Motif

0:00Michael Zabar:Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42Michael Zabar:And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling and retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now let's dive into the new episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today I have Michael Zabar.

1:29Michael Zabar:He is the founder and CEO of Motif, which is a delicious new coffee syrup that I was able to be one of the earlier samplers for. And we'll dive into a fun collab that we did with one of my clients in a minute. But first, Michael, congratulations. You just recently launched. You sold out of your pre-launch sales. Just congratulations. This has all been happening fairly quickly. Thank you. Yeah, it's been a wild journey. Like getting a food product from idea to actually being made and into people's hands and starting to get their feedback. It's been a trip, but we're really excited that we're finally here.

2:16Michael Zabar:Amazing. So let's first dive into what is Motif. What was this white space you saw on the market? We'll dive into your family business in a minute for sure. But what were you seeing in the coffee syrup space that you're like, OK, I want to definitely create something here? Yeah. At a high level, Motif is a clean label flavored syrup for your daily coffee and tea. And a lot of syrups out there in the market, they're really high in sugar. They're full of artificial ingredients. And the white space we saw was it all started with me and my wife making coffee at home six days a week. And we were trying to find ways to make our coffee more interesting.

3:05We were adding vanilla bean paste. We were adding cinnamon and we wanted to add flavor and sweetness with that. But we also live a pretty healthy lifestyle and wanted to make sure that we weren't going overboard with any a lot of sugar or any kind of overly processed foods. And so we were making these really fun coffees. And then every weekend we go to a local coffee shop and try a pastry and a coffee. and we we started realizing there wasn't a lot out there like what we were making uh and at every coffee shop you'll find two one of like two or three a small handful of brands and these syrups they have a ton of added sugar a lot of artificial ingredients or they have zero sugar but they're they're sweetened with uh something that gives it a bit of this like kind of chemical taste Right.

3:57And we came home and we we went on online and like look to see what else was out there in the market. And we just like we found there really was this white space. We really couldn't find anything out there that really kind of fit what we were looking for. And I started talking to customers and people who were like, yeah, I I would love to have a cleaner label, naturally flavored syrup with with no artificial colors, with no artificial flavors. but it just, it didn't feel like there really was something like that out there. And that's when we decided to start Motif.

4:33Michael Zabar:So cool. So what exactly is your background? Because I know Zabar, I mean, that's a very sought after name here in New York City as one of the, you know, legendary legacy retailers here. But what was your work prior to starting Motif? So most of my career has been in e-commerce and tech. Various roles in tech, analytics, marketing. My last role in corporate was in strategy and operations at Walmart. So I did a couple of years on the Walmart e-commerce business and then a couple of years in the Walmart Plus membership business and helping to grow those businesses. So that's what I had been doing for about four years post business school.

5:22But while I was at Walmart, that's when I came up with this idea for Motif. And then you mentioned Zaybars. If you go back 20 years, actually, my first job 20 years ago was scooping coffee by the pound for customers at Zaybars. So cool. Yeah. My dad sent me to the middle school office the day I turned 14 to go get my working papers so I could go start working at Zabar's legally. Right, right, right. And, and that's like Zabar's, you mentioned, it's, it's an iconic New York institution when it comes to food. And they sell 8 ,000 pounds of coffee every week. So coffee is like a meaningful business there.

6:03Michael Zabar:8 ,000 pounds of coffee a week. Yeah, it's wild. And I, I grew up around serving customers and under learned about what goes into a great cup of coffee. And so fast forward to now, I kind of always had this pull to come back to food and beverage. And it wasn't until I came up with this idea that I was like, this is the thing I'm going to leave corporate to go do. What a full circle moment. Absolutely. Yeah. Wow. I love it. I love the family connection and also your own personal path and your then entrepreneurial spirit to bring it all together in your own way. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's it does feel like I have a fun, slightly differentiated founder story there.

6:56Michael Zabar:Absolutely. It's something that caught my attention, too. When I started following you on social, I was like, oh, wait, that's cool. I love that full circle moment. And you mentioned your founder story. You've been doing a great job of showing up, telling your story, bringing people along in the build. I know you just sold out of your pre-sale. What has been your strategy as far as telling your story and really helping build the buzz around your launch? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everyone talks about how they want to come along for the founder journey. And I appreciate you saying that you feel like I did a good job of that because there are moments where I felt like I could have told more.

7:44But it's like food. Kelly, you work with food founders all the time and you see the challenges that come with trying to get a physical product into the world and at every step.

7:55Michael Zabar:Not for the faint of heart, it's for sure. Whether it's packaging or manufacturing or recipe development. There's always road bumps and it's a process, but I wanted to bring people along for that journey and get people excited for this thing because that's how you build a brand. That's how you build a community. And you're not going to find success if you just kind of launch and all of a sudden say, hey, I have this product and no one came along for the journey. Right. No, I am a big supporter of founder-led and building in public for most brands. And I think with CPG Food and Beverage, by and large, there's such a fun opportunity because there are so many moving parts, like you said, from branding to formulation, manufacturing, launching in retail.

8:46Michael Zabar:There's just so many things that honestly make for great content and really show people that they could trust who's behind it and the product that they are consuming too. Yeah. And you were even talking a little bit before about storytelling. Like there's so many founders who do such an incredible job of telling their stories. And when I was first starting out, I knew I wanted to tell my story. And I asked her out, who are some founders who are doing a good job of telling that story? And fun little anecdote, one of those people was PJ Montes, uh, and Monty sauce. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and I think he's done an incredible job of kind of like telling his family story and how this was like his family tomato sauce recipe, but very clearly kind of went out and started his own brand and his own tomato sauces, right.

9:41Pasta. Uh, and I, I met him a few weeks after I first started following his content. And funny enough, he was like, I just opened a coffee shop. Uh, I had been looking for a cleaner, lower sugar syrup. If you make me a pistachio syrup, like I would love to have a pop-up and help you launch. So I literally was like planning on launching with three flavors. I was like, nope, we're adding pistachio.

10:05Michael Zabar:And I'm gonna be working with PJ and having that pistachio syrup in his coffee shop. That is really cool. And so I didn't even know he opened a coffee shop. I'll definitely have to check it out. It is the M Jeweler on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. Cool. It's very New York and very PJ. He's like, I have a friend. They own this jewelry shop. They let me open a coffee shop in their store. So it's like a business within a business. Obsessed. Yeah. As someone from Long Island, I love stuff like that. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. And so for you, I know that you sold out, like I said, pre-launch. congrats huge also um a client of mine frankly good coffee we did a collab with motif at prefix that happened in january at the moss and oset who is the founder of prefix she's been on the podcast too such an incredible person and we did a craft cocktail we did a vanilla espresso martini and I'll be honest, I don't even like espresso martinis.

11:17Michael Zabar:And I could have had 10. I had to pace myself like it was so good. Yeah, so delicious. And I remember drinking have like, damn, okay, this is cool. I'm just it tasted amazing. Yeah, it was a really fun recipe to come up with. Frankly, good makes a fantastic espresso roast. And so they sent me a bag of the coffee we started playing around with our syrups and decided the vanilla syrup was was right for this recipe uh it's one of the recipes on our website brewmotif.com uh oh cool okay really really happy with how that recipe came out and we we market this as for your daily cup of coffee or tea at home but the the applications of this syrup like it can be in cocktails like we were saying you can write ice cream i literally tried putting on my pancakes the other day and was like really happy with how the cinnamon baka syrup tasted on pancakes that does sound really good but another funny story about that pre-fee event uh and i don't think el said even knows this but like i got in touch with her back last summer i think she was communicating that she was starting to source brands for her 2026 events and this was like summer 2025 and i was like i want to i want to be involved, but I didn't have a product.

12:39And for months, she kept being like, Hey, I'm ready to try the samples when they're ready. But I was literally still in development of my flavors with these food scientists I was working with and kept being like, yeah, yeah. Like soon they'll be ready soon. And, uh, but it was, I needed that kind of due date of that, that event, uh, really kind of work backwards from and say, okay, no matter what, by, by January 13th, I need to have the vanilla of syrup in hand for this cocktail and I need to have cinnamon vodka in hand for, for the gift bags for all the guests that come to the event. So, uh, we're very much kind of building the ship as we flew it.

13:14And, um, yeah, behind the scenes that a lot kind of held together with scotch tape, but we got it done.

13:20Michael Zabar:You got it done and it turned out awesome. There was great buzz around it too. So now that you've nailed the formulation, you're working on expanding manufacturing, you are starting to soon fulfill pre-launch orders what is the vision for the rest of the year what are some things that you're really excited about or looking forward to building yeah it's it's a great question um i i've told people that i until three weeks ago when we launched our site i was just kind of like singularly focused on getting to this point of like actually having a product in hand and getting people's hands and starting to get more feedback on it.

14:04Like we started working with some food scientists and then we went on to work with a manufacturer when we were a co-man, when we were ready to start like ramping up production. But we're like, as you mentioned, we're just still kind of getting our production or supply to a point where we can service these pre-orders that we got on our website. So try not to think too far ahead because this is like that moment we were so excited to get to right it's like getting the product into people's hands getting feedback on it because we're it's still relatively small batches and we're still trying to figure out like for the cinnamon baka is it cinnamon enough you know it's like right right about that my wife has opinions about that but now we're finally getting customer feedback and kind of modifying and tweaking the the recipes accordingly so that was that's been like our kind of main focus up until now we're really excited to be there um and then yeah you we've talked a little bit about food founders like ramping up production that that's one of the biggest challenges and like finding that sweet spot of kind of growing at the right pace and right generating excitement but also not kind of like manufacturing at such a scale and so quickly that your your quality could suffer uh so really trying to make sure that we're we're doing it right we're growing organically in that way.

15:25But I've been thrilled with how much excitement we've been getting about this. And every day people are coming to me with suggestions on the recipes or the package format. And I'm like, I want to do all these things, but you got to go one day at a time.

15:39Michael Zabar:It was so funny. I was just talking to someone who reached out to potentially work with me. And he asked me, what are things that founders do that you think, unfortunately, like sets them up to fail. And I said, well, I do my damnedest to set them up for success. But I was saying that I really look for founders who have discernment, that they are discerning of who they listen to, what they implement, where they focus, where's their North Star. And to me, that's a really strong tell of a founder to then really take a product and to be able to scale it. So I love what you were just saying because it shows that you are focused on where you're going and making sure that you're building according to your values, your ethics, the standard of quality you want to bring to market.

16:35Michael Zabar:And I think so much in media and buzzy business headlines, it's like scale super fast and go at rapid speed. But I definitely want to have more of these conversations of having discernment of how you scale, really being mindful with how you manufacture, making sure you're checking in with your quality control as you grow. And I appreciate you saying that. I think it's a really important thing that sometimes can get overlooked. Yeah. And I think you can also have two founders who have the same goal of getting into Whole Foods. but the when and how you do that could vary widely. And I feel like I, growing up around the food industry, I've just heard so many horror stories.

17:28And Kelly, I'm sure you've heard them too, of like people who just got too big too fast. They got that Whole Foods with that Target account and then they had to ramp up production 5X, 10X and they make one bad batch of yogurt

17:41Michael Zabar:and then Whole Foods drops them and then they go out of business. So I think it's an important lesson for everyone who like, don't get me wrong, I'm excited to grow, but have to kind of make sure we have those guardrails in place. The guardrails, yes. We don't do it in an unsustainable way. Don't overlook the guardrails. If you're listening to this, please don't overlook that. And that leads me to my last question of even though you're super early on and this is a very much an emerging brand, you have you've created a product. You have a real product in hand. It's in my pantry and you took your idea and now people are starting to shop a delicious syrup that you've made.

18:26Michael Zabar:What is a piece of advice you would share with someone who's maybe a few steps behind where you are right now? Maybe they're just very early on starting to think about formulation or they're just starting to think about their strategy and what will make their brand stand out in the marketplace. What piece of advice would you share with them? My biggest piece of advice for founders is to speak to as many other founders and industry experts as possible. Nicole Labman from She's the Sauce. You work with her, correct? Yes. Shout out to the Sauce Freak. I think that's her latest nickname. I got in touch with her last year.

19:08And funny enough, it all started with on Startup CPG, the Slack community. She posted that she was selling some bottles that I guess she bought and wasn't right for her product. And I reached out to her about it. And I didn't even end up buying the bottles off of her, but we got coffee. And I realized that she was a founder who was just a few months ahead of me. And she was a wealth of knowledge of like, and just telling me about things that good experiences she had, things to avoid. And I just have always found that the more founders I talked to, the more like big mistakes and pitfalls you avoid because you hear these stories.

19:50and like every business is different. So, but there are definitely some common themes of things that and learnings that you can get that are really, really valuable. And then on top of that, like her web developer, she actually referred me to him and I used the same developer to develop my website.

20:10Michael Zabar:Kevin, shout out to Kevin. Yeah, Kevin from I'm Off Design, great developer. And just, I think the biggest thing is this stuff's like not really Google-able. You know, it's not easy to find the right partner for your business early on. And a lot of it's through word of mouth. A lot of it, and like the more founders you talk to, the more industry experts like Kelly Bennett you meet, the more likely you are to get put in touch with that like one right partner. A thousand percent. I have a lot of people reaching out to me who've like hit the wall with chat, GPT. And they're like, I don't, I hit the wall.

20:47Michael Zabar:Like I got to the end of the internet. I don't know what to do. And I don't know if this is even good advice. So I love that you're saying that because it's true, especially in this niche CPG food and beverage community, even more so than other. I've worked in hospitality too and wellness. This in particular, it's really relationship building and relationship management and something that I think people overlook where maybe in other industries, it didn't really matter. This one in particular, it's very much with how you move about and who you connect with and connecting with the right people. So I'm really glad that you just touched on that too.

21:27And I also wouldn't underestimate like it's wild how many people you know through just a few degrees of separation that work in relevant spaces. like I uh I had referrals from my older brother's best friend to the food scientist I work with because he had started a natural food brand five ten years ago um I found my first co-manufacturer because I connected with someone from my first job who left the tech world to go start heatness the hot sauce purveying company uh my label providers are like I used to live in Austin Texas for a couple of years. I met some, like a friend of a friend there. His family has a family business in Dallas that's in the label printing and like sticker business.

22:14And so it's like, I've, I've over time found all these great partners who, to, who were the right partners for me starting out. And it was really just kind of tapping into anyone and everyone that I might know.

22:26Michael Zabar:Which is a great piece of advice too, of not being shy and being like, Hey, I got this idea. Yeah. And I think, you know, anyone that I could talk to? Yeah. And it's so easy to think like you have this idea and you need to protect it and you don't want to tell anyone about it because you don't want it stolen or you it's not ready. But I yeah, I say go talk to as many people as you can because that's how you're going to find those right partners starting out. I agree. I agree. And last question is where can people join the wait list for the next round of motif yeah so we're ramping up production but if you go to brewmotif.com uh that's our website on any item page for any syrup that you're interested in there's somewhere where you can input your email to get notifications of when that item's back in stock uh but that's like our number one goal right now is getting our production to a point where we can start selling again on our website um and then brewmotif that is our handle on social on instagram and tiktok as well and then if you're interested in trying to find us in real life we will have a store tracker and we can probably put the link to that in the in the episode notes perfect but like we are going to start getting our product into more grocery stores and coffee shops and so if you want to find this product in the real world and try try before you buy well you'll be able to find that information on the store finder page as well amazing and i'll make sure everything is linked and just congratulations again thank you kelly you created a very cool product yeah we're really excited with how the flavors and the brand netted out and now it's get it into people's hands and start getting feedback from from our customers but i appreciate you taking the time also to have me on your podcast this is a lot of fun this is one of my first podcasts and well you did great yeah Yeah, thank you.

24:20Michael Zabar:I love it. Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for listening. Go check out Motif and I'll see you on the next episode. Bye. This episode was brought to you by Glimpse. As we know, building a brand is not as sexy and glamorous as it looks on social media at times. A lot of those unsexy problems come into play when brands start to scale in retail distribution. Founders are always incredibly excited to see their products on shelves at major retail chains, but they don't realize all the hard work that starts to begin. Retailers and distributors are known for their processes of deducting amounts from invoices.

25:04Michael Zabar:Most of the time, those are totally valid. Promos, slotting fees, free fills, and all the things that brands agree to to be part of the retail experience. But sometimes those deductions are invalid, costing brands thousands to millions in fees. Actually finding those needles in the haystack though and fighting to win back lost revenue, it's a costly, manual, and time-consuming issue. And that's where Glimpse comes in. Glimpse is an AI-powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most, scaling their businesses.

25:57Michael Zabar:With a team of in-house deduction experts who come from some of the most successful and profitable CPG companies and custom built AI with 100 % accuracy and precision. You'll recover money that you never should have had leaked in the first place. If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Thank you again for listening to this episode of the Emerging Brands Podcast. It really means so much to me that you listen to this show, share it with your friends and support it. If you are a CPG food and beverage founder and you're ready to launch a brand, people want to shop, head to withkellybennett.com for the details.

26:50Michael Zabar:And as always, thank you so much for listening, shopping the brands featured on the show and following brands I'm working with. It means so much. See you on the next episode.