In this episode of Local Marketing School, Emily Steele interviews Umaimah Sharwani, founder of Paro, a food brand specializing in South Asian flavors. Umaimah shares her journey of creating Paro out of homesickness for her mother's cooking and her experience scaling digitally native brands. We cover various aspects of building a food brand, including the importance of being retail-ready, community building through events and social media, and the challenges of entrepreneurship. We also touch on personal branding in CPG, the realities of running a startup, and the importance of having a strong support system!
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
2:35 Umaimah’s career journey and startup experience at brands like Glossier, Jet.com, Fab.com and more
7:02 Going down the path of entrepreneurship and launching a CPG food brand, Paro
10:39 Navigating DTC, e-commerce
12:43 One thing you need to know if you’re launching DTC
14:16 Two things you need to do to get retail ready
16:42 How to know when you’re ready to launch in stores
18:16 Creating a strong brand story and conveying that to your audience
20:57 Ways to keep people engaged with your brand beyond initial touchpoints
23:49 How to ensure your brand exists beyond you
27:22 Advice for fellow entrepreneurs getting started
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Umaimah’s episode:
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Find Umaimah: LinkedIn
Find Paro: Website | Instagram
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This podcast is produced by Hummingbirds. Learn more about Hummingbirds at hummingbirds.com.
