Founder Feature: Cason Crane of Explorer Cold Brew

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Grace Kennedy sits down with Cason Crane, the founder of Explorer Cold Brew, to explore his journey from endurance athlete and consultant to the creator of a caffeine-conscious coffee brand. Cason shares his unique story, which includes summiting the highest peaks on every continent and competing on Race to Survive Alaska, and how these experiences shaped his perspective as a founder.

They dive into the origin of Explorer Cold Brew, born out of Cason’s own need for decaf options during the COVID lockdown, and discuss the company’s mission to bring low-caffeine and decaf cold brew to coffee lovers everywhere. Cason speaks candidly about the challenges of building a brand in the competitive CPG space, from customer acquisition to establishing retail partnerships with Whole Foods and Sprouts, and his strategy to achieve profitability while remaining true to Explorer’s values.

If you're a founder, coffee enthusiast, or curious about navigating the CPG industry, this episode is packed with practical advice and honest reflections on the startup journey.

Tune in now to fuel your entrepreneurial spirit!

Listen in as they share about:

Explorer Cold Brew’s Unique Selling Point
Challenges of Building a CPG Brand
Customer Acquisition Strategy
Future Retail Expansion
Advice on Strategic Partnerships
Honest Perspective on Startup Challenges
Engagement with Startup CPG Community

Episode Links:

Website: https://explorercoldbrew.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casoncrane/

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:

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Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks, are you ready to boost your e-commerce sales and profitability?
0:05.9	When I ran a brand, the hardest pill to swallow was money wasted on a bad performance marketing strategy.
0:12.2	Meet the team from Pennock Digital Marketing.
0:15.2	They are strategists, media planners, and SEO experts who can't stand seeing emerging brands struggle with inefficient marketing
0:21.5	spend. They create tailored solutions for brands generating over 25,000 in monthly e-commerce
0:27.3	revenue to help them achieve profitable growth. But wait, there's more. Penick is offering
0:33.2	qualifying startup CPG brands a special deal. It's either $15,000 free in ad spend or a full quarter of SEO services.
0:43.9	To see if you qualify, head over to Pennock.co slash startup CPG.
0:50.1	That's P-E-N-N-O-C-K.com slash startup CPG.
1:19.4	I was always very reluctant to go into the RTD space because it is very crowded for Koltram.
1:20.4	It's also very high velocity and it's a big chunk of the Koldram market.
1:24.9	The convenience factor of a ready to drink can is very high,
1:29.0	and consumers like that. What changed my mind was, to be honest, we were having a really tough
1:36.7	time earlier this year, even though things were going great, because as I said, we still weren't
1:41.2	profitable. It's a very challenging fundraising climate.
1:45.9	And I felt like I needed to do something to show the vision of explore cold brew being a caffeine-conscious cold brew company, doing something different.
1:56.2	And I'd be like, we're the only de-calf cold brew option option and not to mention half calf and extra like we
2:03.5	have a unique selection of caffeine levels also it's a concentrate also there's this and it wasn't
2:08.4	that I was necessarily being overly complicated there's something just simpler about a ready to drink
2:14.9	camp here it is cold brew straight up, ready to drink
2:19.5	cold brew coffee, decaf, half-calf, full-calf. Boom, it's just that simple.
2:26.2	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the start of CPG podcast. This is Grace, and today I am
	...

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