The Realities of Investment and Good Food Business: A Candid Conversation with Melissa Facchina About Finding the Right Investor and Navigating Expectations
Release Date: 04/29/2024
BABOYOT with Sarah Nathan of Nooish: How an Industry Veteran Created a Buzz-Worthy and Profitable Product
The Good Food CFO podcast
Meet Sarah Nathan, founder of Nooish, who transformed traditional Jewish matzo ball soup into an instant comfort food sensation. On this episode of The Good Food CFO podcast, Nathan shares how her decade of experience in CPG and deep roots in Jewish culinary culture led her to invent freeze-dried matzo balls - a culinary breakthrough that turns an hours-long cooking process into a 2.5-minute preparation. Beyond the innovation, she reveals how authenticity in branding and patience during development helped Nooish become a runaway success in the gifting market, particularly...
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Grateful & Growing: Saying Goodbye to Where This All Began
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this special bonus episode of the Good Food CFO podcast, Sarah Delavan shares a deeply personal moment as she prepares to leave the home office where her consulting business was born seven years ago. From an unexpected job loss that led to her first consulting gig, to launching a podcast that's grown into a thriving community, Sarah reflects on how this single room has witnessed hundreds of conversations with founders across the globe – from Los Angeles to New Zealand. With characteristic authenticity, she explores the complex emotions of being simultaneously grateful for a space...
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A Fresh Take on Planning for the New Year: Why Looking Back is the Secret to Moving Forward
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this must-listen season finale, Sarah Delevan flips the script on typical year-end planning by exploring why looking back is crucial before looking ahead. Inspired by an Office Hours member's approach to evaluating progress, Sarah reveals how understanding your past performance in context can transform your decision-making. She challenges the "bigger is better" mindset, explaining why sometimes declining revenue in certain channels can actually signal success. Through real-world examples, Sarah demonstrates how to conduct an effective year-end review - from analyzing specific metrics that...
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BABOYOT with Sydney Karmes-Wainer of French Squirrel: Lessons in Pricing, Negotiations and Sustainable Growth
The Good Food CFO podcast
From accidental entrepreneur to confident business owner: Sydney, founder of French Squirrel, reveals how she transformed her healthy snack company by confronting hard truths about pricing and profitability. After years of underpricing her premium date-based treats and struggling with razor-thin margins, Sydney shares the pivotal mindset shifts that helped her raise prices, say "no" to unprofitable opportunities, and put her business health first. She candidly discusses overcoming people-pleasing tendencies, learning to be transparent with retailers about costs, and finding...
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Answering Listener Questions: Customer Profitability Analysis, Cash Flow Management, and Bubble Goods
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this value-packed episode of The Good Food CFO podcast, we tackle three critical business questions asked by our BABOYOT Members. First, we reveal why your cash flow tools might not be delivering results (hint: it's probably not the tool's fault!). Then, we dive into a step-by-step guide for analyzing customer profitability – essential knowledge for any business owner wondering if their biggest customers are actually their most profitable. Finally, we explore how to evaluate new retail opportunities, from local collectives to e-commerce platforms, breaking down the real costs and...
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Breaking Free from the Food Industry Playbook: How to Stop Comparing and Start Customizing
The Good Food CFO podcast
This week on The Good Food CFO podcast, we explore financial benchmarks for CPG brands, emphasizing that many common questions about business finances often lead to the answer 'it depends.' Sarah discusses the importance of understanding individual business contexts rather than relying solely on industry standards, challenges prevalent beliefs in the food industry such as the notion that founders must sell their businesses to achieve financial success, and encourages founders to create unique business models that align with their values and goals, and breaks free from...
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BABOYOT with Keesha of Live Loud Foods: Building a Bold and Authentic Brand
The Good Food CFO podcast
In this BABOYOT episode of The Good Food CFO podcast Sarah chats with Keesha, the vibrant founder of Live Loud Foods, a brand that’s redefining the nut market with bold, unique flavors. Keesha shares her fascinating journey from information systems engineer to culinary entrepreneur, highlighting the challenges of launching a food business, including crucial financial insights and marketing strategies. She emphasizes the importance of gathering customer feedback and adapting products for success while staying true to her mantra: "live your bold, authentic life." As we explore her...
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Why Doesn’t My Model Match Reality? How to Know and What to do When Your Model isn’t Working
The Good Food CFO podcast
Financial Modeling helps build financially successful businesses. But what if your model doesn’t match reality?! Sarah and Producer Chelsea are discussing the importance of regularly comparing your models to your actual business outcomes, how to identify if your model doesn’t match reality (because as you’ll hear it is not always obvious!) and, of course, what to do about it. Sarah shares a recent instance where she recognized that a founder's model and reality weren’t matching up, how a Good Food Founder identified that labor costs were higher than...
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Sarah’s Take: What the Siete Acquisition Says About Our Food Industry
The Good Food CFO podcast
Stay Connected! Instagram: YouTube: us in The Good Food CFO Community There were a lot of “hot takes” on the recent PepsiCo acquisition of Siete Foods, a popular brand known for its grain-free tortillas and snacks. In this episode, Sarah offers her nuanced perspective, explores the reactions from various groups, including consumers, industry experts, and other founders, and discusses how the challenges and limitations of the CPG industry, coupled with the influence of investors and advisors create a system that is driving toward complete industry consolidation. ...
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Old School Meets New Tools: How to Use CPG Automation to Do More of What You Love with Jessi Freitag
The Good Food CFO podcast
What advice would you get from a CPG Operations Expert that believes in building a business on your own terms (BABOYOT), and enhancing productivity to do more of what you love, rather than simply doing more? Sarah invited CPG Operational Expert, Jessi Freitag to the show to find out. Jessi is an operations and project management consultant helping CPG businesses get organized and scale. She’s also the former host of the Startup CPG podcast and has successfully led businesses from startup through growth while managing operations and teams. Jessi is shedding light on how...
info_outlineFor a Good Food Business there are many paths to success, and for some that path may include outside investment.
But today’s Venture Capital landscape can be difficult to navigate, with high expectations for returns, investors that don’t quite understand your business, and the overall slow down of venture funding in the last year.
In this episode, Sarah is joined by Melissa Facchina, Co-Founder & Co-Managing Partner of Siddhi Capital. Growing up in the food industry and working in her father's factory, Melissa went on to support more than 300 food and beverage clients through her first venture, Siddhi Ops. Since March 2020, she has served as Managing Partner at Siddhi Capital, which she co-founded with Steven Finn that manages an early-stage venture capital fund in the food and beverage industry.
In 2019, Melissa co-founded, and sits on the board of, a non-profit organization called the Women on Boards Project which was formed to ensure that board seats in the consumer packaged goods industry are filled by diverse women.
Sarah and Melissa discuss the evolution of funding in the food industry. The investment world is tricky, and Melissa didn't shy away from discussing the pressures and expectations that come with it. They dove into the importance of picking the right investors and staying true to your business's core values, especially in today's capital-constrained environment. She emphasized the need for practicality and sound business fundamentals amidst investor pressure for growth.
You’ll hear Sarah and Melissa discuss:
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Melissa's experience in the dairy factory and her passion for being an efficient operator
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The founding of Siddhi Ops and its role in launching, scaling, and de-risking businesses
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The challenges of financial forecasting and the need for realistic projections
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Investor-created pressure for unrealistic growth targets and its consequences for good food founders
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Different life cycles of businesses and the varying paths to success, including the impact of outside investment
Bonus Clip from this episode:
What you MUST consider before working with an Investor
Connect with Melissa
Website: Siddhi Capital
Stay Connected!
Instagram: @TheGoodFoodCFO
YouTube: @thegoodfoodcfo
Join us in The Good Food CFO Community