Andrea Hernández’s Post

Is Costco part of a strong brand strategy? I braved Costco this week, and I saw a massive pack of Bachan's in an end of aisle display. Andrea's post about Bachan preparing for an acquisition made me think about a Howard Schulz interview that totally flipped how I think about Costco. 🤝 TLDR: Entering Costco propelled Starbuck’s brand-led growth. 🚗 Floating the idea of putting Starbucks in Costco, by Howard’s account, nearly caused a revolt within Starbucks. So Jim Sinegal, Schulz’s mentor and former Costco CEO, took Schulz to a Costco parking lot in Kirkland, Seattle on a Sunday Morning a pointed out the cars, telling him - these are your customers. IYKYK. Schulz was convinced, they launched in Costco, sold out and here’s the interesting part: 📈Starbucks were able to measure the increase in volume in stores on the east side of Seattle as a direct result of the proximity to the Costco. Buying the beans introduced thousands of beverage customers (Sbux language for in-store customers) to Costco through the beans. 📣 The strategy of finding little billboards for Starbucks all over the place - Costco, United Airlines, Target - gave Starbucks exposure in places where people weren’t used to good coffee, built their brand without spending a SINGLE marketing dollar. Pretty clever stuff. Love the brand or hate the brand today, this is sophisticated brand building. Whaddya reckon? Is Costco a sales channel, a brand building channel, or both?

There’s something seriously out of balance in our business ⚖ Founders: 50% female Employees: 80% female Customers: 68% female Investors: 7% female (no, that’s not a typo....) We’ve been raising a seed round over the summer, avoiding the VC route and building our cap table with angel investors. But it struck me this morning that, in this whole process, we haven’t spoken to a single woman.... Where are all the female angel investors 💁♀️ Don’t get me wrong, I’m <incredibly> grateful for the support we’ve received from our investors, but when you have a business that caters mostly to women, is run mostly by women, but is invested in only by men, something’s clearly out of balance… ❓ So I am keen to connect with female angels who invest in scale-up consumer brands - who should I be talking to? Please comment 💬 or repost ♻ Thanks so much 🙏 #womeninbusiness #femalefounders #angelinvestor

Subko, a specialty coffee roaster and craft bakehouse based in Mumbai, has raised $10 million in a fundraising round led by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath at a valuation of approximately $34 million. Click on the link below to know more... Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters and Craft Bakehouse I Nikhil Kamath I Zerodha I Rahul Reddy #subko #coffeeroasters #coffee #Zerodha #bakehouse #funding #retailfunding #retailnews #retailtrends #retailsector #retailindustry #retailing #retailresults #retailupdates #businessnews #retailgrowth #retailsectornews #retailindia #retailtrends #ir #IndiaRetailing 

Freja Foods is raising an EIS round 💸 ... ... so I have a favour to ask my network 👇 We've been quietly raising capital behind the scenes this summer (whilst executing a rebrand, launching a new product, and maintaining a 200% YoY growth rate 😅 ). Despite the tough environment, we've managed to hit our minimum funding target (without announcing the raise in public). We're avoiding the VC route, preferring to build a cap table of interesting individuals. The funds have come from existing investors, from private equity partners and consumer industry CEOs investing their own money - a vote of confidence from some seriously smart people. Now we're aiming for our stretch funding goal so we can execute our accelerated business plan; this means bringing a few more investors on board before we close the round in time for "bone broth season". On the business side we are FLYING, we keep having to re-forecast upwards, whilst building a serious brand and attracting an all-star team 🤩. So back to that favour... If you know of any consumer focused angels and family offices, please let them know about our fundraise. If you don't have those connections, please just comment or share to increase the reach of this post. Linkedin, do your thing 🚀 #eis #angelinvesting #fundraising

12,000 orders & millions raised with just one YT video 💥 Dollar Shave Club came up with a WILD idea in 2011. 💡 A subscription-based model for affordable razor blades delivered directly to consumers' doorstep. But the Usual Suspects of investors weren’t biting. On March 6, 2012, the company published a banger YT video featuring CEO Michael Dubin with the title "𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝑭***𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕" → Crashed DSC’s server in the first hour → 12,000 orders in just 2 days → 28M views to date → Approx $23M raised in a year… then $75M more They shifted from trying pitch investors, into just going straight to the customers. Customers loved it, so the investors showed up too. Dollar Shave Club was later acquired by Unilever for $1 billion in cash. - - - - - - - If you like this content, repost ♻️ this to your network and follow me for more. #investor #pitch #capitalraising #investment #sales

Curious where investors are placing their bets in CPG? 👀 💰 Explore our Q1 Fundraising Index to see which brands have investors redirecting their attention (and funds) back to Consumer. Our comprehensive Consumer Fundraising Index covers the latest equity raises across a variety of industries, including but not limited to: ✔ Food ✔ Beverage ✔ Beauty ✔ Fashion + Apparel ✔ Wellness + Personal Care ✔ Outdoor Don't miss our full Q1 Consumer Review for a detailed look at the consumer product trends shaping the industry in 2024. Visit our blog today! Click for more Q1 insights ➡ https://bit.ly/4aIlXvu . . . . . #cpg #consumerpackagedgoods #consumertrends #fundraising #cpglender #dwightfunding #assetbasedlending #markettrends

Cultivating Success in the Grocery Industry! We are thrilled to announce that Hectar, the dynamic online marketplace offering premium grocery products to businesses, has achieved a significant milestone by securing seed funding with the support of visionary investors like Powerhouse and All In Capital! This seed funding is a testament to your commitment to revolutionizing the grocery supply chain and providing top-notch products to businesses far and wide. Congratulations on the funding raised Aswath Balaji! #HustleHub #Funding #SeedFunding #OnlineMarketplace #GroceryIndustry #QualityProducts #Innovation #InvestmentNews

Dilution typically hits the hardest in a CPG company with the first $5-7M raised. Assuming investment was available, is it better to bootstrap and grow a brand slowly to avoid dilution or raise sufficient funds out of the gate. There are pros and cons to both. What does everyone think #cpgindustry #capitalraise #growthstrategy Stephen Gaither Scott Glassman Paul Baudier Forbes Fisher Matt Matros Russell Kohn Jon Blair Jeff Lowenstein Mark A. Samuel Jonathan Becker

⭐ BIG NEWS ⭐ Beans is raising funds to accelerate our growth and help secure our position as the No. 1 speciality coffee marketplace in a growing sector. DTC speciality coffee sales were worth over £500M in 2023 and are set to grow substantially in the next 10 years. I am both proud and excited to share that last year we tripled our revenues with a marketing budget of just £86k, think what we could do with £600k!   Not only did we see 300% YOY growth in 2023, but we also launched our own purpose-built platform, providing a market-leading experience and giving us the foundations for substantial growth.   We are raising £600k through parallel raises. We are raising £200k via a Seedrs campaign, leveraging our substantial community of over 40,000. We are also raising £400k through a private raise.   Here’s our key highlights: - YOY growth with revenues tripling in 2023 to £650k - Operationally profitable since Sept 2023 - An established business with a low-risk operating model (we don't hold stock & receive payment upfront for orders) - Proprietary tech providing a market-leading customer experience  - A unique proposition tailored towards mass market appeal – curated subs, consistent price point, low-price entry point, letterbox friendly and convenient - Established partnerships with retailers and manufacturers - DeLonghi and Currys - A large customer base and the foundations to focus on driving growth & profitability - A blended margin of 36% - Raising £600k, EIS approved Our private campaign is open now and our Seedrs campaign is launching soon. If you're an investor in this space, or know someone who is, we would love to hear from you. DM directly for our pitch deck or email myself or Rich on Fiona@Beanscoffeeclub.com or Richard@Beanscoffeeclub.com

Another eyebrow-raising announcement about gene editing startup Inari's $103 million fundraising given the current investment climate, and that it only recently closed a $124 million Series E round last October too. Inari's is riding on several deep tech trends such as genomics, artificial intelligence and multiplex gene editing and its valuation has already exceeded a billion dollars. It will be interesting to understand how Inari can monetise its SEEDesign™ platform to justify this valuation whether it is a licensing model, enterprise platform model, as a seed producer or a mix of each. Hopefully, the raise is backed by solid cashflow fundamentals and helps positively to open up investment interest to the broader #AgriTech sector. #AgriFoodTech #Agritech #AgTech #Genomics