The Startup CPG Podcast

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, hosts Daniel Scharff and Patricia Menegoto deliver the definitive preview of Expo West 2026, walking through every Startup CPG event and opportunity during the industry's most important week in Anaheim.


The conversation covers Monday's Grocery Run with Gelson's 2.0 in Venice (bigger venue after last year's sellout), Tuesday's Kickoff Dinner at the Anaheim White House featuring industry leader dinners alongside main networking with buyers from Ahold and Whole Foods, the curated Startup CPG section with 20 brands and 500+ one-on-one buyer meetings, Wednesday's transformed Alley Rally (now 50 brands sampling in grocery run format with the top brand winning a free 2027 booth), and Thursday's Founders Dinner at Poppy and Seed designed for authentic founder-to-founder connections.


Daniel and Patricia emphasize tactical strategies: always bring cold product to events, wear brand swag, apply early for sampling opportunities, and don't be intimidated to come solo. They share Startup CPG's culture of radical welcomeness—team members actively introduce people standing alone, making events feel like "camp reunion" rather than transactional networking. Patricia highlights her favorite section brands (Lupini pizzas, Pisca hot sauce) while Daniel emphasizes that Expo success comes from relationships built, not just immediate sales.


Listen in as they discuss:

  • Monday Grocery Run with Gelson's: entire buying team + CEO attending, brands getting distribution on the spot
  • Tuesday Kickoff Dinner: 300 attendees, industry leader dinners (ops, sales, e-commerce, finance, foodservice), confirmed retailers
  • Startup CPG section: 20 brands, 500 buyer meetings, 30+ retailers scheduling appointments throughout show
  • How sampling applications work: retailers pick brands they want to meet, not random selection
  • Alley Rally evolution: 1,300+ attendees, expanding from 12 to 50 brands sampling, grocery run format
  • Thursday Founders Dinner: intimate evening focused on authentic connections without pitching pressure
  • Tactical advice: bring cold product everywhere, wear brand swag, buy tickets early (everything sells out)
  • Why founder life is lonely and meeting others facing same struggles creates lasting support networks


Episode Links:


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Show Links:

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  • Episode music by Super Fantastics

Creators and Guests

Host
Daniel Scharff
Founder/CEO, Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

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

Patricia Menegoto
I think, like, being a founder can be very lonely and there are so many struggles and you think that you're going from a unique situation, but then when you meet other founders, you're like, okay, I'm not crazy. Like, I got 10 O's from this retailer, so I guess it's fine because then maybe on the next email I'm gonna get it. Yeah. So you just, like, hear from other founders, their struggles as well. And I think that' what is, like, the beautiful thing of our dinners.

00:37
Daniel Scharff
Well, Startup CPG listeners, it's here. It's really here. It is time for Expo west, our favorite time of the year. We're so excited to see so many of you in Anaheim. And if you're going, you definitely should listen to this episode where we're telling you all the stuff that is happening before and during the show. You're going to want to know about things that you can apply to if you're a brand. Events that you should be at where the buyers are going. We're going to talk about all of. All of that stuff today. I am here with Patricia, who is our head of community events and marketing. So excited about the week and just to tell you so that you don't miss out on any of the very special events and opportunities that we've got.

01:14
Daniel Scharff
So listen in, even if you're not going, you'll know at least what you should have FOMO about. And I can't wait to see all of you there. All right, here we go. It's the best time of the year. It's the best time of the year. Patricia, it is the best time of year. What time of year is that?

01:36
Patricia Menegoto
Expo West.

01:38
Daniel Scharff
It's Expo West. Let's not pretend like it isn't the most exciting thing that happens in this industry every year. I always look forward to it. I think. I think about the year more in terms of how far away we are from Expo west instead of the seasons or what month we're in, anything like that. And it's so exciting. Why is it so exciting? I think just if you're a brand, you know why? Because there's so much stuff that can happen that can make or break the brand there. I mean, just so many buyers there. But it's just fun, right? You get. It's like the one time you get to see everybody. What do you look forward to the most?

02:14
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. I think that also the idea of bringing the. Basically the entire community together in one place, I think it's really cool because we get to know so many founders, so many service providers in our community, so many buyers. It's just a place like we can go and hang out and of course try all the new amazing brands out there or just I just like go to booths that brands I already love and just like keep snacking the entire day. So it's definitely the best time of the year.

02:45
Daniel Scharff
Go to all those brands that you're familiar with, see what's new. So many people launching new flavors, new product lines. And I just have to say one thing that I really appreciate about this community is I used to go to Expo west when I just worked for a brand. I was some guy who worked at a brand, not even the person who would behind the booth, but I was Insights and it was good for me to be there to see what was new. But no one wanted to talk to me and I didn't know anybody. And it was very kind of sad and lonely because you walk around, you're not a buyer. So brands at their booths are like great, maybe get out of here.

03:17
Daniel Scharff
You know, we're waiting here trying to talk to the buyer and then you're just kind of hoping that maybe you'll run into the couple people you know in the industry and maybe then you can meet their friends and get to network a little bit. Now when we go to Expo, our community is so big and so tight and people have helped each other throughout the whole year on the Slack Channel that it feels like a camp reunion and we like to host all the fun stuff in our section and all these events. We, I guess this is the fifth year now that we're doing really large scale events at the show and for me it is just a joyful community reunion. The one time of year we all really get to just see each other around this very exciting show.

03:57
Daniel Scharff
Doesn't it feel like that to you?

03:59
Patricia Menegoto
It does for sure. I remember first time that went to, I think Expo east was the first time I ever went with you and it was so lonely. I was like walking around, I was like, I don't know anyone. And just walking by yourself and trying things is not as fun as trying with like someone that you know and you can talk about it and just like remit people that you already know. And then Expo west, yeah, it is our fifth year and we started without a section, was just a party. I think we had some like room meetings downstairs at the hotel was like very hidden. But look at us now, we have a whole section with amazing brands. So many parties and dinners happening and it's going to be great, I'm sure.

04:43
Daniel Scharff
Well, let's get right to it. So today's episode, we're just going to be telling you about all of the activity that we have going on, which is a lot. So let's just jump right into it. And we have Patricia here who runs our events and community and marketing and all the good stuff. So she definitely has the inside info about everything that we are planning. Even though she just got back from her maternity leave, she is already caught up. So here we go. All right. So Expo is going to be your second baby here, Patricia, as we have to make sure that it all goes well. It should be easier than your actual baby though.

05:18
Patricia Menegoto
It's going to take my nice off slip as well, baby. And Expo s. And if you're extra.

05:24
Daniel Scharff
Nice of Patricia, maybe you get to meet her baby at Expo. So we'll see.

05:27
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, we'll be there.

05:29
Daniel Scharff
Our expo actually starts before Expo this year because for the first time on Monday we are throwing a really exciting event. Can you tell everyone about it?

05:38
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. So we are throwing a grocery run with Gelson's. So we are calling Gelson's 2.0 because we did host one last year. We had a lot. It was like actually a very packed venue. So this year we are getting a bigger venue, more brand sampling. The Gelsons team, it's like they are amazing. They spend the entire night there talking to everyone after the panel. So the grocery run with Gelsons is going to happen on the Monday before the show start in LA in the Venice area. So if you come early to enjoy in LA on the weekend, you can go to our grocery run and then head to Expo just to have like a nice break before the craziness start.

06:22
Daniel Scharff
Yes. And I love doing it with Gelson's. When I was on the brand side, were obsessed with getting into Gelson's. It is such a tastemaker retailer, especially if you're interested in SoCal, which so many brands are. Gelson's is part of the ecosystem of Southern California in general. Some of their stores are the most epic stores you've ever seen. It's incredible. And were really blown away by the event last year. They brought their entire buying team, Rich Gilmore and everybody and even the CEO of Gelsons came to this event as well. And we did this awesome panel. They tried every single brand that was sampling there and then as they knew they would get swarmed after the panel and everyone realized who was which buyer and they were so great. To actually talk to every single person who waited in line to talk to them.

07:09
Daniel Scharff
And I remember Kristen, who is the beverage buyer. I was just like, I'm going to bring you a chair because I can see that there's a line of 12 people waiting to talk to you right now and it keeps getting longer. And she just tried every single one of those products. And we've heard of so many people getting into gel since from that event. It was really magical. We indeed did get a little feedback that maybe get a bigger venue next time because there's a lot of people who wanted to come to that event. It sold out. It was just great. But yes, this time we are going to pony up for a bigger beautiful space. Especially because I think we will have a lot of the expo crowd coming in once they realize this is their chance to chat with the Gelsons team.

07:50
Daniel Scharff
Right?

07:50
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, exactly. So we just launched Eventbrite. Make sure you grab your tickets. We did sold out last year. Like the wait list was very big. So I know we said we got a bigger venue but get your tickets early. I always get so many messages of people like hey, I want to take it last minute. I'm like, I'm sorry we can't do anything. And also make sure that you try to apply to all the opportunities we have to sample. I think Kelsey's team, they are amazing and it's definitely a great chance for you to get in front of them.

08:20
Daniel Scharff
Yes, it is a no brainer to apply to sample because like we don't really charge for that stuff and it's your chance to actually get kind of a freebie booth and chance to sample for one of the most impactful retailers in the west and it's just fun. Also, why wouldn't you want to? It's kind of an interesting thing about our events because they do always sell out and for sure every time we get so many messages and posts in the slack, like anyone have a ticket for this? And we really like, we don't want it to happen to people who are in the community in the slack and we always do say like hey, just so you know, if you're going to be sad when it sells out, this is the time to get your ticket because it's going to sell out.

08:59
Daniel Scharff
But still people then wait and then it sells out and then they're sad and there really is not a lot we can do at that point because even I think people who are like, but I'm friends with them, they'll like get me a ticket. Like we're friends with all of you, and so it's tough. But we really always recommend getting tickets to our event as early as possible because they mainly sell out these days because of the incredible, especially retailers who are joining for these events. And in case anyone's curious about how the sampling works, we launch a form where you apply to sample. Our goal is for deals to happen. We want people who are sampling to get picked up by the retailer or have the best chance of it.

09:35
Daniel Scharff
And so typically, what we always prefer to do is we actually send the retailer all of the brands who applied to sample so that they can pick. Because we would really rather not be the ones picking, because if they're picking, they're going to pick brands that are likely to be a better fit for their store and then we'll communicate that back to the brands. So that is our preferred way of doing everything. And we are sorry if you don't get picked to sample. We do sometimes get questions from brands like, hey, I didn't get picked a couple times. That is kind of how it works. We do want to have opportunities for everybody, but you can still come to the event and bring your product. All of our events, you should always have product with you. I think sometimes people aren't sure.

10:14
Daniel Scharff
They're like, oh, but like, can I still have product with me and show it to people if I'm not sampling? Of course, at our events, we expect you to. You should always have product with you. And if you're a beverage brand, it should be cold. So hopefully that explains a little bit. Patricia, what do you think? Anything I missed?

10:30
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, just adding on top of that, make sure also you wear your brand swag for every event you go, especially if you don't have a table because at least, like, you can still show off your brand, right? Logo or name, like, so it's easy for people to see and recognize later. But definitely bring samples. Like, everyone loves sample. Buyers will probably try your product if you try to talk to them there. So I think whatever. What Danielle just said is like a must. Every event brings samples.

11:00
Daniel Scharff
Ditch the business casual and ramp up the brand swag. Formal just have lots of great brand swag. I think that's the main thing because then it really just people love the passion that everyone has around their brand and that's a great way to always be reinforcing it. Maybe have some cool swag that will impress people. All right, so now getting into Expo properly, actually, for the first time this year on Tuesday, more information is going to come around about this, but we are going to be doing a pitch slam which is very exciting. You'll hear more about it with some really prominent retailers and a great partner of ours. So stay tuned in our Slack channel for details on that.

11:37
Daniel Scharff
It's going to be an incredible opportunity and for any brands that are accepted for it then what you have heard about already probably is the first time we have done the kickoff dinner at Expo. Patricia, can you tell people a little bit about what is this kickoff dinner?

11:52
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, so it's going to be kind of like a multi action dinner, if I can call that. But we will have like a dinner where it's just going to be people networking hangout. Anyone can come, just grab a ticket and you can. Service providers are welcome brands. We have feature buyers as well. But then in the same venue we have different smaller rooms where we are going to do the industry leaders Dinner. We did host one last year, that was the Ops Leader Dinner. Daniel, you went to that so maybe you can talk to us a little about this Ops Dinner and then the other dinners that are happening there.

12:34
Daniel Scharff
Well, yes, thank you for the setup. We did do the Hopps Leaders Dinner last year. It's very special. We are so lucky to have some incredible partners who work with us on creating these great opportunities. And so we did the Ops Leaders Dinner that yeah, I mean people apply to it and then they will end up choosing some of the attendees for it. But it's just a really wonderful chance to have a very beautiful meal together where we have one conversation around the table Jeffersonian style. And everybody's so locked in. Even though Expo is starting the next day, everyone is just phones down, looking at each other, connecting, taking notes, jotting down follow ups. It's really beautiful. So we really are grateful to all of our partners for working with us on this industry leaders Dinner.

13:19
Daniel Scharff
The venue we have rented out the entire Anaheim White House. If you're like me, you did not know what that Anaheim White House was. It's buried in plain sight. It's on a main road. It is this gorgeous sort of Greco Roman feeling estate. There's a huge house, there's a huge lawn, great rooms. So we'll have this big kickoff dinner that's happening along with cocktails down in the main lawn area with everybody congregating, seeing each other for the first time the night before Expo. And then a lot of people will stay for that main kickoff dinner that happens down there at the tables while the people who are part of the industry leader dinners will then go up into their Determined rooms. Those industry leader dinners, they're pretty interesting. We have one that is for new to market brands.

14:05
Daniel Scharff
So people who are just getting into the market and ready to figure it out. We have sales leaders, OPS leaders, E commerce leaders, finance leaders, food service leaders, all sorts of leaders. And these are for people on the brand side as well as experts. It's a great conversation. With the OPS1, it was just a lot of brands throwing out really tough problems that they had and experts solving them right on the spot. It was just very beautiful. And as always, we invite some of our VIP friends to come and join in on the fun. I know for this dinner we already have a bunch of buyers coming. We have Ahold and their giant group. Also Whole Foods is coming. A lot of people are coming. It is going to be very beautiful and it's going to sell out.

14:48
Daniel Scharff
In fact, it's not that far from selling out now. So I would grab a ticket to that right away if you're interested in going because you will be missing out if you're not there. It's a really special new event format. It's a smaller event for us as well. It's just going to be, I think 300 people or so. So it's. It already is getting there. So definitely grab your ticket for that.

15:10
Patricia Menegoto
Just to add really quick, maybe you're like, oh, you know, it's the day before Expo, I want to rest and get ready for the show. But this is also a place where then you can go and just meet new friends. As I was talking before, like, oh, I walked the show and the first time that I went, it was lonely. I didn't know anyone, like, if we had a dinner like that, maybe the night before, like, you know, you can meet people, then you can walk the show together and of course, like learn from each other. If you go to the leaders dinner, because the conversations are great. But even if you don't go to the leaders dinner, it's just, as I said, a great place.

15:46
Patricia Menegoto
Place for you to already meet people in person and then the next day we're not just feeling lost because like 80,000 people in one room is great, but it's overwhelming.

15:56
Daniel Scharff
And it's really a lot of what we've always talked about doing, which is we want to be a place where you can find your friends to walk the show with. And it's great even if you come to Expo by yourself. Come to one of our events, make a friend, go walk with them and then you'll meet their friends and they'll Meet your friends and it's just nice to have company in this big industry of ours. So. And also just I think a good time to say like, if you don't know us, if you don't know anyone who's in startup cbg, you should come to our events because I'll tell you, this has always been true, Patricia. We've worked together a long time. Every single one of our parties we talk about we are the place where everybody should feel welcome.

16:33
Daniel Scharff
If you come by yourself and you don't know a lot of people, probably someone from my team is going to swoop by and introduce themselves and see what you're up to and try to introduce you to people at the party. We actually send a note out just so you know, to everyone at our big parties asking them to do the same thing, reminding them like that person who's by themselves, you should go and be nice to them and introduce yourself and introduce them to people. Not just because it's a nice thing to do but by the way, you really never know who someone is and who they know and they might help you.

16:59
Daniel Scharff
And I've definitely made some incredible connections just sticking my hand out and introducing myself and it's always well received and just we really want to be the place where people don't feel like it's a click or they have to know someone to come to the event because that's not who we are. So in case that speaks to you, I hope that will convince some of you. Like, yeah, I'm going to go to that by myself even. Okay. So getting to the big show, Patricia. The thing that we're most excited about is our section. Right? It is a great section. Just keeps getting bigger and better every year. We're so grateful to New Hope for having worked with us on sections for the longest time.

17:38
Daniel Scharff
Actually going back to one of those first Expo east that went to, that was actually one of our first sections. It just keeps getting better and better. Just so everyone knows these are competitive sections to get in, we launch the applications very far in advance. There are a lot of applications I think because everybody knows we do absolutely everything possible to make it super productive for brands in there. We are getting all of our retailer friends to come by the section. They're taking meetings at our booth. Typically we'll have about 30 retailers who take meetings actually at our booth during the show where we let brands apply to meet with them for these one one sessions and they always want to do it again because it's so productive. And then they're in our section, they're walking by our booth. Our section is just hot.

18:18
Daniel Scharff
Just stuff is happening. It's up on the third floor in acc, which was newer, I think like two years ago they reopened it after not having that floor for a little bit in the post Covid years. It's just popping. It's so good. Patricia, what do you think?

18:34
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, it's actually amazing. I'm not gonna lie. The first year that we did that, were like, because, you know, Hot products is packed. We had a booth there before, but we didn't have a section. And when the floor opens is just like, I don't know, this ocean of people walk into the floor. And were like, oh my God, how is it gonna be to be on the other side of the hot products, right? The other side of like the pavilion and are people are gonna go there. So we put like our A game, invited all the buyers. We didn't do meetings that year, did we? Maybe we did some meetings. Not meetings, but we did like eventbrite where people could sign up. And the line was huge.

19:13
Patricia Menegoto
That was our learning that like, okay, we need to make like a very structure for the meetings.

19:18
Daniel Scharff
That was my, that was like my brilliant idea of like, well, we had some buyers who agreed to come and meet people at our booth. Okay, everyone can just line up to meet with them. And we had a line of, I think of about 150 people for GNC. So we did 30 second meetings and were just shuttle everyone. It was like a lot of commotion, but kind of crazy. So we did learn to actually have people sign up. The buyers did not. They were very nice about it. They're like, maybe plan this out more, you know. But hey, we learn. We're open to feedback.

19:50
Patricia Menegoto
We did learn. We did learn. But yeah, that was the first year were like, oh my God, is SIBA going to come here? We were afraid. And it was packed the entire time. As Daniel said, like, we invite our friends, buyers to come, distributors. So make sure that like whoever is in our section, we are inviting people that we know in the industry for our parties, but also to come to the section. We try sometimes to walk around with them to make sure that like we can introduce to the brands or they really spend the time there with us. This year we have 20 booths and I'm just like very excited because as you were saying, it's getting harder and there are so many applications.

20:32
Patricia Menegoto
We did reduce our section a little this year because it was just like the section how was structure was, like, along the hall. So it was kind of like some brands were a little, like, far from where were. So we decided to make a little smaller just to be, like, really curated, really like a place that you can go and see everyone instead of, like, getting a little lost. But we have amazing brands coming a lot of first times. Our entire team is going to be there. I would say to. To stop by, bring your product. We love to, like, meet you in person and try your products, because we do have the shellfish program, right, where you send products, the award program where our team try. But sometimes new brands come when the shellfish applications are not open.

21:17
Patricia Menegoto
So this is also the time where we really get to know you and try your products. So also a must for you to stop there and meet the team. But, yeah, I'm excited because I always basically just stay in the section snacking, all the brands that we select. So I remember the, like, lupini last show that I was. And they were in our section. I was, like, so nauseous from my first trimester on pregnancy, and I was just, like, coming and eating lupini pizzas all day, whole day. So Lupini, I'm definitely getting going back to your booth the entire time also, because we need protein to keep with the energy, right? And I feel like sometimes we snack the entire day. Things that are just like, carbs and sugar. And I'm like, okay, I need some protein, otherwise I'm not functioning anymore.

22:08
Patricia Menegoto
So I would say to the defy snacks, it's like a very good source of protein. Protein. And it's sweet. So give me a little more energy so it can be like, lupini first and then some sweet later. I love snacks.

22:22
Daniel Scharff
It's so good. I totally agree.

22:24
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, they are crispy. It's, like, so good. And the other one that I'm very excited to is, like, Pisca. So I love her. She's awesome. She was also at our San Francisco grocery brand, and she got into some stores and distributors. So it's definitely a very good product. And I found Brazil. And I love passion fruit. And I love anything passion fruit. So I love their hot sauce. That is a passion fruit flavor. It's like a must.

22:52
Daniel Scharff
Marcuja is one of my favorite words in Portuguese.

22:56
Patricia Menegoto
I didn't know that. So do you have any brands that you're excited about, the sections?

23:01
Daniel Scharff
I sure do. I mean, I've tried. I really try not to play favorites. But Lucky ox, I love Vietnamese sparklers. They're just a really interesting, different kind of flavor. You've never had anything like it. And so they're like a little salty and just very authentic looking branding. And they've got some great new flavors for people to try. What else? I love Little Zing, which is Danish mustard. It's in kind of a fat bottle, almost like the Yellowbird hot sauce, which I just feel like I have underused mustard in my life. I've shied away from it. I don't know why. Maybe just I got turned off by the old yellow bottle that was out there. And I'm really interested and open to some new mustard experiences.

23:45
Daniel Scharff
I feel like it actually just might get me back into the sandwich game even if I have some mustard just classing up my sandwiches. So I'm excited about that. There's so many brands. I also, I love when Wishi is in our section. This is the Japanese Omakase strawberry. It's a cool product. It's also like if were playing Supermarket Sweep at Expo, you would just go to their booth and take all their strawberries because it's like 20 bucks for eight of them or something. They're so good though. So that is where you definitely come and have your fill of strawberries up in our section. And also, Patricia, I love what you said about brands. Come by, introduce us to your product. We love when you do that at all of our events and in our section.

24:28
Daniel Scharff
I remember very specifically Figa Foods coming by our booth last year and at that point they just had their date chocolate in like a clear plastic baggie, which anytime someone brings a product in just like a little sandwich bag or something, you're like, oh, boy, I don't know what this is going to be like, but we tried it and I was there with Caitlin, our editor. We're like, whoa, this is really good actually. What is going on here? And that was the first time that she discovered and we discovered Figa Foods, which did lead to them ultimately being in our section later on at Fancy Foods where they crushed it and they got written up as one of the top three brands there by a bunch of people and had incredible success at the show.

25:13
Daniel Scharff
So it is really a great way for us to discover your brand. If you even don't have a booth, I mean, come and chat with us at the show. So I am really excited about the whole section. Do apply for the opportunities to meet with retailers. It can be a game changer. Those meetings, maybe the most impactful thing that we do year round. There will be something like 500 individual one one meetings that happen at our booth. We have four tables of meetings going the whole show. And it's retailers meeting with brands that they've already expressed an interest in. So deals are likely to happen. The retailers love it. They say it's the most productive hour that they spend at the show. And I'm so excited to hear about all of the brands who will get distribution because of it.

25:51
Daniel Scharff
All right, Patricia, now let's get to the main event Wednesday night. What happens Wednesday night for the fifth year in a row?

25:59
Patricia Menegoto
Ellie Rellie. Yeah.

26:03
Daniel Scharff
It is. It is really hard to imagine that this is actually the fifth year that we are throwing this party. I remember the early days. We're like, well, good. Well, it'd be a couple hundred people. Is that too many? I don't know, Max. We were like, every year we're like, I think we can get some more people. So it always sells out, but we always increase the ticket capacity every year by a little bit. Like, okay, is that okay? Yeah, maybe some more. And then last year it sold out with 1300 tickets, and it was just incredible.

26:30
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, it's insane. But here's the real question, Daniel, can you bowl?

26:37
Daniel Scharff
Honestly, I can bowl if we. It's just a normal night and I go to a bowling alley, I actually am pretty good. I don't spin the ball, but I'm very consistent and bowl it quite straight. I have definitely bowled a 2:30 before and bowled a turkey and all that stuff. But you won't ever see that at alley rally because I, like, I don't know what it is. It's very exciting. And in my head, I always like, oh, I'm just gonna, you know, when I'm like a drink and a half in, which is the perfect kind of bowling buzz to have, where it's. You're like feeling the flow, but you go in stone cold sober. It's not. You're not good. You get more than two or three drinks in you're not good either.

27:11
Daniel Scharff
But, ooh, hit my stride with two drinks, and I'm always like, I just hit those two drinks. I'm gonna just rock up to somebody's lane and be like, mind if I just jump in real quick? Bowl a turkey, which is three strikes and walk out. And everybody's jaw will be on the floor. But it never happens. I walk up like that, hit the alley, you know, put one right in the gutter. And like, well, I didn't want to bowl anyways and go back to networking. But A lot of people do just go to the event and sit on a lane and have a great time. Even a lot of the retailers will reserve a lane for them so they can have a whole little party with their team. Some team building at our event. Are you a good bowler, Patty?

27:48
Patricia Menegoto
Well, I haven't bowing 10 years, even though this is our fifth year that we throw a party.

27:55
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. But it's a cool setting for a party, you know. Yeah. You're always very busy at the party also making sure that it goes well.

28:04
Patricia Menegoto
Exactly, exactly. So maybe this year we'll try something different. Maybe we'll just go say, hey, can I do like one time? Maybe even not because I think I'm gonna embarrass myself. But.

28:17
Daniel Scharff
But I think we are going to be. But also actually I think that you will have some practice at, you know, holding that sort of size object that's about 8 or 10 pounds right from your baby. I feel like you should have ready. Yeah, you should be like ready to go with like a baby sized bowling ball, more or less. So we'll see. But I know we have some big news about the alley rally this year because although it's always been great, we're going to take it to the next level. Can you tell us all about it?

28:42
Patricia Menegoto
For sure. So we keep hearing from brands and of course that all the grocery run events that we run, how amazing they are and how they get sell out really quick. We were like, okay, L Rally is a great event. People love to go, people love to network. There are brands that sampling there that they are not sampling at the actual trade show. So were like, why we don't turn L Rally into a grocery run and just get instead of 12 brands we are going to do 50 brand sampling. Make my life even more crazy.

29:18
Patricia Menegoto
And let's invite all of our friends and just still like keep all the amazing things that we do at lira like open bar, you can bowl, you can come in network, you can come and try all these incredible brands that they are not be exhibiting at the show. And one of the brands, the top rated get a free booth in our section next year. Like I don't know how we can make this even better. So that's my another concern now for next year.

29:47
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. How do we go even further after that? But yeah, I'm so excited about it. Our Grocery run series, which we only started last year, we ended up doing 20 of them which are events with retailers. They're so focused on brands and buyers and distribution. So yeah, we are going from 12 brands sampling, competing for the free booth at Expo West 2027. Now we're gonna have 50. It is gonna be a brand bonanza. You are just gonna go nuts walking around trying all the brands, making friends at the different sampling tables. It's just, it really is who we are to have as many brands sampling as possible. So I'm so excited. We've already selected a lot of the brands who will be sampling and this is great stuff that you have never seen before. These are a lot of early stage brands.

30:32
Daniel Scharff
The rule is they can't have a booth at Expo. So this is super early stuff, your chance to discover a bunch of brand new ones. So make sure you stop on by the alley rally and check them all out and one of them is going to win a free booth. Just like last year, the brand Cracked Snacks was voted the winner and they will be in our section this year. And it's not just about the brands that are sampling there. Even if you're just walking around the event, there are awesome buyers who are there and we do our best to make sure you know who they are. We've got some plans on that front too, but I know we already have RSVPs from the teams from Woodlands and Meyer. Good Eggs, Hungry Root giant. Even media people come.

31:12
Daniel Scharff
Bevnet comes and actually does interviews there with some of these early stage brands. It's so exciting. It will be stacked with buyers, investors and media. So we are really excited to see all of you there. But that's not the last event that we're planning because on Thursday we have a really beautiful new event series that we started this year as well that we're bringing to the grounds of Expo. Patricia, tell us all about the Founder Dinner.

31:36
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. So this is actually a very special event where we bring only CPG founders to a dinner. And so it's just a place that like you can go and meet other founders and network without being afraid that someone's going to sell you anything. This is really a place for you to like relax kind of like it's almost the last day of the show. Just come have a drink, eat something amazing, relax and network with other founders. I have seen so many from our events online or even in person where founders, they meet other founders and then they become friends and then they start to have like monthly calls and talk about struggles or share tips. And I think that's like our main goal, especially with the Founder Dinner.

32:21
Patricia Menegoto
It's a place for you to come and meet all the people that are expensive experience and struggling or celebrating things like the same things that you are. So I think, like, being a founder can be very lonely and there are so many struggles and you think that you're going from a unique situation, but then when you meet other founders, you're like, okay, I'm not crazy. Like, I got 10 O's from this retailer, so I guess it's fine because then maybe on the next email I'm going to get a ds. So you just, like, hear from other founders, their struggles as well. And I think that's what is like the beautiful thing of our dinners. What do you think?

32:57
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, it's so nice. It is a great place to let your guard down. And that what we want for founders is really to have community. And it's not just about being our Slack channel. It's about having real friends that you can call when you have a question or challenge people who have done it before, facing the same things as you. You have so much in common with the other founders in the room, from what you're doing to the DNA inside of you. You all share a lot of the same DNA that made you do this thing. And that's what we want, is for you to really find your friends and your crew for the whole year. And so that is a lot of this special evening that we really curate for everybody. Yeah, it's the founders who are there.

33:36
Daniel Scharff
It's going to be very beautiful. It's an incredible restaurant called Poppy and Seed. We love it there. We've done a ton of beautiful events there, and it's just such a special evening. We. We do always try to have a couple cool VIPs there. I know we're going to have buyers from Fresh Market and Woodlands and Meijer also. There are a lot of people who will be there, but it really is focused around beautiful connections with founders. I remember the show Silicon Valley. I don't know if that's one that you would have watched, but it's a comedy about this guy who is tech entrepreneur and he's like, socially very awkward. And there's this one episode where his team is encouraging him to become friends with another founder. And they're. But they're both so awkward.

34:22
Daniel Scharff
It's like really, they really have to try to force it to happen. But everybody wants. They like, they should talk. They have stuff in common and they. There are things that they can talk about that only they really can understand as founders of these kind of companies. So it's. I don't think anyone in our community is quite as awkward as they are. So they will have a really easy time just finding and making friends. And, you know, one really fun thing, sometimes at our events, I just ask the audience when we're all gathered and we have a microphone, hey, if you're open to making new friends tonight, if somebody comes up and sticks out their hand and introduces themselves and says hello, who here is open to that? To make a new friend? And every single person has their hand up.

35:01
Daniel Scharff
And it's really true. I've just. At any one of our events, for sure, I've never seen anyone have an issue, just walk up, stick her hand out. Hi, I'm Daniel. What I do? What do you do? It's just people are so open to that. That's why they're there, and that's why I think these events can be so special. So it's going to be a really beautiful way to. The show still has one more day after that, but it is the last evening at the show, and a lot of people will be checking out and heading out of town the next day. So it's just a great way to make sure we can have one last special evening with the community. So I'm so excited that we're doing this year, Patty.

35:33
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, me too. I mean, I love acts, and just as I said, it's like the best place to meet basically a lot of people from our community in person and get to know your product founders. It's like we get basically the entire team there, too. So it's really a fun place.

35:52
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. And I'm excited to see you at Expo, Patty, because we haven't had you for a couple shows because you were on wonderful maternity leave, but we missed you and we're very excited to have you back at just this amazing show. It's going to be so much fun.

36:05
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. I mean, come back and go right into Expo.

36:07
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, right.

36:11
Patricia Menegoto
All right.

36:11
Daniel Scharff
Well, it never stops this fun journey that we're on. CPG is so much fun, and Expo is one of the most fun times of the year that we get to have. So I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you there, and I just can't wait. Thank you, Patty, for joining me today. What a good time.

36:25
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, thanks for having me. Glad to be back and excited to see everyone at Expo.

36:30
Daniel Scharff
All right, see y' all soon. Bye. Bye. Well, my friends, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, the top globally ranked podcast in cpg, as you may know. We're not just a podcast. We're a community of brands and experts and you should join. You can sign up@startupcpg.com you'll then get an invite to our online Slack community. You're going to hear about amazing events near you, all of our special opportunities to get you in front of buyers, investors, brands and more. It's a free community. So what are you waiting for? I will see you there or on our next episode. Bye Bye.