The Startup CPG Podcast

Alyssa Fernandez
So I really, really love flavor. And I'm the type of person, if I'm getting into coffee, if I'm getting into really grains, I want to know more about how do I make the most out of what I'm making without having to really do any extra work. At least that's how I rationalize it to myself. And I mean, it really is just that I'm a pretty simple baker. Like, I don't make extravagant flavors, I don't make extravagant cakes. I keep it as bare bones as possible. Hey everybody.

00:45
Caitlin Bricker
This is Caitlin Bricker, editor at Startup cpg. We are back with another founder feature. Today we're talking with Alyssa Fernandez, founder of Alln. All in is a gluten company that utilizes cake mix to challenge the narrative around the misunderstood wheat protein. Through working with Texas farmers and preserving traditional milling techniques, all in offers heritage grain products focused on wheat quality rather than avoidance. In a world filled with gluten free options, it's refreshing to see Alyssa going against the grain and glorifying gluten. In this episode, you'll hear about Alyssa's journey as a first time CPG founder, How Allin Came to be. Hint it has to do with wedding cake and how Olin is making its mark in the world of baking mixes. I hope you love this episode as much as I love how Allan is shaping up the baking aisle. Enjoy. Hey everybody.

01:41
Caitlin Bricker
Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Kaitlyn and today I'm here with Alyssa Fernandez, founder of alln. Alyssa, welcome to the show.

01:49
Alyssa Fernandez
Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here.

01:51
Caitlin Bricker
We are really happy to have you here, especially fresh off of a launch. Can you tell me what it's been like being a brand new CPG founder and being so fresh off of a launch?

02:03
Alyssa Fernandez
It is honestly a bit of a relief. I don't do well living in this abstract planning sort of daylight dream and so just to actually have something tangible to really even show my family going, I haven't been just baking cakes like for fun, like it's. It's been serious. They can actually see it and go, oh, this is what you meant. This is that. Oh, it makes sense. I'm like, yes, it's manifesting.

02:29
Caitlin Bricker
So Allan is here. Allan is alive. Tell us what is Allan?

02:34
Alyssa Fernandez
So, Alan, it's actually a Noatl or Aztec word that means to come back full circle or movement. And when I discovered that, it was just like an instant. Yes. This represents little bit of everything that I've been looking for. It just really represents what I Want All In To Be. And really, more than anything, I think of it as a gluten company that just happens to make cake mix.

03:01
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. And I also love that Allen is full circle, because I feel like you and I are having a full circle moment right now because we initially connected over a year ago online after being laid off from our jobs, and we found each other through a CPG space, and we're like, hey, here's me, here's you. And then when you reached out and said you're actually founding a CPG company, I was like, well, wait, now I'm an editor, let's talk.

03:28
Alyssa Fernandez
Exactly. I know. It's like when were chatting, like you were talking to me about death, CPG and just kind of commiserating. So it's really like, it's all coming in. But I don't know, for me, it felt like I was so shy to even, like, tell people outside of immediate friends and family what I was like, really plotting and wanting to do that. It's nice to be out in the open.

03:50
Caitlin Bricker
You are not the first founder that I've spoken to that has kind of kept things under wraps. I spoke to another founder whose parents had no idea that she had founded a brand. And I can only imagine the weight that lifts off of your shoulders when you can unleash your brand to the world and especially to your own circle. So tell us how the idea of Allan came about. What is the magic behind Allan?

04:15
Alyssa Fernandez
So what, more than anything, all started about 5ish years ago. It was just kind of two things coinciding that they were parallel in my life, and then one day they just intersected and the intersection is what became All In. So it started with me being in my data journalist job going, wow, this is fun, but I should not be here. And on the other hand, it's me going through my own health journey. I had really severe cystic acne for years and just tried everything under the sun to try to help it, cure it, whatever you want to call it. And that led me down this rabbit hole of just trying all these different diets. I mean, I went from vegan to carnivore and just everything else in between.

05:00
Alyssa Fernandez
So when people talk about these diet spaces, and especially right now with protein, I'm like, almost cringing because I'm just thinking to myself, I remember being like, in so deep on these groups and such, but really what that all taught me is that I shouldn't be afraid of food and I shouldn't be afraid of food. Groups. So when I started to rethink how I was eating, I really went down this local rabbit hole. I started to develop a philosophy where maybe it's not so much what I'm eating, but where I'm getting it from. So. And again, all this is happening with me feeling dissatisfied with my job and trying to figure out where am I trying to go with my next career steps.

05:44
Alyssa Fernandez
So eventually, those two things just intersected, and I finally said, okay, I know for sure food is something I want to work with. And then I started to go through a process of elimination of what I didn't want to do. Like, I didn't want to get some sort of, like, new, like, nutritionist degree or be a functional therapist, whatever they call them, and coach people through it. That wasn't for me. I didn't want to work long hours in the kitchen. I didn't necessarily want to farm and didn't want to do advocacy work. So it was just, like, slowly going down and just really having an open mind and exploring these spaces. So I even did spend some time working at a food policy nonprofit.

06:26
Alyssa Fernandez
One of my best friends is a farmer in the Hudson Valley, so I'd always visit her and kind of shadow her with army practices. So it's not like I haven't trucked. Like, I really earnestly do try before I go. Not for me.

06:39
Caitlin Bricker
And at what point in this process did you say cake mix? Baking mix is for me, it was.

06:45
Alyssa Fernandez
Making my wedding cake by then. I was like, so in. Like, I'm eating local. I'm eating, like, the best quality ingredients that I can afford. And when it came down to that and just going through, what am I going to spend money on for vendors, I knew for a fact, I was like, I am not going to spend a couple hundred dollars on a cake where I know the inside is just like, I cannot in good conscience give that to the people I love. Like, that was. I drew the line. And by then I had started doing sourdough baking, getting into, like, different grain combinations, and had so much fun doing that with my bread. And I was just stubborn. I was like, okay, I'm going to make an Einkorn wedding cake. No matter what.

07:24
Alyssa Fernandez
I'm going to use Einkorn, and I'm going to use extra virgin olive oil. And it literally took me, like, months. Like, I think I finally perfected the recipe, like, a few weeks before the wedding. And even then, it was still a bit of a hot mess. But, you know, I. I served it. Like, just comparing it to the Iteration it is now. It was a hot mess, but my friends and family loved it. They're like, this is so flavorful. Like, what did you put inside it? What is this? And I'm like, guys, that's the flour, that's the grain. You're tasting the grain, that's all the flavor. And yeah, just as like time went on and I was crossing things off the list, it just became more and more obvious that this was the thing I had to do. Like I describe it as.

08:08
Alyssa Fernandez
I don't know, it's like I didn't look for it. It found me. And I knew in my bones someone was gonna do this, so it may as well be me.

08:16
Caitlin Bricker
Talk about a love story. Seriously, I can totally relate with what you're saying because we did things at our wedding which were totally us and not like anything anybody else would probably do. Like we had a fragrance free wedding, for example. We are not cake people. So we did pie. But if alln was an option, I would have heavily considered it. So I recently made the everyday chocolate. We made cupcakes for my mother in law's birthday. And I do really love the flavor profile of it. I think everyday chocolate is very fitting because it definitely tastes like something I could eat every single day. It's not decadent, it's not overly sweet. It's very. I don't even know the word. Like, it's just very accessible. Is that a good way to say it?

09:05
Alyssa Fernandez
Yeah.

09:06
Caitlin Bricker
So talk to us about the flavor profiles in your products.

09:09
Alyssa Fernandez
So I really, really love flavor. And I'm the type of person, if I'm getting into coffee, if I'm getting into really grains, I want to know more about how do I make the most out of what I'm making without having to really do any extra work. At least that's how I rationalize it to myself. And I mean, it really is just that I'm a pretty simple baker. Like, I don't make extravagant flavors, I don't make extravagant cakes. I keep it as bare bones as possible. So I was thinking about this like a. About a year ago, I developed the idea for something called a grain tasting. And this was something I was doing like alongside my farmer's market work to try to like educate and talk to people more about grains. And I made a flavor wheel for this.

09:57
Alyssa Fernandez
Like it was a whole ordeal and thinking about matching stuff. Like I had baked all these different, like shortbreads with different flours tasting, like, trying to find what are the notes and aromas and complimentary flavors. That could go with it. And what has already matched and compared to chocolate charts, coffee charts, etc. So I, @ that point, I had known already, like, rye was the thing. No one needed to tell me anything. Rye pairs really well with cocoa, and it's not supposed to overpower cocoa. It's actually the top note, and then cocoa is in the back. And for me, that's the chocolate that I enjoy the most. And when I was thinking even about naming it, I thought, well, this isn't gonna be rich. This isn't decadent. Kind of like you're saying it's any day. So you can have this whenever.

10:39
Alyssa Fernandez
You can make it more decadent. You could emphasize it less. And a lot of how I designed the flavor of this is for it to be a baker's, like, paradise. It's designed for people to mix and match, add other flavors, add more complexity to it, and to just grow while having a what I consider to be a very wonderful taste on its own.

11:04
Caitlin Bricker
I would totally agree with that. I think it has this flavor profile that could be a morning treat if somebody wanted to make, like, a savory muffin with it, even, or a dessert, like, it's. It's a hitter. I'm excited to try the Golden Hour, too. I'll probably be baking something with it this week.

11:22
Alyssa Fernandez
Yeah, that's my personal favorite. We ended up swapping the Einkorn for spelt with the Golden Hour, because one of the biggest pieces of feedback I received on the original recipe that had Einkorn was is this banana bread. And it turns out just like the base flour blend that he added the Einkorn with just somehow made this banana y aftertaste. And I had to go, no, like, as much as I like this, I can't have people thinking that they're eating banana bread. So we swapped it for spelt banana bread.

11:54
Caitlin Bricker
Sourdough sounding very Covid era baking.

11:59
Alyssa Fernandez
It is, but there was never any bananas in it. That's what was crazy to me. But it tastes so much like it. But, like, that's how powerful flour is as the flavor in the baked good. It's just been so undermined. And for me, it just drives me bonkers where I see all these different cake combinations and flavors that I'm going to y'.

12:18
Caitlin Bricker
All.

12:19
Alyssa Fernandez
It can be so much better with y' all having to add extra things. It doesn't have to be this complicated.

12:24
Caitlin Bricker
The ingredient list is so simple. I feel like I Typically, when I bake, I make things from scratch because I would just assume Buying a box mix is gonna have a massive list of ingredients. I was shocked when I saw how minimal the ingredient list was when I got your samples. I was simply amazed.

12:45
Alyssa Fernandez
I will say the most difficult part of it is getting the ratios of the flours correct. And I think anyone that's ever gotten like really deep in a sourdough knows this. The recipe development spreadsheet that we have is just full of all these different formulas, all this different math. And if you're off by even like 20 grams of one flour over the other, you can just have a hot mess of the cake that sinks whenever it bakes or it's like super hard or mushy. And that's really the, I guess the secret sauce of it. It's the actual ratio of the flowers that we've put together.

13:23
Caitlin Bricker
I cannot even imagine what it looks like to become a formulator for a product that is just so beyond my comprehension. So I applaud you for even having a spreadsheet, for even attempting this feat of creating a product, especially as a first time CPG founder.

13:42
Alyssa Fernandez
Well, that's part of what made me feel, or all this relief that I have now of having a tangible product, because I felt like I was this mad scientist that people just didn't understand. Like, I would talk to friends and I'd just go, this iteration, it didn't work. I'm trying to figure it out. And I've been reading this textbook and this. I would even contact different Graham professors in the country and just ask them their input about these varieties. How are they grown? How do they bake? What are the things I need to consider? Because when it comes to heritage and ancient grains, as much baking science blogs there are out there, they're all only made for conventional roller mill flour. If you want to step outside that, it's the wild West. There are only minimal suggestions to not get a botched product.

14:29
Alyssa Fernandez
And everything else is good luck. No one's tried it.

14:32
Caitlin Bricker
Very interesting. This is a world that I am so far removed from. But I did go to Whole Foods this morning and I was just curious. I was like talking to Alyssa today. I just want to see what the baking aisle looks like. Your branding doesn't touch anything in the baking aisle. Sorry to any other brands who are in the Whole Foods aisle and are hearing this right now. Sure, your products are amazing, but the branding, unreal. It doesn't look like anything that's on the shelves right now. So talk to me about your branding. You just mentioned the Wild West. Your packaging Very wild west vibes.

15:06
Alyssa Fernandez
So I've always been a theatrical person at heart. I have theater kid energy without ever having been an actual theater kid. So I knew, like, from the get go, I wanted some sort of theming because, again, like, the list of what am I not going to do with my career? I had a big list and even a why could you even pull it out and show you?

15:35
Caitlin Bricker
Even adding in some movement here.

15:37
Alyssa Fernandez
I even have this giant binder of packaging that I would collect and then annotate just so I can see what do I like, what do I not like? Comparing it to their social media, comparing it to their websites, and also going reasonably, what can one person manage? And I can't go by Vines alone. I'm not cool enough for that. Like, straight up, again, theater kid energy, you know, you're not. You have to have something else to kind of base yourself on. So it just. For me, it made sense to go a little more western, a little more maverick, because I am from Texas. I was born and raised here. I use grains from here. So I thought, well, may as well showcase that. May as well make it a little campy. Gonna turn on Cowboy Carter and just get all the inspiration from there.

16:26
Alyssa Fernandez
And the designer I worked with had was just like a dream. I would just send her these very long Google documents with pictures from my binder, other pictures of inspiration. It would literally even say, Riverdance, Cowboy Carter. I kind of like this. The circuit, the rodeo. Let's just play into this, and if it doesn't work, just toss it. And she would listen. She'd go, okay, I understand the assignment. Ten days, I'll get your assets. And then ten days later, I'd see something. I go, how did she do it? Like, how did she visually capture all this verbal nonsense into something visually cohesive?

17:02
Caitlin Bricker
How did you find your designer?

17:03
Alyssa Fernandez
I don't remember. I would go through Instagram, find one, like, big agency, and just go through this, like, telephone game of going suggested for you, clicking one creator, clicking on the other creator, and just slowly siphoning out till I found it.

17:19
Caitlin Bricker
Wow. Now it sounds like we just need to get some all in Beyonce's hands and blow her mind.

17:24
Alyssa Fernandez
She is Texas.

17:26
Caitlin Bricker
There you go. So I have another thing that I noticed. Walking up and down the Whole Foods baking aisle today, I did not see a single brand who was glorifying gluten in the way that you do. Why did you choose to go this route of not just including gluten in your recipe, but glorifying it? On your packaging.

17:47
Alyssa Fernandez
So that came as I was recipe developing. The other big hurdle I had was messaging. So I spent a while just thinking about that, reading different books on branding strategy. And it was not obvious to me, like it seems like that way now after the fact. But during the time, I mean, this was several months of me anguishing being at the farmer's market, like trying to describe and sell, like making gluten appealing or making these grains appealing. At least that's how I was thinking of it then. And I was really struggling with it without. I feel like I couldn't summarize things in one sentence. I had to take like a five minute podium, pro flower, heritage grain stance. And then you would lose people like that. They'd go, oh, okay, I'm actually just gonna go to this stand over here.

18:35
Alyssa Fernandez
I'll talk to you later. So one day I was just scrolling online and it hit me that my competitors aren't ever going to be Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. It's going to be other gluten free companies because we're the only ones who have a similar price point. We're on similar shelves and we have similar customers with similar needs. It's just which approach are they going to take? Are they going to take the gluten free or are they going to take better gluten? And once that hit me, I just knew that's the messaging that I need to run on because I love the baking sphere. I've continuing my little pastry school escapade on the side.

19:18
Alyssa Fernandez
But one of the things is that when you're really in deep in this subject is that it's a riddle with so much jargon and it's very unfriendly for folks who are curious but don't want to have to do multiplication before they bake something.

19:33
Caitlin Bricker
No math here please. Numbers make me sweat. It's not for me. That's why I really appreciate your box mix like a thousand percent. So I have something that I want to share with you and I'd love your opinion on this. New Hope Network sent out an email a few months ago and it really caught my eye because it was talking about the gluten free boom. And in their email they said by 2030, gluten free demand will surge dramatically. With celiac disease expected to affect 3% of the population beyond medical necessity, 51% of consumers now choose gluten free options for lifestyle reasons. How do you plan to capture the attention of that 49% of consumers who are not choosing to go gluten free.

20:17
Alyssa Fernandez
I think it's one of the things that I've noticed when online and looking into people's digital behavior habits is while gluten free from the company perspective, seems very fun, seems very accessible, driven with lifestyle, it's just regular baking content, but the product is gluten free. There is an inverse side to it. If you start going on forums with people who are eating gluten free, you see a lot of negative sentiment. You see a lot of posts talking about how they. They don't feel a part of their community, that they can't participate in being part of these social groups or social outings, how they feel like a burden by having this dietary restriction that holds them back from participating in these activities that. That makes you feel closer to people.

21:09
Alyssa Fernandez
I even saw like a few months ago a viral video about someone having a gluten funeral after she was diagnosed with celiacs. And just even from personal anecdotes, when folks. What I've noticed when folks talk to me is just how much they miss being a part of things, how much they miss being able to enjoy something that they grew up with. And so I don't think that Allan's job is to educate people. I think what Allan's responsibility is to create a celebratory space for an ingredient that's been villainized. And that's why even with on the packaging, on the very front, I say don't give up on gluten. Celebrate with it. It's. I was very intentionally staying away from these health markers. Like, sure, I could have put it has more fiber. Cause it does has more protein. These grains do.

22:00
Alyssa Fernandez
But like, a health benefit can only go so far. What really rallies people behind is messaging. So I think that's what I see as kind of our big hurdle for that is how do we execute this messaging? How do we execute an identity around it? And how do we give certain folks of the population, not Celiacs, but maybe people who are gluten intolerant, an opportunity to participate again in these cultural events who don't have to feel like they're different?

22:31
Caitlin Bricker
I feel like you kind of just triggered an emotional response with me with that answer that was like, so deep and motivational. And I was not expecting that. So thank you.

22:43
Alyssa Fernandez
That's wonderful. It's a lot of time thinking about gluten. Like, it's not a. I say that, but I'm like, this is really what like 2024 was for me. It's just looming over this it's wonderful.

22:55
Caitlin Bricker
I think you really just hit the nail on the head. And honestly, it was something that never even crossed my mind about that feeling of missing out or having nostalgia for something that you used to have as a part of your life but now isn't something that you can have. And yeah, I didn't know gluten weed would. I didn't know gluten would be part of the inclusivity conversation, but here we are. You're doing it. I would love to switch gears a little bit and talk to you about your entrepreneurial journey. Since Alan is a very young company you launched in May of 2025. I would love to learn how you, as an outsider to the CPG industry, were able to take your resources and then join as a founder.

23:44
Alyssa Fernandez
It was about 18 months, almost two years of being a very weird wallflower. Like I've been sneaking into these spaces, joining. Like I think I was part of the Slack startup CPG Slack group under my like farmer's market handle for one point. But like I would never post. I was just a lurker just lurking around these spaces, listening, going to different webinars that were out for free, just never turning on my mic, never turning on my camera and paying attention. There's a great book called Ramping Your Brand by Dr. James Richardson and that has been my CPG bible. So with anyone who wants to start a CPG company, that's where I'd recommend starting or grabbing because he lays out the expectations and the work that's needed to achieve growth.

24:37
Alyssa Fernandez
And on top of that, I just like learned throughout the years to start curating my feeds to give me content that's related to this field. So once I knew it was cpg, I was starting to follow CPG founders, other CPG agencies on my LinkedIn and slowly I started getting away from the tech news that I would get in, journalists, updates that I would have to things that were specialty food CPG related. So yeah, I just spent a lot of time being a lurker, not saying much. And I know it's an awkward time because I'm an extroverted person. I like talking to people, I like yapping. So for me to feel so quiet or shy is not. Feels very antithetical to my personality.

25:23
Caitlin Bricker
You are not the only founder out there who has been. I think what people typically say is like longtime listener, first time caller when they're introducing themselves on the Slack channel and they're like, I've actually been here for a while but now I'm Gonna say hello. So you're doing it now. We're glad you're here. We're glad you introduced yourself. We're glad we got your samples in our hands. And now Alan is a part of the household here. How did you find startup CPG?

25:51
Alyssa Fernandez
LinkedIn? Like, I don't think you can be on LinkedIn without having startup CPG pop up in your feed.

25:58
Caitlin Bricker
I hope everybody's listening right now and listening to you say that.

26:02
Alyssa Fernandez
Yeah, it's very organic.

26:04
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. I typically hear founders say, well, a friend told me or I found it through X, Y, Z. But I love hearing that. It was a very organic find for you. That's very powerful. So we're coming up on time. I would love for you to tell listeners how they can find you. What's your website, what's your social. Are you in any retail stores right now? Tell us the tea.

26:29
Alyssa Fernandez
All right, so y' all can find us on allinyal.com that's o l l I n y a l l.com and on Instagram lineall. So and for retailers right now we are available DTC on allanyal.com and we will be available in New York City starting in mid July. Yeah, we'll be at Pop Up Grocer. So it's super exciting. I will be making my trip to New York in August for sampling there. So if anyone wants to come by, say hi, eat some cake. August in New York City.

27:06
Caitlin Bricker
Amazing. Congratulations on everything you've accomplished so far. Amazing product. Really glad that I was able to have this conversation with you. Hope to catch you in person soon. Thank you so much for your time.

27:18
Alyssa Fernandez
Awesome. Thank you so much, Caitlin, and for Startup CPG for being a really great resource for the lurkers.

27:26
Caitlin Bricker
Amazing. We'll catch you later. All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a solid and leave us a five star review on ratethispodcast.com startup cpg I'm Caitlin Bricker, the host of the Founder feature series and editor at Startup CPG. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack and get on my radar. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new and emerging brands to spotlight. If you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, Please email partnerships startupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our free CPG community on Slack. You can sign up via our website@startupcpg.com see you around.