#234 - Startup CPG's Expo West 2026 Preview

0:02Friends, did you know that a party has been going on this whole time with 35 ,000 people and you're invited? It's our Startup CPG Slack. You hear about it all the time on here. And if you haven't yet joined in, this is your moment. Take out your phone, type in startupcpg.com, and then click to join our community. You'll be at the party. You'll hear about all our events. You'll get in front of buyers, investors, brands, whatever's most important to you. We have such big plans ahead, but you got to be in the community to hear about all of it. See you on the Slack.

0:53I think like being a founder can be very lonely and there are so many struggles and you think that you're going from a unique situation but then when you meet other founders you're like okay I'm not crazy like I got 10 no's from this retailer so I guess it's fine because then And maybe on the next email, I'm going to get a yes. So you just hear from other founders their struggles as well. And I think that's what is the beautiful thing of our dinners. Well, Startup CPG listeners, it's here. It's really here. It is time for Expo West, our favorite time of the year. We're so excited to see so many of you in Anaheim.

1:30And if you're going, you definitely should listen to this episode where we're telling you all the stuff that is happening before and during the show. You're going to want to know about things that you can apply to if you're a brand, events that you should be at, where the buyers are going. We're going to talk about all of that stuff today. I am here with Patricia, who is our head of community events and marketing. So excited about the week and just to tell you so that you don't miss out on any of the very special events and opportunities that we've got. So listen in. Even if you're not going, you'll know at least what you should have FOMO about.

2:03And I can't wait to see all of you there. All right, here we go.

2:11It's the best time of the year. It's the best time of the year. Patricia, it is the best time of year. What time of year is that? Expo West. It's Expo West. Let's not pretend like it isn't the most exciting thing that happens in this industry. Every year, I always look forward to it. I think I think about the year more in terms of how far away we are from Expo West instead of the seasons or what month we're in, anything like that. And it's so exciting. Why is it so exciting? I think just if you're a brand, you know why, because there's so much stuff that can happen that can make or break the brand there.

2:49I mean, just so many buyers there, but it's just fun, right? You get, it's like the one time you get to see everybody. What do you look forward to the most? Yeah, for sure. I think that also the idea of bringing basically the entire community together in one place, I think it's really cool because we get to know so many founders, so many service providers in our community, so many buyers. It's just a place like we can go and hang out and, of course, try all the new amazing brands out there. Or I just go to booths that are brands I already love and just keep snacking the entire day. So it's definitely the best time of the year.

3:29Yeah, go to all those brands that you're familiar with, see what's new. so many people launching new flavors, new product lines. And I just have to say, one thing that I really appreciate about this community is I used to go to Expo West when I just worked for a brand. I was some guy who worked at a brand, not even the person who would be behind the booth, but I was insights and it was good for me to be there to see what was new. But no one wanted to talk to me and I didn't know anybody. And it was kind of sad and lonely because you walk around, you're not a buyer. So brands at their booths are like, great, maybe get out of here.

4:00you know we're right here trying to talk to the buyer and then you're just kind of hoping that maybe you'll run into the couple people you know in the industry and maybe then you can meet their friends and get to network a little bit now when we go to expo our community is so big and so tight and people have helped each other throughout the whole year on the slack channel that it feels like a camp reunion and we like to host all the fun stuff in our section and all these events we i guess this is the fifth year now that we're doing really large-scale events at the show and for me it is just a joyful community reunion the one time a year we all really get to just see each other around this very exciting show doesn't it feel like that to you it does for sure i remember first time that we went to i think expo east was the first time i ever went with you and it was so lonely i was like walking around i was like i don't know anyone and just walking by yourself and trying things is not as fun as trying with like someone that you know and you can talk about it and just like re-meet people that you already know and then Expo West yeah it is our fifth year and we started without a section was just a party I think we had some like room meetings downstairs at the hotel was like very hidden but look at us now we have a whole section with amazing brands so many parties and dinners happening and it's gonna be great I'm sure Well, let's get right to it.

5:29So today's episode, we're just going to be telling you about all of the activity that we have going on, which is a lot. So let's just jump right into it. And we have Patricia here who runs our events and community and marketing and all the good stuff. So she definitely has the inside info about everything that we are planning, even though she just got back from her maternity leave. She is already caught up. So here we go. All right. So Expo is going to be your second baby here, Patricia, as we have to make sure that it all goes well. It should be easier than your actual baby, though. It's going to take my night's off sleep as well.

6:04Baby and Expo-esque. And if you're extra nice to Patricia, maybe you get to meet her baby at Expo. So we'll see. Yeah, we'll be there. Our Expo actually starts before Expo this year because for the first time on Monday, we are throwing a really exciting event. Can you tell everyone about it? Yeah, for sure. So we are throwing a grocery run with Gelsons. So we are calling Gelsons 2.0 because we did host one last year. We had a lot. It was like actually a very packed venue. So this year we are getting a bigger venue, more rent sampling. The Gelsons team, it's like they are amazing. They spend the entire night there talking to everyone after the panel.

6:45So the grocery run with Gelson's is going to happen on the Monday before the show starts in LA in the Venice area. So if you come early to enjoy in LA on the weekend, you can go to our grocery run and then head to Expo just to have like a nice break before the craziness start. Yes. And I love doing it with Gelson's. When I was on the brand side, we were obsessed with getting into Gelson's. It is such a tastemaker retailer, especially if you're interested in SoCal, which so many brands are. Gelson's is part of the ecosystem of Southern California in general. Some of their stores are the most epic stores you've ever seen.

7:25It's incredible. And we were really blown away by the event last year. They brought their entire buying team, Rich Gilmore and everybody, and even the CEO of Gelson's came to this event as well. And we did this awesome panel. They tried every single brand that was sampling there. And then as they knew they would get swarmed after the panel and everyone realized who was which buyer. And they were so great to actually talk to every single person who waited in line to talk to them. And I remember Kristen, who is the beverage buyer, I was just like, I'm going to bring you a chair because I can see that there's a line of 12 people waiting to talk to you right now.

8:02And it keeps getting longer. And she just tried every single one of those products. And we've heard of so many people getting into Gelson's from that event. It was really magical. We indeed did get a little feedback that maybe get a bigger venue next time because there's a lot of people who wanted to come to that event. It sold out. It was just great. But yes, this time we are going to pony up for a bigger, beautiful space, especially because I think we will have a lot of the expo crowd coming in once they realize this is their chance to chat with the Gelson's team. Right? Yeah, exactly. So we just launched the event break.

8:37Make sure you grab your tickets. We did so that last year. Like the wait list was very big. So I know we said we got a bigger venue, but get your tickets early. I always get so many messages of people like, hey, I want to take a last minute. I'm like, I'm sorry, we can't do anything. And also make sure that you try to apply to all the opportunities we have to sample. I think Gels and Sim, they are amazing. And it's definitely a great chance for you to get in front of them. Yes, it is a no-brainer to apply to sample because, like, we don't really charge for that stuff. And it's your chance to actually get kind of a freebie booth and chance to sample for one of the most impactful retailers in the West.

9:19And it's just fun. Also, why wouldn't you want to? It's kind of an interesting thing about our events because they do always sell out. And for sure, every time we get so many messages and posts in the Slack, like, anyone have a ticket for this? And we really like we don't want it to happen to people who are in the community in the Slack. And we always do say like, hey, just so you know, if you're going to be sad when it sells out, this is the time to get your ticket because it's going to sell out. But still, people then wait and then it sells out and then they're sad. And there really is not a lot we can do at that point, because even I think people who are like, but I'm friends with them, they'll get me a ticket.

9:53Like we're friends with all of you. And so it's tough, but we really always recommend getting tickets to our event as early as possible because they mainly sell out these days because of the incredible, especially retailers who are joining for these events. And in case anyone's curious about how the sampling works, we launch a form where you apply to sample. Our goal is for deals to happen. We want people who are sampling to get picked up by the retailer or have the best chance of it. And so typically what we always prefer to do is we actually send the retailer all of the brands who applied to sample so that they can pick.

10:27Because we would really rather not be the ones picking because if they're picking, they're going to pick brands that are likely to be a better fit for their store. And then we'll communicate that back to the brands. So that is our preferred way of doing everything. And we are so sorry if you don't get picked to sample. We do sometimes get questions from brands like, hey, I didn't get picked a couple times. that is kind of how it works we do want to have opportunities for everybody but you can still come to the event and bring your product all of our events you should always have product with you i think sometimes people aren't sure they're like oh but like can i still have product with me and show it to people if i'm not sampling of course at our events we expect you to you should always have product with you and if you're a beverage brand it should be cold so hopefully that that explains a little bit patricia what do you think anything i missed yeah with just adding on top of that makes sure also you wear your brand swag for every event you go, especially if you don't have a table, because at least like you can still show off your brand, right?

11:27Logo or name. Like, so it's easy for people to see and recognize later, but definitely bring samples. Like everyone loves sample. Buyers will probably try your product if you try to talk to them there. So I think whatever, what Danielle just said is like a must. Every event brings samples. Ditch the business casual. and ramp up the brand swag formal. Just have lots of great brand swag. I think that's the main thing, because then it really just, people love the passion that everyone has around their brand, and that's a great way to always be reinforcing it. Maybe have some cool swag that will impress people.

12:02All right, so now getting into Expo properly. Actually, for the first time this year on Tuesday, more information is going to come around about this, but we are going to be doing a pitch slam, which is very exciting. You'll hear more about it with some really prominent retailers and a great partner of ours. So stay tuned in our Slack channel for details on that. It's going to be an incredible opportunity for any brands that are accepted for it. Then what you have heard about already probably is the first time we have done the kickoff dinner at Expo. Patricia, can you tell people a little bit about what is this kickoff dinner?

12:36Yeah, so it's going to be kind of like a multi-action dinner, if I can call that. But we will have like a dinner where it's just going to be people networking, hangout. Anyone can come, just grab a ticket and you can, service providers are welcome, brands. We have feature buyers as well. But then in the same venue, we have different smaller rooms where we are going to do the industry leaders dinner. We did host one last year that was the ops leader dinner. Danielle, you went to that. So maybe you can talk to us a little about this Ops Dinner and then the other dinners that are happening there.

13:18Well, yes. Thank you for the setup. We did do the Ops Leaders Dinner last year. It's very special. We are so lucky to have some incredible partners who work with us on creating these great opportunities. And so we did the Ops Leaders Dinner that, yeah, I mean, people apply to it and then they will end up choosing some of the attendees for it. But it's just a really wonderful chance to have a very beautiful meal together where we have one conversation around the table, Jeffersonian style. And everybody's so locked in, even though Expo is starting the next day. Everyone is just phones down, looking at each other, connecting, taking notes, jotting down follow ups.

13:56It's really beautiful. So we really are grateful to all of our partners for working with us on this industry leaders dinner. The venue. We have rented out the entire Anaheim White House. If you're like me, you did not know what that Anaheim White House was. It's buried in plain sight. It's on a main road. It is this gorgeous sort of Greco-Roman feeling estate. There's a huge house. There's a huge lawn, great rooms. So we'll have this big kickoff dinner that's happening along with cocktails down in the main lawn area with everybody congregating, see each other for the first time the night before Expo.

14:33and then a lot of people will stay for that main kickoff dinner that happens down there at the tables while the people who are part of the industry leader dinners will then go up into their determined rooms. Those industry leader dinners, they're pretty interesting. We have one that is for new to market brands. So people who are just getting into the market and ready to figure it out. We have sales leaders, ops leaders, e-commerce leaders, finance leaders, food service leaders, all sorts of leaders. And these are for people on the brand side as well as experts. It's a great conversation with the Ops one.

15:03It was just a lot of brands throwing out really tough problems that they had and experts solving them right on the spot. It was just very beautiful. And as always, we invite some of our VIP friends to come and join in on the fun. I know for this dinner, we already have a bunch of buyers coming. We have Ahold and their giant group also. Whole Foods is coming. A lot of people are coming. It is going to be very beautiful. and it's going to sell out. In fact, it's not that far from selling out now. So I would grab a ticket to that right away if you're interested in going because you will be missing out if you're not there.

15:40It's a really special new event format. It's a smaller event for us as well. It's just going to be, I think, 300 people or so. So it already is getting there. So definitely grab your ticket for that. Just to add really quick, maybe you'll be like, oh, you know, it's the day before Expo. I want to rest and get ready for the show but this is also a place where then you can go and just meet new friends as I was talking before like oh I walked the show the first time that I went it was lonely I didn't know anyone like if we had a dinner like that maybe the night before like you know you can meet people then you can walk the show together and of course like learn from each other if you go to the leaders dinner because the conversations are great but even if you don't go to the leaders dinner it's just as i said a great place for you to already meet people in person and then the next day you're not just feeling lost because like 80 000 people in one room is great but it's overwhelming and it's really a lot of what we've always talked about doing which is we want to be a place where you can find your friends to walk the show with and it's great even if you come to expo by yourself come to one of our events make a friend go walk with them and then you'll meet their friends and they'll meet your friends and it's just nice to have company in this big industry of ours.

16:57So, and also just, I think a good time to say like, if you don't know us, if you don't know anyone who's in Startup CBG, you should come to our events because I'll tell you, this has always been true. Patricia, we've worked together a long time. Every single one of our parties we talk about, we are the place where everybody should feel welcome. If you come by yourself and you don't know a lot of people, probably someone from my team is going to swoop by and introduce themselves and see what you're up to and try to introduce you to people at the party. We actually send a note out, just so you know, to everyone at our big parties asking them to do the same thing, reminding them like that person who's by themselves, you should go and be nice to them and introduce yourself and introduce them to people.

17:37Not just because it's a nice thing to do, but by the way, you really never know who someone is and who they know and they might help you. And I've definitely made some incredible connections, just sticking my hand out and introducing myself. And it's always well-received and just we really want to be the place where people don't feel like it's a click or they have to know someone to come to the event because that's not who we are. So in case that speaks to you, I hope that will convince some of you like, yeah, I'm going to go to that by myself even. Okay. So getting to the big show, Patricia, the thing that we're most excited about is our section, right?

18:11It is a great section, just keeps getting bigger and better every year. We're so grateful to New Hope for having worked with us on sections for the longest time, actually going back to one of those first Expo East that we went to. That was actually one of our first sections. It just keeps getting better and better. Just so everyone knows, these are competitive sections to get in. We launched the applications very far in advance. There are a lot of applications, I think, because everybody knows we do absolutely everything possible to make it super productive for brands in there. We are getting all of our retailer friends to come by the section.

18:44They're taking meetings at our booth. Typically, we'll have about 30 retailers who take meetings actually at our booth during the show where we let brands apply to meet with them for these one-on-one sessions. And they always want to do it again because it's so productive. And then they're in our section, they're walking by our booth. Our section is just hot. Just stuff is happening. It's up on the third floor in ACC, which was newer, I think like two years ago, they reopened it after not having that floor for a little bit in the post COVID years. It's just popping it's so good patricia what do you think yeah it's actually amazing i'm not gonna lie the first year that we did there we were like because you know hot products is packed we had a booth there before but we didn't have a section and when the floor opens it's just like i don't know this ocean of people walk into the floor and we were like oh my god how is it gonna be to be on the other side of the hot products right the other side of like the pavilion and are people gonna go there so we put like our a game invited all the buyers we didn't do meetings that year did we maybe we did some meetings not meetings but we did like event right where people could sign up and the line was huge that was our learning they're like okay we need to make like a better structure for the meetings that was my that was like my brilliant idea of like well we had some buyers who agreed to come and meet people at our booth okay everyone can just line up to meet with them and we had a line i think of about 150 people for gnc so we did 30 second meetings and we were just shut up everyone it was like a lot of commotion but kind of crazy so we did learn to actually have people sign up the buyers did not they were very nice about it they're like maybe uh plan this out more but hey we learned we're open to feedback we did learn we did learn but But yeah, that was the first year we were like, oh my God, is Ciba going to come here?

20:39We were afraid. And it was packed the entire time. As Danielle said, like we invite our friends, buyers to come, distributors. So make sure that like whoever is in our section, we are inviting people that we know in the industry for our parties. But also to come to the section, we try sometimes to walk around with them to make sure that like we can introduce to the brands or they really spend the time there with us. This year we have 20 booths and I'm just like very excited because as you were saying like it's getting harder and harder and there are so many applications. We did reduce our section a little this year because it was just like the section how was structured was like along the hall.

21:24So it was kind of like some brands were a little like far from where we were. So we decided to make a little smaller just to be like really curated, really like a place that you can go and see everyone instead of like getting a little lost. But we have amazing brands coming a lot of first times. Our entire team is going to be there. I would say to to stop by, bring your product. We love to like meet you in person and try your products because we do have the shellfish program, right? Where you send products, the award program where our team try. But sometimes new brands come when the shelf is applications are not open.

22:01So this is also the time where we really get to know you and we really get to know you and try your products. So also a must for you to stop there and meet the team. But yeah, I'm excited because I always basically just stay in the section, snacking all the brands that we select. So I remember the like Lupini last show that I was and they were in our section. I was like so nauseous from my first trimester on pregnancy and I was just like coming and eating lupini pizzas all day whole day so lupini I'm definitely getting going back to your booth the entire time also because we need protein to keep with the energy right and I feel like sometimes we snack the entire day things that are just like carbs and sugar and I'm like okay I need some protein otherwise i'm not functioning anymore so i would say to the defy snacks it's like a very good source of protein and it's sweet so give me a little more energy so it can be like lupini first and then some sweet later i love snacks it's so good i totally agree yeah they are crispy it's like so good and the other one that i'm very excited to is like piscaya so i love her she's awesome She was also at our San Francisco grocery brand.

23:21And she got into some stores and distributors. So it's definitely a very good product. And I, from Brazil, and I love passion fruit. And I love anything passion fruit. So I love their hot sauce that is a passion fruit flavor. It's like a must. Maracujá is one of my favorite words in Portuguese. I didn't know that. We'll be right back. Are you going to crush it on Amazon this year? It's such an important channel, but it's so hard to do alone, and most agencies are a total ripoff. We can't afford$5 ,000 a month and a commission on our sales. They just don't get it. That's why I love our partners at Daybreak.

23:58They are full service, meaning they do the creative work, the listings, the logistics, and, of course, all the ads, all with the most reasonable retainer out there. I work with them personally. I'm so grateful we have such a good partner to recommend out to you, our community. They do evaluate your product first to see if it might be a fit. So if you want them to have a look, email them startupcpg at daybreak.agency and they'll do a free audit for you. Good luck, everyone.

24:25So do you have any friends that are excited about the sections? I sure do. I mean, I try. I really try not to play favorites. But Lucky Ox, I love Vietnamese sparklers. They're just a really interesting, different kind of flavor. You've never had anything like it. And so they're like a little salty and just very authentic looking branding. And they've got some great new flavors for people to try. What else? I love Little Zing, which is Danish mustard. It's in kind of a fat bottle, almost like the Yellowbird hot sauce, which I just feel like I have underused mustard in my life. I've shied away from it.

25:04I don't know why. Maybe just I got turned off by the old yellow bottle that was out there. and I'm really interested and open to some new mustard experiences. I feel like it actually just might get me back into the sandwich game, even if I have some mustard just classing up my sandwiches. So I'm excited about that. There's so many brands. I also, I love what Wishi is in our section. This is the Japanese omakase strawberry. It's a cool product. It's also like if we were playing supermarket sweep at Expo, you would just go to their booth and take all their strawberries because it's like 20 bucks for eight of them or something they're so good though so that is where you definitely come and have your fill of strawberries up in our section and also patricia i love what you said about brands come by introduce us to your product we love when you do that at all of our events and at our section i remember very specifically figa foods coming by our booth last year and at that point they just had their date chocolate in like a clear plastic baggie which anytime someone brings a product in just like a little sandwich bag or something like oh boy i don't know what this is gonna be like but we tried it and i was there with caitlin our editor we're like whoa this is really good actually what is going on here and that was the first time that she discovered and we discovered Figa Foods, which did lead to them ultimately being in our section later on at Fancy Foods where they crushed it and they got written up as one of the top three brands there by a bunch of people and had incredible success at the show.

26:40So it is really a great way for us to discover your brand if you even don't have a booth. I mean, come and chat with us at the show. So I am really excited about the whole section. Do apply for the opportunities to meet with retailers. It can be a game changer. Those meetings may be the most impactful thing that we do year round. There will be something like 500 individual one-on-one meetings that happen at our booth. We have four tables of meetings going the whole show. And it's retailers meeting with brands that they've already expressed an interest in. So deals are likely to happen. The retailers love it.

27:12They say it's the most productive hour that they spend at the show. And I'm so excited to hear about all of the brands who will get distribution because of it. All right, Patricia, now let's get to the main event, Wednesday night. what happens Wednesday night for the fifth year in a row? Alley rally. Yeah. It is really hard to imagine that this is actually the fifth year that we are throwing this party. I remember the early days. We're like, well, it'd be a couple hundred people. Is that too many? I don't know. 500 people max. We were like. Every year we're like, I think we can get some more people.

27:46So it always sells out, but we always increase the ticket capacity every year by a little bit. Like, okay, is that okay? Yeah, maybe some more. And then last year it sold out with 1 ,300 tickets and it was just incredible. Yeah, it's insane. But here's the real question, Daniel. Can you bowl? Honestly, I can bowl. If we, it's just a normal night and I go to a bowling alley, I actually am pretty good. I don't spin the ball, but I'm very consistent and bowl it quite straight. I have definitely bowled a 230 before and bowled a turkey and all that stuff. but you won't ever see that at alley rally because like, I don't know what it is.

28:23It's very exciting. And in my head, I'm always like, Oh, I'm just gonna, you know, when I'm like a drink and a half in, which is the perfect kind of bowling buzz to have where it's, you're like feeling the flow, but you go in stone cold sober. It's like, you're not good. You get more than two or three drinks in you. You're not good either, but Ooh, hit my strive with two drinks. And I'm always like, I just hit those two drinks. I'm going to just rock up to somebody's lane and be like, mind if I just jump in real quick? bowl a turkey, which is three strikes and walk out and everybody's jaw will be on the floor.