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DG
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There’s nothing quite like October baseball and I can’t believe I’m rooting for a Canadian team.
Let’s go blue Jays!
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UPDATED M&A TRACKER IS BACK FOR 1H25
Yes- YOU have an exclusive opportunity to access this database tracking key M&A deals across consumer
BUT - there's a catch. You have to act quick. For 6 hours, I'll DM you the link if you Follow me, like this post, & comment "COMPS"
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Everyone thought he was crazy for quitting his finance job to sell ice cream.
Today, his novelty brand is available in 5,000+ stores, including Whole Foods, Erewhon, Bristol Farms, and The Fresh Market.
Here's how to do the same:
Step 1: Find the big idea
David's advice: Ask yourself what's missing?
- Look around at the way you live
- Write down the products you love
- Ask yourself: what would improve my quality of life? How can I make something that is 5-10x better than what exists?
For David, the missing thing was a way to satisfy his sweet tooth with portion controlled & snackable products like Nestle’s Dibs. As someone who was lactose-intolerant and had issues with dairy, there weren't many options.
And so, his dream snack, Dream Pops, was born!
Step 2. Make your prototype
David's advice: It doesn't have to be perfect.
In the early days, David was making samples in his mom's kitchen by hand.
One thing entrepreneurs get wrong? Trying to launch something perfect.
If you're prototyping a food product, follow his advice:
- Create a delicious and unique product
- Differentiate with your packaging & branding
- Iterate in small format grocery stores and get feedback from your customers before launching into national accounts
Step 3. Put your product out there
David's advice: Get your product in as many hands as possible—any way you can.
Some ideas:
- Host pop-ups with like-minded brands. Some brick and mortar brands were willing to pay $5K-$10K for a tailored “ice cream social”’ event with custom packaging. Revenue + awareness = free marketing.
- Personally do samplings at local grocery stores to get real-time feedback from your customers. What do they love about the product? What do they hate? Those are your golden nuggets.
Step 4. Scale thoughtfully
David's advice: Don't get tempted by a big retailer with thousands of stores out the gate.
Getting into a huge retailer can kill your business if you aren’t ready.
Don't chase revenue and door count.
Consider profitability, product quality, and overall risk.
Some retailers require you to pay "slotting" where you spend $50K to $150K+ to be on the shelf for eight months.
If you don't perform? You're out.
The risk is massive and can put you out of business before you have the opportunity to flourish.
Instead, find independent grocery stores and regional grocers with 3-10 locations and scale slowly – laser-focused on profitability and velocity.
Today, Dream Pops is a multi-million dollar brand sold at Whole Foods, Safeway Albertsons, Acme, Shaws, Erewhon, ShopRite, The Fresh Market, Fresh Thyme, GoPuff, CVS, Thrive Market, and many more.
This is your reminder to tune out all the noise, trust your intuition & keep building.
Want to get 1:1 advice from a CPG industry expert? You can now book David Greenfeld on Intro.
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Did you enjoy this business breakdown? Follow @useintro to learn how the world's most successful entrepreneurs built $100M+ businesses.
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@DaveGreeny One of the best to do it DG. Glad you are going to be okay!!
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It’s been a little while since I’ve been active & posted anything on here.
I went back and forth on whether I should share this, but figured it might resonate with a lot of folks out there who are struggling, hustling, grinding — doing everything in their power to achieve “success”, finish the year strong, and set themselves up for a great 2024.
For the last 6 years, I had a simple way of calibrating my life.
Dream Pops was #1 — above health, family, friends, fitness — it was the only thing that mattered.
I flew across the country and attended every trade show I could.
Pitched buyers.
Manufactured product out of a tiny commercial kitchen.
Scaled into a commercial facility.
Got into retailers.
Generated as much content for the business as possible daily.
Started a podcast.
Locked in brand collaborations.
Built an amazing team.
Pivoted to bites.
Rarely said “no”.
Meeting after meeting after meeting.
++ Put every piece of my being into breaking through and building a successful CPG company.
However, this year stopped me in my tracks.
On the morning of September 12, a week before Expo East, I woke up with throbbing pain.
I figured I could shake it off since I had 4 consecutive shows the next two months and thought, it couldn’t be “that serious”.
I’d ignore the pain and handle it when I got back.
After all, I couldn’t miss Expo East, CHFA, our Mondelez CoLab graduation, NFRA and a factory visit..
Before leaving, I scheduled a quick checkup and an ultrasound and didn’t think much of it.
This led to a late night phone call with my doctor who told me that I needed to get on an operating table asap.
I got the surgery done, and afterwards the pathology report found that I had Stage 1b testicular cancer.
Little did I know that every day I waited to have the surgery, there was an increased risk of the cancer spreading to my lymph-nodes and other organs.
Fast forward to today - I am going to be okay, the cancer didn’t spread and I’m on routine surveillance and undergoing treatment.
However through all of this, I realized that putting your health second, and having tunnel vision can come with an extremely high price tag.
Starting a cpg brand is a brutally challenging business.
It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done and requires the perfect combination of luck, timing, product, brand, team and timing. ;)
But please don’t sacrifice your health in exchange for a hopeful exit or the illusion of “success”.
Great things take time.
And you can’t sprint marathons.
There’s no question that we’ve all been berated by unrealistic headlines and anomalies in F&B the last decade.
The paradigm has shifted as have investor expectations.
Take your time.
Build a business with solid fundamentals.
Make $.
Go slow. :)
Wishing you all a happy and healthy holidays. Please don’t forget to take care of yourself.
Health is always #1.
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@DaveGreeny Thanks for sharing and glad you’re okay! Nothing trumps our health and when it’s in our face we can’t unsee it. Count your blessings. And take good care.
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@DaveGreeny Appriciate you sharing bro and glad ur doing good.
I had meningitis about 6 years ago and going through shit like this really makes you appriciate being alive and healthy
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@DaveGreeny Hello Dave, even though I don’t know you, I share my prayers and thoughts of a speedy recovery we need all the good energy and positive reflections from everyone. Your new friend, Omar Torres. ❤️♾️❤️🙌🏼😊🐶
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@DaveGreeny Glad to hear you’re ok and on the road to recovery, DG! 🙏
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@DaveGreeny Wow, what a journey. I hope you're on the mend.
You're right.
Health is at the top of my list. Without health, you can't have any of it.
Taking it easy and finding long pockets of relaxation are so helpful.
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@DaveGreeny Wow.
This puts little struggles in perspective. Stay strong and healthy 👏🏻
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@DaveGreeny Glad you went to get the ultrasound and caught it early. Thanks for sharing for other people on the grind that might be ignoring signs of poor health. LMK if I can help in any way.
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@DaveGreeny Bro - so glad you're going to be okay. I'm rooting for you in every way. Let me know if I can do anything for you!
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@DaveGreeny Oh man, so sorry to hear this. And glad you caught it when you did 🙏🏼 typing this as my daughter is literally eating a dream pop.
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