1 minute read
Letter from the Founder
DEAR COMMUNITY,
Startup CPG was born out of a desire to help brands start up easier, faster, and with access to the best resources. Today we launch a new platform with the first issue of our digital publication, The Spotlight.
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Our organization still feels brand new. It’s hard to imagine that we had our very first meetups in late 2019 — so much has changed since then. In early 2020 when in-person events were no longer possible, we quickly pivoted to become the first online national CPG community. Hoping to help brands adversely impacted by delays in resets, we built resources to offload excess inventory, connect with e-commerce sites, and find 3PLs. To foster community, we hosted bi-weekly mixers where everyone got to connect via small breakout rooms. To support brands where it matters most (funding, press coverage, and distribution), we launched Pitch, which sent samples directly to VIP audiences and awarded 100K in prizes. We launched Spotlight as a blog in early 2020 to highlight brands and experts. That first coverage you get as a brand can mean so much, and we hope to continue to help brands achieve that through this magazine.
A year later, we now reach over 20,000 CPGers. As we continue to grow, so does our value. Emerging brand founders now get access to a network even larger than the massive CPGs. Through our Slack channel, even the most obscure questions rarely go unsolved, and we love seeing the major connections happening as our community finds their co-founder, connects with a buyer, or gets much needed support on a hard day.
This publication marks just another step forward in our journey to help brands working toward a better food system. We hope that you learn about a new brand, get inspired by an incredible founder journey, and gain wisdom from experts across the industry.
We thank all of you for building this community with us. We’re so proud of all that we can accomplish together, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Forward together,
Daniel Scharff Founder, Startup CPG
Daniel Scharff is the Chief Executive Officer of a venture-backed, Miami based beverage launching in Q4. Formerly Eat Just, Mars Chocolate, and Deloitte Consulting, he's a Wharton MBA/MA (Spanish/Portuguese), and the lead singer/frontman of the Super Fantastics, an indie pop quartet releasing their debut album in May '21.
