<p>Erin Barrett was a systems engineering major who pivoted into consulting for the free Starbucks, landed at McKinsey during the 2020 food tech boom, and then got so sick from COVID that it completely rewired her relationship with food and health. By the time she got to Stanford GSB, she was serving experimental cocktails out of mason jars through her dorm room window, and Goldilocks was born. </p><p>In this episode, Erin gets into why the canned cocktail market is more broken than most people realize (hint: your favorite Aperol Spritz has as much sugar as a soda), how she cold-called 40+ food scientists and got told "don't bother" by most of them, the sneaker drop-inspired launch strategy that had liquor store owners in Chelsea asking "what is going on," and why LinkedIn, not Instagram, not TikTok, became her most powerful growth channel with zero dollars spent on marketing. If you're building something the industry says won't work, or you just need a reminder that scrappy and imperfect beats waiting for perfect, this one's for you. </p><p>🍸 Find Goldilocks: </p><p>🔗 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://drinkgoldilocks.com">drinkgoldilocks.com</a> </p><p>📲 @drinkgoldilocks </p><p></p><p>Find Womansplain: </p><p>📲 @womansplainpod </p><p>✉️ <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></p>