Douglas Raggio - So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business: A Pick-Your-Path Business Book

Praise for So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business

Douglas knows what hes talking about. Hes been through the ups and downs of the industry and seen all the major consumer shifts.

Matt Matros, Founder of Protein Bar, Limitless, and Shopflix Studios

Douglas speaks the truth, like it or not. The consumer packaged goods industry is a seven-days-a-week business. It is where the tough get knocked down and the tougher never get up. Success in this game is part luck, part timing, and part ride or die. Douglas captures this like the pirates before him.

Thad Benshoof, CPG Investor and Cofounder of Homegrown Meats

This is far from your typical business book and will undoubtedly keep readers engaged and inspired as they choose their own unique path to starting a business. Like life itself, nothing is linear, and Douglas does a fantastic job at giving readers a tangible road map of how to find success and persevere as an entrepreneur.

Sara Brooks, Founder of Covet PR

Douglas Raggio has written a book that is uniquely packed with practical and no-nonsense advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Interlacing his own experience as a VC and a start-up founder, Douglas presents case studies of how four real-life entrepreneurs tackled critical issues that all start-ups face. Uniquely written and organized to give the reader an interactive experience, So You Wanna is not only instructive but highly entertaining.

Chris L. Shimojima, Founder & President C5 Advisory

A lot of folks wonder about starting a food or beverage company. While it can be incredibly rewarding, it can also be a treacherous, circuitous path fraught with peril. Douglas Raggio shares hard-won lessons and practical nuts-and-bolts advice that improve your odds and can help make your dream a reality.

Bob Burke, 25-year consultant, advisor, and board member at Natural Products Consulting, LLC,

This is one of those books that is mandatory reading before starting a CPG company. It will save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes. It is real and researched through the eyes of people that have been there and done that.

Nick Saltarelli, Cofounder of Mid-Day Squares

I cant think of anyone better to lay out a path for food and beverage start-up success. Douglass experience as an entrepreneur and investor puts him in a unique position to support your growing, young company and the books unique layout makes it simple for you to get just what you need out of it. Absorb the lessons in this book, apply them, and watch your business succeed!

Robert U. Craven, Managing Partner of Findaway Adventures and former CEO of MegaFood and Garden of Life

If youve ever thought about launching your own food or beverage business, this books for you. It offers readers an interactive journey through the unforgiving trenches of the start-up world. Raggios raw and witty prose makes each path feel all too real as you cling to this unexpected page turner. The twists and turns will leave you questioning your own motives and whether or not youve got the grit needed to succeed.

Brittany Callahan, food and beverage start-up curious

I have talked to thousands of founders over the past two decades during their journey of starting a food or beverage company and continue to be humbled by the complexities that must be navigated unique to each brand. The more founders can learn early on, the more they can grow their brands by avoiding costly mistakes that consume capital. This book is a great source of practical information for early-stage founders.

Nick McCoy, Cofounder and Managing Director of Whipstitch Capital

Read this book if you want an exhilarating, adrenaline rush, filled with decisions that only you can make. Adventures await!

Jessica Ann, author of Humanize your Brand

This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about entrepreneurship. Neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services by publishing this book. If any such assistance is required, the services of a qualified financial professional should be sought. The author and publisher will not be responsible for any liability, loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of any information contained in this book.

Mentions of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its authors, or the publisher. Trademarked terms are trademarks of their owners and all rights of every kind in and to such trademarks remain with the respective trademark owners.

So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business copyright 2022 by Bias & Blind Spots, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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First E-Book Edition: March 2022

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021037221

ISBN 9781953295668 (trade cloth)

ISBN 9781637740002 (ebook)

Copyediting by Scott Calamar

Proofreading by Lisa Story and Dylan Julian

Text design and composition by PerfecType, Nashville, TN

Cover design by Brigid Pearson

Cover image Shutterstock / MicroOne

Special discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact .

Mom & DadI can hardly express the sheer gratitude I feel for your unwavering support as I found my way through every misdirection of logic and errant pursuit. I love you.

My brother DavidI admire how you do it all and the man you have become with your family. I am honored you kept me around. I love you too.

GrandmaGetting to know you as an adult has been a highlight of my life. So fun, so wise Youre a hoot to the highest degree (and still the reigning best gift giver in the family). I love you.

CONTENTS

I m jaded. In the many years I have been in this industry, I have met thousands of enterprising individuals with amazing food ideas for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. I am always impressed with the scrappy, can-do attitudes they have, and I feel compelled to offer whatever wisdom I can to help them. Before I founded Pass the Honey, Id probably vetted over 12,000 investment opportunities. Through that, Ive seen a lot of business models and even more brand ideas. Because of this, I have a unique advantage in seeing what does and does not work for the most part. I can tell when a company has the potential for permanence and when it will flicker with the trends.

What I have written in this book are just my opinions, based on my experience. This is my attempt to shed some light on the not-so-rosy outcomes and decision-making that happens in this industry. Through my investment funds, both Gastronome Ventures and Bias & Blind Spots, I am regularly approached by people who ask my advice because they have a great product and think that is all it will take to hit the jackpot. Knowing of my experience in the food business, they hope I can steer them in the right direction. They mentally make the jump from concocting their new product idea in the kitchen to seeing it in grocery stores across the country. What they dont see are the million little steps and missteps that happen in between.