Bonus: Summer Fancy Food Show Recap

0:09We had 25 emerging brands in our section, all tabletop. They all have the same setup. I feel that like we had a great selection because we did have like media outlets as Bon Appetit and Food Network featuring some brands from our section and other like influencers that are walking by. I know that we had Fig of Foods and Lupini feature at the top favorite brands from Food Network. So that was so great to see. We actually got our first big sale from Fancy Foods, our absolute favorite gluten-free bakery in New York. I've personally been obsessed with forever. Came by our booth and absolutely loved what we were doing.

0:51Placed an order, I think, that day. And, you know, now we're on her shelves. So it's just been such a fun and amazing experience to see people grasp onto what we've been so excited about for the last year that we've been building and be able to share it with the world. Hey, everybody. This is Caitlin Bricker, editor at Startup CPG. We are coming at you with a bonus episode to recap our time at Summer Fancy Food. We just wrapped up a wildly successful show with 25 emerging brands in New York City. From hosting hundreds of buyer meetings, some already turning into real distribution deals, to nightly events packed with networking, this show delivered big time.

1:32If you're thinking about trade shows, this episode gives you the inside scoop on what makes fancy food so special for emerging CPG brands. You'll even get to hear straight from some brands who exhibited in our section this year. Enjoy!

1:48Today, we're going to recap our experience at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City, presented by the Specialty Food Association. You'll even get to hear from a few brands who joined us in the Startup CPG section. But first, how are you guys feeling post-show? I'm feeling good. Rested, slept a lot, took a lot of naps after, so good to go. I am almost dug back out of my emails. We like bookended it with the July 4th holiday. So I was able to start slowly catching up after a busy couple days for sure of just nonstop action. Totally. It's a lot of talking, a lot of walking, but it's really good.

2:28I definitely feel like I'm in my trade show bubble when I'm at shows. Fancy food was my first fancy food experience and it It was fantastic, but I was definitely happy to have a couple days off afterwards. Even a week later, I'm like, wow, I'm still reintegrating back into society. So how do you guys think the show went? Since it was my first time, how do you think the show went this year compared to years past? Yeah, maybe I'll start on that one. So the show is bigger this year. It was pretty interesting. So Specialty Food Association moved the debut district, which is where we have our section, up to the top floor of Javits.

3:04and so you know it's always like a little risky honestly when you move something like that in the first year of a show like is everyone gonna know that that's where to find us and you know we got there and started setting up the booth and it just was such a beautiful room it's on the top floor of Javits all the way to the top of the top escalator you walk in and there's just like sky at the top and it's gorgeous and it's this just kind of a long hall that's arching and just it It was so beautiful up there. So it's called the River Pavilion and it had us and it had a bunch of emerging brands that you would find that would be the kind of stuff that the buyers who are looking for us are also looking for.

3:44And so they've expanded the show and added that floor and it was just pretty magical. And so congrats to SFA, I think, on a pretty monstrous show this year. And the feedback has been really phenomenal. And we love this show. It's a great show. And there are so many buyers there and more and more are coming to it. And I think just overall, it's a really good ROI for brands as well, because if you're looking to expand, especially with retailers that are in this part of the country, you know, East Coast, Northeast, but also plenty of just fully national retailers coming as well. This is one of the best places that you can be.

4:23And I think it's a combination of just the buyers are there. You're looking very beautiful because the booths are awesome. And they're also, I think, pretty affordable. And, you know, I think you just meet them in the right context where the buyers are down to talk to you for a while at Fancy Food, I've always found. I think, you know, one thing is that there are not quite as many service providers as you might get in some instances. And so people are coming by. They're mainly buyers and maybe some other brands also. So, you know, it's not hard to take time to talk to people that are coming up and probably they're important people.

4:57And they also just keep coming back. You know, I think that's just what we saw is the buyers who care about early brands, Whole Foods Market and Sprouts and all these people, they just kind of kept coming back into the section and going deeper and discovering new brands and continuing to talk to the brands that they're interested in. So, yeah, congrats again to SFA on, I think, a really successful expansion of the show. And I know they'll keep growing that. So, yeah. Patty, what did you think first years past? I think that was great. I love that we had the natural lighting because it didn't feel that I was like, I don't know, just trapped in a place for the whole day.

5:35And then when you get out, that sun comes to your face and you're like, oh, I can't even see outside. It was beautiful. And if you are an emerging brand, I would say that Builds District is definitely the place that you want to be at. Especially if you are like an emerging brand first time show. and that's where the buyers come because they know like all the hot products are in that section it was a great show I love summer fancy food because I feel it's more an intimate show so as you said like people really stop and talk to you and take the time to just chit chat you know along the way Kayling that was your first show how did you think I loved it I will definitely echo what both of you are saying service providers we love you but this felt like a very pointed show where brands knew that they were getting in front of buyers and buyers knew that they were getting in front of brands obviously and then the natural light is a big one for me I tend to have to wear a hat when I'm under the fluorescent lights all day so I felt like I was energized all day long it didn't have that like casino effect like I'm indoors don't know what time it is I knew every day what time it was what it looked like outside I just felt very energized, very happy.

6:52It was great. The section was buzzing all day long. And just like Daniel said, I was seeing familiar faces from the day before, from hours prior, coming back to the section. It just felt like everyone was flocking to the River Pavilion. So I really enjoyed myself. It was great. And I found myself really not wanting to leave the River Pavilion, but I did break out of my shell a little bit. So, Patti, you're the one that's kind of leading the curation of the Startup CPG section. Do you want to walk us through what people could expect in our section and what they could expect from the brands? Yeah, absolutely.

7:31We had 25 emerging brands in our section, all tabletop. They all have this thing set up. and I feel that like we had a great selection because we did have like media outlets as Bon Appetit and Food Network featuring some brands from our section and other like influencers that are walking by. I know that we had Figa Foods and Lupini feature at the top favorite brands from Food Network so that was so great to see. All the brands that I mean not all but like I'd say like 80 % of the brands that we have in our section is the first time they are exhibiting on the show so also being part of our section they get the whole support right because when you walk into a trade show for the first time you're like how is the setup gonna be like what do I need to do so we really take me and my team we really take the time to explain everything to the brands we bring the specialty food association team to talk to them really like grab their hand and making sure they're going to have an amazing show.

8:37Plus, we, as always, invite tons of buyers. So we hosted so many buyer meetings. We had 20 buyer meetings. And I know this is one of Daniel's favorite part of the show. So Daniel, you want to share a little about that? Yeah, thank you. The buyer meetings for me are maybe the most important thing that we managed to do at the show. And so just in case anyone's not familiar with how we do this, We have great relationships with lots of buyers who know us as a community that can source the kind of brands that they are looking to carry. They're looking to be first to market with or find the most exciting emerging brands or brands doing things that they just don't have in their set and can be a really good fit for their consumers.

9:17And so at this show, we had 20 different retailers and distributors take meetings at our booth. We announce it to all the brands in our community. They can apply specifically to meet with that retailer or distributor, filling out a custom form with questions that would matter the most to that distributor or retailer. So if it's like a Northeast distributor, they're going to want to know, hey, what is your Northeast distribution like or what are your plans in this region? And that helps them figure out who would be potentially a good fit. They then will select, let's say, 10 brands that they want to meet with at our booth during the show.

9:50And we give them an hour slot with 10 brands. Okay, you're going to have six minutes per brand. We've got a real deal timer and we make the meeting happen. We, you know, kick everybody out at the end of the six minutes. We got the next brand up, ready to go. And the feedback on these meetings has been unbelievable. So, you know, I think both from brands and buyers and the show, everybody's saying this is just such an incredibly effective use of people's time for buyers. What do they want? Discovery and building relationships with brands. It's a great way for them to do it, but also it doesn't take up too much of their time so they can still have plenty of time to be on the floor, just kind of free form discovering new stuff.

10:27And same for the brands. Honestly, like you've got a lot, you got to get done at the show. Maybe you're stepping away from your booth, even to take that meeting, you want to get back and, you know, talk to the next buyer. And so I think it's just a really great service for everybody. So we had hundreds of these meetings happen at our booth. They were running all day, every day at our booth, you know, just kind of like a lineup for everyone, just cycling in and out of these quick meetings with the buyers. and real things happen. People are going to get into, you know, Sprouts and UNFI and Whole Foods because of these meetings.

10:59And, you know, it just, it's a really beautiful thing, I think, for me to see for all of these brands who come in and they've prepped for these meetings and they come in and crush it. And the retailers are beaming afterwards because they've just found so many great brands. So thank you, especially to Patty, you and your team for, because it is a lot to coordinate. I mean, we have people just standing there with timers, making stuff happen. We have to schedule all of it and make sure that the retailers show up at the right time, which is also kind of a magic feat that we do for everyone. But I think it's so hard to even conceptualize the impact that all of this will have because of all the deals that happen from this now and into the future, what they managed to build off of that distribution as well.

11:40So I want to congratulate our team, but of course, the brands are the ones doing the hard work to actually put themselves in a position to get those meetings and do the work and thank you so much to the retailers for making themselves available. But also, yes, please, thank you, team. I hope everyone feels good about it because it's a lot of work, but oh man, it pays off. It's one of those things that we do that it's like, this will not scale. This is hard to scale. We just have to like put in a ton of work to do it, but I really believe in the value of it. So thank you guys. I hope you saw that too.

12:10Totally. And I love that it brings value not only to the brands who are exhibiting, but brands who are just backpacking and walking the floor. they also have the opportunity to apply and get themselves in front of buyers, even without a booth. So that is prime. It also gives the brands an idea too of, are buyers actually interested in hearing about my products? And would summer fancy food be a great place for me to exhibit in the future? So Patty, another initiative that you led was the Further Female Founder Lounge, and you moderated three panels during Fancy Food. Can you tell us a little bit about those panels and maybe some action items or tips that brands listening could walk away with and apply?

12:55Yeah, absolutely. This is the second time we host a further. It's our female founder lounge inside of a Fancy Food show. So first one was in January at the Winter Fancy Food and then now this was the second time. So we hosted three panels, as you said. The first one was the fundraising panel. We had two investors and one brand that just raised money this year. So they're just sharing, you know, a little of like how the market looks like now. And then we had a retailer panel with buyers from Tribe Market, Whole Foods, GoPuff, and Happier Grocery. And the last one was the Shark Tank panel, which was very cool because we got to hear from like the casting producer.

13:39but also we brought Sweet Kiwi, which is a frozen CPG brand that got a deal at the show to talk about her experience too. So I would say that was like such an amazing time to have like all the female founders connecting, but also having the panelists after their panel, taking the time to really talk to the line of friends that were, that it happened after the panel with them. and two things that I want to share. So the first tip that I have was from the buyers panel, which they were talking about how important it is to create a relationship with the buyers, but also to create a relationship with the staff that work at the store, right?

14:24Because those people would be the one that like are replacing your merchandise on the shelf. If someone asks about a product, they can be the one advocating to like customers to buy your products. So just make sure that like you are not just going after buyers, but also creating a relationship with people at the store. And the second one would be about the Shark Tank that it was mentioned that it is better if you want to get into the Shark Tank show. It is better for you to go to an in-person casting because it's like about 400 to 500 people versus if you just submit a line. is going to be your application versus 10 ,000 other applications.

15:06So I'll say even if you apply online, just if you can go to an in-person casting, go for it because it will be our best shot. So it was amazing. I love that SFA gave us the space to host these panels and I hope we can continue to do in the future too. There was lots of note-taking going on during that three hours, tons. And the seats were full too. I was in the audience. I am not a CPG founder, but I was walking away with tons of little nuggets of information too. And I definitely resonate with that first piece of advice that you gave. As a former buyer, brands absolutely get samples into the hands of other people on the staff because they are your salespeople after all.

15:49So just keep that in mind. All right. The show floor was amazing. It was buzzing. I felt like it was celebrity sightings all over, but those celebrities were CPG brand founders and buyers and industry influencers. That was really cool for me. I feel like you see that little bubble of a person on LinkedIn, their face, their profile photo. But when you see brands creating content online and then you see them live in action in person, it's just a totally different story. I like felt starstruck at many points during the show. So that magic continued off of the show floor into all of our events. We had an event every single night of the show, including pre-show with a dinner for operations experts.

16:38Daniel, you're the master behind these events. I'd love for you to talk about them. Yes, I do. I do like for us to do a lot of events. And, you know, it's hard for us to do so many of them. But the reason that we do all of this is because I see it as an opportunity for us, but almost like a responsibility because we have the audience and the reach that we've built. and everyone's come to town for these events, it just, why not? Why not keep creating opportunities for networking in different ways and for the community to come together, for people to meet buyers and other founders? I think that's what everybody wants.

17:16So, you know, I really have always enjoyed hosting and organizing things. Obviously, that's what Startup CPG is at its roots. And so I just love for us to put on as much as we can. And we're really fortunate that we have great partners who help us do that as well, because that's what makes the whole thing possible. So the first night was very special. So the night before the show floor opened, we did a thing called the Ops Table with our friends from DOS. And it was held at Soho House. We had rented out their club room and it was so beautiful. The idea behind this is just gathering operations leaders.

17:50And that would be founders or COOs of brands, as well as those commercialization consultants and people who work across lots of different brands. and through that kind of cross-pollination, just see everything because they're just, those people, they have tackled every single problem. And so the night is about community and connections, but real problem solving. And so, you know, we go around and talk about everybody's wins, but then really importantly, just what are three things you need right now? And they get solved right there. It's just rapid fire around the table. Like if you got a problem, yo, I'll solve it.

18:24We got everybody in the room, it just goes down. But, you know, aside from that, just very productive part of the evening, I think everybody appreciates the chance to really celebrate operators, operations people, just the real nitty gritty work that happens. And, you know, there aren't so many opportunities for those people to really shine. We at Startup CPG want to illuminate you, all of these incredible ops people with so much knowledge. So look for us to do so much more of that. And yeah, thank you again to DOS for making it possible. And through a lot of the sharing, I was really reminded of the creative problem solving that comes into play all across ops, as well as the importance of relationships.

19:03And so great for us to have a chance for everyone to further those relationships. It just there's so many things that happened at that dinner. OK, and then so night one then of the show. So that was Saturday night. Then Sunday night, we threw our first event. This was a grocery run event with Fairway Market presented by our friends at Tetra Pak. and the grocery run with fairway is all about we're at their store at the 74th street cafe we got brands popping up there sampling the whole fairway market team is there scouring for new brands to bring on they love to be first to market we also had a bunch of other buyers there the promise of a grocery run for us is you come to a grocery run you're gonna get to talk to the buyers you know it's like you're at a trade show a lot of other places like maybe you get to see them maybe you don't if you come to one of our grocery runs you're gonna get to talk the buyer.

19:50That at its core is what we want to do and it's in the market. So everybody got to talk to the whole team from Fairway Market. They're amazing. They stayed. There were lines for everybody to chat with them as well as some of the other buyers who were kind enough to come as well. So that was a really special event. We had 200 plus people kind of crammed in there and it was awesome. Just stuff really, really happening. And then night two, this is one of my favorite events that we've ever done. This was the founder dinner, a celebration of what it means to be a founder in this industry in the midst of the show where you're working so hard and hustling to accomplish your dream.

20:25And a lot of forces in the industry fight against you, but we will support you. And that is the founder dinner. I think probably one of the biggest founder dinners ever. We had 200 founders there and tons of buyers. And that's what's going on. We had some very beautiful swag that we were also really proud to give out to founders that we've been working on for a while. Anyone watching on Spotify or YouTube can see I'm holding up. A very cool shirt. So it's just like got this really beautiful founder logo etched all over it because we want all the founders to wear it with pride and have people ask them about what they're doing.

20:59So we were really excited to give that out to all of the founders in attendance. But even if they were a buyer, maybe not a founder, we also had some cool swag for them. So we make these beautiful iHeartCPG keychains. So we have those and our team was wearing those t-shirts as well because we do heart CPG and that's why we do this. And the dinner was very special. It was at a private social club and just good vibes all around. And we've already heard from distribution deals that are going to happen because of it, because the buyers were there. John from Raley's rolling around. And again, you have the Fairway team and just, you know, the Gus's community market team and Meyer was there.

21:37And they're just in a great mood. And that's a great time to meet brands. And I just want to thank a lot of our sponsors for that. Fresh Direct was there and they were actually the food sponsor for it. So they brought a bunch of their delicious food from Fresh Direct and their buyers. So double bonus. It was really cool to have them there just as, you know, one of the biggest forces in New York, for sure, the food scene. And then we also had Switchback, Gianuzzi Lewenden, Rowe, our new banking partner. Universal Ads and Grow all help us out to put on that event because it was not cheap to rent out that social club.

22:12So we really appreciate all of you for helping us make it happen. and then all of the ensuing deals that will go down. And then day three was really special as well. So I got to do this super cool panel, a main stage panel. And I was with Glenn from Fairway, Jeanette from NCG, Dustin Kennedy from Whole Foods, who is the Southeast Forger, and Jaden from Earth Fair. And we did a panel that was just all about innovation because all of them work on new brands and innovation across lots of different categories. And it was so cool to hear their insights about what are the categories and what are the brands in those categories that are really doing innovation.

22:51And then I also just loved asking them, like, what is innovation, though? And how do you know it when you see it? And, you know, it just like really kind of came back to that like surprise and delight type thing where it is hard to define. And often you just don't know it until you look back and you're like, yeah, that was innovative. but just that feeling of picking something up at a trade show and just being like, whoa, like, what is this? This is cool. Like, for me, that is what a lot of innovation is about. And we talked about that on the panel and just their different as chains approaches to being on the cutting edge of innovation.

23:24So that was really cool. Thank you to SFA for giving us the space for that. And then as always, if I'm on the panel, brands are getting up there. So we had a bunch of brands hop up for 20 second quick pitches and got a big beautiful photo with all of them and the buyers at the end of it so that was very special and then our big flagship party the last night to cap it all off last night of camp we did the summer of startups party so thank you to shopify new york for giving us space at their very cool soho spot to host that party and thank you to gs1 us who is the sponsor for that. It was super cool.

24:01We had the entire Whole Foods Market team there. And these are, you know, category buyers, the foragers, and even VPs showed up and just made themselves accessible to everyone there. It was a big pizza party, just really so great. And so, yeah, those, we were busy. I think that's why everybody's still recovering because, you know, we work hard at these events and there is just so much that is going to come out of it. And really, truly for me, It's just such a pleasure. And yeah, so thank you again to my team for all of the hard work to plan these events and just to really with an eye towards like how can we make these really productive for everyone that attends?

24:40Because it's not enough for us to just have a fun party. We want it to work. We want stuff happening. We want people networking, introducing themselves to people they don't know, people discovering things. Right. So that was my highlight reel. What do you think? That was a great recap. It's a lot. I think, I mean, I know after every trade show, I walk away and I'm just so impressed by how much our team is actually able to accomplish. And then for that to transfer down to the brands and have them come back to us and say, actually, I struck a distribution deal. I'm getting on the shelves at this store.

25:14It's crazy. Honestly, I don't have a better word for it. It is craziness, but it's so good. it's a lot of work it's tiring but it's a good tiring you wake up the next day and you're like okay i'm ready to do this again yeah and i would say that like it is important to attend the shows after the trade show like trust me we are all tired like i'm tired i want to go to the hotel sometimes i'm like oh my god i have to you know go to this event until 11 p.m get to the hotel but you never know who you're gonna meet and we as daniel was mentioning like we invite buyers to these events and we make them introduce themselves because we want to make sure that you as a brand know who the buyers are and can connect with them.

25:58And we have heard stories before where like buyers met with brands at those events and there were great connections, sometimes getting to the shelf. So it's tiring, but I would say if you should go, if you're ready to trade show, just make sure you can attend as many events. Yes. If you're attending one of our events expect at some point i will very awkwardly and loudly loudly try to interrupt everyone so that we can do some announcements and just make sure we introduce the buyers who are there if at all possible because that is what everyone's trying to do there right just to be able to understand who are the decision makers there and how can they try to connect but yes it is it is it is exhausting but you know i think there's a special gear that we all have trade show mode you just push it into that gear for a couple days and then collapse after.