The Online Community for Food and Beverage Startups

   JOIN A TRUSTED       POD OF FOUNDERS   

If there’s one takeaway from Expo West last weekend it’s that the food and beverage industry was in extreme need of some positivity and human connection. This past year has been a huge challenge for CPG brands with capital markets drying up, e-commerce sales declining, and rising raw material costs.

I wasn’t at Expo this year, but the FOMO on LinkedIn was real. I saw so many of your smiling faces getting to meet each other in person for the first time and building new connections. There’s something invigorating about seeing your fellow founders and knowing that you’re not alone on this journey. This is especially true when you can have real honest conversations founder to founder.

That’s the reason I created Foodbevy Founders Circle, our small group masterminds that pair you with other founders going through a similar journey as you. Build a trusted group of founder friends who you can share your highs and lows while getting support. 

I’m kicking off our first official Founders Circle cohort March 24th, with a deadline to join by this Friday, March 17th. 

Want to participate? The program is part of our Premium Foodbevy Membership. You can learn more and join here

Already a premium member? Email me and I will get you setup.

WEEKLY UPDATES

     FLEXIBLE FUNDING       FOR CPG BRANDS    

If you're looking for flexible financing for your CPG Brand, read this. When it comes to CPG financing, I've seen it all:

• Founders frustrated by expensive invoice factoring

• Founders regret giving up too much equity too early on

• Founders being turned away by big banks

• Founders missing out on new revenue opportunities due to a lack of funds 

That's why I brought on

Aion

as a new partner for the Foodbevy community. Aion provides:

• Flexible financing for food startups.

• Unrestricted capital

• Competitive rates and quick turnaround

"In the early days of Purely Elizabeth, we needed to keep up with increasing demand. Aion provided flexible, non-dilutive funding that grew with our business and helped us scale." - Mark Freeburg, Chief Financial Officer, Purely Elizabeth.

Apply in minutes

 using the promo code FOODBEVY for a 10% discount on interest rate or 

book a free consultation

 with one of their lending specialists.

     DRIVE SALES TO 1200+       RETAIL E-COM CARTS    

Hey, I discovered a cool new tool (

Pear

) that allows you to create a path to purchase to nearly every retailer e-com cart, and then measure the sales data--click-to-conversion--in real-time. I recently talked to Louis and got the scoop on how it can help you drive more sales.

Pear creates shoppable ads and store locators with personalized paths to purchase to 1200+ retail e-com carts based on where a shopper is located and what's in stock. They automatically manage your retail e-com inventory on a UPC-level so shoppers won’t hit dead links or out-of-stocks. More importantly, Pear then returns full-funnel retail eComm sales data in real-time. The data is also attributable so you can run performance marketing; for example:

1. Run your retail e-com like DTC — optimize ROAS for campaigns in real-time, build custom and lookalike audiences, run A/B tests, optimize campaigns for conversion, retarget abandoned carts, etc.

2. Let your Store Locator actually help you — Pear automatically manages your eComm inventory and returns actionable, attributable data.

3. Increase sales velocity using Pear — Run campaigns to specific retailers to increase velocity.

Louis was gracious enough to offer the Foodbevy community a free landing page link. All you need to do is give us your UPCs and they'll return a link that unlocks all of Pear's capabilities. Let me know if you're interested and I can send over an introduction.

Request an Introduction to Louis

STARTUP TO SCALE PODCAST

98. Breaking Down Distributor Deductions and Chargebacks

Distributor chargebacks collectively cost brands millions of dollars per year. Most of these are in the distributor agreement, but many of them are erroneously charged to brands, and it’s up to them to contest it.

Today’s conversation is all about pulling the vail back on deductions and how you can effectively manage them. To help me with this conversation, I’ve invited on Yuval Selik, founder of Promomash.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

DISCOUNTS

Stripe is now providing $70,000 in fee-free processing for new and EXISTING customers. Save over $2000

NielsenIQ Byzzer platform provides data for emerging CPG brands. You can access 3 free reports using this link.

Mindful Goods is an awesome Amazon expert that can quickly get you started or optimize your pages for strong ROI. Get 10% of their services  use code FOODBEVY.

Maverick allows you to create individually personalized videos (with a customer's name) welcoming them to your community.