The Startup CPG Podcast

Francesca Pittaluga
We started with a small production and sort of hand selling jars to local retailers here in la, which there are no shortages of great gourmet marketplaces in Southern California. And it just sort of took off, I feel like right place, right time, you know, there hadn't really been a marinara sauce or a pasta sauce in the category that really introduced something playful and fun and fresh. And it was a very dainty and sort of untouched space for some time. So I think the retailers here in the west coast and in Southern California were very excited to see something new and also local. And going back to my point of like, most of the origins of this category live on the east coast. Didn't really see many brands originating here in LA that could introduce a new story.

00:52
Francesca Pittaluga
So I think lucky in the beginning and sort of it just kind of built from there. And then I said, oh my gosh, like six months in, you know, what is this industry? What is cpg and what does it mean to grow a food brand? And that's kind of when were fully in.

01:10
Grace Kennedy
Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of CPG podcast. This is Grace and I'm here with another founder feature. Today I'm chatting with Francesca Petaluga, the founder of Ciao Pape. Ciao Pape makes premium Italifornia pasta sauce inspired by the Italian and California coast. Francesca is a first generation Italian American and after feeling disappointed by the dated marinaras on the market, she decided to use her Poppy's recipe as a jumping off point to create her delicious line of marinaras that need no doctoring out of the jar, incorporating fresh ingredients like whole basil and California grown tomatoes. I loved chatting with Francesca and learning all about Chow Poppy and I'm a huge fan of the brand new. I hope you enjoy this episode and as always, let me know what you think. Hello everyone and hello to Francesca. Welcome to the show.

02:13
Francesca Pittaluga
Hi Grace. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

02:16
Grace Kennedy
So excited to have you here and for all of our listeners to learn more about your amazing brand, Chow Poppy, I'd love for you to start just by introducing who is Ciao Papi and who are you? I guess for the people who don't.

02:30
Francesca Pittaluga
Know you, of course I'm Francesca. I'm founder of Ciao Papi. We make premium Italifornia marinara sauces inspired by the Italian and California coast. We're based here in la. We're a clean label. We source all of our tomatoes here in California and we are growing. We're excited to Be sharing more today.

02:47
Grace Kennedy
Yes. I'm so excited to learn more. For those who don't know Francesca, she's been a part of the startup CPG community since she launched, and I've connected with her before and gotten to try the amazing chow poppy sauces, including the, like, Calabrian chili one that's so good that I'm sure we'll talk more about and just the whole range and they're really delicious. And I have unfortunately already run through all the samples I received, but that's just life. So I'd love for you to share a little bit more about the background of Ciao, Papi. Why did you not only decide to create a pasta sauce brand, but why did you decide to blend the coast of Italy and California to create this unique product?

03:29
Francesca Pittaluga
Yeah, well, I'm first generation Italian, so my dad actually lives in Italy. He moved back about 15 years ago. He spent 30 years of his life here in the United States and immigrated a little bit later in his 30s. So really my entire life, I've spent my time in both worlds. So my heart is in Italy and my heart is here in California. And it's hard to not see some of the similarities in the lifestyle and the landscape and the way of life and the value that people put towards food in both of the cultures. And I really thought there was an opportunity to tell a new Italian American story.

04:03
Francesca Pittaluga
You often hear this sort of East Coast Sicilian energy and narrative, but there was really nothing bringing to light and spotlighting the beauty of these two places and really an opportunity to romance these two places as well. So there are plenty of Italian Americans here in the west coast and a lot of stories to tell. So we really bring that destination through our storytelling and our brand. And we grow some of the best produce here in the state. And so we have incredible farmers and ingredients at our fingertips here in California. And there really was a white space to kind of tell this new Italian American life in the west coast with a West coast narrative.

04:41
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love that. And it makes so much sense once you've said that, like these similarities between the coastal state of California and the coastal. I mean, largely coastal country of Italy, but not something I necessarily put together before. And I love that you're doing that with your sauces. I'm curious, what was the impetus to dive into creating your own brand and taking that leap into being a founder? Because even so, many people have great ideas every day.

05:12
Francesca Pittaluga
Right.

05:12
Grace Kennedy
But they don't decide to actually take the leap and create the brand. And what was the like moment that you were like, no, I really want to do this.

05:20
Francesca Pittaluga
We started the brand truly for fun. It was really a passion, heartfelt project. I was leaving the fashion industry and sort of transitioning into consulting for luxury and premium goods and thought, hey, this could be a really great way to bring to life something that we really enjoyed during COVID when were cooking more at home and giving our sauce to friends and family and thought, you know, how hard can this be? Like, let's just jar it. Something awesome to honor my dad. It's been something that we've really kept us connected over his time moving back overseas. And that was it. You know, we started with a small production and sort of hand selling jars to local retailers here in la, which there are no shortages of great gourmet marketplaces in Southern California.

06:02
Francesca Pittaluga
And it just sort of took off, I feel like right place, right time, you know, there hadn't really been a marinara sauce or a pasta sauce in the category that really introduced something playful and fun and fresh. And it was a very dated and sort of untouched space for some time. So I think the retailers here in the west coast and in Southern California were very excited to see something new and also local. And going back to my point of, like, most of the origins of this category live on the east coast. Didn't really see many brands originating here in LA that could introduce a new story. So I think lucky in the beginning and sort of it just kind of built from there. And then I said, oh my gosh, like six months in, you know, what is this industry?

06:43
Francesca Pittaluga
What is cpg and what does it mean to grow a food brand? And that's kind of when were fully in.

06:48
Grace Kennedy
Wow. Yeah. Before we dive into that six month mark where you're like, okay, we're fully in this, I did want to ask you a little bit about how you decided which flavors to launch with. And I think you've maybe launched more new flavors since you officially launched. But how did you decide as you were developing these recipes, which to bring and actually jar, because there are so many different pasta sauces out there. Which ones felt important to the brand to start with?

07:17
Francesca Pittaluga
Well, I did not grow up on jarred sauce, so we'll start with that. And I think it wasn't something that we had in our daily household just by way of my dad being an incredible chef and being very lucky and fortunate to have amazing Italian food at home most of my life. But once you started to look at the category and space and actually tried what was available and out There we're like, whoa. There is so much room for improvement in both quality and taste. And I believe at the end of the day, people want wonderful, delicious tasting Italian food that really brings them some nostalgia of whether it was their last trip to Italy or the trip they want to go on or they dream of going on. So how can we really improve and elevate what is offered and out there?

07:59
Francesca Pittaluga
And Rao's was really the last player to really do that. And they have, of course, become a legacy brand and had incredible growth. And, you know, so we really want to say, okay, how can we be, like, a little better than Rao's and tastes a little bit different, and how can we also bring some originality? And the marinara classico is, you know, we use fresh basil leaves, so we don't use any dried herbs. We use whole garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt and tomatoes. So really clean. It's really intended to be a super fresh and basil forward full flavor sauce that I didn't really feel like you were. I was getting and some of the tomato basil options out there. And then our Alapapi is kind of our Sunday family sauce. You know, that's what I grew up on.

08:41
Francesca Pittaluga
My dad opened the fridge one day and was like, how can I make this more interesting? Added some sour cream, and then we loved it. And that was kind of how that stuck. It was a nice full flavor jarred sauce. And another beef I had with the space was like everything. I had to, like, add things to it or doctor it up to make it taste palatable or good. And so that was something we really wanted to make sure that this was like, truly open heat and serve. So the alo poppy is really intended to be super flavorful and well rounded. And then now we're growing from there. So I think those two core sauces were important because, A, they're the most scalable, but. And people can really relate to those flavors.

09:20
Francesca Pittaluga
They know them, they're familiar with them, and they're probably more willing to try something they're most comfortable with. And then we can start dipping our toes into some innovation. But it was important to start with something that I think people had some familiarity with, but could kind of experience something a little bit better.

09:36
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. That makes a lot of sense. And I'm curious, then when you did going back to that six month mark, you know, you have these two sauces that you feel really great about and are really fresh and people are responding to the product, and you're like, okay, wait, I actually have A CPG business. Now, how did you start learning about CPG and what were some of your first steps as you were like, okay, we're really doing this. This is a real business now.

10:03
Francesca Pittaluga
I think like a lot of founders in the food space and cpg, it's really been self taught. I've been shamelessly asking for advice from people since day one, reading, taking courses, just trying to really absorb as much knowledge and information as I possibly could. I worked in fashion for 15 years, some things were transferable, you know, primarily on the marketing and branding side, but most of it wasn't. So I think I was very excited to learn something completely new. If I wanted to start a T shirt line, I probably would have known a hundred people to call. But starting in food and not really knowing a single person who's been in this industry took a lot of humility and it took a lot of dedication to really find my way and sort of figure it out.

10:45
Francesca Pittaluga
And I think the best thing about being an entrepreneur is getting in there and really just learning along the way and getting, you know, rolling your sleeves up.

10:53
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. And that's such a common story, I feel. I think it's more of a rarity. I think I said this before, more of a rarity for me to speak to a founder who's like, Yeah, I had 10 years experience in CPG and then I decided to start my own thing. Almost every 9 out of 10 founders I would say are like, no, I never did CBG before and I really wanted to create this thing. So I think that's a really common experience. And I'm curious, after you had been going to these, maybe like local retailers and like handing out the jars just to be like, hey, do you like this? What were some of your next steps in terms of getting the sauce actually into stores or in front of people? Like, were you hitting up the farmer's markets?

11:29
Grace Kennedy
Were you still just hand delivering sauces? Like, what were some of those first steps in terms of actually getting the sauce out there?

11:35
Francesca Pittaluga
I think it was really important for us to get really great shelf space at high visibility retailers like a juicer, grocer or a farm shop or goop or these places where there's a lot of discovery. People are shocking. They're looking for cool new products, having fun with it. And that was a priority for us in our retail and sales expansion. And it did actually. It was very effective. We had a ton of discovery in those stores and always been really focused on owning our backyard first and growing from there. Kind of going back to filling a white space. I think, again, we just were really lucky because a lot of retailers in mom and pop shops and specialty stores in the west coast were looking for a new emerging brand in the space. So, you know, were found and discovered quite easily.

12:20
Francesca Pittaluga
But I think for us, it was most important to get established in a premium marketplace to then scale into the right grocery, because once you go down, you can't go back up. So. So we really felt it was important to start at the top and find a good place in the specialty store channel so that we can still have a foot in specialty, but also start dipping our toes into the right premium grocery as we grow. So that was always kind of the hope and strategy to nurture the direct business first.

12:50
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, it seems like, I guess that strategy seems to be working out. As were discussing that there are some exciting, like retail launches and exciting growth that's happening right now. And how did you decide to start making those steps into larger retailers, perhaps, and expanding maybe a little bit further out of your backyard? How did you decide make those decisions? And then also, if you could share with our listeners, like, what is happening in terms of your retail presence?

13:14
Francesca Pittaluga
Well, it's expensive to grow, as I think a lot of people who are in CPG know. We actually had an opportunity to move into Whole Foods a year ago, and so we now just launched in January in their local foragers program. So we're now in 39 locations. We started with 33. Now we've grown into 39. So shout out to the Whole Foods team. Been so supportive and amazing. They've been just such a perfect partner to make that step. But year and a half ago, when we had started conversations, we just get our costing to really make sense. We were still really small. We were still doing small production. And I think taking that step into increasing our volume and finding more competitive co packery that could produce our sauce still at the quality and value that we wanted Took time. And so it just.

13:58
Francesca Pittaluga
It was okay. Like, we took a year of really building bigger growth opportunity last year, and that's kind of proven to be really successful. But I think growing at the right time for you and for your business is really important and not rushing into growing too quickly or too fast where you can't sustain the cost of what it means to take that step.

14:18
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. And now that you are in whole foods in 39 stores, how are you supporting your presence in store?

14:25
Francesca Pittaluga
Well, we do run promotions. We're just doing six this year. So we still, of course, want to respect our other partners in the market that, you know, are still maintaining a higher price point and so trying to balance that MSRP across all of our different locations. And we're very active with sampling, so that's always been something that we've felt really strongly about. It's been the biggest way for us to learn and get feedback and really hear from customers what they like, what they don't like, if it's working. Always an honest conversation to have and to really show your support and dedication to these retail partners who are supporting you. So we do about 20 different sampling events per month across just Whole Foods alone. And now we launched in Bristol Farms and we're gearing up for three more retail launches this year.

15:12
Francesca Pittaluga
So we're working on building that sampling team and the sampling experience. We also want that to be premium. We heat our sauce, we bring a hot plate, we do really small slices of bread. We have beautiful linens. Like, we want to make sure that there's an experience that, you know, you really feel like there's a piece of our brand that you get to have as well. So we do hire people who work directly for us that are trained and really invested in sort of being an extension of Chop Happy.

15:39
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. I think that's even down to the nice lemons, I think is something you might not necessarily think about, but feels so important for a customer who's experiencing your brand for the first time or even the second, third or fourth time. You know, having that branding be consistent across everything, down to the nice linens and the nice bread, feels really important. I was thinking too about what you were saying about trying to find a co backer who could help you expand but still maintain the high quality of chow Poppy. And I'm curious to know a little bit more about, like, what that search was like for a co packer and also what it's been like to transition into a larger co packer.

16:18
Francesca Pittaluga
I think production is the hardest part of the business. It's also the most important part. It's your product. So it has to really be the best representation and you have to trust your partners to do a great job. It takes time. I think moving into cobacker takes at least four to six months. Four months would be a really quick turnover. So I'm always trying to have partners lined up and expanded, exploring different opportunities. Because also what I have found is we're a small guy. Like, we get kicked down the line as far as when production can happen or, you know, where we are as a priority so things can come up and you kind of always need a backup plan.

16:54
Francesca Pittaluga
So having other partners and relationships to also understand your costs and make sure that you're being competitive with your current partners at all times, you know, that's been really important as well. It has been really difficult to find good people and I think it takes some trial and error. We've definitely declined working on with a few co packers that we have sampled with. You know, we've got some really good partners currently that we're working with, but were producing in California with the same co packer for the first two years and so they were able to really understand our product. It's just really been in the last year and a half that we've kind of had to explore other places to produce just to help keep our costs down.

17:32
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. I mean, I think that's such a tricky decision point of like, are we going to stay in this comfortable co backer who knows everything and knows how to do it, or are we going to kind of take a step that will help us scale, that will help us grow, but is a little bit riskier and will definitely take some trial and error? As I'm thinking about how you even find a co backer or how you find any good partners. I'm curious if there are any resources or other founders that you rely on to help you understand whether or not a partner is going to be a good fit for your business or if they're going to be someone who maybe you should not work with.

18:08
Francesca Pittaluga
Yeah, I mean that's a great question. I think most of the places that we have found or worked with have been through referrals within the industry. So leaning on a resource like startup cpg, where you can just put a question out there for people's answer, has been really helpful. We have found introductions that way. We have found introductions through even other vendors like our glass and box suppliers. They may know who they service and they can help point you the right direction. So if you can get a little savvy with sort of how the whole supply chain functions and say, okay, where could I maybe find an intro different parts of the supply chain that kind of work together. That's been one way I have found introductions, but it's not easy. You're very old school.

18:50
Francesca Pittaluga
So there's not a lot of resources online specifically that can help direct you just by a Google search. I mean, of course it's a great place to start, but you know, most of these production and manufacturing partners are Pretty old school, right?

19:04
Grace Kennedy
There's like some hidden email behind it somewhere that you maybe could find if you went through 18 different pages to contact them.

19:12
Francesca Pittaluga
But with that said, they do love a phone call. So, you know, I mean always just pick up the phone and call and I think that's a good way to just get a quick answer to see if it's a good fit or a place to start.

19:22
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. We forget sometimes I feel like now it's like where everything we do is like email, message, Slack, whatever and it's like you can just call someone, leave them a voicemail. It could work too. I'm thinking though too about what you were saying about like reaching out on the startup CPG Slack. And I know that you also found a partner more recently through just like posting on our Slack. It was one of our partners, Belmark, who we work with@startUp CPG. And I'm curious about like what that experience was like in terms of connecting with somebody on the startup CPG Slack and then actually moving forward with that company and how it was to work with Belmark.

19:58
Francesca Pittaluga
Yeah, for sure. I mean Startup CPG has been, I know as you mentioned the earlier resource for me, since day one it's been a place for information learning. I've leaned on you guys for so much guidance especially in the early days of building the company and have absolutely used us just a place to pop in and ask for recommendations and referrals for anything that we might be looking for. And were in a pinch for labels and looking for some better and new costing and the representative worked with there who's amazing popped in and we immediately started chatting and he was so quick and easy to work with and it just has been an awesome partnership since then and we're really happy with what they've been able to do for us. I've also found our three PL through, you know, Startup cpg.

20:41
Francesca Pittaluga
I found so many great partners through you guys.

20:44
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's awesome. I love to hear it. And like that is half the whole point of Startup CPG is to be able to connect people with the right partners who might be able to fulfill their printing their labels in a pinch or even something, you know, the three pl and things like that. And no, it's so great to hear. I'm curious if there are other, you know, like, I mean I think you co founded this with maybe your partner, but I know you largely are like running the business on your own and I'm curious what other resources or tools you rely on as somebody running A business that is very taxing. How do you, like, stay sane? How do you keep yourself supported throughout these many ups and downs?

21:26
Francesca Pittaluga
Gosh, so many answers to that question. I think being a founder and being an entrepreneur has been the most challenging but most fulfilling experience I've ever gone through. It has stretched me in so many different ways I never thought imaginable. I've learned things. I wanted to go to a business school and actually started this business instead. And so everything I thought I would learn in business school, I have learned through having this company and more. I really am so happy with everything that I've done with, you know, it's also very hard because there are a lot of things that don't come naturally to me that I've had to teach myself and it can be very frustrating. I certainly lean on my husband for so much. He's the best support and cheerleader in the whole entire world.

22:07
Francesca Pittaluga
He sort of gets to be the silent co founder, but he's part of why we exist. So he keeps me sane and always encourages me when we're having a down month or a tough situation or production issues or whatever that might be, or 5 nos in a day from investors. And that's really tough to hear. You know, it's just things like that, you know, you really want to keep going and focus on the positive. My friends are an incredible community. My family, my mom, my brother. Like, everyone's just been so supportive. Like, you really need to have vulnerability and lean on the people who are there to kind of cheer you on. So have a great network. Fortunately, you also have to turn it off.

22:43
Francesca Pittaluga
Like, you have to find a time during the day where you're like, shut it down and just watch Netflix for an hour before you go to bed and that's it, like, and find some time for yourself. I also prioritize working out in the morning to make sure I have some time to move my body, eating well, and really just trying to manage work life balance as best as you possibly can. Knowing that of course, running a business is extremely demanding. You're never off the clock. But I think finding some time for yourself in the day is really important to detach and truly commit to detaching from the day and move on and the next day is a new day.

23:19
Grace Kennedy
Right. It's so hard. And I mean, I feel like even for people who don't start businesses that are like their blood, sweat and tears, it's still hard to have work life balance sometimes. And so I can only imagine when it's like, literally your child that you've put everything into, how hard that can be.

23:34
Francesca Pittaluga
Well, and it's hard to have perspective, too, when you're in it. Right. You know, you don't really get to see the progress as much as the outside world gets to see your progress, or your outside family and community are just so happy of and proud of what you're doing. And we're here every day thinking, oh, my gosh, like, I still haven't accomplished all of this. And you don't really get to honor what you have done to now and really celebrate those little wins, because they all really matter.

23:58
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. I'm speaking of that. I'm thinking about, like, what has been one of those moments where you felt able to kind of take a step back and be like, wow, I feel really proud of what I'm creating here with this brand and with this product.

24:12
Francesca Pittaluga
The whole point is really to create a lasting family legacy. We really wanted to create something for our family that had could stand the test of time to some degree and be shared with others. We come from a very normal family. It's not everyone in my family has had their own independent accomplishments. What we really want to create and what we are creating is a family legacy. And that's really our intention is to have something, to create something that can be shared with others. We don't have something that represents our family as a whole, our lineage. And this is really something that has been able to blend these worlds and this new culture that has evolved as we now live in so many different parts of the world. And I feel really proud about that.

24:52
Francesca Pittaluga
I feel excited to honor my dad and, you know, what he's done and the risk he's taken in his life and what he's given our family. And, of course, my friends and everyone who's had the chance to enjoy him and his food and want him to be the Italian dad in everyone's kitchen that they can reach and open the pantry. And Poppy's cooking tonight, you know, that's the hope, is to really give a little bit of piece of us.

25:15
Grace Kennedy
That's so sweet. I love that image, too, of just imagining, you know, the proverbial Poppy, even if it's not your Poppy, anybody? The proverbial Poppy. But thinking of the flip side to most proud, right, has been one of the hardest moments, and I think those can be so important to share with fellow founders, even though they're so scary in the moment. Like, what's been one of the hardest things or moments while running Ciao Poppy.

25:37
Francesca Pittaluga
Over these last few years, I think navigating growth has been tough. It's so easy to want to blow your company up and expand and everywhere as fast as you can because it's exciting. Who wouldn't want to do that, right? I think we've really been very cautious on how we're growing with what capital we have to grow. And so with that said, fundraising has been very tough and it's been a challenging environment to really fundraise based on everything that's been going on the past three years. But it's okay. I mean, we've maintained our profitability. We're a very healthy business.

26:14
Francesca Pittaluga
We've been able to scale in a really controlled way where we can have lasting power and we're not just like dumping our product into a market where nobody knows who we are and we can't make a proper introduction or we can't invest in the marketing to actually share what the product is. So having the ability to control our growth has been really important. With that said, I'd love to grow. We have a great foundation. We're ready to do more. And I think getting into that growth has been hard in the rate that I would love to see it do. But it's a tough. CPG is tough to raise money for sure. And I think there's also so many other ways to get funding. You know, grants are an awesome avenue. There's really creative ways to get financing.

26:55
Francesca Pittaluga
And so I've really learned to educate myself and other options to make sure that we are able to take advantage of growth opportunities and that we can then come to investors with a really compelling story and proof of concept as well. But it's hard. It's definitely a full time job and definitely you need a lot of tough skin to take mostly no's and always keep a smile. For sure.

27:20
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. I was remembering one thing you were saying. I think this is the last time we talked, but you said something about like how large the California economy is in and of itself and like how that is sort of part of the reason you are focusing so heavily on California. Can you remind me and our listeners of like what that is?

27:38
Francesca Pittaluga
I mean, last I checked, pretty sure California is the third largest economy in the world. So we have some of the best potential in the state here alone. And so I'm in no rush necessarily to really expand outside of this until it's the right time and we can really support it. We are moving into Northern California distribution this summer, which is super exciting. So we're on schedule and on plan for that expense expansion. But I truly believe there's tens of millions of dollars in revenue you can do just in the state of Cali alone and then sort of blossom from there. We want to have some strong muscles before we dip into east coast, but we've got so much low hanging fruit and potential here.

28:16
Francesca Pittaluga
I think people actually really love the local story and that we really source most of our ingredients in California. So it's easy growth. Nothing's easy, but it is easier growth to do it here. Plus it helps all of our costs. You know, we're all of our costs are centralized. We have one or two warehouses. All distribution is kind of in a closer place. We're not moving product around. We're only our overheads much cleaner and much leaner. So that all goes into wanting to maintain a really healthy P and L and balance sheet.

28:47
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that makes so much sense. And it makes sense too that like California people love the fact that things are from California. We all love a founder story too. Like you're from here and you know, but you're also from Italy. And it's such a good founder story. But particularly for fellow Californians thinking about growth beyond just this sort of like expansion into more retail doors. Like what does the future hold for Chow Papi in terms of your growth? And this could be both things that are actually happening and also things you hope will happen in the next year, few years. What does the future look like for Chow Papi?

29:23
Francesca Pittaluga
Yeah, I mean outside of staying on plan for our regional expansion. So we've got Nori Cal next Pacific Northwest, Colorado's Arizona. That's kind of our 2025, 2026 projections or at least plan. And then we are now starting to lean more into direct to consumer. We've been mostly a retail company and we're seeing some really good results both on our site, but also on Amazon. So that's been really encouraging to see. So I think that's certainly something we're excited about growing. And then sort of third party partnerships, corporate gifting. There's a huge opportunity there in the gifting space. So you know, we're working on some exciting partnerships on that front. And then food service, that's another channel we're just starting to dip our toes into exploring. We would love to do that.

30:10
Francesca Pittaluga
It's a great way to just build volume and cash flow without having the expense of building a brand. So there's a lot of opportunity in the food service front that we're starting to get into as well.

30:21
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's awesome. Very exciting. Next time, you know, a year from now, maybe I'll be eating Chow poppy in the airport or something. Who's to say? Well, my last question that I always like to end with is just how can our listeners and the startup CPG community support chow Poppy and follow along on the journey as you guys continue to grow?

30:42
Francesca Pittaluga
Yeah, I mean, well, I have you guys to thank for a lot of our growth and success. So keep offering all of the amazing resources and webinars and access and grants and booths and everything that truly helps founders in such huge ways get visibility and get out there. I think you guys do an incredible job with your Shelfie Awards and just ways to kind of acknowledge and bring awareness towards emerging brands. And I do feel that these buyers and other consumers and founders keep an eye on what startup CPG is doing. So there's so much power in what you guys have and this is just such an incredible opportunity to be able to share my story with you all. And thank you just so much for all of your generosity. But yeah, the resources are old, so I would say keep those coming.

31:29
Francesca Pittaluga
I definitely utilize them anytime something pops up that I need more knowledge about. So that's been very helpful.

31:36
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's so sweet of you to say and I'm really glad it's been so helpful and yeah, that's really wonderful to hear. Well, where can people find Chow Papi if they want to learn more or less follow you on social media or something?

31:47
Francesca Pittaluga
Yeah, our handle is O pretty much on Every platform. Chow papi.com we do our direct to consumer there and we also have Amazon shop retailers. Of course if you're in Southern California, we're at Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, a few more rolling out in the next couple of months and ton of specialty stores. So just check our store locator and you can find us there.

32:09
Grace Kennedy
Amazing. So exciting. Well, such a pleasure to have you on Francesca and to hear more about Ciao Papi. As I said, I love all your different sauces. They're so delicious and truly as fresh.

32:20
Francesca Pittaluga
As they sound and appreciate the time. Thank you.

32:26
Grace Kennedy
All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, it would help us out so much if you left a five star review on ratethispodcast.com startups. I am Grace Kennedy, the host of the Founder feature series. So feel free to add me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack. I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting brands to feature and if you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our community on Slack. You can sign up via our website startupcpg.com.