Habits and Hustle
Episode 425: Shannon Race: Secrets to Standing Out in Saturated Markets + Branding and Marketing Insights
Tue, 18 Feb 2025
Do you have a great product idea but worry about standing out in a sea of competitors? In this episode of the Habits and Hustle podcast, I am joined by Shannon Race, co-founder of BioMe and former head of global marketing at Vital Proteins, who shares her insights on building successful brands in crowded markets. We dive into a range of topics including the importance of product differentiation, authentic storytelling, and leveraging micro-influencers for effective marketing. We also discuss the psychology of packaging design, the evolving landscape of traditional and digital marketing, and the key factors venture capitalists consider when investing in startups. Shannon Race co-founded bio.me, a pioneering gut health and fiber supplement company, and serves as a board member and strategic advisor for Koia plant-based protein drinks. With over 12 years of experience in marketing and brand strategy, Shannon is currently a Principal at Starshot Ventures, where she leads investment strategy and advises portfolio brands. Shannon has spoken at industry events such as Create & Cultivate, BeautyCon, and BevNET. What We Discuss: (01:00) Building Successful Brands in Venture Space (12:26) Celebrity Endorsement Impact on Brand (21:45) Revolutionizing Gut Health With BioMe (30:49) Trends in Wellness and Hormone Therapy (42:20) Entrepreneur Branding and Market Appeal (47:26) Elevating Branding Through Packaging and Storytelling (01:01:56) Enhancing Branding With Micro-Influencers …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com with code HUSTLE Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. BiOptimizers: Want to try Magnesium Breakthrough? Go to https://bioptimizers.com/jennifercohen and use promo code JC10 at checkout to save 10% off your purchase. Timeline Nutrition: Get 10% off your first order at timeline.com/cohen Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Shannon Race: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bio.me/?hl=en Website: https://bio.me/
Chapter 1: How Do You Stand Out in a Saturated Market?
That would be a good idea, actually. I think I'm going to like, I'm going to think about getting that, starting to do that. So let's start from like the beginning. I think the first thing I want to tell people is that Shannon was someone who worked on some of the biggest brands. Vital Proteins is one of them. And it was sold for, I think it was the biggest sale in like wellness products.
Yeah.
Right? In history.
Yeah. It's a huge, huge, huge exit for the vitamins and supplements space.
So I want to talk about that because that's a great hero product to talk about, right?
Sure.
So talk about in a very crowded space, right? The first thing is how does a brand, how does a product stick out when there is such... There's such competition. It's so crowded, especially in the health and wellness space. You have a bazillion supplements, a bazillion brands. How does someone create a brand that is... Like, how do you create a product and differentiation in a crowded market?
I mean, listen, it's really difficult. I think, you know, looking back at the Vital Proteins experience, we were kind of, it was a really interesting time. We were kind of in this precipice of, like, the world and media and how people were viewing vitamins and supplements was crazy. drastically changing. Vital proteins was also collagen supplements.
And that was very much a category creator, if you will. At the time when I started working there in 2016, nobody was talking about collagen, collagen supplementation. It's kind of laughable now. I think back like,
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Chapter 2: What Made Vital Proteins a Success Story?
So very much synergistic with what my kind of vision had been. But I, so I wanted, you know, I mean, that's something tactile you can take with you is like read up on the psychology of color, like be careful not to use like some crazy color that's going to make someone feel like a specific emotion unless you're trying to you know, elicit that.
But the other thing too, is just clean and simple and easily understood, you know, when the, and this isn't really like a necessarily formulaic or like a science or something you can read up on, but think about what you want your consumer to get it. Like you want them to get across right away when they see your packaging first, you know, there's different hierarchies and packaging.
Do you want the name to be the first thing that they see? Do you want it to be the product name? How big in comparison? Do you want them to understand on front of packaging exactly what your product will do for them from a benefit standpoint? How do you want that to look? There's a lot of different layers to it, but I just was like clean, simple, straight to the point, and I wanted it to be.
come across like they, it was trusted. They could trust that it was, you know, a brand with integrity. Okay. I like that.
What about, okay. So in terms of when you guys are going through the deal flow, what, when do you, well, only because I want people to get like, yeah. So I want them to get like a good understanding of all these, these different things. Yeah. How do you, how does somebody raise money? When do they come to you, like a venture fund?
Yeah.
And when do you guys, like, what are the steps? Like, what do you guys decide besides, okay, you like the product? Are you looking for just sales? How much money they've spent? Like, give me like, in a shark tank moment, what are you guys looking for?
I mean, the thing is, I'll speak on behalf of Startup Ventures because every VC is different. I mean, they're all doing different types of deals. We are more in the investing externally and growth. So I mean, obviously, revenue is a big factor. you know, gross margins? You know, do you have a path to profitability? What does the next, you know, 12 months of your innovation pipeline look like?
Do you have the ability to expand into other categories to create more revenue on top of maybe a core line that you've already produced? Is there a right fit from like an exit standpoint? Like, is this something that strategics would want to acquire because it's complementary to a portfolio that they already have? So you're thinking through all of those things.
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