The Small Business Big Marketing Podcast with Tim Reid

Renae Bunster's Fiery Path to Success: Transforming a Passion for Hot Sauce into a Thriving Food & Beverage Business | 662

Dec 18, 2023

Renae Bunster, a journalist who fell in love with hot sauce during a trip to central America, shares her journey of turning her passion into a thriving business. She discusses expanding her empire into tequila and pre-mixed cocktails, achieving success in the hot sauce market, equity crowdfunding, challenges with investors, creating high-quality ready-to-drink cocktails, the state of the media, and exploring new avenues for generating income.

51:09

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Episode guests

Renae Bunster

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Renee Bunster successfully created a thriving hot sauce empire by capitalizing on her love for hot sauces and filling a gap in the market with the unique Shit the Bed brand.

Expanding into new product lines, such as tequila and ready-to-drink cocktails, allowed Bunster to appeal to mass markets and stand out in the competitive food and beverage industry.

Building relationships, persistence, and understanding margin requirements were key to getting Bunster's products into major retailers like Woolworths, highlighting the importance of effective communication and rapport-building in the food industry.

Deep dives

Podcast Episode Overview

In this podcast episode, Timbo Reed interviews Renee Bunster, the founder of Bunsters Worldwide. Renee shares the journey of her hot sauce empire, starting from her love for hot sauces in Central America to creating the successful Shit the Bed hot sauce brand. She discusses her challenges in getting her products into major retailers like Woolworths and shares insights into equity crowdfunding to raise capital for her business. Renee also talks about her expansion into tequila and ready-to-drink cocktails, the importance of creativity in business, and the benefits of staying lean and working from home.

Introduction

5min

Expanding into Supermarket-style Sauces

17min

Equity Crowdfunding and the Benefits of Having Investors

4min

Investor Burnout and the Importance of Choosing the Right Business

3min

Creating High-Quality Ready-to-Drink Cocktails

11min

Discussion on the State of the Media and OnlyFans

2min

Exploring Avenues for Making Money

11min

Explore the booming hot chilli sauce market with Renae Bunster, a leader in Australia's hot sauce scene. In episode 662 of the award-winning Small Business Big Marketing podcast, Renae updates us on her expanding empire, including her new Tequila and pre-mixed cocktail lines. Get ready for a fiery discussion!

A little more about Bunster's Worldwide founder Renae Bunster ...

During a holiday through central America in 2011, Aussie journalist Renae Bunster fell in love with the delicious fresh hot sauces from the region.

Upon returning home she couldn’t find anything that came even close, so like all good entrepreneurs, she began making her own, calling it Shit The Bed! Friends who'd never even liked chilli before were suddenly kicking down her door, and it quickly turned into a thriving business with orders coming in from all over Australia.

In fact, when I first interviewed Renae in episode 401, she was already selling $8,000 worth a day, and was the number one selling hot sauce on Amazon Australia ahead of the giant Sriracha! Realising she was on to something, she sent a load over to the US and Shit The Bed quickly became number one on Amazon USA!

Today, the Bunster hot sauce empire is thriving with new flavours added, supported by a huge national distribution including Woolworths, plus Renae has extended the brand into pre-mixed cocktails and a dedicated Tequila brand with flavours including Peanut Butter and Fruit Tingle!

So sit back as Renae shares how she’s gone about building her empire, along with how she’s raised $3.7M through equity crowd-funding, and how she got her hot sauce brand featured on Hot Ones, one of YouTube's biggest channels.

As always, you’ll find a video snippet from this interview that I feel is super interesting over at Patreon.com/MarketingPodcast.

Enough from me, let’s go meet Renae …

Resources mentioned in this episode ...

Built To Sell interview with John Warily

Working Backwards interview with Colin Bryar

Hot Ones YouTube channel

Businesses that make this podcast possible

StudioHawk - No generalists, just a damn good SEO agency (award-winning actually!).

Patreon - Join Timbo's Business Owner Membership and take control of your marketing.

Book Tim Reid - Keynote or conference emceeing.

As always, thanks for your support. May your marketing be the best marketing.

Timbo Reid

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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