Natural Products Expo的动态

Expo 2025 done! ? Our first expo was 6 months after we launched at Whole Foods Market in 2023. We had been going through months of production trials with custom machinery that kept failing to work. We were bleeding money. I was afraid we would not make it. But we took a leap and signed up for Expo and got one of the last booths left. We showed up with a $400 backdrop to a dingy spot in a corridor. None on my newly assembled Expo team - my part time assistant, her best friend, her cousin and my yoga teacher - had ever attended a food event, including me. Then magic happened. We became Nexty finalists. Albertsons made us Top 5 Pick of the Expo. Kehe sent their press team and named us top pick of Day 2. We snagged a pitch session for Sprouts and got onboarded. All of our retail launches for 2024 happened because I met the buyers directly - Target, Sprouts, Albertsons, Kehe, Raley’s, Hy-Vee, World Market, and retailers in the Middle East. It was a game changer. So Expowest has been amazing for our business. For a little bootstrapped startup 2.5 years in like ours, buying an expensive booth and hiring a crew to build is not an option (from $25k-$100k and beyond). We keep it scrappy while striving for an elevated aesthetic - I designed the booth (all white with just logo) and merch (gold recycled plastic totes) myself so no cost for a designer, our vinyl flooring $150 from Home Depot, our booth setup LED lighbox $2k from last year that we reuse for all our shows and build ourselves. We wheel in our own samples. Our dear friends from BOBABAM helped us break down and pack up all the gear. Even with that, the cost of the booth space itself, samples and merch flying out our team with hotels and airfare adds up. Not going to lie it is a bear to do the set up DIY. Why go through all of this? Because this is where I get to see all of our dear partners. My cherished advisors. My fellow founders. Meet investors. Meet new leads. Where I get to hug our first buyers who took a chance on us. And where this year, I got to bring our growing team together for our first team dinner ?? To all the new startups wondering if it is worth it, if they can afford it, I say yes. There is always a way. You may not have the most blinged out booth, may not have the most expensive merch, but it is the energy and the love you bring to the space that create memorable moments. I think that is what matters most. Bravo to the Issei team and thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth ?? #Natural Products Expo Allie Hausladen Batsell Abbey Appel Ian Cook Madison Robertson Robin G. Kristan G. Kari Pedriana Leo (Chris) Kasuya Sam Hurster Kelly Rodriguez Doug Kinneberg Nate Herrington Brian Khoddam John Linehan Ronald Escopete Margaret Allen Katherine Gamao Ayyub Bokhari Logan Langberg Russell Barnett Bill S. Samara Pollak Daniel Ramos Morales Madison Pascual (Denomme) Duncan Alney Stefano Cazzaniga, MBA Tyler Morgan Tiffany Graham Michelle Schwenk E.J. Fortenberry