Brand New Blueprint by Smoketown Smoketown, LLC

How did JuneShine, a hard kombucha brand started in a garage in San Diego, become a rocket ship that is disrupting the alcohol industry while setting a new bar for sustainability? Forrest Dein, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, grew up in Hawai'i, where his exploration of the beautiful landscape became a passion for the planet. Years later, he and his old college roommate found a way to combine that passion with helping to create a new alcohol category. In this episode, Forrest shares how consumer empathy, brilliant growth hacks and unshakable commitment to sustainability have fueled JuneShine's growth.

See below for what you'll learn in this episode.

* Why it's important to spend the time to really understand your consumer

* How to leverage micro-influencers in the early stages of a brand, including using equity as a way to deepen the partnership

* How e-commerce can be reframed as a national sampling program

How did Julia Collins, a three-time founder and the only Black woman in history to found a unicorn, create a new venture that channels her passion for joy, food, radical inclusion and regenerative agriculture? Her company, Planet FWD, makes it easier for food brands to create climate friendly products through a software platform that simplifies the search for sustainable, regenerative and climate-friendly ingredients. Planet FWD also owns the software platform's first client, a climate-friendly cracker brand called Moonshot Snacks that launched in January 2021.

Before that, Julia helped found and build Zume Pizza, which raised over $400 million and achieved unicorn valuation above $1B. 

But that's not even the most interesting part of her story. In this episode, Julia shares how her family's entrepreneurial legacy and her own lessons have informed the company that she's building today. 

See below for what you'll learn in this episode.

* How to reframe leadership and fundraising as opportunities to prioritize joy

* Why it's important to be very intentional about building justice and inclusion into the cap table and board

* What regenerative agriculture can offer climate justice

* Why being Black is amazing 

How did Everytable, a social enterprise in Los Angeles, create a food service business that can solve two persistent symptoms of racism -- food deserts and the wealth gap? When Sam Polk quit his coveted job on Wall Street, he watched a Netflix documentary about poverty and food that lit a fire...eventually leading to Everytable, a brilliant restaurant chain in South L.A. Everytable has figured out how to sell high quality, incredibly healthy food that is affordable for residents of underserved communities, while giving them the opportunity to be owners. 

In this episode, Sam shares how his team disrupted the restaurant business model, taking lessons from unlikely Goliaths like Amazon and McDonald's.

See below for what you'll learn in this episode.

* How to find inefficiency in existing business models

* What can be borrowed from Jeff Bezos' playbook at Amazon

* How to raise investment capital from philanthropic foundations

* How to fix the "30-30-30" profit margin problem in restaurants

How did a Chobani Incubator brand, founded by a single mother who serves in the military, start out as a promise to the founder's daughter and become a rising star in the plant-based dairy scene? Thereasa Black carries a heavier load than most of us can imagine. She could be redeployed to a combat zone at any moment. She’s raising a preschooler by herself. All while navigating the challenges of managing a gelato shop and building a CPG brand from scratch.
In this episode, Thereasa shares how she is persevering despite COVID-19 and juggling so many hats in business and life.

See below for what you'll learn in this episode.

* How to reframes failure so that you can “catch yourself and keep it moving.”
* How obsessive planning helps her keep making progress

* How to get connections with retailers through a new virtual product discovery platform called Spark Change by New Hope Network (learn more here)

How did a plant-based food brand expand from farmer's markets to every Chipotle and thousands of grocery stores by focusing on quality, innovation and empathy for its employees? Minh Tsai, Founder & CEO of Hodo Foods, quietly built one of the most influential food brands in the U.S. by channeling the empathy that he learned as a Vietnamese refugee. In this episode, Minh shares how his mission-driven company combined "old school" business fundamentals with artisanal craft, a commitment to justice and the environment, plus a healthy dose of luck to run the table in tofu.

BONUS: He also shares real-time evidence that restaurants -- many of whom have been Hodo's biggest customers -- are figuring out how to survive post-COVID-19.

See below for what you'll learn in this episode.

* How to apply lessons learned from iconic, "OG" brands like Blue Bottle Coffee, Cowgirl Creamery, Acme Bread and Niman Ranch -- all founded around the same time as Hodo

* How a commitment to worker safety & cross-training prepared the company for COVID-19

* How to develop & launch innovation using new platforms for connecting with retailers, like Spark Change by New Hope Network (learn more here)

What's fueling the runaway success of Good Eggs in e-commerce, and how does it decide which brands to sell? In our second conversation with CEO Bentley Hall, he shares the company's turnaround story, including the blueprint that's driving their obsessive focus on "absurdly fresh groceries" in northern California. Beyond the company's strategy, he lays out the specific criteria that any brand needs to achieve in order to maximize its shot at being on the Good Eggs platform.

See below for what you'll learn in this episode.

* How to develop a strategy with multiple sources of competitive insulation

* What it takes to sell your brand into a limited assortment retailer like Good Eggs

* Why supply chain transparency is so important to the future of food