Refinery29's co-founder started a new business.

Feed Me: Refinery29's co-founder started a new business. It's in a can. Good morning everyone. Despite my doctor’s flag that I have slightly-elevated mercury levels, I can’t stop eating the tuna burger at The Odeon. On the train home from dinner last night, I got a text from Caroline Calloway that I need to work on my zillennial TikTok coverage. I am including a special report from Ms.

Calloway in the Water Cooler section today. Today’s newsletter includes: Caper’s misreporting on The Gansevoort Hotel, “Campus” (Rostam’s Version), and a suggestion to switch your Zillow search zone to Long Island’s North Fork. Today on the Feed Me Job Board: Bumble, Interview Magazine, and Studs. If you submit a job that looks sus or doesn’t pay, I will not approve it to be on the board. Feed Me Job Board Refinery29’s co-founder started a new business. Last year, I learned that Philippe von Borries (co-founder and CEO of Refinery29 who ran the media company for 13 years) started a new sparkling coffee business called Esspo.

He happened to have some product samples on him when we were hanging out at a friend’s house, and I was surprised a) by how far along the business was, and b) that this was what someone who sold his company to Vice for $400mm wanted to do next. Esspo officially launched this week, so I caught up with Philippe this morning. Emily Sundberg: Many media operators from the early 2010s have decided their second ventures should be ANOTHER media business (Ben Smith and Semafor, Jon Kelly and Puck). Why did you decide to take the coffee route instead of media again? Philippe von Borries: “We’ve always been brand first people. Even in media.

That’s always been a core motivation and a core orientation. The interesting thing about CPG is that while the product has to be amazing, so much of it is in the storytelling and how you get people to be excited about your product. So we saw a big miss in coffee — it’s kind of a brown, stale, forgettable shelf. No fun. No innovation.In regards to specifically why not another media brand, we were kind of excited about a different challenge in a different space. We also very organically started to make a product that we and others became obsessed with.

Last but not least after a decade of working in digital it was really nice to work on an actual physical product.” Philippe von Borries: “We’ve always been brand first people. Even in media. That’s always been a core motivation and a core orientation. The interesting thing about CPG is that while the product has to be amazing, so much of it is in the storytelling and how you get people to be excited about your product. So we saw a big miss in coffee — it’s kind of a brown, stale, forgettable shelf. No fun.

No innovation. In regards to specifically why not another media brand, we were kind of excited about a different challenge in a different space. We also very organically started to make a product that we and others became obsessed with. Last but not least after a decade of working in digital it was really nice to work on an actual physical product.” ES: I tried a very early version last year. What was your R&D process like? PvB: “You were one of the first to try it! First of all we learned so much - we’ve been at this for almost two years and we had to educate ourselves from scratch. We made hundreds of different recipes and formations.

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The launch of a new brand by a notable figure in the industry and its focus on storytelling and innovative packaging provides significant insights for brand strategy professionals, although the concepts discussed are not entirely new.

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