Wow, this year, Startup CPG blossomed into something so much bigger than we could have imagined.

I'm your host, Amanda Rodriguez, one of the founding members of startup CPG.

I'm also the program manager for our micro grant program in which we purchase product from

brands in our community.

We make a significant sale and donate that product to organizations working to feed people

experiencing food insecurity.

We started out as a few people in the San Francisco Bay Area coming together to figure out

how we could leverage our talents and what we're good at to support a better food system.

Just 10 months since we've pivoted from in-person events to an online community, we've grown

to a community of over 1,200 people engaged through Slack, LinkedIn, social media, and interactive events.

Through our online presence, we have over 50,000 impressions per month, all of which feature emerging brands in our community,

people who are actively working to build products that make our bodies happy and our world healthy.

We hosted two epic pitch competitions with over 30 brands.

Those brands received over $150,000 worth of prizes of really valuable stuff that they can use at this moment as they're building their brand.

Over 200 people turned out to support these brands as they pitched to media, buyers, retailers,

and VCs.

We sent out over 2,000 products to these really important audience members.

To pull all this off, our team has grown from seven founding members to 25 dedicated

humans committed to helping small

brands succeed. That's why we're able to pull this off. We have an incredible team. Our podcast

supports our mission of helping small brands succeed. You can expect in season two to hear

highlights from our most engaged members in our community, from founders building market busting

...