The Exchanges

Q it's a growing tribe of people, right? Um, and, and again, I mean, especially talking, talking about women, you know, in their mid forties and over, uh, both women and men, but particularly talking about women now, we know that there's increasing evidence that they need to be consuming a lot more protein. How would you sort of suggest, Chrissy, How should she be thinking about getting this out there?

A I would say one, you need to get to the U S market at some point. It's just so massive. Um, and then I think if your product's really good, I would just get it into the hands of the right people and I would start small. So whether that's like mom bloggers, like, like find niche groups, um, And get your brand and yourself in front of them and get into these communities. And if you have a good product, people will repeat and then they will, they not only will repeat, they will share about it. So you want like viral word of mouth. That's the best use of, of time and resources. Um, and then I think like on your products, like the protein thing. So I look at, you know, um, AG one. So What they did was like an all in one. So if you have an opportunity to do like an all in one with protein and some of these other benefits, I think that would be a great way because I think with your consumer, they're like facing a problem. You have the solution. And if you can make it really, really simple, that's like a very valuable thing. Cause if I'm have to take a protein shake and then I have to take your supplement or other things, that's a lot of work. So streamlining into one thing can be a real value unlock that could be value.

AI assessment note: “get it into the hands of the right people and I would start small.”

Q He's trying to figure out, right. Amazon, obviously great channel because it's Amazon, but the margins are lower. What are your thoughts, Peter?

A Yeah. So this is a common issue. We have it at David of how do these channels coexist? How do we optimize them? And Amazon's like a force of nature you can't avoid. So it's not, it should never be a question. Are we on Amazon or not? I think, um, it should be, how do we optimize it? And I think you're right. You do want to have a direct website with relationships, your customers and offer different things. So, so one way to think about it is, all right, Amazon is like for volume, like, right. It's like your, your hero skews there. It's gotta be priced right. But like, how do you differentiate and how do you create value on your own website to bring Customers there. So that could be through bundling. It could be through promotion. It could be through education. Um, but I would look at it as like a product strategy across the different channels, but I, I just don't Amazon's everything. It's there's, it's such a powerful, powerful e-commerce platform. You want to lean into it and, and, um, you don't want to run away from it.

AI assessment note: “one way to think about it is, all right, Amazon is like for volume”

Q Got it. All right, Peter, I want to bring you in here. Messaging is our challenge. I don't know if that's the main challenge here, but what do you think? I mean, again, badass cocktail mixers doesn't tell me anything. It's fun, but it doesn't tell me anything.

A So like your positioning and communication is a reaction to the competitive landscape. Um, it can never be done in isolation. Yeah, like I think badass cocktails is like a fun thing, but it's not a very telegraphic, it doesn't like really communicate, and that one, one of my, um, sort of design principles, it's a bit crude, but I think it's a very good approach to packaging design, is like, the consumers are stupid and lazy. Uh, stupid in the sense that they don't really care that much, The brand is supposed to make it easy for them. And then lazy in the sense they're not going to like look at your package and like read the third point and then flip it over and read the story. So, so question for you, if you're to boil down the value in a one statement, what is it?

AI assessment note: “badass cocktails is like a fun thing, but it's not a very telegraphic”

Q Clearness. So what, what, what was the job that you, that you did?

A So I had a bunch of internships at different fruit processing plants, and so what they do is they take, like say apples, and then they will press them, and they turn it into like different products. So juice concentrate, industrial products, so that like juice companies like Mott's would buy and put into their product. And so, my father was able to give me an opportunity at Mandi Foods, which was in Belgium, um, and they're a red fruit processor, so red fruits are, um, strawberries, raspberries, and I wanted to learn the business, right? Just learn to prepare me for the family business, and, and so I graduated in May, and like, I had one week off, and then the next Friday I was on a plane with a suitcase to go to Belgium to go and move into an apartment to start Monday.

AI assessment note: “I had a bunch of internships at different fruit processing plants”

Q And, and what did you guys do? Like, what was the first thing you did? Like, you bought a bunch of ingredients, and you, like, got a Vitamix, and you just threw it in there and blended it up? Like, how did you start to even make prototypes?

A So first was, we went to Whole Foods and just toured the market. On that tour, we're like, let's start playing around with ingredients. And so we always had the vision for, like, what the product would be like. So, like, a real, like, The jargony term is like a minimal ingredient fruit, nut, protein bar. And the general like principle or philosophy around the product was like we, whatever part of the like formula we needed, we wanted to make sure the ingredients were the best possible. And so you think about like binders, like honey or tapioca syrup, like we wanted the best binder possible. And so we went with dates. It's a fruit. It's real food. And then when you think about protein, you can do soy or whey or these other things.

AI assessment note: “first was, we went to Whole Foods and just toured the market.”

Q Were you embarrassed by your ability at school, even in junior high and high school?

A Yes, for sure. I mean, from, I would say this, like, from second grade to 22, I just thought I was, like, not successful. Because you think about today in our society, like, when you're 12 years old, or 16, and even in high school and college, your performance or success is determined based on your marks Sure. I mean, I was a D student, like, and I tried. I worked really hard. Like, I was, to get D's, I, like, had to climb a hill with an airplane on my back. So, it was great conditioning for me to kind of go on and survive, and I think about some of the early days of our expert in particular, like, with Jared, it was, like, survival.

AI assessment note: “Yes, for sure. I mean, from, I would say this, like, from second grade”