The Startup CPG Podcast

Daniel Scharff
Foreign hello everybody. I'm just popping in to tell you about an incredible opportunity that we have just posted today in our startup CBG Slack. If you're not already in there, this is going to make you want to get in there. So we are for the first time ever this year launching a startup CPG Innovation section at the UNFI selling show. So they have these two epic shows. There is the central and west one which is also known as Las Vegas that happens July 15th to 17th and then there's the east one also known as Mohegan sun which is July 29th to 31st. We are partnering with UNFI to bring some new brands to the show that are not yet working with UNFI, meaning not in any of their DCs.

00:46
Daniel Scharff
So we're going to have this innovation section showing some of the coolest new brands to all of these epic tastemaker retailers who are browsing these selling shows that to show them some of the coolest stuff out there and let them actually vote on who they would like to see stocked in the UNFI DCs. This is really what we are all about. These are free tabletops that we're actually going to give out to these brands and bring them to the show. So the price is right. But also this is actually the only way if you're a brand not working with Unfi that you can get to the show because it's not like one of these major trade shows where anyone can buy a ticket. Nope, you have to be working with them to get into the show.

01:23
Daniel Scharff
So in the startup CPG Innovation section that is the only place where you can see brands not actually working with them. And these are some of the most incredible retailers around the country. I have exhibited at both of these shows and it was just a great way to build relationships with some of the top accounts that I was trying to get into as well as the UNFI team. Probably a lot of the sales pros and founders out there know that sometimes the distributor account managers can be as important or maybe even more important than the buyer. In a lot of instances, the buyers look at them as their right hand, help a lot of the time to recommend assortments or sometimes even just kind of make it happen and get it out there into the store.

02:01
Daniel Scharff
I remember for example, once upon a time I had been trying to talk to the Wegmans team for a while and really hadn't made a contact and somebody from my community was like, hey, did you talk to the UNFI person? And they put me in touch with him and Then everything changed just because sometimes they are the gatekeeper. The buyers are so busy, they have so many categories they're looking after, so they really do lean on that UNFI team in a lot of instances. So in summary, this is the most incredible opportunity ever because we are giving out 10 free slots at these UNFI shows. That is just such a great thing.

02:34
Daniel Scharff
This is really honestly a pinch me moment for me and the whole community to be able to have a partnership at this level with just such a massive distributor that can be completely responsible for just, you know, really scaling lot of brands in this way. So thank you first of all to everyone in the community for just being along the journey with us and, you know, helping us and contributing and all this stuff which put us in a place to make this kind of a partnership happen. And I hope that everybody will apply. The deadline is coming up so fast because these shows are imminent. They are both in July. So we've just announced the opportunity and applications are actually going to close already on June 10th at 8am so if you want to see details, you can go to the startup CVG Slack.

03:18
Daniel Scharff
It is a pretty simple application process but again, you cannot be already working with UNFI because this is just showing innovation that is not yet in there for a chance to get in. So head there. If you're not already part of the startup CBG Slack, feel free to go to our website, startupcpg.com and sign up. It'll send you the Slack link. You will get to join in on the fun there. We have almost 30,000 people just constantly posting questions, getting help supporting all the emerging brands. So thank you everybody for listening to the podcast and all of our journey. I'm really excited to get to share this opportunity with you and we will have many more to share as well. All right everybody, thanks for listening. All right everybody, thank you so much for listening to our podcast.

04:01
Daniel Scharff
If you loved it, I would so appreciate it if you could leave us a review. You could do it right now. If you're an Apple podcast, you can scroll to the bottom of our Startup CPG Podcast page and click on Write a review. Leave your company name in there. I will try to read it out. If you're in Spotify, you can click on about and then the star rating icon. If you are a service provider that would like to appear on the Startup CPG podcast, you can email us@partnersartupcpg.com lastly, if you found yourself grooving along to the music it is my band. You can visit our website and listen to more. It is SuperFantastics.com thank you, everybody. See you next time.