Growing a Natural Products Brand with Elliot Begoun.
How to Grow a Natural Products Brand with Elliott Begoun. He shares his insights and experiences with starting and growing a natural products brand, and his personal entrepreneur journey.
Elliot is an entrepreneur and the founder of TIG (The Intertwine Group) – an accelerator focused on helping emerging natural product brands grow.
Elliot calls himself “a natural products nerd” and has been in the natural products industry for over 25 years. He started in a management training program for a boutique chain of restaurants right out of undergraduate school. He has also been a territory sales representative, a general sales manager, led a supply chain organization, and served as a senior executive. He also owned a food & brokerage firm. During his career, he has called on just about every type of customer in just about every channel.
Today, he leverages his extensive knowledge and experience to help emerging natural product brands grow. Elliot is also an author and the host of TIG Talk, a podcast for the natural products industry, taped in front of a live virtual audience.
Elliot Begoun lives in California.
Growing a Natural Products Brand with Elliot Begoun:
- Please share the brief story of your career or business experiences before founding your business The Intertwine Group.
- What led you to launch TIG?
- “When I started my own business, I knew that there would not be any insulation or buffer. If I was to succeed, I would have to boldly step out of that comfort zone, and frankly, I was terrified. It kept me up nights and I had some doubt that I could. But, I was also highly motivated. I had wanted to do this my whole life, I had kids in college and a mortgage to worry about. So as they say, failure was not an option.” From Huffington Post article.
- Please introduce TIG. Why the focus on natural products?
- What’s your most important role or responsibility as Founder and Brand Champion?
- “At TIG, we are focused on helping natural product brands grow. We position them to raise capital, prove their growth hypothesis, build community, and scale.”
- “…how to build Tardigrades, not Unicorns, nimble, capital-efficient, resilient brands that scale.”
“Tardigrades, often called water bears or moss piglets, are near-microscopic animals with long, plump bodies and scrunched-up heads. They have eight legs, and hands with four to eight claws on each. While strangely cute, these tiny animals are almost indestructible and can even survive in outer space.”
- Getting into the consumers hearts instead of chasing shelf space.
“It does not matter what we think our brand is, what matters is what our consumers think it is.” - What do you mean by a “growth hack” process? Please share an example. (Live consumer researching when you don’t have the resources to do traditional consumer research.)
- Why is definition of “OKRs” (Objectives and Key Results) and accountability important?
- Please explain the challenge with “abundance of ideas”.
- What are some other common mistakes you’ve observed when natural product brands try to grow?
- What does it look like when it’s done right? Please share a success story if possible.
- Don’t most of these strategies and tactics also apply to other types of product companies?
- If I have an idea or prototype for a natural product, where should I start?
Episode Host: Henry Lopez is a serial entrepreneur, small business coach, and the host of this episode of The How of Business podcast show – dedicated to helping you start, run and grow your small business.
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