Daniel Hernandez

About Daniel Hernandez

As the founder of Palaterra, I’m on a mission to help brand and agency leaders unlock the full potential of in-store sampling.Palaterra is an AI-powered retail intelligence platform transforming in-store demos into real-time, actionable insights for CPG and adult beverage brands—and a complete operating system for agencies executing demos at scale.Born from 20 years of activation experience and tested through nearly 1 million events, Palaterra helps brands and agencies get more from every tasting—capturing field data, analyzing consumer feedback, and visualizing performance metrics that drive real retail growth.Whether you\'re a brand leader measuring ROI across multiple markets or an agency managing high-volume demos, Palaterra centralizes your efforts—tracking conversion, identifying execution gaps, and delivering insights that elevate your next retail presentation.What Palaterra Delivers: Real-time consumer sentiment on taste, packaging, and price Trial-to-purchase conversion metrics that prove impact Retail compliance and execution tracking across stores and regions AI-generated reports that replace outdated recaps with clean, strategic actionable insightsPalaterra is trusted by brands and agencies who want to scale faster, learn directly from consumers, and tell a stronger story to clients and retail buyers.Now expanding nationally, we’re empowering tasting agencies, field teams, brand managers, and marketing leaders to turn every demo into a growth opportunity. Learn more at Palaterra.com

Experience

1. CEO

   First Crush Tastings, Inc

   Apr 2010 — Present

   First Crush Tastings is a Texas state wide in-store sampling and event execution company, specializing in the adult beverage space. Over the last decade, we’ve executed hundreds of thousands of activations for some of the most recognized brands in beer, wine, spirits, and RTDs.While I remain CEO, my primary focus is now scaling Palaterra—a tech-forward evolution of the insights and experience built through First Crush.

Skills

• Relationship Building
• Management
• Consumer Insight
• Shopper Marketing
• Festivals
• Consumer Marketing
• Brand Awareness
• Key Account Development
• In-Store Marketing
• Experiential Events
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Wine Tasting
• Marketing
• Sales
• Wine & Spirits Industry
• Sales Management
• Beverage Industry
• Brand Management
• Craft Beer
• Marketing Strategy