Teflon Poisoning Inspired This Entrepreneur to Create His Own Non-Toxic Cookware Brand: 'We Launched With a Waitlist of Thousands.'

There is no exact roadmap for successfully launching a new product in a crowded space, but Entrepreneur+ members recently had the chance to sit in on an incredibly enlightening webinar with Jordan Nathan , founder of the non-toxic kitchenware brand Caraway , who shared the strategies for product development and marketing that he's used to grow the company's annual revenue by over 500% in just four years.

Over the course of the conversation, Nathan covered both the big and small picture thinking pivotal to Caraway's success. Watch the full webinar below and read some of the key takeaways, which have been edited for length and clarity.

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Entrepreneurial origin story

"We launched Caraway back in 2019. I had experience in the kitchen industry and launched a lot of products prior to that. I had a very scary experience when I accidentally overheated a Teflon frying pan during a product test and got Teflon poisoning from the fumes. So I began researching what cookware is made of and was inspired to launch a brand that would bring non-toxic materials into the kitchen. We researched materials like stainless steel and cast iron but found that most consumers want something easier to cook with and clean. That's when we found the ceramic nonstick material we wanted to bring to market."

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Advice to newcomers

"My best advice is to talk to as many people in your industry as possible. I spoke with everyone from larger legacy brands to material experts to factories. In the early days, it's really hard to put into words what you want to build. And your concept is constantly evolving as you're going through the process. So gathering all the right data points and feedback and information helps lead you to the brand that you want to create."

Market differentiation

"The core of our products are ease of use and the design. We wanted to create something unique, memorable, and timeless. Part of the process was looking at what was in the market and trying to create something that didn't exist. And so as we were scanning the market, we noticed there weren't a lot of colors in the category, most lids were domed versus flat shapes, and a lot of the handles in the market were super uncomfortable and not ergonomic. Plus, we learned that one of the biggest pain points for consumers was storing the cookware in cabinets after they were done using it. So we created a signature way to store Caraway pans that keeps them organized and prevents the damage stacking can cause."

Marketing

"We leaned heavily into influencers and ambassadors who were early adopters of the product. Interestingly, we didn't really work with cooks or chefs. We leaned more into interior design experts or influencers known for promoting non-toxic products. We sent them the pan early before launch so that they could fall in love with it. And we built early relationships with a lot of press contacts. Inviting them to the office, having them join in the design process and getting their point of view on colors and what their readers would like to see was hugely helpful. And then one of our biggest growth tactics was that we built a pre-launch waitlist with a simple landing page on carawayhome.com . We ran some referral programs and giveaways with other brands to grow that list. By the time we launched, we had this list of thousands and thousands of customers who were excited to be early adopters. And that was a nice launch pad for the brand."

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Setting price points

"Pricing is an imperfect science. It's kind of a guess. From what I've seen in the market across categories, I think going to the middle point of pricing is really challenging. So as you build a brand, you really want to set that foundation by answering these questions: Do I want to provide value to the customers in terms of having the lowest price? Or do I want to provide value by charging more so that the materials and design are high quality? For us, the $395 price point was perfect because it allows for high quality but is still obtainable for customers. We're in the premium sphere, but not the highest price within that category. You don't want to make the mistake of charging too little and then having to raise prices to fix your margins later."

Getting in stores

"We launched as a DTC brand. Now we sell with about 15 to 20 retail partners. Crate & Barrel was one of our first partners and our first in-store. They've been incredible and have done such a great job representing our design viewpoint and connecting us with the high-design customer. Some retailer relationships came through introductions, but the majority were cold emails. Very early on, we created a list of what retailers we'd want to grow into. I remember going to the offices of these retailers early on with just drawings on a page. These are super smart buyers who have seen trends over decades. They've got a lot of great data. Taking some of that intel and feedback is critical. And I think bringing them along for the process early can help bring you into a store. If they're following along your journey and you're keeping them updated about sales growth, it does make it easier to get into those stores as they see things begin to click for you."

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Biggest challenges for startups

"There's probably too many to count, but I think one of the challenges with running a business early on is that there's infinite opportunity, but you have very limited resources. So you need to stay very focused. It's important to find one or two things that really work and go deep into those before you go wider. When we launched Caraway, we had our core cookware set. We weren't expanding a bunch of products really quickly. We focused on one or two advertising channels and made sure we conquered those before adding more."