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It can be hard to find good pickled asparagus or sweet halva spread at the neighborhood supermarket when you want it.

Craig Kanarick, a digital pioneer in his previous life, had just such an “aha” moment one day while shopping at a small Brooklyn butcher shop and it wound up being the impetus for his start-up, Mouth, which serves as a marketplace for food products from independent makers nationwide. Mr. Kanarick was with his children at Marlow & Daughters in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, buying things for dinner.

“They make a bunch of products — spice nuts, beef jerky — under their own label. And I remember thinking it was strange that in today’s world, their Web site was just a map to their store,” Mr. Kanarick said. “No products. Nothing.”

He asked the store’s owner why he did not sell his products online. “He said he wasn’t in the business of putting his food in a box and sending it to customers. I thought, here’s an opportunity,” said Mr. Kanarick, who lives in Manhattan. “To a certain extent it was a selfish thing for me. I wanted to get on the Web to buy this stuff and not necessarily have to come to Brooklyn for it.”

So in February 2012, he started New York Mouth, with a selection of specialty foods from the New York region. Starting regionally allowed him to make mistakes on a small scale. Among the many things he learned was how to pack chips and pickles in the same box so the pickles do not crush the chips. In May, the site had its national debut, and Mr. Kanarick hopes to tap a growing desire of consumers nationwide for artisanal and specialty foods.

Choosing what is sold on Mouth is a crucial aspect of the business, he said. The selection process includes weekly tastings with employees and guests like food writers and chefs. The products must be made by small vendors and generally not widely distributed. And they have to have a good story.

“The food might be made from a family recipe, or maybe they use 400-year-old equipment or harvest the mustard seeds from their own garden,” Mr. Kanarick said. “Part of the joy of indie food is understanding the story behind what you’re buying.”

Employees: Nine

Location: Brooklyn

Pitch: Many small brands of specialty food products are only available locally. Mouth takes those products to consumers everywhere, and in turn helps small brands stay in business.

The site also gives the story of each product and the maker behind it, like that of Rhonda Kave. She is the owner of Roni-Sue Chocolates in the Essex Street Market in Manhattan, and was one of the first merchants on Mouth’s Web site.

The core of her business is handmade chocolates, but she has been making more of a push to sell shelf-stable products like those featured on Mouth, which include bacon caramel popcorn and chili lime lollipops. “There’s no question there’s a collateral sales increase from being on the site,” Ms. Kave said. “People try one product and then come back to our site and say, ‘Wow, there are all these other products, too.’ We absolutely have more people in the store, too.”

Traction: Mouth now has products from 200 vendors across 30 states. It offers about 700 individual products and 50 prepackaged gifts, some of which change seasonally.

Challenges: Although Mr. Kanarick was a co-founder of the digital marketing firm Razorfish and part of a small team in 1994 that created what is widely accepted as the Internet’s first banner ad, he faces a challenge in marketing his own business. Mr. Kanarick is experimenting with display ads and is doing “extremely small tests” with Google AdWords and Facebook advertising.

“We are doing some beta tests of marketing ideas, ad copy and design,” he said, “but we have yet to invest a significant amount of time or energy in public relations or marketing. If I spend money on marketing, I don’t get it back within a week or two. It’s a longer play, so I need investment money to do that.”

Revenue: Mouth buys products wholesale and then sets a retail price. The markup on products is comparable to what a specialty food retailer’s markup would be, or about 30 to 50 percent. Mr. Kanarick said revenue was more than $1 million a year. Year-over-year sales are up 300 percent.

In setting up the business model, Mr. Kanarick studied different styles, like that of Etsy, the online craft marketplace where vendors sell on the site, but Etsy does not own any of the merchandise. “We don’t think people buy food the way they buy things on Etsy,” he said. “People shopping on Mouth might buy 8, 10 or 12 things at the same time. We wanted one shipping charge for a variety of products that come in one box.”

Financing: The initial round was for less than half a million dollars. Mouth is in the midst of its second round, with a goal of raising $1 million to $2 million.

What’s Next: After the next round of financing, Mr. Kanarick plans to do more marketing. He intends to expand the product selection, tripling the amount Mouth carries. The site will also add more information about the makers behind the products, including how-to videos.

“We’ll have more content about how to use the products,” he said. “Like what to do with the brine after you’ve eaten the pickles.”

You can follow Eilene Zimmerman on Twitter.