Odd Lots

Alison Roman's Plan to Conquer the Tomato Sauce Market

February 23, 2026

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  • Scaling a beloved home recipe into a high-volume consumer packaged goods (CPG) product requires significant, continuous tweaking of ingredients and processes, as demonstrated by the challenges in replicating the caramelized shallot anchovy sauce flavor profile at scale. 
  • Alison Roman is deliberately pursuing a slow, quality-focused growth strategy for 'A Very Good Sauce,' prioritizing authenticity and long-term success over rapid scaling or immediate high-volume retail contracts, which she views as financially overwhelming. 
  • The current CPG landscape for food products is highly competitive, forcing new entrants like 'A Very Good Sauce' to carve out a niche based on unique flavor profiles (e.g., less sweet, non-marinara style) rather than competing directly on price with established brands. 
  • Alison Roman's initial launch of A Very Good Sauce resulted in immediate sell-outs, preventing her from fully executing her planned marketing campaign to test its maximum sales potential. 
  • The difficulty of scaling production before securing major distribution contracts presents a significant chicken-and-egg problem for new consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses. 
  • Alison Roman's existing status as a food celebrity and ownership of a popular newsletter provide a substantial advertising advantage, allowing her to sell out runs without incurring the high costs typically associated with CPG advertising on platforms like Instagram. 

Segments

Consumer Staples Market Context
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(00:02:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Consumer staples, like jarred sauces, are currently performing well in the stock market as investors seek refuge from volatile tech stocks.
  • Summary: As of February 4th, consumer staples companies, including those making jarred sauces, are outperforming other sectors in the market. Food is considered ‘Lindy’—a persistent category that people will always buy. The CPG space is complex, involving significant competition for shelf space and logistical hurdles beyond just branding and product quality.
Transition to Tomato Sauce Business
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(00:04:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Alison Roman entered the tomato sauce business out of personal necessity after realizing existing market options did not meet her high standards, despite her prior advocacy for making everything from scratch.
  • Summary: Roman’s career focused on teaching people to cook homemade food, making her entry into jarred sauce ironic. Her personal life changes, including having a baby and a non-cooking spouse, created a need for high-quality convenience. The initial demand for her homemade sauce at her pop-up grocery store, First Bloom, exceeded supply, prompting the decision to outsource production.
Differentiating ‘A Very Good Sauce’
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(00:07:35)
  • Key Takeaway: The product differentiates itself from competitors like Rao’s and Carbone by offering a flavor profile modeled after older, less sweet, oregano-free sauces, contrasting the current market’s marinara style.
  • Summary: Roman views her competitors as having strong branding but notes that many popular sauces are sweeter, contain oregano, and follow a uniform marinara style. She aimed to create a sauce distinct from these newer, high-profile brands, which she perceives as having a ‘chef bro energy.’ Her guiding principle is to create products that genuinely do not yet exist in the market.
Scaling and Co-Packing Challenges
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(00:09:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Scaling a recipe requires extensive lab-like tweaking, as ingredient behavior changes drastically with batch size, necessitating on-site quality control with the co-packer.
  • Summary: Multiplying a home recipe by a large factor does not yield the same result due to differences in equipment and ingredient reactions at scale. For the caramelized shallot anchovy flavor, Roman had to repeatedly adjust the recipe after initial jarring runs because large-scale caramelization made the shallots too sweet. She emphasizes that quality control requires constant tweaking and adjusting, especially when working with different co-packers.
CPG Economics and Pricing Reality
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(00:19:04)
  • Key Takeaway: The economics of high-quality, small-batch CPG products often result in retail prices ($12 for 16oz) that are significantly higher than mass-market competitors ($8.99 for 32oz), limiting the market size for premium goods.
  • Summary: Roman notes that producing a high-quality, responsibly made product at a small scale leads to high costs, citing a past jam venture that required a $17 jar price to break even. Her current 16-ounce jar retails for $12.99, compared to competitors selling 32-ounce jars for $8.99 on sale. This high cost structure makes the aspiration of using only ‘ugly’ or waste ingredients financially unachievable at their current scale.
Financial Scaling and Business Structure
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(00:21:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Roman is currently self-funding the venture and is seeking to hire experienced business professionals to manage the complex operational scaling, as she views herself as the ’tomato sauce person,’ not the business expert.
  • Summary: She is wary of the pressure associated with large VC funding, which often mandates rapid SKU expansion and marketing spend that can compromise authenticity. Her immediate goal is to hire experts who can provide an ‘order of operations’ for logistics and finance, as she lacks experience in those areas. She prefers a smaller investment round from partners who understand and support her long-term, quality-first vision.
Distribution Strategy: D2C vs. Retail
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(00:27:43)
  • Key Takeaway: Deciding between scaling production capacity for potential retail contracts (like Whole Foods) and securing those contracts first presents a classic ‘chicken or the egg’ dilemma due to high inventory holding costs for heavy goods like jarred sauce.
  • Summary: The weight of glass jars makes direct-to-consumer (D2C) shipping expensive, suggesting retail is the ultimate goal. However, securing a major retailer contract requires proven, scalable production capacity, which risks sitting on expensive inventory if the deal falls through. Roman is currently in active discussions to resolve this logistical and contractual sequencing issue.
Food Media Aesthetics vs. Soul
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(00:47:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Modern food media often prioritizes aesthetics and visual performance over the actual taste or soul of a dish, leading to the ‘designing’ of recipes rather than authentic development.
  • Summary: Roman notes that many online recipes are reverse-engineered based on what looks visually appealing (e.g., containing cheese or cream). As a reaction, she developed an intentionally ‘ugly as hell’ but incredibly delicious pork cooked in milk recipe for a magazine feature. She recognizes that while aesthetics drive initial interest, her success is built on writing that creates emotional investment in the recipe’s outcome.
Current Capacity and Launch Status
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(00:53:31)
  • Key Takeaway: The tomato sauce business is currently maxed out on production capacity due to immediate sell-outs following its September launch, meaning its full marketing potential has not yet been realized.
  • Summary: The product sold out immediately upon launch, preventing Roman from executing her planned marketing campaigns. This high demand, despite being at capacity, is viewed positively as proof of concept. The launch timeline was delayed by about three years due to Roman having a baby, which served as an unplanned reset for the project.
Sauce Launch Sales Success
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(00:53:52)
  • Key Takeaway: The initial launch of A Very Good Sauce sold out immediately, halting planned marketing efforts.
  • Summary: A pause in the launch timeline, necessitated by a premature labor, allowed for label redesigns, serving as a beneficial reset. Upon launching in September, the product sold out instantly, preventing the execution of planned marketing campaigns. This immediate demand suggests the product has not yet reached its full sales potential.
Future Follow-up Discussion
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(00:54:26)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts proposed a follow-up episode to document scaling challenges after securing major distribution.
  • Summary: The hosts suggested Alison Roman return in six months or a year to discuss lessons learned, particularly after securing a Whole Foods contract. Roman expressed interest in revisiting the topic when business changes occur, viewing the current state as the very start of the small business diary. She enjoys discussing these operational aspects.
Entrepreneurial Episode Interest
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(00:55:09)
  • Key Takeaway: There is high listener interest in ‘diary of an entrepreneur’ style content, evidenced by podcast chart trends.
  • Summary: The hosts noted that business and entrepreneurship podcasts dominate the top charts on platforms like Apple Podcasts. This popularity suggests a pivot toward ‘diary of an entrepreneur’ episodes could be well-received by the audience. They even joked about creating a joint food-themed book detailing supply chain lessons within recipes.
Scaling and Distribution Dilemma
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(00:56:07)
  • Key Takeaway: Scaling production capacity before securing large distribution contracts is a difficult chicken-and-egg problem for CPG startups.
  • Summary: A key difficulty for CPG startups is deciding when to invest in scaling production before having a guaranteed large distribution contract, like one with a grocery store. This forces a choice between investing at scale to make the pitch or waiting for the pitch to justify the investment. Raising VC money or taking loans adds pressure to generate profit quickly to service that debt.
Celebrity Advantage and Ad Spend
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(00:56:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Being a food celebrity and owning a direct distribution list bypasses the necessity of high spending on social media advertising.
  • Summary: The hosts acknowledged that Alison Roman’s status as a food celebrity is a significant advantage in the CPG space. Furthermore, owning a popular newsletter and distribution list allows her to sell out inventory without paying the ‘Facebook tax’—the substantial ad spend required by most CPG companies on platforms like Instagram.
Closing Remarks and Credits
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(00:57:33)
  • Key Takeaway: Listeners are encouraged to leave positive reviews to support content like potential cooking shows or books.
  • Summary: The hosts concluded the episode, providing their social media handles and producer credits. They directed listeners to the Bloomberg website for more content and the Odd Lots Discord channel for discussion. Positive reviews are requested, especially if listeners want to see future content like cooking shows or books based on the episode’s themes.