The Startup CPG Podcast

Sarah Nathan
My love language is feeding people. So this is the perfect thing for me and probably why I'm partially going into self manufacturing to start, I would say, almost two years to actually think of the right product. You know, it was one of those ideas in the back of my head, okay, if I ever thought of the right product, then maybe I'll do it. So even though I love high end culinary foods, I'm also a sucker for ready to go, grab and go food that I feel like is made in a really high end, intentional way. And I think that what we see from the data is that so many other people do. It's such a trend. And I said, I have to do it. I will go to my deathbed regretting not doing something that literally doesn't exist in the market.

00:49
Sarah Nathan
I'm really excited to be the one bringing it to market. You know, I felt like if I'm not going to, who else is? And if someone else is, I'll be pretty bummed it wasn't me.

01:00
Grace Kennedy
Hi, everyone, Garis here, and welcome back to the Startup CPT podcast. Today I am so excited to introduce Sarah Nathan's brand Newish, a modern jewish comfort food brand that is launching this fall. Sarah has ten years of experience in the CPG industry, but this is her first foray into founding her own brand and all of the many challenges that come with that. We talk about everything from nailing the texture of her matzo ball soup to building community in the CPG space. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and as always, let me know what you think. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the startup CPG podcast. This is Grace here with another founder feature, actually a first feature of this brand newish founded by Sarah Nathan, who I'll be talking today.

01:51
Grace Kennedy
They are launching at the end of the summer or early fall, and they are bringing a new ish take, if you will, on modern jewish comfort food. So, Sarah, I'd love for you to introduce yourself to our listeners and your new brand.

02:06
Sarah Nathan
Exactly, Grace. We are a newish take on modern jewish food, comfort food, and we are doing new spins on old classics. So our first product is instant matzo ball soup. It's like cup of noodle, but matzo ball soup. You add water two minutes in the microwave, and you have really delicious, piping hot, warm, high end bowl of matzo ball soup.

02:29
Grace Kennedy
Yum. That sounds delicious, and I want some right now. So, Sarah, I'd love for you to tell our listeners a little bit about why you decided to start newish now today. And also a little bit about where you're coming from as you start this brand. A little bit about your background and what brought you to the CPG industry and then what brought you to create newish itself.

02:54
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, absolutely. So there's two prongs to that story, two sides of kind of who I am that make this the perfect fit for me specifically. So from ACPG standpoint, I joined the industry almost a decade ago. I was the first employee at regrain. They made snacks out of the grain from brewing beer. They were upcycling. But what really happened was that I fell in love with the industry. I would go to all these networking events, meet amazing people, and I get their cards, and I'd be, you know, this was before startup, CPG and Slack and before all that. And I really said, like, how am I going to connect with this person? Am I going to, oh, I have your card a year later, remember were talking about how to get into target in front of that show, Bonnie Booth.

03:31
Sarah Nathan
And so it's like, how can we build relationships and some trust and really help each other? So I made a Google group for people to be able to give each other advice. It was specifically for brands, founders, employees at brands. So there wasn't any service providers, investors, media buyers, et cetera. And that way everyone really felt like they could be so open and honest with each other. And that really is what propelled me to getting the job at Chobani incubator, which was such an amazing experience. I was running all the programming at the incubator. If you're not familiar with the Chobani incubator, unfortunately does not, is not running anymore. But it would use all of Chobani's resources to help brands that match their DNA. Delicious, nutritious, natural and accessible or affordable.

04:16
Sarah Nathan
So we would help brands, through their growth stage with marketing, sales, operations, food safety, legal, you name it. And that's really what gave me such an eye into all these different categories, all these different brands, all these different founders. How hard it is to be a founder. I'm like, I don't think I ever wanted this. Honestly, what I told myself, which I'm sure is, you know, the story of a lot of would be founders, but I really loved helping and mentoring, and fortunately, during the pandemic, the program was eliminated, my job was eliminated, but I really wanted to learn how to. Well, I have all these qualitative skills. I really love helping these brands. I feel like I'm choosing the right brands. How can I do that in a more quantitative way.

04:56
Sarah Nathan
And so becoming a buyer at Pattingdez or a manager of national co op grocers really helped me get that other side of the business, really help understand how do buyers do planograms? How do they think about category? The big thing at Trebani is always, let's talk about category versus brand. And I think more brands need to do that. So that really gave me that experience. And then I realized I really loved being back in that startup world and helping founders. At this point, I still was like, I don't think there's anything new out in the market for me to create.

05:23
Sarah Nathan
I'm not going to be a founder myself, but let me be the right hand person to someone who maybe is coming into this industry brand new, who is a solo founder, maybe a co founder isn't appropriate for them right now, but they really still need that help and that navigation, that kind of call myself a CPG Sherpa to guide them through all of those things that they don't know and the questions that they don't know how to ask. So that was really fulfilling. But the other side of the coin that a lot of people don't know until most pretty recently is that I've also been very active in the jewish culinary world. So at the very beginning of the pandemic, I was one of the producers on the great big jewish food fest. It was an amazing ten day virtual festival.

06:04
Sarah Nathan
The very beginning of the pandemic, May 2020. We all said, our friends are struggling with their restaurants in New York. How can we help them? We had 25,000 people tune in. We raised $250,000. But what was so special about it was that the programming was so diverse, and that's normally not what you see in a lot of jewish programming. You know, a lot of people aren't familiar, but 80% of Jews in the US are Ashkenazi. They mean they're eastern european descent. But there's really 15 million Jews and 15 million ways to be jewish here. We had programming for Black Jews and Latinx and LGBT and different generations. And so many people wrote into us and said, wow, I never really felt so connected to my culture, but more, how can I really, like, continue to do this? I really want to.

06:48
Sarah Nathan
This programming is making me excited about who I am in a way that I normally don't connect with. Unfortunately, the next day, George Floyd was murdered. Everyone went from sourdoughing to back out on the stream, and I really said, wow, this programming was such a time and place. It can never be replicated, but it showed me how much that feeling was important. And how can that be replicated at the same time? We had all of these brands, whether it's siete, fly by jing, dozen cousins, Maya Kamal Aumsam, really raising and elevating their own culture's food. And so I said, why is there.

07:21
Grace Kennedy
Not that for jewish food?

07:22
Sarah Nathan
So that's kind of where I came to that. I am also very involved in other places in the jewish community. I'm the culinary coordinator at a fun jewish food retreat out in Atlanta every year, where we bring in all the top jewish chefs, like Adina Sussman and Michael Switty. And, yeah, that's kind of how I came to this. I can go into afterwards kind of like, what made matzo ball soup the right choice for.

07:43
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. No, it sounds like you are literally perfectly primed to create this product, both from a personal level, but then also given your industry experience, you probably have such an in depth understanding of what it takes. And it's funny because I often make that joke of somebody who interviews a lot of founders. I'm like, I would never start a brand now that I know how hard it is, but at the same time, never say never. And it's a funny thing, though, that you kind of say, and then everyone's like, one day you find yourself at the CEO of a brand, and you're like, how did I get here? But I love that. And really exciting.

08:19
Grace Kennedy
And one thing just on a personal level in terms of, like, jewish culinary cooking, is I have worked with Jo Nathan on a few of her jewish cookbooks, which has been really fun. My life pre writing, and this side of things was more on the culinary side. And I helped her develop some of those recipes. So I'm sure she'll be very excited to hear about your brand. You know, for people who don't know Joan Nathan, she's like the matriarch of jewish cooking in America in a lot of ways, but, yeah, very exciting to hear.

08:47
Sarah Nathan
Oh, yeah. Joan Nathan, I saw her last month. I gave her a, well, I am eagerly waiting to hear it, what you think. But she seems super excited to hear about what was going on with the brand and to try it.

08:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, no, I'm sure she'll be thrilled. So, yeah, then thinking about, you had this idea, you had this question, can we bring a modern jewish food brand to the forefront? What were your then next first few steps? Because I think that is a question that so many new founders have, is just, how do I start? What's my first step. So what were some of those first steps you took when you were like, okay, I'm gonna do this now?

09:23
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, I would say almost two years to actually think of the right product. You know, it was one of those ideas in the back of my head, okay, if I ever thought of the right product, then maybe I'll do it. And so it took about two years to really, like, I would just call up another friend who's also helped start the festival, and we'd noodle every couple months and think about it. And then one day, were talking and being a buyer, having seen so many brands, I mean, seeing what works and what doesn't, what's difficult and what's not, I wanted to release any of those barriers and have the best chance of having a really mass market product that could cut through beyond the kosher aisle.

10:00
Sarah Nathan
And so, for me, it was a long list of, okay, can't be a holiday item, can't be perishable. I was the frozen buyer. I know how difficult that is. Has to be something that's americana, that most people you talk to, whether they're jewish or not, are gonna have already heard of it, know about, maybe have tried something that was, had a long shelf life. I said, shelf stick, stable, lightweight, primed for omnichannel. And that's really where I clicked. I said, what if I could make matzo ball soup into a cup of noodles? I eat instant ramen multiple times a week. I'm an instant connoisseur. You know, whether it is lotus foods or Emmy or momofuku, I have them all in my house right now. I cycle through them.

10:43
Sarah Nathan
So even though I love high end culinary foods, I'm also a sucker for ready to go, grab and go food that I feel like is made in a really high end, intentional away. And I think that what we see from the data is that so many other people do. It's such a trend. The grab and go, such a trend. Global flavors are such a trend. Elevated food is such a trend. So I decided, hey, let's see if this. That's a great idea. But I, at the same time, I had just gotten a job offer to be a fractional general manager for a brand, you know? And at the same time, even though I felt like, oh, I could do this, I've seen so many brands do it, I still had pieced together so many pieces.

11:19
Sarah Nathan
I had never really been an operator at that point. So getting the opportunity to be an operator really helped me. Took imposter syndrome away. I was like, okay, actually, you can do this, or very primed to do this based on your past and experience. And that's really what made me say, like, okay, let's dive in. Once that opportunity ended, then I was like, this idea kept noodling at me. Pardon? Any fun, I really couldn't have stop thinking about it. And I said, I have to do it. I will go to my deathbed regretting not doing something that literally doesn't exist in the market. How often do you get to invent something? It's not another. And this is no diss to anyone else who's doing another sports drink or cracker or chocolate, you know, but this really is something that doesn't exist.

12:07
Sarah Nathan
And I'm really excited to be the one bringing it to market. You know, I felt like if I'm not going to, who else is? And if someone else is, I'll be pretty bummed it wasn't me.

12:16
Grace Kennedy
Totally. That's such a good reminder, though, to founders who might be listening, is if somebody else doesn't do it, if you don't do it, somebody else will a lot of the time. And will you be kicking yourself because you didn't? So once you decided, okay, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna create this instant cup of noodles, matzo ball soup. How did you then get connected to, how did you develop the recipe for it? How did you figure out all those, some of those more nitty gritty things of starting a brand that are less fun than the ideation and the imagination that comes, but, you know, ingredients and just developing the recipe, how did you set about doing that?

12:57
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, that's a really great question. Recipe development is not my background, but I am lucky enough to have been in this industry, met so many fabulous people who, that is their expertise. I didn't really have the money to be able to develop this myself, but so I, or to develop it through someone else. So I really just, like, used my resources as best I could, thought about all of these different methods and my work, and then I would ask different friends or recipe developers, like, do you think this would work? What do you think about that? And then I was really lucky to just barter my way through. I bartered for advice. I bartered for use of freeze dryers. And so that really enabled me to, without spending, I spent ingredient dollars, and that was it.

13:41
Sarah Nathan
To be able to actually developed this myself to a place that I was pretty happy with. That was for the balls, for the broth. Also very lucky to work with my friend Jonathan Drexel. Jonathan DeutSch out of Drexel, and helped me develop a really awesome clean vegan broth that I'm really excited about. The product itself is vegetarian. Very hard to make mozzarella without eggs. I've tried, but helped me create a broth that I'm really excited and happy about. And through Drexel, it's a little. They're very kind to startup in terms of pricing. And then very recently I was introduced to the American Egg board, and they have something called the egg celerator, which is super fun. So if you're doing something innovative with eggs, they want to help you get it up to the market, because of course it's helping their constituents, egg farmers.

14:27
Sarah Nathan
So they have allowed me some time with Colonex, which is a great R and D firm out in Seattle, and they've worked with some really cool companies to help develop things both with agboard and elsewhere. And so I am working with them to dial all those little things. I'm going to be self manufacturing because this is something that does not exist. Finding a command to do this process currently is a little bit difficult. Once I get to scale, there's definitely that possibility. So they're going to help me figure out my efficiencies. I'm moving into my production facility next month. And then, yeah, I'm going to start making lots and lots of matzo balls. Living in matzo balls, right?

15:07
Grace Kennedy
You will get very intimate with matzo balls, but it's great. I love that you brought up the different resources you've been able to pull from, because I think that's also something that we don't necessarily always talk about enough, is like, how do you have the resources to even start a CPG brand, which can be so cash and resource intensive? And I think it's a really good reminder to use the resources you have and that are out there. And whether that's, like you said, bartering for skills or finding that the egg board, like, helps startups, which I had never heard of, I think it's really useful for founders to be reminded of that.

15:46
Grace Kennedy
But thinking of those resources as you're looking towards, you know, moving into this facility, launching this brand in a more official way, or I guess not even in a more official way, just in an official way, but how are you managing that balance, right, of launching a brand while also saying, I need to make sure I continue to have resources and that we're doing this in a way that we can eventually scale and that we can not just launch this brand and then close a month later. So how are you balancing those resources.

16:16
Sarah Nathan
Sources as best I can? I think that I'm trying to take what we in the industry would say, an omni channel approach to my funding sources and not rely one place. When you are starting it is much, you know, and you haven't launched is much more difficult to get money then when you're out there and people can see the proof of your sales. I have been raising a family and friends round feels very jewish to meet a raising community. So I've had very small chat but from, you know, friends and family and talking to some more potential angel investors. I've also had just strangers who really felt like, especially after October 7, you know, they saw my background and the business opportunity, but the mission was also something that really struck them.

16:58
Sarah Nathan
Like I said, I really want to show 15 million jews, 15 million ways to be jewish. This is a way to really bring an exciting, inclusive brand out into the world. I see Aumsam as kind of like a North Star in what they're doing with their product and marketing. It's really fun, exciting, bright brand that brings you in. But then if you join their community and their social media and everything, they're like, we're loud and proud, we're not submissive. Like, let's break down myths and stereotypes and history and teach, but in a fun, not preachy way. And that's what I think I want to do for jewish culture.

17:30
Sarah Nathan
When I go out and meet people who are unfamiliar with jewish culture, which is, or with Judaism, which is a culture, nationality and ethnicity and a religion and people, each person kind of picks and chooses as they wish what parts of themselves they want to really experience in that multitude of options. And so when I tell people, hey, I'm an atheist, but I'm Judaism is very strong in my identity, like so many people are so interested in what that means, amazed by what that means, like want to learn more and know more and that really opens up conversations. So like I said, people are really interested in funding based on the whole package of what I have to offer and what the brand has to offer.

18:10
Sarah Nathan
But I'm also, I have a lot of friends who wanted to support but don't have the money to fully put into around. And so I'm doing like a Kickstarter without the Kickstarter platform on my website on Newish Co. And that's really like a way to support but also get really fun goodies throughout the year that honestly add up to more than what I'm asking for. And you get four gift boxes. So one for Rosh Hashanah, which is in usually September, but October this year, which is actually nice for, push my launch out a little bit, Hanukkah, which is in December Purim, where you actually traditionally give gifts of food in March and then Passover, where most people are familiar with eating matzo balls in April. And along with other jewish owned products, I really want to lift up the whole community.

18:58
Sarah Nathan
There's so many fun, amazing, high end other jewish owned products, whether they're based in jewish culinary tradition or just jewish owned, and then some really fun merch and lifetime discounts. So thats actually gotten me some money thats really helped me buy my first freeze dryer. And yeah, in Chicago its been a small amount, but im lucky here that they have some really cool low interest loan programs, especially for women and diverse businesses. So im piecing it all together lucky. I do have a tiny bit of savings, rather not go through all of it. But I think that if you dont have the same investment in your business that youre asking other people to do, then I dont. I don't think it's fair. So very scrappy.

19:37
Sarah Nathan
But I'm excited to be finally using the money to grow in the right way, in a way that is very important right now, very sustainable, you know, high margin product and salable go to market strategy.

19:51
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. And I love how you're sort of pulling on your community that you do have while also creating more community through getting the word out about this product and through saying you be a part of this early stage. And something else I wanted to talk to you about is some of this community building that you've done, obviously, as you were during the pandemic. And then more recently, I know that you've been hosting these CPG Shabbat. So I'd love to hear a little bit about how that sort of community building plays a part of not only your life, but also this brand that you're creating.

20:24
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, absolutely. So Daniel Sharp and I, both different years, but went on the same program called Reality Israel Taste. It's amazing program for, they have it for different industries. This one is obviously for the food industry, people all over the industry with CPG, restaurant owners, photographers, PR, you name it, get to go to Israel and really see the whole landscape, see what's going on. We, it's usually about half jewish, half not jewish. A lot of times, people who maybe aren't as connected and shows the whole landscape. We meet with people in the West bank. We meet with people at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Jerus in the south, and they get to see the whole landscape.

21:02
Sarah Nathan
But it also really made me see so many people who, again, that same thing where they're not used to, they don't know too much about jewish culture, jewish history, really seeing their eyes open and seeing what having access to learning about someone else's culture and how their minds can shift. And so what's great about this programming is that they really encourage the alumni to come back and then continue to build their community outside of this bubble. And so Danielle and I both said to each other, what if we hosted a Shabbat at Xos? And so we kind of had the spark of an idea back in October. We made it happen. We had 145 people. We rented out, we bought out a whole restaurant and everyone. It was so special. So many people. People have been going to expo for two decades, three decades.

21:50
Sarah Nathan
Had said, this is the best event I've ever been to at expo. We really talls mediterranean, formerly fun sesame. She really led the crowd, both in prayer as well as intention and being able to set the mood for the night. So many people said, I, it was Friday night. I'm exhausted, I'm tired. I just want to go back to my hotel. But at the end of the night, I felt so rejuvenated. And we had people who were not jewish come and said, I learned so much about how welcoming and warm jewish culture is that I really didn't know about before. So really just, again, there's no proselytizing in Judaism. It's actually a big no for us.

22:27
Sarah Nathan
I think it's really people to people seeing people's human nature and just trying to show like what, who we are and what the community looks like and bringing in more opportunities for jewish joy. And we did another one with Hannah Robbins in Chicago for National Restaurant association, planning on doing another one in Chicago June 28. I think interview might come out after that, but please look out for many more that are going to happen throughout the country. We just found out that new hope now expo ends Friday afternoon, so I still want to make it happen, but we'll have to see what that looks like if people are going to be going home before then. Or we can really foster an opportunity to make something happen.

23:09
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love that. And I love just the idea, too, of bringing something more personal and just an opportunity to come together as a community outside of some of the, like, overwhelming stress that expo can bring. It's definitely a nice way to sort of, like, put an end to the weekend. I sort of returning now to newish as it is, as you are preparing for launch, what are some of your strategies to bring it to your community that you have already cultivated and then, you know, future community that you hope to bring in to new ish?

23:43
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of people sense matzo ball soup as a love language. It is warmingly referred to as jewish penicillin, one of those things that really can heal all, whatever you're feeling. And so many people in this world today are not feeling their best. And to be able to have that warm hug, especially from a loved one, is so important. And people send matzo ball soup through spoonfulcomfort.com or goldbelly.com, through Zabar's or Zingerman's or all these delis, and it's a send two quarts of frozen soup. But people do it all the time, or they've looked into doing it and just said, I can't afford that, but I really want to send that to something to my friend. So I'm able to send a six pack, including shipping for a third of the cost. They can put it in their pantry.

24:29
Sarah Nathan
They can eat one now. They can put in their pantry for when they're feeling like it later. Long shelf life, probably, you know, close to two years at least, if not more. So really being able to say, you know, send that love language, and then I really want to hit other low hanging fruit. I have the opportunity to work with Hillel's across the country. If you aren't familiar, Hillel is like the jewish student group across the country. There's 800 hillels in the country, and they already have soup programs. They have the opportunity for parents to send soup, whether it's they're going through finals or not feeling well or it's a holiday and they just can't get home, their parents can send it to them.

25:02
Sarah Nathan
And if you talk to the directors of these Hillels, they're like, we hate having to, you know, source kosher perishable soup and send it, and we think if they're not eating it might go bad. So you're really solving a problem for us. So I'm finding all of these really interesting channels that most CPGs products don't really have access to. That I do. That are a really great start. I think there's so much omnichannel opportunity before having to go into the retailers, where you are spending a lot on shelf space and promotions and all that. So I'm really excited to hit up my gym, has a really amazing grab and cope with Jaga and all the different opportunities where people I hear all the time say, I love matzo ball soup, I hate making it, or I don't know how to make it, but.

25:45
Sarah Nathan
And I would eat it more often if it was more easy and accessible.

25:49
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that makes so much sense. And having a shelf stable product really does open up a lot of opportunities for you in terms of just ease of getting it places, because, yeah, I've definitely interviewed some frozen brands or even refrigerated brands, and they're always talking about the challenges that come with that. So shelf stable definitely makes things a little bit easier. But sort of a few more questions as we get towards our end. One being, if you were to see newish a year from now, where do you sort of hope to be then?

26:20
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, absolutely. So I really hope to build the community and the brand, like I said, that low hanging fruit with the people who are looking for a deeper connection or more representation of themselves, who maybe don't feel like the Manischewitz kosher aisle really represents them, but they feel like, here's something exciting that I can now hold on to. And then those who are like, had. I've gone to the deli, I've had a best friend is jewish, or I've tried it somewhere else and wants to try it. And then I really hope to, within the next year, start getting, you know, going inch wide, mile deep, getting into some of the more local chains. Here I'm in Chicago and going direct to consumer. I'm really going to get a bird's eye view on where this product is selling best and who it's selling best to.

27:06
Sarah Nathan
I've had everyone from my friends, toddlers and babies, to my friends, to parents and my grandparents and every age group just tell me how they are the perfect audience for this. So I think it's gonna be. I have theories, but I think it's gonna be really interesting to see who grasps onto it and where we can go from here. But it seems like it's one of those universally beloved Americana comfort foods. I was living in Minnesota before Chicago, and I had a plumber come into my house, and he was like, what's that jar of balls on your counter? And I'm like, oh, it's matzo balls. And he's like, my wife and I love matzo ball soup. And this was guys like Minnesota blue collar porn and bread. Like, how do you know matzo ball soup. And he was like, my wife makes it goes.

27:50
Sarah Nathan
Your wife jewish? No, we just love it. And then that's really what made me. I think if I never lived in the midwest and from the coast, I would have just assumed, like, oh, it's such a coastal thing. Nobody. But in the midwest, it's winter, you know, seven months out of the year, every culture has a soup and dumpling. People love that comfort that it provides. And someone the other day told me that they're like, I would compare it more, like, to minestrone. You wouldn't go and order minestrone and think it's an italian soup. You're just ordering administrative soup. That's kind of how I think matzo ball soup really is these days. You know, when you go to the deli, when you go to even regular restaurants that just want to provide that classic comfort. Absolutely. Yeah.

28:28
Grace Kennedy
I love to order matzo ball soup from, like, a diner, not just a casual diner anywhere in Philly, in New York. I feel like there's always matzo ball soup on the menu, and it's always delicious. But my last question is thinking about a founder who might be listening to this, who hasn't started their brand yet, and is looking for some advice about how to begin. Given your experience, both as somebody in the industry and then now as a founder yourself, what piece of advice would you give to a founder who's looking to start their own brand? I know that's a tough question.

29:02
Sarah Nathan
No, absolutely. I think that one of the biggest pieces of advice I would say, is, really do your market research ahead of time. I do have a lot of people come to me asking for advice, having ideas, either having the idea or having already started. And I'll say to them what? They'll say, I'm the only one doing this and having so much experience, and I can probably name every brand off the top of my head that exists right now, or maybe not every 75%. I'll say, well, what about this, this? And I'll name five to ten different brands that. And so I think I'm really understanding your market, knowing what else is out there, knowing what problem you're solving, if it's a problem you're solving for yourself, for your kid, is it something that a mass amount of people have? This problem? It's not.

29:43
Sarah Nathan
And what are your goals? You don't have to be that big national brand that goes and raises money and sells. You can be. You can really say, hey, I really do want to share this love, my love language is feeding people. So this is the perfect thing for me and probably why I'm partially going into self manufacturing to start. And I wouldn't take that away from anybody. But does a farmer's market make sense? Does a family business make sense? What is the. You never know how something is going to blow up. You know, Angie's boom chicka pop, Washington popcorn, cal corn at the farmers market. And someone can always discover you and can find a bigger market or timing. But I would say, yes, start small. It's not possible for anyone and everything.

30:25
Sarah Nathan
For me, I am kosher, which means I have to have my own facility. I can't go into a shared kitchen for dollar 20 an hour. I have to sign in a year lease. I have to build out my whole facility. But I think, like, but I've tested out the market for a year and a half. I've been R and D ing in my own house and handing out samples to everybody and their mother and talking to people about the feedback not only on the taste of the product, but on the use case and the want for it. And so, yeah, I'd say don't jump into it. Really think about it.

30:57
Sarah Nathan
Think about what it is, what problem you're solving, and what does it look like to be a founder, knowing that, like, once you do it, you can't stop until you stop, you'd be ready for the roller coaster?

31:08
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. No, I think that's great advice and really important. And there was actually a buyer at Expo west from Earthfair, and I was asking him, what's your advice to emerging brands? Or I was like, what are you looking for these days? He's like, no more energy drinks or protein bars. That's like no shade to any of those types of products. But it is. The market is so saturated there. So knowing what the market looks like for you and where you want to enter, I think is so important. But this was so much fun to talk to you, Sarah, and learn more about newish. I'm so excited for everyone in the startup CPG community to check you guys out and maybe donate or whatever they feel or reach out to you on slack if they just want to connect.

31:51
Grace Kennedy
But if they do want to connect with you and learn more about newish, what's the best way to get in touch?

31:57
Sarah Nathan
Yeah, it's a follow newish food on Instagram. I'm not really posting on TikTok yet, guys. They'll figure out how to work the TikTok, but I do have an account there as well, so that will be a big place where we will be popping up and newish co and hit me up on LinkedIn if I can. I really believe that I've gotten this far because I've been fully pay it forward for this 810 years and my time feels more limited. But I am never one to say no to anyone who asks for help. So I've had, I've done other podcasts where a couple years later someone will listen to it and reach out to me and say, I just listened to this podcast, can you give me advice? And so I'm always happy to do that.

32:36
Sarah Nathan
And I also will say, this is like the last thing that I will say because I am now reaching out to people who are quite a lot busier than me and I'm getting a lot of sorry, I'm busy and I hope to never get that way. But when I do get on calls with people and ask and they're asking me for advice, a lot of times they're super interested in what I'm doing and they're like, oh, I know somebody who works here, can I introduce you to them? Like, they're perfect to help you with your brand. And so I always say, you never know what's going to happen, who you're going to meet, who you're going to connect with. So you should talk to as many people as possible and get the word out.

33:08
Sarah Nathan
Hamdi Olakaya from Chobani, when he had his first booth right next to the bathroom at Expo west, said, I never looked at a badge. I never looked at were they a buyer, were they a consumer, were they an investor? I just talked to them as if they were a customer. And I think that's advice that has really taken me this far today.

33:27
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. I think that's great advice. And what a good note to end on. So everybody reach out to Sarah Flutter, inbox, flutter, LinkedIn. She'll regret ever coming on this podcast, but it'll be great. And yeah, it was so much fun to learn more about newish and everything you're doing, Sarah and I can't wait for you guys to officially launch, you know, coming end of summer, early fall. So everyone keep your eyes out. And yeah, thanks again.

33:51
Sarah Nathan
Thanks, Grace.

33:54
Grace Kennedy
All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, it would help us out so much if you left a five star review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. I am Grace Kennedy, the editor for startup CPG, 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 that would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com dot. And finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our community on Slack and you can sign up via our website, startupcpg.com dot.