Advice Line with Jack Conte of Patreon (December 2024)

How I Built This · 8 Jan 2026 · 53m

What this episode covers

Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte joins Guy Roz to advise three early-stage founders on marketing and community building. Zac Parsons of Honey Moon Coffee Co. proposes a coffee subscription for newlyweds, receiving advice to prioritize speed of iteration and target the wedding industry rather than competing with established coffee brands. Rowena Shira of Eat2Explore seeks to expand her international cooking kits to adults, with suggestions to leverage existing customers through adult-themed kits like cocktails. Finally, Melissa Spitz of Adventures in Handwriting discusses breaking into schools, with advice to focus on brand building and bottom-up adoption by teachers to create market pressure.

Mentioned

Companies
Patreon, Honey Moon Coffee Co., Evansville Coffee Company, Eat2Explore, Adventures in Handwriting, Zola, Onyx Coffee, Blue Bottle, Starbucks, Blue Apron, Kiwi Crate, Figma, Pixar
Also
U.S. Bank, Popla Moose, Grateful Dead

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 46m

    #111 Twrl Milk Tea: Boba is the New Sprinkle & Twrling into Sprouts, Costco, & Pop Up Grocer

    Twrl Milk Tea co-founders Olivia Chen and Pauline Chen discuss creating the world's first canned milk tea made with pea milk and single-origin teas, launching six SKUs including Ube and Hojicha varieties, and developing separate boba toppings. The founders detail their rapid retail expansion into Sprouts, Wegmans, and Central Market, while explaining their strategic decision to test Costco to stress-test their operational infrastructure before committing to large-scale distribution. They emphasize their marketing approach, which includes organic press outreach, pop-up events, and a Times Square advertisement, to build brand legitimacy and drive consumer demand.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 33m

    #232 - 2026 Brand Resolutions

    Host Daniel Scharff interviews Rebecca Styn of Blind Tiger Spirit Free Cocktails, Dava Guthmiller of A Dash of, and Andrew Schundler of CH Matcha about their 2026 brand resolutions. Rebecca resolves to eliminate noise by saying no to unaligned opportunities like expensive celebrity gifting, focusing instead on strategic regional growth. Dava aims to step into the spotlight by sharing her personal story and passion for salt terroir to build authenticity, rather than just curating others' products. Andrew plans to double down on retail execution and in-person tastings for his canned matcha brand, learning from early data to avoid stretching the business too thin.

  • Core77 Podcast · 54m

    Afterschool Podcast, Episode 9 - Rusty Meadows (10/21)

    Rusty Meadows, manager of the temporary tattoo company Tattly and founder of the Nearly Impossible conference, discusses the evolution of his business and the new event. He explains how Tattly emerged from a failed online store idea to focus on design-led temporary tattoos, navigating early challenges in shipping, packaging, and wholesale sales. Meadows details the structure of the Nearly Impossible conference, designed to help makers solve specific physical product hurdles through shared stories and expert labs.

  • Product Startup · 44m

    051: Launching a turmeric-based alternative to coffee, Samantha & Elaine of Midas Cup

    Samantha and Elaine, founders of Midas Cup, discuss launching a turmeric-based alternative to coffee, detailing their recipe development, sourcing of organic spices, and partnership with a pharmaceutical-grade co-packer in Melbourne. They explain their strategy for validating the product through 'supertasters' and leveraging personal networks to secure initial stockists in health food stores and cafes. The founders also address the critical lesson of quality control after receiving a low-grade spice shipment that compromised a large order, and outline their plans for scaling distribution, including potential Amazon entry and B2B growth.

  • The Startup CPG Podcast · 15m

    Create All-Natural Cocktails in 2 Minutes with Steep't

    Alison Nathenson and Chloe O’Coyne, co-founders of Steep’t, explain how they pivoted from a slow cold-brew alcohol infusion concept to a rapid-infusion tea bag product during a Harvard Startup Boot Camp. They detail the formulation challenges with a food scientist, including using monk fruit for sugar-free options, and describe their current handmade production model. The founders discuss their direct-to-consumer sales strategy, highlighting a viral TikTok moment that sold out their inventory, and outline upcoming retail-ready SKUs and a new brand identity.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.