Daniel Scharff isn't a media guy. He's a CPG operator who stumbled into community-building almost by accident, looking for people to talk to at trade shows. That accidental start turned into Startup CPG, a Slack-based community that's become a trusted gathering spot for direct-to-consumer operators in packaged goods.

We talk through what it actually takes to build a community that people show up for: why "the things that don't scale" are the whole point, why Slack works better than purpose-built community platforms despite not being designed for the job, how to think about trade shows versus owned events, and why proximity to the industry — not content production — is the real unlock for publishers trying to build the same thing.

Chapters:

• 01:29 Intro

• 08:23 Why CPG Is Exploding

• 10:39 Forces Driving New Brands

• 17:17 From Meetups to National Slack

• 24:13 Signature Series and Events

• 27:39 Monetization Free Community

• 32:09 Educational Partner Webinars

• 38:43 Measuring Reach And Engagement

• 42:52 Hiring And Team Growth

• 44:09 Partnerships And Success Ops

• 49:20 Scale Versus Depth

• 51:14 Trade Shows

• 52:35 Why Slack Works