Building Community Before Launching Products | Hannah Ruhamah Crum | Kombucha Kamp

Hannah Ruhamah Crum is the Founder of Kombucha Kamp, the leading education platform and Ecommerce brand for homebrewed kombucha. She’s also the co-author of The Big Book of Kombucha and the cofounder and former president of Kombucha Brewers International, where she’s helped shape industry standards for fermentation and transparency.Before launching Kombucha Kamp, Hannah was a language teacher and aspiring actress who stumbled into kombucha at a raw food restaurant in San Francisco. A single sip turned into a full-blown obsession, leading her to teach local brewing classes out of her apartment, blog about the gut microbiome, and ship SCOBYs from her kitchen table before launching a full Ecommerce operation.Hannah shares how she followed inbound demand signals to grow from DIY educator to industry leader, why homemade kombucha is different from store-bought, and how she scaled without outside capital. She also unpacks how COVID reshaped her business overnight, why she walked away from a quarter-million-dollar facility, and what she's learned about managing people without formal training.Whether she’s explaining what it means to be a “bacteria farmer” or how her belief in gut health intersects with spiritual wellness, Hannah offers a candid look at what it takes to build a mission-driven CPG brand from scratch.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:40] Intro[01:15] Selling starter kits not just products[02:34] Discovering a product by total accident[04:56] Blogging to fix misinformation online[06:16] Podcasting early to build brand authority[09:05] Reclaiming gut health through real food[10:44] Episode Sponsors: Electric Eye, Heatmap, Zamp[14:42] Protecting tradition through policy advocacy[18:51] Rebuilding ops with a lighter footprint[21:30] Outsourcing production for better margins[23:02] Building loyalty with rewards that convertResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeProviding free information and education about Kombucha kombuchakamp.comFollow Hannah Ruhamah Crum linkedin.com/in/hannahcrumlaSchedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connectClear, real-time data built for ecommerce optimization heatmap.com/honestFully managed sales tax solution for Ecommerce brands zamp.com/honestIf you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!