Founder Feature: Jia Liao, Hotpot Queen
Jia Liao
It's like a two generation of entrepreneurs in our family. So to me, I always wanted to run my own business. You know, I really wanted to using the authentic, like family recipe from chez from my home town and without doing too much alteration. So I really want to give everyone that authentic experience. And our product is actually the largest jar, that all of our competitors.
Grace Kennedy
00:38 - 01:06
Hi everyone. We are back with another founder feature and this week I am joined by Gaia, the founder of Hop pop Queen. Chia is not only one of the nicest people in the CPG space, but she also makes truly delicious chili oils, chili crunchies, and a hot pot noodles. I'm so excited for you to hear her story. It's truly a beautiful one going back many generations, and I hope you guys enjoy this episode.
Grace Kennedy
01:06 - 01:10
And as always, let me know what you think.
Grace Kennedy
01:10 -01:24
Hello and welcome back to the start of CPG podcast. This is Grace, the start of CPG editor and I am here with Gia, who is the founder of hotpot Queen. So I'll let you introduce yourself. Gia.
01:24 - 01:34
Jia Liao
Thank you grace. Hi everyone. I'm Gia, I'm so excited to be on the show. Yeah, this is the like the third episode of Founders Spotlight, right?
Grace Kennedy
01:34 - 01:36
Yeah. Founder feature.
Jia Liao
01:36 - 02:24
Fun. Sure. So awesome. So. Hi, Paul. Clinging is like, you know, spicy Sichuan condiments we have from Chile. Sauces like our wild mushroom chili sauce to ready to eat spicy like hot pan noodles, like a noodle kit. And we have very authentic, wholesome ingredients and the really robust flavor. So I use ingredients like the wild mushroom, a mushroom, double fermented soy sauce, fermented black beans, and three blends of such a chili pepper core to create that really flavorful profile, and also to bring the essence of Sichuan cuisine, which is a mala flavor is a combination of Sichuan peppercorns, she said.
Jia Liao
02:24 - 02:36
Chili, to give you that lip numbing experience to all of our products. So yeah, they're gluten free. They're vegan. No preservatives or MSG, and they're just so darn delicious.
Grace Kennedy
02:36 - 02:52
They are. And I have tried the wild mushroom chili oil, and it's delicious. And it's has so much umami and then is also wonderfully spicy. As you said, it's like I'm a little bit of a baby's. I put a little bit on my toast or my eggs and I'm like, perfect. for that.
Jia Liao
02:52 - 03:02
So good. So on that. They're all spicy. They're not for the faint of heart. But if you are a spice lover and then you gonna love our product.
Grace Kennedy
03:02 - 03:15
Yes, I love that. And so the name Heart pop Queen, first of all, I love it. But I'd love for you to tell everyone a little bit about the origin of that name, and you know how it relates to you and your family.
Jia Liao
03:15 - 03:36
Yeah. You know, like when I do like in-store demos, sampling, a lot of people come up to me. So who is a colleague? Are you the Queen as it. No, I'm now the Queen, my mother, the Queen. And everyone was like, oh, it's always a mother, right? So this story really dates back 42 years ago. So we are a two generation woman on family business.
Jia Liao
03:37- 03:55
My mother opened a Chinese hopper restaurant in Chongqing, China, which is a Qishan region, in 1982. So five months after I was born. And so she opened up a restaurant and a couple of years later, she tried to serve a customer problem. Do you know what happens? Do you eat Chinese apple?
Grace Kennedy
03:55 - 04:00
I know what hotpot is, but maybe for the listeners who do not give them a little bit of a rundown.
Jia Liao
04:01 - 04:23
So hotpot is started with a regional cuisine basically is a communal eat. People gather together. They have a part that divides a bra into two that they have like basically a spicy announce spicy broth. You're boiling on the table, and then you put fresh ingredients in inside and cook it in front of you as you are eating. So it's kind of like not prepared.
Jia Liao
04:23 - 04:42
A meal is a meal you enjoy while you're making. Are you eating and making at the same time? So this is a Chinese tapas. And back in the days, hotpot is only available in spicy broth. And so when my mother opened the restaurant. Oh, spicy broth. But then there was a people coming from different city that doesn't really eat spicy food.
Jia Liao
04:42 - 05:04
They want to experience this local cuisine, and they will be like asking my mother to give them a one bowl of hot water so they will take the products or the food for the spicy broth dip into the one to eat it. The mother man and my mother thought, why can they enjoy in on the same table? So then she came up with this PA called the Vietnam Pot that divides the broth into two.
Jia Liao
05:04 - 05:28
So if right now you go to any Chinese restaurant and you will see that PA and that is my mother's invention, 42 years ago, because of this simple invention, she is named as a queen of PA by Chinese media. There was a 50 minute documentary about her, but the CCTV and the. This simple invention really put this regional cuisine into global map.
Jia Liao
05:28 - 05:55
Really? How to kind of. How do you say spread out this cuisine into more regions? So in a way, she's like pioneer, I guess, forefront of pushing this regional kind of Sichuan cuisine into like a global stage. And for me as a daughter, kind of growing up like my mother, she's always a star, right in the shadow. But I kind of grew up in amongst spices, spicy food, spicy people, robust flavor.
Jia Liao
05:55 - 06:10
So to me, part of me is like almost in my vein or in my plastering this roni like chili oil or chili, some pepper and chili in my thing. So I always knew that one day I will have to. Something you do with family legacy.
Grace Kennedy
06:11 - 06:26
So I love that story with your mom and your family lineage, lineage and and what made you decide it was time to dive back into the hot pot clean world and start your own version of this family business.
Jia Liao
06:26 - 06:47
So I came back to the United States in Tucson 21 because my kids need to go to school. And I was thinking, what should I do? Because I it's like a two generation of entrepreneurs in our family. So to me, I always wanted to run my own business, you know, be my own lady boss. I was like, okay, I there's no way I'm gonna work for someone.
Jia Liao
06:47 - 07:19
I really wanted to start another business. And then that memory when I was a child, every single weekend I'll be spending my time in a restaurant and it will be eating hop, hop. And I just thought, how do I bring that robust flavor? The flavor of Mala, that nummies and stage that really delicious food to America. And then because we actually have our own factory in the hometown of Sugar and Chili in October of 2018, I thought that is an advantage because I don't have to go through a co-packer.
Jia Liao
07:19 - 07:43
So I'm trying to think so. My memory of back when I was a child, I used to every weekend we used to be in a restaurant and the eating happened at the how do I bring that robust flavor and the essence of Mala to the US table? And then because we have our own factory that's situated in the hometown of Sichuan Chili, we already have that advantage.
Jia Liao
07:43 - 08:05
I don't have to go through a co-packer and my mother has this story of being the queen of hop hop, and that is just a perfect combination now waiting to happen. And so we have been the mala expert for 42 years. There's something I can do. I can, you know, create something. now, I started this project at the late of 2022.
Jia Liao
08:05 - 08:29
So in 2023, last year at Expo West, that's when we first launched. But because I feel that making hapa out whole is still very niche. Think a lot of people don't even eat hop outside that is making at home. So I thought, you know, I'm going to start with something that everyone is familiar with. So I'm going to start with chili sauces, which is also trending thing right now.
Jia Liao
08:29 - 08:52
So but I want all our product to capture the essence of Sichuan cuisine, which is that mala profile. So everything that we carry right now for our wild mushroom chili sauce, crunchy garlic chili cress to our spicy hop, a new dose, they all have that combination of shoots and peppercorns and shoots and chilies to give you that lip numbing, tingling sensation.
Grace Kennedy
08:52 - 09:10
Yes, I love just including your family in this journey. And so when you did launch at Expo 2023, what was that experience like? And, you know, that's quite a situation to just dive into as a new brand. So what was it like to launch at Expo West.
Jia Liao
09:11 - 09:29
Before the launch? Right. And I thought, we're going to be an e-commerce business for some reason. Right? I was like, you know, I was I did my first projection. It was like 80% all ly, 20% all fly. And I just kind of signed up for Expo West and I thought it would be kind of good exposure. I had no idea, really no idea.
Jia Liao
09:30 - 09:51
But I did have the mentality of either go big or go home. So I did spend a lot. Now I look back. I spent way too much right on my first Expo West venture. So we tried our like first and really it was really bad, right? I thought, I'm going to get 80 orders a day and I got like two and it was just really not going.
Jia Liao
09:51 - 10:10
So I went to Expo West and we had this amazing booths. I did spend a lot and a lot of people came saying that, oh, you're so great, I love you, I love you package. How long have you been in business? Because we launched the day of the Expo West and see, we are one day. Oh, now, what ended up is, is you.
Jia Liao|
10:10 - 10:29
We actually had a customized build out bar, like a table countertop. With all that kind of. I had to, like, come in and like, build the whole thing, right? Not look back. I probably wouldn't spend as much as I did, but then again, you know, you really stood out. You was actually the same area as a startup, CPG booths this year.
Jia Liao
10:29 - 10:49
So as a third floor, ask, but last year was the first year you're doing the hot products. So everyone didn't spend that much. It was all last minute run. So you just had a table and little like backdrop. And I went all out. So in a way we really stood out. So I had buyers for World Market, sprouts, Whole Foods, Costco.
Jia Liao
10:49 - 11:15
Like I made them all target, right? I mean, it didn't really turn out anything. Not right now. I get to meet a lot of buyers because, you know, if people that went to that level last year, they saw us for sure. And I think it was really, really great exposure. And after the expo was I was able to sign on to regional distributors, and that's when everything started to kind of set into the stone.
Jia Liao
11:15 - 11:31
So after that and I changed my strategy, I was like, oh no, we're not 8020 on my business. It turns out that we are more 90% off, like 10% up, right? So we became more like offline channel focused business.
Grace Kennedy
11:31 - 11:50
Yeah, I love that. And so I know you guys over the last year have done a pretty amazing job of getting into all of these retailers. I think you said you're in something like over 400 stores now. So could you talk a little bit about your strategy in terms of getting into these retailers?
Jia Liao
11:50 - 12:15
Actually, you didn't have a right away. So my expo was last year was March right. And we didn't really get a yes from major retailer until the end of July. I didn't have any product or any of the regional chain like chain stores until the end of September. So really took a while. And our very first big yes is from the fresh market.
Jia Liao
12:16 - 12:38
And that was great. It was from chips. So after Expo West, Joy Expo West, actually, we met with category manager and chips and they're really like a front end package. You really liked everything about how quickly we sign in as a, I guess, tentative supplier. And the day we both presented to the fresh market buyer, this will be kind of a great fit.
Jia Liao
12:38 - 12:58
At end of July, we got a yes, and that was a major retailer for us because they had 162 stores before that. I guess a lot of smaller independents or regional chains were just really like looking and waiting. Nobody wanted to be the first. Right. And the to kind of take the rest of onboarding in really, really new bread.
Jia Liao
12:58 - 13:21
So I'm really grateful that Brett Lee from The Fresh Market in the shoe really saw something us and give us a chance. And because of that and then start to get it on board, it was unified through Hagan. And you start getting to more channels. So right now we are with two regional distributors. We're onboarded with unify. We onboarded with PayPal.
Jia Liao
13:21 - 13:47
So I have a four distributors. So through the distributors I was able to get on to lot more retailers. And also I went to every single trade shows that's hosted by my distributor. And through there I was able to meet a lot of their customers. Yeah. So that's kind of how the snowball start to roll in. But really, I guess we are on to more and more channels earlier this year.
Jia Liao
13:47 - 14:06
So almost like the luck kind of turned last year was so challenging. I was like almost mildly depressed. Like, is this really going to work? I'm and going to survive. Should I just close down the business and do something else? Right. And this year's tour around January's have been great for us. We're starting getting a lot more opportunities, getting to a lot more stores.
Jia Liao
14:06 - 14:17
And we also launched in Australia in February this year. We're in 57 stores in Australia through a distributor. So oh my gosh. So yeah.
Grace Kennedy
14:17 - 14:21
That's so exciting. And then going international.
Jia Liao
14:21 - 14:33
Yeah, I don't even know how that happened. You have really I would just still like a pinch me moment like we're we're already in Australia. We're only one year. Oh in the United States. Like the brand is really, really new.
14:33 - 14:56
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. And speaking to that also have the ups and downs of retail, which I think so many brands have been or founders have been in your shoes where they think, am I ever going to get into anywhere? What's the point of continuing? I know that you also had just gotten into, or you maybe can tell the story better of getting into Foxtrot, and then Foxtrot closed and out of the blue.
Grace Kennedy
14:56 - 14:59
So what was that experience of like, and how did you kind of come back from it?
Jia Liao
15:00 - 15:22
Well, so we actually contacted Foxtrot last year in May and they so were great for their upcoming program. So. Well, we're kind of in discussion with that. We got started with a fresh market and they were like, oh sorry, you this is too big of a chain. You're no longer eligible for up and comer. And then you see let's reconnect again in, you know, some other time.
Jia Liao
15:22 - 15:40
So I know that we're now doing my other things right. Until you this year during Expo West, I didn't have a, like a boost, but I was kind of helping out. I was walking the floor and I met with them and the massive for perfumes, and they were like, hey, you know, I think you guys are great for Foxtrot.
Jia Liao
15:40 - 16:06
Oh, yes, I can connect with them again. That kind of like reminded me. So at the end of March, I emailed the category manager at Foxtrot. We know connect before and that's in the menu sample. And just within couple weeks I got the PR from Pop Foods. So I sent my first order to perfumes. Actually arrived on April 18th into their three warehouses.
Jia Liao
16:06 - 16:30
They have a send out order, two Foxtrot locations yet, and we all know what happened that April 23rd. The news came. So in a way I was really lucky because yes, I did send out all the inventory out right. It was kind of a bummer because I was so excited just the week before, I was entering every single Foxtrot location into our store finder or what.
Jia Liao
16:30 - 16:54
So I was like, oh yeah, another like 28 stores added into our, you know, or can find us. But since the product can send out. Yeah, technically I still own the inventory and the half was team did amazing job. They were reaching out to all kinds of retailers and I still like this CPG community just really came together and it just really wanted to help out with the brands are affected.
Jia Liao
16:54 - 17:18
So missed this market. But our inventory that was allocated for closure and because of this, unfortunately event now a first time they were able to look into the brands that are affected from Hartford, saying that, you know what we are, we want to reconsider for another innovation box and cap innovation for July. And they actually just launched, I think, last month.
Jia Liao
17:18 - 17:39
But they're able to add another like round the innovation box. So the selected seven brands out of the 30 or 33 that the particles carry affected by Foxtrot. So we were one of the seven brands that reached out to send samples. I don't know what's going to happen yet, but at least the samples were sent. I wrote a nice letter with all the product description, so we'll see.
Jia Liao
17:39 - 17:53
This might open brand new doors for us. This might be kind of a, you know, one of the things when God closed the door that opens a big wide window. So actually, I'm really excited and I think it turned out for the better.
Grace Kennedy
17:53 - 18:17
Yeah. And it's a good lesson too. And just knowing that sometimes something that feels really bad could actually totally work out in the end. If you have patience and you just keep going. So speaking of chili oil being a trending product, obviously, how have you been working to kind of differentiate from all of the many chili oils that are kind of flooding the shelves?
Grace Kennedy
18:17 - 18:30
And there's so many to choose from at this point, and I feel like you've done a really wonderful job with your marketing and in its ability to stand out on the shelf. But what has been your approach to making Hot Pot Clean stand out amidst this sort of trending product?
Jia Liao
18:30 - 18:59
First I go with texture. So right now almost all of the chili oil should increase on the mark. They're going for crispy crunchy. So I'm going for chunky. Instead of using mushroom powders to kind of mummify the product, we use real like chunks of she talking mushroom porcini mushroom. You can actually taste that mushroom in every bite. So I'm giving that chunky sort of like a flavor that you can really chew all.
Jia Liao
18:59 - 19:25
And if you put the mushroom mushroom sauce into like the your ramen, like all that mushroom flows on top, you just want to drink the whole suit. So delicious. So I think that's want to I'm really going to I'm going for the flavor. A lot of chili oil they're made in the US, which is great is fine. But I think the recipes are formulated is going for more of a mild and more sweeter kind of version.
Jia Liao
19:25 - 19:49
I really wanted to using the authentic like family recipe from Chez Trump from my hometown, and without doing too much alteration. So I really want to give everyone the authentic experience. And our product is actually the largest jar. they're all of a competitor. So most of the chili oil, Chris in the market are in a six, 7 or 8 ounce jar.
Jia Liao
19:49 - 20:09
So our jar is 10.58oz and we use it, put it on the shelf. They're like a mommy with their kids. Oh, so they're bigger therefore has more of a shelf presence. And the, you know, our packaging is like quite loud and bold enough fun. So I think that really helps out help to like stand out on the shelf.
Jia Liao
20:09 - 20:30
And our price point is actually the cheapest per ounce. So we sell 1299 for a 10.58oz jar with 15 tablespoon of serving. So that value is also there. So to me is like a scientific flavor, really good ingredients, you know, and the the best bang for your buck.
Grace Kennedy
20:30 - 20:49
That makes so much sense. And you know I've seen chili oils and chili crisps on the market that I think they're like $16 for like eight ounces. So that is definitely a good bang for your buck. And also something that, at least for me with a chili oil actually crisp. I use it almost every day. So it's nice to have a bigger jar because I run through it pretty quickly.
Grace Kennedy
20:49 - 20:53
I think I'm pretty halfway through your mushroom chili oil and I'm oh.
Jia Liao
20:53 - 21:01
I'm sorry, garlic. They put on ice cream and they put it on through your hummus or like, ranch dressing. Make a solution.
Grace Kennedy
21:01 - 21:22
Wow, that sounds delicious. And I will definitely be doing that. So another thing I wanted to speak about that I was actually talking to another female founder about in the sense of things that we don't talk about enough, which is money. So I'd love to hear from you guys. Like, how are you navigating money? And it's very resource intensive space.
Grace Kennedy
21:22 - 21:38
How did you find the resources or what resources have you pulled from in order to find hot pot clean and then also going moving forward? How are you continuing to fund this growth of Hot Pot Queen that is happening on a national on an international scale at this point?
21:39 - 22:01
Jia Liao
Yeah. So I'm actually quite lucky because, the company originally like the initial seed money is from the parent company in China. So it's like a family business. This is like a sub branch of the family business. So I'm really grateful that my parents are really supportive of this. But also, you know, for my mother, she's like, oh, like, you'll carry on my legacy as a yes, but I'm rewriting my own story.
Jia Liao
22:01 - 22:27
so that really, really helped out in the beginning. And also moving forward, I understand I've done several startup ventures. I know how important it is to not pulling too much, so I just keep my team really lean, like we currently have. Like one plus 0.5 plus zero point client people. Like I have me as a full time and two part time basically.
Jia Liao
22:27 - 22:50
So it's very small, lean into and lean team. And I think that's important because it's like you could be having so much money, like fucked up and you could still go out of business is important. I think for me to make sure I keep my fixed costs low and that I can continue running, I want to give myself as low of a runway as possible.
Jia Liao
22:50 - 23:16
So and also having owned factory is also a bonus because sometimes that can be like, well, I'll pay later. I just really need the inventory now. So those things really help me early on. I lease up to this point because we know the biggest cost is inventory, right? And having that little bit of kind of wiggle room and that a little time that I can negotiate, can I pay you back later when I get paid?
Jia Liao
23:16 - 23:42
So that really help me to kind of moving the business forward without having too much trouble. But I know that is also not scalable. It is to a certain point. But if we are able to get into like a bigger retail chain, like hotels or corrugated browser or Costco, then we're talking different ballpark designers are raising money. So I am constantly learning, looking to help.
Jia Liao
23:42 - 24:02
People are pitching. What kind of platforms are I'm not really there. Yeah, because I don't really need it. I try to kind of like bootstrap and sell fun for as long as I can until I need to go to that route. But I am keeping my eyes and ears open and learning for what people are doing. So I need to do it.
Jia Liao
24:02 - 24:04
I'm ready for that.
Grace Kennedy
24:04 - 24:29
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I think is really smart. And I've definitely heard from a lot of founders of they've been bootstrapping as long as they humanly possibly can. And but it's really hard and requires so much attention and balance on your part and time. Yes, absolutely. So speaking to things that are really hard, what has been one of the biggest challenge is as a founder of Hop Hop Queen.
Jia Liao
24:29 - 24:54
What last year, I think I was just really trying to figure out some the basic things like packaging. I had a glass jar was leaky, I tried to change things, and then it was like the pack size was wrong and I tried to change it and it just many, many things. And the challenging thing is that this products manufacturing China and a lot of times I wanted to make changes.
Jia Liao
24:54 - 25:11
It takes months for it to happen. And then we give you all like, oh, I don't like, you know, this is not right. And then I need to do it again. So that has to be really big challenge. But in a way I'm kind of glad the last year has been slow. Like we didn't really getting anywhere until later causes a year.
Jia Liao
25:11 - 25:33
But if I were in so many stores right away, all the problems you're gonna surface and probably going to be like taking off the shelf right away. So you really like, I think this time, you know, of, trying to figure things out, trying to improve things, really helped out and along the way, I wish I knew there was a startup CBG group earlier.
Jia Liao
25:33 - 25:59
I didn't find out until, like, I seen the late fall last year. Somehow I just, I don't know, I just didn't know like I do Google everything. What is a different digital broker and the distributor, you know, and I made so many mistakes along the way. They're really expensive mistakes. But if I knew there was a community of upcoming people out there and they're so willing to help, you know, the slack channel is like a godsend.
Jia Liao
25:59 - 26:06
You know, I would have I guess, spend much less time and money and energy to fix my mistakes.
Grace Kennedy
26:06 - 26:25
Yeah, but it's also good that you figured out those mistakes early, right? Like you were saying before, you're in 400 stores and you're like, okay, let's pull everything. And I'm going to read due to the pandemic aging. And that would have been even more expensive and time consuming. So it's better to figure that stuff up, that stuff out early while you still can.
Grace Kennedy
26:25 - 26:37
So that makes a lot of sense. And what else does now that you're in all of these stores? What does the rest of this year look like for Hot Pot Queen and what else is coming down the pipeline for your brand?
Jia Liao
26:37 - 26:59
We had a commitment for another national retailer for their full well, I guess, a holiday sort of a promo. in October. I'm not sure if I review or not, but anyway, you'll be really exciting because they're doing a hot pass story this winter, so you will be. This is not no better than half a queen right now.
Jia Liao
26:59 - 27:16
No better for the Harper Queen to do a Harper story. So we got to do all of her products, like all the current lie, and I'm actually bringing pop up Roth. I'm doing a spicy Harper broth and a seed rye mushroom one. Now. Spicy. I'm also gonna bring a girl with this thing is still hot pot. So actual pot.
Jia Liao
27:16 - 27:39
So it's gonna be the whole set and it's going to be like entrance table kind of feature for three and a half months for early October, two mid of January. That's really exciting. we're also sort of like waiting for the final decision from Wegmans Fresh Thyme. So other bigger retailers who are working with the other retail, I think I can say is a world market.
Jia Liao
27:39 - 28:00
So October anyway, so exciting. And yeah, we're talking to kind of Costco broker. We're talking for county even people I don't know. I mean, to me, like I'm really like, say we're very small team. I don't want it to go too fast. I wanted to grow organically and I wanted to kind of take one step at a time.
Jia Liao
28:00 - 28:27
So this year for me, that's why I didn't go to Expo West. I don't feel like this year I need to, like, has my net wide, but I want to go to every single distributor show because I want to go deep, right? I wanted to kind of service more customers in one region that I'm already in, and that's sort of my goal is like, but when those opportunity, when New Door comes to me, of course I'm gonna take it, right?
Jia Liao
28:27 - 28:48
I'm going to do my best and, and I'll get into more doors. But my focus this year is really to getting to get more velocity into the current stores, get a second placement or bring like pop a new dose into the fresh market. They took our sources, but now the new doors. So getting more cool product into existing channel.
Jia Liao
28:48 - 29:00
So that's what my primary goal. But yes, I will also work on new doors when that opportunity presents itself. So we're excited. We'll see people. We'll have a close to 800 doors by end of this year. We'll see.
Grace Kennedy
29:01 - 29:24
So exciting. And it's like you're with that, with your new offerings coming in the fall. It's it's really like you're giving the customer the opportunity to have their whole hot pot party at home, which I love. And it's so fun and yeah, like really makes it accessible for everybody to have hot pot for people who've never tried it or for people who love it, but maybe don't live close to a place that offers hot pot in a restaurant.
Grace Kennedy
29:24 - 29:40
So that's super, super exciting. so as you've now been in business for a little over a year, what has been one of your one of the moments that you felt the most proud, or one of the moments that you felt like, okay, yes, I'm on the right path. I'm doing what I should be doing.
Jia Liao
29:41 - 30:03
really is when I start to get that overwhelming amount of positive feedback from people. So like the thing about, you know, retail buyers, right? They kind of like hot and cold and, you know, like the email gets like engage and the radio silence. So it's hard to gauge how much they're really interested in. And you then make the purchase order.
Jia Liao
03:29 - 30:28
So sometimes I feel three ask about, oh my gosh, I'm going to getting this channel. And then just three months pass I was nothing. And that filter on there might be there might interest it. Right. But when I do offline demos and so we, we gone into a town and country which is a local channel, I think Dwight Richmond, he was one of the buyers spotlight, the Daniel Daniels podcast.
Jia Liao
30:28 - 30:46
So we got one to, all town and country. So I really support them because they're local channel and they're great advice being absolutely great. He's so supportive and everyone's so great. So why go to. So I wrote down two rounds of The Founder tour, a demo tour and a why go to all the stores and the every single store.
Jia Liao
30:46 - 31:07
People show up and they I would say our purchase sample purchase rate is 70%, like ten people try this and people will buy something from the said that really validates what I'm doing is right. And then I had a like this independent retail owner tell me that, you know, people don't make those kind of flavors here in the US.
Jia Liao
31:07 - 31:31
You guys out to something, you're going to go places like there are people actually literally text messaging me and telling me that. And that made me feel like, whoa, you know, what I'm doing maybe is right. And no matter how difficult it is, I'm already way fortunate than the other, you know, founders that got great resources, a great story, and we have good brandy, really good product.
31:31 - 31:47
Jia Liao
Let's say there's no way I should give up. Like, if I can succeed, then then who can, right. And I got all that good thing to set up to be successful. That really helped push me to kind of keep going, even though sometimes the things are really very difficult.
Grace Kennedy
31:47 - 32:06
So yeah, absolutely. And customer feedback and getting in front of people and talking to people, I think is always such a booster. If you're feeling low as a, as a founder. And so my final question is just about advice. Do you have any advice for a founder who might be where you were a year or two ago and deciding this?
32:06 - 32:11
Grace Kennedy
Start out on this journey of founding a CPG brand. You know, what piece of advice would you give them?
Jia Liao
32:11 - 32:42
And I think that one is sign them and start a CPG. But if someone already listen to the podcast, I'm sure they're already in this community. So great. They're in good hands because that's something I didn't have that had to struggle with. And two is like, really figure out what kind of business you are like, do you really wanted to be more of a e-commerce business and then focus on, I can say, focus on one channel, like I tried like a middle last year.
Jia Liao
32:42 - 33:05
I should do Amazon, like online, offline. I try to do too many things, and I know that as a startup founder, you just trying to like, I just want to test it out to the two too many things. But we have limited time and resources and money. We really got to pick our battle ground. So I decided that I wanted to go all in on offline retail, and that's what I'm focusing on.
Jia Liao
33:05 - 33:25
I'm not even thinking about Amazon or, you know, spending any as our website because people buy offline. They like, yeah, they want to buy more. They got lazy. They'll just go to our website and buy it. So I get orders for 5 or 6 jars all the time. People don't buy one, they buy a lot. And then you, those people party somewhere offline and then they wanted to get more.
Jia Liao
33:25 - 33:48
Stock them or give it your friends. So I say really pick your battleground and go all in on that channel and pick the right way to launch. I fell, I did the right way because I wanted to launch offline or I didn't know, but at least I did it right away. I went big and then made it impact that therefore I was able to get into distribution and able to kind of be where I am today.
Jia Liao
33:48 - 34:04
But if I decided if I were internet company or e-commerce company, I would do a really good online launch with influencers, maybe take top job and go all in and the launch really well, and that really set you up for success at the very beginning?
Grace Kennedy
34:04 - 34:22
Yeah, I think that's amazing advice and as I said, I'm a huge fan of Hot Pot Queen. So super excited to see where you go over. And that's many years you're in business. But where can anyone who is listening learn more about Hot Pot Queen or buy your products, or ask you for more advice if they need it?
Jia Liao
34:22 - 34:47
Of course, the easiest way is go to Hot Paprika, which is our website. You can buy product there. There's like story about, you know, who we are. yeah. And I'm going to put out the store locator where they can find all the stores. So if you're in East Coast, wear curry pop up grocer. we're in all the Fresh Market stores, all the fairway for me, garage stores.
Jia Liao
34:47 - 35:09
And, if you are in person, northwest, ring, Hagan, KFC, kind country. And if you're in California, we like Nugget market, Berkeley Bowl, money storms, drivers, all those things so you can find us. And so I think we have our spicy hop on our Amazon. That's it. Because that one does break all the glass doors break too much.
Jia Liao
35:09 - 35:17
Yeah. So you can if you want to buy. Yeah. And our noodles without too much shipping Amazon is a way to do it.
Grace Kennedy
35:17 - 35:31
Awesome I love it. Well this was so much fun to talk to you guys, and I hope everybody goes out and buy some hot pot Queen or reaches out to Gia to learn more. And as always, let me know what you think of the episode and I'll see you all next time.
Jia Liao
35:31 - 35:34
Thank you so much for having me.
Daniel Scharff
35:34 - 35:58
All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast today, it would really help us out. If you can leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I am Daniel Scharf. I'm the host and founder of startup CFG. Please feel free to reach out or add me on LinkedIn if you're a potential sponsor that would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnerships at Startup CPGs comm and reminder to all of you out there.
Daniel Scharff
35:58 - 36:17
We would love to have you join the community. You can sign up at our website, startup CPGs comm to learn about our webinars, events and slack channel. If you enjoyed today's music, you can check out my band. It's the Super Fantasticks on Spotify music. On behalf of the entire startup CPG team, thank you so much for listening and your support.
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