Cadence

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. This is the podcast to discover stories behind your new favorite CPG brands. Each episode brings you behind the scenes of the brand and founder story, learn what sets them apart in the marketplace, and their strategy going to market. We talk about plans for growth, practical advice for an emerging brand founder, and where to shop products that are making waves in food, beverage, wellness, beauty, and beyond. You'll also hear from industry experts, brand builders, investors, and operators you should absolutely have on your radar if you're building a CPG brand today.

0:44I'm your host, Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist with a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out. Whether you're building a brand of your own or love supporting what's next, you're in the right place. This episode was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands that drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and captures competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients that you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details.

1:28Now, let's dive into the new episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, I am with Steph Hahn. She is the founder and CEO of Cadence, which you've probably seen on my Instagram because I've been using her products for all of my vitamins and supplements whenever I'm traveling. This is in my makeup bag. So Steph, I'm so happy to have you on the show.

2:00Steph Hon:Thanks so much for having me, Kelly. You're so welcome. For anyone who isn't familiar yet with Cadence, can you give us the backstory of what is Cadence? Yes. Cadence is the brand that hopefully allows you to be present and in the moment, wherever you are, knowing you have all the things you need right there with you. So what we do is we connect the dots between the places you go and the products you love that make you feel most yourself. So that could be skincare, supplements, food, anything that is part of your normal day-to-day routine that you just don't want to leave behind. So we started our brand with our capsule system.

2:46Steph Hon:So if people have seen the magnetic refillable travel containers, we hear that a lot. I've seen those, the hexagonal magnetic objects on my social media feed. That is our first product system. So those are basically a modernized version of a travel container. I don't even like that sentence because it just brings it back to such a low place. But at the end of the day, it holds your liquids and personal care items in an incredibly durable and robust container that magnetically connects to each other, has a completely customizable and personalized label system so that you can toss it in your bag and truly never ever worry about can I put this chemical exfoliating peel in it?

3:41Steph Hon:Can I toss this in my bag and know that it without a doubt won't leak and explode? And will it look really beautiful on my counter wherever I am going? So such a good point, such a good point, because I am someone who needs things to look aesthetic. and my girlfriend's always the one to remind me of, okay, but does this function well? And I feel like your product is a really great meet in the middle of that. It looks chic, it looks beautiful, even the color ways that you have and also that it works really well and it stacks really nicely and it functions the way it needs to function. Well, I appreciate that.

4:29Steph Hon:That is exactly what we want to hear and how we design. Like good design is not possible without being incredibly functional and also incredibly sustainable. But at the end of the day, the number one thing is it has to solve a problem that currently is not solved and exists. So I'm happy to hear that it looks good on your counter. Yes, it does. It does. And something that you touched upon too of products that you don't want to leave home without. So from your supplements to your skincare to even food, what made you want to create a more modern version of travel containers and something that you hadn't seen?

5:13What was your background prior to Cadence?

5:17Steph Hon:My background was actually in both dance, so as a prior career and part of my life, and then the sports marketing world. So I would say even though it's not obvious, there is a through line from the dance world. I spent a lot of time directing others and bringing people together. So the pleasure of working with people who are very good at what they do and the magic of what you can create together, along with movement, like being really, really mindful around movement, how we touch and interact with objects and how that makes us feel. And then on the sports marketing side, I was on the road a lot with athletes.

6:03Steph Hon:So we would do marketing pieces for companies like Patagonia, Red Bull, the North Face. And so because I was on the road so much, I was seeing how other people traveled and brought their lives with them. and I myself was experiencing that pain point with my personal care. I saw the same problems reflected in others as they traveled and that's where the I have to solve this because there is absolutely no solution on the market because I had attempted to solve my own problem by buying everything out there and that then led to this realization of, wow, there's just really no great connect the dots in any realm of routine.

6:46Steph Hon:to bring those things with you in a way that makes you feel equally at home. I love how you connected the dots in what could seemingly appear to not have anything to do with each other, but the way that you explained it, it totally makes sense of how things move and how people move and also being on the go and wanting to then have a solution to a problem that you were seeing. So I think that always makes for such a great founder story of like, this sounds random, but it does make sense. And I personally feel that as a founder too. But what was the moment that made you say, okay, I'm going to do this.

7:32I'm going to figure out how to make this a product and a brand and a business. I would love to hear a little bit more of that step that you took next. Yeah.

7:45Steph Hon:So at the time, it was a time really, I guess, six years ago, six or seven years ago, where so many brands were launching. And I being a consumer myself was seeing how many more skincare brands can we have? Are they actually different? Are they bringing something of value to the marketplace? And feeling like very bummed out by the products I was buying. It just felt like, where is a sense of quality anymore? Like it seems like business is coming before longevity and quality. And I don't think any good business can truly be a long-term healthy one if it's not solving a real problem. And people were inventing problems to solve.

8:34Steph Hon:And so when I recognize, when I recognize, why can I not solve this? Like I spent hours, I can't even tell you hours in my bathroom, just as a person trying to decant my personal care products that I spent a lot of time and money picking and choosing into these$3, you know, bottles that I would end up throwing out because you can't properly clean it. And after buying everything possible, recognizing, wow, this actually truly is a problem. I got really inspired by that. Like, oh, it's a problem that's left over, you know, in a sea of people who are inventing this, not even inventing, they're they're editing, they're duplicating and replacing.

9:21Steph Hon:For us, it felt like a really special opportunity to identify something that truly hadn't been solved. And I got extra excited because I think, I think, and now I know that the reason it hadn't been solved is because the solution is really complex. I mean, all of our products are patented. And so I think people probably started and went, oh, this is really hard, or it's going to be really expensive and not possible. And so the idea of solving something that other people might think is incredibly challenging or impossible was extra energizing. I love how you reframe that also a marking of a good entrepreneur that's like yep most people are saying no at this point so I'm gonna double down right I feel like that's part of being a founder and entrepreneur like you have to use the things that usually make people say no to make you say hell yeah right and so something that you touched upon I feel like the listeners will be interested in learning is the patenting process.

10:28Like, did you think that that was really important to do for the brand? Or you felt like that was a way to protect the brand from people who would be, you know, selling a dupe? I would love to hear your thought process of how you went about that. And just because it is a big investment of just like the why behind you wanting to do that.

10:54Steph Hon:Yeah, it's funny you bring that up around being a big investment because it is. And at the time, I was self-funding everything. I quit my full-time job. And I remember emailing back and forth with a patent attorney just going, you're going to take the last$5 ,000 I have to my name to do this. But it felt just so important. It felt important because we actually had something to patent, and that is rare. And so it just, at the time, it seemed like a no brainer, even though I had no money really. And, and as other founders do max out like five to eight credit cards to fund the company. And I just, we did it and I'm so glad that we did.

11:38Steph Hon:Um, because, you know, at the end of the day, it's, I think, um, a sign of a good product if something is patented and we're proud of that. I would say from a business perspective, ultimately it's about is the product unique and a challenge to make? You know, people are going to copy your product anyway. We have, we actually five years in just had our first dupes. We've been playing around with them. We, it was funny to, to get a fake version of your product in the mail, but you can actually pull them apart with your hand so again why they are dupes right but what i think is exciting and has been exciting for us is it took five years um to copy us because it's actually very complex to make so i think at the end of the day a patent is a nice to have but at the end of the day it's about is your product actually a challenge to manufacture to make did you make it from scratch and so that i think speaks more, but they normally go hand in hand.

12:41Something also that you just mentioned in the design of a product that you can patent and doing something that hasn't been done before. You have a really cool background, but I didn't hear product design. How did you start figuring that aspect out? it?

13:01Steph Hon:Yes. You know, I'm very lucky that I am our target customer. And ultimately, the business started because of the problem that I had, not because I wanted to build a business or to make money. And so because of that, I know what I need. And we, of course, stay close to our customers, paired with my inability to see walls as a reason to stop. As you said, I get excited when I hear, oh, it hasn't been done before or it's impossible. Well, great. Perfect. I'm sure we can figure this out too. But I feel very grateful to, I run a cadence, our product team, our product innovation team and our creative team.

13:50Steph Hon:So I have a very strong gut instinct around how someone will interact with the product, but honestly, most importantly, the problem someone has. Decisions like, okay, this needs to be easy to open, but 100 % locked. That's why the top doesn't flip open versus a screw top. Or, hey, it's normal that someone is going to have 15 capsules and containers. You know, when you look at all the bundles out there, it's people are choosing things for you. And because I knew what my pain points were around, I wanted a beautiful label, not a handwritten Sharpie on a silicone bottle. A thousand percent. Yeah, I want to be able to put my nice oil in a bottle, but silicone is porous and absorbed.

14:36Steph Hon:So I think, you know, I don't know how I would do being a founder of a company that I, you know, wouldn't use the product of. So I'm just oriented around how can we solve the problems that already exist. And I feel so grateful I get to spend my time with our small product team in Brooklyn. But, you know, it's so much about intuition and feel and that's so fun and exciting. Again, another really important piece of the entrepreneurial puzzle of listening to that intuition and going with your gut and being curious to figuring it out. something that you mentioned way earlier in the episode that I would love to come back to is that people were saying oh I've seen this on my Instagram you have done a great job and your marketing team has done a great job of getting this on the radar of consumers who are traveling who do care about what products they use who want to bring the the tried and trues with them wherever they go.

15:43What was your strategy around going to market and bringing something new to this

15:49Steph Hon:kind of like boring space of like, right, like pill bottles or something? You know, it's like not super exciting, but you've made it chic and cool. I would love to hear your point of view of the strategy of bringing this to the market. Yeah, it's fun to think back to those early days. I'm both envious for the simplicity of it, but also it feels like a long, long time ago and so much early struggles to launch a company. I think, I mean, really to be transparent, like my focus is on building an amazing product. And that's where I spent 90 % of the time building the brand, building the product that came very like intuitively to me and you know we had a little early team that you know helped bring that to to life go to market happened in an interesting organic way um it was basically me our mechanical engineer who's living in a van in my driveway Graham he's still with us five years later I love that whole setup no longer in the van and you know we just posted on our personal Instagrams and we are not influencers we have like 3 ,000 followers like it was very just real in terms of our very small community and what we found on launch day is people had been following for months just people had been seeing the late nights at the office the product trials, the stress of, you know, how do you buy lunch on a budget, like silly things like that.

17:40Steph Hon:And on launch day, we had a huge launch day. We did like 10K in day one with zero spend and our tiny community and our little Instagram following. And so that really inspired so much decision making to come and it's why at cadence even now it's just like how can we just show what we are and who we are like we're a team of people who is like weirdly obsessed with everything that we do and we all really like each other and like it's cool to be able to share that with people and not because it's not like curated i don't know if other founders are living like a totally different reality than me or they're just putting the best stuff out there but when I look at their feeds I'm like we are living two completely different lives like this is crazy to think about and and it's fun to just share that part with our community and actually just share how how much time and energy we spend on the product because people say it a lot of people say it's like a hot thing now is show us your team or show us your right building in public And it's like, how much time do you really spend thinking about product?

18:54Steph Hon:Or do you spend more time out in public events? I don't know. But every founder and company has their own special sauce. I just know what ours is. And it's fun to be able to share that with our community. And I think in a world where so many products are lackluster, people like seeing the behind the scenes. So it's just been a way - A thousand percent. So I would love to ask your advice on sharing as you were building the brand, because you were mentioning not a influencer, but you were also, it sounds like, pushing yourself to share. And even though it wasn't this over-the-top campaign, it really got the job done, which I think is even cooler.

19:42so what advice would you share with a founder who's maybe in the really early stages getting ready for a pre-launch launch and they have a maybe personal following or they started sharing a little bit from their brand but anything that you found content wise or maybe just sharing wise that really resonated with people so that they wanted to buy day one

20:09Steph Hon:I think it's share the moments in between. It's not about, I think people are less interested in, hey, I'm at a fancy hotel having a meeting and more like, I mean, if this is the reality of it, like I'm on a budget because I'm not making any salary. Pret has the best$5 tuna sandwiches or Or, hey, I'm at our factory and we've been up for, you know, until 2 a.m. trying to solve this problem. Or, oh, we just ran into this roadblock. Our packaging is delayed. What are we going to do? We're figuring it out real time. I think people value transparency and realness. And they want to know what that is.

20:53Steph Hon:It's kind of interesting, right? Or, hey, we can't come up with the name for our color. We're stumped. what do you think? Here are the top three things. So that's what I, I wouldn't do anything massively different. I would probably just do the same thing. And if anything, try and figure out ways to get even closer to our community. And I think a lot of that happens organically too. Cause when I started, I asked every friend to introduce me to 10 friends. And then I would interview them about their pain points and the product. And then those people would end up following along. And I mean starting Cadence, like so many people helped.

21:33Steph Hon:Like I am infinitely grateful to just the kind people who just had like one conversation with me or the friends who stepped up and in our time of need helped us fulfill orders during holiday. I mean, it truly was so many kind people like seeing what we were doing and going like, oh my God, like sure, I'll help or I'll get on a call with you. And like those people then end up being part of, in a way, an extended cadence family. And so they end up following along and sharing. So it's very much a community built from day one. I love that. And something that I always share as a brand strategist working with so many emerging brands, really encouraging people to talk to other people, especially in the beginning, and where I think so many founders get really in their head of like, I don't want to talk about it because maybe it's not ready or perfect or I feel awkward.

22:32I really am obsessed with this, but I don't know if they like it. And it's so personal. It's like such a vulnerable place to be. So thank you for sharing that because I'm sure there is someone listening that's like, fine, I'll do it. I'll ask people what they think about the product or sample it or taste it or try it. So I really appreciate you sharing that transparency.

22:59Steph Hon:Of course. I mean, I feel like being a founder means you have to be really good at asking for help. I mean, I'm also very bad at asking for help with my own team, which I'm always working on. Right. But also just how do you reach out to everyone you know and just put ideas out there. I always think back to team. Like finding an early team was so overwhelming. Like I went to liberal arts school? Where do I find an engineer? I have no idea. And I just, it sounds so unhelpful hearing me even say it, but just like literally telling everyone, you know what and who you're looking for has served me so well over the years and helped me find so much of my team.

23:42Steph Hon:And so yeah, just asking and being kind of shameless about it is paramount. And knowing what you're looking for and who or what you need to ask for. I think that's also part of your intuition. And once you get a good sense of when you're listening and you're being observant and curious, getting into the cadence, pun intended, but not really pun intended, but like getting into the cadence of building a brand and then having a really good sense of who you need to connect with next and then putting it out there right um that is such a big part of building a brand that I don't think many people talk about but I'm so glad that you did because it's a really important aspect of this whole thing that we're doing okay last question before I let you go back to every cool thing that you're building right now where can people shop Cadence?

24:42Yes.

24:43Steph Hon:So our website is always my top recommendation since you can build your own custom system, which most people do. So that's keepyourcadence.com. And if you are looking to just throw it in with your Amazon order and you want to just give us a try, dip your toe in the water, we are on Amazon. So you can get a preset bundle if you don't want to think too hard about it. And you can follow us and follow our story on Keep Your Cadence on Instagram and TikTok. We're always posting product testing videos, team fun behind the scenes that just show kind of our day to day. So we always are happy when people ask us questions and join us on our journey.

25:34Awesome. Thank you so much again for sharing your story. This was such a great conversation and thank you everyone for listening. I'll see you on the next episode. This episode of the Emerging Brands podcast was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands to drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and capture competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients and one you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details. If you're new here, hi, I'm Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist working with first-time CPG food and beverage founders.

26:21I have a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out because you're not just building a product, you are building a brand. And you want to make sure that is one that consumers love and retailers remember. That's where I come in. I've recently advised brands like Frankly Good Coffee, She's the Sauce, a new non-alcoholic cocktail line that's coming to market soon, and a hormone-conscious deodorant because food-adjacent brands count too. If you are bringing a new product to market, please reach out at withkellybennett.com. Thank you so much for listening and sharing. You can follow me on Instagram at withkellybennett and you can follow the show at Emerging Brands Podcast.

27:09Thank you again and I'll see you on the next episode.