Unpackaged Goods
Spilling the real stories behind CPG brands. Host Jonathan Deeter unpacks founder journeys, industry news, and what it really takes to build consumer brands.
Presented by Deet's Eats Media, a Pickle Advisors company.
Unpackaged Goods
Unpackaged Goods Ep 1: The Lucky OX: It wasn't just luck. Meet Kyle and Fane and hear about their journey from Zero to over 500 stores
In our premiere episode, The Lucky Ox reveals how they transformed nostalgic Asian flavors into a premium Asian beverage brand. We discuss their journey from working together at Nike, and Jonathan breaks down this week's biggest CPG news, including the founders of Ben & Jerry's stepping down and Alice mushroom chocolates raising $ 8 million.
Welcome to Unpackaged Goods. I'm your host, Jonathan Deeter. Welcome. So this is my podcast. For those of you that have been following along, my name is Jonathan Deeter. I recently launched my own venture firm called Pickle Advisors. In tandem with that, I also launched a media company called Deet's Eats, which is the host of this podcast, Unpackaged Goods, where we're going to be diving into CPG news, fundings, mergers and acquisitions, headline news. We're going to be breaking it down really simple. I had a good friend yesterday who just said, you know, Deets, I've been watching your videos the last month. I've been supporting you. And he's a cool guy. He's got a lot of these better for you brands in his house. And he goes, I don't know what CPG stands for. I chuckled and I'm like, all right. I want this to be something that my mom can listen to. My friends in finance can listen to. My friends back home who don't know what I'm doing can listen to. Like everyone can listen to this and get a little something out of it there's going to be relevant news for brands that you see and love in the grocery store there's going to be founders on here who have maybe gone to one of the schools that you went to or grew up in the home one of your hometowns but are making a product that resonates with a lot of people and people like and they can taste they can touch it they can feel it so I think that's what really is exciting about the CPG space is giving a platform to founders to be able to tell a little bit about their journey, why it is that they're building the brand that they're building, why they want to get into the space that it is. There's so many cool stories, so many cool traditions and cultures that they want to incorporate into the Western world. And so DTS is a platform to give those founders a chance to tell those stories and really unpackaged goods is our longer form storytelling. And so our first First episode is going to be with the Lucky Ox guys. They are creating a Asian beverage, really an Asian beverage world with just these different flavors that they're incorporating from their childhood and flavors that are not unique to Western diet, but really normal for what they grew up on. And so I'm super excited to release that for people to get a chance to meet them. That's going to be the fun part. of this podcast too is like it's gonna be different and so like some weeks we're gonna be here and we'll have people over I have another one of these white chairs and we'll get another microphone and boomstick and we'll have guests and we can talk about their business that they're growing and their challenges that they're facing and the hardships and the goal of this is for someone else out there to be listening and being like oh I went through that like let me help that person or oh wow like that product is super cool I know someone that would be a great fit for them like the CPG space has been such a warm and welcoming network of people people who really want to genuinely help others it's a really nice change of pace from the finance world in New York so yeah I'm excited to help founders to tell their stories to give them that platform so I had so many amazing conversations uh so many people who we're gonna have on want to come on so um the next couple of months are just exciting looking at that um i kind of have to pinch myself i'm like sitting here watching the end of thursday night football i'm recording a podcast um it feels like some of the sports podcasts that i listen to like pardon my take bill simmons like these guys who record like late sunday night late thursday night for for Friday morning. Um, it's cool and it's, it's fun and they do it for the consumer. And at the end of the day, that's what this podcast is for is the consumer. So that's enough talking. I guess I have to yap quite a bit though, to fill space. So, um, that's what podcasts are for people who like to talk. So welcome to my podcast where you're going to listen to me talk. So every week we're going to break the news section into five So we're going to kick it off with the big moves, moving into big brand reality check, moving on to money moves, innovation watch, and rapid fire distribution wins. So we're going to go through some of the headline news. Slim Fast just got sold again. Mushroom Chocolates raised $8 million. And yes, Ben and Jerry's founders are stepping down after nearly 50 years. Welcome to Unpackaged Goods. all right so yeah so glambia is offloading slim fast again so this is not the first time that they have been sold um kind of the irony of a performance nutrition brand selling it a diet brand it's really asks the larger question in the ozempic era um how does the diet category really survive um i think a lot of big brands are really questioning consumers are eating less if they're being more selective with how they're eating um How did they get their diet categories to really be up to speed with what people want? The appetites, the brands that they like, the flavors that they want. Heartland, the Splenda owner, they're betting big on these sugar-free synergies, but we'll see. I think this is just a great example of big corporations that are having to reinvent themselves. So moving on to the Ben & Jerry founder- so ben cohen and jerry greenfeld uh jerry's stepping down from the board um really an end of an era for value-driven cpg um they have been activists their entire lives um and ben and jerry's has really been the brand that they've built at the forefront of that and um i can imagine you know being under uh a big corporation uh like unilever it's probably hard to carry out your vision and and everything that you want to stand up for. He's been in the news for better or for worse. It'll be interesting. I'm sure the flavors will continue to be amazing. The vibe might change as companies naturally evolve in their life cycles and as founders exit and businesses grow past them. That's the natural life cycle of a business. Moving Moving on to segment two, big brand reality check. And so while startups are raising millions, let's see what's happening in corporate CPG land. They are shopping Perrier around. It's interesting because I have a sparkling water drink, Spindrift, on my desk. We love sparkling water in this house. And Perrier, is it losing its sparkle? I don't know. You know, premium water is getting squeezed by the liquid deaths, the Topo Chico's of the world. Perrier's having a tough time sticking out. I mean, I love it. It's kind of the, it is the OG. Kind of, it is the OG. And it's good. It's consistent. But how do you compete with liquid death, Topo Chico? The branding, the ability to capture the youth. and the youthful consumer. That's the thing that these corporations are struggling with right now. It's not innovating. It's understanding the younger consumer and what they want. And that's where the gaps are in these companies right now. You want to keep up with CPG brands that are disrupting categories and aisles in the grocery store? Go hire some of their classmates at USC and UC L.A. and Stanford like because I literally just named all West Coast schools. I have college football on the mind. But anyways, yeah, those are the young, fresh inspiration that you need in these companies. I mean, I have products on, but this week we're not. I'll have snacks and drinks and stuff, but this is just my hydro jug. So yeah, shout out hydro jug. I love this. It's actually a little small. I need a bigger water bottle. I used to have this kettlebell water bottle. I still have it. It's in the kitchen. We'll break it out. I'm sorry. I'm so thirsty. Okay. Okay. I drink like a little kid at the drinking fountain in like middle school after recess. I just like do not stop for air. I digress. Anyways, we are still in segment two, big brand reality. Last couple ones, Beyond Meat has just been crushed in the stock market. They're down like 97% from their highs. They were like trading in the 200s back in like COVID. They're down at like two bucks now, which is crazy. Fun fact, the CEO actually went my college um shout out connecticut college camels yeah he uh he went there and they're really struggling i think they just kind of missed time to this revolution um i think they were a little bit early to the better for you kind of health space the and now people want the real thing people are more focused on their their farms that they're getting their poultry from their meats from their fish from. So yeah, I think beyond meat struggling to keep up with consumers that want both, you know, we went so far in one direction of, you know, artificial meats, and people want both people want options. And so how does beyond meat stay alive? I don't know, I think you probably have to take them private and figure out some sort of roll up into a bigger company i don't know at this point um i don't even like really see their ads their their stuff much so uh moving on liquid death ipo rumors continue to heat up so they hired goldman sachs last year uh maybe even two years ago at this point um and yeah so they were looking at like a 700 million dollar valuation um to a potential public offering and um yeah sometimes the canned water if you would have told someone 20 years ago that a canned water company would be looking to go public uh with gs leading the book running like that's crazy that's crazy um so yeah we'll see um i haven't really had like with death much um like a couple times when i've been at like sporting events or I
Speaker 04:don't know.
Speaker 01:Wherever else I've had it. And it's fine. It's water. I love water. As you can see, I'm drinking water. I'm fine with tap water. I'm probably not going to buy water. I'm going to drink tap water. So it's not really... I have a very simple rule when it comes to equities. I only invest in products that I use and consume and that's a pretty good strategy. So yeah, so we'll be interested to see if that actually launches the IPO. Things are heating up, rates are cutting. I think it's a better business environment to go public I think it's a better business environment to raise money, these large rounds. So yeah, I think you're going to see a lot more of this. I think we're moving into. the danger zone all right moving on so um segment three money moves so alice mushrooms did an eight million dollar round so um you know that a company is penetrating the mainstream consumer when my mom is like oh i saw those at the grocery store and um yeah i i was a an early user of them when the two founders were emailing themselves. I had a subscription, the little tins. They had the nighttime, the daytime. They're awesome. I'm a big believer in functional mushrooms and adaptogens and nootropics. I think it's important to explain why I think people are interested in things. I think mental health and cognitive wellness is super important to me. Uh, my grandma has Alzheimer's and she, uh, really only remembers three people, my mom, my uncle and me. And, um, you know, when her memory started to go, uh, when she was still, you know, after my grandpa had died and was living by herself at her house, um, I took a picture of me as like a little kid, uh, like hiking, like three or four years old. And it's a big picture, like this big. And I put it above her TV. And when Whenever she would call my mom and talk to my mom, she'd be like, oh, there's this beautiful picture of Jonathan as a kid. And that just became repetition and memory. And it's still in her bedroom. And she still remembers me. When I call, she picks up. And same thing, I start off with like a very familiar, like, hey, it's Jonathan. I'm in New York with the dog Rigatoni. And she always remembers Rigatoni. And oh, yeah, that's right. So, you know, getting products. that can help improve the future health and wellness for my mom, for my sister, that's important to me. And, you know, so when my mom sees my post on Alice and then says, oh, I've seen it in the grocery store, that's bridging the gap for generations to get access to different types of products that they weren't familiar with or weren't educated on. And like, why? it's important for your brain health and why it's important to take those. And, um, I give my dad credit, you know, he's 71 and he brags about how he's been taking lion's mane for years. And, um, he's very up to speed on health and wellness trends. And, um, but yeah, I think it's making products accessible. So yeah, Alice, they're doing a great job. Um, you know, Unilever, excuse me, uh, ventures they're betting on, um, the psychedelic adjacent wellness. They're not psychedelic mushrooms. They're non psychedelic, but you know, I think that you have people who are drinking a lot less, the consumer, um, studies show that data shows that. And so, um, sometimes people prefer functional mushrooms when they go out. So, uh, and yeah, Tiesto is an investor as well. So hilarious. I love the DJs that decide they want to invest in companies. Uh, Sometimes it works out great. Sometimes it does not. So moving on to Osea, General Atlantic deal. So this 28-year-old overnight success story. Clean Beauty hitting $100 million in revenue thresholds. So Kavu's full exit signals, you know, maturation in the brand. So... Moving on, segment four, Innovation Watch. So format innovation, we have Roxy Supercube, their commuter for wellness. We have Wandering Bear Protein in their RTD lattes. Interesting. I think I'm going to stick to the ice cream, but maybe we'll try the lattes. And then Supergut is positioning as the fiber brands. So, um, interesting play fibers, popular, uh, fibers, having a moment. Everyone's like fiber, this fiber that. So, um, I think like sometimes that works, you know, um, I think as a brand, you need to be flexible in the social media era where there are viral trends and sensations that you need to be able to capitalize on segment four, uh, clean label movement so Tyson is ditching high fructose corn syrup no surprise here I think if you're like that legendary legacy of a brand you gotta just kind of you have to move in this direction it's a no brainer realms non toxic air care play this is cool I actually bought There are two bottles. You can see them right here. Looks really cool. The founder, I like, love when founders talk about are vulnerable, their personal health journey, whatever it might be. In this case, she shared her health journey about how really the things she was putting into her apartment impacted her. And once she addressed those, it really helped her uh and so i'm super excited to try this um living in new york really dusty apartments uh air purifiers super important i need to get a new one it's not great um i love candles um you know i was at the mom market this asian market in seaport a couple weeks ago and a couple candle makers and some of the cleaner ingredients that they're using cleaner scents and so um i think that's generally like a a shift that we're seeing in the consumer is cleaner cleaner sense cleaner better for you in the in the uh the house so um and yeah so last but not least segment five rapid fire distribution wins so uh kona big wave number nine draft um They handle nationally. Bezzy, congratulations, one-year anniversary. They're at Whole Foods in the Northeast now. Barami Pasta is in six Costco regions. And I think that the premiumization of brands is winning. But here's what I'm seeing. I think big CPG is shrinking, as you can see by job cuts. acquisition, not sales, of big brands. And, you know, startups are raising bigger rounds. Legacy brands are cutting costs while mushroom companies are raising a million bucks. So maybe that's why, you know, I started Pickle Advisors is because the future isn't at Campbell's. It's in your kitchen. It's in your backyard. And so... yeah so that's it for our first podcast i i think i yapped a pretty good amount um we're gonna transition now to the lucky ox guys um i'm gonna play with this mic because i think i should definitely be like right here um but yeah just thank you so much to everybody that's listening um to everyone that listens um i'd love your feedback on format on uh flow on sound should i smile more should i be more excited you want more of the welcome to unpackaged goods I'm your host Jonathan Dieter like you name it I'm down to get silly but most importantly I just have so much gratitude if you've made it this far thank you so much for believing in me and for watching me grow and giving me an opportunity to do that in front of you I think it's sometimes hard to put your out there on video, on audio, in different formats. And so thank you to everyone that has watched, listened, liked, commented. Every single little bit of support means the world to me. So we're just getting started. We're going to grow this, and I'm super excited to see where this grows. So without further ado, Kyle and Fane from the Lucky Ox.
Speaker 02:Hey, what's up, guys? We're the Lucky Ox. I'm Kyle. I'm Fain. Yeah, join us for a day. Today's going to be a pretty fun day because it's a little bit more, you know, it's a little more varied than kind of what we usually do with emails and whatnot. We had a couple stores we want to visit, some good friends we want to see, a couple stores that we also want to pitch our drink at, but what we got going on here is we have a product photo shoot. We're revamping the flowers that we do, so next time you see us around town, we're going to have a new look. That's Kyle, the creative director for you.
Speaker 03:Oh, dude,
Speaker 00:this is actually really good.
Unknown:you
Speaker 02:because i feel like a lot of cpg marketing sometimes you know what i mean it's a little like odd two on the nose what do you think what do you think i mean
Speaker 03:there's a reason why we didn't
Speaker 02:do
Speaker 03:yellow cans, you know, with the big picture of the fruit up front. We wanted to highlight our heritage. You know, we really love those fashion brands and we wanted to, as far as like our brand building is concerned, we want to do it the same way a lot of those fashion brands do it. Curating a vibe. all the hospitality you know i know you wanted the
Speaker 00:panda
Speaker 03:coconut so this is for you the rest of the staff enjoyment all right appreciate it yes all right come
Speaker 00:check it out cafe
Speaker 03:montes we have very unique products you know we're not doing anything functional protein whatever um we just wanted to do really unique flavors that people haven't tried before but that are also in a familiar format at the same time packaging i think helps to stick out as well you know there's no We're using glass bottles, no microplastics, no seed oils. People like the premium glass.
Speaker 01:Do you guys, like, go back and forth with, like, different types of packaging?
Speaker 03:Honestly, we always wanted brown bottles. You know, we like the vintage heritage look with our bottles, and I just like glass more than a can. I think it feels more premium. It just looks cooler. And these days, everything is in a bright-colored can, so we wanted to do something unique that looks like it was straight out of a streetwear catalog.
Speaker 02:Yeah. What are some, like, schemes... Amelie
Speaker 03:Andor. Undefeated. Kith. It's definitely one. Siegelman Stable, too. Fuego House.
Speaker 04:Yeah.
Speaker 03:Nike, obviously, too. Yeah, of course, Nike. Our old employers.
Speaker 01:Yeah. What do you think are some trends that are kind of up and coming that are here to stay, or what are the ones that need to go?
Speaker 03:Man, I mean, I'm glad that skinny jeans are for sure gone. I think as far as, what are some trends?
Speaker 02:Honestly, one thing I really like is, I feel like the last few years of fashion, you've seen a lot more focus on the textiles. They're like knit shirts, like woven designs and textures Right. I feel like a lot of the late 2010s like dude, I used to be rocking supreme off-white, whatever It was very like entirely like brand like logo focus right now. It's a lot more subdued It's like what is the actual quality behind it?
Speaker 03:You know I think I mean, I'm from SoCal, he's from NorCal. At the end of the day, we're laid back guys. We wanted to start this brand in California originally. I was honestly on my last week of my lease here in New York. We finally had bottles and I was like, hey, why don't I just load up my backpack with some bottles and go walk around and just hit some accounts. And then within a week, we got to about 10, 15 accounts. You know, we got some pretty cool cafes, restaurants all around town. So I was like, all right, we're going to build the business out here. You know, and I think there's no better place to. to start a CPG business in New York because we're door-to-door guys. We built this thing up door-to-door. We didn't do door-to-door for all 500 accounts, but to get to that first 100, it was just us. We're hanging out with beverage directors, coming up with cool cocktail ideas. We're at these cafes all day. We're at these stores doing demos on weekends, and we like being out there. We want to show face and put a face behind the brand. We're not just like a... big crazy VC-funded startup. You might see us all around town, you might think that, but it's honestly just him and I doing this. This is what we love, and we just want to share the flavors we grew up with with everyone else.
Speaker 02:You know, what's actually really crazy to hear is that everybody tells you, we echo this sentiment, sampling demos are the number one thing. We're both extroverted guys, we like to meet new people. And, dude, we are connecting culturally with everybody you can imagine. Like, it's New York, right? Everybody's here. But what's crazy is, like, all right, the sampling doubles are cool. You got to get out there. Everybody knows that, right? Dude. no brands are sampling like don't get me wrong not literally none but we know there are like dozens and dozens i don't know hundreds of new brands out here right there's even another hundreds of established brands anytime fain and i want to sample anywhere on a weekend we will call up a grocery store they will guaranteed be open and i think that's crazy that just shows you people are not getting out there
Speaker 01:world how are you guys staying relevant only or not only with social media but also with your online presence
Speaker 03:yeah I mean that's definitely something that we're getting more into now that we have a lot of accounts we want to support that velocity a lot of the photos and videos are him and his creative director brain as well as just a lot of other creatives that we've met in the field who really support our vision and they want to work with us they want to help a young brand because they just believe in the mission. And, you know, I think we're just really lucky to have a lot of day one supporters in that aspect. With our matcha lemonade, for example, right? That's one of our first accounts. She was actually at Ishiki Matcha. She was using our Vietnamese salted lemonade as a mixture for the matcha lemonade, which inspired the second SKU. But I mean, she's really helped us, too, with the marketing aspect, just doing more events, helping with the D to C push. Dude, that's sick.
Speaker 02:So it's all
Speaker 03:been great.
Speaker 02:We, I would love to, if we got enough budget, that's a marketing vehicle. That's so, I love K trucks. Yeah. You
Speaker 03:know, it's obviously me just making a fool of myself on, on our Instagram and TikToks
Speaker 02:too. No, literally for these shoots. Like he really trusts, obviously I love Faden for trusting me with what we do. And there was definitely one morning where like we showed up for a shoot at a Shiki and I was like, Hey dude, you're going to fall down today. He's like, all
Speaker 01:right. He hasn't made you run through any glass doors or windows yet? Not yet, not yet. Oh, I love it. You guys are good partners together. And yeah, as we think about kind of like the viral marketing moments, you know, you see cars on the street and you're like, oh, that would be super cool for, are there any celebrities or people you guys look up to that like really align with your drink or would be your like dream collab?
Speaker 02:Oh man, that's a good question. Finn, you You can take, I would just say for me personally, you know, part of the reason why we haven't had maybe the biggest online presence is a lot of my favorite fashion brands, a lot of, you know, like, I actually just, you know, think about who Nike's working with, who's up and coming. Yeah, a lot of the times, there's kind of an aura, there's kind of a mystique. You know, I think it's kind of cool sometimes that, like, we sell out and you're not everywhere. Obviously, it's a business and you eventually want to be everywhere but it's it's a balancing dichotomy right of how do you build a little bit of exclusivity how do you build you know kind of that brand prestige right so I will say that's why I think a lot of the celebrity CPG stuff I don't know if I'd work with anybody personally just because it really signals you're everywhere you want to be everywhere for everybody all at once you know when you do that Are you really for anybody? You know what I mean?
Speaker 03:I like that. Does that mean we can't collab with Taylor Swift? I don't know.
Speaker 02:Oh, man.
Speaker 01:I don't know. Is this your official invitation to Taylor Swift to collab with the Lucky Docs? Exactly. Yeah. We need to get it on the Good Heights
Speaker 03:podcast. Exactly.
Speaker 01:I like that. Yeah, no, I feel you. It is really hard in this kind of social media era to, like, build a community that feels real with, you know, influencers that kind of put out fake content. So, I mean, could that be kind of broken in this day. I think the restaurant model is really cool. I think there's a really strong, obviously, Asian community here in New York. What have been some restaurants or some restaurant owners that have been supportive to you guys in this journey?
Speaker 03:Yeah, I mean, definitely Ishiki Matcha from day one. Padmore's Coffee. Yeah, shout out to your mom. The Spaniard, which is, honestly, it was just seeing our Vietnamese lemonade in there as one of our first accounts was honestly the coolest feeling ever. Shout out, George. Shout out, George.
Speaker 02:Shout out, Ann, we're about to see Ann at Sen Saigon. She ordered off DMs, dude. She just saw us in the wild. She's like, I have a vegan Vietnamese restaurant. I would love to work with you guys. Dude, they sell cases. It's been a great partnership. We also shot a video with Ann about just her background story. What she did to get the restaurant going. Because honestly, all these food and beverage businesses, ton of sacrifice. 100%.
Speaker 01:Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of similarities between restaurants. restaurant owners, small CPG brands. So much of it is started by a personal mission, a family history, some sort of legacy that they want to preserve. As you guys are building this, thinking about legacy, thinking about family traditions, what are some of those things that you want to come out in the Lucky Ox
Speaker 03:brand? I think just being remembered as innovators in taste. New Asian flavors, making Asian products and you know things just cool like I grew up in a time where I was the only Asian kid in my entire in high school middle school and I was always bullied for bringing dumplings to school and you know I just feel a proud personal connection now that people like these flavors right I'm not getting bullied anymore for sharing pandan and matcha to people just like working in tandem with these restaurant owners and bar owners just to push a lot of these flavors forward. You know, when people go out to restaurants, they're more open to trying new flavors. And beverage is a really familiar and accessible format for that. So, you know, they try us at the restaurant, they see our product on the shelf, and kind
Speaker 01:of just works together. I love that. You guys have some really interesting flavors, whether it's the pandan coconut or, you know, the preserved lemons and the lemonade. Can you tell us a little bit about these flavors that maybe you're
Speaker 00:exploring
Speaker 01:or excited
Speaker 00:about bringing their way into the Western diets?
Speaker 03:Yeah, definitely. Some other flavors, I mean, I definitely think that pandan is going to be a huge one, you know, the same way that ube is now in Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. New York Times is predicting pandan as the hit flavor of 2025. I do think another flavor that... Melons. Melons.
Speaker 02:Melons. I feel like you only saw melons in, like, 2000s comedy, like, you know, Adam Sandler boob jokes type things right but they're incredible i was just at a restaurant yesterday we were i gave the pendant to a beverage director he put he infused it or he made a spritz with a melon infused vodka the melon is obviously it's sweet but it's like um i don't know how you describe kind of the sweetness you know what i mean it's not herbal but i guess the the melon sweetness with the herbal panda in it crazy crazy combination
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 02:Yeah. I got
Speaker 03:to try this
Speaker 01:thing. Sounds crazy. Yeah. I think there's a lot of flavors that, you know, back to the restaurant thing where it's like restaurants incorporating flavors from their dish. And there's a lot of crossover in the CPG game where you have these small brands that are like bringing these unique flavors that maybe they see in dishes that they're used to from their childhood. Definitely. Bringing them into more of like a mainstream accessibility.
Speaker 03:Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, that's why we didn't go the functional, low cal zero sugar route we didn't want to compromise on flavor because we're bringing new flavors in a familiar format yeah
Speaker 02:yeah market research
Speaker 03:wow it was in glass you know but we did it first just saying
Speaker 02:all right dude well we just had a thing that was just like always in glass you know i'm a really big music nerd and for a long time i wanted to go into anr in the music industry uh that's crazy hard to do and i realized is I don't have the longstanding family money or connections to make that happen. But the example you regularly see, I think the rapper 24K Golden is actually a good example. TikTok hits millions, hundreds of millions of streams, right? But when you get thrusted in the spotlight that quickly, you couldn't really grow a core fan base. So you were something to many people, but in the form of like a top 40 pop hit, right? You never got a chance really cultivate your fan base. You see, look at like Amine. He went so massive with Caroline and the big, you know, the big label albums didn't really work for him. And now he's cultivated such a like, like home for himself in the like, you know, electro forward, like rap scene, you know, like the creative rap fans. Right. And I think that's very, that's something that really resonates strongly with us where we're like, okay, you know what? We could go viral million times, but what if you just created a flash in the pan trend rather rather than like, oh, you have a really core fan
Speaker 01:base. Yeah, I love the intersection of music, of fashion, of food. I think that there is so much that you can learn and also pick up. And I think, like, looking critically at a lot of these brands and saying, like, how are they building their communities? And are these communities
Speaker 03:sustainable? Definitely.
Speaker 01:So many of these communities are just kind of like one-hit wonder, viral sensations. Absolutely. You guys are doing. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely.
Speaker 02:Exactly. You think of restaurants, right? It's like, think about, um, do you think, what's that famous, um, oh, the Haitian, the fancy Haitian restaurant at Columbus Circle, right? Yeah, exactly. At the end of the day, like, you're doing your stuff authentically you're pushing the culture forward but you're doing it so authentically to the point where other people who are not in the culture they want to take part i think that's um that kind of a more accurate way to view culture but i think what you see more in cpg is like the the the internal pressure of like oh maybe we should like dumb this down some more people like it right i actually argue the opposite happens that's what we're doing with our brand right
Speaker 03:yeah and ultimately you know i think with finding something that sticks ultimately like these flavors have been consumed for hundreds of years, right? You can find this pho, you can go to a pho shop in Chinatown where we are right now, you can find that salted lemonade. That's a generations old recipe, pandan and coconut, right? That's a Southeast Asian staple in a matcha lemonade. You can go to a cafe and actually find that. So these are all flavor profiles that have stood the test of time. And even with some of our new flavors too, it's like, these are things you can find in a restaurant that, you know, aren't just sort of like a flash in the pan, like a lot of these other flavors. and stuff it could be oh i think sophie's in okay yeah yeah
Speaker 02:yes we work with solex yeah
Speaker 03:eric also gold coast too i think he gets word from them as well
Speaker 04:for sure
Speaker 03:and then we've also stopped by yeah yeah we also have a matcha lemonade too yeah see if you know i think they'd definitely be a great fit here um you know really unique flavors that people people enjoy
Speaker 00:yeah so
Speaker 03:great uh yeah we'd love to hear your thoughts
Speaker 00:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 03:So Solex, Gold Coast. We also have, I don't know if you order off Rainforest either. Okay. And here is our sell sheet with a little bit more info. Yeah, these will fly off the shelves
Speaker 02:here. Yeah, this is, I mean, definitely the crowd. We have a bunch of restaurants in the neighborhood who carry us, so people have seen us around. Okay, great. Actually, have you ever go to Kopitiam?
Speaker 04:Yeah.
Speaker 03:Yeah, Kopitiam, San Saigon. Yeah, they got us, too. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Thanks, Sophie. Yeah, nice to meet you. Appreciate this opening. Yeah.
Speaker 02:Thank you. Thank
Speaker 04:you. Interesting.
Speaker 02:All right? All right. That's a good one. We haven't been able to find Sophie in forever.
Speaker 01:All right.
Speaker 03:Yeah. The biggest challenge, man. I would say it's just, you always got to follow up. You know, no one's going to hit you up right after you buy the sample. So you got to go into the store, the bar multiple times. You know, I think different channels have their nuances. So cafes, it's really hard to find those owners because cafes are generally very hands off. You know, with a nicer restaurant or a cocktail bar, for example, those venues sort of have more seasonal menus that sometimes you just have to wait until the next season. And also beverage directors can be tough to find, but you also have to sit down with them and then come up with some cool crafty cocktail or mocktail ideas. You know, markets are generally not too hard, especially, I mean, doing ride-alongs with our distributor reps or just when we first started off this thing, you know, like supermarkets aren't as tough. Chain grocery stores are obviously a completely different conversation. Yeah, it's just... following up. It's timing too, right? Like Sophie, with that shop, we've tried to go in at least like five, six times and we finally found her.
Speaker 02:So. You know, it's funny when you ask like, oh, so here's like, she looks like a Sophie. Yeah, yeah. I've had other founders just ask like, oh, you know, what do you guys do for like, Email campaigns, and I'm just like, look, specialty stores, you know, liquor stores, whatnot, maybe. Dude, you're talking about retail and grocery stores? There is no email. These guys show up, you know? That's why the distributors are really helpful, because they gatekeep a lot of those connections, those relationships. By the way, do you eat lunch yet? No, not yet. Do you want to grab a quick bite when we go to Copatillo? Dude, it is insane food. Insane food. It's there. Is Ahn there?
Speaker 03:Actually, I don't see him. This is one of our accounts.
Speaker 02:Oh, shoot. I think they need more. Huh? I think they need more. They're running low. Oh,
Speaker 03:okay, okay. Yeah. This was one of our early accounts in Saigon. You know, you can see them in the fridge right there. Yeah, they're going through probably about five cases. They'll be easily one of our top on-premise accounts. And, you know, Ahn's just been a really early supporter. for us. So that's a great spot to be at.
Speaker 02:Like they, I remember she was, she straight up told us, she was just like, I'd rather sell you guys than Coke. And I was like, bro, that's crazy because everybody knows you can print money just having Coke there. Right. And she still does. But like half this, like we can see the shelves are half empty in the fridge. That's where our bottles are supposed to be, you know? Yeah,
Speaker 03:for sure. Okay. Well glad to hear it's doing well. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Amazing. Thank you. Good seeing
Speaker 04:you.
Speaker 02:Dang, bro.
Speaker 03:Dude,
Speaker 02:they're out, out. That's wild. They don't even have the pandans anymore.
Speaker 03:Yeah, you know, this is what it's all about at the end of the day. We originally wanted to open a restaurant. This restaurant is honestly pretty close to the one that I grew up in. Seeing my mom just work seven days a week and raise me all by herself, you know, it's about giving back to these restaurants and partnering with them. Like the hole in the walls are some of our favorites because it's that same grit, that hustle, that day-to-day grind that, you know, we bring to our business too.
Speaker 00:I love his new video he did Easy to remember Just
Speaker 02:kind of thematically