Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast. The Startup CPG network exists to give those in the food industry

who are working towards creating better products and better for you brands, a better chance in succeeding.

On today's episode, we're going to be talking about brokers. What is a broker?

Might you need one? And what is it exactly that they do? To do that, I've invited onto our show,

Jake Huber. Jake has extensive sales experience, has been a broker himself, and we'll tell you in

more detail a little bit about his experience and expertise.

It doesn't need to be confusing.

We've been putting round cans on square shelves for a few hundred years.

People make this stuff complicated.

It's actually not.

We just need to kind of step back and think about it maybe in a more basic level.

So, Jake, what is it exactly that founders need to know about brokers?

What do they do? It is often misunderstood, at least in my experience, service provider. And it is a critical part of the business,

especially on the sales side, which is one of the more important parts of the business early on.

Happy to share what I know. Thank you, Jake. So how do you know so much about brokers?

Well, I won't exactly say I know everything. My credentials here are that I've been a salesperson all

my life and then I moved into brokerage. I worked for a national brokerage, which at the time was

Harlow H.R.K.

It was a Kroger dedicated broker.

And we represented, I was in the department that represented probably about 60% of the natural food brands at Kroger.

And I did that in a leadership position for probably about four and a half years.

I loved that side of the desk.

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