Hardware Podcasts

#136: Growing Jaju Pierogi with Social Media Pro Vanessa White

The Startup CPG Podcast · 2 Apr 2024 · 1h 07m · Episode 28

What this episode covers

Vanessa White, CEO of Jaju Pierogi, details the brand's evolution from a grassroots farmers market operation to national distribution in 2,000 stores, including Sprouts and Whole Foods. She explains how leveraging viral social media content focused on Polish-American culture and nostalgia helped them compete with incumbents like Miss T's and Kasia's while maintaining premium pricing. White also discusses the strategic transition from in-house hand-making to using co-packers to meet volume demands, and her approach to managing online hate through community engagement and the Polish American Women's Scholarship program.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Whole Foods, Sprouts, UNFI, KeHE, Stop & Shop, Big Y, Harris Teeter, Fresh Market, North Atlantic, Moms Routes, Associated Grocers, Bosouttos, Hannaford, Northeast Specialty Foods, Dorothy's Specialty, Marty's Local, Imperfect Foods
Products
Jaju Pierogi, Miss T's, Kasia's

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • How I Built This · 36m

    What It Really Takes To Build a Food Business: Part 1

    Guy Raz interviews Becca Millstein of Fishwife, Brian Rudolph of Banza, and Caue Suplicy of Barnana about the early stages of building their food businesses. Millstein explains how she leveraged social media and distinctive packaging to launch Fishwife as a direct-to-consumer brand during the pandemic. Rudolph details Banza’s journey from a kitchen prototype to securing a major retail deal with Meijer, despite catastrophic manufacturing failures with chickpea pasta. Suplicy describes bootstrapping Barnana by sourcing co-packers and initially rejecting large orders from retailers like Wegmans due to capacity constraints.

    Starting a product companyManufacturing partners & offshoring
    8 chapters

  • People of Packaging · 47m

    354 - Beyond the dieline with the incomparable Jake Karls from Mid-Day Squares

    Jake Karls, co-founder of Mid-Day Squares, explains how the company evolved from hand-making bars in a condo kitchen to building a custom manufacturing facility producing 150,000 squares daily after facing rejection from 26 co-packers. He details the strategic decision to place their refrigerated snacks in the fresh aisle to avoid the 'sea of sameness' in dry nutrition bars and discusses the launch of their viral 'No-Bread PB&J' line, which was developed to mitigate cocoa price surges. Karls emphasizes the importance of radical social media transparency and storytelling to build an emotional connection with consumers, turning early pandemic crises into growth opportunities by going 'on offense.'

    Scaling productionMarketing & brand
    7 chapters

  • How I Built This · 46m

    Advice Line with Jeni Britton of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

    Jeni Britton, founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and her new fiber company Floura, advises three early-stage founders on marketing, fundraising, and PR. Jesse Koenig of Jesse & Ben’s discusses how to market his healthy frozen fries to grocery buyers without relying solely on the 'seed oil' narrative. Casey White of Jaju Pierogi asks how to sustainably grow her dumpling brand to big-box retailers like Costco without losing control to outside venture capital. Callie Zeher of Ube.co seeks guidance on hiring a PR firm for her purple sweet potato pet treats while balancing her full-time science career.

    Pricing, margins & unit economicsFundraising & investors
    5 chapters

  • How I Built This · 1h 39m

    Pipcorn: Jennifer and Jeff Martin

    Jennifer and Jeff Martin, co-founders of Pipcorn, explain how they turned a discovery of heirloom corn into a national snack brand, expanding from hand-popped popcorn to extruded cheese balls and chips. They detail the operational nightmares of surviving early viral moments on Oprah and Shark Tank, including cash flow crises and fulfillment backlogs, and describe the strategic pivot to wholesale distribution through Whole Foods. The episode covers their recent $6 million fundraising, product development challenges with extrusion technology, and their current focus on profitability and brand identity as Black founders.

    Scaling productionCrowdfunding & preorders
    9 chapters

  • How I Built This · 1h 08m

    Happy Family Organics: Shazi Visram (2020)

    Shazi Visram, founder of Happy Family Organics, explains how she pivoted from a failed frozen baby food concept to a $200 million brand by adopting the pouch format after seeing it in Australia. She details raising $550,000 from friends and family after rejecting a VC term sheet that would have given investors 70% equity, and leveraging a free American Express Super Bowl commercial to raise $8 million in three weeks. Visram discusses selling 92% of the company to Danone to secure resources against competitors like Gerber and Plum Organics, driven by both strategic necessity and her son’s autism diagnosis.

    Validation & product-market fitFundraising & investors
    7 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Startup CPG Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.