The Harvest Growth Podcast
Listen to inspirational stories from successful inventors and entrepreneurs as our host, Jon LaClare, founder of Harvest Growth, leads interviews targeted at helping aspiring inventors and market-leading entrepreneurs alike. If you’d like to see how Harvest Growth can help grow your product business, click below.
The Harvest Growth Podcast
How a CPG Startup Can Compete Against the Biggest Food Brands
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare sits down with Victoria Eicher, co-founder and CEO of WeFoods, to explore how product founders can uncover overlooked sales channels, build strong customer relationships, and compete against much larger companies.
Victoria shares the story behind Bagelitos, a handheld breakfast product that combines the chewy texture of a bagel with the convenient shape of an empanada. Rather than immediately competing for space in crowded grocery-store aisles, Victoria and her team selected convenience-store hot food as their focused entry point.
Drawing from years of experience in convenience food service, Victoria explains how identifying a neglected market allowed WeFoods to solve problems that larger food manufacturers often overlook. From creating products that are easy for customers to eat on the go to simplifying preparation for store employees, every element of Bagelitos was designed specifically for the needs of convenience-store operators.
The conversation also explores how smaller brands can compete when larger companies have more money, employees, and established relationships. Victoria explains why dependable fulfillment, meaningful communication, thoughtful packaging, and a genuine commitment to the customer can create opportunities whenever larger competitors fail to deliver.
You’ll also learn how WeFoods is building consumer recognition in a traditionally unbranded category through distinctive packaging, localized influencer marketing, social media, and Tito, the energetic Bagelitos brand mascot.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we cover:
● Why starting with a focused niche can be smarter than entering a crowded market
● How to identify sales channels that larger competitors are overlooking
● What makes convenience-store distribution different from traditional retail
● Why operational simplicity matters when developing a food product
● How dependable fulfillment and strong relationships help smaller brands compete
● Why solving problems for retailers can make your product more attractive
● How packaging can improve product performance while building brand awareness
● The value of localized influencer marketing when entering a new market
● How to build consumer loyalty in a traditionally unbranded product category
● Why establishing a strong beachhead can support future national expansion
If you’re launching a product, searching for the right first sales channel, or competing against companies with significantly larger budgets, this episode offers practical strategies for finding an underserved opportunity and turning focused execution into scalable growth.
To learn more about Victoria Eicher, WeFoods, and Bagelitos, visit WeFoods.co. You can also follow Tito Bagelitos on Instagram and TikTok.
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands totaling more than $2 billion in revenues? Visit HarvestGrowth.com and schedule a free consultation with our team today!