#136: Growing Jaju Pierogi with Social Media Pro Vanessa White
The Startup CPG Podcast
Startup CPG
4.9 • 642 Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2024
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the Startup CPG podcast, Daniel Scharff is joined by Vanessa White, CEO of Jaju Pierogi. Together, they trace the remarkable journey of Jaju Pierogi, from crafting handcrafted delicacies to securing shelf space in 2000 stores nationwide.
Vanessa shares insights into the challenges of competing with established brands while maintaining authenticity and unveils their ingenious marketing approach focused on engaging content and community connection. Learn about navigating distribution partnerships, from regional distributors to national giants like UNFI and KeHE, and discover Jaju Pierogi's commitment to supporting women in education through the Polish American Women's Scholarship program.
From influencer collaborations to strategic social media strategies and distribution partnerships, Vanessa offers valuable lessons for navigating the competitive CPG landscape.
Hungry for more insights? Tune in now!
Listen in as Vanessa shares about:
The Secret Sauce for Going Viral of Vanesa's Pierogi Videos
Competition and Market Positioning
Origin Story of Jaju Pierogi
Social Media and Branding
Product Demos and Customer Associations
Retailer Relationships and Product Placement
Transition from Handmade to Manufacturing
The Importance of Personal Branding and Business Identity
Dealing with online haters and trolls
Balancing authenticity with marketing goals
Episode Links:
Website Jaju Pierogi
Vanessa’s LinkedIn
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.
Show Links:
Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
- Join the Startup CPG Slack community (15K+ members and growing!)
- Follow @startupcpg
- Visit host Daniel's Linkedin
- Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
- Episode music by Super Fantastics
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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 CPG to get |
| 1:18.1 | $600 of free design credits. So our story is very grassroots. |
| 1:33.6 | We started Jaju Parogi because we always had |
| 1:36.6 | Perogi in our freezer. |
| 1:38.4 | Growing up, our grandfather, our Jaju, |
| 1:40.6 | had a deli with his siblings. |
| 1:42.3 | And it wasn't like, we had no mac and cheese or anything like that. It was was like if you're hungry, throw the pierogi in the pan and fry him up. And so we started connecting the dots that there wasn't like a high quality parogi in the freezer section. So we had like corporate jobs and everything and we were like, let's figure this out and test this out. So we started doing it part time. So in 2017, we went full time. I would say between 2017 and beginning this out. So we started doing it part-time. So in 2017, we went full-time. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Startup CPG, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Startup CPG and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.