Founder Feature: Spencer Hoddeson, Gay Water
The Startup CPG Podcast
Startup CPG
4.9 • 642 Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this bonus episode of the Startup CPG podcast, Grace Kennedy sits down with Spencer Hoddeson, the CEO of Gay Water. They delve into the inspiration behind creating Gay Water, a mission-driven brand that is aiming to increase representation for the queer community in the alcohol space. With a rich background in media and tech, Spencer shares his journey of developing Gay Water, highlighting the personal experiences and meaningful conversations that shaped the brand.
They explore the challenges of entering a competitive market and how Spencer's commitment to vibrant packaging and purpose-driven marketing has struck a chord with millennial and Gen Z consumers. Spencer candidly discusses overcoming founder-related stresses like imposter syndrome through prioritization, stress management techniques, and the power of positive customer feedback.
Discover how Gay Water is making waves in the beverage industry through strategic branding and a deep commitment to community representation. Tune in now!!
Listen in as they share about:
- Product Details of Gay Water
- Brand Inspiration, Mission, Development and Impact
- Challenges and Learnings
- Marketing Strategies
- Sales and Distribution
- Growth and Expansion
- Future Plans
Episode Links:
Gay Water’s Website
Gay Water’s Instagram
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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 friends, inventory management can be a major pain, keeping track of all your ingredients, |
| 0:07.0 | your inventory across warehouses and comands, your retail and e-com orders, and tying all of that together. |
| 0:14.0 | When your Excel spreadsheet breaks, check out our friends at Syn7Core, our inventory management software partner. |
| 0:21.6 | You can track everything you make and sell, and as the leading tool for early CPG brands, |
| 0:27.6 | it integrates with all the major software like QuickBooks, Shopify, Amazon, and whatever your warehouse and commands are using. |
| 0:34.6 | Through startup CPG, you get a free month trial and then 50% off |
| 0:39.9 | the three months after that. To get started, check out sin7.com slash startup CPG. That's |
| 0:48.5 | sinc-in, like the first three letters in Cincinnati, and the number seven. So sin7.com slash startup CPG. |
| 1:17.8 | The brand is what's going to differentiate you and really create that connection with your customer and keep them there. |
| 1:25.3 | Because I think we all have experience, like, there's a bunch of hard salters, there's a bunch of vodka sodas, there's a bunch of espresso martini in a cans. |
| 1:28.9 | I think the brand at the end of the day is what is keeping consumers interested in sort of grabbing for that first. Hello and welcome back to the |
| 1:36.1 | Start of CPG podcast. My name is Grace. I'm the Start of CPG editor and I am joined here today by |
| 1:42.0 | Spencer, the founder of Gaywater. |
| 1:44.7 | And I will let you introduce yourself, Spencer, and what Gaywater is. |
| 1:48.7 | Yeah. |
| 1:49.3 | So I'm Spencer Audison, the founder and CEO of Gaywater. |
| 1:53.1 | Just a quick background on Gaywater. |
| 1:55.0 | Gaywater is a mission-driven business. |
| 1:56.5 | So we have a mission to create representation for the queer community in these kind of traditional spaces that you don't really see a ton of representation like bars, liquor stores, restaurants, concert venues, places where queer people both work and shop. |
| 2:13.1 | But aside for maybe a pride flag during Pride Month, these spaces don't signal safety to both those employees as well as consumers that shop through those spaces. |
| 2:23.3 | Gaywater itself though is a colloquialism for a vodka soda in the queer community. |
| 2:27.9 | So that is exactly what our product is. |
... |
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