'The goal is to go mass': Caraa co-founder Aaron Luo on pivoting to charcuterie with Mercado Famous

Nearly five years ago, Aaron Luo co-founded the DTC luxury bag company Caraa. Now, his latest venture zeroes in on Spanish meats.

Luo and fellow Caraa co-founder Carmen Chen Wu launched charcuterie brand Mercado Famous this past summer. Both Luo and Chen grew up in Spain, and have fond memories of tapas hours with friend and family.

"The mission behind Mercado was to bring not only the best we can find in Spain when it comes to charcuterie, but change the narrative around charcuterie a little bit," Luo said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "We just felt that there's a newer and younger audience that's somewhat neglected."

The company sells meat products ranging from an $11.99 serving of sliced jamón to a $300 entire cured pork leg. While the company is selling predominately through its website right now, Luo said he has ambitions to grow other channels too. "I think wholesale will have a bigger play in Mercado Famous than Caraa, for sure," he said. "The goal for the brand is to go mass to a certain extent, if we can."

True, handbags like Caraa's are made from leather -- the same material many meat products come from -- but the businesses are very different. Still, Luo said the earlier experience helped prepare him for this latest one.

"The reason we felt very confident starting Mercado Famous back in 2018 is all the scar tissues and the learnings we've had in the DTC world," he said. That is, through Caraa he learned the ropes of brand storytelling and customer acquisition. And he's using all that knowledge to help grow Mercado Famous.

Some things are very different, however, than they were when Caraa first launched in 2014. For one, the VC environment is very different. That being said, Luo has long believed that most retail brands are not best for venture investing -- and that thesis, he said, is being proved today. "I think it works for tech," he said, but "this is not a tech company."

For now, Mercado Famous is still figuring things out. Luo has big plans to ink wholesale deals and other types of partnerships. But, he admits, the brand is still a baby; "we're not even crawling, just moving our heads."