Podcast appearances and mentions of rachel drori

Imagine thinking it would be a good idea to try to help people eat more fruits and vegetables, so you start making whole foods smoothies for your friends and family. Soon you're selling them to more people than you personally know. Next thing you know, you're running an all-vegan frozen meal company with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, a billion dollar-plus valuation, and hundreds of thousands of customers all enjoying your whole foods plant-based meals.  That's the true story of Rachel Drori, founder of Daily Harvest, whose success with the company landed her on Forbes' list of America's Wealthiest Self-Made Women. But it wasn't all success along the way. Two years ago, after the company had achieved its unicorn status, tragedy struck. Dozens of people were sickened by one of their products, and it wasn't clear why. Some people were even hospitalized. In addition to the serious suffering of some of its customers, the crisis captivated national headlines, threatening to put an end to the Daily Harvest story after so much growth and success. Eventually, the root cause of the problem was found: A little-known ingredient called tara flour (not to be confused with taro flour) caused a seemingly allergic reaction in a small number of people—and policies were put in place to prevent a recurrence.  Yet, the story didn't end there.  In the two years since the tragedy, Daily Harvest has since branched out away from just direct-to-consumer sales and is now in thousands of supermarkets too, making it easier than ever for consumers to choose healthy plant-based meals. And as you'll hear in this conversation with Rachel, they've even achieved that lucrative land known as profitability.  So, how did this all happen, and what's next for Daily Harvest? Listen to the episode to find out. Discussed in this episode Rachel recommends Brené Brown's Power of Vulnerability TED Talk—apparently 65 million viewers agree. Daily Harvest is now sold at Kroger, Target, and more. Some Daily Harvest meals are about $5 per serving. Rachel landed on Forbes' list of America's Wealthiest Self-Made Women Our past episode with Doug Evans of Juicero.  More about Rachel Drori, Founder of Daily Harvest  Rachel Drori is taking care of food, so food can take care of you. As the Founder of Daily Harvest, Rachel and the company are on a mission to improve human and planetary health by making it convenient to eat more sustainably grown, organic fruits and vegetables every day.   Since launching the business out of the trunk of her car in 2015, more than 20 million pounds of sustainably grown fruits and vegetables have been delivered to consumers' doorsteps while supporting farmers' transition to regenerative and organic practices. Drori founded Daily Harvest with just 12 smoothies. The company, now valued at over $1 billion, offers meals and snacks for any time of day. In 2023, the company built on its successful direct-to-consumer business with its launch into national retail. Daily Harvest is now found in the freezer section of grocery stores across the country. Prior to Daily Harvest, Drori spent years honing her skills as a customer-centric marketing executive, leading teams at Gilt Groupe, American Express and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. She has been named one of Inc.'s "Female Founders 100". Drori graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from Columbia Business School.  She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

What if frozen food could revolutionize the way we eat, nourish our bodies, and save the planet? In this episode, we sit down with Rachel Drori, the visionary founder of Daily Harvest, to delve into the benefits of sustainably sourced frozen food. Daily Harvest is a plant-based meal delivery service that offers a variety of chef-crafted, pre-portioned, and frozen meals made from organic fruits and vegetables. Join us as Rachel delves into the mission and values driving her company, how frozen food helped her start eating healthier, why direct-to-consumer was the best approach for the brand, and its entry into the retail market. We discuss her recent decision to step back from her role as CEO, the steep learning curve of the food space, how the company navigated a product recall, and how Daily Harvest's overall mission keeps her motivated. Join us to unlock the secrets of frozen food's potential to transform your diet, health, and the world with Rachel Drori of Daily Harvest!Key Points From This Episode:Rachel's passion for sustainability and Daily Harvest's mission.The light bulb moment behind launching her first line of frozen food.Her reasons for pursuing the direct-to-consumer model. Building brand awareness as a way to enter the retail market.Transitioning Daily Harvest's product lines and business model.Daily Harvest's efforts to help farmers shift to sustainable farming.Unpack why regenerative and organic farming is essential.The sustainability, nutritional, and quality benefits of frozen food.Learn about the opportunities the retail market offers. Why educating the consumer is a core value of the company.Discover how she got celebrity investors interested in the company.Explore how the pandemic positively impacted the company. She shares valuable lessons from her entrepreneurial journey. Her new role in the company and why she stepped down as CEO.Find out what she has planned next for Daily Harvest.Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:Rachel Drori on LinkedInRachel Drori on InstagramDaily HarvestEpisode: A Smoothie Transition with Alex Bayer of Genius DreamsAmerican Farmland Trust (AFT)California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF)Serena WilliamsParis Hilton Wild OrchardModern Species Gage Mitchell on LinkedInGage Mitchell on XBrands for a Better World WebsiteBrands for a Better World on YouTubeBrands for a Better World emailImpact Driven Community

Today, I'm joined by Rachel Drori, founder of Daily Harvest, a plant-based frozen meal delivery service. Valued at over $1B in 2022, Daily Harvest is reimagining frozen food. Partnering with Kroger, the company recently expanded into retail — launching its pre-prepped smoothie, soup, and healthy bowl kits to the masses.  In this episode, Rachel discusses preparing to step down as CEO. Plus, we talk entering grocery stores, weathering a recall, and trying to transform a broken food system. In this episode, you'll learn: • About Rachel's 10 year journey as founder • Daily Harvest's long-term mission and future plans • The pros and cons of starting D2C before going brick-and-mortar Subscribe to the podcast → insider.fitt.co/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider Daily Harvest's Website: https://www.daily-harvest.com Daily Harvest's IG: https://www.instagram.com/dailyharvest Pasta Collection: https://www.daily-harvest.com/browse/pasta - Fitt Talent: https://talent.fitt.co/ Consulting: https://consulting.fitt.co/ Investments: https://capital.fitt.co/ Chapters:  (00:00) Introduction (01:32) Rachel's background and Daily Harvest overview (05:44) Challenges in the food industry (11:03) Sustainability and making an impact (14:52) Food as medicine  (18:26) Building a mission-driven business (22:41) Impact and future of the CPG industry  (23:49) The importance of food system education (26:05) Expanding into the frozen food aisle (29:36) Challenges and opportunities in brick-and-mortar expansion (33:45) Handling a product recall and lessons learned  (38:36) Mission-driven decision-making and values  (39:31) Transitioning out of the CEO role  (42:33) Future roadmap and company outlook (43:24) Conclusion

Rachel Drori is the Founder of Daily Harvest. Daily Harvest's mission is to make nourishing, plant-based foods more attainable by eliminating barriers to access. In 2022, Drori earned a spot on Forbes' eighth annual ranking of America's Richest Self-Made Women with a net worth of $350 million. She shared, “I created Daily Harvest to reimagine how food can nourish both humanity and the planet. We make it easy to eat more sustainably sourced fruits and vegetables and the bigger we grow, the more good we can do,” Drori told Forbes. “We are laying the foundation for a better future.”In this episode of Just FlexIt™, Rachel Drori shares fantastic insight with the FlexIt team about her inspiring career. She touches on her journey, navigating the world of hospitality, and how the values she learned in that space helped shape a customer-centric focus for Daily Harvest. Drori also touches on the bumps in the road that have helped lead Daily Harvest to the success it has earned today. You won't want to miss this fantastic episode of Just FlexIt™ featuring Rachel Drori! Special Offer: 

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What does it mean to be omnipresent in the food channel? Daily Harvest founder and CEO Rachel Drori explains how her company aims to meet consumers where they are via direct-to-consumer and retail channels, and how it supports regenerative agriculture across the U.S. More about Rachel Drori: Rachel Drori is taking care of food, so food can take care of you. As the Founder of Daily Harvest, Rachel and the company are on a mission to improve human and planetary health by making it convenient to eat more sustainably grown, organic fruits and vegetables daily. Since launching the business in 2015, more than 20 million pounds of sustainably grown fruits and vegetables have been delivered to consumers' doorsteps while supporting farmers' transition to regenerative and organic practices. Drori founded Daily Harvest with just 12 smoothies. The company, now valued at over $1 billion, offers over 100 options across nine different collections including smoothies, flatbreads, harvest bowls, grains and more. In 2023, the company built on its successful direct-to-consumer business with its launch into national retail. Daily Harvest is now found in the freezer section of more than 1,100 grocery stores across the country with more to come. Prior to Daily Harvest, Drori spent years honing her skills as a customer-centric marketing executive, leading teams at Gilt Groupe, American Express and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. She has been named one of Inc.'s “Female Founders 100.” Drori graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from Columbia Business School. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons. More about Daily Harvest: Daily Harvest is on a mission to make it really easy to eat more sustainably grown, organic fruits + vegetables every day. Why? Getting in 5 servings daily can help you live longer on a healthier planet. Our chef-crafted food is delicious, easy to prep, and built on the good stuff. From seed to plate, we're committed to a better food system, one that prioritizes human and planetary health. We are transforming what we eat, what we grow, and how we grow it — one crop (and bite) at a time. Learn more at: https://www.daily-harvest.com/

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In This Episode You'll Hear About:How Rachel's big family with two entrepreneurial parents provided the opportunity to grow up learning about business by watching her parents lead.How she built her confidence in college in order to build and lead a successful company.Why her time working at American Express and Gilt Group helped her learn valuable lessons from both a big company and a small business that gave her a scope to be set up to scale Daily Harvest successfully.How her observations about her work and eating habits led to her investigation of the food industry and to creating healthy, convenient options. The metrics Rachel set in the testing phase to see if she had a product market fit and how Daily Harvest took off so quickly.What it has been like to create and scale something that had not yet been done before, what lessons were learned the hard way, and why they are stronger now than ever before.Advice she has for building, growing, and communicating well with your team as you scale and why it is so important to have an open dialogue from the beginning.How her unique and steady approach to fundraising led to being able to partner with value-aligned investors who have been a good fit and have helped her in her goal for consistent capital efficiency.How she has grown as a leader and continues to grow as the business grows, and what is next for Daily Harvest.To Find Out More:DailyHarvest.comQuotes:“As a child, my parents were so passionate about what they were doing, and I could see it.”“The box that I actually needed to check was the confidence box, not the education box or not the work experience box.”“Seeing what happens when things aren't going so well and how some of that could have been avoided by more disciplined growth really led me to focus on things like capital efficiency when starting Daily Harvest from day one.”“When I think about how I've built Daily Harvest, and what our goals are, and how we treat our people, and how we invest in talent and growth and management skills, I think a lot of it is informed from that incredible environment that was created at Gilt in the talent incubator.”“I started looking at the food options out there and trying to figure out why they were the way that they were. And for me, it really comes down to how they are structured, number one, and how they view success in the public markets.” “If you think about what slow, steady growth and dividends mean for food, something that you ingest, there's a lot of squeezing margins. And when you think about squeezing margins out of food, it's also squeezing nutrition out of food.”“I set a metric for myself, which was very important for me, because what I wanted to avoid in this little MVP experiment of mine was I like to call it the Girl Scout cookie effect or the wrapping paper effect... I wanted to make absolutely sure that there was no ‘my friends are feeling bad for me' effect.”“Economies thrive with specialization. And so do companies.” “You need to hire experts in certain areas, and it can create this really uncomfortable situation with those early people who you owe everything to, but it becomes murky when there's not a clear path for them. So my advice to people is to just have that awkward conversation up front and to have it frequently throughout the growth stage.”“Early on I felt like, "Oh, I'm a founder now. I need to have this morning routine and I need to have work/life balance, and I need to have all these things." Like that was stressing me out more than just being like "I'm at the center of a tornado, and it's great.'" “I think going from down and in to up and out was kind of the hardest transition because it's not just something you can do yourself. You also have to make sure that you have the right team to be able to support it and you have the right accountability that strings through the organization. And those things are hard to orchestrate.”“You want people who look different, who think different, who have different experiences that they bring to the table, but it's so important that the values are aligned.”

Rachel Drori was gainfully employed and pregnant when she had the idea for Daily Harvest. She says she had all the reasons not to start the company, but knew the perfect “right time” would never come.   Beside saying “Why Not Now?” to her idea, Rachel shares the more tactical strategies she used to measure whether she was ready to start her company. She identified the worst possible case scenario that could come out of this journey (one of Amy Jo's five Renegade Rules!) and realized it was worth taking the risk. When Rachel's customer base was 5x the size of her inner circle, she knew it was time to go all in on Daily Harvest.   Rachel shares so many tangible tips for entrepreneurs on this episode of Why Not Now? She says she learned more from starting a company than she did during the two years of her MBA program!   Rachel also tells Amy Jo about the responsibility she feels toward her customers and her employees, the pros and cons of raising money from investors when starting a business, and investing in female founders.   Learn more about Rachel Follow Rachel on Instagram   To learn more about the Renegade Accelerator, click here. Get Amy Jo's newsletter.   Follow Amy Jo… Instagram Twitter Facebook Why Not Now? Instagram Buy Amy Jo's Book

In 2015, Rachel Drori saw a gap in the health and food industry and seized the moment to create something new that would change the way Americans ate daily. Drori founded Daily Harvest, a brand dedicated to making organic, healthy foods accessible and convenient—no matter your hectic work schedule. Since its launch, the brand has grown its offerings into 75 items across nine collections available nationwide that are prepackaged in 100% compostable and recyclable packaging and delivered directly onto your doorstep. On this episode of Second Life, find out how Drori used her past career in marketing at major companies such as Gilt Groupe and American Express to propel herself forward and build a brand that is making a difference.

For many of us, 2020 has been filled with one-too-many hurdles. It's finally (!) time to turn the page onto 2021, and in order to do that with a little bit of flair, I'm calling in the reinforcements. This week, I'm launching five back-to-back episodes with some of my all-time favorite guests. Today, I'm bringing you my conversation with Rachel Drori. We're chatting about some of the biggest changes in her life this year, the lessons she's learned, her big hopes for the next 365, and so much more. Perhaps the best parts? The news that Daily Harvest has grown substantially since our last chat, Rachel's insight into how she's being kinder to herself these days, and her philosophy on small wins. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE 44. Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO of Daily Harvest SOCIAL @dailyharvest @racheldrori @hurdlepodcast @emilyabbate OFFERS Athletic Greens | Head to AthleticGreens.com/hurdle to get a year’s receive five free travel packs AND a free D3/K2 wellness bundle with your first purchase. JOIN: THE *Secret* FACEBOOK GROUP CHECK OUT: HURDLE SESSIONS All past Sessions are now available on the Hurdle website. UPCOMING: End of Year Goal Setting Workshop, January 6 @ 1 p.m. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hurdle/message

Rachel Drori has come a long way from the days of filling a shopping cart at Trader Joe's and packing up healthy, frozen meals for delivery to customers all around New York — all while being nine-months pregnant. As the Founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, Rachel bootstrapped her company from the very beginning, and eventually had a few big names reach out to invest, including folks like Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2019, Daily Harvest generated more than $125M in revenue and the company is growing. So what makes her meal-delivery service different from the others? The heavy focus on customer-centricity.When Rachel founded Daily Harvest, her goal was to build a customer-driven company that connected people with food that was designed specifically for them. But what did that look like from a practical standpoint and what can others learn from Rachel’s journey? On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, we’ll give you the answers to just that, so stay tuned!Main Takeaways:Nimble and Agile: In marketing and customer acquisition, it’s a mistake to be reliant on any one channel. Having the ability to understand and follow the trends, and then meet potential customers where they are at the moment they are online will allow you to actually bring in new customers reliably.Call and Response: Customers are less interested in having a place to share their thoughts than they are in having their feedback responded to by the brand they are interacting with. In every channel, there should be a way to engage in two-way conversations with your customers and then a method to follow through on those customers’ needs in a way that everyone can see.High On Your Own Supply: Having control of your supply chain is one of the best ways to create agility within your organization. But sometimes it takes some technology investment to bring all your suppliers on board.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is Stephanie Postles, your host and co-founder of mission.org. Today on the show, we have Rachel Drori, the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest. Rachel, welcome, welcome.Rachel:Hi, thanks for having me.Stephanie:Thanks for coming on. So yesterday in the mail, I got an amazing box of Daily Harvest. And it was the perfect way for me to understand exactly what it was and enjoyed this morning. But to kick it off, maybe I'll let you explain what Daily Harvest is.Rachel:First of all, I need to know what you tried first, and then....Stephanie:I tried a smoothie, and today I'm going to be trying one of the soups in there. I think there was a lentil soup that you just add water to. I'm like, "This is what I need in my life, something that you just add water to or just add coconut water to make a smoothie and it's done."Rachel:I love it. Yes. So I started Daily Harvest about five years ago. And the mission is simple. It's really to take care of food so that food can take care of all of us. And we do this by starting at the root with our farmers. And we grow the best fruits and vegetables in the best way possible. And then we make incredible food, which I'm glad you got to try. [inaudible] smoothies and flatbreads, ice cream, alongside with people who eat it, our customers. And the idea is that you can then stock your home with convenient, but also clean and delicious food that's built on real fruits and vegetables. And part of our magic is really connecting people with food that was designed specifically for them so that you're really always stocked with a whole food kitchen of clean food when you want it and it's ready in minutes.Stephanie:I love that. I think on my Twitter, I posted a picture of my freezer and what it looks like. And it was kind of sad because there was like waffles next to one of them. I'm like, "What?" This is my life. I have waffles and then now a new experience that I don't think I'll be able to step away from after this.Rachel:Well, that's what I like to hear. But it's interesting, people buying additional freezers in the last few months. And I'm like, "I support this message. I support this very much."Stephanie:That is awesome. So tell me a little bit about the early days of when you were starting it. I mean, I'm thinking about all the different logistics and the supply chain and working with farmers. And I want to kind of hear how it all got started.Rachel:So as I started pulling on the strings really trying to figure out why the food that I wanted didn't exist, what I realized is that it was because food is not customer driven. The way food is created is actually really far from that. And the reason food is not customer driven is actually a true systemic problem. So as I set out to start Daily Harvest, part of what I wanted to do was really solve some of the systemic challenges with food. Not only the convenience and the health factor, but also why do we have to choose between preserving ourselves and preserving the planet all of the time with packaging and sustainability and regenerative farming practices and all the stuff that makes our food systems so broken? So back in those early days, I had these really grand ambitions, still have the grand ambitions, but less power to actually make them happen in those days. And what I did was I faked it all until I was actually able to do them.Rachel:So I was buying our ingredients at Trader Joe's. I wasn't telling stories of things that were going to happen in future but buying ingredients at Trader Joe's, got a commercial kitchen in Long Island City. And my right hand and my left hand were my first team members, bagging all those ingredients up into food that I knew solved all of the customer problems that I had surfaced to myself but also in friends and family, and started delivering across New York City and really trying to see if I was solving problems for people other than myself. And it turned out I was. And I'd quit my job and dove in head first.Stephanie:That is amazing. So were you personally delivering a lot of this items in the beginning?Rachel:I was delivering everything.Stephanie:Oh gosh. Any crazy stories of the delivery days?Rachel:Yeah. So I was nine months pregnant towards the end of the bootstrap MVP period. And I could no longer get behind the wheel of my car. But I had a 16-year-old nephew who could drive with an adult.Stephanie:Oh my gosh, getting his permit hours with you?Rachel:Yes, yes. It was ridiculous. So I would pick him up. I would pay him like $15 an hour to drive around and hop in and out. And I would sit in the car like a beached whale. And he would run these boxes up to people's apartments. And I would be like, "Nope, can't give us a ticket. I'm in here."Stephanie:And I'm pregnant. So even more of a reason. Don't try. That's awesome. So then around that time, it looks like you were also... Was that when you were also raising money?Rachel:So I did raise money... well, so I'd raised a few rounds at this point. I actually tried to raise money for a Series C at that phase and it didn't go very well to be honest. People didn't really understand how I had this grandiose vision and I was delivering smoothies. They just couldn't connect the dots. And I guess it was too much of a leap for people. So I decided to bootstrap for as long as I possibly could. And when I say bootstrap, I think people assume you have money to burn. When I say scrappy, literally doing things like having my nephew deliver the food, and I created the website entirely by myself and the packaging and printed everything. There was no money spent to be clear.Rachel:And raised money officially right after I had my first child and decided I needed... I was kind of choking off growth and needed to take it from the MVP stage to something much bigger. And we launched nationally in 2016, which was almost like a year after that period, and then raised our Series A actually when I was pregnant with my second child, which was super fun.Stephanie:What kind of experience did you have being pregnant and raising money or trying to raise money? What happened during that? Because I know I have some personal experiences that maybe weren't always the most positive of people just being like, "How do you plan on running a business and you're pregnant?" Even now, knowing I have three kids, people saying, "How do you plan on running a business with three kids?" And what kind of stories do you have around that? Hopefully, I'll get one. So I'm interested to hear.Rachel:Yeah. I mean, the positive and the negative. The positive was that I had no time to worry about being pregnant. I was just like, "Oh, yeah, this is just happening and I'm going to keep moving." And I think a lot of people in that moment of life and in that phase kind of stew in the moment. And it was great. Nine months later or 10 months later, a baby popped out and I was like, "Moving on." And the negative is it's funny exactly as you just phrased it. The question that came up not actually as frequently as I thought it might, but once or twice, I definitely got the question, how do you plan to be a good mother and run a business? And I'm like, "Interesting question that I'm not going to justify with an answer. But if what you're trying to ask is if I'm 100% committed to making Daily Harvest successful, the answer is yes."Stephanie:Yep. That's great. That's a good way to do it like, "I'm not even going to answer that."Rachel:What a ridiculous question?Stephanie:Yeah. I always say like I could never imagine someone asking like, "Oh, man, how do you plan on still working if your kids are on the way?" I can do that.Rachel:Totally.Stephanie:So I saw you have some really impressive names as investors like Serena Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow. Tell me a little bit about how you got these investors on board.Rachel:Yes. So each one is kind of its own story, but Serena is my favorite because I got a random email from Alexis Ohanian who's now her husband, at the time was Serena's boyfriend. And he was like, "My girlfriend and I eat Daily Harvest every day. We would love to talk to you." I had no idea who his girlfriend was. And the next thing I knew, I was on the phone with Serena Williams like, "Wait, what?"Stephanie:Oh my gosh. That is actually insane. I mean, I wouldn't have known that either because I don't really know names and stuff like that. So how did the conversation go?Rachel:I had no idea. I mean, it was amazing. She's so cool and was incredibly down to earth. And she was just saying how Daily Harvest really helped her eat the way that she wanted to eat, the way that she needed to eat in a pinch. And she loved the idea. And this was super early on. And I was like, "First of all, how do you even know about us? But amazing." And she asked if she could invest. And I was like, "Let me think about this for a second. Yes, absolutely."Stephanie:Oh, that's great. Stephanie:So after you landed Serena, did other investors come along when you could kind of point to like, "I've got Serena Williams. You win her out." How did the other ones go?Rachel:I mean, it's funny. We weren't really public with it until much later. So we had other investors reach out to us with interest, but it had nothing to do with Serena. It really was people finding us in pretty organic ways. And people just getting excited about the idea and the concept and seeing the problem that I stated earlier in their own life and seeing that we don't have to compromise, we can have it all, at least with our food. So each story, as I said, is pretty unique. But they really all were people who found us, which was pretty remarkable.Stephanie:Yeah, that's great. I mean, that's a testament to the product. Very, very cool. So when thinking about new customers finding you in organic or non-organic ways, how are you getting in front of people right now? And I'm asking this question because I went on your guys's Pinterest, and I saw you have like 4 million views a month. And I was like, "What? How are they getting 4 million views on Pinterest?" So I want to hear a little bit about your customer acquisition and how you're getting in front of people.Rachel:Yes. So we have a really robust marketing mix. My background is marketing. So we always started with the goal of, how are we not beholden to any one channel? Right? Because I think that that's just asking for trouble. And we built it in a really nimble and agile way so that as trends and algorithms and all sorts of things change, that we can then be nimble as a result. And we're lucky that we have a really high amount of our customers come in through word of mouth. But we've also done a lot of things to make that easier, to remove the friction of people sharing when they have a positive Daily Harvest experience.Rachel:But there are other things that I think have made us stand out on... I mean, literally, you name a marketing channel, we are on it. There's nothing that's like secret saucy there. But I really think it comes down to our differentiated messaging and our differentiated photography and really focusing on connecting with universal human truths where people are just like, "Oh, you get me. Yep, I understand. I'm going to learn more."Stephanie:Oh, that's great. So tell me a little bit about that differentiated messaging that you're talking about? How do you go about figuring out what you want to message and how do you know what will connect and what won't? Because what you might think is going to be a universal truth, I might be like, "Oh, that's not my truth." How do you guys go about making sure you're speaking to your customer?Rachel:Absolutely. It definitely is trial and error to understand what works, but we obviously have a mission. So we're looking for customers with whom our mission resonates. And there's just a lot of different ways where when you remove your marketing hat and you're like, "How would a normal human say this?" Or, "What is the way of saying something that gets somebody to stop their scroll or perk their ears while listening to something that they might otherwise fast forward past?" And then it's the same thing on the visual side, really focusing on photography and imagery that's visually arresting and beautiful. And also stuff that looks delicious. You can't underestimate the salivation factor of... I don't know if that's a real thing.Stephanie:I like that. Now it needs to be.Rachel:It totally does. How much of a photograph actually makes you salivate? Because that's tied to how hungry it makes you and how much it makes you want something.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, pictures are everything. Even on your packaging and things like that, I mean, that's what makes me want to buy something, even when I'm on DoorDash or something, if an item doesn't have a picture on it, I'm like, "No, I'm not so sure if I want it," even if it sounds amazing. I want to see what it actually looks like. So it seems like you have very, very smart to have pictures on everything, especially Pinterest.Rachel:Yep. And because people have such short attention spans these days, and because there's so much media being thrown at you constantly, we also really focus on simplicity with it. So not only is it beautiful and drool-worthy, but it's also simplistic.Stephanie:That's great. So earlier, you mentioned also removing friction of having customers share their stories. How did you go about ensuring that a new customer or existing customer would share their stories and keep doing them?Rachel:Yeah. So what we have found is it's not so much about giving the customers places to share their thoughts and feelings. It's more about showing that you respond to them. So one of the things that we did really early on is we built a quite agile supply chain. And the goal of that was really to be able to respond to customer needs. We wanted to create a customer driven company. We had to be able to respond to customer needs. And it's one thing to have these amazing insights and to be innovative. And a lot of companies have the ability to do that. But if you can't respond in a timely manner, does it really matter? I'm not so sure.Rachel:So by showing customers, not just telling them, that we are actually listening to them and creating the food that they want to eat with them, and then connecting people with the food that was created for them, it sounds pretty simplistic. But there are really few companies that actually do it. So we're able to bring something to market in six to eight weeks from the time our customers tell us what they want. And I think that that is why customers love to share with us. And that is why we continue to be able to build these connections with our customers, those relationships.Stephanie:That's such a good point actually to show someone like you're not just submitting something into a black box and nothing's ever happening. What does the process look like? Where are they submitting their feedback? And then how do you interact with them in a way that is one on one, but then also shows your entire customer or new customer base, "Here's what we did for this one customer?" What does that process look like from start to finish?Rachel:Yeah. I mean, literally any channel that you can think of, we've built a way to interact. So whether it is through our app, whether it is through text message, whether it is through social media, you name it, we've made the conversation two ways. And what's interesting about it is if you think back to the story I told you earlier where kind of faking it till you make it, I'm air quoting, which you obviously can't see, but you're faking it but kind of faking it.Rachel:In the early days, our way of talking to our customers was every single team member at Daily Harvest would follow the Daily Harvest hashtag and every single day, it was the expectation that they would scroll through. And when somebody wrote something about Daily Harvest, the team engaged. Every single person on the team was asked to engage. So everyone from an engineer who might not under normal circumstances have any interaction with a customer directly to somebody on our culinary team. And it depends on what the customer put out there. But if it was something like your app is X, Y, Z, then an engineer would jump in and say, "Hey, can you tell me more about that?" And really just empowering the team to forge those relationships and to have those conversations I think is really what started it from a team culture perspective.Rachel:And then as we've grown, we've built tools in this way that allow it to happen. [inaudible 00:20:08], obviously, not everybody is scrolling through every single Daily Harvest hashtag these days, but we've empowered everybody to really think about how we maintain our vision of being truly customer driven.Stephanie:I love that. I mean, that's such a good experience. It's so different than, of course, corporate culture where you're probably told you are not allowed to engage with someone who tweets at us, and it has to be approved by PR. And there's so many rules and stuff. A lot of us had been taught in the past like, "Just don't say anything." And I can imagine how great of a culture you build by saying, "Everyone get on there. Respond to these people. It's on you to actually keep our customers happy." That seems like a transformative environment.Rachel:Absolutely. And then you have it scaled too. People really are thinking customer first at all times.Stephanie:Yeah, that's really cool. So when it comes to product request, I mean, it seems like there'd be an area that could be like a leaderboard where people can vote on the next products they want and actually determine that. Is there anything like that that you have going on to kind of create more social engagement and also people having an input in the product that maybe they wouldn't have just tweeted at you and said like, I want to have more figs?" They might not have that idea on their own, but they would like to maybe vote on it?Rachel:Totally. Yeah. I mean, we have all sorts of engagement opportunities for customers. But the important thing to know is that none of our skews or collections at Daily Harvest are created to be generally accepted. So we really focus on what people want from the perspective of their taste affinities, which is really differentiated.Rachel:So if you think about traditional product cycles and product development tools, people will look at things like demographics, psychographics, household income, credit card swipe data, and all of these things that when you kind of zoom out really never made sense to me because I can tell you, my husband and I live in the same house. We have the same household income. We share credit cards. We have the same credit card swipe data, same education, we met in school. But when it comes down to it, he orders from a very different restaurant than where I order from at night when we order in. So we really try to focus on what taste preferences are. And we try to create food for specific groups of people that have similar taste preferences, so nothing that we create is meant for general consumption. And that's where it gets really nuanced and really differentiated.Rachel:So yes, we will say to people, "We're thinking about creating X, Y, Z, and we would love your input." We take that into consideration, but we also take into consideration that, "Who is actually answering that question and where they're coming from and what their taste preferences are." Because I might like something that is, let's say, filled with greens, and you might like something that has no garlic in it or whatever it is because you might be allergic to garlic. And we're not going to like the same thing. So why should we try to make food for both of us?Stephanie:I love that idea of making sure that you actually focus on your customers because I think it's very easy, especially with all these new B2C companies that are launching right now to get distracted and not remember like, "Who did you actually build this for? What is your customer base? And what are you trying to do in this world?" Instead of being like, "Oh, and this person wants more sugar added to the matcha. Okay, I didn't really want to add a bunch of sugar to it, but this person wants it." It's a good reminder to not get distracted.Rachel:Right. But if we do have a group of customers that tell us that they want that same matcha that's a bit sweeter, we can accommodate that. It's just we would never target the same food to... We would know who we're targeting what to.Stephanie:Yep, very cool. So I'm very interested in the partnerships that you have with farmers and what your supply chain looks like behind the scenes that you can make these really quick product pivots or new products coming out in like six-day weeks. So can you speak a little about, what did that look like forming those partnerships? And any hiccups that you experienced in the early days of trying to get that worked out?Rachel:Yeah. I mean, as I said, it started with Trader Joe's because every time we reached out to a farm, they were like, "Who are you? Can you guarantee this entire crop?" And I was like, "I don't know."Stephanie:They were asking you to guarantee whole crops for them?Rachel:I mean, sometimes you have to if you want to be in control of how sweet it is, what the nutrition level is, you really have to be. And that was the vision because the way that I always envisioned taking care of food was really at the systemic level. So really to make change, you have to go to that level of scale in your purchasing. And we're incredibly meticulous about the ingredients that we use and how we source them. We actually have an entire team that's dedicated to finding the best farms. And we have over 400 farms that we work with directly. So we set incredibly rigorous standards that ensure not only are our partners using regenerative practices in their farming, things like increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, using organic farming practices, strengthening the health and vitality of our farm soil, using fair labor practices.Rachel:But we also are really particular about when we harvest our food. We want to make sure that the fig or the blueberry that you're eating is unparalleled not only from a nutrition perspective, but also from a taste perspective. So that means that we have to let every single ingredient reach its full nutritional and flavor potential on the vine or on the tree. And then we freeze everything within 24 hours of it being picked, which is really differentiated. And because of that rigor, our food is actually more nutritious than the stuff that you buy in the grocery store, which is something that a lot of people are surprised to hear. I think a lot of people see frozen as not as nutritious or inferior, when in fact, unless you are picking something straight from the farm and consuming it within three days, that's just not the case.Rachel:And we work with these farmers to also create entirely new supply chains, which is amazing. Our customers told us that they really wanted something with celery root last fall. And we worked with the farmer to create an entire supply chain of frozen celery root that had never existed before. And what's cool about a frozen supply chain is there's actually 50% less food waste and there's just so many benefits to the system overall. But we really think a lot about how we create the most nourishing, best tasting food and it really all comes back to those farm relationships.Stephanie:Wow, that's really cool. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people like you said don't understand the frozen aspect of why it's better because I know a while back, I heard that about fish too. But it's better to have frozen fish that's frozen right away when it's caught than getting something fresh. Fresh feels like it's healthier but actually it's more nutritional if you get the frozen one that was frozen right on the ship or boat or whatever it is.Rachel:When you think about the frozen aisle in the grocery store, most people associate it with like dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.Stephanie:Yes, which may or may not be in my freezer right now.Rachel:I don't judge. When you ask most people what's in their freezer, it's like ice cream and vodka and ice cubes. I'm like, "These are not bad things, but it just shows you how the food system has evolved." And the microwave dinner was created not because it was healthy. It was because it was convenient and it was because it was created during this Industrial Revolution when food and science melded together in ways that is just so unnatural and we kind of just stayed there. So I think there's been a lot of... not I think. There's been a lot of education for customers to help them understand the benefits of frozen not only for themselves, not only for their taste buds, but also for the food system as a whole.Stephanie:Got it, that's great. So the one thing I'm thinking about too is working with farms, I can see them being on older tech stacks I'll call them or no tech stacks.Rachel:What tech stacks?Stephanie:Yeah. I'll just say non-existent tech stacks maybe unless they're like the very advanced farm with the drones going on.Rachel:No, [crosstalk 00:29:55].Stephanie:You're working with 400 farms. How are you placing these orders and getting things to happen quickly and making sure that it's up to your standards and that nothing's going to get backed up? How do you do that with farms that don't have a tech stack?Rachel:I mean, we built the technology for it.Stephanie:Tell me a bit about that. What did that process look like?Rachel:Yeah. So in the beginning, we only had a few farms, and it was easier to manage. But obviously, once you hit a certain scale, it becomes a little unwieldy and it's not just 400 farms. There's four crops a year and different ingredients. One farm might have six ingredients that they're growing for us. So it can get really complicated. But as I said, we have a large team that really focuses on this, and they're incredibly passionate. So what we did is we thought about how technology could make their job easier, how we can leverage technology to remove some of the friction in managing the quality of our food and the supply chain in general. And we really built a verification system that... I would say a trust but verify system where we set certain quality standards. Because we can't [inaudible] people who are on site at every farm with every harvest, and then there's like a verification system where they're sending us samples constantly to make sure that that everything is as we say it needs to be. And we're verifying nutrition after something is frozen to make sure that it's as it's supposed to be. And through every step, we are trusting and verifying. And all of that is rigorously notated in our technology stack.Stephanie:That's really cool. So it seems like you're bringing a lot of farmers online. Have they asked to reuse the technology with other partners too? They could be a whole separate business like, "Here's technology that you can now have with anyone else ordering from you."Rachel:Totally. I mean, we work with a lot of small farmers. So a lot of farmers don't have a lot of other business. We've really grown to a scale where most of our farmers are Daily Harvest farmers.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh, cool.Rachel:Really cool when you think about it. But yeah. I mean, we've definitely had people ask, but we've got to focus on our core competencies and what we're trying to achieve.Stephanie:Yep. That's great. So everyone's obviously looking into subscription businesses right now. It's always top of mind like, "Should this business be a subscription or not?" Everyone wants one. How do you think about retaining your customers and enticing them to stay with you for the long haul?Rachel:Yeah. So one thing that's interesting about Daily Harvest is on the outside, we kind of look like a subscription, but we're actually not a subscription. We're really what we call a replenishment business because once you sign up for Daily Harvest, our goal is to make sure that your freezer is always stocked. And it's not because that's good for us, it's because that's how we make sure that you have the food that you want when you want it. At that moment when you're hangry, when you're reaching for that bar, you need to have the right food in your freezer. Otherwise, you're going to make a different choice, right?Rachel:So we think a lot about what that replenishment looks like. And we also never want you to get an order of Daily Harvest that you don't want. Right? So we actually communicate with our customers ad nauseum to make sure that we're never sending them anything that they don't want, and they're only getting food when they do want it. And that's what makes us different from a subscription business where you have to consume your food or use your razor or whatever it is within a specific period of time and it's only good for that period of time. Because we're frozen, we're really not perishable, which is a huge benefit and allows us to be even more customer centric, but really thinking about maintaining our customer base.Rachel:Removing friction for our customers and making things as easy as possible for them, making their account as easy as possible to manage making sure that they're getting the food that they want when they want it. And we found that there's a direct correlation between removing that friction, being customer driven. We don't even think about about retention. We think about how can we be more customer driven? How can we get our customers exactly what they want? And what we found is that those things correlate really nicely.Stephanie:Yeah, I completely agree. So what does that back end account management look like for your customers? And one thing that's coming to mind is like the past couple interviews I've done, we've touched on one click ordering and how that's a big thing that a lot of people are expecting now. And I could see that maybe coming into play for you guys too where you're more about replenishing items. If I'm out of my matcha, or smoothie, or whatever it was that I really just enjoyed, going on to my account and just ordering that, and not having to have minimums or anything. Just being like, "That's what I want," and just doing it one off. How do you guys have the back end working?Rachel:Yeah. So we don't do that. And the reason why is because we really think of ourselves, as I said, as replenishment. So our customer behavior is much more going to shop at Costco, let's say. You don't go to Costco to buy one thing. It's never worth a shot.Stephanie:I need 10 pounds of butter when I go there.Rachel:Totally. But you have certain things that you go and you buy a lot of. So our customer really thinks about, how can Daily Harvest fill my entire freezer? When your inventory at home starts to dwindle, that's when you make your next purchase. So for us, one click ordering is not a thing. And we find that actually there's tension between how much cognitive load you reduce and how much customer friction you reduce, and people really getting the food that they want. So there's definitely a balance there. But what we do instead is we have an app and our app is incredibly customer driven. And it's about communication with our customers and making sure that, as I said, they're getting the food that they want when they want it. But it's definitely as easy as humanly possible, but not so easy that you're going to get something that you don't want.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's great. Yeah. And I think that's a really good reminder, too, that everyone might be obsessed with a subscription model because that is good for businesses to lock people in. But that might actually leave a bad taste in a customer's mouth. And your model is completely different, which is like focus on what they want and what they need and make it easy for them to order and refill quickly without having to come back a thousand times.Rachel:Yep. And make it as easy as possible honestly for them to pause and cancel and do all the things they want to do because when you do that, they come back.Stephanie:Yep. I love that. Low friction, it's worth it. So to go to little more general commerce questions, what kind of disruptions do you see coming to commerce right now maybe in the next couple years?Rachel:I mean, look, I think COVID has been... it's been an interesting few months. But what it has done is it's really accelerated a bunch of trends that we've seen. And we've seen this huge adoption of ecommerce and people's willingness to stick around once they've tried it. So as you had early adopters previously who were signing up for food delivery or whatever it may be delivered to their home, what we're seeing now is people who are not early adopters, so more of the mainstream signing up. And there are different needs, and there's a different level of education, and there's all sorts of nuance to take into account with that trend. So we're thinking a lot about that, how we continue to remove friction for this different type of customer.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's really great. So we have a couple minutes left and I want to jump over to the lightning round brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I'm going to ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready, Rachel?Rachel:No.Stephanie:Prepare yourself to get some deep breaths. Get in the game. All right. We'll start with the easier ones first. What's Up next on your Netflix queue?Rachel:Oh, wait. I can't remember what it was called. It's The Man and the Company Castle. Hold on.Stephanie:Oh, that Amazon? The Man in the High Castle?Rachel:Yes. Not Netflix.Stephanie:That's okay. Yeah. Have you started it yet or?Rachel:I haven't but I am such a history nerd. And I don't know how I missed that this show existed, but I cannot tell you how excited I am to watch it.Stephanie:Yeah, it's very good.Rachel:Yeah. And I also feel like there's something about current state of affairs and dystopian society is that it really resonates. So let's see what it's got for us.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, I like that one a lot. I think it's a good reminder I'm always very biased and ask about Netflix but Amazon, they've got some good stuff. I mean, I've binge-watched I think it was like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel if you knew to balance yourself out of it from dystopian to fun and cute. Also a very good series that I loved.Rachel:That show is amazing.Stephanie:Oh, you like it too? Yeah. It always leaves me with the happy feeling like, "Oh, this is cute. I love this."Rachel:All the time that I remind them of Rachel Brosnahan, and I'm like, "That is a huge compliment. Thank you."Stephanie:That is. She's awesome. Good. What's up next on your reading list? And it can be business or personal.Rachel:So it's Never Split the Difference which I've actually read before, but I like to read it every few years because I think it's the best negotiator out there and I'm not a natural negotiator. But it's obviously a huge part of my job. So it's coming up on time to read it once more.Stephanie:That's great. What is one thing that comes to mind when you think about that book? One lesson or principle where you're like, "Yeah, I'm not going to split the difference?" Anything high level other than what I just said which is just jacking the title.Rachel:So my favorite takeaway from the book, and it's just a reminder, it's really about listening. It's funny. I think a lot about toddler psychology these days because I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old. And there's a lot in common with the tactics in this book and toddler psychology, but it's really about validating people's emotions and feelings and creating trust and safety to be able to negotiate better.Stephanie:Oh, that's good. I like that. It shows that so many things are similar in life. Dealing with toddlers is the same thing as negotiating for your salary or investment money. Same thing.Rachel:It really is. It's crazy.Stephanie:I have to check that one out. What app or a piece of tech are you using right now that's making you more efficient in your life?Rachel:Okay. So this is such a weird one, but my husband just introduced me to the app for my cable provider. And I had no idea that this existed. I never watched TV ever. But given that we're in day three of the sit and wait for the results of our election, I've been able to just pop it up and have the news on live stream behind me. And it's been incredible because previously, I was refreshing my Twitter feed every 20 minutes or whatever it was. But just kind of having it in live feed behind me has been a huge unlock for my efficiency in this crazy time.Stephanie:That's great. I haven't even thought about apps from cable providers. So it's a good reminder for everyone. I like that.Rachel:It never occurred to me that one would even exist, and I'm very happy with it.Stephanie:That's great. What's one thing that you wish you knew more about? It could be a topic, a trend, a theme, anything.Rachel:Let's see. I really wish I knew more about human psychology. I feel like every time I read something or learn more, I get really excited and I want to dive in more but I really never have time to. And it's something that I feel would make me better at what I do every day if I really understood the psychology behind it.Stephanie:That's a good one. Yeah, I completely agree about that. Something I always want to dive into more and haven't had the time yet. So Rachel, this has been such a fun interview. Where can people find out more about you and Daily Harvest?Rachel:At dailyharvest.com.Stephanie:Awesome. Thanks so much for coming on the show.Rachel:Thanks for having me.

Daily Harvest | Rachel Drori, Founder and CEO Daily Harvest: a clean DTC meal brand taking care of food so that food can take care of you. When Rachel Drori founded Daily Harvest, she noticed that all the ways in which "Big Food" launched its lineup were too reactive to be on the cutting edge. Rather than wait until a revenue opportunity appears from a trend, Rachel has sought to catch the upswing of product lifecycles and flip the script on her larger competitors. But it begs the question: why isn't all food customer-driven like this? Today, Rachel will help answer that question. So blend up a green smoothie and enjoy as I get real with Daily Harvest and Rachel Drori. Check out Daily Harvest's menu: https://www.daily-harvest.com/app/browse. (My favorites are the harvest bowls and flatbreads!) FOLLOW AUTHENTIC AVENUE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/68049428/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthenticAve/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authenticavemedia/ Email Adam: adam@authenticavenuemedia.com Learn more at https://authenticavenuemedia.com/. Theme Song: Extreme Energy (Music Today 80) Composed & Produced by Anwar Amr Video Link: https://youtu.be/8ZZbAkKNx7s

Like many of us, Rachel Drori was trying to fit healthy, nutritious meals into her busy life...but was frustrated by the lack of options. In 2015, Rachel decided to take matters into her own hands: She founded Daily Harvest, a direct-to-consumer brand blending health and innovation to send delicious superfoods straight to your freezer so you can prepare and enjoy them at your convenience. The business is one of the fastest growing nutritional food brands in the U.S. With more than 100,000 subscribers, Daily Harvest delivers breakfast bowls, ice cream sundaes, and soups to freezers around the country. Today on the podcast, Rachel and Monica talk about the importance of having a customer-centric business, how to attract high-profile investors early on, and Rachel's plans to reshape how people think about frozen food.

When Rachel Drori, Daily Harvest Founder and CEO, found herself in need of better nutrition while juggling work and family, she realized she could solve the problem for others as well..Find out how Rachel’s formative years paved the eventual way to her own nutritional food line, how making smoothies turned into a much bigger business, and why frozen food is better for you than you think.

Rachel Drori is the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest which delivers superfood eats delivered to your door, frozen and ready to enjoy on your schedule. The company has raised $43 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Collaborative Fund, BAM Ventures, Hedgewood, 14W, M13, Rubicon Venture Capital, and Serena Ventures to name a few. 

Rachel Drori is the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest which delivers superfood eats delivered to your door, frozen and ready to enjoy on your schedule. The company has raised $43 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Collaborative Fund, BAM Ventures, Hedgewood, 14W, M13, Rubicon Venture Capital, and Serena Ventures to name a few. 

How many times have you been hungry - hangry, even! – and stuck somewhere with no snacks? Worse, perhaps there’s food laying around but it’s not even something you want to actually consume, but you have no other options, so there go those neon orange Cheezy Ballz down the hatch. Rachel Drori was stuck between a stale cake and a hard place, dreaming of fruit and veggie-based foods that would be nutritious and convenient for busy folks like herself. After scouring the market and finding the same tired protein bars, she finally decided to create the product she wanted for herself. That dream became Daily Harvest, a direct-to-consumer service that delivers fresh produce perfectly portioned to create your own smoothies, bowls and bites, providing your body with the best support to tackle your boss babe goals. Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions here, or visit https://anchor.fm/superwomen/messages on your desktop or phone to leave us a voice memo! Follow Superwomen on Instagram. Big Ideas No matter the bells and whistles, the core use for the product must be functionally successful in order to ensure return customers! [06:06] --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/superwomen/support

The health food industry has been deceiving consumers for years claiming certain pre-packaged foods are "healthy." Even foods that are labeled "natural" or "organic" often times aren't. Rachel Drori could never find fast and actually healthy frozen foods that tasted delicious so she's started a frozen foods subscription-based delivery service, Daily Harvest. Each recipe at Daily Harvest is co-designed by a Michelin-trained chef and nutritionist. Their product line includes lattes, soups, overnight oats, chia parfaits, harvest bowls and sundaes that are delivered to subscribers nationwide. All of their produce is picked right at harvest and frozen within hours to lock in the nourishing goodness of peak season ripeness. Rachel shares how she got America to love Daily Harvest's fresh and nutritious meals.  Connect with Yola Robert: @yolarobert Find the pod: @isuckatlifepodcast Connect with Rachel Drori: @racheldrori Find Daily Harvest: @dailyharvest

Making Marketing is making some changes. Starting with our very next episode, we'll be the Modern Retail Podcast, bringing you conversations with people innovating in retail, including the oh-so-buzzy world of DTC. But before that, this episode rounds up a few highlights from Making Marketing's interviews in the past year: Kevin Lavelle, the founder of menswear brand Mizzen and Main "I’ve spoken with a couple VC firms. We had positive feedback, but one VC said she couldn’t see how we could [make] 10 times our revenue over the next 12-18 months, so they’re not interested. And it stuck with me. She was absolutely right." Rachel Drori, founder of the subscription frozen food company Daily Harvest "I have such issues with what I call the cycle of torching cash. What’s happening is that there’s so much VC money out there — anybody can raise — and then they can throw money at their problems." Joe Kudla, founder of athleisure brand Vuori "If you go straight to the VC community pre-revenue, they’re going to dictate terms often terms. You don’t want a VC running your business." Jed Berger, CMO at Foot Locker "I think that it’s an interesting time, and in many companies, there needs to be a redefinition of the role of the CMO, or marketing within the organization, or how it reports, or what its accountabilities are. The marketing industry is in for an evolution."

When asked about her company’s innovation strategy, Rachel Drori, the founder/CEO of popular direct-to-consumer food brand Daily Harvest, highlighted the concept  of “co-creating.”  “When our community asks, we deliver,” she said in an interview included in this episode. “We don’t walk, we run and move fast when innovating.” That “co-creating” process involves a constant and thoughtful dialogue with its customers and has supported Daily Harvest’s rise to one of the fastest growing food companies in the U.S. In just four years, it has amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers and attracted several high-profile investors, including Goop founder and Oscar-winning actress Gwenth Paltrow and tennis icon Serena Williams. In 2017, the company raised $43 million in a Series B round to help it scale its direct-to-consumer model.  As part of our conversation, Drori spoke about Daily Harvest’s mission and rapid growth, the sophisticated way that the company uses social media to rapidly innovate and iterate and why the team “celebrates failure.” Show notes:  2:33: Interview: Rachel Drori, Founder/CEO, Daily Harvest -- Drori spoke with NOSH editor Carol Ortenberg about her work experience prior to launching Daily Harvest, why she “had to kiss a lot of frogs” before finding the right investment partners for the company and why she chose a direct-to-consumer model. She also explained why “we don’t see ourselves as a food company” and how a former role in hospitality taught her that customer service “is not just about meeting needs, but anticipating them.” Later, she discussed why social media is “not just a one-way relationship,” and how “data is just part of the story” in understanding consumer needs. She also spoke about Daily Harvest’s “Filling Station” pop-up store, why the company employs a “squad model” and why she believes that hiring is “as much art as it is science.” Brands in this episode: Daily Harvest

Rachel Drori started a company because she was hungry. But once the seeds of Daily Harvest were planted in her head, she dove in, and started trying to build a brand. Now, with a cushion of VC funding, Drori is looking towards the next evolution of her company. According to Drori, some of the funding will be used to build out the brand's content strategy and help them share their story. On this week's episode of Making Marketing, Shareen Pathak sits down with Drori, the brand's founder and CEO, to discuss how she built her business, why she worked with investors before taking funding and how she's pushing back against rising customer acquisition costs.

In 2015, Rachel Drori was hangry. Working at Gilt Groupe, she didn’t have enough time to recipe plan and cook healthy meals every single day. Come 3 p.m., she’d grab whatever was available for convenience sake—like a bar or trail mix—instead of putting good, clean food into her body. She felt totally depleted, and to make matters worse, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimito’s disease. In episode 44, she talks to me about this #hurdlemoment which encouraged her to start smart meal prepping and eating healthier, enabling her to manage her disease, forgo prescription medication, and concept a brand new company. Today, farm-frozen favorite Daily Harvest has expanded to more than 50 recipes including smoothies, harvest bowls, oat bowls, chia bowls, soups, activated lattes, and cookies (yes, please). Rachel dishes on the truth behind the fruits and vegetables you see in the grocery store, how she manages to run a 100-person company while raising her two boys, and explains what a “shiggle” is. SOCIAL @dailyharvest @racheldrori @hurdlepodcast @emilyabbate OFFERS Athletic Greens | Head to athleticgreens.com/hurdle to get 20 free travel packs ($99 value) with your first purchase, no code necessary. Headspace | Head to heaspace.com/hurdle to get 30-day free trial of the entire Headspace library, no code necessary. Daily Harvest | Head to daily-harvest.com to get $25 off your first box using the code “HURDLE” at checkout. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hurdle/message

Featuring Amanda Shapiro, editor, Healthyish and Rachel Drori, founder, Daily Harvest. Food is not only tasting better than ever before, but is also being recognized as a way to help us feel a whole deal better. Our sixth episode takes a look at the future of food in the context of health and wellbeing, tracking our […] The post Next X: Nutrition futures appeared first on Wunderman Thompson Intelligence.

What comes to mind when someone says the words "frozen food"? Probably dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, ice cream, or the long forgotten TV dinner hanging out in the back of your freezer. And that's the problem. What most people don't know is that freezing food - particularly produce - has a ton of health and nutrition advantages. For example, did you know that blueberries have 200% more vitamin C when frozen versus fresh after 3 days. Or that spinach has 25% more vitamin E after 3 days when its frozen? Bonkers. Rachel Drori is here to change all that. Rachel is the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, a company that delivers single-serve cups of frozen ingredients (organic, whole ingredients and superfoods, with no preservatives or added sweeteners) that can be turned into crave-worthy eats in just seconds. She and the team at Daily Harvest are leading a frozen revolution, and making the case that frozen might be the ultimate way to provide convenience without nutritional compromise. Rachel joins us to talk about her customer-centric brand philosophy, a record setting series B fundraise, and getting people to forget about those dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. Links Daily Harvest Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.

Like many of us, Rachel Drori was trying to fit healthy, nutritious meals into her busy life...but was frustrated by the lack of options. In 2015, Rachel decided to take matters into her own hands: She founded Daily Harvest, a direct-to-consumer brand blending health and innovation to send delicious superfoods straight to your freezer so you can prepare and enjoy them at your convenience. The business is one of the fastest growing nutritional food brands in the U.S. With more than 100,000 subscribers, Daily Harvest delivers breakfast bowls, ice cream sundaes, and soups to freezers around the country. Today on the podcast, Rachel and Monica talk about the importance of having a customer-centric business, how to attract high-profile investors early on, and Rachel's plans to reshape how people think about frozen food.

Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch for the Month of June is Daily Harvest, founded by Rachel Drori, C'04Elevator Pitch, from Rachel: “Daily Harvest makes ready to blend smoothies, ready to heat soups, chia parfaits, overnight oats, all of the incredible drool-worthy foods that you see all over Instagram, frozen, delivered to your door, and ready to eat in seconds.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rachel Drori, CEO and Founder of Daily Harvest, a New York-based company that makes smoothies, grain bowls and other all-natural and healthy foods that are shipped to you, joins host Karl Ulrich to discuss her Founder's story on Launch Pad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rachel Drori is the Founder & CEO at Daily Harvest, the direct-to-consumer brand that delivers real, unprocessed, unrefined foods in the most convenient format possible: frozen. Prior to starting Daily Harvest, Rachel harnessed her skills as a customer-centric marketing executive, leading teams at Gilt Groupe, American Express, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Rachel Drori is the founder of Daily Harvest, a frozen meal subscription service that provides healthy, whole, and unrefined foods without compromising nutritional value. In 2016, Rachel’s company went national and had over one million smoothie sales. Due to its success, the company has attracted celebrity investors such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Olympic gold-medal winner Shaun White, and celebrity chef Bobby Flay.

For entrepreneur Rachel Drori, access is at the core of her mission for her company, Daily Harvest. The food delivery service provides convenient fresh and frozen food without compromising on nutritional value—all delivered right to your door. Rachel essentially created Daily Harvest out of a personal need to prioritize wellness in her busy life as a working mom. She combined her background in marketing and hospitality and her passion for food politics to launch Daily Harvest on her own, starting in a commercial kitchen on Long Island City here in New York. Her passion for food politics started in college as a member of an organization that provided fresh produce to the underserved communities in West Philadelphia. Fast-forward to today: Her passion has only multiplied and now includes a mission to help broaden food access across the country, one nutritious frozen meal at a time. Even more so, Rachel is committed to changing the food system in a way that involves more transparency and outreach, particularly when it comes to the origins of our produce. Daily Harvest relies on farmers for the bulk of their inventory, and Rachel is a huge advocate for transitional farming—the process by which farmers transition from conventional farming to organic farming. Taking the small, incremental steps toward truly turning our food system inside out, Rachel believes, will not only empower us as individuals to feel good about making healthy decisions but will also aid in the overall picture of food pricing and accessibility for everyone. Of course, it wouldn't be a conversation about wellness, parenting, and entrepreneurship without some mention of balance. Rachel and I attempt to demystify the work-life juggling act and talk about the double duties that come along with being a mother and sole founder of a company (hint: she's not a fan of the 'mompreneur' label), all while navigating the tricky business-building process. Some buzzy wellness products that do keep her afloat? Homemade collagen gummies that are healthy and super easy to whip up. To contact Jason with comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail podcast@mindbodygreen.com. For all sponsorship inquiries, please e-mail sales@mindbodygreen.com. Want to join our podcast newsletter? Sign up here!

Rachel Drori is the Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest, the direct-to-consumer brand that delivers real, unprocessed, unrefined foods in the most convenient format possible: frozen. To date, they have raised over $43m in funding from the likes of former guest Alex Taussig @ Lightspeed, Collaborative Fund and future 20VC guest Beth Ferreira who sits on the board. As for Rachel, prior to starting Daily Harvest, Rachel harnessed her skills as a customer-centric marketing executive, leading teams at Gilt Groupe, American Express, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rachel made her way from the corporate world of American Express and The Four Seasons to founding Daily harvest, looking to change the eating habits of millions? 2.) Why did Rachel decide to deliberately raise small Seed and Series A rounds? What does Rachel believe these capital constraints allow companies in the early days? How did Rachel prioritize where to spend and where not to? How would Rachel advise emerging startup founders when it comes to capital efficiency today? 3.) Rachel recently raised $43m Series B, how did Rachel see the rounds differ from round to round? Why does Rachel believe it is imperative to VC date before the fundraising process begins? Why was Rachel's Series A very unconventional in the modern world of fundraising? What did Rachel look for most in the investors she chose from round to round? How is that different considering her single founder status? 4.) Question from Alex Taussig: How has Rachel seen the NYC ecosystem develop and evolve since the founding of Daily Harvest? Would Rachel agree that there remains a lack of early stage conviction investors in NYC? What are NYC's biggest strengths and then biggest weaknesses? 5.) Rachel has said before, "fake it till you make it" when was the last time Rachel did this and what was the outcome? Rachel also said previously, "ask for forgiveness not permission", when was the most recent occassion of this and what did it result in? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Rachel’s Fave Book: Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food: Volume 1 As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Rachel on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Leesa is the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Leesa have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is ordered completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10-inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com to start the New Year with better nights sleep! Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don’t take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.

Rachel Drori and Jenna walk through Daily Harvest's founding story, from making and delivering everything on her own to acquiring over 100,000 subscribers across the U.S. Rachel takes us behind the scenes at Daily Harvest's R&D lab, explains the evolution of the frozen food aisle, and why her team believes that frozen food is the perfect way to solve our modern eating dilemma. We also chat about key lessons from Rachel's journey including: Having the self-restraint to pitch only a small part of your vision to give people something to latch onto, trusting your instincts to make big decisions and relying on Stoic philosophy to put them in perspective, as well as embracing the relative joy of entrepreneurship; “If you can live with the worst possible outcome of taking a risk it's worth taking.”

Blending her experience in business development and marketing with a healthy dose of ambition, Daily Harvest CEO and founder, Rachel Drori, acquired over 100,000 customers in just three years. After challenging herself to eat healthier, Rachel realized the problem: eating healthy takes time. Daily Harvest is the direct-to-consumer solution, using the freezer as a tool for convenience. She started out in a test kitchen, filling smoothie cups on her own, and now she's expanding her product line to bowls and sundaes using a cold supply chain, and a network of organic farmers. On this episode, Rachel talks about reframing the freezer, fighting food fatigue, cutting through the noise of the grocery industry, and staying hungry as they scale. Links and images from this post are on the Lumi blog

Rachel Drori comes from from a long line of entrepreneurs – her immigrant grandparents started a business when they got to the United States. Even more unique: Her mother started a business too, so she grew up around women founders. Today she's the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, a young startup that sits at the intersection of nutrition and convenience. You think starting a business is hard? Well, it is. But Rachel started Daily Harvest when she was seven months pregnant, then raised investment funds for the business when she was pregnant. Her story is instructive for anyone who has wondered whether now is the right time to take a big career leap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so many meal subscriptions out there, how do you stay competitive? By switching it up and then proving that it works by finding your demographic. Rachel Drori created Daily Harvest forzen smoothies, changing people’s ideas about nutrition and frozen food, and starting her business while also starting a family. Rachel joins Iman to share her creative insights, finance strategies, and secrets to keeping a healthy mind and body.

As you go through the work day do you find yourself falling victim to those cupcakes in the break room? The lure of the overpriced vending machine? And the ease and quickness of popping a few power bars in your bag in the morning as nourishment for the rest of the day? Rachel Drori is here to change that with her deliverable and organic soups and smoothies from Daily Harvest. Made for people who want to eat healthy but live a busy life on the go, her products come frozen and pre-packaged in single serve cups and bowls with whole ingredients like avocados, dates, and kale, among others. All consumers have to do is add a liquid or broth of their choice and get to cooking or blending! With recipes cooked up by herself, a nutritionist, and a Michellin star chef, she aims to build a transparent brand that consumers know they can trust, and deliver products that truly provide them with the nutrients that they need to perform their best. The concept for Daily Harvest started when she worked at Guilt Group, and juggled multiple roles between customer acquistion, loyalty, and branding. With hardley anytime for herself, she fell into the trap of grabbing junk food for a quick energy source. Starting to feel fatigued and constantly undernourished, she started pre-packing her own smoothies. She began seeing how having nutritionally-rounded and filling smoothies helped her function better throughout her day, and how preparing her smoothie packs cost her very little time in the morning. Then once her husband started stealing her packs, she saw they were not only convienient and helping her, but others as well. So she started to test the market with her smoothie packs and set a consumer metric for herself. Once she was able to get 5x more customers outside of the people she knew, she would seriously invest in her business idea and quit her job. After she hit that mark, she gained faith and confidence that her business had legs and she launched Daily Harvest's beta website, and got a commercial kitchen in NYC's Long Island City. For eight months, she funded herself and was the company's only employee. She hatched the recipes herself, bought them, packaged them, and drove around NYC delivering orders to consumers. Not to mention she was pregnant at the time! On her delivery runs, she used that one-on-one time with customers to conduct more market and product research. She gained valuable information and feedback, and was able to solve a merchandising issue with one of her smoothies, Carrot Chia. Originally called, Wake-n-Cake, the smoothie wasn't selling despite it's great flavor and health benefits. Puzzled as to why, she talked to customers and conducted a blind taste test, and found that customers loved it. Taking what she learned, she was able to know that it was simply the name and how the smoothie was portrayed. As her business continued to grow and her money started dwindling, she started looking towards external funding. She was met with a lot of no's because venture capitalists couldn't grasp the weight of the smoothie market, and the benefits of organic smoothies. But, as luck would have it, she was able to land one institutional investor, as well as some angel investors from her target audience, and Daily Harvest was able to enter into a new chapter. Take a breather, and have a listen to how she developed a tough skin and fought for her dream in today's episode! In this episode you will... Gain confidence in your business idea to withstand the critics Learn to take the negative feedback you get from venture capitalists in a constructive manner Understand the best way to alter or preserve your products to match the likes and dislikes of your market Find out how to develop a core mission and concept for your business Distinguish between methods of developing customer acquisition and loyalty Become relentless in starting and managing your business INSIGHTS "It's hard to have people poking holes in what your passion is...when you believe in it...So you've gotta have some mental fortitude, but also really believe in what you're trying to build." -Rachel Drori "The way that I built Daily Harvest and my true belief is that ...I would like to be this hugely customer centric business with its roots in hospitality...if I keep that at the core of what we're trying to build, it allows me to keep the customer first." -Rachel Drori "As a start-up, things happen and you don't have the resources to be able to flex your guns...and make this right. Sometimes the customer suffers and I believe it's all about transparency and having a relationship with the customer where they know that you're being genuine." -Rachel Drori "Where I've grown the most is being relentless. It's not my natural personality, but when you have something that you're trying to build...there's no....hierarchy holding you back from it, you really do have to be relentless in everything, and knowing that what you're creating is worthwhile and being able to motivate and entire team behind what that is." -Rachel Drori RESOURCES Daily Harvest Website Rachel Drori LinkedIn Daily Harvest Facebook Daily Harvest Instagram Daily Harvest Twitter Getting to Yes by Bruce Patton, Roger Fisher, William Ury