Sonoma Brands is Supercharging Food Entrepreneurs

Jon Sebastiani

with Jon Sebastiani

Founder and CEO of Sonoma Brands

Sonoma Brands is Supercharging Food Entrepreneurs

Sonoma Brands is Supercharging Food Entrepreneurs 1101 1200 33Voices

Jon and Jenna discuss how entrepreneurs are reimagining the food industry.

Learning Points

  • A glimpse into Sonoma Brand’s two branch model and the companies they’re working with: DangZÜPA NOMA and SmashMallow
  • Food entrepreneurs’ intimate connections with consumer desires; “When you’re breaking conventional wisdom you must have an emotional connection with your consumers to drive trial.”
  • The psychology behind building Smash Mallow and how the team is pioneering Marshmallow 2.0
  • Introducing ZUPA Noma: A cold, on-the-go soup brand,  and “stretching the word soup into a use case.”
  • Why being nimble is young entrepreneurs’ competitive advantage over big business and how to leverage it
  • Managing growth and supply chains as a food entrepreneur; “You can grow yourself out of business.”
  • The pros and cons of bootstrapping versus raising institutional capital for food entrepreneurs.  Rule of thumb: You want to have enough cash to survive two years of rapid growth.
  • Acquisitions in the food world, Jon’s experience partnering with Hershey, and keeping KRAVE in Sonoma