Andrew Benin is the co-founder & CEO of Graza, a Brooklyn based DTC brand reimagining extra-virgin olive oil.  Andrew previously served at DTC powerhouses including Magic Spoon, Casper, & Warby Parker where he worked in key operational roles. His new brand, Graza, had one of the most successful CPG launches of 2022.3:29 - Becoming a CPG addictAndrew got his start working for hot DTC Brands like Warby Parker, Casper, and Magic Spoon. It was a thrilling environment, but he knew he wanted to build something of his own.“When you work at really hot CPG companies, you are an addict of course. Because the company you're working for is growing, and growth is the fuel that fires the whole engine. But I definitely was looking to replicate that fire for something that I cared about. And olive oil is a dream, because it's objectively healthy. It is delicious. The supply chain is beautiful. The places where olive trees are grown and harvested are beautiful. And people's general reaction is shit, I love olive oil. It's kind of everybody's best friend, you know? So it definitely had strong tailwinds. But when I actually thought, okay, it's time to start a company, super saturated market. Investors had seen decks come across their desk recently. Really fragmented supply chain. So all of the reasons not to do it started coming up at the same time as the energy to do it. But I couldn't stop. I knew that we were going to get an olive oil company off the ground.”05:09 - Focusing on middle AmericaLuxury olive oil abounds in the world...for a steep price tag. Andrew realized that what middle America needed was olive that hit the sweet spot between amazing quality and accessibility.“I got really, really close with Mike Anthony, the executive chef at Gramercy Tavern. I get back to New York. I'm still working at Magic Spoon. And I find time with Mike to do a tasting at the restaurant. And we're trying really expensive, really delicious, really crazy olive oils. And he looks me in the eye and he's like, you know, I have 10 of you in this zip code who I can call on to get me amazing Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Argentinian olive oil anywhere I want in the world. Don't start another boutique luxury olive oil company. Don't do it. That's not what we need. Middle America doesn't need that. Because it's not even just middle America doesn't need that, we can't afford it. So that changed my perspective completely. And ever since then, mass and scale and mass premium have been the leading principles for this company. Of course without sacrificing quality at all. I would put up our olive oil against any gold metal, whatever award olive oil there is in the world.”8:07 - Making olive oil sexyGraza’s unique squeeze bottle makes it possible to be both playful and insanely functional.“We just wanted to add some life and some sex appeal to it, some fun. A big part of the development process and the idea was when we were like, screw it. We're going to put this in a chef-inspired squeeze bottle. That was a whole deviation from the norm. And that was a lot of energy from the culinary community, a lot of energy from the investment community. People were like, damn. This is going to really be usable on all social media verticals. You can do collabs with restaurants. And it all kind of started coming together when we flipped the form factor. You know, olive oil is always sold in the same dark green glass bottle with a random label with an olive branch on it. And when we chose a squeeze bottle, everything changed in terms of the visual appeal. And this is something that makes us not only a CPG food company, it makes us a tool in the kitchen.”14:13 - Finding a design partnerGraza tapped Gander as their design agency, and offered them an equity and cash partnership to give the relationship deep roots.“Our original design was a Dr. Bronner's bottle with a Mike's Hot Honey cap, put together with some Photoshop work. That's how it started. But we knew we were going to w