Startup CPG’s Post

Since the beginning, our goal at SkinnyDipped has been to create delicious products that are low in sugar, made with real ingredients, and are blood-sugar friendly.   Our CEO and co-founder, Breezy Griffith, recently spoke with Modern Retail about the critical role of simplicity and authenticity in today’s consumer market and how it’s informed our new look.  "Health concerns about sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners means people are reconsidering returning to regular sugar in moderation. She said the brand gained a following of pre and diabetic people due to its low-sugar recipes, who help inform future product launches. The new SkinnyDipped packaging will also feature the sugar and plant protein content more prominently, along with the slogan “snack with no strings attached.” See below to read the full article #skinnydipped #lowsugar #diabeticfriendly #womenfounded #betterforyou

To all the buyers currently in review for our products for 2025: Thank you so much for taking the time to try our new innovations. We know how many products get sent your way this time of year, it can be quite overwhelming. The decision to buy a product and take on a new brand for your store is exciting and nervous. It’s not easy to pick one over another sometimes and it can be stressful for a variety of reasons. We count on you to diversify the grocery shelves for every day consumers so they have options for healthier and better tasting foods. Startups are what change the landscape and without you it wouldn’t be possible. Without you, brands like ours wouldn’t be able to delight consumers and shape the future of grocery. Without you consumers wouldn’t have new and exciting products to share with their families. Without you, consumers would have fewer options to choose from. You are important to us and all entrepreneurs working to feed America. So whether we make on shelves this year or another year, thank you for giving us a chance. I know the decision isn’t easy and we appreciate you. #kroger #meijer #wholefoods #sprouts #giant #wegmans #publix #albertsons #heb #harristeeter #gianteagle #hyvee #reasors

Sometimes, inspiration strikes at the most unexpected moments. For Bonvie, it was a midnight snack that changed everything. Here's the story of how a late-night craving led to the birth of our company🌱 One night, I found myself rummaging through the kitchen, craving something delicious yet healthy. The usual options felt unsatisfying, and I realized there was a gap in the market for tasty, nutritious snacks. That’s when the idea for Bonvie was born.☘️💥 With a mission🚀 to create snacks that are both enjoyable and guilt-free, we embarked on a journey to develop innovative products that satisfy cravings without compromising on health. From that midnight moment, Bonvie has grown into a brand dedicated to offering unique and wholesome snacking experiences.💫✨ This moment of inspiration reminds us that great ideas can come from anywhere, even during a simple search for a midnight treat.🤩🔥 Bonvie Snacks Nestlé PepsiCo General Mills Kellogg Company The Coca-Cola Company Unilever Danone Mondelēz International Conagra Brands Hormel Foods Lifeway Foods, Inc. SunOpta #Entrepreneurship #BusinessInspiration #HealthySnacking #FounderStory #BonvieJourney #Innovation

Ever get 15,000 steps 👣 per day for 2 days straight?  It was my first time at Expo West when I wasn’t exhibiting and it was glorious! 🙏 I actually got to walk the booths at my pace, talk to founders and business leaders, try everything I wanted to, and identify some potential opportunities for Palm Venture Studios.  Overall, there is tremendous oversaturation in many categories (functional bevs, jerky, salsa, chocolate, bars, hydration, etc.) and most of these brands won’t make it. 😢  I cannot share my full list, but I will share 9 brands who were truly differentiated, run very well, and were quite impressive in technology, taste, and more, including: 1) Pan’s Mushroom Jerky, formerly featured on Shark Tank, great family recipe - easily the best mushroom jerky out there. 2) MyFOREST Foods mushroom bacon won a NEXTY award and you would see why if you tried it. 3) Oobli had the most interesting protein - one that is actually sweet!  Only found near the equator, this plant was identified by Oobli and they did tons of R&D on it, then decided to create a brand (teas, now chocolate). 4) Seltz water activated vitamins - launched in LatAm and coming to the US with 4 flavors that each have functional benefits. 5) Ghetto Gastro healthy version of pop-tarts were the coolest in terms of branding/style and tasted good. 6) Tea Drops - cleaner than bagged tea, easier than loose leaf. 7) Both Burger - don’t want to be vegan, but want to be healthier?  These guys make a burger that is half beef, half veggie. 8) Fresh Blends - self-cleaning smoothie vending machine - great in person, nice video on their site. 9) Mezcla - bar category is saturated, but this one is low in sugar, has unique flavors, and is really good. I’m sure I will get a few comments on brands I missed, so feel free to hmu. 📱 Looking forward to more shows in the future as the food/bev/nutrition space continues to evolve. 🚀

Shout out to pharmacy entrepreneurs Kun Yang and Mohammed Hassoun, Pharm.D., for all their hard work in getting to this point! I had the pleasure of interviewing Kun on the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast (Episode 289 - link in the comments below), where he discussed the experience of being on Shark Tank and the skills he has had to acquire as an entrepreneur leading a growing company. Pricklee is the preferred beverage at Your Financial Pharmacist HQ, where Timothy Baker, CFP®, RICP®, RLP®, and I frequently crack open a can 😀 #pharmacist #pharmacy #entrepreneurship

On Friday, Henri found my first tradeshow badge when I/Whoa Dough attended #noshlive in the Winter of 2019. This brought back a flood of memories… Here’s a couple things that come to mind 🤯 ✔️Pre COVID ✔️Whoa Dough’s initial concept bars in 2019 were over 240 calories, nut based and full of honey 🍯 Tasted great for 14 days then soured 🤢 ✔️Your family and friend are not your customers, they are you biggest cheerleaders 📣 ✔️In Janurary 2021, we official launched in market with a Gluten Free, Vegan, Non-GMO Cookie Dough Snack Bar 🎆 ✔️Listen to customer feedback👂That’s why we launched a RTB 🍪 ✔️There’s so much work that goes into building a business before anyone sees it👀 ✔️It’s ironic that the event was sponsored by Mondelēz International #snackfutures and a few years later we’d be accepted into the #colab program 🙏 ✔️A small but mighty #team wins the day! ✔️Building a business is hardwork and we are just getting started 💪 #entrepreneurialjourney #tradeshows #tradeshowbooths #nosh #noshlive #grind #entreprenership #entrepreneurs #customers #feedback #future #inspiration #innovation #design #manufacturing #startups #smallbusiness #food #health #betterforyou #business #retailnews #grocery #grocerystores #foodandbeverage #foodanddrink #news #pr #strategy #creativity #sales #motivation #cpg #cpgindustry #glutenfree #vegan #snacks #smartsnacking #schools #smartsnackapproved #cookiedough #bars #snacking #growth #brand #branding #wellness #mondwy #travel #economics #market #marketing

I often ask myself, how many challenges must an entrepreneur resolve before launching their product to the market? While the answers may vary depending on the characteristics of the product, for us, the challenges were numerous, and the timeline has stretched over a long three years. Our story began in September 2021, when we first tested the original recipe from my undergraduate capstone project. Working with a new key ingredient—organic maple syrup—proved difficult due to its high water content and low burning point. Over the past three years, we worked with two co-packers. The first co-packer, in 2022, didn’t prioritize product quality, and after a year of struggling to achieve the right texture, we parted ways. Fortunately, we found a second local co-packer who believed in our product, and our first R&D batch was successful by the end of last year. However, just as we were ready to begin official production, they decided to relocate their facility in another state and revoked their organic certifications. Faced with a tough decision, we chose to build our own organic popcorn factory earlier this year. After half a year of relentless research and securing our organic certifications, our factory officially began production last week. Today, we sent out our first batch of Maple Pop! to Pod Foods, preparing for an exciting upcoming launch at one of the nation’s largest natural grocery chains. 🌱 While our startup journey has been neither easy nor quick, we are deeply grateful for the countless hands that have helped us overcome our challenges. My sincere thanks to the entire Pod Foods team for your passion and dedication in supporting emerging CPG brands! A special shoutout to Dan Rabens, Peter Gialantzis, Matthew Noia, Matthew Bowen, Mark Rider and Drew Schwartz for making countless positive contributions to the success of startups like ours. Soon, #MaplePop! and #QuinoWow! from Better Together Foods will be in your neighborhood markets—because who doesn’t love healthy, tasty, organic sweet treats? 😋🍁 #emergingbrands #organicsnacks #healthyfoods #organicpoporns

I stumbled upon a thought-provoking post by John Foraker, CEO of Once Upon a Farm and former CEO of Annie's, that really hit home. 🎯 It’s a powerful reminder that the biggest bets require not just vision but forward-thinking and strategic patience. As John aptly put it, "The signs were certainly there, if you looked FORWARD rather than at today," which I admit can be challenging amidst the pressures of our annual budget cycles. Many of us have faced those nail-biting decisions, just like the category expansion at Annie's. As leaders, it's crucial we rise above the minutiae and stay true to our visionary selves, even when the short-term pressures are shouting louder. That's often when the magic happens. 🚀 Cheers to nailing the present, keeping our sights on the future, and inspiring our organizations to chase those big bets. 🌟

Dive into the TiNDLE Foods journey with a new report from Green Queen Media . In less than 4 years from the very first day of the company (April 2020, during COVID lockdown): -Launched in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland and other smaller markets - developing distribution and channels; -Developed over 20 variations of chicken products for different channels and markets, leveraging the same core technology and product to serve different consumer needs. -Went through very high macro ups (record liquidity and massive category growth) and downs (high interest rates and category adjustments) readjusting the business to ensure long runway and financially sound unit exonomics while continuing organic growth; -Incubated and Acquired early stage non-dairy start up opening new potential futures avenues for growth The journey of a lifetime that is only at its beginning, poised to stablish itself as a global leader as the company navigates the troubled macro with its healthy balance sheet and solid foundations.

In 2010, Annie's Inc. almost extended our brand into pouched shelf-stable baby food, as part of a broader idea in the baby aisle. We decided not to do it. We were already in 10 distinct categories with HH pen of just 2.3% & just over $100MM in revenues. Too many categories at our size, LOL (topic for another post). But baby was VERY interesting and it was a tough call. Whether we'd have been successful or not is debatable. But for me what is most memorable about this episode is the lesson I learned about category expansion assessment. At the time, organic was just 10% of the category and pouches were a just emerging format at <1%. We figured we'd play there first & with these #'s our takeaway was that the category opportunity was too small. This was the major factor in our deciding to pass. What we missed was where the consumer/category puck was going and why. Today organic is >45% of the puree category & is dominated by pouch format. We missed a MAJOR category disruption wave that led to very lucrative 2013 M&A transactions for #emergingbrands friends Shazi Visram at Happy Family Brands (Nurture Inc), Neil Grimmer at Plum Organics, and Paul Lindley OBE at Ella's Kitchen. When evaluating category expansion, spend the most time on where the category is going and why it should go there for consumers, more than on the current category state. What disruption will your brand bring to that needed wave of growth and why? When I was assessing investing with Ari Raz & Cassandra Curtis in Once Upon a Farm in 2015, and then joining it in 2017, it was clear that refrigerated format baby food should be a huge category but it was basically zero. Up to half of potential buyers were actually opting out of the baby food category almost entirely & making their own fresh/refrigerated product at home. The signs were certainly there, if you looked FORWARD rather than at today. Didn't make the same mistake twice. PS historical fun fact, I wanted to buy Happy into public Annie's but Danone beat me to it, had much admiration for what the Happy team had done and the future potential of it.