Podcast 916: So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business: A Pick-Your-Path Business Book with Douglas Raggio

"Food and beverage is harder than you'd imagine. So make sure you're committed. Know your end game, and nail your margin and consumption." These are great takeaways from my guest and good friend Douglas Raggio, author of a new book entitled "So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business: A Pick-Your-Path Business Book." In my interview with Doug, we speak about some secrets to understanding how to run your business, avoiding failure and achieving your goals to reach the success that you want. His new book is a great roadmap, great stories, and an opportunity for everyone to learn. If you want to learn more about Douglas Raggio and his new book, "So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business: A Pick-Your-Path Business Book" please click here to visit his website. We hope you enjoy this engaging interview with author and business expert, Douglas Raggio. THE BOOK In So You Wanna: Start a Food or Beverage Business, he helps you think through the many decisions you’ll make along the road from idea to success—whether you see yourself building a following at your farmer’s market, partnering with a local restaurant, or launching the next Pepsi. This innovative guide follows four archetypal food start-ups that cover a range of business ideas and founders. Every few pages, you’ll make crucial decisions about the next step to take in growing a hypothetical business. You’ll have a chance to see how each choice is likely to play out before you try out anything in the real world, where the stakes are higher. In this book, you’ll see the maze of choices and outcomes that go into: • Coming up with an exciting, profitable new product • Funding your start-up • Conducting market research • Pricing and producing to scale • Establishing partnerships, promotions, and branding • Deciding when to keep going—and when to fold By understanding the perils and pleasures of this fast-growing industry, you will be able to approach your own business with confidence, make the decisions that feel right to you, and avoid the most common pitfalls along the way. THE AUTHOR Douglas Raggio is experienced in nearly every aspect of the $150 billion specialty food industry. He is the founder of a thriving food company, Pass the Honey. He also founded the slow-cooked meal company, Stews & Such, cultivating a network of manufacturers, vendors, distributors, co-packers and retailers in/around the packaged food space. Concurrently, he was the founder and managing director of early-stage venture capital fund Gastronome Ventures, one of the first fully-dedicated VCs in the healthier-for-you-food/beverage industry. He is founder of private equity fund Bias & Blinds Spots, also focused on emerging healthy food and beverage branded companies, with transactions currently totaling more than $150M.

You may also refer to the transcripts below for the full transciption (not edited) of the interview.