After touching on the topic briefly across multiple episodes, this week we sit down with Bite Society's head of global sales, Michal, to finally bring you an in-depth episode on international business and how we plan to take our mission global.   Click here to subscribe on Android or Apple iTunes  We'd love to hear from you.  Get in touch by email simon@bitesociety.com or katrina@bitesociety.com or @bitesociety on Instagram or Facebook Show notes Some of you may be thinking, why is that we are even interested in doing international business since we are a zero profit and our motivation doesn't lie in the money? The answer falls under two main...
Before the end of 2019 we left you with the news that we were hoping to launch our new flavour into the world. So now the question remains... did we do it? And if so, how did we go? In our first episode of 2020 we talk all things salted caramel, an update on the launch so far, and where we're hoping to go next.   Click here to subscribe on Android or Apple iTunes  We'd love to hear from you.  Get in touch by email simon@bitesociety.com or katrina@bitesociety.com or @bitesociety on Instagram or Facebook Show notes So... what you've all been waiting to know. Have we launched our new flavour? ...
We're going through an interesting discussion for a potential new product, now in early prototyping. One of the things we have to figure out is weight and form-factor, and the resulting tradeoffs when it comes to price and physical attributes. For example, we can go down a "bigger" path, for example like the custom mould like the square on the left, with multiple snap-able pieces. This would be a more unique look, better for branding, and a larger size lets us have more shelf front facing area on the package, to grab attention. On the downside, a larger product is...
Baby was crying at 4am so I'm up...Ok I'm up so I'll just hop online for a few minutes to schedule a pickup I forgot to do last night...Computer on, monitor light is way too bright...Squint at the screen...Ok booking done... now just check a few emails and socials...Did the samples reach the influencers for their contests?Oh and I'm running out of insulated wrap - I really should buy some more, oh and gel packs ran out too...Oh I forgot to contact that cinema, need to put that down on the prospect list......which reminds me I need to reorganize the...
Fascinating new research!Turns out more omnivores support veganism: "...most people already agree with the ethics of veganism and are aware of the benefits of vegan diets to the environment"BUT.... "barriers are practical matters of taste, PRICE, and convenience"Definitely lines up with our mission - to make veganism much more acceptable to the masses one critical aspect is lowering the cost to be competitive with animal-ag.For us, though we are one of the cheapest vegan milky chocs here in Aus, still a ways to go to reach true price parity with big dairy confectionery aisle pricing...#biteforwhatsrighthttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200108102257.htm
Christmas is creeping up and 2020 is just around the corner! In this episode we talk about the year so far and the top 5 things that we've learned during our time working on the project.   Click here to subscribe on Android or Apple iTunes  We'd love to hear from you.  Get in touch by email simon@bitesociety.com or katrina@bitesociety.com or @bitesociety on Instagram or Facebook Show notes In this episode we'll be sharing the top 5 takeaways from 2019 and what the year has taught us.It's safe to say that this year has been a big one, and stopping to take the time to reflect and share our key findings from...
40 degrees in MelbourneÂ đ„” This is definitely the hottest day we've ever sent out stock on. Ideally I would have liked to delay til a cooler day, but had a few stockists in other states who really new stock in before the xmas week. Our plan to charge for 1 less quantity in the invoices so the shops can open a pack on arrival and check, before they put the rest on sale. Worst case we'll have to send new stock over, but hopefully our gel pack + insulated wrap can hold up... we'll find out ps - yesterday was...
Call me paranoid, but one of my big fears is a lot of hard earned money being sent to the wrong bank account by accident. This fear comes from an incident a few years back in another company - a freelance designer I was working with gave an account number which had one digit wrong. As a result I sent a several hundred dollars into a black hole - we could never get that money back, despite pleading with the bank. Since then, every time I've been anal about checking and rechecking account details for large dollar transfers, especially overseas....
So since starting our efforts a couple weeks back we've made some decent progress We're now down to a bit under $3k owing:- Total amount owing: $8090 -> $2980- Number of shops overdue: 31 -> 19- Median amount owing per shop: $189 -> $105- Average amount owing per shop: $289 -> $104 In particular it's been a relief to collect the 2 largest amounts owing.One preferred to pay by credit card rather than bank transfer (our only method til now). Turns out it was pretty easy to do setup with Square (they make the readers you swipe with in many...
Often in a startup you get rejected, but then succeed after trying again later. Already in our first year it's happened many times...for example:Our first copacker rejected us originally, and only after trying a couple more times to explain ourselves and the vegan opportunity they gave us a shot to start discussions.A shop didn't want to work with us at launch because we didn't have a bulk option, and now we're back in discussions because we listened to the feedback and have added that option in the new batch next month. A new wholesaler rejected us before because they didn't...
Funny pic, with an important reminder for us. Too often in a new startup, it's easy to pay more attention to friendly users and partners feedback, and miss other issues or wider feedback, whether it's on product or distribution or branding etc...I guess that reaction is natural especially in a startup where your product is so tightly linked to your own identity (after all, it is your own baby, and I've never met a new parent who didn't adore their little one).Also combined with the fact that folks prefer to focus on the positive and stay away from negatives when giving...
Behind the scenes flashback đšâđŹThis morning was cleaning up after the World Vegan Day and stumbled across our prototype for an oval shape choc... This was from the time a few months back when we were grappling with correcting the expectation of what we are (a crispy rice choc), and what we aren't (a clone of an existing dairy product).One idea was to make our shape different and we thought we'd give ovals a go to see how they looked. They turned out well functionally, but among our crew weren't really sold how they looked vs classic sphere.So instead we...
There are lots of mysteries in running a startup...đ§ Take our Choc Bloks: Michal and I were chatting yesterday about how they were moving slower in shops than Choc Balls, which have been selling at a nice pace (we're just about sold out). Yet, when I visited our first trial bulk test shop recently, the first 10kg of bulk bloks sold out faster than the balls. And also faster than the retail packs of the bloks in the same store. Why? Well that's a good question... Is it a branding issue, where our bloks and brand in general are less...
Earlier this week I dropped off some new prototypes, and while I was waiting in the lobby of her building, I saw this brilliant "worry monster" display... How it works is that you write down your worry on a piece of paper and "feed" it to the monster, rather than letting it eat you up keeping it to yourself. Got me thinking about all the stress of running a small business, and all the worries that come up. There are tons, especially in the early days when you're struggling to find a product-market fit, and make things work with tough time...
