#176 - Startup CPG’s 2024 Year in Review

In this episode of the Startup CPG podcast, Daniel Scharff sits down with Patricia Menegoto, Head of Marketing and Community at Startup CPG, to reflect on a transformative year for the community and discuss ambitious plans for the future. 

Together, they recount the milestones of 2024, from hosting dedicated sections at trade shows, events in 17+ cities, building partnerships such as the GNC "Next Big Thing" initiative and the expansion of the Further platform supporting female-founded brands.

Key topics include the success of in-person networking events, the growing impact of the Shelfie Awards, and how Startup CPG seeks to help emerging brands gain visibility and access to key retailers and investors. They also explore exciting initiatives planned for 2025, aimed at further strengthening the community and driving meaningful connections between founders, retailers, and industry leaders.

Listen in as they share about:

• Reflections on Startup CPG’s Growth and Achievements
• Community Engagement and Support
• Notable Highlights from 2024
• Key Initiatives and Partnerships
• Vision for 2025 and Beyond

Episode Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmenegoto/ 

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

• Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
• Join the Startup CPG Slack community (20K+ members and growing!)
• Follow @startupcpg
• Visit host Daniel's Linkedin 
• Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [e-mail]
• Episode music by Super Fantastics
  
  

Creators & 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.

Patricia Menegoto
I heard great stories this year, especially from brands that I met this retailer at one of your events and after one month they were on the shelf or like other retailers too, that we did the brand matching. They already carry the brands at their stores. And what I noticed too is that from Expo west this year, the brand matching that we did with some retailers, I think that we had like maybe five or six retailers. The list for 2025, it's already like way over this, maybe double. It's. It's going to be insane. It's just so nice to see the retailers are like also on our side and seeing the potential of the communities.

00:57
Daniel Scharff
Hello Startup CPG ers. Welcome to the last episode, 2024. I wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. And as I was thinking about everything that we got through this year, I really wanted to invite our head of marketing and community, Patricia Menegato, to walk down this 2024 memory lane with me. I hope you'll enjoy reliving some of our favorite memories from this year with us and also hear about what we have in store for 2025. Hint, hint. It's big. A huge thank you to our whole community and my Startup CPG team. I can say that personally I have never had so much fun and we are just getting started. If you're not already in the community, please join [e-mail] enjoy. All right, everybody.

01:43
Daniel Scharff
Hello and welcome to our year end episode where we're just going to rehash some of our greatest hits and talk about what's going to go on next year in the Startup CPG community. And I'm very excited to be joined here by one of my favorite people, it's Patricia Menegato. Patricia, do you mind introducing yourself and letting everyone know what do you do if they don't know you already?

02:03
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, of course. First of all, thank you so much for having me here. This is a very special year for us. So very excited to talk about 2024. I'm Patricia Minegotto. I'm the head of marketing and community at Startup cpg and I've been with Danielle basically since the beginning and it has been a fun ride to see all the new members and keep the community growing.

02:27
Daniel Scharff
Patricia, why do you do what you do? What is it that you like about helping all the brands or the founders? What is it that keeps you going?

02:36
Patricia Menegoto
Oh, that's a great question. I mean, even before Startup cpg, I used to look to work with a lot of intrapreneurs and I just think it's very nice to be able to help them in a meaningful way and keeping them motivated and growing and providing them a lot of great resources. And one of the things that I love the most is just meeting the community in person and seeing how much impact we have in their lives because so, you know, we all work remote. The whole team works remote. So when we get together at any event, it's the best feeling ever. And always keep me even more motivated to make sure that we create so many amazing resources.

03:14
Daniel Scharff
You remember in the early days, because it was Pandemic time, were just doing so much work online, remotely building the Slack, the community, without getting that kind of reward, which is when we actually get to meet up with people in person. Do you remember that?

03:29
Patricia Menegoto
Yes. Oh, my God, that was insane. The lockdown. But what about you, Daniel? What does it.

03:35
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, so. Well, yeah, maybe I'll just do a little bit of the history of startup CPG so people know what we're talking about. So I began the a very early iteration of startup CPG living in SF in 2018. And I did it by just starting to get some of my friends together, like from Facebook, my SF friends, you know, in and around CPG and convincing them to come to a bar and meet up and just start sharing and writing down emails by hand on a clipboard. And then was able to partner with a few organizations and get to the point where even by our third or fourth event, we already had, you know, a hundred people getting together and just saw there was a really cool demand for it. So 2019, we started having bigger, more successful events.

04:19
Daniel Scharff
2020, we had done this series at the old WeWork Food Labs. And I remember when Patricia came to one of our events, I think January or February of 2020, and you were interested to help, and that was I Dairy Disruptors event that we did there. And then, yeah, you came on board and then surprise, a month later, I think you made quick work because you were already helping us launch the Slack just a month later. But also I think we launched it the day that Tom Hanks got Covid and the pandemic officially began because of that. So that was just like full lockdown mode, right?

04:53
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, that was insane. That was a crazy time. And it seems so long ago, but yeah, that event I waited for everyone to go and then. So I was able to talk to you because when you are at events, you are like networking mode still.

05:07
Daniel Scharff
True.

05:07
Patricia Menegoto
And then we talked and we started working together and here we are. But 2020 was an interesting year. I Think for everyone.

05:14
Daniel Scharff
I remember I was in Chicago doing a pitch for McDonald's when I worked at Just Egg when we got that news. And I remember sitting there in my hotel room and you and I were talking because we also had a really big event coming up. It just like March 17th with, you know, 150 attendees. And were just sitting there and we're like, I don't know, I can't figure out how to cancel an event. On eventbrite, they don't let you do it to refund all the tickets. Like, this is a nightmare. But okay, so anyways, we got out of that and then 2020, pretty interesting time. You know, like, you and I, I think we're just figuring a lot out about how could we be valuable to people during the pandemic.

05:51
Daniel Scharff
I think, you know, one of the coolest things that we did, in addition to figuring out how to grow an online community, when we couldn't meet up in person, was doing the pitch program where were like, all right, brands can't get on shelf now. People are not letting new brands on shelf. They're canceling resets. And so we did an online virtual pitch program where we took about 20 brands and sent them to really cool buyers all around the country and did a big virtual pitch where there were tons of prizes and winners. And yeah, I mean, I think that was just like us figuring out like, all right, how are we going to do this thing? How are we going to help brands? It was a pretty special program though, wasn't it?

06:25
Patricia Menegoto
It was so special. Like, I think the most amazing part is that we actually sent the box to those buyers and then while the brands were pitching, they could try the product. So you know, when. Because when everything it's online, like, how can you get in front of everyone? And also we did so many zoom mixers. Do you remember that? Every other week at an online service.

06:48
Daniel Scharff
I know. Well, because. So I was one of my friends mixers like very early on, a couple weeks into the pandemic, and she had this thing called breakout rooms where you got to actually talk and. Because I mean, yeah, I like the social part where you actually get to talk, not just listen. And I was like, let's, we gotta do that. Let's have mixers where people get to hang out and that. It was so fun. I mean, would feature brands and that was really cool. And I remember even those pitch programs, you know, we did the first one 2020 and another one in 2021, but we had some baller Brands. In those first pitches, I remember we had Wild Wonder. We had Renewal Mill. We had a bunch of really cool brands showing up, winning prizes that went on to do really great things.

07:28
Daniel Scharff
So we figured it out. We figured out how to rock it during the pandemic.

07:32
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, we did. Because even, like, our community Zoom Mixers, we had about, like, 80 to 100 people every time, and it was like, every other week. So I think 2020 was a good year for us. But what about 2021? What happened?

07:45
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, so 2021, I mean, that was kind of like where we started to. Yeah. What I would call get the reward. Because it is so satisfying when, you know, we do all this work, we build a community to get to come together. And 2021, I think, is when we started doing our first real, big events, real parties, that kind of stuff. I remember we came out and did this massive event in Austin, and we couldn't believe it. It was our first Austin event, and there were a couple hundred people there. I actually went for it in person just because, I mean, there were going to be so many people there, and just started seeing this huge demand to get back in person and do these events as the restrictions were starting to come down.

08:20
Daniel Scharff
And, you know, we started doing our first parties around then, like, our first Expo east party. That one was fantastic, where we just, like, rented out part of a boat and we had a party on a boat, this boat called Moshulu in Philly, which is this landmark. And everyone's just like, what? Like, you guys are having a big, like, party. All right, let's go. Like, do we have to wear masks? We're like, I don't know. I'm not really sure. Let's just see what happens. Gosh, it felt good, right, for everyone to come together.

08:49
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, that was great. And I think also in 2021, if I'm not wrong and correct. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think was our first time having a partnership with New Hope, where we gave one brand a free booth.

09:02
Daniel Scharff
Oh, that's right. Yeah. Gosh, it's such an important part of what we do. But, yeah, they. They were really nice to jump in and help us where, you know, we really wanted to help educate brands about the show. And then that was, I think, the first time we got started with our giveaway program where, yeah, one lucky brand got to win a booth for Expo East. And it was such a magical thing and actually really laid the groundwork for us doing giveaways, which has been incredibly special since then. So then, yeah, I mean, look, since then it's just been kind of more of the same of like, okay, that worked, let's do more of that. And like, what else are brands paying for? Could we do that for free?

09:41
Daniel Scharff
And you know, I think we really figured out how to start creating resources that we could launch that are first of a kind. We started going way bigger at shows. Right. Like doing our own dedicated sections.

09:52
Patricia Menegoto
21 was our first selfie.

09:54
Daniel Scharff
Oh, that's right. Oh, I guess. Yeah. So that was, that's what we decided to do instead of pitch eventually was our own awards program because, you know, we don't love that brands have to pay to submit for a bunch of award programs. So let's have a big free one. Yeah.

10:08
Patricia Menegoto
Well, that was interesting.

10:10
Daniel Scharff
And ever since then your mailman has hated you.

10:12
Patricia Menegoto
Oh yeah, they do. Well, I've been moving around so they hate me, I move again.

10:16
Daniel Scharff
But because of that.

10:17
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, but you know, one of the males was complaining so much to my last neighbor. She was like, I don't know what this girl does, but like, why does she got so many packets?

10:26
Daniel Scharff
She's a real shopping problem.

10:28
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, she had to go up the stairs, so I felt bad for her.

10:32
Daniel Scharff
So yeah, what a privilege to get to be the first people often to see some of these new and cool products. Sometimes they haven't even launched yet, sometimes they're getting early traction. So thank you to all the brands for sending those in. So, okay, as we're getting to 2024, I thought maybe we could just kind of go back and forth and remember some of our favorite moments from this past year. Which, you know, for me this has been my first year fully full time on the business, taking all of my energy and passion and craziness and just focusing all of it on this community and how do we help brands more and grow. And you know, I think for me, I'll say, I think we really leveled up our impact this year.

11:10
Daniel Scharff
I think, you know, we just were able to figure out how to be so much more helpful and past and it's been so much fun. So do you have any a favorite memory you want to recall from this past year?

11:22
Patricia Menegoto
So many. But I think, I mean my favorite one because I'm very involved in this project is the further initiative that we are doing to help female founded brands. So we did some partnership with Saddle, like booth giveaway for Expo west and summer Fancy Food. But also the brunch that was a very nice event in LA that we did with Settle and I've been talking to so many female founded brands now and they are just so excited about this program and I can't wait to just keep developing that.

11:57
Daniel Scharff
It's a really big one, right? Because, I mean, gosh, the event that you led at Culver Hotel looked so beautiful and we had buyers there and yeah, settle really just crushed it with us on this one. And yeah, seeing the. How happy the female founded brands were at the shows, who got to go there because of them, it was very special, wasn't it?

12:18
Patricia Menegoto
So beautiful. Your favorite?

12:20
Daniel Scharff
My favorite. Okay, so one of mine, I mean, I think like the shows for me because they're so much fun. Us getting to do our first dedicated section at Fancy Foods summer show in New York was really cool. We had 20 booths there this year. They gave us this ridiculous signage. It was like a scoreboard at a football game. It was massive. Everybody looked around like, what is going on here? And the buyers made it a destination and came by. I think we do a lot of work to make the sections really good, making sure we can get as many of the right brands in the section so that it's an awesome section. We market it really heavily and then we make sure it's our job that they have a good experience at the show.

13:01
Daniel Scharff
And so, you know, we go out and I'm emailing every single buyer that I know, which is a lot of them making sure they start their show there as well as media. So we had so many meetings going on in our section that brands could apply for. We had, you know, Whole Foods and Fairway and so many other people, and then even like media tours, you know, Ruth Simon from the Wall Street Journal coming by and interviewing people. Just so much of that I think we didn't just show up and have a section, but we made it the best section at the show. And all the brands had a really good experience, got a lot out of it. And you know, I think for us, that's what made it such a great experience.

13:38
Daniel Scharff
And you know, we've done sections for a couple of years now at Expo west and those keep getting better and better, both in terms of the size and quality of the brands that recruit to come in there, as well as our ability, I think, to make it impactful and get the retailers there. So it's just very cool. It's really fun. And again, since I think actually even because for our team, that's mainly the only place we get to come together as a team is at those shows, then it's extra fun because we get to Come together at the most fun times of the year when, you know, we're out there doing our thing and it's so much fun.

14:09
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, no, the sections are amazing. And as you said, like, we really try to help the brands have the best time and just making sure, like, we have calls with them. We have to talk about the Setup, Q&As. We have a private slack channel. So it's like all the pre dedication to make like, sure that they know how to get there, like how to send products, how everything, and then bringing the buyers and just meeting them in person, you know, because I talk to them a lot through slacking email. So it's very special to see them having a place at the show and then having all the buyers that we.

14:45
Daniel Scharff
Know coming in and that prep work cannot be underestimated. Like, yeah, we do calls with them just so you can help them, especially with just some of those very basic questions and they can help each other. It's so nice that you have like a little cohort of brands that you're going to the show with and can ask all of those really early questions that everybody has. But for some reason, it's always really hard to get the right answer. Not just the official answer, but the sort of like, what happens at the actual show answer. So that's been really cool. So what's another highlight for you from this year?

15:14
Patricia Menegoto
Well, we did talk about the team, and I think that we have such an amazing team right now. Like, everyone gets very overlong and it's been a longer time because I feel like you and I is basically since the beginning and some people left, but I feel that like we have a team that is. Has been longer with us. So just meeting them in person and making sure that we also bond in person, you know, because working remote is great. Don't get me wrong. I love working remote, but I do miss the having the team together once a week or something like that. So getting everyone in person and all this team have fun, we have dinners. So that's. I think that's a highlight for me too. Just having an amazing team working for us.

15:59
Daniel Scharff
Yes, we made some big pickups this year on team members too, which I'm really grateful for. And just, you know, I think for me as somebody who probably like work for me and the stuff that I'm working on plays I think such a big role in my life and my identity probably, you know, more than it should. It's just like, it's so much of, like, how I show up in Life that, you know, it makes me extra happy with some of the huge team member additions that we've got this year. And I think, like, maybe this is the year we really have been able to figure out how to become more of a company with its own identity, its own culture and just like that, where everybody knows each other. Like everyone who works together now kind of all knows each other.

16:38
Daniel Scharff
Whereas before, pretty like I would say, probably more siloed and people doing the stuff that they were doing. But, you know, especially just since I wasn't full time on the business, it was hard to have all of that cohesion, which I think is really important, you know, important for me and I think for everybody who wants to enjoy where they are and enjoy their co workers and get, you know, find a lot more meaning out of it.

16:57
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. No, we missed you.

17:00
Daniel Scharff
Well, now you've got too much of me, so you have to deal with that too.

17:03
Patricia Menegoto
I have to deal with that too. I'm not gonna lie. Just insane how much we do, like, because our team is not huge sometimes, you know, like we can take longer to answer your email or slack message. But our team is small but very dedicated and I'm always impressed how much we can get done.

17:22
Daniel Scharff
And it's not AI. We don't really know how to do that yet. It's just still us doing that. We should figure that out.

17:27
Patricia Menegoto
Okay, what else? What else?

17:29
Daniel Scharff
Okay, let's see. So, yeah, I mean, for me, one really cool thing was the new shows that we got to do this year. So in addition to those ones that I've always gone to, like Expo and Fancy, we got to do a bunch of new shows. So we had a very cool partnership with Beverage Forum and so I got to go to that, but also get on stage and bring 15 awesome brands up there. You know, like anytime I'm on stage, I'm going to bring up brands for pitches somehow. And they loved it. It was so great. It was just such a cool addition to the show. They got to pitch to really epic retailers and very cool stuff happened because of it.

18:02
Daniel Scharff
I got to go to Supply Stor side West for the first time that I'd always heard of but just could never like rationalize by the time to go to it. And now I get what it is. And it was super cool. I got to go to my first international trade show, the one in Canada, CHFA east one. And I'll definitely be going back for the west show. So that was really fun for me. And you know I think on the education standpoint what I want is for us to be the central education resource for the community because I feel like we know what brands need to learn at the early level. Like I don't think you know, we're the best position to help them when they're $50 million revenue brands like you need very specialized help at that point, really technical knowledge.

18:43
Daniel Scharff
But at the early stage, like we've done this, we get it. Like we know a lot of the things that we wish for all of you to know and we have the most amazing partners who are on board to help us educate you. And I think we got so much better in terms of the quality of education we can deliver especially in the webinars that it just blew my mind. By the end of this year we delivering webinars where were getting 6, 700 brands signing up for these and just so engaged in the chat. Partners like Nielsen just dropping absolute gold with the data shares that they are doing. And you know, I think like for me as a brand it's so hard for me to make time for webinars.

19:19
Daniel Scharff
Cause I'm like oh, it's going to be a bunch of BS for most of it and then I just kind of want that one slide. We get that and that is why our webinars are designed to be no bs, all good stuff. But also if you can't attend we will send you the slides afterwards and or you can watch the recording. But you know we know what you're looking for and we will try to deliver that and tell us if we aren't because that's, we want that feedback. So that was another big highlight of mine is just these weekly webinars getting so big that I feel like we can have so much impact. What's another one of yours Patty?

19:49
Patricia Menegoto
Oh there are so many. But I can't lie that I love the shelfie season is just amazing. Like for February and June it feels like Christmas every day. I have 20 packets at my door but and it's also very overwhelming because our team takes every single brand that applies. Like we learn about them, we talk about them, we try their products, we bring different people to try your guys products not just like three judges and that's it because we want to make sure that your products impacting a lot of people like a lot of different taste buds and all in between. So I love the shelfies and I love how we can recognize emerging brands and helping them grow get in front of buyers and retailers.

20:33
Patricia Menegoto
We have sent emails before about Shelfie winners or even like other announcements where we feature brands in our emails. And we got retailers emailing Danielle and I back, and they were like, hey, I want to get connected this, this, that brand. So I just think the impact and that it's. We can do for free. That's so amazing.

20:53
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. I want to highlight how conscientious and thoughtful Patti and the team are about the samples that they get. Because as a former brand, I know it sucks to have to send samples in for things. It costs money for the product, costs money for the shipping, and especially because there are so many award programs out there where you have to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of sending in the product, which. Which, like, kind of drives us nuts. And so, you know, we wanted to have this program, but it is intense to just be getting 10 boxes a day for so many days during the year. And you have to take the time to open them all and try them all really thoughtful way and make sure that everybody's getting a fair shake on their product.

21:30
Daniel Scharff
And so I really appreciate you and the team taking the time to do it and to make really excellent decisions. And we wish we could award a prize to everybody, but we do award as many as we can, I think. How many categories do we have this year with winners?

21:43
Patricia Menegoto
I think 32 or 3.

21:45
Daniel Scharff
32 or 33. Okay. So, yeah, we are trying to give out as many trophies as possible. And, you know, our hope was we want this to help you. We want you to be able to brag about being a finalist or winner and put our big obnoxious trophy on your booth and have people be like, what is that? Okay, I guess I need to give this thing a look. If you won that's our goal with it. And yeah, I mean, you know, obviously I see all of the notes that you make and the deliberations that happen in everything that goes into picking winners for the shelfies. And it is a great opportunity and privilege for us to get to do it. But also we take the responsibility really seriously. And in case anyone's wondering, it is not always so easy to do.

22:25
Daniel Scharff
Sometimes we get some very choice pieces of feedback from brands in the community who do not win. But we understand that also because it's never fun to win things. And so we do our best to be understanding about that as well. And we are here to support you all, and we just look for as many of these opportunities as possible to use our resources to help all of you. So maybe I'll say another one of mine, which you know, I think, you know, along the line of things that we want to do for the community. Just the giveaways for me were so much fun this year where we got to give away booths. We did Broadway outings, right? We had one sponsor come in and take a bunch of lucky brands. Hummingbirds. It was to go see a Broadway show.

23:03
Daniel Scharff
Just what a good time that was during fancy foods we had with our partner dos. We got to send a couple brands to Vegas for supply side. We got to give away tickets to beverage form. Just so much stuff where it's. It's such a joy to get to actually do the call to tell the brand that they've won and see that very pure, genuine reaction. And by the way, the other thing that I love about this is, I don't know, Patty, if you've won things in life like a lottery or raffle or something, but I've won twice in my life. Once was a comic book thing at a comic convention that I went to when I was a little kid, and I think I got some comic books. And the second was when I was at Mars Chocolate.

23:41
Daniel Scharff
I bought a raffle ticket for a cherry thing when I was in one of the offices and ended up winning a signed Kyle Busch Eminem's jacket, which I just gave for Christmas to my niece. I think it's about time. I probably don't need to be wearing it anymore, but, like, you remember it forever. It's so special to win something. Patty, did you ever win something like this?

24:00
Patricia Menegoto
I never won anything.

24:02
Daniel Scharff
I'm sorry.

24:06
Patricia Menegoto
Now I don't want anything in life, so.

24:08
Daniel Scharff
All right, we'll come up with a competition. But you remember it forever. It's crazy. And so. And you get to be the one who tells a lot of the brands also, and they win. And isn't it just. Is so incredible. We're so lucky to get to work with some of these incredible partners to give them really meaningful things.

24:25
Patricia Menegoto
No, it's amazing to see their reaction. And especially, like, you know, for trade shows, it's so expensive to pay for the booth and the trip. So for them to having the chance to get a free booth and being an emerging brand, like, their reaction is just priceless. I got emotional in a lot of the calls where we announced the winners. I'm glad that the team cut my face out of it because I'm, like, blowing my eyes out.

24:51
Daniel Scharff
I get that way watching the recording, too. Like the bub love one. I was like, oh, my God. It's amazing. Okay, awesome. So how about all the events that we do because we're going a little nuts on how many events we're actually managing to have all around the country because we do big ones, not just at the trade shows. Like we want to be the ones throwing the biggest party at every trade shows where we feature brands who get to sample with us for free. But also, I mean you've worked incredibly hard with your team this year to level up all of the events that we can do in communities. Do you mind talking about that?

25:23
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. So we host events in about 17 cities right now around the U.S. We also have a London community leader, Toronto and I think this year we probably have hosted like a hundred events besides the biggest like events around trade shows, you know, just like the meetups, as you said, we also launched new cities, Seattle, North Carolina and Denver. And we are 2025. We're going to expand more but our goal is just, you know, being on the online is easy. You go to our slack, you ask questions. But meeting people in person, getting feedback on your product. We try to bring buyers to every event. Our media, we have the Ryan from was it Food Navigator.

26:09
Daniel Scharff
Yep. Brian Daly from Food Navigator usa.

26:12
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, she interviewed brands in Chicago and already put the article in the interview up. So it's just amazing to be able to meet the community person if you haven't been at one of our meetups yet. It's just like get motivated. You know, you meet all the founders because when you meet other founders I feel that you guys can relate with each other just being an emerging brand, maybe sometimes different category but you can exchange ideas, what's working, what's not working and doing partnerships or collabs together. So I really encourage you guys to try to go to one of our events. But yeah, the team is working really hard to try to host at least like once a quarter or once every other quarter event in each city.

26:55
Patricia Menegoto
And let me know in the slack too which city you want me to launch next in 2025 because and planning for that to many of the in person events too right around the US you did two tours this year, didn't you?

27:09
Daniel Scharff
I've done a lot of tours, yeah. So in 2023, as soon as I came in at the end of the year full time, I immediately did the pilgrimage which is where I hit. It was like five events in seven days or something crazy. And it was so fun just to get out there and meet everybody in all the communities and just see how the cities were really different as well and see A bunch of differences across the brands. That was awesome and made me addicted to these ridiculous trips where I can just hit a bunch in a row. So, yeah, just in the last couple weeks, I hit three of our holiday parties in different cities and yeah, have just a ton more of that planned for next year. But, yeah, I mean, just to, I guess, you know, wrap up.

27:48
Daniel Scharff
Looking back, it is really amazing, Patty, how much you and your team are able to get done. It's not easy to put on a local event, honestly, because it's not like we just throw an event like, no, we need. We want brands to sample them at these events, to make them special. We recruit the brands, we find a venue, we host the event, we take great content, we share the content. So there's a lot that goes into it and making these great. And so, you know, really appreciate you and your team as well as all of the brands from the community and our community leaders who make all of that happen. And we just have more and more plans to not just have these events, but make them mean something.

28:21
Daniel Scharff
And for us, you know, I think what we recognize is on top of just having events, we need to make sure that we have some of the be game changers in the industry at these events. And so, you know, that's why this year I think we've gotten better at it at getting retailers there, getting media, getting investors. But believe me, next year it will be even bigger. We are out there actively recruiting retailers to join our community, to come be featured on our podcast, to come for the events, and they are starting to turn their heads and realize that this community can be their greatest source of finding out about new brands that they need to know about before everybody else get the best new brands on their shelves.

28:58
Daniel Scharff
And for me, I think that is the biggest difference for, I would say from 2023 and before to, you know, this year. And looking ahead is we're not just playing around anymore. We're making stuff happen at these events. And, you know, the. The brand matching that we do at the shows. We are seeing major distribution deals happen at our events after our events, after the shows, like, wouldn't you say? It's just we didn't hear this as much from brands in the earlier years. Like, yes, I put this time into coming to this stuff and here's what I got out of it. And like, you and I know that is the thing that actually we can do to help brands the most.

29:32
Patricia Menegoto
I heard great stories this year, especially from brands that I met this retailer at one of your events and after one month, they were on the shelf or like other retailers too, that we did the brand matching. They already carried the brands at their stores. And what I noticed too is that from Expo west this year, the brand matching that we did with some retailers, I think that we had like maybe five or six retailers. The list for 20, 25, it's already like way over this, maybe double. It's going to be insane. It's just so nice to see the retailers are like also on our side and seeing the potential of the community. So make sure that you come to one of our events.

30:15
Patricia Menegoto
And if you are a brand that you know a local retailer and you wanted to connect with them, you can also use that as an excuse to invite them to the event so you can start to create a meaningful relationship with them. We love creation retailers. They love to be featured. So that could be also a way for you guys to try to get in front of that buyer.

30:34
Daniel Scharff
And speaking of getting in front of buyers, we also, we have to mention the program we did with GNC this year, Next Big Thing, which was just a dream for us. So we did a almost full year campaign with GNC putting them at the forefront. So it was called Next Big Thing. It was basically a national star search for them to find some of the newest, coolest brands that would fit with the health and wellness consumer that they have coming into their stores. And it was so cool. We got to do these really fun, kind of silly videos that you and I started and Patti. And then we got to do big meetups with them at the show.

31:12
Daniel Scharff
We had all of these applications for brands that were really interested to work with them just because of all the success that they've had launching huge brands like Ghost Energy and Aulani New, all of the success that they all had at gnc. And there was so much interest to this. And that culminated in the final brands getting to go to Pittsburgh. I got to go for that too. And it was like very much like Real World or, you know, Shark Tank with them all showing up and making such a good impression and ultimately all of them actually getting on shelf. That was wild.

31:44
Daniel Scharff
So just what, what a joy to get to do that for brands and just see all of the excitement with them and how they've all taken such good advantage of that opportunity, including many of them getting from the national test that they won during that to then getting the extension, getting that permanent placement nationally. So we'll be announcing more of that, but oh, man, that was fun.

32:05
Patricia Menegoto
Can I talk about a proud moment where you went to the store and our logo was at a real GNC star. Like that was. That was amazing.

32:15
Daniel Scharff
That was an amazing moment. I had no idea they were actually going to put our logo alongside theirs. And next big thing in those end caps right by the register where they were featuring the brands from our community that won. So that was a surreal moment and just so exciting. We're really grateful to their team. And so Patti, this is, I mean this has been very fun, just rehashing some of the highlights from this year. What do you look forward to next year as we're getting into planning mode for next year? I mean first, what do you hope overall that we can accomplish? How do you want people to feel about us at the end of next year when we do this again?

32:52
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, I feel that in 2025 we are taking the Startup CPG community to the next level and I think we are creating more intentional ways for founders to connect and collaborate. And yeah, we've been planning to expand the reach in some industry and also refine how we support founders. It is like the partnerships that you have curated events or just the programs are very more specific and tailored to the challenge and just how they can grow. So I feel that we came from building this incredible community with over 20,000 members and now we are really focused on building a very strong, purpose driven ecosystem where the founders can really connect with each other or we have the programs where it's just meaningful for data grow. What about you? How, how are you feeling?

33:44
Daniel Scharff
Well, I think you said it best, but I will maybe add on to that. You know, we've grown a lot like here just to give you guys some numbers. So at the beginning of this year our Slack was 16,000, now it's 24,000. So 50% growth on there. Our Instagram we saw similar growth which is really a platform for us to feature brands and also to highlight and educate them. Our LinkedIn went from I think 12,000 to like 20,000. Huge growth. We launched the YouTube channel as well, which has just been getting tons of subscribers on there. So I mean, we'll keep growing a lot, which you know, we want to and you know, it's really a great signal when we're just like all the brands out there. It's so much fun for us.

34:25
Daniel Scharff
When I meet brands and experts from our community and they say, do you know, I tell every single person I meet to join Startup cbg. It's very energizing and validating for us. Thank you for that. And while we grow, I Think it's really important for me and you and for the whole team for like it not to feel like we're growing when it comes to the intimacy of the connections that you have, the help that you can get on our slack channel. Like we want that size to mean you have even better access to the people who have the answers that you need. You know, not like overwhelming. And I think the keys to that are just keep iterating and figuring out even bigger ways that we can provide value for people. Like unbelievable value, head shaking value.

35:04
Daniel Scharff
Like how on earth are they doing all that stuff for these brands? This is wild. That's what we want all the time. Like disbelief at the value that we figure out how to create for brands in the community and the whole ecosystem and people just not feeling like it's overwhelming. And you know a lot of what you do also with like, I mean yeah, we have moderators on the slack because it is, it takes a lot of work to keep a community that stays true to its core principles of being a place to help brands. And so that is what we do though, you know, we have our moderators who is kind of like from Game of Thrones, like the guardian of the wall, like protect this wall, like protect this community.

35:39
Daniel Scharff
There are a lot of people with different views on how it should be run. And so that is what we do, that's what we're here to do. But yeah, that's what I want is for the community just to like really grow in our size but more importantly our capability, our ability to have impact for the brands and just kind of keep exponentially improving what we can do for people and while being free for brands and everybody slack obviously. So that is my goal and I think you know, a big part of that is the amazing partnerships that we've been able to build with people who I think are really here for the right reason. So thank you to all of our partners who have enabled all of the fun that we get to have.

36:15
Daniel Scharff
So you know, I think for me that's a big part of it. And you know, looking into 2025, I will say the thing that I'm getting more and more excited about as you know, is a new event series that we have which is called Grocery Rides Run. And the idea here is everything we've been talking about of just like I need to get retailers to our events and interacting with the brands because that at the end of the day that is the thing that actually matters the most to brands. Like can I come here and Try to help get into distribution. And so Grocery Run is a new national series that we're launching that will be present in, you know, 20 plus cities.

36:49
Daniel Scharff
And it's me or our team coming town and doing a panel with a really relevant retailer that could be local or regional or national, but is based in your hometown, doing an interview with them where you can learn how do they work, how can I do well with you, how do you source brands, all of that stuff. And then normal mixer with us where brands are sampling for free, hopefully getting access to them, you get a chance to actually meet the buyers because there is nothing like that getting to actually shake their hands, look them in the eye, make your quick pitch, maybe slip a product sample into their hands, something like that. There's no replacement for them learning who you are as a human and what your passion is, what you're all about.

37:30
Daniel Scharff
So that one for me and you know, obviously we're kicking that off in Austin and then we already have plans locked down to have incredible retailer panels in la, New York, Philadelphia. We're going everywhere with this thing. It's going to be so much fun and I just can't wait to get to go to all these cities and maybe Patty, you could just talk a little bit more about the first massive event that's kicking this whole thing off.

37:53
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, the first one is gonna happen on February 5th in Austin with Whole Foods, but that one is gonna be tailored to the further event so to only female founders can attend the event and sample at the event. So we are very excited because, you know, like Whole Foods is a retailer dream for so many brands. So even if you are not from Austin and you want to come and you want to sample, you can apply to Cebu and you can just come to the event as well. So we are starting big and we already have so many retailers that are very interested in the program. So more coming soon.

38:31
Daniel Scharff
So much more. I mean, how massive is this that we get to kick off the event with Whole Foods Market, you know, the og, the one that everybody wants to get in with. And they were so excited to do this event. With our further platform, we'll be able to focus this event for female founders and that'll be just for the Austin one. Most of the rest will be just open to everybody but just so exciting that they've really leaned into this platform that we've created. As we've seen just, you know, this massive group of amazing female founders who obviously have just lots of challenges and we want to do what we can. And it's so exciting that Whole Foods Market was really excited to do this one with us.

39:06
Daniel Scharff
And not just actually do a panel with us, but also do a supplier showcase where we're going to get to bring in a bunch of brands who are already working with them to come and demo at their hq. So be there for all of the people who work at Whole Foods Market. Get all of them excited about your product is just such a special opportunity. So we really owe them a lot for that. And we just can't wait to see all of you at all of these events around the country, which will be interspersed with our usual mixers and everything. And just, hey, let's get all the retailers in our community and having fun at our events. It's just going to be so great for everyone.

39:39
Daniel Scharff
And then in just a couple short weeks here, Patti, we have another first for us right at Fancy Foods Las Vegas. Do you mind just telling everyone a little bit about what we got going on at Fancy Foods?

39:50
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, we have a lot of things. So we started with our section at Winter Fancy Foods. This is the first time we are going to have a section there with 20 brands at the debut district. We also have buyer meetings, about four or five buyer meetings right now that brands can apply. And also we have like other buyers as Hope would like doing a tour with us at the section on Sunday. We have a lounge during Winter fancy food. So 1 to 4pm we are gonna do a female founder event, start with like pitch practice and then a retailer meeting panel and then a mixer with all the female founders there as well. And then on Monday we have our first time tea party, a golf party. Even if you don't go. If you can come, guys, don't worry.

40:40
Patricia Menegoto
I like not great at it. So you can just come and hang out. The whole Foods team is also going to be there and many other buyers are coming.

40:48
Daniel Scharff
This is a big one. We've rented out a bunch of top golf, which is one of my favorite places in Vegas. No matter what kind of a weekend you're having in Vegas, you can appreciate stepping away, whether from a trade show or just having a lot of fun to a beautiful driving range where you can just at the beck and call, you know, order food and hydrating drinks to come to your little stand there. And we'll have a bunch of breakfast brand sampling as well. And we've got all the VIPs come in to check them out also. So that's one of the things that I'm most excited about. This year. I really can't wait. And the section is going to be so good. But this is our first time getting to do that at Fancy foods.

41:25
Daniel Scharff
Vegas, the winter show, which is another cool first for us, but it definitely won't be the last.

41:30
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, yeah. We started the partnership with SFadizzy at Summer Fancy Food with the first section, as you mentioned earlier on our conversation. So we applications for Summer Fest food is launching very soon for 2025.

41:44
Daniel Scharff
Bigger, better.

41:47
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. So we have that and then Expo west, this is our biggest section coming up. I don't remember exactly the number, but 30, 40.

41:56
Daniel Scharff
I don't know.

41:56
Patricia Menegoto
I think it's like 30ish. I already lost track.

41:59
Daniel Scharff
We might lose a booth or two with a show. I don't know. Yell out if we lose you.

42:03
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. Come up to the level. ACC level three. We are going to take over the floor. So.

42:09
Daniel Scharff
I know. Yes. That's what we want. We want to be the whole floor at some point. Yeah. And we'll do another episode with a little bit about what you can expect from us at Expo west this year. But spoiler alert, a lot parties, so many meetings with buyers at the show, extra dinners and fun and some very special swag drops. We've got some extremely creative new swag that we think people are going to be excited about. So you're going to want to come by our section. And even we're having our. Our Slackiversary, the fifth anniversary of the Slack that's going to happen because Expo ends on Friday this year, early in the afternoon. So we wanted to have an event back in la, since a lot of people will be going back there.

42:50
Daniel Scharff
So we'll be at the Leisure Hydration Backyard HQ with a really cool party sponsored by our friends at Doss. And it's going to be catered by paioa, one of our favorite brands out there. And we'll just be having a very beautiful kind of family backyard jam out, enjoying delicious pizza back in la.

43:11
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. Come celebrate with us, guys. It's gonna be so cool just to celebrate with the entire community. That is gonna be our fifth year.

43:19
Daniel Scharff
Our fifth year. And we should be hitting 25,000 right around then maybe even faster since it always grows so much faster leading up to Expo. I really can't wait for that. And you know, I think the other thing. And I really thank you, Patty, for leading the charge on the further platform because we're going to do a lot more this year. This program specifically designed to help female founders and there's, I think you know, we don't even know yet what all of those ways are going to be, but it's going to be events, it's going to be virtual mixers, it's going to be access to buyers. And you know, just everybody that we asked to be part of this program is so excited about it that I think sky is the limit.

43:56
Patricia Menegoto
It and then talking about online events, 2025, I think we are also going a little back to our first year where we did so many Zoom mixers and I think some people got over about online events. But 2025, we're going to go back to the early days and we are going to host some community Zoom mixers and we are going to have some themes. So we have the first one in January is a dry January. Even if you're not doing a dry January, you're welcome to join us just to learn about no alcoholic brands and meeting the community. Every community Zoom mixer, we do breakout rooms. We have the pre Expo west coming up too. So I think 2025 is going to be fun to connect with the community online.

44:40
Patricia Menegoto
Not just like through text message, but also you can meet people through videos and then later when you go to the shows or any event, I can guarantee that it's more fun. She already knows some people versus going by yourself.

44:53
Daniel Scharff
All right, so at the end of next year, we're going to rewatch this recording and figure out what promises or predictions that we made actually came true versus, you know, what things that we have no idea were actually going to happen this year. And we'll just, we'll keep ourselves honest on that. We'll do a sense check on that. But Patricia, I just want to thank you so much for taking some time to revisit all of these wonderful highlights from this past year and everything that you do for the entire startup CPG community and all of the brands and our team. And this is going to be a fun one. Buckle up, 2025, here we come.

45:24
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. No, I really appreciate you having me. As I mentioned in the beginning, it has been an amazing ride to do this with you and seeing the community grow and the team is growing. We are just able to do so much for the brand. So I really appreciate you having me here, letting me talk to you a little about my experience and I can't wait for 2025.

45:49
Daniel Scharff
All right, see everybody in 2025. Hope you all had a great holiday rest and are coming back energized to have a big year. Bye, everybody. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast today, it would really help us out if you can leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I am Daniel Scharf. I'm the host and founder of Startup cpg. Please feel free to reach out or add me on LinkedIn. If you're a potential sponsor that would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and reminder to all of you out there, we would love to have you join the community. You can sign up at our website startupcpg.com to learn about our webinars events and Slack channel. If you enjoyed today's music, you can check out my band.

46:35
Daniel Scharff
It's the Super Fantastic on Spotify Music. On behalf of the entire Startup CPG team, thank you so much for listening and your support. See you next time.