We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Susan Bryenton & Tom Malengo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Susan & Tom below.
Hi Susan/Tom, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Once we realized what we wanted to do – provide emerging CPG brands with the education & networking they required to be successful – we met a like-minded person & decided to partner on solving the problem. We knew we wanted a national presence. Many organizations exist on a local level, for knowledge & connections, but those only exist in major “food hubs.” We wanted to give every entrepreneur across the country an opportunity to meet with industry experts & investors, and best present their emerging company to investors. We knew we needed a social media platform to serve as the base of the company, so we spent 2 years in development, first designing & then building a rudimentary platform using a dating platform. Once we proved the concept, we enhanced the model, launched Brandjecotry & went into a 18 month free trial for founders. During that time we developed the model of meetings & education, then launched a subscription service with enhanced offerings in September of 2021 & new services in April of 2023. All Brandjectory offerings are focused on founder to investor & expert engagement, & sharing our Brandjectory operating partners,our investors & our industry expert participants’ knowledge, expertise & guidance. We will have Brandjectory’s second Pitch Slam in October, with $250,000 in cash & prizes. But more importantly, and in line with Brandjectory’s mission, we have 35+ CPG investors involved in the selection & judging process, and every applicant gets detailed feedback from the investors who reviewed their application that will help that founder improve their brand! This is what we believe and want to deliver. In this competitive economic environment & especially the competitive CPG industry, not every CPG brand will succeed. But with our Brandjectory service, every brand will have access to knowledge, expertise & connections to improve & find success, which is why more than 130 brands are now part of Brandjectory!
Susan/Tom, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We (Susan & Tom) are co-founders of Brandjectory & The Litchfield Fund. Tom spent his career in Banking, many years working at the C-level. Susan had her career in Marketing, Publishing, Event Planning & Fundraising of nonprofits. But we were over those many years, foodies who took an interest in natural & organic products, healthy living & nutrition & having a well-balanced & healthful diet. We went to Food & Beverage trade shows for fun. We followed earlier better-for-you brands long before the natural/specialty grocery segment expanded, the internet provided knowledge & accessibility & natural/organic products became available in conventional grocery stores. As such, when we had the opportunity to change careers in 2012, we decided to use our business skills & CPG industry knowledge to help young, emerging brands grow. We founded TheLitchfield Fund, to advise, consult & invest in emerging natural/organic brands. Since so many brand founders need business acumen, CPG knowledge & industry contacts, we wanted to bring our experience, expertise & help to as many brand founders as possible. We then founded Brandjectory with one other partner. Brandjectory is an education & connection platform & process for emerging CPG brands, wanting to understand how to build a successful CPG business, including how to raise funds, & then meet, work with, learn from & build relationships with industry experts & investors. We help brands hone their business & pitch & give them many opportunities every month through our platform & virtual meetings for education & engagement with industry leaders. More than 130 brands now trust Brandjectory to help them build a strong CPG business & more than 650 investors are in our network. We have more than 100 industry investors & experts who engage with our brands to share knowledge, experience, guidance, & perhaps make an investment. Brandjectory has become the premier site in the CPG industry to grow an exceptional CPG business!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
We met on a blind date in the 1990s & both ordered the traditional blind date dinner, Chicken Caesar Salad. We celebrated our Silver Anniversary this past summer. We always knew we wanted to work in the Food Industry, so when the chance to change careers came, we relocated to Scottsdale, AZ from Cleveland, OH. We were both tired of working in Corporate & had the entrepreneurial itch to do something on our own. Of course, starting & building a business is the ultimate experience in self reliance, a concept on which our Nation was founded & has been so essential to America’s growth! Tradesmen, merchants, farmers all sought the American Dream, a chance to prove to themselves just how much they could accomplish! So like them we headed west to prove to ourselves we could start new businesses in what for us was a new industry & field, with the chance to use our skills, knowledge & experience to build something from nothing. We think all entrepreneurs have this desire, to see what they can accomplish. But for us, whatever turns the entrepreneurial road encounters, it is amazing to work side-by-side with the one person in the world with whom you always want to be.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
In any industry, credibility, honesty & treating people with respect builds reputation. But it is also important to give your clients what they specifically need, be it advice, counsel, contacts, knowledge or information. Often advisors & consultants just run a playbook, pulling something they did before from their portfolio & running a client through their proscribed exercise. But life & business, and life in a business which is what entrepreneurship is, is certainly not that straightforward. Our reputation is built upon listening, understanding & working with our members to fine tune the message and the help we give to their specific needs, not just offering provincial mantras! We see ourselves as the knowledgeable next door neighbor, the one who always has the right tool to fix whatever it is you are working on or has a possible course of action that maybe, could, possibly fit your problem. There are too many variables in running a business, so any approach or method for doing something has to be constantly revised & updated. When we offer a response to a particular situation, we always try to make sure the possible positive & negative outcomes that may occur are mentioned, and work hard to assure that we discuss ways to minimize risk. Honesty like that builds trust.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brandjectory.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-malengo-a760611b/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-bryenton-38b74798/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandjectory
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZijT08H-6zhAZfSI0rk-w @brandjectory5805