like, Alexa technology back when Alexa first came out. And it's still going. I was there for eight years. I was a cto. I built the whole product from scratch, and we hired a lot of people, raised a lot of money, and it was a really fun eight years. But I was ready for a change, to be honest. And I've always loved food, so I said, let's just totally do a 1:80.

05:00
Caitlin Bricker
And has there been a jump from AI and tech to where you're at now with Begalverse, or was there an in between that you were working on prior to actually starting this brand?

05:13
Jacob Cooper
The in between was six months of me traveling and, like, working out twice a day to try to make up for eight years of not working out much and eating all the food I could. That was my six months in between. And I had this idea and decided, like, let's pitch it to my parents, who were like, what the hell are you talking about? And I was like, pizza bagels. Like, you remember them? They're like, I guess. And I was like, you know what? I'm doing it anyways. They're very supportive and all that, but definitely a change for people in my immediate circle to be like, what are you? Why?

05:41
Caitlin Bricker
I mean, I get it. I love a nostalgic product. And I know I'm not alone in saying that I'm a child of the 90s. So this was speaking to me when I saw you pitching your product and then actually getting to try it. Whole different experience.

05:55
Jacob Cooper
Well, thanks. I think it was just the difference in, like, hey, you have degrees from a good school, then did AI for eight years. And this is just the opposite, honestly. It hasn't really been the opposite. I think almost all the skills have transferred over. Like, maybe I'm not coding all day long anymore, but being an entrepreneur running a business is very similar, regardless of what kind of business it is. I'm learning totally.

06:15
Caitlin Bricker
No joke. And I mean, it must feel not great to get maybe an eyebrow raise from some family members when you're pitching this idea to them. How do they feel about it now that it's a real, living, breathing product and it's in people's homes and it's hitting store shelves?

06:34
Jacob Cooper
Yeah. So they're regular customers, I think, which is they don't pay for it, but they are regular customers, which is great. They don't eat a lot of carbs. At least they haven't for a few years. I think they've been watching their elf and, like, they're eating three bagels a week because we make the whole bagels as well. Behind them. So it's been great. And I think this is very unfamiliar, so I think there's a lot of learning as well that I'm doing. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started this either. I think being a CPG founder is really hard. And you don't realize it, even though everyone says it, until you start like running into all the problems that everyone warns you about and experiencing them.

07:02
Caitlin Bricker
Totally. I just saw another post today at yet another CPG brand that decided to fold within the first two years of starting their company because you have to make these decisions where you say, does this make sense for my future? Or is this something where maybe I need to take another path and focus on other things? I give so many props to founders who are sticking it out and really believe in their product and especially to their communities, to their family and their friends who also really believe in what they're doing to help keep make this happening.

07:34
Jacob Cooper
I think it's really hard, especially when a lot of people get started. This is not my experience, but people, you know this is a second job, right? You're not paying yourself and you're spending a lot of your savings trying to get a product off the ground. For me, I was full time from the get go because I. This is like I had some money from the previous venture. I didn't have to raise friends and family, things like that. You know, it wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough to get going. I also didn't have to split my time. So it was 60, 70 plus hours a week from day one and not 10 hours a week when I find the time.

08:02
Caitlin Bricker
Totally.

08:03
Jacob Cooper
So it was much quicker to get there. I didn't actually start in cpg. I started in like I didn't even know what CPG stood for when I started this business. To be honest with you're not alone. Yeah.

08:13
Caitlin Bricker
I gotta ask you, going from tech and AI to creating bagel bursts, what are the snags that you have run into trying to scale a CPG operation? Not only a CPG operation, but a CPG operation in Froz, which from my understanding is killer.

08:32
Jacob Cooper
I'm learning how bad it is from everyone warned me about. I'm now learning it myself. The biggest difference is that like in tech, you build a product one time and if I wanted to have five times the amount of phone calls coming through our AI bot, where we used to take millions every week, I could click a few buttons on Amazon EC2 and have a bunch more servers and Call it a day. And here it's like, no, it's going to take you months and months to make that product and then you have to also ship it out. You have to have retailers who are going to support it. It's not. The physical infrastructure of it is incredibly different and challenging and cost intensive and all that stuff.

09:06
Caitlin Bricker
I'm sure you're learning a lot too as you're putting yourself out there. You've been to our events, you've submitted for the Shelfie Awards. As I already mentioned. What learnings can you tell us as a first time CPG founder being at a show like Summer Fancy Food because you had a lot of eyes on you were getting media hits, you had a ton of people at your booth constantly. Is there anything when you look back that you said I did this really well and damn, I wish I did this a little differently?

09:34
Jacob Cooper
Yeah, sure. We were at the Unify show like four days before Summer Fancy. We actually had a practice round like that. Summer Fancy was crazy. And there was a show literally four days beforehand and I lost my voice after the whole week. One of the strengths that we have and the way I actually started this business was I was doing pop ups, right? In classic, weren't at farmer's markets because it was pizza and farmers markets are at 9am you know, were all over the city. I had done catering for corporate events and stuff like that and even at like NBA games and the Barclays center for several months. So we did all of these live events and that's what I actually knew really well because I have sold 80,000 of these things face to face with customers myself.

10:09
Jacob Cooper
So giving them out for free, it was even easier. I didn't have to convince anyone to sell it. We knew what people look for when they're walking around seeing what products they wanted to try. And at a show it's like a big free food court which actually makes it challenging because people have a limit amount of stomach room and they'll try anything. So that was one of the things we did really well. We had a really nice display based on a lot of our experience of what of selling this product and making them as quickly as we could. Which we also had a lot of experience doing and having served thousands of these in events. So that was a huge strength. A not so much of a strength. I think something that we would improve on is.

10:44
Jacob Cooper
I think it wasn't necessarily at the show as much. It was more of like the amount of work that comes in afterwards in the follow UPS and making sure you actually get everyone's information properly. You're taking pictures of badges and you're kind of just like writing down what did you talk to them about? Because if you send an email, it's not just like your standard follow up email that everybody gets, but it's like, no, I talked to you for three minutes. Here's what we talked about, here's what you said you were interested in. If I can reference that in my follow up, it's going to be a lot easier. And there was people who were like, I know I talked to her, I know what she mentioned to me, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was.

11:12
Jacob Cooper
Because you talked to 500 people that day.

11:14
Caitlin Bricker
Right?

11:14
Jacob Cooper
So there was a lot of taking each conversation a bit more. Not seriously, but just being more diligent about taking notes and being able to follow up with them.

11:21
Caitlin Bricker
You've raised such a good point. Because I am not even a founder, but I have gotten emails from people who are like, hey, we met at Summer Fancy Food or whatever the trade show is. And I'm like, we absolutely did not. Like, you just scraped my email from wherever. We totally did not have a conversation. But you raise a great point because if you can pinpoint a moment in time at the show and talk about exactly what you talked about in that conversation, the bells are going to ding and people are going to be like, yeah, you're right, we did have this conversation and hopefully it leads to something really great for you in the future. So what came out of the show for you? I know you got some media hits. I saw somebody recording some video at your booth at one point.

12:02
Caitlin Bricker
And like I said, the traffic was just insane. So in the wake of Summer Fancy Food, what did you come home to?

12:10
Jacob Cooper
Yeah, I think one of the things people told us at the show is that, like, were the busiest booth. And I think it was because were offering hot, like, nutritious food. It wasn't like a small taste of something or a small piece of candy. Even though I could eat candy all day. Like, at some point, if you're sampling food, you need to have something substantial. And that is like what I think everyone, even the security guards were coming around and like asking for pizza bagels. The entire event, which I loved. But basically the big thing that came out of that was just like, we talked to every single retailer that I'd ever heard of that I wanted to talk to and more that I didn't even know that. I was like, wow, I really glad I talked to these people.

12:42
Jacob Cooper
The only one we missed, Wegmans, if you have ever heard of me. Hi. I would love to be on your shelves. I started learning how to cook next to a Wegmans and shop there every day. The only people I missed, I didn't see Wegmans. That was literally of everybody. I think that's the only people we missed. The startup CPG section was packed the entire time. It seems like every retailer, especially anyone who likes emerging brands, would come over and go around all the booths. So that was a huge deal for us. We didn't have to do our own prospecting beforehand and asking people to come by and then, oh, I went to the bathroom and I missed them kind of thing and they would spend a good amount of time there.

13:16
Jacob Cooper
There was almost like too many opportunities that are still a very early stage, high level and you have to have a lot of focus because it's like, oh, you know, we would love this on our airline. Great. Like, am I ready for that? Probably not. Almost definitely not. Like, I'm not even in more than 20 stores at this point. Like, there's no way we should be doing airlines. But it's super exciting. There's so many interesting things. You have to kind of focus and try to hope that the ones that you think are the right fit for you early on are what you prioritize. I think like, that lack of focus can be really damaging.

13:44
Caitlin Bricker
You mentioned Wegmans. Hi, Wegmans. Hello. If you're listening, I would love to see Begalverse on the shelves of Wegmans. We love a Wegmans over here. I'm in Massachusetts. It's just like an amusement park going into that store. It's amazing. So I hope your dreams come true. So what is your strategy for retail? Sounds like you want to be very calculated about what you're doing. You want to be smart about this because you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot. So what are you doing to create those pathways for yourself and what are your targets?

14:17
Jacob Cooper
Yeah, so the nice thing about our product is basically, again, it's a bit unique and something that people still recognize. So for us, we've had really good success talking to some of the more major retailers you mentioned. What are our targets? Right. Target is one of our targets. That'd be great. Like, I love talking to the team at Whole Foods a few times and a couple other places like that. I could obviously go and name a whole bunch for an emerging brand. The price point obviously is something that we're trying to get as low as possible for everybody, but economies of scale don't kick in as much as they probably will in a year or two. So making sure we go to places that are maybe a little less price sensitive.

14:55
Jacob Cooper
I don't think launching at Walmart, even though I really love talking to them, might be the right call for us at this time. Maybe next year, maybe the year after. So it's targeting those. It's also not going around to like every independent possible. Actually, we at the Unified trade show with StarBCG, they won the Up Next award alongside Kato. Kendall rocks as well. If I wanted to do distribution into a lot of smaller independence, we are in unify and we can, but it's a lot, a lot of energy and coordination and time. And one of the weaknesses actually of my business that is, I think it might have been the only person maybe who at in the section who had this was we didn't have a co packer at the time of the show, which might sound insane.

15:33
Caitlin Bricker
It does, yeah.

15:34
Jacob Cooper
The reason why I didn't know if the CPG thing would work out, if anyone would care or be interested, because we launched in April so there was no co packer involved. We had done this at live events. I had a team of bakers. We were still doing a lot more events in and around the city. Right. We do like five or six events a weekend, so there's plenty of work. And we said we can make our own product for now and let's see how CPG goes. I don't have to put the money in and do all that testing. Let's do that towards the second half of the year. Let's get to the shows, let's get the packaging out and then we'll see if it's worthwhile. If it's not, I didn't spend that time and energy.

16:05
Jacob Cooper
Maybe we'd open up a restaurant instead or do something else. So even if I wanted to launch a lot of independence today, like the supply chain is still something that we're working on. Like, that's the last thing I'm almost figuring out. We're very close to having that finalized, which is exciting for all the launches next year. That was a little bit of a ramble. Suffice it to say, the big retailers are what we're looking for. Tldr, you know what?

16:25
Caitlin Bricker
This is all really good because there are so many founders who are listening to this podcast. They are going to hear this episode. So I want to hear more from you about the struggles that you have had with securing that supply chain, finding a co packer and you still don't have a co packer right now.

16:40
Jacob Cooper
I'm actually lucky enough I don't have one co packer, I have two. And a lot of people will say, oh, you want maybe have a backup co packer in case that something you need to have. And for us, it's a real New York mini bagel. Like to actually describe the products, right. I just, maybe we should have like, I probably should have done that earlier, but that's okay. It's a real mini New York bagel sliced in half with sauce and cheese on top. There's a little more complexity that goes into that. Right. We do fun flavors, spicy vodka, barbecue chicken, things like that. But that's the long and short of it. But the guys who do bagels really well, the facilities who do bagels don't touch pizza. They do bagels. That's all they do. Or maybe they do a couple other kinds of bread.

17:14
Jacob Cooper
And the pizza facilities, they might make their own crust, classic pizza style crust, but they're not touching bagels. It's all different equipment. So we've got to get the bagels you made given to the pizza guy and the pizza guy is going to put the sauce and cheese on top. And again, more complexity than just that. But it's as simple as I can make it. So we have two. They're both great. The name of the guy who runs both of them is the same name, which confuses the heck out of me when I'm scheduling invites, but that's fine.

17:39
Caitlin Bricker
This is kind of crazy to me because I feel like there's so much here that founders can learn. So how do you stay relevant with retailers and stakeholders who are looking to carry your product or invest in you in the future? How are you remaining relevant, staying on their radar while you're trying to scale your brand simultaneously, making sure that they don't forget about you until you are ready.

18:01
Jacob Cooper
One of the interesting things about the process, especially with, I think some of these, the bigger retailers, is they don't reset the shelves more than once a year, maybe twice, especially in frozen. If you look at someone who's got 2,000 stores, they have to not only get the product right to maybe for launching in a few regions, 500 or 750 stores, they have to teach all their stuff about them. Make the planograms, which is, oh, what products go on what shelves, in what configuration is it on the bottom shelf, medium shelf, what price Is it at vetting all these suppliers and everything like that? The applications for us, for some of the bigger stores, it's almost a year in advance. Some of them it actually is. It's like 11 months or a year. It's a very long time from application to being launched.

18:42
Jacob Cooper
And that helps me right now because I don't have to like talk to them today and they're like, hey, can you deliver this in two months? I'm just like, that's not what they're asking. They're like, I can get my ducks in a row, right? We can go out and raise some money to help us with this next step and then launch. The whole timeline works really nicely the way it is that we're staying relevant. I mean, if you met somebody, especially at one of these trade shows or anywhere, one of the sarp, CPG events especially, that's honestly where I've gotten a lot of my connections from. I like to send like monthly update emails. They are interested, they talk to you. You're not necessarily asking anything of them if you have a closer relationship, Right.

19:23
Jacob Cooper
I asked a couple retailers to look at our updated packaging to see what they thought, right? I was like, hey, like, how deep are your freezer shelves? Because I want to make sure if I calculate my case dimensions correctly, how many cases will they fit?

19:33
Caitlin Bricker
Right.

19:33
Jacob Cooper
If it's going to be one and a half cases, then they're going to have half a case in the back. That may not be what anyone's preference is. So some retailers, I would not ask, I don't have a close enough relationship. They just get the email updates. Some of them, they want to be involved. Like, they would love for their feedback, you know, for me to hear that feedback on the cases, that makes them feel like they're part of helping the emerging brand grow. And I just got email back yesterday from Wes at Earth Fair, who is fantastic with like a detailed breakdown of every point that I asked him about what he looks for in, you know, how wide the shelves are and what height everything is. Depth, like what he thought about the packaging, like the call outs we have.

20:09
Jacob Cooper
It was great. People want to support you and if you only go to somebody when you have an ask of them, it feels a bit transactional. And sometimes you're going to have an ask of somebody, but it's like when you have a friend who only ever wants to hang out because they need a favor or something like that, it's not great, right? You want someone who just. It's nice to just Hear from somebody and not have anything asked of you. And that's what the buyers, I'm sure, are feeling.

20:32
Caitlin Bricker
Totally. I think a lot of people and CPG can feel that. Buyers. Podcast host. You know, it happens. I love hearing your perspective because I'm going to add a little bit of my perspective, too. When I see a brand like yours, you trigger that nostalgic feeling for me. And it's something that is going to stay in my brain and on my radar until I see it become this real thing that's on the shelves. So you are able to plant this seed and then it's going to stay in my brain. This happens with brands all the time. And it's all about how you pitch yourself initially, too. Because this is advice that I'm giving. Pitch yourself. Well, tell us exactly what you are. I don't want to hear what you aren't. I want to hear what you are.

21:18
Caitlin Bricker
Get me excited so that I'm following the journey until you launch. And I think that's the same thing that retailers do, too, because retailers love to be first to market. So you positioned yourself well. You have this product that nobody else is touching right now or hasn't touched in decades. And now it's becoming this real thing that people can actually get on their shelves and back and support. And it happens all the time. I love seeing that journey from it just being an idea and something that people are just sampling and playing around with to something that becomes a living thing that I can purchase and support.

21:53
Jacob Cooper
Yeah. And to that point, like, if I can unabashedly pitch any retailers who are listening to this. Thank you.

21:59
Caitlin Bricker
Please.

21:59
Jacob Cooper
We are reinventing the pizza bagel that people know and love. And most people just haven't had them in a very long time because they're not made with quality ingredients. It's cheese and pepperoni. They're microwave food. If you're a kid, you're probably eating them all the time. If you're a parent, you might be buying them for your kid, but maybe you're sneaking one, but you're not necessarily buying them for yourself. And so we want to create a much better version that also has some more fun flavors. Spicy vodka is our best seller. There's people who buy cheese Bagel Bites or Cheese Annie's. They're not the same buyer who's buying spicy vodka pizza bagels from Begalverse. And we want to bring that joy and that nostalgia and that familiarity, something that. Like how many foods that people remember so fondly that they don't eat anymore.

22:37
Jacob Cooper
I don't think I can really name many other ones. Maybe I. I love jello. I guess I haven't had jello in a while. That's about it. Like that's it. So anyways, if you are remotely interested in chatting, you can always reach out to me and all that stuff and you can get some free pizza bagel sent to you. Oh, that's it. Yeah.

22:53
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, that's a pretty good deal. Free 99. We love that.

22:56
Jacob Cooper
Exactly.

22:58
Caitlin Bricker
All right, I got to ask. Any other advice that you would want to send out to any other first time CPG founders that are listening now? Maybe particularly in Frozen, maybe not. What do you got for us?

23:10
Jacob Cooper
I think the biggest one that I would say, and I don't think everyone can necessarily do this, but if you're not there to speak your story and do a demo, the packaging has to speak for you. That's it. It has to. And I mean, I'm not artistic at all, so I could never design my own packaging. But even if you are, I may not recommend that you do because it's the one area I think that's really worth spending money on. I mean, look, if you don't have a good product that you can't make, fine, right? Your product tastes really bad. Spend money on that. But if we assume a decent product, the packaging is a huge part of it, like that is the biggest spend that I had. I didn't go spend $100,000. That's not what I'm saying.

23:46
Jacob Cooper
But I interviewed a whole bunch of people, talked to friends who recommended other brands because end of the day, it is really hard to tell a story on a very limited surface area and with creative imagery and all that stuff. And you need a team that you can trust who can help you do that. So it is not cheap, but it is what you will want to do if you want to take that next step to being a serious brand in cpg.

24:12
Caitlin Bricker
I got to say, your branding and your packaging, I wish I was able to hold it up for you right now, but people see, they'll go looking.

24:18
Jacob Cooper
All right.

24:19
Caitlin Bricker
It looks like an established brand.

24:21
Jacob Cooper
Thank you.

24:22
Caitlin Bricker
And you were mentioning Target earlier. You were mentioning Wegmans. You mentioned Walmart too. I got this feeling, especially when you said Target, because I go there every now and then. I could see your products flying off of the shelves in a store like Target, like without a doubt. I feel like it would be a smash hit. And your packaging speaks for itself again, like you're pulling on the Heartstrings of nostalgia. But you also have the branding to back it up. And not all brands can say that. Not all consumers can say that about the products that they are looking at and not all retailers can say that about the products that they are looking to bring into their stores. So you really are nailing it with the branding, packaging and the product.

25:06
Caitlin Bricker
So I'm super excited to see where you end up in a year. And I also got to add too. You launched in April, you're already an award winning brand just a few months later. That is huge. So don't be afraid to add that to your pitch. I'm going to add it for you today.

25:21
Jacob Cooper
Thank you. I do want to just mention that we did do a whole year of getting the product out there and demos and tons of events and stuff like that incorporate catering. But like the CPG side was we really felt like were confident with the product that we made. I think it took almost a year to make the product the way I wanted to see it. Like I'd never made a bagel before in my life before starting this. Like I love to cook but bagels were. I think it took almost a year to get it right. So like we is of course like we did a bunch of in cpg we had figured out our story. There's a lot of stuff behind the scenes.

25:49
Jacob Cooper
But then once we launched it really went well and I think a big part of that was I like joined. My first startup CPG event was at the very end of last year so 2025 and I got to sample at my first event in March or April and that came perfectly. I was one of somewhere fancy. Deadline opened up to have a booth and the startup CPG team was able to try the product again. Haven't mentioned Daniel. Daniel's been really great for us. I think he just loves pizza. I am not sure.

26:17
Caitlin Bricker
I don't know he does in any form.

26:19
Jacob Cooper
I know like if we don't sample like there's usually pizza at the start of CPG event catered if it's in New York. So. I'm kidding. Like it's just really great to have that kind of support and I mean just get in front of so many people and so many buyers and so many partners in the future manufacturers that I just, it would not almost be impossible for me to do otherwise. So huge shout out to star of cbg.

26:39
Caitlin Bricker
Thanks. And we do this all because of people like yourself and we would not be here if it weren't for you and other CPG brands. So thank you and again, so excited to see where you're at in a year from now. But before we get there, let's get Begalverse on more people's radar. Where can they find you online? What's your website? What's your social handle?

27:01
Jacob Cooper
Yeah, so as I mentioned earlier, we're doing a ton of supply chain stuff right now, so you can't find us that many places. You can find us in and around New York City at a whole bunch of stores. Pop Up Grocer, Happier Grocery and some other ones in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Thebagelverse.com is a store locator. You can find the other thing if you are in New York City. We do like bagel and cream cheese and sandwich farmer's market stands just because it's very fun and it's able to bring in positive income for the business. While I CPG is really in that research and development and like growth stage, we're all over the place. Little Bagel is what that's called. We just debuted pumpkin bagels. Actually, like pumpkin shaped bagels, the cutest things ever. We were like, oh, we make great bagels.

27:39
Jacob Cooper
People kept asking me, when am I? Where can I buy your regular bagels? I'm like, you can't. And so we made something that they could. So it's at farmers markets all around the city in Westchester, Jersey. Otherwise, PizzaBagel NYC is the old Instagram name that I haven't changed because I'm scared if I change it, I'm gonna lose all the followers. But I have to change it at some point, so I'll figure that out. Pizza Babel NYC is where you can find the latest. I'm not the best marketer, so don't expect great things. Mildly entertaining at best. Okay.

28:05
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, well, I've got some marketing tricks up my sleeve, so if you ever want to have a conversation and figure things out, you just give me a call, shoot me a message, we can talk this out.

28:13
Jacob Cooper
Sounds good. You might be getting a call from me five minutes after the sense.

28:17
Caitlin Bricker
Perfect. I look forward to it. All right, Jacob, thank you so much for the conversation. I think founders are going to learn a lot from you and again, so excited for your journey and I hope to see you soon.

28:28
Jacob Cooper
Thanks, Caitlin.

28:28
Caitlin Bricker
See you later. Bye bye.

28:30
Jacob Cooper
Bye.

28:32
Caitlin Bricker
CPG BFFs. We've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast. As you may know, we're not just the top globally ranked CPG podcast. We're a community of tens of thousands of CPG founders and experts and you should join us if you haven't already. Head to Startup CPG to sign up. You'll get an invite to our Slack community, hear about events near you, and get access to opportunities that connect you with buyers, investors and other brands. It's free, so what are you waiting for? I'll see you in Slack and in real life. Thanks for listening.