#131 The Rise of Carbone Fine Food with CEO Eric Skae
The Startup CPG Podcast
Startup CPG
4.9 • 642 Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join Daniel Scharff in this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast featuring Eric Skae, the CEO of Carbone Fine Food with over 35 years of experience in business. Carbone's success is anchored in its association with the renowned Carbone restaurant, premium product quality, and effective branding strategies.
Eric emphasizes the crucial role of strategic partnerships, the early focus on velocity, and the evolving importance of margin and pricing as a brand matures. He also reveals his approach to brand launch, securing retail partnerships, and harnessing social media for optimal promotion.
From extensive networking and diligent work ethics to developing expertise across various domains, Eric's advice is a beacon for those aspiring to make a mark in the CPG industry.
Ready to add some special sauce to your CPG journey? Tune in now!
Listen in as Eric shares about:
- Entrepreneurial Journey of Eric
- Eric's Lessons from Previous Ventures
- Challenges and Learning from New Leaf Iced Tea
- Consulting and Startup Collaboration
- Starting Carbone Fine Food
- Strategies for Early Growth and Scaling:
- Launching a Premium Pasta Sauce Brand
- Challenges in Retail and Building Relationships
- Direct-to-Consumer Launch and Scaling
- Partnerships and Brand Recognition
- Whole Foods and Market Positioning
- Success and Scaling
Episode Links:
Carbone Fine Food Website
Eric's LinkedIn
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- Episode music by Super Fantastics
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody. I am so excited to announce that startup CPG now has an official Amazon agency |
| 0:06.6 | partner we think is the best fit for emerging brands. They're called Daybreak Agency. They're led by |
| 0:11.6 | Leon Lewis, who has years of experience growing CPG brands. Based on recommendations from |
| 0:16.6 | the community, I personally actually worked with Leon and the daybreak team for my previous |
| 0:21.5 | beverage brand and I was super thrilled with the results. He is absolutely a great fit for brands |
| 0:27.0 | in the community. In my view, his team is the most affordable and most effective option out there. |
| 0:32.8 | They will fix up your listing and get you set up with the right creative. And they have a much more |
| 0:37.9 | reasonable retainer structure than most agencies I've come across. I've seen crazy retainers like |
| 0:43.4 | 5,000 a month and that's stuff that's just really not affordable for emerging brands. But his retainer |
| 0:48.1 | is super affordable and he does incredible work. He will manage your operations, advertising, |
| 0:53.2 | deal with the most challenging aspects of getting |
| 0:55.4 | you set up on Amazon. He actually also does other channels like Instacart and Crideo. Their team has |
| 1:01.5 | years of experience across all of CPG, and I'm super confident that you're going to love |
| 1:06.1 | working with them. If you want to reach out to him, you can message him on the startup CPG Slack, |
| 1:10.6 | Leon Lewis, |
| 1:11.2 | daybreak growth, or email him at Leon at daybreak. Agency. Make sure you mention startup |
| 1:17.3 | CPG to get $600 of free design credits. |
| 1:36.1 | Love handing out jars of carbon so we try to make sure they're stocked so when people come into a restaurant or whatever that they have something to give people as they come in so |
| 1:40.1 | it's been great in that event they've tagged team us on a lot of their events, and that's helped us build. |
| 1:46.2 | Carbone just makes sure every detail is done right. |
| 1:50.1 | It's the way they operate, which is great. |
| 1:53.6 | Hello, CPGers. |
... |
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