The Food Startups Podcast Hema Reddy

A discussion on mental health with our guests:
Jeremy Smith - CEO of Launchpad Mark Samuel - Founder & CEO of iWON Organics Hugh Thomas - Co-founder & CEO of Ugly Drinks In this episode we trigger up some thoughts from three serial entrepreneurs who share their close encounter with it, how they crossed over to the other side and some daily best practices that keep your heart and mind healthy. 

Tom Spier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Boulder Food Group(BFG), a venture capital firm that seeks partnerships with early stage food and beverage consumer product companies. Tom previously co-founded EVOL Foods and was the COO of Bear Naked Granola. Under Tom’s management, both businesses were successfully sold to public companies. In addition to his role at BFG, Tom proudly serves on the board of directors of three non-profit organizations including Chef Ann Foundation, Just Label It and Growe Foundation. In this episode Tom talks about what BFG values in emerging partners and some of the ins and outs of how they operate.

Jessica Levison is the Founder and CEO of Pekaboo Ice Cream. In her search to get veggies into her three toddlers, this lawyer turned Ice Cream Confectionist started infusing vegetables in ice cream and ended up starting a successful ice cream brand called Peekaboo Ice Cream. In this episode, Jessica talks about how she used her artisanal ice cream stores in Surfside and Wynwood to launch Peekaboo Ice Cream and how she managed to get the funding and exposure that brought Peekaboo Ice Cream to1300 stores in just 8 months.

Francisco Pavan is the Co-Founder of Kumana, a company that makes Avocado Sauces inspired by Venezuelan cuisine. 
After traveling the world and experiencing different cultures through food, he decided to change career paths from being an automotive parts supplier, to a food startup entrepreneur. His passion and desire to bring light back to the image of Venezuela(Francisco’s home country), led him to team up with Jeremy Smith(President of LaunchPad Group) and Eric Read(Founder & Creative Director of MarketBrand) to successfully brand and sell his Avocado Sauce.
Here are some show notes:
- 04:34 - Founder's story - why Francisco Pavan left his career with Toyota to start an avocado sauce company?
- 11:14 - Early market testing
- 13:51 - Locking in branding and “Go-To-Market” strategy.
- 15:34 - A founder's mindset
- 23:09 - How to combine all of the different design parts and pieces and make - a coherent and simple for the end user to understand.
- 24:15 - How to define your “onlyness”. How do you really stand out?
- 28:49 - How the design team should be part of the soul and creativeness all the way throughout the brand's journey.
- 35:00 - Early traction
- 43:17 - What’s next for Kumana?

Kenneth Park is the founder and CEO of Detoxwater, an Aloe Vera water brand that started as a home remedy that his mom used for digestive problems and other illnesses. Ken eventually introduced Aloe water to the market, originally branded as Superleaf Aloe Juice, selling from his dorm room and later on becoming a household name with a nationwide distribution. Detoxwater is now famously known to be an aloe drink offering the best of both worlds: great taste with health benefits.
In this episode, he shares how he turned his mom's home remedy to a successful beverage brand.
Some key takeaways from the interview:
1. Doing research on your competitors and incorporating what they can't provide to your brand in order to stand out.
2. Being open to collaborating or partnering with established manufacturers with the same vision or niche.
3. Executing a national distribution: finding a partner, getting a purchase order, hiring the brokers.
4. Presenting your brand through a personal experience or story which people will be able to relate to.
5. Exploring all your retailer options; don't be afraid to swim against the current when it comes to applying other people's advise versus what you really want to achieve.

Mark Cohen is the founder and CEO of Kidfresh, a food brand that was inspired by Matt's goal to provide a line of better-for-you and tasty kids meals to-go made with the same quality ingredients enjoyed by parents but for children.
In this episode, he shares several key insights for shelf strategy, as well as the importance of perseverance and vision.
A few other takeaways:
Production and packaging: Find co-packers who are willing to work with you and your small margins. Develop an honest, straightforward and personal relationship with them. Pricing on shelf: Make sure that your product is affordable. Take note of where your product is being shelved, who your competitors are and what price point will work best in your category. Success of shelf: visibility is important. Start with minimum SKUs to put on a number of shelves, to be picked strategically depending on variety. Choose a number of stores which are representative enough, allowing you to do some marketing and promotion. Raising capital: For starters, go with investors whom you know personally or are introduced to you within your network. And many more such valued lessons!