The Startup CPG Podcast

02:25 Jessi - Hi, Ezra, welcome to the show today. How are you?

04:26 Ezra - I'm doing really good. How are you?

04:28 Jessi - I’m doing awesome. I'm so excited to have you here and to talk about Ghost Town Oats and your WeFunder campaign today. And I got to try your product. Recently, I ordered it from Dayglow and I had friends and family taste it. And we were all like, this is the best oat milk. We have ever had. And I love oat milk. I already was a fan of oat milk. So I am just so impressed that I have a new favorite brand. So first of all, just congratulations on an incredible product. And then second, I'd love if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and about Ghost Town Oats to kick us off.

05:03 Ezra - Well, thank you. That's what we like to hear. I'm Ezra Baker. I am the chief product officer. And just like everybody else, I have many hats. So I also do like logistics and I'm the comptroller and I do some bookkeeping. Anything that Michelle and Erica are not doing, that's what I'm doing. My background. So I like Erica and Michelle. I've been a barista for, ooh, I've been a barista since 2008. Moved up here from Georgia and kind of have done everything there is to do in coffee. I feel like, you know, worked at like really big name companies and during the pandemic, like everybody else, like got played by my job at the time. And, you know, me and Eric Michelle decided to come together and like work on some projects. And we ended up working on creating Ghost Town Oats. We wanted to create something that we could be proud of and that our community as an coffee community can be proud of and partake in. And something that we can take to, especially for me and Michelle, we can take back to our community as black people in America because one of our main things that we live by and that we always think about is that like, you know, a lot of plant-based products are not marketed towards or in areas where there are predominantly black people. And we want to chase that. We want to actually like show what our families even like, oh, there's this thing called oat milk and it was an option because guess what? Your ass is lactose intolerant and you can't drink milk anyway and you need something else to replace that. So, you know, that was kind of the thing. And like you said, your family like loved it and that's what we want. We want people who, we want to bring in people who have not tried oat milk yet. And we want to bring them in. We want to make all of them a part of the conversation of plant-based milk.

07:02 Jessi - Oh, I love all of that. That's all amazing. And we're going to talk more about like being in coffee shops and like I said, your WeFunder campaign, but I wonder if you can take us back. You mentioned getting started during the pandemic. What did it look like to create your own oat milk? Like, were you all experimenting? And then, you know, I guess I don't know what that looks like to create. Like take us back to when you're like, all right, we're going to do this. How do you get started?

07:30 Ezra - Well, taking us all back, just like everything during the pandemic, it was on Zoom and Google Meets. Eric and Michelle were some of the only people I saw on a daily basis. And, you know, we kind of like started with the idea of a company and what we wanted that to look like and the branding and what did the branding look like and how can we reach people who haven't been reached yet. So we started with that and then came the formulation. It was like, we're baristas, so, you know, we're kind of snobby about what we drink and what we taste. So we wanted to make something that, only deemed well, which, you know, some of the other ones esteem pretty good, but we wanted it also taste phenomenal. We wanted like anybody or mostly everybody to be able to like come taste it and be like, okay, this is good. This is good. We really wanted to reach that typical milk drinker also and like have them be like, okay, this is, you know, I might can like substitute every now and then and get me an Oak Milk Cappuccino or something. You know, I don't have to drink just milk all the time or I can stop drinking the milk that makes me sick. So we really focused on, first we kind of addressed how to make the product steam well. And then from there, we kind of like, okay, how do we make this taste better? We would tell our like the like more technical formulas, what we wanted, and then they would send us samples and we would all, we would basically drink it on camera with each other and talk about what we like, what we didn't like, you know, how it felt in our mouths. As baristas, we are all trained to taste. Like we were very good at describing any sort of like sensual experiences like that. And I myself, I'm a Q-grader and that's kind of, you know, you take 24 exams that test those skills and make sure those skills are able to, you know, accurately and like within reason, tell someone else about that experience. So yeah, we brought all that together and kind of like got each other's homes like made cappuccinos and till we got the perfect product and adjusted. Yeah, and adjusted all the ingredients until we got the perfect product. And then boom, it was in production. I mean, that wasn't so much a boom. It was like, we had the formula down, let's say. So we kind of really, really started in January or December of 2020. And then we had the formula down by, it was like August of 2021. And then we went into production. Well, we did a sample production in like January of 2022. And then we were in production in June.

10:10 Jessi - Wow, that's really fast.

10:14 Ezra - It was, it almost like, just like everything else in the past, like what, three years, it just like went by so quickly. We were like, wait, what, huh?

10:23 Jessi - Yeah, wow. Oh, that's incredible. Your background, like you mentioned being like a Q grader and like being a barista, as you developed the product, were there other things you were thinking about with your background? Like you mentioned it, needing to steam well. Did that also inform like the packaging? And like, did you really wanna make it like, so that baristas would be drawn to it, to use it and like bring it into coffee shops?

10:48 Ezra - Yes, the number one thing we thought about is using, well, we use Tetra Edge. And the reason we use or we pick Tetra Edge is because in a lot of other, of the other Tetra packaging, there's like this little, you open the cap and then there's this little tab. And let me tell you, like nine times out of 10, that tab breaks and you're like, you have to like jab a screwdriver in it to get it out or something. So it was really important for us to be able to open it fast and that never fell. And the Tetra Edge kind of gave us that. So yes, we did think about the baristas in that regard. And we're still thinking about the baristas. We're trying to like think up some like innovative ways to, for example, have larger formats. To be able to have a larger format because some coffee shops use like big color dispensers that keep the liquid in motion. And so they would benefit from a bigger container because then they don't have to open, you know, 500 little liters and then pour it into the machine. They can just use one. So like we're constantly thinking about ways to make this product easier for baristas to use and the fact that it steams easier is like a big selling point because, and it steams a lot like whole milk, as in the technique is kind of similar. And that's important because like, you know, as a barista, you're on autopilot. So you have to, you know, you don't, it's kind of hard sometimes to like flick the switch and be like, oh, I gotta do it this way this time. So you're able to do it the same way right after you steep. This seamlessly goes from like regular milk to, oh no. And that was important. Just making it easy, making it almost the same. That's the biggest thing for a barista, consistency.

12:26 Jessi - And as you were getting started and you were starting to get samples of the product, because of the network of the three of you, did you already have coffee shops that were like, we wanna use this as soon as you make it? Or how did you decide where it was gonna launch? And like, what did that look like to choose the coffee shops where it would, you know, first be?

12:49 Ezra - You know, what's funny is that I think we kind of knew that like all our friends would wanna carry it. But like, when we think about that in our heads, it's like, oh, like four people will want it and it'll be cool. But from our first WeFundIt, we saw that we had a lot of support from our community. And as soon as like all, everyone we know, like everyone in the coffee community pretty much has been like, when can I get it? And so I guess when we decided to, where to launch first, we picked Southern California, because that's where Michelle and Eric, my two co-founders are. And we wanted to be able to be there, you know, and like be able to walk into a coffee shop and like have briefs to be like, oh, hey, like, you know, this is what I like about the milk or this is what I don't like about the milk. And you know, and be able to really engage with the people who are actually making it and not be, you know, so in some like tower and not being able to just like, you know, in like a vacuum is a better way to put it. It was important that we started in Southern California and we ended up like magically starting also in Chicago. I don't remember how that happened, but yeah, we're in Chicago too. So, you know, from there, it just kind of blew up.

14:03 Jessi - So you mentioned the WeFunder raise in 2022, and then you have another active WeFunder campaign now. Can you tell us a little bit about that first WeFunder campaign? Like, how did you choose a platform? Like, why did you choose equity crowdfunding versus, you know, other ways to raise money? Like, I'm curious about that process.

14:22 Ezra - WeFunder was the only platform we saw that like allowed like anybody to invest for like as low as $100. And one of the things we saw in our careers was that all these companies would like, you know, try to be buddy buddy with the coffee industry and like, you know, sponsor events or whatever, and have us like really invest in using their product and the actual barista not gain anything from it. So we knew that $100 was enough. It was like low enough to where a barista could invest with their tip monies from like one or two days. So that was the, what was the number one reason we picked WeFunder because, you know, so many people have made money off the barista's backs and we have nothing to show for it. There are PLS companies that I remember back in the day, I worked at a coffee shop and a PLS company came in like every day and we will be like, hey, this does not work. Can you fix this? Or why can you skip this screen without being asked for a tip? You're making us lose money and they will change it. And that company made billions off of that. And we had nothing to show for it. And that's kind of, that's not right, you know? We want to actually, kind of like the opposite of what the tech industry and I hate to be critical of the tech industry, but I am. We want the people who we're making this product for to be able to benefit from it also monetarily as that. I mean, you know, they're not gonna be like, you're not gonna be a billionaire if you invest $100, but you know, you can make some change. You can make, you might be able to make some little change and you get to be a part of our success and not just like someone who helped us get successful.

16:09 Jessi - Oh, that's awesome. That's amazing. And part of that, your lead investor for that first crowdfunding was NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler. Like how did that happen? Like how did you, you know, did one of you know him? Like how did that work?

16:26 Ezra - No, that was kind of wild. I think Jimmy was at an SCA and Michelle ended up like working behind a bar with him. And then they just started talking and you know, he wanted to be a supporter. Yeah, it's been a good relationship to have, you know? It's like someone, like you know, a little guardian angel behind somewhere that can, that you know, got us to help us get to where we are today. We would have gotten to where we are, but it might've just taken a little longer without him. But you know, he's been great.

16:57 Jessi - That's amazing. And for that first campaign, how did you spread the word? What did Prep Like look for that campaign? Did you reach out to your networks? Was it social media? Like how did you get the word out? Cause you raised, I think over $210,000, which is impressive for a first campaign.

17:13 Ezra - And it was fast. Like we were like over $100,000 in like five days. Or it could have been less than that. I can't remember, but it was like, we never suspected it would be that quick. We thought we were like, oh, struggling to get up to 50. We just like posted on our personal social medias and you know, that's it. Like, and people who know us shared it and it just kept growing. And then random people started seeing our WeFunder and also investing. I think once we got past a certain pledge amount, WeFunder started advertising on their main page and that helped a lot too. So yeah, it was a wild and crazy time.

18:00 Jessi - That's amazing. So after that first round, then I'm trying to think, put the timing pieces together. So you did that raise and then was the like first big production run after that raise or timing wise? Where did that take place?

18:13 Ezra - I wanna say like two months after that, then we had our first production run and we made like 50,000 units and everyone was like, oh, that will last you six months. And it lasted like less than two, maybe a month and a half. It was like flying, like it started to be like, oh, this company is selling like a pallet a day. And then all of a sudden, like three months later, they're doing a truckload of wheat. So it's just been like trying to keep up, even trying to just keep up with who we have. It's just growing so fast to where, after two months we were doing 60K and then after that we were doing 80 and then after that we're doing 120 and now we're doing 320,000 units. It's just, we're growing fast and like, that's why we're raising again because we need to bridge around because you can only scale up with money. And we learned a lot from like our past mistakes, like, oh, we need to change some of our cogs to make more money, do, find different vendors and different freight carriers and freight brokers. And we're kind of learning a lot of this on the fly, which I think is really fun. It's just like a lot of learning on the fly. Every day is something I've never done before in my entire life. And I'm like, oh, that's crazy. I would have never thought, and then it's also funny, I'm on a tangent now, it's also funny, like changing like how we're talking about money now. We're like, oh, $50,000 this, $100,000 that. And it's like, well, like three years ago, we were like $20 this, $15 that. Like it's pretty wild.

20:04 Jessi - Yeah, that is wild. I mean, tangents are my favorite, so I love that. Everything happens so quickly, that's just incredible. Definitely. So I think you're in over 500 coffee shops right now. Like, can you talk a little bit about servicing that many coffee shops? Like, I'm not as familiar with that channel. Like, are there distributors or like places that you use to help consolidate servicing all those shops? Do you do a lot of shipping individually? What does it look like to service all those coffee shops?

20:34 Ezra - All of the above. Okay. So we have our major distributor is Shoreline Downing, Southern California. They pretty much handle California and Arizona and soon Texas, I believe. Then we are partners with Go Get Them Tigers. They're like our, they're our homies. We work with them and it's been great working with them. Then in Chicago, we work with CBC and they're also great. We started there in Stans Donuts. I don't know if you were ever to a Stans Donuts. I had been to a Stans Donuts before this whole conversation started. I was like, whoa, we're gonna be in Stans? They're like all over Chicago, just donut shops. And it's been growing fast with CBC and CBC does, they ship nationally. So there are a lot of like little satellites popping up all around the country where we're being served. There's a coffee shop in Oberlin, who's not even close, we're not kind of close to Chicago, but they have a shift every week. They call it slow train. And they're like, what does CBC's biggest customers? They buy so much of our oatmeal and they're great. I'm actually getting a lecture, a guest lecture down there. Cause my friend is a professor at Oberlin. I don't know if you've been to Oberlin, but it's so small that everybody knows everybody. But yeah, it's been pretty fast. And yeah, we'll be nowhere without our fantastic distributors.

21:56 Jessi - Did you know some of the distributors from your time in the industry already? Or what did it look like to get set up those distributor relationships? Or were they reaching out to you? Cause you grew so fast.

22:17 Ezra - A little bit, all of the above again. A lot of them we did, you know, we kind of do our research. We're like, oh, who do people use in California or LA? That's what we'll do. Like we'll try to figure that out. Or our problem now is like, who does it in New York? Or who does it in Chicago? Who do people like? You know, asking friends, that's the number one tool. Friends in our community are great. Like I think Eric will tweet out on his social media, who wants oatmeal kid in Wisconsin? Who do I know? Hit me up. And people in the back. And I think people like that. People like that. We are a company where we're just normal ass people who may have worked with them in the past or whatever. And they could just hit us up and be like, I want some oat milk. And I'll be like, okay. That's really fun. I mean, one of the first coffee shops I worked at, Cafe Grumpy is what I, I had one customer in New York City and I used to work there. And like Caroline, the owner, was like one of my business heroes. She's like, she's a fantastic business woman. And she's, you know, kind of bootstrapped that company and like has made it really successful. But that was my first New York account. And I'm, you know, I'm proud of that. Like I can say I used to work there and now they're serving my product. Crazy.

23:45 Jessi - Yeah, that's amazing. And how do you plan to continue to reach more coffee shops? Is there more planned outreach or are you trying to keep up with the inbound demand already so much? Like I'm curious what it looks like to continue to grow your number of coffee shops.

23:58 Ezra - Well, yeah, right now we're trying to keep up with our inbound demand. We're kind of a little bit caught up, but we want to get a little bit further before we start adding a few more distributors. But we are looking for more distributors. And now is the time to start having those conversations. And we're also looking for a new co-manufacturer. So there's also that.

24:18 Jessi - Yeah, those are a lot of really big pieces to work in. And that have you mentioned cogs and margins and those have big implications on those distributor relationships and who your co-manufacturer is.

24:30 Ezra - All of that, yes. I hate arithmetic and I hate thinking about all of that, but it's necessary. But yeah, we've been in a deep dive of all our cogs at the moment. And that's why, you know, our prices are rising a little bit because we have to. There's like no way we can make this happen. But you know, we're always gonna try to stay cool for the homies as long as they can afford it, we're good.

24:53 Jessi - The product is gluten-free and I know as someone, regular listeners know that we're a gluten-free household. So I'm curious if you can talk about the gluten-free sourcing, was that a consideration where you had to look into what's gluten-free, what's not?

26:26 Ezra - Well, it's not yet certified gluten-free, but the lab analysis is so low that it's basically gluten-free. We are working on getting that certification that's a part of our looking for new cold may effectors. So they can have a dedicated, you have to think about all these like, does this facility have a room for your particular packaging to be gluten-free? So yeah, that's the one reason we're looking. So we're gonna get that gluten-free certification. So soon, it's coming soon. All you celiacs out there will be safe.

27:03 Jessi - Yes, awesome. Yeah, that's great. And multiple celiac family members that will be very excited about that. So that'll be awesome when that's set up. So for this current campaign, since it sounds like your first WeFunder campaign was very successful, was it just kind of like, were you like, well, it makes sense to use WeFunder again because we liked WeFunder last time. I'm curious about deciding to use WeFunder again, and if there's anything that you thought about differently for this campaign versus the campaign last year.

27:32 Ezra - Yeah, like same thing we wanted to give working baristas a chance to invest, but not only that, it also gets the word out to other people. Since our first campaign was so successful, I feel like more people know about us and just like the chatter among all the people is bigger. So like we have gotten a lot of calls outside of WeFunder about investment. So it's really, to be honest, like now we're really thinking, oh, WeFunder more as community building, more than anything, because it's just helped us build our personal network as far as investing so big or so much more than it was. So the goals are the goals and we want to reach those goals, but we don't have so much pressure on us this time. Mm-hmm, that makes sense. Like we're not checking it every single minute, every single hour.

28:29 Jessi - Right, yeah. I'm curious if you'd be willing to share about set up with WeFunder. Does the WeFunder team help you through the process, set up what your valuation cap's gonna be and give you ideas about what information to gather? What does it look like to get the campaign set up and navigate that?

28:47 Ezra - Yes, they do. That is definitely more Michelle's purview, but yeah, they do work with us, especially the first time. They really worked with us on getting our messaging across and any kind of legal thing that we needed all along the way. Or if we need to put disclaimers on social media posts, they give us templates. They kind of hold your hand through the process, especially the first time. So yeah, they are a lot of help. They want you to be successful.

29:19 Jessi - Right, that makes sense. Yeah, they want to set you up for success, but that's cool that they do help you through that, because it's kind of intimidating, like setting up, you got a safe, and you're raising actual money from people. There's a lot in there that feels like it could go wrong, so that's the great thing about having a platform to help you go through it.

29:37 Ezra - And all those things we had no idea about before we did WeFunder. I mean, WeFunder also has a nice little glossary, so to speak, of all the terms, and you can pretty much know everything you need to know to invest just by perusing that glossary. They do a real good job on the education aspect of investing or learning how to invest.

29:58 Jessi - Yeah, that's amazing. When did you decide, like, okay, you know what, we're gonna do another equity crowdfunding campaign? How long until it was live, from when you decided to do it?

30:09 Ezra - A little less than a month, I believe. We decided that we're gonna do one probably first week of July or last week of June, and then we made a plan, and then we did things like shoot another video and play a social media post and copy and all that for the launch. It was like August 1st or 5th, somewhere in those lines. Yeah. So yeah, there is a lot of planning, but it's nothing like impossible, you know?

30:37 Jessi - Yeah, your team seems to move very fast also, you see, which is very impressive.

30:42 Ezra - I mean, yes, everybody is pretty much like, you know, we have four members now, or five. Levant, Sarah, Suni, they have been a big help to us, taking some of the burden off of me, Michelle, and Eric. So it's been great. And a lot of burden off of Michelle. So we're able to do the annoying stuff that we have to do. They get to do some of the fun things. But yeah, so that's been a big help, and that's made us able to go faster, and we went faster this time because, you know, we kinda knew what the deal was. We knew not to, I think the first time we kinda labored a little bit too long, all the way into launch, and it just wasn't that deep. The people just wanted us to be out there, and you know, we were, and it happened. So, you know, it didn't take us that long to stop.

31:28 Jessi - Yeah, is there a deadline for people to invest? If listeners are interested in checking out the campaign, like is there a deadline coming up that they need to go check it out by, or?

31:35 Ezra - No, not really. I mean, we have to reach 50K, I think, until we meet our minimum, and yeah, just keep going until we do that, and we can decide to extend after that. Yeah, keep looking.

31:50 Jessi - Okay, awesome. So yeah, I'll definitely include that in the show notes in case people wanna check out the campaign and join the Ghost Town Oats team in a small way. Join the squad, we call it the squad, the Ghost Town squad. I love it, I'm a member of the squad then now, so I love it.

32:06 Ezra - I can't remember, we did come up with a stan name, but I can't remember, maybe it was the spirits or something, I can't remember.

32:14 Jessi - Oh, I love that, that's amazing. Well, I also would love to, you mentioned a little bit about hiring, and since you've grown really quickly, can you talk a little bit about when you decided to hire beyond the three of you, and what positions you started out hiring in?

32:28 Ezra - I feel like when it started to hurt. We have people in mind always for various things, and we want to always start within our community. So we knew we wanted what lots to come on as a social media, so we started in a smaller, maybe like a consultancy, and then it kind of grew really quickly, because we were like, okay, we need you now, and then Michelle just had so much admin stuff that she needed that she always knew she wanted Suni as well, and so Suni came on with us. The two of them have been great additions, and they're already aligned with our ethos. All we think of is we want to give people a chance that people often overlook, and not to say that they are those people, but we're always thinking about who's out there that no one knows about, but should know about.

33:22 Jessi - Yeah, so that's what we're always looking for. Yeah, oh, that's really cool. And it's very wise that you had some people identified too, so that as you scale in or thinking, you kind of know who you can reach out to, because I feel like it's really difficult if you're like, oh shoot, we need someone, and you don't even know where to start, and you just got to start posting on LinkedIn or something and combing through the application.

33:47 Ezra - LinkedIn, more like for us, we'll probably be like, hey, who knows how to do accounting or something?

33:57 Jessi - I love it, I like that approach.

33:59 Ezra - Yeah, because there's so many really talented people in coffee that just sometimes they just haven't been given a chance, or they need just a little lift up, and that's what we want. Yeah, yeah. They're the hungriest.

34:11 Jessi - Yeah, I love that. And maybe you've already had some demand, maybe you're in some retailers as well, but do you see this being in retail stores eventually, or are you into retail stores now? What do you think that, what's ahead there?

34:24 Ezra - Yes, I know we're in a few small retail shops, but what I can really think of is, we're in Dom's Market in Chicago, or I think it's Dom's Kitchen and Market, it's like a pretty fancy grocery store. We started there in their cafe, now we're on the shelves, and they're buying a lot of product. They've been great to us, but we really want to also be in bodegas in corner stores and things like that. That's the ultimate goal. We want to be everywhere, but still remain a premium product, but we wanna be everywhere. The ultimate goal is also for us to be in, this is something we always talk about, is to be in school cafeteria lunches. Oh yeah, yeah, that'd be incredible. Yeah, that would be great. And not even for the monetary aspect, I don't know if you went to public school or not, you remember having to drink milk with every meal that you had possible. Yeah. Who wants to do that?

35:25 Jessi - Yeah, and as a person that in elementary school, you don't know what lactose intolerance is, and you're like, why do I feel sick after lunch each day?

35:30 Ezra - I know, why do I not feel good today? Yeah. Exactly. So yeah, that would be a great step for us to be in school lunches.

35:41 Jessi - Yeah, that'd be so cool. Is any part of your team kind of actively focused on the retail and other food service channels yet, or is that like a down the road?

35:50 Ezra - The school lunches further down the road, but yeah, we're all actively thinking about doing grocery. I think that is the next six months to a year step is us being in grocery. But the coffee industry has done us well, and we'll never turn our backs on them.

36:07 Jessi - Right, yeah. You've also had some incredible press opportunities with I think like Good Morning America, and like some big publications.

36:13 Ezra - Oh, Saveur, that was like a dream of mine to be in Saveur magazine. I used to read that with my boss in the cafe. I worked at it in college.

36:22 Jessi - Oh, that's so amazing. Did they reach out to you?

36:26 Ezra - Yes, they did, which was all so crazy.

36:30 Jessi - Oh, I bet that was just wild to get that outreach message.

36:35 Ezra - It was, but then the interview was like easy. Nice. I'm like, you know, it's weird. You don't even think about it anymore. You're like, oh my God, Saveur. And then you're like just sitting on the phone talking with some person.

36:44 Jessi - Oh, that's incredible.

36:48 Ezra - Just like now.

36:50 Jessi - Yep, it's like right now. I'm not quite at the caliber that we're talking about, but you know.

36:55 Ezra - It's all the same. It's all good.

36:57 Jessi - Was a lot of that outreach though, people just seeing what you were doing, active in the coffee community, did any of you do any outreach to any publications or news outlets?

37:05 Ezra - No, we did not. Maybe a little bit was our WeFunder, but like I know we did a little PR, like a little bit, but like it just kept coming to us. Felt like out of nowhere. Well, the three of us have all made a name for ourselves in coffee. So I think that had a lot to do with it, but like, you know, we would have never thought that we would be reached out to as much as we have been. And I think one article just leads to another one, to another one, to another one. So yeah, it was pretty wild.

37:35 Jessi - Right. And with Good Morning America, I'm curious of like being on TV. Did you get different types of outreach after that? Like follow up from TV versus like other publications?

37:41 Ezra - I think we got maybe a little bit more TV press maybe, but I feel like the written press was the real driver of it all. Okay, interesting. Good Morning America came through Prosperity Market, which is like a black owned kind of like O-line farmers market or flea market of sorts. And they got a lot of press and that kind of helped, that kind of pushed us too. So yeah, and us doing the black market flea in LA, that kind of like helped us get a lot of press. I've learned from working in coffee that just being where people who work in press are, they'll find you. They'll look for you. Any coffee shop, they're like, oh, a bunch of, for what random example, a bunch of Vogue getters come here. Then all of a sudden you're in best coffee shop in New York City on Vogue or whatever. So that's kind of how it works.

38:37 Jessi - Yeah, that's incredible. Because I'm not as familiar with the food service for coffee shops. Like are there trade shows as well where like the product can be featured at or have you gotten any trade shows?

38:47 Ezra - We have been used in booths at trade shows, but we have not done our own booth yet at a trade show. That's something else that we're probably looking at doing in the coming years as well. We do see the benefit of that. But as of now, it's mostly we do events during a trade show. That's what we've been doing the last few. Okay. What are some of the trade shows? Is it LA Coffee Fest? Yeah, LA Coffee Fest. We did a party last year with them. This year, we were just in the booth at LA Coffee Fest. SEA, we were featured with Big Face at the Larmor Zucko booth. And I think that's all we've done so far this year and last. That's awesome though. But it's also like, I'm like, wait a minute. It's only been like two years. Yes, yeah. No, it hasn't been two years. It's been a full year in production in a month.

39:37 Jessi - Yeah.

39:40 Ezra - Yeah, not very long. I was like, how is it not more than that? Yeah, it hasn't been long. So yeah, like three trade shows on our belt last year. Yeah, wow. More to come.

39:49 Jessi - Yes. I'm also curious if you could tell us a little bit about working with Dayglow, because that's how I purchased the product and that makes it kind of directly available to consumers. Is that something that you just apply to be featured by them because they kind of have curated boxes? How did that work to get that relationship set up?

40:05 Ezra - So they were one of our first customers actually, them using us in their shop. And they are also friends of Ghost Town and the owner, Tom, is an advisor to us. We often go in for some advice, but yeah, that's just kind of how it happens. They knew we were gonna make a good product. They tasted the product and they're like, yes, this is good. Like we thought you're gonna make. And they've been a, from the beginning, a supporter. And we're in both their LA and Chicago stores. And I'm pretty sure we're gonna be in their New York store. I don't know if we've ironed that out yet, how that's gonna happen, but I'm pretty sure we're gonna be in their New York store that's opening soon too.

40:44 Jessi - Oh, that's amazing. I had never gotten a package from them before and it was so cool. Like it was just this cool box. And yeah, it was like an experience opening it.

40:52 Ezra - I subscribed to their coffee subscription club and yeah, the packaging was fantastic. Yes. It was very cute.

41:02 Jessi - I'm also curious just because we're on a podcast together and I've gone, like I went and listened to some of your podcast episodes from the past. Like, are you actively podcasting still or do you wanna get back into it? If not, like curious about what's going on podcasting for you.

41:17 Ezra - Yeah, me and my partner on our podcast, No Free Refills, we just need to get it together. She actually had a baby. So like life is a little more crazy for her. So like, once we get it together, we're gonna be back talking about pop culture and coffee.

41:32 Jessi - Nice. Oh, I can't wait. That's awesome. Well, I'll link it in the show notes so that when you're back, everybody can find the show.

41:41 Ezra - That's awesome. Every week or every other week, we text each other an idea. We're like, we gotta do it. Or every time we watch something that's like, oh my God, did you see that? We're like, we gotta do that. We gotta do an episode on this. When are you available? When will someone have the baby? But yeah, we're gonna make it. And we're gonna make it happen.

41:54 Jessi - Nice. I love it. Well, is there anything else that we didn't cover today that you wanted to make sure to share about before we kind of go into some links and other ways to make sure that people find you? But I'm curious if there's anything else you wanted to mention today.

42:12 Ezra - Just look, if you have a coffee shop, hit us up at squad@ghosttown.world.

42:22 Jessi - Great. Yeah. No, that's awesome. Yeah. And then people can go to ghosttown.world, right?

42:26 Ezra -Yes. Yes. Ghosttown.world. And you can see three ghosts revolving around a planet.

42:34 Jessi - Awesome. So yeah, I'll include that in the show notes. I'll include what you just mentioned for coffee shop outreach. I'll include the link to the WeFunder campaign so people can make sure to check that out. Yeah. And then are you active on LinkedIn? Is that a way for people to connect with you as well or?

42:48 Ezra - Sure. We're on LinkedIn. Hit us up. We will send a form response to you that LinkedIn gives us and then you will do the same. Nah, hit us up. We'll get with you.

42:58 Jessi - Great. Well, this has been awesome, Ezra. I so appreciate you coming on the show and sharing about Ghosttown Oats so far and all the growth that's happened in such a short amount of time. And I really hope that folks head to the WeFunder page and join the squad or the spirits. It's good.

43:17 Ezra - Yeah, the spirits. I love it. What if it was the graveyard?

43:20 Jessi - I think I like that too, the graveyard. I like that. I like that.

43:24 Ezra - It's kind of like a member of Arsenio Hall. I get a dog pound, kind of like the same thing, the graveyard.

43:27 Jessi - Yeah, I like it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been so fun. Yes, this has been very fun. 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 want to say hi at podcastatstartupcpg.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 Scharf. 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.