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

DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

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.

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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

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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

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Jennifer Liao - Co-Founder of MìLà
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic
Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic