Dan Freed

latest Snaxshot are you even ready?! 🌶 Momo-fuk-u takes everything back, best naive acting goes to Momofuku and marguerite mariscal just agreeing to everything, WOW! 📈Boisson retail is no more but NA continues to grow 🛒 Erewhon's RTD is apparently debuting in over 100 stores in SoCal 🍻Liquid Death, Not Beer and the vice-fication of water 👀Dr Smood Group's doubling down in CPG CURATION OF NEW BRANDS + MORE! immi's ramen-ventions: a category outlook

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Kefir-- a fermented dairy beverage-- is rising in popularity. I weigh in on this good-for-you drink in this article via Layla Khoury-Hanold via Food Network where it takes about: --What is kefir? --How is kefir made? --What does kefir taste like? --Health benefits --The difference between kefir and yogurt --And of course, HOW to pronounce it!

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 📣Join Our Mission: Women's Health! Despite recent growth in the women’s health space, there is still unmet demand for products and services. Menopause has been a particularly overlooked segment of the market: only 5 percent of FemTech start-ups address menopause needs globally (McKinsey & Company, 2024). Nevertheless, the acceleration of advances in women’s healthcare holds considerable implications for investors and stakeholders across the value chain and beyond. At KRING, we're pioneering innovative solutions in women's health, focusing on cognitive health, sleep management, menopause, fertility, and more - with Menopause, an active health challenge we are currently exploring. While diving into Validation, our concept has garnered significant interest across the health innovation ecosystem, corporate partners, and investors. ✅ Chief Commercial Officer (Co-founder) We're seeking dynamic Commercial Co-founders with robust entrepreneurial backgrounds with experience of scratch to commercialization, and exceptional leadership skills. Experience in negotiating complex agreements is advantageous, but a passion for women's health is essential. https://lnkd.in/dVRwJ6i8 ✅ Menopause Expert: Chief Product Officer (Co-founder) We're looking for a scientific expert with a deep understanding of medical science, clinical research, and regulatory requirements, to lead the development of innovative healthcare solutions for women's health. https://lnkd.in/dXX3RWQY 🧠 The Concept: Building a Digital Platform for Women's Health Our digital platform helps women tackle midlife challenges, including menopause, by enhancing sleep quality, addressing weight gain, and boosting self-confidence. Components include data gathering, tailored recommendations, personalized wellness programs, and a supportive community. 📍Join Us in Copenhagen Our team is headquartered in Copenhagen, offering an exciting opportunity for individuals based in these cities or open to relocation. If you're intrigued by this opportunity, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to Marina Miteva and Agnes A. to learn more. Join Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Investors like Britt Meelby Jensen, Kristine Leerbeck, Christina Høgh Selmer Kirk, Anne Mette Bang, Benjamin Suhr, Anja Monrad, Sonal Pendharkar Kulkarni, Ella Smoraczewska Harris, Fanny Hauterat, Sumeya Hassan, Rosemarie Wedell-Wedellsborg, Jane Kudsk, Susanne Brønnum, Pernille Foss, Sara Maria Franch-Mærkedahl, Gitte Nipper, Jenny-Ann Axson Johnson, and more in revolutionizing healthcare and shaping the future of women's health. Apply now.

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I can think of no better trend than culinary professionals, influencers, and tastemakers finally saying out loud that high-quality processed foods are as good, if not better, than made-fresh-from-scratch ingredients. Just as I don't expect others to agree with me on politics, books, and movies, I don't expect everyone to enjoy repetitive cooking tasks. What I find meditative and satisfying others find tedious, boring, and pointless. Fair enough! We need high-quality processed goods so that everyone can enjoy exceptional food every day for every meal. IT IS POSSIBLE! It's time to demand that our food processing infrastructure deliver fresh, flavorful, nutritious ingredients that are both affordable and save time. https://lnkd.in/gCcwZBPY

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Want to know the story behind those unique Asian-inspired sparkling water flavors you've been seeing? I sat down with Sandro Roco of Sanzo on the Consumer Rundown podcast. We talked #Asian representation and voices, building a #beverage empire, and the importance of being a "good ancestor"! Listen to the full conversation �� link in comments! #entrepreneurship #cpgindustry #beveragebusiness

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How many of you, at least on occasion, shy away from intimidating things? Admit it. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there. It’s simply human nature to prioritize things that come easy to us. To do otherwise, to push yourself outside your comfort zone, takes determination, focus, often with a goal in mind, and perhaps even some serious grit. Cathy Huyghe (CEO at Enolytics) wrote a truthful, transparent piece about how wine and data both fall into this “intimidation camp”. They’re scary to many because they’re unknowns. They’re going to take time and effort to get to a general baseline understanding, and only then can you really mature in your comprehension to where it starts bringing you value and joy. As a winemaker turned technologist, I am already an outlier. The importance of data-driven winery operations was always painfully obvious to me. In the early years of InnoVint, I was perplexed by how many modern wineries were resistant to even have a conversation with me about technology. “Why would someone leave winemaking to start a software company?” I was an anomaly. They were shocked by the career decision. The sentiment was that wine producers “don’t speak data.” Why would they need to? Today, those that are winning in wine absolutely do, and honestly, it’s an easier language to learn than ever before. During the last 10 years running InnoVint I’ve seen progress, albeit not as much as I’d like to see for the sake of our industry. There's so much good wine these days, so how do you stand out and continue to grow? You need to put data to work for you - to drive business efficiencies, to target and woo consumers in ways that have shown repeatable success, to accurately understand your financial health, and so much more. Don’t shy away. Lean in. Cathy agrees by saying “I am concerned what will happen if we as an industry continue to procrastinate around applying the most up-to-date technologies to our business challenges.” You simply can’t afford to be left behind. Put forth the time and effort to get over the first big learning hump. I promise the view from the top is quite nice, and you’ll really enjoy the pick up of pace cruising down the other side passing others by. https://lnkd.in/g_6rS8rS

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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Machine Learning is revolutionizing Venture Capital in ways that may not be widely recognized yet. In the past, building billion-dollar companies required hefty investments upwards of $200M, typically at a late-stage growth round. However, today, small teams of 4-6 individuals with a few contractors are achieving multi-billion dollar valuations right now. Today. The ability to leverage Machine Learning for tasks such as source code development, architecture building, lead generation, marketing content creation, and customer support is enabling these lean teams to operate capitaly efficient. This trend is expected to keep company sizes small throughout their growth trajectory. As AI and ML technologies continue to empower entrepreneurs, the barriers to entry in the startup space are significantly decreasing. This shift is likely to drive a surge in the number of startups, with projections indicating that 90% of companies in the near future will emerge from the startup ecosystem. Exciting times lie ahead for the startup landscape as technology reshapes the entrepreneurial journey.

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Spicy Mustard VS Special sauce. Tech companies often want to create a new category because their products feel unique. However, positioning experts advises against this. "You should almost always anchor your product to an existing category," they say. Pitfalls of creating a new category: 1. No existing demand to tap into. 2. Low product understanding. 3. Mixed buyer profiles. The takeaway: Disrupt an existing category instead. For more, check out Growth Unhinged (https://lnkd.in/evxjWjfv) Subscribe to ‘Siliconnector’ Telegram channel for insights and news from Tech world and Silicon Valley: https://t.me/siliconnector

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Impress your friends with your wine knowledge and how to pair wines! The winelikes app has it all: wine pairings, wine trivia, and if you need a friend to sip with, well we have that too! Download now ans find out why we are called the everything wine app! #everythingwine #winepairings #winetrivia #winefriends #winebesties #wineknowledge #winefun #impress #winedinner #winewithfriends #wineapp #foodandwine

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Ibotta, Inc., a platform that helps CPG brands deliver promotions to millions of consumers went public today, and you probably didn't hear about it. My guess as to why? It hasn't raised money from any big-name VC firms with big marketing teams. Ibotta was started 12 years ago after Bryan Leach saw someone take a photo of a receipt for an expense report and realized there were tons of interesting data contained in that picture that was going to waste. Fast forward 13 years and Ibotta is a profitable, fast-growing business helping over 2,400 of the most notable brands like Kraft Heinz, General Mills, and Unilever. They touch over 91% of US households... Ibotta offers shoppers cash-back on in-store purchases funded by its advertisers, while also collecting all sorts of valuable data like cart makeup and much much more. They've paid out over $1.8B to consumers over the course of the company Quick 2023 Numbers: Revenue: $320M (+52%) Gross Margin: 86% (best in class despite not being traditional "SaaS") Net Income Margin: 12% (a quick turn around from a $50m loss in 2022) Adjusted EBIDTA Margin: 26% In 2022, they inked a MASSIVE partnership with Walmart that made up for a huge amount of 2023 growth via 3rd Party revenue. As a part of that deal, Walmart also owns a significant amount of the company There are some fun case studies in the S1 showing off some hot up-and-coming brands as well including poppi and Chomps. When you dig deeper, one of the more concerning parts of the business is the revenue concentration inside of Walmart, but with their significant ownership %, it's unlikely they go anywhere. Seed investors paid $0.74.share and it's going public at $88/share so that's a pretty good day at the office. Excited to see how this trades!

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The global #GourmetSalt market is predicted to THRIVE in the next 10 years. According to Report Insight's recent forecast, this sector is experiencing rapid growth. 📈 https://lnkd.in/gWAiwF4S Health-conscious consumers value gourmet salts for their nutritional value, texture, taste, and transformative qualities. In 2022, the market value was 1.15 billion. It is projected to reach 1.99 billion by 2032 with a compound annual growth rate of 6.3%. #PinkHimalayanSeaSalt is expected to be the fastest-growing product in the market, driven by increased awareness of its rich mineral content and health advantages. If you're not already invested in gourmet #salt, now is the time. #SeaSaltSuperstore #SeaSalt #SaltMarket

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The non-alcoholic drinks market continues to grow and grow (and mature). Check out recent insights + stats from our friends at Grüvi: March Off Premise Retail Sales: → $48.6M > Identical to February, up 23% YoY → You can see subcategory performance in the chart below. Gruvi predicts: → 30-35% of YoY NA category growth. → 25%+ in off-prem and 50%+ in on-prem. → Premium, high quality craft or import NA beers will capture most of the growth of the NA beer market. → Big bet on NA RTDs to surpass NA wines by end of year. Gruvi has some more great stats in their blog post (link in comments). I’m hearing this same type of growth from members of the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA). There's been some questioning about the growth of the category because of the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy by non-alc beverage retailer Boisson and the closing of their retail locations. I was going to share some thoughts on this but the Gruvi team summed it up well: “Having served as a supply partner for Boisson, and being intimately familiar with their retail locations, it became apparent that they faced challenges across their retail and e-commerce channels. Boisson positioned itself as the upscale destination for NA beverages, boasting premium locations and a curated assortment. However, despite the overall growth in the NA market, it remains predominantly composed of NA beer (80%) and NA wines/RTDs under $12 (10%). As larger retailers expanded their NA offerings to target the mainstream consumer—the 90% of the market as seen above - Boisson was left with a small addressable market. Unfortunately, the demand proved insufficient for Boisson to sustain its operations.” Andrea Hernández also has a great take on it in her most recent Snaxshot (link in the comments). The adult NA category is maturing. Brands that do not have good business models, have bad product-market, or average quality products will need to adapt or close their doors. And this is not a bad thing. Because what rises out of this are business and products that better serve the consumer. I’m always impressed by the continued release of higher and higher quality NA products, with each raising the bar for the category. And this is great for people looking to moderate or not drink alcohol for whatever reason, and in whatever situation that best suits them. The adult NA category is getting bigger and better each day. And ANBA, our members, and I are here to continue to create a world where everyone has access to great tasting adult non-alcoholic beverages to enjoy in every social situation. And that is something we can all celebrate! 🍾 🥂 🍻 You can join us in growing the category and this movement by visiting ANBA's website and signing up for a soon to launch newsletter (link in comments). And you can follow me, Marcos Salazar 🍺🍷🥃, (& click the bell under my profile banner) to get regular insights and news about NA drinks. ♻️ #Repost if you like this post :-)

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“When you have any signs of early demand pull, you have to follow it and work as hard as it takes to just make it happen.” This early company building advice from Filip Kaliszan is spot on, and it’s the Verkada founding team’s ethos in a nutshell. I’ve been able to see this up close by partnering with Filip over the years, but I’m so glad he generously shared his hard-earned lessons more publicly with other builders in this series for First Round Capital's PMF Method. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways: 🚧  𝗦𝗺𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗠𝗩𝗣: “The very first version looked very funny. It was a Raspberry Pi based camera. We just hacked it together from different parts — the supply chain was Amazon.com. We built maybe 100 of these little cameras and we gave them to friends and businesses we knew. That was never going to fit in a commercial environment, but man, it was so valuable to build it, because we could evaluate different streaming technologies and learn about the challenges of local storage. All these problems that we later encountered, we had already started solving. By the time the real product started selling, we had fewer bugs and ideas on how to navigate them. It just smoothed the road." 👷‍♂️ 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿): “I remember flying to L.A. to install cameras at the Beverly Hills Equinox, one of our early customers. The gym closed at midnight, and we had until 5:00 AM to get the cameras installed. So next thing I know I'm buying some drills, getting up on a ladder and pulling cables myself. That client kept growing with us over the years because of the attention to detail we showed from day one. I've worked in the consumer space before. My perception of enterprise is that if you're willing to do the work, have the customer conversations, get on the plane and get out of your bubble to see how customers are using different solutions and build a picture of what will work for them, it's more of a well-defined process than it is a guessing game." ⚙️ 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗮𝘁: “One of the mistakes that I see is sometimes folks listen to the customer for what they want as the solution, as opposed to listening to find out what the problem is. If you talked to our customers, on the surface I think what you might get back is that they want a sum of their favorite features from all of the competitors. But if you took the best features from all of our competitors and put it into one product, you'd build a bloated product with a bunch of not so great features. But if you dive a little deeper in that conversation, and you try to understand why they want these features, if you go to the customer and have them show you their workflow, and take notes about the things that are broken, that's when you start identifying the problems.”

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Some key takeaways from the Food on Demand conference last week: 1. Evolution of Food Ordering: Andrew Garfrerick from Papa Johns highlighted the industry transition from a 1:1 demand-to-fulfillment model to a many:many approach, resulting in the adoption of multi-channel ordering and diverse handoff methods. This shift from the once-predictable process of on-premises order origination to the variability of multi-channel ordering underscores the importance of managing capacity from within the kitchen. 2. Importance of Mission Control: Travis Kalanick emphasized the critical role of mission control in modern food service, stressing the necessity of consistently delivering hot food hot and cold food cold. 3. Kitchen-Centric Approach: Amir Hudda underscored the significance of prioritizing kitchen efficiency for all channels. The Kitchen Display System (KDS) serves as the central hub of a restaurant's operations, with real-time capacity management being essential for optimizing fulfillment across various ordering channels. 4. Technology Strategies: Wade Allen highlighted the demand for a frictionless guest experience. Real-time kitchen capacity management in now table stakes, with ground-up solutions like Qu POS and Empower Delivery, alongside plug and play integrations like Curbit, offering the necessary tools to navigate the evolving landscape effectively.

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The fastest-growing emerging restaurant chains are showing growth in non-obvious categories. We are often working with multi-national multi-brand groups helping with portfolio optimization, answering questions like: Where is growth going to come from? What brands in our portfolio should we grow and which ones should we divest? Should we invest in a new concept or franchise brands in any new growth concepts? Which are those? Companies across the globe are working on portfolio rationalization to improve their enterprise value in the mid- and long-term. #restaurants #emergingbrands #growth https://lnkd.in/euGyNFvS

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Tequila!   Many large players such as White Claw, and The Boston Beer Company (maker of Truly) are expanding their offerings and releasing tequila-flavored ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails as consumers are increasingly turning to tequila offerings in the beverage alcohol sector.   I had the opportunity to share my insights and thoughts on this surging trend with The Food Institute. In the article, I emphasized how innovations in ready-to-drink (RTD) formats, including tequila-based seltzers and margaritas, are meeting consumer demand for novel flavors. Additionally, I pointed out that tequila production has remained stable despite global supply chain disruptions and highlighted the increasing consumer preference for high-quality artisanal spirits.   Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gB9f-3Ci   #Tequila #BeverageIndustry #MarketTrends #ConsumerInsights #RTDCocktails

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