Stay ConnectedBrand Builder brings you the people, stories, and lessons learned from the most innovative brands in the world. Presented by SnackNation. Hosted by Sean Kelly, Jordan Cohen, and Jeff Murphy.
Similar to How I Built This, The Dave Ramsey Show, and Seeking Wisdom by Drift.
This week on Brand Builder we have Barry Turner, the founder of Lenny and Larry's.
Barry is a bit of a Renaissance man - he's a former competitive bodybuilder and American Gladiator, turned protein cookie pioneer. He helped create the baked nutrition category back in 1993 when he and his then partner asked, "Why can't we put the protein in this chicken breast… into that muffin?"
Today, the Lenny and Larry's effect is felt across the natural foods space. Protein-infused snacks are everywhere as consumers are beginning to understand the importance of high-quality protein to their overall health and nutrition.
Barry and the brand's EVP Aaron Croutch joined us in the Brand Builder studio to talk about the origins of the protein cookie, why they never took on debt or raised capital, and their recent push to make Lenny and Larry's a true consumer brand.
As Barry puts it, it's just your typical 25-year overnight success story.
What comes to mind when someone says the words "frozen food"?
Probably dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, ice cream, or the long forgotten TV dinner hanging out in the back of your freezer.
And that's the problem. What most people don't know is that freezing food - particularly produce - has a ton of health and nutrition advantages. For example, did you know that blueberries have 200% more vitamin C when frozen versus fresh after 3 days. Or that spinach has 25% more vitamin E after 3 days when its frozen? Bonkers.
Rachel Drori is here to change all that. Rachel is the founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, a company that delivers single-serve cups of frozen ingredients (organic, whole ingredients and superfoods, with no preservatives or added sweeteners) that can be turned into crave-worthy eats in just seconds. She and the team at Daily Harvest are leading a frozen revolution, and making the case that frozen might be the ultimate way to provide convenience without nutritional compromise.
Rachel joins us to talk about her customer-centric brand philosophy, a record setting series B fundraise, and getting people to forget about those dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
This week on Brand Builder we talk to Lisa Curtis, the founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli, the company that is taking moringa mainstream.
What's moringa? Only the next great superfood, with a leaf more nutrient-dense than kale.
Kuli Kuli has been featured in more than 350 national publications and around 10 national broadcasts - including MSNBC and Good Morning America - all without hiring a PR firm or writing a single press release.
In this episode, SnackNation CEO Sean Kelly talks to Lisa to learn the DIY tactics they've used to attract serious media attention. Plus there are spirit animals, a Peace Corps mission, a terrorist attack, a raging wildfire - and a truly remarkable brand success story.
The next time an ROI-obsessed executive or board member questions why you're so heavily invested in something "fuzzy" like brand, throw this quote back at them:
"We were able to get to $40M, no marketing spend."
That's Rosie O'Neill, the co-founder and co-CEO of Sugarfina, and our guest on this week's Brand Builder.
You may have seen Sugarfina at an upscale mall or a Nordstrom near you - they're a luxury candy boutique for grown-ups that brings a fresh and fashionable approach to confections, and a true disruptor in the $200B confections industry.
In this conversation with SnackNation CEO Sean Kelly, Rosie credits their emotionally resonant brand for helping make them a word-of-mouth sensation. Plus, Rosie explains why Sugarfina is bullish on retail when most companies balk at brick and mortar.
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
"Millennials are the modern hippies. They got to Coachella and want the world to be a better place - that was the insight."
That's Livio Bisterzo, the CEO of Green Park Brands, the brand studio behind the insanely popular puffed snack Hippeas. This week, we talk to Livio about taking a consumer-oriented, Big CPG approach to building startup brands. Plus, he fills us in on the unintended consequences of launching in Starbucks, why he's bullish on billboards, and of course, why he believes Millennials are the hippies of today.
A few years ago, "incubation" wasn't a term you really heard in CPG at all.
That's definitely changed. Whether it's Big CPG or a venture capital firm, the big strategics are trying to get closer to that early stage innovation, and incubation is one way to do that. The list of brands finding success within the incubator model seems to be growing exponentially.
But many - if not most - of the food incubators we see today are modeled after something like TechStars: the incubator provides mentorship, funding, a community, all in exchange for an equity stake in the company. Sometimes that's a great arrangement for founders. But not always. In fact, many of these models are anything but "founder friendly."
Chobani has come around and turned this model on its head.
This week we have Jackie Miller, the former Director of the Chobani Incubator, which is taking a totally a radical approach. They provide a sizeable grant to the brands in their program - with absolutely no strings attached. They provide community, mentorship, all the resources you'd expect and more, but they don't don't ask for any equity in return.
How is this possible? It all comes down to Chobani's values, and founder Hamdi Ulukaya's belief that doing good is good business.
In this episode, Jackie walks us through the founding of the Chobani Incubator, and explains how your brand can gain acceptance to their highly selective program.
One quick programming note - since recording the podcast, Jackie has moved on from Chobani. While she's off on another mission-driven adventure, we all agreed that the content is still super relevant and valuable.
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
This week on Brand Builder we speak to someone who claims to have discovered the world's healthiest nut.
And by the looks of it, he's on to something.
Darin Olien is widely recognized as an authority on plant–based nutrition, supplement formulation, and elite performance programs. He's also a global superfood hunter, and he and the team at Barukas are on a mission to bring the obscure baru nut to the masses.
A quick look at the numbers and you can see why Darin and the team are bullish on baru. Whether you're talking calories, protein, antioxidants, fiber, or micronutrients - Barukas leads the pack in the nut category. And there's the taste - notes of coffee, chocolate, and just buttery, nutty goodness.
The baru nut isn't cultivated. It grows wild in the Brazilian Cerrado (basically the South American savannah), which makes sustainably sourcing it a big challenge. But it's a challenge that Darin and the team have taken on with gusto.
So how has the Baru nut, a source of nutrition for indigenous tribes for millennia, remained a secret for so long? And why did it take a global superfood hunter like Darin Olien to begin to bring this to the rest of the planet?
We dig in with Darin to find out.
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
When people in the food industry meet Robyn O'Brien for the first time, they often remark, "Funny, you don't look like one of them."
"One of them," presumably being the stereotypical food or environmental activist.
And in a way, they're right. Robyn is a self-described "conservative Texas mom" raised in a military family, and admittedly, the last person you'd expect to be leading a crusade to reform the food industry. Yet she is at the forefront of a movement to fundamentally rethink what goes into our nation's food supply.
As a financial analyst in the food industry, Robyn began to undercover undeniable links in the chemical pesticides, GMOs, and antibiotics in our food and troubling health trends like the explosion of childhood food allergies.
Through her writing and her now Famous TEDx Talk, Robyn triggered an allergic reaction in the food industry when she dared to asked: "Are we allergic to food or what's been done to it?" Today, she is a sought-after advisor and speaker, inspiring organizations and individuals to engage in the "New Food Economy."
Robyn was a delight to interview, and as usual, the conversation took some unexpected turns. What we found most fascinating was Robyn's insight into her journey from financial analyst to food warrior. Fear, she says, was the one thing holding her back, but how leading with love (something she learned from her mother as a child) has given her the courage and resolve to bring these important issues to light.
Key Takeaways
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Recommended Reading
Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
This week on the podcast we have Sisun Lee, the CEO and founder of Morning Recovery.
Using functional ingredients that have been widely used by South Korean revelers for years, Morning Recovery takes the sting out of a night of heavy drinking so that you can do more the next day. The product launched on Indiegogo and immediately resonated with consumers, hitting 1000% of its crowdfunding goal and selling more than a million dollars in the first three months.
And that's not all. While the company is barely a year old, Sisun and the team have accomplished the following:
The path to Morning Recovery was anything but straight for Sisun, who began his career as a software engineer at places like Tesla, Uber, and Facebook. Sisun tells us how he ended up the savior of countless partiers across the world, while interviewer (and SnackNation CEO) Sean Kelly teases out the lessons learned along the way.
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
"Waste isn't waste until you waste it."
Our guest this week claims to have discovered the most sustainable superfood on earth - and it's something that most manufacturers were simply throwing away.
This week we have an in-depth conversation with Kaitlin Mogentale (MOJ-en-tail), founder and CEO of Pulp Pantry.
Pulp Pantry make innovative, totally delicious snacks out of pulp - a byproduct from commercial juiceries that usually just gets thrown in landfills. They're creating a healthy, delicious, sustainable product that's helping solve some of our most pressing healthy and environmental challenges.
And if that were all that the brand was about, that would still be pretty cool. But there's so much more.
This was an awesome conversation and great story full of challenges and valuable lessons. We go over everything from what it's like to bootstrap a business, why Pulp Pantry chose to work with a food accelerator, and the values that drive the brand.
At the heart of it all is this idea of Food Justice, something that Katilin studied as a Environmental Studies major at USC. It's a driving force behind both the product development and the brand messages.
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Have an idea for the show? Drop us a line! Brandbuilder@snacknation.com.Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
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