244 | Success Stems from Trial and Error | with Caroline Cotto

Caroline Cotto is the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Renewal Mill, a venture-backed startup creating a new circular economy of food by upcycling the byproducts of food manufacturing into ingredients. 

A food marketing and nutrition specialist, Caroline has experience at the UN World Food Programme in Cambodia, the White House (for Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative), Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator, and HubSpot, where she ran the women’s diversity program globally. 

Caroline grew up in food, working for her family’s ice cream business in the town of Sandwich, MA. 

Caroline serves as the Board President of the Upcycled Food Association, and formerly served as a Fulbright Fellow in Taiwan.

In This Conversation We Discuss: 

1. [00:00] Intro
2. [01:00] What is Renewal Mill?
3. [01:41] Validating the idea for Renewal Mill
4. [03:06] Renewal Mill’s first product
5. [04:32] Workarounds of introducing a new product
6. [05:04] Renewal Mill’s ideation process and timeline
7. [05:43] How Renewal Mill entered the Ecommerce space
8. [06:15] Driving awareness for upcycled food
9. [06:58] Renewal Mill’s B2B go-to market strategy
10. [07:50] Considering B2C to generate short-term revenue
11. [12:59] Challenges of being a new B2C business
12. [13:40] Two ways Renewal Mill overcame the challenges
13. [14:17] Driving traffic to their website through partnerships
14. [14:59] Partnerships are both a win and a challenge
15. [15:38] Finding ways to stand out from other brands
16. [16:00] Brand advocacies vs what consumers actually care about
17. [16:28] Tailor brand messages to appeal to customers
18. [16:57] Leveraging upcycling as their Unique Selling Point
19. [17:31] The power of interviewing your customers
20. [18:12] Know where customers live online and offline
21. [18:45] Staying in traditional retail for impulse buyers
22. [19:21] Limited offers to reel in loyal customers
23. [20:00] Where to support Renewal Mill

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Upcycled, crave-worthy, & climate-friendly food renewalmill.com
• Follow Caroline linkedin.com/in/carolinecotto/
• Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect
• Take your retail business to the next level today shopify.com/honest
• Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period
• Schedule your free consultation with a Sendlane expert sendlane.com/honest

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