Hitting The Mark

Before starting chocolate brand Spring & Mulberry, Kathryn Shah was a brand strategy consultant who served as the Vice President of Global Marketing at Pantone and the Brand Manager for Veuve Clicquot Champagne, two brands 99% of us love and look up to.

It was a trip to India and a cancer diagnosis that led to her launching her startup Spring & Mulberry, a line of date-sweetened chocolate bars. After having Jeni Britton of Floura on the last episode, this is part 2 of another serendipitous series where I have two highly accomplished female founders of innovative health food brands on the show back-to-back.

This episode is filled with insights from Kathryn’s brand-building journey - from working at Unilever on building the Ragu Pasta Sauce brand, to driving brand growth at Veuve Cliquot to launching her own brand in a very poetic and decisive manner.

Many of you know Jeni Britton from episode 28, where we did a deep dive into Jeni's Ice Creams, which she started at age 22 and now sells in 80 scoop shops and 12,500 retailers with an annual revenue north of 125 million. 

Today, we dive into a new chapter of Jeni's entrepreneurial journey with Floura. Floura is a next-generation fiber company that currently offers fiber bars, which she calls Fruit Crush Bars, in multiple flavors.

As was the case in my previous conversation with Jeni, this episode is us nerding out on all things branding, from focus groups to customer perception, from deriving your brand DNA to naming to organic branding. At the same time, you learn about the power of fiber. A delightful and inspiring conversation you do not want to miss.

This is the first time I get to say ‘welcome back’ on Hitting The Mark as I had Till Janczukowicz, the founder of Berlin-based IDAGIO, which is often described as 'the Spotify for classical music,' on episode 21.

But this is not a Let’s catch up with Till episode to check in on IDAGIO. Instead, I recently saw that he is preparing for an exciting brand launch that features none other than John Malkovich to kick things off.

The idea? Spend a month with John. Hello Genius is the brand's name, and it fosters a whole new level of mentorship, access, and community.

On this episode, Till shares his vision for the brand in his typical intellectually stimulating and curiosity-evoking manner.