#321 - How Mila Nailed Success: The 20 Million Dumplings Club

Jennifer Liao’s journey with MìLà is nothing short of remarkable. From a grassroots project where they collected orders through Google Forms, it evolved into a successful venture that raised $21.5 million in its second round of funding. This episode doesn't just serve up the story behind MìLà’s signature frozen soup dumplings; it provides a feast of insights on the ingredients for business growth, fundraising, and the power of community-driven marketing. Episode brought to you by More Staffing Join 15k founders and marketers & get our pod highlights delivered directly to your inbox with the DTC Pod Newsletter ! On this episode of DTC Pod, we cover: 1. Fundraising Strategies and Investor Relationships 2. Navigating Logistics for Frozen Food Distribution 3. Product-Market Fit Testing 4. Branding and Content Strategy Development 5. Scaling Manufacturing 6. Leveraging E-commerce Platforms Timestamps 03:37 Experimenting with frozen soup dumplings 06:17 How testing and running ad campaigns on Meta led to MìLà’s rapid growth 14:59 Product-market fit testing, team expansion 20:43 Establishing a team for content and branding 28:00 Getting funded, setting realistic goals, and scaling for success 35:52 The supply chain side of frozen, perishable goods 37:22 Building infrastructure for proactive outreach 38:46 Product innovation, retail expansion Show notes powered by Castmagic Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more. Additional episodes you might like: • #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth • #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content • #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views • #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands • #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook • ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands ----- Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further? Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox? Check out our newsletter here . Projects the DTC Pod team is working on: DTCetc - all our favorite brands on the internet Olivea - the extra virgin olive oil & hydroxytyrosol supplement Castmagic - AI Workspace for Content Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates! DTCPod Instagram DTCPod Twitter DTCPod TikTok ----- Jennifer Liao - Co-Founder of MìLà Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic

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