Founder Feature: Maria Covarrubias of Cien Chiles
The Startup CPG Podcast
Startup CPG
4.9 • 642 Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2024
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this bonus episode of the Startup CPG podcast, Grace Kennedy sits down with Maria Covarrubias, the founder of Cien Chiles. Maria shares her inspiring journey from Guadalajara, Mexico, to becoming a chef in the USA, and the motivation behind creating her authentic, homemade-tasting salsa. They delve into her transition from a culinary career to launching Cien Chiles during the pandemic in August 2020, and how she balanced this venture with her corporate job until she took the leap to focus full-time on her startup in April 2022.
Maria opens up about the emotional and logistical challenges she faced, as well as the significant growth and recognition Cien Chiles has achieved, including becoming a finalist at Expo West. She highlights the importance of customer and community engagement through product demos, social media, and strong relationships with retailers.
Don’t miss Maria's insightful tips on brand development, visual identity, and deepening market penetration. Tune in now!
Listen in as they share about:
- Background of Cien Chiles
- Brand Development and Launch
- Expansion and Retail Partnership
- Expo West and Trade Show Strategy
- Technical Issues and Breaks
- Advice on Spending
- Building Community and Customer Engagement
- Future Plans and Growth
Episode Links:
Cien Chiles Website
Maria Covarrubias LinkedIn
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Show Links:
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Episode music by Super Fantastics
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, listeners, we all know how important it is to get dedicated FaceTime with retail buyers. |
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| 0:52.7 | To learn more, visitrangeme.com slash startup CPG. |
| 0:57.6 | For me, the biggest kind of like deal is having a community to like bounce ideas from or building connections with different people. |
| 1:20.6 | So being able to work at Chosen also kind of like I made a name for myself too where people want to support me you know so |
| 1:29.9 | having friends is always good and one of the things that I mentioned too is like it's very hard for me |
| 1:36.6 | to not have community but in the other side like I know that there's great companies that are like |
| 1:42.2 | just come work out of our headquarters and |
| 1:45.8 | leaning really on on the community to thrive because we're all in this together and we're all |
| 1:51.3 | going through similar struggles and all this kind of like list of things that we need to be |
| 1:57.4 | taking care of. Hello, Start of CPG listeners. |
| 2:02.7 | Welcome back to the podcast. |
| 2:04.5 | This is Grace, and I am here with another founder feature. |
| 2:08.5 | Today, I am talking to Maria Kovibias, the founder of Sienchiles. |
| 2:13.0 | Cienchiles is a flavor-first condiment line with a focus on bringing authentic Mexican condiments to the |
... |
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