The Startup CPG Podcast

02:40 Jessi - Hi, Kathleen, welcome to the show today. How are you?

04:08 Kathleen - Hi, Jessi, I'm great. Thanks so much for having me.

04:12 Jessi - Yeah, I'm so excited to get to connect with you and record an episode together. I love the work that you're doing. And so, yeah, I'm just very excited for our conversation. I would love if you could start us out by just telling us a little bit about yourself and about Project Potluck, and then we'll dig in from there.

04:29 Kathleen - Absolutely. So I'm Kathleen Casanova. I'm the executive director of Project Potluck, and we are a nonprofit that is here to support people of color in the CPG industry. It's our goal and our mission and our vision to have a more equitable and inclusive industry and for a consumer to be able to walk down the aisle and see themselves represented, not just in the leaders of these brands, but also in the people who work in them and the industry in general. We're working really hard to make that vision a reality. I started with the organization about a year and a half ago as an executive director. That's when we started to really become a more formal nonprofit, but we have very grassroots beginnings. We were started by three people of color who are all CEOs in the industry, and they came together to create what they wish they had had as a support system in their early entrepreneurial days. No one can debate how lonely of a journey entrepreneurship is, but I think especially for marginalized communities, there's sharp learning curves and can feel very isolating and very lonely when you're one of the only people in the room. So they actually came together with their networks. I think they thought they were gonna have a couple of events and bring people together. This was in 2020 when this type of fellowship and community was really needed, and the response was just overwhelming. I mean, they really quickly realized, okay, this can't just be some flash in the pan, one-off type of thing. We need a really permanent place in our industry for people of color to come together and to support one another and to access resources and to start to advocate for visibility. So they started us off in 2020, and here we are in 2023. We're growing. We have over 900 members, which is incredible, and we are having in-person events, virtual events. We have a great mentorship program, and all of this started with just the vision of creating a community and a safe place for people of color.

06:19 Jessi - Oh, that's amazing. I love that. And I believe it's free for people to join as well. We'll include lots of links at the end and how to join, but I just wanna have that at the beginning of the conversation for those that may be interested in joining that it's free to join.

06:32 Kathleen - Yes, yes. We're very much a nonprofit versus a trade association or a professional association. We're here with the singular mission of making sure that we're helping people overcome barriers. So we don't wanna create another barrier in having a membership fee. So it's free to join. And the very basis of everything we do is that there's connection and magic when we bring people of color together to share and to help one another. And you have immediate access to that when you become a member. You can connect with our incredible community and begin to really hopefully feel less alone.

07:05 Jessi - Yeah, that's awesome. And can you tell us a little bit about what it looked like early days too? Cause you mentioned some of the three founders. I think that within there is like A Dozen Cousins and Mason Dixie and Beanfields. And what that looked like in the beginning, you mentioned some early days events and like Startup CPG was kind of the slack was like born out of the pandemic isolation time. So I'm curious about Project Pollock getting started during the similar time in the pandemic of doing online events and what that kind of looked like early days and how that's informed the community now.

07:44 Kathleen - Yeah, it's funny because Ibraheem, Arnulfo and Ayeshah all came together actually before the pandemic but we were launched during the pandemic. So really helped shape those early days. And then I think the murder of George Floyd on top of that just created so much desire for our community to be in fellowship with one another. So I think that was a huge kind of fortuitous timing. And obviously the industry started to perk up and pay more attention and feel more of a sense of urgency around addressing some of these racial inequity and social justice issues. So I think that was definitely informative but the idea came before that. And I think the original idea was to have more in-person events and what we've really grown into is a virtual network that does gather in person but really has a really rich component that happens online. So that again, it's accessible to people. It doesn't, it's not limited to your geography or your ability to travel somewhere but really the idea that we can connect. I'll just share this anecdote because it's kind of fun. We started off with having virtual events. We had amazing speakers who would come. Questlove was actually one of our speakers early on. We had some amazing retailers and some investors and people who came and chatted with us but, and those were really rich conversations but actually the magic was happening in the breakout rooms. And this is when Zoom was just starting breakout rooms. I think we were some of the first people to utilize those but people would just come alive after these conversations not even in relation to what they just heard but just to be like, oh my God, I'm in a room. I'm not the only person of color. I can kind of let my guard down. I'm not code switching. I can share about my experience. I can ask for help. I can make friends. And that is the magic that we're constantly trying to capture and recreate is those early day breakout rooms when people were just so hungry for connection and honestly to share what they were going through and to find solidarity in the industry. And it's pretty magical to be facilitating events whether they're virtual or in person where people walk into a room and the majority of the people if not all of the people are people of color. It's not the most colorful industry where we're very much underrepresented and that trade shows and meetings and things like that you walk in and you pretty much expect to be one of a few but it's pretty awesome to be providing these spaces. We get a lot of feedback from people tears in their eyes saying, I have never thought I would be in a room like this in our industry. Thank you for making this happen. So that's pretty much in a nutshell what we're going for.

10:22 Jessi - Yeah, that's incredible. That's so, so powerful. And can you walk us through like, like if someone joins the community today like what would kind of be their experience? Like what would it look like to get plugged in where our in-person events kind of what's the online community look like? Are there like threads of topics? What does it look like for someone to get plugged in?

10:40 Kathleen - Yeah, so you can sign up online. It's a like two minute application and then you immediately get invited to join our community portal, which is an online portal. And there is, you know, on our portal is a directory of our members where you can reach out to somebody individually. If you're like, oh, I live in, you know, Milwaukee and I'm wondering, you know, who might be in the area or I'm in this specific category and you can do a search and send a message or send a group message. So that's just like immediate access to people. And we have this amazing community where pretty much anybody who's a person of color who reaches out to another person of color it's kind of this unspoken rule, especially in Project Potluck, that like you respond, you offer help and you figure out how to connect. So that's a really unique aspect of what we're doing. And also you have access to, you know, all of our upcoming events and our programming. So just to run through that, we have virtual events. We have been focusing on two topics, which is retail and fundraising. They're called the real talk series where we're really just trying to demystify these very complicated barriers to entry into the industry. So getting into retail and getting funded. So we have people come and speak very candidly about how to get into their stores, with their retailers or how to work with them, their investors. We usually structure our online conversations with 30 minutes of education and 30 minutes of access. So you have a breakout room where you're maybe one of a few people and an investor and you can ask them questions, introduce yourself, really learn as much as you can, which is very different than sitting through a PowerPoint presentation virtually. So those are online events. We also have in-person events. We had a really successful networking luncheon at Expo West this year. Next year, we're hoping to do it at West and East. And that was a time where the room was pretty much majority of our members, but we also invited allies who we kind of vetted and curated, who were there for very specific reasons to help. It's not your typical networking event. You're not shaking hands and passing out business cards and then moving on. People were really encouraged to ask for what they need to offer help when they could. And it was a very different dynamic than a lot of the networking events that aren't super friendly bases for people of color and women. So we wanted to create something really different. We're excited to continue those in collaboration with New Hope Network at the future trade shows. So we're excited to have a time when we can meet in person. And then this summer, we're doing something called the Summer of Connection, which is we're asking different, we're actually, we have a budget where we're asking different members in different cities to have a dinner party or host people at a restaurant for drinks and apps who are local to them so that they can meet. So these are all gonna look really different and unique to the regions and the hosts, but we're really excited to kick that off this year for the first time. Our kind of key programming that we're doing right now is our mentorship program. We're in our third year of running the cohort. It's a small group mentorship program. You're paired up very thoughtfully with a group of peers and an industry leader. And you spend the year, you meet four times, so once a quarter, you spend the year really working towards goals that you as a group have decided on together and to really, again, encourage something beyond typical mentorship, but more along the lines of sponsorship and allyship. Our portal will allow you to access all of those, see what's coming up. We always send a newsletter. We have the ability to kind of send a question out on a conversation thread, share opportunities. We have a database of grants and accelerator programs and pro bono offerings that we're constantly working with partners on and just scouring the internet so that people can kind of go to one place and find everything that they need. And then when an amazing industry partner has a great program for people of color, they can send it to us and get it out to 900 people instead of going through individual channel partners. So that's really, you know, kind of summarizes a lot of what you'll find and a lot of the benefits. But again, I'd say the biggest benefit is being part of a community of people who really understand what you're going through, where you can make connections and where you can hopefully feel like the industry is a little bit more intimate and like your community is a little bit smaller and your network is a little bit tighter and more accessible.

14:47 Jessi - Yeah, oh, that all sounds so amazing. That's so incredible. I'm wondering what kind of the breakdown is between like how many people in the community are like, you know, emerging brand founders versus like agency owners or vendors or like, you know, working in big CPG, kind of how does it span across the CPG industry?

15:04 Kathleen - Well, I'm glad you brought that up because one of the things that I think makes us very unique is that we're not just focused on founders. Founders, there's a lot that they are up against. They need a lot of love. So I hope they get all the resources that they can. But for us, we wanted to build a community that was inclusive of everybody in the industry. So that means founders and entrepreneurs, but also career professionals, people who are working, you know, in a brand that they don't own necessarily. And, you know, that includes small brands and conventional, but also service providers, because for us, we're really trying to change the face of the industry. And if we don't have, well, first of all, if we support these amazing founders of color and they grow these amazing businesses, we know that people of color are more likely to hire other people of color. So we need to make sure that the workforce is being grown in conjunction with these future founders and leaders. And also, if we want the industry to be more inclusive, that means fundraising needs to change. It means hiring needs to change. It means all of these aspects that hit on service providers and professionals needs to be addressed in conjunction with the founder piece. So that's really, really important to us to have that inclusive of a community. I'd say right now, a lot of our community is founders, because that's who the network is that started in the grassroots way from our board members who are all CEOs, and they know other founders as well. But it's really become a great mix of all of those kind of categories that you just mentioned. And that's a really important aspect of the community for us as well.

16:34 Jessi - Yeah, I love that. It's across kind of the whole ecosystem of CPG. So there's opportunities for so many people in the different pieces of CPG to get involved. And especially the fundraising piece that you mentioned, I think that's so huge. Fundraising is from the little bit of time I spent in that area, learning about how likely it is for people to invest in people that look like them and are similar to them. And because fundraising is so white male dominant in the US, it can be incredibly hard to break into. So I love that there's resources around that. And what does it look like for, if there are any investors listening that may be able to be involved, what does it look like when you have investors involved in the community, support the community, how can they participate? Because I do know we have some investors that listen to the show as well.

17:23 Kathleen - Yeah, it's a huge piece. We can't work in a vacuum without including them. And our goal at Project Potluck is all of our time and money and programming is really spent on people of color. We don't do as much kind of like education of allies, but we've been really thoughtful, especially over the past couple of years of figuring out how to bring in partners in a thoughtful way and how to involve the industry because what we're doing is so important to the future of the industry. So, for investors, we always, anybody who is an investor who would want to be on one of our panels and contribute to that really open, demystifying conversation, we invite them to be a part of that. We also are a non-profit, so donations and sponsorships are always an amazing way to kind of really demonstrate your commitment to this and your support of this community. And of course, that then goes into building a really robust pool of future companies that you can invest in. And we also know that investors aren't just interested in founders, they're very interested in the companies that are in their portfolios. And so we really work with them in all different ways to address those needs. One thing I forgot to mention is that we have a jobs board. It'll be launched on our new website, which is gonna be kind of launched in the next couple of weeks, but that's another great place to be posting open positions. We also include open positions on our portal and our newsletter, but that's a great place to be really kind of, again, attracting like-minded individuals who are committed to DEI in the same way that you are. So that's another opportunity of how to get tapped in and how to get involved.

19:02 Jessi - Yeah, no, that's really awesome. Are there other ways that listeners that are white that maybe want to support the mission and amplify? Are there other ways that donations is, I think that piece is huge. And looking on the website, I think it's like $166 to cover someone being a member for a whole year. That's a really low entry point for those that have the means to contribute to that and support. That's an incredible way to support people being part of the community, but what other ways can people support?

19:32 Kathleen - Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, and we're really proud of that. I think $166, which is, again, we never charge anything to our members. That is just kind of the value, number of value that we've put on our membership. But that is a really great way to support us and to make sure that this is accessible. One way we tell companies if they're like, how much should I donate? We're like, well, how many, if you have a goal for your workforce and you would love your workforce to be 50% people of color, figure out kind of what that number looks like and then make that donation times 166, because then you're kind of putting forward a goal and you're supporting that amount of people to be in our program. And eventually, maybe they grow into an employee for you. So that's a really great opportunity or a way to think about a donation. But there's other ways to get involved too. Signing up on our newsletter is a great way to get information for ally ship opportunities. We have our mentorship program. Industry leaders are invited to kind of throw their hat into the ring. We have a database that we reference when we make our matches once a year. Not everybody gets matched because we look very specifically at like where people need certain things or what topics they're looking at. But that's always a good way to let us know that you're interested. We use that too to share about other opportunities, including our events. Most of our events are members only. We sometimes invite allies when we do. Again, we curate that list. It's very invite only. And so that's a great way to kind of get on our radar. And we're really hoping to have more one-off opportunities to support people of color in some of their needs. And so all of that will be communicated to our allies. But it's a really great way to kind of start to get involved. And again, we also love working with corporations who have employee resource groups or other kind of commitments to DEI and figure out how we can very organically and authentically connect what we're doing with one another so that we can have some synergies and kind of projects that they're pursuing in those areas. So there's a lot of ways to get involved. A great place is to start and make sure that you're keeping up to date on all of our news and our releases, both on our LinkedIn and on our newsletter.

21:39 Jessi - Yeah, oh, that's awesome. That's very helpful. And yeah, I'm just thinking about how helpful it would be to even add a link to an employee handbook or if you're growing, if you're a small team and you're growing and you're looking to provide resources to your employees as you grow. Yes. Or if you wanna access the resources as a founder yourself, but having a group like this that employees can see and join if applicable to them, I'm thinking that'd be a really great resource to be able to just have people to join a really awesome community.

22:11 Kathleen - Yes, and I think it's so interesting that you brought that up. Because for me, I used to work in recruiting for emerging CPG brands. And so many brands are interested in having a more diverse workforce. They're also small. They don't have a ton of resources to support that shift in their workforce. And so what is cool about Project Potluck is we are actually a resource for companies who want to enrich their employees' experience. So a small brand probably doesn't have the ability to have an employee resource group or a mentorship program specifically for people of color. And sometimes these people are working virtually or they're one of only a few people of color in the company in general. So if they want any shot at that person having a really fulfilling experience, not feeling isolated, having support, feeling like they have support and growth for themselves professionally, this is a great way for them to leverage a free resource. And so anytime a person of color on your team either joins or already exists, it's a great opportunity for employers to share with them, hey, do you know about Project Potluck? I wanna make sure you're plugged into this. This is something that you can spend, if you need to spend an hour at work connecting with somebody or your mentor, that's a great use of your time. We know that people who are mentors, people who have communities, they're better employees, they stay longer, they're more likely to get promoted, they're higher producers individually. I mean, all of this is just, it's important in the virtual world too. It's really critical for people to have that support and we provide it at no cost. So we're proud of that.

23:42 Jessi - I'm curious if there's any stories that you wanted to share or members that you wanted to kind of spotlight. Like I know that this is having a huge impact and you may not be able to share necessarily all the stories, but I'm curious if there's any that stand out to you that you just wanted to share, I wanted to give you some space for that.

25:16 Kathleen - Yeah, I mean, we try to keep it very democratic, so I won't share, shout out just anybody, but I will say that just our general feedback that we've been getting that I'm really proud of. Our potluck parties, which happen monthly, there are virtual opportunities for people to pop in and meet each other, so that's part of our virtual programming. And someone recently said that it felt like walking into their best friend's house and taking off their shoes and like cuddling up on the couch and talking to somebody. For us like that, people of color don't have a privilege of having very safe spaces where they can feel relaxed or like themselves. And we hear time and time again, this is the most, our networking legend, that was the most authentic I've been able to show up at an event and be myself. I felt like I was at a family reunion. I'm an introvert and I hate networking events and I was so, such a good experience. And I also made really strong connections that I've already followed up on that have already been helpful to me. So, for me, I think that is super powerful. We also just hear from people time and time again that we ask people, like, what do you need? Make sure that you're asking each other what you need and offering your area of expertise. And we hear people say, oh, like, I'm not an expert in anything. Like, I'm just starting out in CPG. And then yet somebody asked them about like an Amazon storefront. They're like, let's get on a call. I'm gonna help you with that. And like that kind of, the like generating of that kind of momentum and help for one another, it's so powerful and it's actually monetary. You can put a monetary value on it because these kinds of learning curves that people go through, and if you like are on your own and you mess up on that learning curve, it's kind of sharp and it's really expensive. You know, our white counterparts sometimes get more often, get more leeway, have more money, get more chances than we do. Those learning curves can be detrimental to people of color. And so the more that we're helping each other, those are the stories that are your time and time again, I met this person on a call. They helped me with this. It was so helpful. They made this introduction. Like, I don't know what I would have done without them. You know, those continue to be the stories that motivate us to continue to do what we're doing and make us feel really good about, again, just the magic that happens when people of color have the ability to come together.

27:26 Jessi - Yeah, oh, that's incredible. I love the encouragement of the learning. I think for so many people, you often feel like you're not an expert in anything, like you said, and so encouraging that because to be able to, you know, it's like you need to learn to know like 10% more than someone to like teach them something. So to be able to foster within the community, to learn from someone that you can have your guard down with and also feel safe learning from where you may not feel safe in other spaces, that's incredible.

27:55 Kathleen - We're really proud of that. And we really encourage everyone to say, what can I help with and what do I need help with? And I don't think that a lot of people are encouraged to ask those questions or to answer those questions, especially people of color to ask for help, say, this is what I'm working on. I need help, who can help me? You know, and think the more we practice that, the more effortless that becomes. And again, so much becomes unlocked in those conversations.

28:19 Jessi - Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. You know, it sounds like so a new website is coming out, which may be out by the time we publish it, it'll be awesome. So, you know, what's coming down the pathway as well? It sounds like maybe some more events at expos, but tell us about what's coming up and what you're excited about that's gonna be coming out, new resources.

28:42 Kathleen - Our big goal is, I think we're doing a lot of really incredible programming and work and the framework for the organization and our community is really locked in. Our work isn't done until every person of color knows that they're invited to be part of Project Potluck. I mean, maybe they don't wanna be a part of it, but at least they know that there's a space for them and it's free. So we really wanna grow our membership. We're hoping to be at 1,500 by the middle of next year, which I think is just incredible. You know, we're the largest network of people of color within the CPG space. So the larger our collective voice becomes, the more we can begin to ask for and bargain and really take up space in the industry. And that to me, I think is powerful. So growing our membership and inviting more people in, I think is fantastic. You know, continuing to expand our programming to be more inclusive of not just founders, but these professionals and really having, you know, more targeted conversations for the variety of categories and industries and roles that people in our community play. And then yes, absolutely more in-person events. I think that for us has always been a big goal, but as I mentioned, 2020, we didn't start out that way because of 2020. So having our event expo was huge. It was over 200 people. It was standing room only. We're like very excited to have a bigger room this year and to have even more people there. So that's gonna be great. We'll hopefully be at expo East and West in that way. Have our dinner party series again, and you know, continue to find ways to partner with the industry and corporations, brands, service providers who are passionate about this as well and figuring out how we can collectively work together. We're hosting our first, it's an invite only conversation for corporations that are passionate about these topics. It's a round table kind of discussion. It was a panel and then a kind of a round table breakout room discussion. And we really wanna continue to bring retailers in, funders in who are all scratching their heads about the same issues that we're passionate about resolving and really kind of bring together a coalition of the industry's most passionate partners. And that's a big thing for us to be doing this year as well. We have really been laser being focused on our members and not trying to like spread our resources and our time and attention other places. But we realized that again, like we have to have these parallel tracks. We can't be working in a vacuum because the industry needs to change as we develop these future leaders. And so that's really important to us.

31:15 Jessi - Amazing. Well, is there anything else that you wanted to share about before we go into sharing some specific links and ways to follow? Cause I always like to have that at the end, but is there anything else that you wanted to share about that you didn't have the chance to yet?

31:29 Kathleen - I mean, we're just really grateful, I think to be here and to have had the reception that we've had in the industry. I think this continues to be a topic that is important but difficult to talk about. And we are really grateful to, even to have us on this podcast to be able to share this as the industry kind of figures out, like how are we gonna address this? How do we make space for this uncomfortable conversation that's really necessary? We're just really grateful to be included in that. And we know that there are a lot of other partners who are also working on this and it's gonna take all of us really working together to make a big change. And that's what we're most focused on. So that's just the last little piece that I'll say. And I'm really hopeful. I'm really hopeful. And I think that bringing diversity into the industry is gonna make it such a stronger place. We have so many issues that face food and our food systems. We have climate, we have health disparities. We have all of these issues that are kind of connected to food and distribution. And CPG is at the real center of that. And I think bringing diversity into the workforce and onto the shelf is actually a solution for some of the innovation that needs to happen in order for us to compete and to continue to thrive. So for me, this is the future. This is definitely one of the most necessary things that we can do as an industry. And we're grateful for anyone who's willing to have that conversation with us because we know it's complicated and there's not one easy answer.

33:04 Jessi - Yeah, oh, that's great. I'm so grateful that you spent time with us on the show to share more and that our listeners can hopefully get involved. And I'm excited just for the power in the future of the industry that this can shape and the change that can be made through the work that you're doing and members of your community. So I'm just really excited. Everyone should go to potluck. So the word potluck, cpg.org. That's the website. I'll link that in the show notes. And if you are a person of color and want to join, there's a join us link right there, easy. And then if you want to donate and support the work and helping people be a member for free, then there's a donate button, also very easy. I assume with the new website, there'll be an easy way to sign up for the email list. So just head to that website, check it out, follow on LinkedIn so you can amplify and promote any events or if you're interested in joining them. So yeah, I hope everyone goes and checks it out. And I just look forward to continuing to follow along and appreciate all the work that you're doing. So thanks so much for being here.

34:07 Kathleen - Thank you. We're really grateful to have this conversation and Startup CPG is such an important community too. So there's a way to be a part of so many communities. And to me, I think that adds so much richness to people's careers and their experiences. So I think just having space for people to connect with others is critical. So thanks for the work that you guys are doing as well.

34:27 Jessi - Yeah, absolutely. More community is definitely better. So having more options, you can pop into Startup CPG for specific things you need. You can go over to Project Potluck for like, the fact that there's more amazing communities available is just like everyone, it's a win-win for everyone. So I love that.

34:45 Kathleen - Agreed, the more community, the better. Like you can't be over-community in my opinion.

34:50 Jessi - Yeah, exactly. Awesome, well, thank you so much, Kathleen. I really appreciate it and just so glad you were here.

34:59 Jessi - Thank you for listening in today. I'm so honored you joined me for this conversation and I love hearing from you all with feedback, suggestions, or if you just wanna say hi at podcast@startupcpg.com or you can find me on LinkedIn. If you liked this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend or colleague, subscribe so you don't miss future episodes and maybe even leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you aren't yet in our Slack community of founders and experts, we'd love to see you there. You can get the free invite at startupcpg.com and find all our other awesome resources there like webinars, databases, the blog, the magazine, and virtual and in-person events. And if you found yourself rocking out to our intro and outro music, which I do every single time, make sure to check out the Super Fantastics on Spotify. It's the band of our Startup CPG Founder, Daniel Scharff. I'm Jessi Freitag, your host and producer and on behalf of the whole team at Startup CPG, thank you for being here and see you next week.