The Startup CPG Podcast

00:00
Daniel Scharff
Startup CPG ers. We've got another little bonus episode for you here today. I was so excited about all of the amazing stuff that we have coming up in the next couple months for startup CPG that I wanted to invite our head of community and marketing, Patricia Menagato here just to talk about all of it. And I hope that it will inspire all of you to make sure that you are signed up for our emails, if you're not already, and to absolutely get onto our Slack channel so that you don't miss a single notification. Because I think when you listen to all of the cool opportunities and events that we have coming up, you are going to be blown away. So, Patricia, hello. Can you please introduce yourself for anybody who does not already have the pleasure of knowing you?

00:41
Patricia Menegoto
Yes, of course. Hi, everyone. I'm Patricia Menagodo. As Danielle said, I am the head of marketing and community here and I've been with Danielle since the beginning. And it's just crazy the amount of projects and opportunities we have for all the emerging brands. So were actually like last year trying to put together all the opportunities we already have in mind for this year. And it's crazy. It's blown away. So, yeah, just keep an eye on Slack, social media. We also post everything, but it's so many posts, so you can get lost with our fun mimis at the same time. But yeah, I'm excited to be here.

01:23
Daniel Scharff
And speaking of Slack and social media, Patricia, you've been with us since the beginning, basically, where are we now in terms of our reach on Slack and Instagram? And if you want, you can have the pleasure of being the first to announce this big milestone that we're going to hit probably tomorrow on our Instagram.

01:42
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, well, we are hitting 20K. We are so excited for it. This year is going to be our fourth anniversary, so this is definitely a huge milestone for us. And I appreciate Kiki, who also helped us a lot with all the social media content managing.

02:05
Daniel Scharff
It's gotten so good. If you guys aren't following us, please do. The content is amazing, uplifting for brands, showcasing a lot of them and sometimes very hilarious also. So great job, Kiki. And you also, Patricia. But yes, and man, it's been a journey. We are at 17,000 now on slack as well. So each of these channels I think of as like a basketball stadium full of people, b to B people. So business people, very interested in everything that the brands are doing in our community. So it's pretty exciting. All right, so without further ado, let's get into all of this cool stuff that we've got going on. So can you tell me a little bit about even just starting this month, some of the highlights?

02:54
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. So to start, we just announced the Shelfies last Friday, the 2024 Shelfies. So Shelfie is the first award program for the recognized, very emergent CPG brands. Look at the trophy.

03:10
Daniel Scharff
Got the trophy here, everybody. Check it out online if you haven't seen it. It was developed by our friend Kirk Vizola, who is the owner of mind the font design agency. And this trophy is gorgeous. The idea of it is we're like, wait, we need a trophy for the winners that they can put at their booth wherever. And I'll be like, what is that? I need to know what is going on with this brand where you have that?

03:30
Patricia Menegoto
Yes, we have seen some brands using and they said that they definitely attract people and they use to even tell buyers at the show, oh, we won an award from startup CPG. So that's cool.

03:44
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. What's that? Oh, no big deal. I just won an award at the biggest award program in the industry. You interested in my product? Yeah.

03:53
Patricia Menegoto
So as I was saying, our Shelfie Awards, you only have to send products to three addresses. There is no fee to apply. And we are going to be launching the form soon, in February. So February 1 and every month has different categories that the brand has to apply within that month. If it's your category. For example, beauty products are in February, so you have to fill out the form in February and your product has to arrive between February 1 and the last day of the month.

04:31
Daniel Scharff
And this is because it is free. I think it's such a big program. That was kind of the impetus for us is we just hated seeing all the programs out there that cost hundreds of dollars to submit to, and then you also have to send the product and just very hard for early brands. But mainly we have to stage the submissions because we get so many. Now that I know for you and the other judges, it is so much work to really thoughtfully go through all the products and try to make some videos with them as well and just make sure we do a really thoughtful process.

05:02
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, we definitely try every single product. And that's why this year also we limit the submissions for up to three skus, because some brands, they send us like 15 products, and it was a lot of time consuming, too. So you can send only one if you want to, but up to three if you have different flavors.

05:25
Daniel Scharff
And I'm listed on there as optional. Now, I think if you want to send to me, you can. I'm not really influential in the judging process. We've got Patricia and Kiki and Grace, our editor. But if you want to send it to me, then it's cool for me to get to know everybody's products as well, since I obviously do a lot in the community and hosting and all of that. So that is definitely optional. I think it's also nice because I don't think I have the same capacity to handle all of these products as Patricia and the other lovely judges. Cool. So what else do we got? That's just one of the many things.

05:56
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. So by the end of this month, we are going to be announcing to the booth giveaway that we have with partnership with Sato. So we are going to have a section during Expo west, and Saddle was kind enough to partner with us to be able to award two booths for female founders. So applications close like now, mid January. But I am so excited to just help emerging brands that are female founders out there.

06:29
Daniel Scharff
This is my favorite activation I think we've ever done, or definitely one of them where. Thank you so much to settle and for supporting female founders. I mean, how cool is it that we get to do an activation with them to give away two booths to female founder brands in our community who are, we know going to absolutely then crush it at Expo west and be in our dedicated section, which is the first ever dedicated section that we've had at Expo west. We're going to have 25 booths there. It's going to be nuts. So yes, a full hearted thank you to settle for giving us the privilege of working with them on it, and an advanced congratulations to whoever wins.

07:08
Patricia Menegoto
I don't know who it's going to.

07:09
Daniel Scharff
Be, but I know there are a healthy number of applications, not so many, where it doesn't make sense for brands to apply. And because we are very considerate of our brand friends, we try to make it very simple and easy and not like some full, but, you know, not so few that you don't have to really put in a good effort for it.

07:30
Patricia Menegoto
I can't wait to see all the videos because the video is required to upload. So that will be fun.

07:36
Daniel Scharff
Yes. All right. Okay. What else do we have going on at Expo west? So much.

07:42
Patricia Menegoto
A lot, actually. So as I said, we are going to have our startup CPG dedicated section is going to be at the Hot Products ACC level three. And that section is above the main hall e. So it's not on the same floor as the one floor and floor two at hot products.

08:04
Daniel Scharff
Right. So if you're looking directly at the main convention hall, it's at the top left.

08:09
Patricia Menegoto
Exactly. So, yeah, we are going to have our section there that we are going to be announcing soon as well. And during at this section, we are going to have a few activations. So the central market 101 meetings. It's more like a backpack. Sorry? It's more like a backpack brand style one one meetings. Right. You want to share more about that?

08:34
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, absolutely. We're really excited to have the central market team join. They are very interested to discover the best backpack brands at the show. And so we'll be doing an activation with them to source a bunch of brands who will then get a one one meeting with their buyer at our booth. So we are really excited about that. I personally have launched a product with central Market. They're one of my favorite retailers because they love to be first to market. They're like one of the only retailers I know that you don't just have to fight to try to get in touch with. They run up to you. Like, we would like to be first to market. Can we work together? They're so nice and they can anchor the Kehi distribution center, which is a huge deal. So we love them.

09:17
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, that's perfect. So applications will be launched soon. So just make sure that you apply if you don't have a booth at Expo west. So this opportunity is for brands that do not have a booth. So you're going to be announcing in slack and email soon. We also have another retail office hours. That is Kroger.

09:41
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, the Kroger office hours, which is super. We just. We actually did a webinar recently that will be also released as a podcast bonus episode here, all about how to think about Kroger and how to make decisions about when you're applying to them on the distribution options, the marketing options, which are, they have enormous consequences. And based on the success of that, we also were able to invite Holly Adrian from Kroger to come by our booth and just kind of have an open office hours where she'll be happy to meet with brands who come by. So I'm super pumped about that one.

10:15
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. And then the Kroger team is also going to do a tour at our dedicated section. So we are going to go around with them showing the brands in our section, trying their products together, and that will be very good for the brands that are in our section, too. We also are planning our first ever startup CPG swag fashion show, and that will happen on a Friday.

10:50
Daniel Scharff
It's too bad you're one of the hosts and judges because otherwise you would win it. Patricia.

10:58
Patricia Menegoto
Well, then startup CPG has have a lot of cool swags we have to plan for.

11:03
Daniel Scharff
So just to give you guys the sneak peek here. So this swag fashion show walk off, we're going to have it in the dedicated section. It's going to be for people to just show up with their brand, swag like they do at Expo west, looking cool, representing their brand, walking it off. And then Patricia and I will be there hosting, talking, oh, who's he wearing? And just providing a lot of commentary. And then we'll have winners and prizes and a lot of really great content from that. Maybe one of the things I've been most excited about this year. I can't wait for it. It's like everything that we're about, which is celebrating the brands, especially at Expo west, and gosh, we put in so much effort in the swag part, right? Trying to show up looking cool.

11:50
Daniel Scharff
So I'm really excited for this very, I mean, partly silly, but very fun idea.

11:57
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, and we're going to create tons of content for that, too. And actually, this is like one of the best tips on how to stand out during Expo west. Just dress from head toe with your brand or use colorful pants or anything that really resonated with your brand so you really stand out in the crowd. And there are a few brands. For example, go nanas. I always remember them from Expo east because the team was whole pink pants, the t shirt, a huge pink. Really? And they were like walking around and I knew who they were just because of the flags.

12:37
Daniel Scharff
That is super cool. Yeah. I remember at Expo east you had the prickly team with their custom jerseys designed by our friends at wagon. It's so important, actually, just the recognizability. And you're creating impressions, too, which we know are important not just for consumers, but for the buyers as well. I never understand when people work for a brand and don't wear logos and swag, because I always do. Like, if you're watching the YouTube version of this, you can see I'm wearing a big hat that says CPG and big letters on it just because it gives people the chance to be like, oh, you're with that brand. Actually, I'd like to talk to you. If you don't wear something that identifies you, then you don't get that chance.

13:16
Daniel Scharff
And it also is just a wonderful opportunity to just have a lot of fun, I think, with your brand and show people that you're really proud to represent your products.

13:27
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. And also wear your swag to the parties. And that links me to the Elirelli, our most famous expo west party. We sold out last year, two weeks ahead of the event with 1000 attendees. And this year we are planning to have 1200. So a little more. But tickets are already selling and selling fast. We have an amazing lineup of feature guests. We have Kroger coming, Alberstone misfits, Gopuff. We have the people from Bevnet. We have so many amazing people coming.

14:14
Daniel Scharff
So many people. This is the party at Expo West, I think. Yeah, definitely get your tickets early. I think last year there was a black market on Craigslist for tickets after they sold out and there's not much we can do at that. You know, the idea behind the alley rally is we want to have a place for brands that are even too small to have a booth to also get to participate in the show. And so we have ten backpack brands at our party, which has so many people and all these buyers. So it's definitely a really cool opportunity. And then the best brand that wins the voting wins a booth at next year's expo. Right. We've had some incredible brands coming through, winning. We've got nowhere Bakery has won. Prickly has won a booth.

14:59
Daniel Scharff
I forget all of the others, but I mean a bunch of them. And so we really also thank new hope for making that possible for us to get people this incredible opportunity.

15:10
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, for sure. So applications goes until end of January too. We launch a form and emails multiple times. With the form we are going to select ten brands. And then last year winner was nowhere bakery, as you mentioned. And they are going to be at the hot products level two this year at expos. So they are very excited about. This is their first ever time having a booth at the show and I can't wait to see your booth. I love their products. It's a gluten free, dairy free, all healthy, better for you sweets or baked goods. They were a shelfy winner as well.

15:55
Daniel Scharff
Everybody loves them.

15:58
Patricia Menegoto
It's all just exception. Yeah, you have to think that doesn't taste healthy at all.

16:03
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, well, it's good to indulge. We have to indulge every now and then. Some of us, including me, more than others, but. Okay, wait. So I fast forwarded us a bunch to expo because were talking about backpack brands. I got all excited because this will be the best expo ever. But let's backtrack because there is a bunch more that we have going on even this month January and next month February. So actually, one cool thing that we just did last week, we had an impromptu happy hour with the TikTok shop team. Right now, everybody is trying to figure out how to get on the TikTok shop and having a lot of issues. They just have onboarded this new team. So we had their small medium business team here in LA.

16:45
Daniel Scharff
We had a meetup with them and they are aware of all the stuff that people are complaining about and they are working on it. The platform, I mean, as a potential for product discovery, is just infinite. And there are a bunch of brands on there already, kind of early adopters crushing it. And so we are going to schedule a webinar with them then to go much deeper into it. And they are really excited to partner with us and just discover a lot more brands through the community and just harness, I think, all of this energy right now. And another thing that I'm super excited about is so we have a partnership with Rangeme that does product discovery also. So it's sort of know buyer brand matchmaking that happens through the Rangeme platform.

17:29
Daniel Scharff
And because of this incredible partnership that we have with them, we are launching a startup CPG collection in the Rangeme software. So that means if you're a buyer and you're on Rangeme, which a lot of them are, and there are a lot of campaigns that happen on there, one of the collections you can just click right into is going to be the startup CPG collection. And we're launching it as you know, Patricia, with a bunch of brands who have won startup CPG awards in the past. Right? So this would be like past shelfies winners, micro grant winners. What else am I forgetting?

18:04
Patricia Menegoto
I think that's it.

18:05
Daniel Scharff
Okay, maybe that's it. But there are a lot of them because this is our first collection. So we're rounding up all the ones who have won so far, and then we'll be updating it on a quarterly basis so that it stays fresh for the buyers. But just so much of our ethos of just how can we help all of these brands? So brands on Rangeme will be getting pinged by buyers who discover them through this collection. And I'm just really excited about that. And I know Patricia worked really hard to get that going and help get the collection organized with them. So thank you for all of that. I know it's going to be really impactful.

18:37
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, I'm just excited that we are able to do more and more just to help the emerging brands to stand out and this is so cool and I appreciate range me to make this happen, too.

18:49
Daniel Scharff
That's what it's all about. In the early days, were scrambling to figure out how we could put one pitch box together to help 15 brands. And that took us like three months to do. And now it's like, wow, we are jampacked with all of this amazing stuff. And then one more thing in February that I think we'll announce pretty soon, actually, is then we're going to be running another round of actually those micro grants for BIPOC brands. So each year we do two cohorts of micro grants where we just buy $2,500 worth of product across five brands and then donate it to a food bank.

19:26
Daniel Scharff
And so this program is meant to just help give a little boost of revenue where we can for a couple of brands and create some cool content around that also, while also being able to help get some product to food banks that are doing a really great job and trying to combat hunger in their. Really? Yeah, I'm really pumped about that one. And Patricia, you administer all of that, so really, thank you for that.

19:50
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, of course. And then also I want to mention that this is for food and beverage only, but we are working to try to get a beauty and health microgreens, too. Just because we had a lot of also brands in our community, we know that we are expanding for beauty and health. So I just want to say that we see you and we are working on that. So stay tuned.

20:14
Daniel Scharff
Yes, Patricia has a special place in her heart for all of the health and beauty brands, which she knows a lot more about than I do, since I am makeup free, if you can believe it.

20:27
Patricia Menegoto
At least. Do you use a sunscreen?

20:32
Daniel Scharff
I guess I should. Someone send me a sample, please. That's why I wear this hat. And then. Oh, one other thing I'm really excited about is in February, for the first time ever, we are doing A-Q-A on Shark Tank casting with the casting supervisor for Shark Tank, whose name is Mindy. This is the first time that we've ever actually gotten to do this. But she's going to come on. We're going to have the chance for a lot of brands just to ask her questions directly about the casting process because they've just kicked off the applications for season 16. And I think I read somewhere that maybe it's actually Mark Cuban's last season on Shark Tank, or he was thinking about it could just be a rumor that I'm now propagating, but, well, I.

21:19
Patricia Menegoto
Guess we will learn in February.

21:22
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. But. Oh, man, I'm really excited about this one, though. You and I are going to co host that one. I know we're both really interested to get to chat with them.

21:30
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, that one would be fun. And I know that we already did some episodes here on podcast of brands that have been in Shark Tank, and it was amazing, like, brand awareness for this brand. So I'm just excited to see more brands in our community joining Shark Tank.

21:47
Daniel Scharff
So many brands from our community have been on Shark Tank. I was just thinking through it. We've got Kelsey from dope. We've got.

22:01
Patricia Menegoto
Wonderkind. Oh, no, the wonder kind of wonder. Wild Wonder.

22:07
Daniel Scharff
Oh, yeah. Rosa from Wild Wonder. We did an episode of the podcast with Alexio from the Transformation Factory. That was great. Really loved that one. And just a bunch of other people. So it's going to be incredible. And then we just announced this week we have a very cool new partnership. This is with Summit series. Some people might know it as summit at sea. So it's a pretty interesting one, which is summit series. I would call it more of like a kind of, like, vacation and networking opportunity. By no means something that you need to grow your brand or to survive or anything. Like, you know, more for people who have a little bit of extra money and would like to have access to this kind of an. I've been.

22:58
Daniel Scharff
I've been to one of their events, and it was one of the best weekends I ever had. I met so many friends there that I'm still friends with my friend Jeff Miller, I met at their powder mountain event, and my friend Gavin Brooks. Like so many people, they just collect just fascinating people from all walks, of know leaders in their industries and get them all together, and everyone's so excited to be there and just totally open to meet new people, which you don't always get at every know some events. It's, like, weird if you go and try to talk to new people, but there you feel like you've just spent a whole day having amazing conversations with new people, and then you meet somebody completely new, and you're like, what? No, this is the best person ever also. So that's such a cool experience.

23:41
Daniel Scharff
And they are really interested to have more CPG industry founders. So the cruise that they have is in April 4 to 7th. I think it leaves out of Miami. It's on the Virgin mega cruise. I think it's the scarlet lady. I only know that because I used to live above it. And it's their new beautiful. Like, people should Google image. It's an unbelievable boat that actually features hammocks from our friends at Yellowleaf Hammock, who are some friends of mine here in LA, these incredibly designed hammocks. And so as part of this partnership, we are for the first time ever, going to throw a startup, CPG happy hour on a cruise. So we'll be doing that there to bring everybody who's on the boat and interested in CPG or just wants to check out products together on the ship. I'm going more as vacation.

24:38
Daniel Scharff
I had always planned on doing it just because I just never had the chance before because I was too busy to kind of take the time and make the trip. But this year I really wanted to commit to doing it for myself just because it always sounded amazing. And I have a lot of friends who go, but it's cool that we have the partnership also because it is kind of a referral community. And so having the partnership with them means that we can help people from our community get a nice warm intro to their team. So I am pumped about it. I'm really excited. And gosh, I think, well, as you know, I was running a beverage company for the past three years and I actually don't think I took a single vacation the whole time.

25:22
Daniel Scharff
So I'm ready for a little bit of a workation networkation. I don't know what we need a new word for what this is.

25:29
Patricia Menegoto
Well, I'll just follow you on social media and see all the cool stuff. We are doing that.

25:34
Daniel Scharff
Well, you have a pretty busy April as well. I have.

25:39
Patricia Menegoto
Well, you can just go to Brazil after that, too.

25:42
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. Patricia's wedding in Brazil. Yes. Patricia is getting married in one of my just favorite places in the world, which is Florianopoulos, Brazil. My favorite. I used to live in Florianopoulos, so I love it. I like to make Patricia laugh sometimes with my.

26:05
Patricia Menegoto
Speak very well.

26:07
Daniel Scharff
Thank you. Well, I'm really excited for you. So maybe just a few other things to cover off May. I'm going to try to do a really cool little city tour. I did the pilgrimage this past year where I went to in one week I did like four or five cities going tons of events. I'm going to try to do another little version of that in just a. But I'd like trying to hit some different cities. Last year I did Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Portland. Yeah. For our launch there. So this year I'm going to try to make sure I get to events in DC, Philly, New York. We're going to host one in Miami also because it's so much fun to check in with the different communities.

27:00
Daniel Scharff
And I also have to say that when you see them back to back like that, it's fascinating. Like, the differences between the brands and the communities and the vibes of our different chapters is unreal. Like Atlanta, where you have pretty early brands and then a bunch of kind of like ex Coca Cola people as well, is a pretty interesting combination. And they have really good city and government support there, even at the events who are really just trying to prop up brains in the region. But then maybe they're also a little bit more isolated from kind of the networking that happens in the rest of the country. Whereas, I mean, Chicago, I was blown away. Like, the early brands there were so well prepared, and they have incredible local retailers who can blast them off. So I loved it there. Portland was awesome.

27:50
Daniel Scharff
Interesting, like, weird, as I had heard, and pretty cool. We had a super cool kickoff event there. And I just loved everybody that I met and the venue that we had at there, which was like an indie grocery snack shop, was just so cool. The goods Mart and the SF meetup, also where we got to hang out was pretty special as well. That's one of our thriving communities.

28:16
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. So just to give an overview, like, this event that Danielle is mentioning is the meetups that we host once a quarter. So we have, I think, 15 cities now that we host meetups around the US. And then we also have Toronto that we are ramping up our meetups there. And then.

28:41
Daniel Scharff
To. I forgot to tell you, I want to schedule one on a specific day in London because I'm going to go.

28:48
Patricia Menegoto
Do you need someone to carry your bag?

28:52
Daniel Scharff
You can hide in the suitcase. I am taking another vacation this year. It's my mother's 50th anniversary of leaving Scotland. So when she was 30, she met my dad in a training in London. And that's when the process of her moving away from the UK started. And so to celebrate me and my sisters and my parents, we're all going to go on a road trip around Scotland. And so I'm going to, of course, take advantage to just hop through London on the way there and attend one of our meetups.

29:25
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. That's awesome. That's so cool. I didn't know about the stories of how did they meet?

29:31
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, I'll check out some new emerging brands in Scotland for sure.

29:36
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. Well, we have one London event now happening in January of February. Sorry, I forgot the date. A lot of meetups happening. We have this 15 cities that we are launching. We are trying to do like the Q one events now, late January, February before Expo west, and then after we are going to try the Q two meetups in May and June. So those are the events that Danielle was talking about to go around. And then for June, we have our second time going to fancy food in New York.

30:17
Daniel Scharff
Fancy. I'm excited. I'm going to get fancy. Last year was so fun. I actually never been to that one before. I had only been to the old San Francisco one that they had and then Vegas. Last year I went for the first time, but the New York one, it was cool. Our event kind of blew. My mean, you planned all of that? I didn't really know what I was walking into. But it's at the shopify office, which is gorgeous.

30:44
Patricia Menegoto
Beautiful at Soho. Yeah. So they're hosting us again, which we're blown away by their team there is so amazing. And then the location is great. So it's going to be a Tuesday again. I know a lot of people just stay Sunday and Monday for the fancy food, but if you want to stay an extra day, I promise you that it's going to be fun.

31:07
Daniel Scharff
Yes, I will be there. And actually, I'll be going straight from there to London. So I'll have my bags packed with me. Maybe go right from the Shopify office to the.

31:17
Patricia Menegoto
You're definitely getting too fancy.

31:21
Daniel Scharff
I have all of this pent up vacation from the past couple of years, so definitely it's time for me to spread my wings a little bit. I'm really excited about that one. It's always just such a blast to be in New York. I mean, we had a great time last year. Check out some of the cool retailers there and the brands that we like to reconnect with. Cool. And then. Yeah, I know we've got some other stuff coming up later in the year. Obviously, we'll be planning a lot more cool stuff, like all of the exciting stuff that we've had come up in the next couple of months. But I'm looking forward to, I know, in August, the Newtopia. Now we're definitely going to have a cool presence at. We will be sharing, I'm moderating anchor panel there with the Whole Foods team.

32:09
Daniel Scharff
So they have these different concepts at the show. It'll be divided into four different regions. Well, I kind of forget what all of them are, but they're all different kinds of experiences. And so I'll be with that Whole Foods team and probably do some other panels as well. This year at Expo West, I have two panels that I'm moderating that. I am so jazzed up about. So the first one is called tastemakers, the SoCal retailers. And so I'm going to be there hosting Gelson's and Bristol Farms. It's going to be really cool. A bunch of people like that. And then so brands can come and hear, how do I get into these retailers? How do I do well with them and just get a chance to see who the buyers are a little bit. And then I'm doing one right after that.

32:57
Daniel Scharff
That's called tastemakers, the e commerce retailers. And so that's going to be with, like, market people like that who really important for brands to get a chance to meet them because they're accessible to you as an early brand and they can anchor distribution centers and do a ton of volume. So I think those two panels will be huge hits and they happen Wednesday morning at Expo west. So now in Newtopia now, hopefully we come up with a bunch of stuff that's like that. And I think you and I both have never been to Savannah, Georgia, right?

33:29
Patricia Menegoto
No, never. But I heard it's going to be super.

33:35
Daniel Scharff
Yes. In all meanings of the word, there's going to be a lot going on. It's going to be like the hot place to be, but also just boiling hot. But I think indoors all day, so that's probably okay.

33:47
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. But I'm excited to see the new format that new hope is doing for Newtopia now.

33:53
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, I'm really excited also to be able to partner with them and those kind of experiences. And I think also there aren't going to be big booths, like, you're not going to get drowned out by some brand having a Booth that's ten times your size there. I think it's going to level the playing field a little bit and create some unique experiences and opportunities for brands. So really cool for us to be able to get in on the ground floor with them and create some very cool content and opportunities for brands. I know our dedicated section at Expo East, I think was like the best deal at the table. Right? It was tabletops. People said, like, this was great, it was a really good deal. And all the buyers came through and the whole section looked like just super cool.

34:35
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. And then this time, also at Newtopia now we have the backpack winner from Expo east last year, the mic drop event. That is the chutney punch. So they are also going to be a Newtopia now with us, which is exciting. And then also in August, we are planning to announce the Shelfie finalists. So even though you're applying February, I'm sorry, you have to wait until August to know if you are a finalist or not. And then September the shelf you winners announcement. So that's the plan. But, you know, we are a small team and that can change. Like change last year.

35:17
Daniel Scharff
Yes, things can always change. I know it's hard for us to have such a long timeline, but honestly, that's like all we can manage. But it probably feels, in startup world, like a day feels like a week if someone hasn't emailed you back, and a week feels like a month and so on. So it may feel like forever, but, sorry, it's free. So that's what it is. Cool. Well, I think that's a pretty good summary of a lot of action that we've got coming up. Of course, we'll be adding additional things onto the calendar, but I am excited.

35:51
Patricia Menegoto
I know. Yeah, it's going to be a big year for us. I think this is the biggest year ever that we are having. We're always adding more and more, which is so exciting. And we love when you guys get feedback, too, or just tell us which buyers you want us to reach out for the meetups we have in your city. So you get us to do the dirty work to try to get them to connect with you at the event.

36:21
Daniel Scharff
That's right. Yeah. Well, that's one thing I really am excited to do more of this year is just have direct webinars with retailers and really engage with them more closely. I think just because of all the brands in our community and the excitement that they're all generating, we now have a much better time engaging with important retailers. They actually now sort of recognize the impact of this community, thanks to all of you. And so we already have a bunch of those things getting scheduled and on the books for the podcast webinars. And I love doing that because it just gives you guys the chance a little bit to hear from them and then also the excuse to follow up with them and have something to talk about. Like, hey, I heard you on the podcast. You said this, I would love to do that.

37:10
Daniel Scharff
Can I send you some product, please? So that's the idea there, as probably you all guessed.

37:15
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. No, that's awesome. I'm excited for this year. And as you said, we are definitely adding more on Q three and Q four, but we have a lot for Q one and Q two.

37:29
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, so much. All right, well, I hope to see everybody at our upcoming webinars, definitely on the Slack channel and at all of these exciting events. And Patricia, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast here. Anything else you want to tell everybody about who you are, what you do, or cool ways to follow you?

37:51
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, sure. Thank you. Well, I'm a freelance marketing for CPG brands, so I do help brands with their email marketing and influencer ambassador marketing. I can also help you with some video content creation strategy or some UGC content. I love sharing. Healthy lifestyle. All the better for you products that I get from the shelf issue on my instagram at. Yeah, and you can always connect with memes. Like, I'm sorry if I take like two or three weeks to get back to you, but my slack sometimes got over 200 unread message, but I'll get back to you. Just we'll take a little time and if you need something urgent, please just email me and stay urgent and then I'll get back to you.

38:49
Daniel Scharff
Yes, probably people don't understand how much actually goes on in your slack since you kind of run that community. But yes, thank you again from all of us for making it happen. It definitely has helped too many people to count. But yeah, it is more work than people probably realize. I think one of the things they also don't understand that we have to do behind the scenes is moderate it just because I know our goal is for it to stay free and clear, clean as a place for brands to ask questions. And unfortunately, not everybody wants it to be that way. So it is actually a lot of work from you and from me and the whole team just to do that. So probably yes, just thank you to everybody for all of the help with it.

39:32
Daniel Scharff
And then, oh, just going back to the retailers, if you guys know anybody retailers that you think should be closer to our community, invite them to our party or introduce me to them over email and I can follow up with them and invite them onto a podcast or a webinar or something. Now is the time we just want to get them closer to all of the brands in our community so we can keep creating really cool opportunities for all of you.

39:55
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah. Or even if they have never got back to you and you want to meet them, just send our way and we will try to connect too.

40:03
Daniel Scharff
It's funny, it's a lesson that my dad taught me early on in life. My parents are a psychiatrist, but they also have this institute that they run and he was like, one of the best ways to get somebody that you really want to attend something is to feature them. And actually I've really found that's know people do like to share their expertise and help people. And if you reach out to them the right way, like, hey, you know, do you want to be part of the StarBCBG community? They would love to feature you on a podcast. That is a pretty cool way to get them to respond to you and start building a relationship. I've definitely done that for us at startup CPG, and thus for the whole community many times.

40:42
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, 100%. People love sharing their experience and expertise, for sure.

40:48
Daniel Scharff
Yes. As long as their corporate comms team will let them. That's the only hurdle we run into sometimes, is they're like, I would like to do this, but they said, absolutely not. You're recording this? No. I always try to reassure them. I'm not going to ask any gotcha questions or anything, but, yeah, I guess when you have big companies, that just happens sometimes.

41:11
Patricia Menegoto
Yeah, it's hard sometimes.

41:15
Daniel Scharff
All right, well, Patricia, thank you so much for joining us. You're doing so much for all of the brands in our community as a whole, and I can't wait for us to have a great time at Expo west. This is going to be the best one ever. It's going to be fabulous. So I'm really pumped for that and excited to see everybody. And thank you for listening to this bonus episode of the Startup CPG podcast. And you can hear how much we're putting into the organization. And if we could just ask you one little favor, it would be please give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We have, I think, 138 as of today. Just want to tell you that so that, you know, we count every single one. And if you leave a review there, I see it.

41:59
Daniel Scharff
I see who it's from, and I really appreciate it. And send me a note and let me know that you did it. It means so much for us because it does impact their algorithm, and that means this podcast can reach more brands. And when we feature a brand, then it'll reach more. So please, just take a minute now to do it and then tell us that you did it, and we'll be your best friends forever. And Patricia will invite you to her wedding.

42:26
Patricia Menegoto
We can talk about that. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate all the opportunity you gave me to help this community grow, and I'm really passionate about helping emerging brands, and this is such a cool job to have. So thank you.

42:45
Daniel Scharff
Yes. Well, we can't do it without you. I know that. Thank you for everything. All right, everybody, take care, and we will see you on the next episode. Bye.