Francisco Pavan is the Co-Founder of Kumana, a company that makes Avocado Sauces inspired by Venezuelan cuisine. 

After traveling the world and experiencing different cultures through food, he decided to change career paths from being an automotive parts supplier, to a food startup entrepreneur. His passion and desire to bring light back to the image of Venezuela(Francisco’s home country), led him to team up with Jeremy Smith(President of LaunchPad Group) and Eric Read(Founder & Creative Director of MarketBrand) to successfully brand and sell his Avocado Sauce.

Here are some show notes:

- 04:34 - Founder's story - why Francisco Pavan left his career with Toyota to start an avocado sauce company?
- 11:14 - Early market testing
- 13:51 - Locking in branding and “Go-To-Market” strategy.
- 15:34 - A founder's mindset
- 23:09 - How to combine all of the different design parts and pieces and make - a coherent and simple for the end user to understand.
- 24:15 - How to define your “onlyness”. How do you really stand out?
- 28:49 - How the design team should be part of the soul and creativeness all the way throughout the brand's journey.
- 35:00 - Early traction
- 43:17 - What’s next for Kumana?

Kenneth Park is the founder and CEO of Detoxwater, an Aloe Vera water brand that started as a home remedy that his mom used for digestive problems and other illnesses. Ken eventually introduced Aloe water to the market, originally branded as Superleaf Aloe Juice, selling from his dorm room and later on becoming a household name with a nationwide distribution. Detoxwater is now famously known to be an aloe drink offering the best of both worlds: great taste with health benefits.

In this episode, he shares how he turned his mom's home remedy to a successful beverage brand.

Some key takeaways from the interview:

1. Doing research on your competitors and incorporating what they can't provide to your brand in order to stand out.
2. Being open to collaborating or partnering with established manufacturers with the same vision or niche.
3. Executing a national distribution: finding a partner, getting a purchase order, hiring the brokers.
4. Presenting your brand through a personal experience or story which people will be able to relate to.
5. Exploring all your retailer options; don't be afraid to swim against the current when it comes to applying other people's advise versus what you really want to achieve.