Assertion Contradicted
Vincent Kitirattragarn claims no keto bars existed on the market in 2019
“At the time, there were no keto bars on the market. We're like, wow, this is such a big opportunity.”
Insight
Trader Joe's private-label coconut chips actually helped educate Dang Foods' consumers
“Trader Joe's also came out with a coconut chip around the same time we did, which I thought was bad because I was like, I thought we were going to be the first. But it turned out later that it was actually a good thing because Trader Joe's stays in Trader Joe'…”
Insight
In retail grocery, a brand's packaging is effectively the product itself
“When you're in the store, you have less than a second to grab someone's attention. I think the best way to do that is to create a good package. And there's a saying that your package is your product. It's not what you sell in the bag, it's the bag itself, beca…”
Insight
A packaged food brand needs $500,000 in sales per field representative
“I think, you know, hiring a field team, first off, people are expensive, right? So each person maybe 70,000 dollars, right, in salary. And that's in, you know, that payroll, you have to basically sell half a million in order to get that 70 K contribution that …”
Insight
Snack consumers prefer unadulterated coconut products over complex flavored varieties
“We kind of learned that people kind of want a less adulterated coconut. Kind of similar with coconut water, like, they don't want flavored coconut water, they just want coconut water.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dang Foods' freight costs jumped from 5% to 30% of COGS
“Because two of our three product lines are imported from Thailand. And so when your cost of goods, the freight, you know, goes from five percent to 30% that's a big increase.”
Disclosure
Dang Foods pitched up to 72 potential investors during financial distress
“We went to, I want to say five or six dozen potential investors.”
Disclosure
Dang Foods held acquisition talks with nearly 100 brands
“And, you know, we had talked with probably another, you know, close to a hundred brands.”
Disclosure
Dang Foods raised over $10 million before its distress sale
“Yeah, so the, you know, we had raised a little above ten million, and the goal was, you know, to try to make them whole, or have that Equity roll over into another entity.”
Disclosure
Vincent Kitirattragarn invested in MìLà in 2021 before joining in 2022
“So I actually wrote a check and invested in the company back in 20, 21. And then towards the middle of 2022 I got an update from the founders that, Hey, you know, we're doing really well. We grew 500%. And we're next, we're looking at going into retail. And so…”
Assertion Supported
Safe Catch's founder acquired Dang Foods' assets to keep it alive
“It ended up working out where he took over the operations, he bought the assets and he's able to keep the brand going.”
Insight
Food persists longer than other cultural traditions during immigrant assimilation
“When you move to a new country, you lose a lot of stuff, so you might change your name, and you might change the way you dress, and you might change the way you talk, because you have to learn a new language, but I think food is that one thing that sticks with…”
Assertion Supported
San Francisco Underground Market bypassed regulations using attendee liability waivers
“And it was a group that got together at a nightclub and created a night market. And they got around your food safety regulations by having people sign a waiver at the front saying,
If I get sick, it's not your fault.”
Assertion Partly supported
Safeway placed Dang coconut chips across 1,000 stores in produce sections
“So they quickly put us into about a thousand Safeway stores with like large displays in the produce section, which is the front of the store.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dang Foods' website traffic spiked 100x after a Kourtney Kardashian Instagram post
“After the Kourtney Kardashian post, our website traffic spiked like a hundred times.”
Insight
Dang's onion chips failed because consumers were afraid of getting onion breath
“One thing that we didn't anticipate was that people would be worried about onion breath, about getting onion on their breath, and they didn't want to walk around smelling like they just ate onions. That's something that nobody ever told us when we were testing…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Dang Foods' keto bar was Whole Foods' best-selling bar in 2019
“We were the best-selling bar at Whole Foods in 2019. Wow. In terms of, like, unit velocity, so units sold per store per week.”
Assertion Partly supported
Pre-toasted coconut was not commercially available in the US before Dang
“Now, you can't buy toasted coconut in the U.S., but what you can do is go buy shredded coconut And toast it yourself.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Vincent Kitirattragarn spent $23,000 in personal savings for Dang's first container
“I used 23,000 dollars of savings to buy the first twenty-foot container in July.”
Disclosure
Dang co-founders Vincent and Andrew Kitirattragarn took no salary for three years
“We weren't paying ourselves for the first three years, so we had to get outside funding to make a living. You know, up until then, we put every penny of profit back into the company because we wanted it to grow because we believed it would be worth something s…”
