#177 - Finding Your Co-Man: Lance Schwarzkopf of Copack

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Startup CPG podcast, Daniel Scharff and Lance Schwarzkopf take us behind the scenes of launching a food or beverage product. They break down the complexities of working with contract manufacturers, or "co-mans," to transform a concept into a market-ready product. Daniel and Lance share essential steps for emerging brands, from developing and protecting proprietary formulas to sourcing quality ingredients and securing critical documentation, like a process authority letter.

They provide practical advice on finding a co-man - from the pre-work and product development that happens prior, to finding out the options, to outreach strategy, building effective co-man relationships, managing ingredient and packaging orders, and setting up agreements to ensure smooth production flow. Emphasizing the importance of communication, strategic planning, and proactive relationship management, Daniel and Lance offer valuable insights into overcoming production challenges and avoiding common industry pitfalls.

Tune in to learn how to streamline your path to a successful launch! If you're ready to take your product from concept to market, don’t miss this episode and be sure to subscribe for more expert advice!

Check out their co-man list via their website copack.net

To inquire about their discounted search for Startup CPG community brands, email lance@copack.net and mention the Startup CPG rate!

Listen in as they share about:

Preparation Before Approaching Co-Manufacturers
Sourcing Industrial Ingredients
The Role of a Product Specification Document
Process Authority and Shelf Life Studies
Finding and Engaging a Co-Manufacturer
Considerations for Hiring a Co-Man Search Partner
Challenges in Co-Man Communication
Initial Steps and Planning
Contracts and Agreements
Importance of QA and Benchmarks
Production Day and Quality Control
Warehousing and Distribution
Resources and Support for Brands

Episode Links:

Website: http://copack.net/
Email: lance@copack.net
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lanceschwarzkopf/

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 (20K+ 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	Beep! Did you know that the beep of a barcode scan is heard at the point of sale more than 10 billion times a day worldwide?
0:10.3	Make sure your product is ready to go beep in the store or when you're selling online with a barcode from GS1US.
0:18.5	It's trusted by trading partners across the world.
0:21.9	GS1US is a not-for-profit standards organization that helps you meet retailer requirements,
0:27.6	enhance customer satisfaction, and streamline your operations.
0:31.7	GS1US offers flexible pricing options to fit the needs of your business and product line.
0:36.5	To estimate how many barcodes you need and to learn more about how to set up your supply chain
0:41.2	for success, go to gs1.us.org today.
0:47.1	That's gs1us.org.
0:53.6	Music So I always recommend going to their website first and contacting them with an email saying, hey, this is what I do. And then follow up a couple days later with a call and, you know, get through to someone and tell them exactly what you're wanting to do. That's generally the best way to do it. Now, if you don't hear back, unfortunately, that's just a no. So it's one of those unfortunate things in life. You just have to kind of move on and say,
1:28.0	all right, you've got to keep hustling here
1:29.1	and find somebody that can make this for me. You know what's hard? Damn hard. Finding yourself a co-man. It's going to be hard to figure out who they are. And if you try to contact them, they might not write back or might not have the equipment. you need so many other things, even once you actually get them on the phone.
1:45.9	Lucky for us, though, today we've got Lance from copac.net. He helps brands find their dream co-man, and he's going to talk us through the whole process from getting yourself ready to approach them, figuring out who they are, and then actually, how do you go about talking to them once you get them on the hook?
2:01.0	Lance has actually released this very epic directory on his website.
2:04.7	It's free and it's got 2,000 of his preferred manufacturers, custom packers, suppliers.
2:09.9	It's available at copac.net.
2:12.1	Also, he's got a free gift for you if you sign up.
2:14.4	You get access to their formula template.
2:16.2	You use that to convert your recipe into a formula. You can calculate costs, estimate the nutritional profile of your product,
2:22.0	and a lot more. Also, Lance does this for a living. He has a specially discounted service he'd like
2:26.5	to offer to our listeners here, which is for $3,500. You get a custom command search package,
2:32.5	which includes getting those custom specs for your product,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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.