food company

This episode of the Xtalks Food Podcast features an interview with Norma Chu, founder and CEO of DayDayCook, a multi-brand company on a mission to promote Asian cooking globally. Over her 12-year journey at DayDayCook, Chu has implemented several successful brand strategies to reach global audiences, introduced an exclusive product line and used social media to help DayDayCook become a household name. Chu discussed the company’s recent acquisition of Yai’s Thai as well as its other brands, Nona Lim, Mengwei and Yujia-Weng. She also talked about a typical day in her life as an entrepreneur, which begins at around 5am and is filled with exercise, self-care and of course, work. Chu is excited to witness the company’s expansion in the US and continue promoting Asian cuisine around the world.

Read the related story here:

How DayDayCook is Revolutionizing Asian Cuisine

For more food and beverage industry content, visit the Xtalks Vitals homepage.

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Caroline Cotto is the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Renewal Mill, a venture-backed startup creating a new circular economy of food by upcycling the byproducts of food manufacturing into ingredients. 

A food marketing and nutrition specialist, Caroline has experience at the UN World Food Programme in Cambodia, the White House (for Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative), Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator, and HubSpot, where she ran the women’s diversity program globally. 

Caroline grew up in food, working for her family’s ice cream business in the town of Sandwich, MA. 

Caroline serves as the Board President of the Upcycled Food Association, and formerly served as a Fulbright Fellow in Taiwan.

In This Conversation We Discuss: 

1. [00:00] Intro
2. [01:00] What is Renewal Mill?
3. [01:41] Validating the idea for Renewal Mill
4. [03:06] Renewal Mill’s first product
5. [04:32] Workarounds of introducing a new product
6. [05:04] Renewal Mill’s ideation process and timeline
7. [05:43] How Renewal Mill entered the Ecommerce space
8. [06:15] Driving awareness for upcycled food
9. [06:58] Renewal Mill’s B2B go-to market strategy
10. [07:50] Considering B2C to generate short-term revenue
11. [12:59] Challenges of being a new B2C business
12. [13:40] Two ways Renewal Mill overcame the challenges
13. [14:17] Driving traffic to their website through partnerships
14. [14:59] Partnerships are both a win and a challenge
15. [15:38] Finding ways to stand out from other brands
16. [16:00] Brand advocacies vs what consumers actually care about
17. [16:28] Tailor brand messages to appeal to customers
18. [16:57] Leveraging upcycling as their Unique Selling Point
19. [17:31] The power of interviewing your customers
20. [18:12] Know where customers live online and offline
21. [18:45] Staying in traditional retail for impulse buyers
22. [19:21] Limited offers to reel in loyal customers
23. [20:00] Where to support Renewal Mill

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Upcycled, crave-worthy, & climate-friendly food renewalmill.com
• Follow Caroline linkedin.com/in/carolinecotto/
• Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect
• Take your retail business to the next level today shopify.com/honest
• Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period
• Schedule your free consultation with a Sendlane expert sendlane.com/honest

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Annie Leal founded I Love Chamoy, a company that specializes in creating sugar-free, low-carb chamoy sauce, in response to realizing that her diabetic father had a plethora of sugar-free American snacks but no sugar-free options for Mexican treats. The mission to create such a food item became near to Annie’s heart since she wanted her dad to be able to enjoy the traditional condiment in a healthy way—and she used social media to get the word out about her company. Now 250K TikTok followers, Annie sits down with us to share her journey and offer some tips to help other founders achieve similar social media success. 

This podcast may be brand new but we’re already looking for ways to improve it and give you the best resources possible! We want to hear from you. Send us comments or questions (notrichyetpod@gmail.com) or DM us on social media (links below). Most importantly, don’t forget to subscribe and rate our show! 

INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/notrichyetpod 

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@notrichyetpodcast5835/featured

Today I'm chatting with Eric & Ari, my two cofounders — for the first time EVER! I can't believe we've never sat down together and talked on the pod.

We share hilarious stories & funny mishaps that happened the past 4 years of running the business. From ripoff granola butters to forklift training in a pinch — it's been a wild ride.

If you liked this episode, leave a review! We pick one review each week to win free Granola Butter :) 

The Future Food News Review is part of a collaboration between AgFunder and Food+Tech Connect to host meaningful conversations about the future of our food system on Clubhouse and other platforms.

The journalists joining this week are:

Ximena Bustillo - POLITICO (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-agriculture)

Sam Silverstein - Grocery Dive (https://www.grocerydive.com/news/amazon-unveils-aplenty-its-newest-private-label-food-brand/598223/)

Leah Douglas - FERN (https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/04/a-year-later-conditions-for-many-food-workers-at-high-risk-of-covid-19-remain-the-same/)

Jenn Marston - The Spoon (https://thespoon.tech/restaurants-breakup-with-single-use-plastics-has-begun/)

Lela Nargi - The Counter (https://thecounter.org/funding-investment-plant-based-proteins-meat-consumption/)

Chloe Sorvino - Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2021/04/15/maker-of-mushroom-sourced-bacon-raises-40-million-to-reach-grocers-at-scale/?sh=498070b472d1)

Louisa Burwood-Taylor - AFN (https://agfundernews.com/grab-confirms-record-breaking-40bn-spac-deal-archrival-gojek-nears-18bn-merger.html)

Errol Schweizer - Forbes/TheCheckOut (https://www.thecheckoutradio.com/podcast/episode42-ufcw)

Elaine Watson - Food NavigatorUSA

Megan Poinski - Food Dive

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