Nov 25, 2024 · 1h 7m · how-i-built-this
Noosa Yoghurt: Koel Thomae
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In this episode of How I Built This, host Guy Raz interviews Koel Thomae on how an accidental taste of Australian passion fruit yogurt inspired her to partner with a Colorado dairy farmer, navigate high-stakes retail and manufacturing hurdles, and build Noosa Yoghurt into a national consumer brand.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 38.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 1.4 Guy pushing back 1.4
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 33:30 Koel stands firm against Whole Foods packaging objections
Koel rejects the buyer's criticism of the unconventional eight-ounce tub, refusing to redesign packaging and insisting they focus on product taste and demo commitments.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 53:00 Guy probes governance breakdown among founding partnersGuy directly challenges why the three founding entities never established clear decision-making authority or an independent board before scaling.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 16:25 Koel explains the regulatory hurdle of the PMOKoel educates the host on the stringent dairy regulations imposed by the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance that almost derailed the business before launch.
Guy holds their own ▶ 3:30 Guy contextualizes Boulder's natural food corporate ecosystemGuy displays deep industry knowledge by mapping out major natural food enterprises like Hain Celestial and White Wave that seeded Boulder's entrepreneurial cluster.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koel's Boulder IT Background and Move to Izzy Beverage | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Guy Raz demonstrates strong sector knowledge by identifying Boulder as a food innovation hub anchored by Hain Celestial and White Wave. Koel agrees and elaborates on how she transitioned from IT into Izzy Beverage. | |
| Discovering Queensland Yoghurt in Australia | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Koel describes discovering Queensland Yoghurt in Australia and cold-calling the founder. Guy acts as an attentive listener facilitating the narrative arc. | |
| The Self-Directed Yogurt PhD in Boulder | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Guy playfully challenges expat food nostalgia with an analogy about Bulgarian cucumbers, prompting Koel to defend her obsession with Australian yogurt texture and honey infusion. | |
| Securing a Handshake Licensing Agreement in Australia | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Guy asks whether licensing the recipe was strictly necessary or if it could have been reverse-engineered in a kitchen. Koel explains why she preferred an official licensing partnership. | |
| Regulatory Realities and the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Koel details her encounter with the state health inspector and the steep learning curve of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO). | |
| Forming a Partnership with Morning Fresh Dairy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Koel recounts finding Morning Fresh Dairy through a flyer and bringing bootlegged frozen yogurt samples to Rob Graves to convince him to co-manufacture. | |
| Capitalization, Equity Structuring, and Branding Noosa | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Guy and Koel unpack the equity structure (50/25/25) and startup capital requirements. Guy jokes about the Australian spelling of yogurt with an 'h'. | |
| Mid-Episode Break: Retail Hurdles Teaser | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Koel describes the improvised process of fermenting yogurt in 10-gallon Home Depot buckets to achieve rapid cooling, explaining the regulatory pushback it caused. | |
| Defending the Clear Eight-Ounce Packaging at Whole Foods | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | Koel details pushing past Whole Foods buyers who hated the wide eight-ounce tub by insisting they taste the product and promising aggressive in-store demos. | |
| Whole Foods Launch and Grassroots Farmers Market Sampling | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Koel explains building grassroots awareness by sampling store clerks and managing the Boulder Farmers Market booth, catching the attention of regional buyers. | |
| The ShopRite Distribution Debacle | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Koel recounts the disastrous ShopRite expansion that cost over $100k in slotting fees and spoils. Guy connects this to core retail principles of inventory control and cash flow management. | |
| Mid-Episode Break: Internal Tensions Teaser | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Koel discusses stealth buyers from Target at Expo West and managing short 45-day shelf-life constraints amid rapid retail scaling. | |
| Partner Misalignment, knockoffs, and Operational Strain | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Guy presses Koel on why the partners never set up formal governance or assigned a tie-breaking decision-maker. Koel admits to initial naivety and describes growing strategic disputes. | |
| Private Equity Recapitalization with Advent International | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Koel explains seeking a private equity recapitalization with Advent International to professionalize management and resolve partner misalignment. | |
| Sovos Brands Merger, Campbell's Exit, and Life After Noosa | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Discussion of the Sovos Brands combination, eventual Campbell acquisition, and Koel's step back from yogurt to focus on family and new interests. | |
| Reflections on Luck, Market Timing, and Work Ethic | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Standard closing reflection on luck versus grit. Koel credits perfect timing riding the Greek yogurt wave alongside relentless operational work. |
Statements from this episode (22)
Raz: Boulder Developed as a Food Hub Largely Due to Hain Celestial
“Boulder was and is an IT hub but it also was and is a food hub, I think in part, in large part, because of Hain, Hain Celestial, which I think is based there, and kind of started there, I think.”
Thomae: Emerging Greek Yogurts Did Not Taste as Good as Queensland Yogurt
“Yeah, they were just coming onto the market, so I could see that there was a trend happening with Greek, but it, to me, it didn't taste as good as Queensland yogurt.”
Thomae: Initial vision for Noosa was a local Colorado brand, not national
“And again, my vision wasn't to create this national brand. I just thought I could have this really cool Colorado-based company, and then I selfishly get to eat it more than once a year.”
Thomae: Queensland Yogurt agreed to licensing and investment on a handshake
“They essentially said, look, yeah, we think there is an opportunity in the U.S., so We'd happily license to you. We'd want to invest in the business, and we'd be happy to bring, like, a yogurt maker over and just help with the initial startup of the business. …”
Mathewson family licensed their yogurt recipe to Noosa for one dollar
“The Australian family was willing to do a pretty, pretty minor lease on the product. Basically it was a dollar license agreement. Because they wanted to be investors.”
Noosa equity was split 50% Mathewson, 25% Graves, and 25% Thomae
“It was a half, a quarter. It's because the Mathewson family put in a larger share of money.”
A $200K payout from an early Izze investment helped fund SoulCycle
“I know that Izzy, a check from Izzy, also helped to finance the start of SoulCycle. We did that episode years ago, and I know one of the founders of SoulCycle was an early investor in Izzy, and they got a 200,000 dollar check, and that helped to finance SoulCy…”
Thomae: Noosa manufactured yogurt in 10-gallon buckets for over a year
“I mean, we were making it in 10 gallon buckets for over a year, which Gave the state health inspector a lot of heartache.”
Thomae: Stock clear containers were unavailable in standard yogurt sizes
“So, you know, at that point, most yogurt was sort of between 5.3 to six ounces. And there was nothing. There was nothing available in stock packaging. In those sizes.”
Thomae: No yogurt brands used transparent packaging when Noosa launched
“And nobody on the shelf at that point in time was doing transparent packaging.”
Noosa produced yogurt with only 28 days of shelf life in 2010
“At that point, we were producing the product with about 28 days of shelf life which is short.”
ShopRite deferred Noosa's $100k slotting fees into quarterly billing
“So ShopRite says we're going to, instead of charging you A 100,000 dollars out of the gates. We'll bill it quarterly.”
Thomae: ShopRite is one of the hardest retailers to work with
“Come to learn that ShopRite is probably one of the hardest operationally retailers to work with. Like, if you miss their delivery window by, like, five minutes, they'll refuse you, and then you have to reschedule.”
Koel Thomae vows never to start another perishable food company
“I will never start a perishable food company again.”
Target expanded Noosa into 1,000 additional stores after four-month test
“Well, I mean, so we launched, there was probably like mid-year that we launched in Supertarget. They came back four months later and expanded us into a thousand stores, a thousand more stores.”
Noosa Yoghurt reached profitability and nearly $20M in revenue by end of 2012
“I mean, we were profitable at end of 20 12. We were close to a twenty million dollar business.”
Dannon, Hain Celestial, and Kroger launched six Noosa copycats between 2012–2014
“So within, I would say, sort of that, 20 12 to 20 14 time frame, there was probably six knockoffs that came into the market from Dannon, from Hain Celestial to even Kroger doing a private label version of Noosa.”
Thomae: Noosa Founders Rolled Over Significant Minority Stakes in Advent Deal
“We rolled over a pretty significant minority ownership in the business that, you know, that was sort of how the deal was structured.”
Thomae preferred Advent-backed professional era over founding era due to culture
“So I sort of see these two very distinct chapters that I was involved with at Noosa was sort of like the Wild West chapter, and then our professional chapter, which we, I think we created an amazing internal culture, and I had an absolute blast in sort of that…”
Thomae: Greek yogurt's 2008 surge reinvigorated the market, enabling Noosa's timing
“2008 and sort of seeing this emerging trend of Greek yogurt. And in, in some ways I actually think we thought we had missed the boat. Ultimately we timed it just perfectly because it just reinvigorated the category Greek yogurt. And we got to ride that wave wi…”
Guy Raz: Noosa Dropped Passion Fruit From Its 18-Flavor Lineup
“By the way, the company did eventually get around to launching a passion fruit yogurt, the flavor that inspired the whole thing. But today, out of the 18 different Noosa flavors, including cinnamon roll and pomegranate and tart cherry, passion fruit has sadly …”