Women Who Are Crushing It! Foodie Tribe and Ali Ugarte-Martinez
Name of Owner: Ali Ugarte-Martinez
Names of business partner(s)? The co-founder of Foodie Tribe is Katy Coffield
Name of business: Foodie Tribe
Years in business: Six years
Location: Miami
Ali Ugarte-Martinez (left) and Katy Coffield(right).
Type of business :
Foodie Tribe is an influencer marketing and creative agency. We work with a variety of brands, agencies, and restaurants within the food and beverage industry that want to collaborate with content creators on influencer campaigns.
We are so proud of the community we have created online and in person when we manage physical events. Our influencers are also proud to be a part of Foodie Tribe. We continue to work diligently to make sure they are always eating, drinking, and celebrating together as members of our community (and work with awesome brands, of course)!
We have more exciting opportunities and partnerships, including our “Grow Your Influence” event series. We will also be launching a new vertical of Foodie Tribe later this year… stay tuned!
Website:
Social media handles:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodietribe/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foodietribe/
What was your “why” for starting your business?
In the years leading up to the founding of Foodie Tribe, I built my career in social media, advertising, and marketing software. I worked closely with Fortune 100 marketing teams first as a social media manager and later as a senior manager of professional services in software.
In 2016, Katy [Coffield, Foodie Tribe’s co-founder] and I worked together at a software company. She was a food blogger (before “influencers” were really a thing yet!), and I was always working on graphic design projects. I’d often tag along as her plus-one to media dinners that she’d be invited to, and half of the table would be empty because influencers weren’t showing up. That’s where the business idea came from!
Foodie Tribe was born to connect brands and influencers and manage the whole process of influencer marketing. Katy started building our network, while I built our brand and website. Next thing we knew, Foodie Tribe was taking off. It was the perfect combination of two of our favorite things: marketing and food!
What is the significance of your company name?
The name of our company is perfectly aligned with our mission and goals: uniting those who have a passion for food with companies and brands in the industry. Foodie Tribe was born from a love for food — something we can all relate to — and with the influencer movement showcasing delicious dishes and drinks through photo and video, we saw an opportunity to bring people together. Today we have more than 3,000 foodie content creators within our “Tribe” that we can activate at any given moment for a brand campaign!
Considering the fierce competition in today’s business world, how would you highlight your company’s competitive advantages?
There are really two things that differentiate Foodie Tribe from other companies in the influencer space. One, we’re an agency, not a software, but we still have one of the largest curated networks of food and lifestyle influencers globally! I love that we’re an agency because we built this company on relationships. With every campaign, our influencers and our clients will always have people on our team that they’re working with directly. We are always offering our expertise and guiding them along the whole process.
Secondly, we’re very niche in the food and beverage industry because we’re serious foodies! It’s what we’re most passionate about and what we most enjoy. That always comes through when we start a partnership with a brand. Clients can always tell that we really know our stuff when it comes to marketing food and beverage brands, and that’s won us so much business over other, more generalized influencer marketing companies.
Who is your greatest support when facing hardship in business?
My co-founder, Katy, is, of course, my greatest support. I’m so lucky to be in business with not only a great partner, but one of my best friends. We call each other 10 times a day if we’re not in the office together, and we always find our most creative solutions and ideas when we put our heads together. We always say, there’s no one else we’d rather build a business with!
My husband, Logan, is also a huge supporter of our business. He’s always cheering me on, whether that’s just an afternoon pep talk over lunch or helping me think through some more difficult business decisions.
Have you experienced any challenges as a woman-owned business?
It’s thankfully been very rare, but we’ve definitely encountered our share of sexist comments and condescension from a few select members of the opposite sex. It’s not something we dwell on or let bother us. We know that we’re experts in our field, and 99.9 percent of the brands, influencers, and partners we work with know that, too!
What advice would you give to your younger entrepreneurial self?
Just start! Everything doesn’t need to be absolutely perfectly planned to turn an idea into a business or to start to move the needle. You just have to start somewhere and build as you go.
Does your business support any causes/charities?
In the past, we’ve worked with some local and national children’s hunger charities to bring awareness to their initiatives using our network of influencers. It’s definitely something we want to focus on again soon.
“I love that we can use our company and community to do more than just business, but to do some good as well.”
What has been your biggest entrepreneurial win?
Our client roster! I am so proud of the companies we work with and that these brands trust us to manage their influencer and social media marketing. We may be a small team, but we get to work with some mighty big names, like Del Monte, Caviar/DoorDash, Sub-Zero Wolf, and Hewlett-Packard.
What’s your favorite metaphor for describing entrepreneurship?
Katy once accidentally wrote in an email that we were “getting our ducks in a room” instead of a “row,” and it has hilariously become our motto in business. We don’t need the “ducks” in a perfect row. We just need them in a room and we can work with that.
Top three places on the globe you WILL visit someday:
Travel is a huge part of my life, so this is something I think about all the time! Top three places that I’d like to visit next are: Brazil, Japan, and Denmark.
Top three websites/blogs that you can’t imagine your day without and why:
Does Google count? I Google everything, from random questions that pop into my head to cooking techniques to business questions!
The Marketing Brew newsletter/blog, from The Brew, which I read every day.
I’m a devoted New York TimesCooking fan and read the newsletter every day as well.
Top three web or mobile apps that make your work more effective:
Airtable is a crowd-favorite for us at Foodie Tribe because we manage all our client social calendars and route content for approval and feedback through the tool.
Harvest is integral to our business as well. We use Harvest to track billable time against client projects, as well as for team resourcing and staffing.
I recently downloaded theSuperhuman email app, and it’s totally changed the game for me on managing my emails. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep my inbox from descending into utter chaos, and Superhuman has been great for keeping me organized. I actually achieve the coveted “inbox zero” most days!
Favorite woman-owned business (other than your own!)
Picking just one is hard! I’m a huge fan of Great Jones, owned by Sierra Tishgart and Maddy Moelis. I just got their fully-clad stainless-steel pans collection recently and they’re such great quality! I also love Clare Paint, owned by Nicole Gibbons. Half of my house is painted in Clare colors.
Any promos for our readers/listeners:
We don’t do any promos for our business model, but if you’re reading this and you’re a food influencer, come apply to join Foodie Tribe!
