Amid a confluence of demand for healthy, sustainably sourced food and surging interest in e-commerce, online marketplace Bubble finds itself at the center of the bullseye.

Launched in January 2019, Bubble promotes itself as "The Most Transparent Food Marketplace." The e-tailer currently represents over 180 brands and over 1,000 products that undergo the "Bubble Approval Process," a rigorous set of standards to ensure that food and beverages sold on the site are made with responsibly sourced and clean ingredients.

In an interview included in this episode, Bubble founder and CEO Jessica Young spoke about how she drew upon her experience as a chef and product developer to launch the site, how she assessed opportunities and challenges for the company and thoughtfully communicated each to investors, how Bubble is enhancing visibility and sales for small brands via the platform and what she anticipates as the next evolution of e-commerce.

Show notes:

0:36: Retailer And Sampling Strategies For New Brands & New Products -- The episode's hosts opened the show with some banter about intentionally less than tasty jelly beans before discussing top-of-mind topics for entrepreneurs including review cycles for new products and brands amid the current crisis and ways that companies are shifting field marketing resources online.

12:02: Jessica Young, Founder/CEO, Bubble -- Young sat down with Taste Radio editor Ray Latif for an expansive conversation that chronicled of her early work experience, which included roles at Daily Harvest and Chobani Incubator, and spoke about why she chose to launch a retail company as her first foray into entrepreneurship and how she prepared a SWOT analysis for the company. Later, she discussed Bubble's target consumer, the most effective ways to market and promote the site, how the company is keeping up with COVID-19-driven demand and how perishable products will play into its future.

Brands in this episode: Jelly Belly, Drink Simple, Lily's, Haven's Kitchen, Cleveland Kitchen, High Brew Coffee, Revive Kombucha, Better Booch, Spudsy, Soylent, Hu Kitchen, Daily Harvest, Sky High Farm