The Printing Press 🖨️

🎄^{December Edition} 🎁

Gustavo and Adam, here. Thank you to everyone who attended our CPG/E-com Speakeasy event the other night! We had a blast and enjoyed meeting you and we hope you feel the same. Here is a link to the photos from the night!

Special thank you to GrowMyAds for sponsoring the event 📈

“We’re tired of the snake oil in this industry, so we only make big promises we know we can keep. So if we tell you we can make you more money with your Google ads, we’ve got a plan to back it up and grow your business.” - GrowMyAds

“As someone who has worked with multiple different ad agencies while building and growing Club Doctor, I’ve experienced this snake oil firsthand. When I started working with GrowMyAds, they gave me a free audit of my ad accounts and provided me with a realistic game plan and timeline. The thing I appreciate most about working with GrowMyAds is their honesty and integrity. They truly want to help you make more money and succeed, and for that reason, I cannot recommend them enough.” - Adam

Get your free account analysis here!

Upcoming Events 🥂

12/7/23 - Startup CPG Chicago Meetup - December 2023 🎁

• Join the Startup CPG family for a festive gathering with drinks, mocktails, and brand samples, where brands can mingle

12/8/23 - Andy Dunn & Sam Yagan - Fireside Chat

• Join Andy Dunn the founder of Bonobos, turned Venture Capitalist chatting with Sam Yagan, founder of Sparknotes, turned VC on all things consumer, cold start problem & fundraising.

1/16/24 - Windy City Troublemakers- January '24 🏙️

• The "Better Late than Never" Holiday Soiree at Vosges Chocolate offers a relaxed evening with CPG Food and Beverage Makers and Investors, featuring food, drinks, and fun

What’s New 💰

Update from Adam: Club Doctor crushed it this Black Friday/Cyber Monday. This year we did an “Early Black Friday Sale” that ran the entire first week of November. Additionally, we started our BFCM sale 3 days before Black Friday and extended it 1 day past Cyber Monday. We sent a total of 13 emails during that time notifying customers of the sales. As a result, we saw a 550% YOY increase in revenue for November. 

I was a little worried that we might exhaust my email audience by sending that many emails, but my email person was confident in the plan and it paid off.

CPG in Chicago 🌃

• Foxtrot Market and Dom’s Kitchen & Market are merging to form Outfox Hospitality, aiming to combine their strengths in curated food retail and neighborhood-focused experiences 🦊

• Beyond Yoga, a DTC athleisure brand, has expanded beyond California by opening its first store outside the state in Chicago, marking its sixth brick-and-mortar location and continuing growth since its acquisition by Levi Strauss 🧘

Have exciting news about your company you want to share? Submit it here!

CPG around the Globe 🌎

• Private equity firm Skky Partners, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, has made its first investment by acquiring a significant minority stake in Truff, a brand known for its truffle-infused hot sauces & condiments 🌶️

• Men's skincare brand Disco has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased operations, citing a combination of factors including difficulties in raising capital, failed acquisition attempts, overwhelming debt, and challenges in resonating with a larger male audience in a competitive market 💆

• Shopify merchants achieved a record $9.3 billion in sales during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, marking a 24% increase from the previous year, with over 61 million global consumers purchasing from Shopify-powered brands 🛍️

Founder Spotlight 🔦

🥤CharCharms launches at Dick’s Sporting Goods

Charlotte Trecartin is the Founder of CharCharms, a Chicago-based water bottle accessory company that recently launched in Dick’s Sporting Goods!

In the fall of 2020, Charlotte Trecartin, then a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, conceived the idea of CharCharms, an innovative hook used to attach different charms and other useful accessories to your water bottle, while managing her studies and other commitments like nannying and fitness instructing. This idea, born from a moment of convenience-seeking, quickly took shape as she invested time in sketching, prototyping, and even beginning the patenting process. Despite initial setbacks due to academic pressures, Charlotte's persistence saw her revisiting and fully committing to her idea by the summer of 2021.

Charlotte's brainchild, CharCharms, officially launched in September 2021, and over two years, it has grown into a successful business with a diverse range of over 300 products. This journey from a simple idea to a flourishing business illustrates her tenacity and skill in navigating the world of entrepreneurship, reflecting both personal and professional growth.

It has been exciting to follow Charlotte on her journey building CharCharms. Her recent success with retail placement has been inspiring and motivating to see!