Become the Martha Stewart of Your Industry|Daina Falk (Hungry Fan)|DH046 - a podcast by Shawn Walchef

Martha Stewart and Michael Jordan. You won’t find two individuals with stronger brands than them, but you’ll only find one individual pulling inspiration from them in equal parts.

Meet Daina Falk, CEO and Founder of Hungry Fan.As an entrepreneur with a bestselling cookbook and many more accolades to her name, Daina Falk found motivation as a young adult from the legendary kitchen savant who made everyone believe they could cook.

“I looked at people like Martha Stewart,” says Daina Falk on her muse on the Digital Hospitality podcast. “I looked at what she'd bought with Martha Stewart Living, which started primarily with content. I wanted to build the Martha Stewart Living for this lifestyle.”

That lifestyle is tailgating.And based on Daina’s background, she couldn’t be more rooted – no pun intended.

Since she was in her mother’s womb, Daina was attending the greatest sporting spectacles across the world, from traveling with the Dream Team to Italy as an embryo to attending the North Carolina vs Duke rivalry as a kiddo.Just how? Well, that’s where Michael Jordan comes in.

“My dad is a sports agent,” starts Daina, “and pretty famous.”Pretty famous is an understatement.



Daina’s father is David Falk. For those unfamiliar, Falk is the reason Michael Jordan is Air Jordan. Signing MJ when he was just a kid from Carolina, David pitched Michael and Nike on the idea of marketing a basketball player as the face of a sportswear brand. This was radical as such endorsements were only done in tennis.Turns out David was onto something as Michael Jordan became a global icon and revolutionized an entire industry.

Also working with the likes of Patrick Ewing and countless pros, David’s career took Daina to the greatest events in all of sports. While her pop’s clients impressed on court, Daina’s passion and interest laid right outside the arena.“I just fell in love with fans and tailgates,” Daina Falk told Shawn Walchef on the Digital Hospitality podcast.

With a passion for fans, food and the game outside of the game, Daina had found her calling. 
Creating Hungry Fan:Daina’s mission was clear: empower fans worldwide in the tailgating space through content the same way Martha Stewart had in the kitchen.



Early on Daina learned that desire is great, but data is better.“The number one thing that you need to be able to do is to define whether or not there is a market that will buy your product or buy your service,” says Daina. “You might have the best idea in the world, but if there's no market for it, it doesn't matter. You have to be able to establish that that there is a value in a supply and demand curve that applies to whatever it is that you're looking to do.”

After doing some digging, Daina found that data defined her idea and proved there was a market.“80% of America tailgates during non-COVID years,” says Daina on the huge customer base. “And they spend $35 Billion on just food and drink products alone.”
Knowing just how many tailgaters there are and how invested they are in their craft, Daina began creating content to educate and empower this massive audience.“I started as a solo entrepreneur,” Daina notes. “I brought on a business partner in 2017 and we now have a head of marketing and branding. We now have four writers and a UX person. I actually have a team. I don't have to do everything by myself anymore, which is amazing.”

No longer just a one-woman writing machine, Daina has been able to grow the content and reach of Hungry Fan with her staff expansion. She’s also realized that like Martha and Mike, having product is what keeps the lights on.“I never thought that I’d be selling grill tongs,” shares Daina on Hungry Fan's expansion into tailgating goods. “But I love that we are. I never would’ve thought that selling tongs and ice cube trays would be our thing, but you’ve got to pay attention to the data.

Further episodes of Digital Hospitality: A Cali BBQ Media Podcast

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Website of Shawn Walchef