The Startup CPG Podcast

Cynthia Duran
When I was doing my job and I was seeing there was actually a need and people actually wanted this, I was like, maybe we shouldn't be doing this on the website. We need to figure out how to do it to retail, to get into retail grocery stores. And so yeah, we did like, we ran like a six or seven month test, direct consumer. And then I was like doing a lot of my research, making sure who are our competitors, understanding the market, if it's possible for us to make this. So there's a lot of research, a lot of learning that I had to do in order for me to figure that out. And then it turns out there are a lot of people out there like me who are craving this type of food.

00:49
Cynthia Duran
But it turns out it's not just people like me, like, you know, Salvadorian, but there's other people who want to expand their horizons when it comes to food in the freezer aisle.

01:01
Grace Kennedy
Hello everyone and welcome. Welcome back to the startup CPG podcast. This is Grace and I'm here with another founder feature. Today I'm talking to Cynthia Duran, the founder of Zynca Foods. Zynca Foods is a Salvadorian food brand making delicious frozen pupusas. Cynthia and I chat all about the challenges of bootstrapping, why it's important to her to self manufacture, and why she decided to pause Zynka's growth last year to focus on awareness. I loved chatting with Cynthia and even more, I love the pupusas Zinka makes. I hope you enjoyed this episode and as always, let me know what you think. Hello everyone, this is Grace and today I'm so excited to be joined by Cynthia Duran, the founder of Zynka Foods. Welcome to the show, Cynthia.

01:58
Cynthia Duran
Thank you for having me.

01:59
Grace Kennedy
Yes, we're such fans of Zynka Foods here at startup cpg and I actually talked to Cynthia about a year ago right after Expo West 2024 because her brand Cinco won third or second place, I forget exactly which one, at our Backpack Brands at Alley rally. And so we're doing a whole update now a year later, what's going on with Zinka Foods. But before we get into all that, I think we should tell our listeners who is Zynka Foods?

02:29
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, so Zynca Foods is one of the first Salvadoran frozen food brands in the American market. So what makes us unique is that we manufacture all of our products in the United States and we have our own manufacturing facility in Arlington, Washington. And so if you've never had Salvadorian food, but you've heard of a Pupusa. We make frozen pupusas and frozen pupusas.

02:50
Grace Kennedy
That are so freaking good. Like, oh, my God. I had them in my freezer for a while and I was like, I had to stop myself from eating one every single day because. Because I wanted them to last longer. And can you tell them, like, what your different flavors are for your pupusas?

03:05
Cynthia Duran
Yes, definitely. So we have my mom's recipe, which is our beans and cheese, and it's my top seller. And then we have loroco and cheese. And a lot of people always ask us what loroco is. So loroco is an edible flower that grows in Central America. It's very earthy and herbaceous. So when you put it together with the cheese, you get a nice earthiness and savoriness because cheese brings in that saltiness and the loroco brings in that herbalness. And then we also have our newest skew, which is zucchini and cheese. A zucchini is actually one that we introduced, like, two months ago. The zucchini is kind of like floury, but not super floury either. And then you mix it together with the cheese, but it's much more creamier.

03:47
Grace Kennedy
Yum. I can't wait to try that one. I've tried the beans and cheese and the Rocco and cheese, and both are, like I said, so good. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about why you decided to create this brand and also what you were doing before you decided it was time to bring this to the market.

04:06
Cynthia Duran
Yeah. So actually, the reason why I brought, like, you know, I started Zynga has a lot to do with the fact that what I was doing previously for my career, so I was a data analyst for big fortune 500. So my last job was Microsoft. And previously I was at T Mobile hq. So I used to move around a lot for a lot of these, like, tech jobs. Because I would move to, like, New York or I live. I would move to different places, and sometimes I would work from like 9 to 5 or 9 to 8pm And I just kind of wanted something quick and easy sometimes that reminded me of home. And so I assumed that I would be able to find pupusas, like, because that's my comfort food. But I was wrong.

04:47
Cynthia Duran
I was like, you know, because I grew up in la, and so la, you know, you're able to find any ethnic type of cuisine, but when you leave big metropolitan cities, like, finding ethnic cuisines like Salvadorian or Mexican food are tough to find. And so I assumed I would be able to find pupusas in the freezer out. And so when I was looking for pupusas, I was like, oh, crap. And then even restaurants were tough to find too, where you had to leave the area you're in to go like 30 or 40 minutes away or an hour, two hours away. So it was kind of rough. And so that kind of like is what made me start Zynka. And when I would visit my family would always pack me frozen pupusas. And my aunt will always bring me tamales.

05:33
Cynthia Duran
My aunt, she would always bring me Salvadoran tamales. And then she would be like, here, so you can take them with you. So my family always took care of me. And so that's the reason why I started Zynko.

05:44
Grace Kennedy
I love that. So you knew, you saw this sort of need, like a personal need to have this product, but obviously you had kind of a cushy job too, like this tech job where you're making good money and you know it's a pretty stable job. Like you're not going to lose that job, most likely. And so how did you make the decision to go all in on this more risky endeavor. Right, than a stable tech job?

06:08
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, so it was really rough because my family didn't believe that I would leave my tech job because they were like, why would you start a food business? Those were the exact words. They actually didn't even believe me. And I remember when I told them that I wanted that I had started this and I was doing this, they were like, wait, you really did this? And I was like, yeah, I really did it. But I actually what I did because I wanted to see if this was something that was a need. I started direct to consumer first. So I tested the waters on the website and while I was doing that, I was also doing my job.

06:41
Cynthia Duran
And so when I was doing my job and I was seeing there was actually a need and people actually wanted this, I was like, maybe we shouldn't be doing this on the website. We need to figure out how to do it to retail, to get into retail grocery stores. And so yeah, we did like, we ran like a six or seven month test, direct consumer. And then I was like doing a lot of my research, making sure who are our competitors, understanding the market and then seeing who, like, if it's possible for us to make this. So there is a lot of research, a lot of learning that I had to do in order for me to figure that out. And then it turns out there are a lot of people out there like Me who are craving this type of food.

07:23
Cynthia Duran
But it turns out it's not just people like me, like you know, Salvadorian, but there's other people who want to expand their horizons when it comes to food in the freezer aisle.

07:32
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And pupusas specifically too, I feel like, are so kind of perfect for frozen food because there's kind of already a process of freezing something like a pupusa. So you're not totally reinventing the wheel, but I am curious, kind of thinking about your process of manufacturing. And I know you guys are completely self manufacture here in the states and can you talk a little bit about like what it's been like to build that out and up as you have, you know, grown into other, you know, more retail locations and you're not just doing DTC anymore.

08:01
Cynthia Duran
We don't have a coat packer for the reason that our stuff is unique. And I didn't want to go to my competitors because I wanted to make sure that we can sustain that uniqueness. And I'm very particular how I wanted our product to be made. And so I wanted you to experience what I experienced growing up. And so when you cook that pupusa in your house, I want you to experience what I grew up eating. Being able to have manufacture everything ourselves, I'm able to sustain that and make sure that you, the customer, are able to have a good product. And so when were like building out our facility, because this is our second one, we had a very, a smaller one and we moved into a bigger one last year. We, from the first one we learned a lot.

08:47
Cynthia Duran
It was a learning curve. Like there was just so much learning to do, learning that, you know, having the right flow for like the, you know, for your facility is very important. And so like, and also like also finding the right people to build things for you. And so I actually project managed the whole entire build out for both of our facilities. So like, because I we don't have the money, like, you know, and there's certain things that yourself have to do. And so like even finding the right machine, we did like all of this research, worked with different manufacturers of like equipment to find the right one. And then being like these are the things I specifically am looking for. And so doing all of that was a lot of work and it took time.

09:34
Cynthia Duran
But it doesn't mean that because it took time, it wasn't hard. Yeah, it was tough. Like there are times that people didn't want to talk to us because were too small. So like stuff like that so it was a lot of work. It took time. But I'm a very efficient person and I like to things to get done really quickly. And so yeah, it took us about this facility, took us like six months to get up and running again, which is extremely efficient. But yeah, like the whole process was a lot of work, but I was heavily involved. It's not like I was like letting other people do things because when you're bootstrapping you have to really watch your pennies and when I say you're watching your pennies, you literally have to watch every single penny.

10:16
Cynthia Duran
So yeah, it's been a lot of work but you know, we finally have the end result that we want it and we have what we have now.

10:23
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. What does that look like now on a day to day level? Like as you're literally the owner of this whole brand but also self manufacturing and I know you have some people who like help you make the pupusas, but can you talk a little bit about what that looks like on a day to day and like how you juggle all your many responsibilities?

10:41
Cynthia Duran
Yeah. So one of the things that you know, you have to learn is organizing yourself. I can be really bad at it. You're not going to be. No one's going to be perfect. Right. But I try to organize myself as much as I can and with a lot of the, you know, having to self manufacture, having to do all the different things, I've been able to kind of organize myself in a way that makes sense. Right. So I have part time employees, meaning like they work with us like two to three times a week. Because we have machines and equipment, we're able to scale and do it at an efficient rate. But that's also been something that we work towards. Right. To make sure that you know, were able to organize ourselves and like make our line as efficient as possible.

11:26
Cynthia Duran
And so there are days where I'm only, I'm doing prep work for every single thing that we need to do for production day. So like for example, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are. And sometimes Mondays or Tuesdays we do all the production run. But during the week I do all the prep work, like the filling work get, making sure we receive all of our ingredients, all the stuff that we need, receiving all of that, making sure that if you know, we have an order, getting my forklift out, driving my forklift, putting that pallet on the truck, offloading things that like from with my forklift, like I literally do a lot of the stuff and then my workers come in and then sometimes they come in to do maintenance, like to clean, or sometimes they just come in to do production.

12:12
Cynthia Duran
So it all depends on like the days and where we are and when it comes to managing the production schedule. So for me like being a little more organized and knowing what my priorities are is like how I maintain myself and making sure that we're getting things done. But also like I outsource certain things. Like for me the most important things that I could outsource was my accounting and a lawyer. I thought to myself, I don't want to spend time doing my account work if I can just pay someone else because I would rather that get done properly than for me to be doing it and spending a lot of time on it.

12:49
Cynthia Duran
I know it sounds crazy, but is the most two important jobs that exist in your business, you knowing like having someone doing your numbers and then having someone making sure your business is protected?

13:01
Grace Kennedy
Oh my God, totally. I could never do my own. I mean, I outsource my own accounting now and I don't even run a whole CPG business. Like I don't do my own taxes. Cause I, I'm not good at math. Let's just say that makes a lot of sense to me. So it sounds like you're really hands on with production and then you outsource some of these things. What about like conversations with like retailers or like doing store demos? Like how do you navigate that other side where you're like out of the production facility and more having like face to face with customers and possible buyers and things like that.

13:33
Cynthia Duran
Yeah. So normally like when we know we have certain things going on, like we plan production around that. And so like for example, next week I'm going to San Francisco, right. For startup CPG's grocery run in SF. So I know I'm going to be gone from Wednesday to Friday because I'll be back in the morning. Right. So I have literally two days to get everything ready for our next production run, which is going to be Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Right. And so I already spoke to my workers and I was like, you guys are going to be here at this time. My plane lands at this time, I'm going to come from the airport. We're going to start production as soon as I get here. So it's all comes down to organizing yourself.

14:16
Cynthia Duran
And also I do sometimes outsource our demo work and I try to look for brand ambassadors that, you know, love our brand. But sometimes I do outsource a lot of our demo work and so I Know, I hired a few people in Texas to do some stuff for us, but, like, that's what I do because it makes it easier. But there are times that I do it because I know that especially in Texas, sometimes I like to go to Texas just to make sure our product is doing well. But also another thing too. Like last year, we kind of paused our growth for the reason that when we launched in Texas, it was a very big learning curve for us and understanding how to work with a grocery store outside of Washington state. So that was a good learning.

15:01
Cynthia Duran
And so that's been something that I've learned and kept him, like, you know, been able to be like, okay, these are the things we're going to do if we launch in a different state. These are our learnings. Right. So, yeah, it's a lot to juggle, but there are things that, you know, I'm like, okay, I will outsource, or I can outsource that, stuff like that. But I try to kind of make sure that we can contain a lot of it because, like I said, we're bootstrapping, so we don't have the large amounts of capital to be spending on certain things.

15:30
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. Can you speak a little bit to some of those learnings of expanding into Texas and the central Markets and, you know, leaving the sort of security of the state you're in?

15:43
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, so. Because in 20. What was last year? Yeah, yeah, 2024. We actually didn't exhibit at all last year. So in 2023, when we launched in Central market, I was like, I don't know, I was like, I kind of was kind of tired of doing food shows. And I was like, I want to really focus on consumers. I want people to know who we are. Right. Who is Zynga? Because when we're on shelf, I want to make sure people are buying our product because, cool, we can go to food shows. But in food shows, people know who, like, you know, people know who you are and all this other stuff. But outside of that realm, you want the customers to also know who you are.

16:25
Cynthia Duran
And so last year, like, the year before that, for my last food show, which was Expo east, when it was Expo East, I was talking to my partner, who's my boyfriend, and so he and I were like, yeah, let's not do food shows for 2024, and let's focus on the awareness piece. Right. And so that was my biggest focus last year, making sure that we focus on the awareness. And so I literally took a year off, just focused and did Consumer based shows, just so we can make in both Texas, Washington, just so we can continue to generate that velocity. And so that was our biggest focusing on those two areas, doing community things in like those regions, in both of these regions and just making sure we're getting the word out.

17:12
Cynthia Duran
And so like, that's how like, you know, for 2024, that was my biggest focus. And the biggest learning was one, our packaging was not good in Texas. That's where I learned that our packaging needed some work. And so I remember with my third demo that I did in Texas, people were coming up to me and being like, so what is Zynca? And I was like, oh, like is it a product to eat? I was like, no, it's a pupusa. Have you heard of a pupusa? And they're like, oh yeah, I've heard of pupusas. And so I was able to kind of gather that feedback from like the third demo. Cause were at like in Texas and this was in like February.

17:48
Cynthia Duran
And so then I remember like being like coming back and being like not even coming back, I was still in Texas and I was like texting my friends and I was like, I need to change my packaging. And I asked my friends who like, because I worked in marketing, right? So like a lot of my friends understand messaging, understand how all of this stuff works. And that's when they were like, you need to change it to this and that. So then coming back, I was able to like make those adjustments to our packaging, which is what is now what we have now, which where it says pupusas right and center and you see our logo on the top.

18:21
Cynthia Duran
And so like, that was one of the biggest learnings I had by doing demos right in Texas because I was able to understand that and able to kind of gather that feedback and understand, okay, this is where our velocity, like, you know, being in a different state kind of gives you a different perspective of how people see things. Yeah, you can be in your home state, you're in all these grocery stores, but once you're in another state, you kind of start seeing like all these different behaviors. And so when you're looking at those behaviors, especially if you are the founder and you're doing these demos, you need to pay attention to what consumers are saying because they're the ones who buy your product. And so that was one feedback, like one thing like that was one learning.

19:03
Cynthia Duran
And then another learning was that people wanted a smaller version of our product. That was another learning. So now we like, went from our 800 gram bag to 600 grams and then bringing down the price point as well. That was another learning that we learned. Being in another state and then also logistics, that's been another learning as well, having your freight lines. So there's been a lot of learnings.

19:28
Grace Kennedy
Yes. I don't think the learnings ever stop really. But yeah, and it makes a lot of sense and it's so much I think with CPG brands is like you don't know until you know and you don't know what a consumer is going to think until you're. They're telling it to you and you're right in front of them, like where you're not a mind reader. And so you have to kind of put yourself out there like you said, and go do those demos and talk to people and to find that out. And I'm thinking now, as you were saying, so last year you didn't focus on any of these trade shows, but it sounds like this year, you know, I know you went to Expo west and so you're starting to maybe put your toe back in the water of that world again.

20:03
Grace Kennedy
And I'm curious how that's been going and like, what it's been like to continue to come back to an Expo and like start having these conversations again.

20:11
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, it's been good because now that we are in a bigger facility, we are more efficient, our packaging is in a much better place than it was before. I'm more confident that we're able to expand into a different region and we won't have as many issues as we did when we started out. So that's the reason why it's good that we just kind of paused, tested out the waters in Texas, which is a great state to do a test at, and then coming back to this and like now focusing, because now we're like, okay, we can do this. We have all of the. We feel very like. I don't know how to explain it, like we feel bulky enough or I don't know if I'm saying it right. We're like, yeah, we can do this, we got this, blah, blah.

20:55
Cynthia Duran
And so, yeah, so it's been great because now we're like, okay, we can go after these grocery stores and then this is a great grocery store for us to go with, like work with. But we're also being very strategic too with the grocery stores we work with. Because I'm not the type of person who's going to go national just because a store came to me and was like, okay, you need to do national. I would literally walk away just because I understand my capital and I understand, like, how much that would cost. So I'm the type of person that'd be like, okay, I would walk away. Right. So we've been very also strategic with that and like, making sure that we're talking to the right stores and the right regions that we want to be in.

21:35
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. Curious what those regions are. Or, like, are there specific states or regions that you see Zynka really thriving in?

21:42
Cynthia Duran
Yes. So being on the Home Shopping Network, their website has been a very good learning curve because they've been an amazing partner. And we've been able to understand even further than when we started direct to consumer with them, understanding where people want our product. Right. So we know we want, like, people in South Carolina and North Carolina want the product there. Florida, New Jersey, New York, Boston, Texas. We're already in Texas, California, of all places. We get a lot of orders from Los Angeles, in the Bay Area, the Valley. So, yeah, like, we have demand in certain places. Right. So understanding all of that and going to the right retailers, you know, like, we know which retailers you know are in those regions and we know who we want to work with. Like, we know that we have a big demand in Florida. Right.

22:43
Cynthia Duran
Like, we understand that, but like, you know, we also want to make sure that we work with the correct retailer. Right. And we also look at the data because one thing that a lot of founders don't do is like, yeah, like, this retailer came to you and wants to onboard you, but look at the data. Like, is your product going to sell there? Like, how do you have enough to support that? And so, like, that's one thing that I do as well. Like, we want to be in California because we know we have so much demand there too. Right. And so, like, I go for stores that I know that our product will do well. We won't need a lot of marketing dollars to support that. And we know the Midwest, there are certain regions there too, that people want our product too.

23:23
Cynthia Duran
But we know we're going to have to invest dollars there's, you know, in market. So, you know, being very strategic with all of that, especially back being back in food shows.

23:33
Grace Kennedy
Speaking of being back in food shows, I'm curious, how was your return to Expo West? How did it go? How are the conversations? How are all the events?

23:43
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, it was great. I was exhausted. Before that, I was at fancy food. So going from fancy food to Expo west was like, not a very short time period. And between all that, I had to make sure we had enough. All of our orders fulfilled before went. But it was good. I did win audience choice at Expo as pitch slam, which is amazing. And yeah, it was a lot. A lot.

24:08
Grace Kennedy
Yes. Did you like. I know some brands will go to an Expo or fancy foods, like, with a list of, you know, retailers and like, a photo of the buyers they're looking for. And what was your approach in terms of having conversations or trying to make it a meaningful investment?

24:23
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, so I kind of already know which stores I want to be in, but normally I'm very unorganized when it comes to, like, going to food shows, which I should better at, you know, but no, I just kind of like, I know for the west, like, you know, Expo west, there's going to be a lot of west coast buyers, right. And so we know we want to be in, like, the California region. So when we get approached by a buyer and they're in California, we're like, okay, great. Right. So we're like, we would love to work with you, but if we get approached by another, for example, someone in the east coast, we're like, okay, we need distribution. Who is your distributor? Right.

25:00
Cynthia Duran
We are very open to work with certain grocery stores, but if we don't have distribution, we try to make sure there's, like, if it's going to work. If it doesn't work, we're not, you know, we're going to, like, follow up with you later, not right now. Right. So. So give or take. But I'm terrible when it comes to organizing myself for food shows, so don't take my advice. Do follow other people's advice.

25:23
Grace Kennedy
Well, you're lucky, you're charming and your product's delicious. So, you know, it works out. Your disorganization is. Is okay because, you know, you still. You've got it. You make it work. It's interesting, though, what you're saying about the distribution thing. And I hear that often from founders, like, what's comes first, the chicken or the egg? And, like, distribution and retail. And I'm curious how you are approaching that in terms of, like, getting further distribution. Are you kind of like waiting for a store to make that necessary? Are you, like, how. How are you approaching that?

25:51
Cynthia Duran
Yeah. So for us, one of the biggest learnings for me was I'm thankful for Dwight Richmond. Actually, let's even start that, because he is the first person who gave me the opportunity to be in all of the town and countries. That was the only grocery store I wanted to be in. I even said that to him when I met him at Fancy Food, like when we first started. And I was like, you're the only star I want to be at. I don't care about the other buyers. And so I don't want to say like, you know, I care about the other buyers. But you know, I didn't really understand like retail as much as I do now. I really wanted to be in that grocery store.

26:26
Cynthia Duran
And I'm thankful for him because he was able to connect us to our distributor here in Washington state. And so working closely with that distributor, like, because they're small, family owned distributor and they do frozen. And when I say their family owned, it was the wife, the husband sadly passed away. But it's her daughter and her son in law, so they all do this. And so they were great learning of how to work with a great distributor. What I mean great distributor is that they rob. He was the husband, he told me a few things and he was very transparent with me. He said, don't price your product where you're not gonna be making money. Those were his exact words. He said, give me a price where you're gonna be comfortable and you will make money and you won't go out of business.

27:18
Cynthia Duran
And I was like, cause I'd given him a price. He was like, are you sure you're gonna be able to make money this way? Like, he literally rejected that price and like, was like, yeah. And so I really learned like how to work with a distributor with them. And so like when I see like a KHI or Unify and even then like one thing that I learned with like, you know, someone from KHE explained to me when you should work with khi and so it was really cool to hear that perspective. And they were like, stay as regional as you can. And when you get to that, you know, level and you have that much money to spend, then you should work with a K here, Unfi.

27:59
Cynthia Duran
And then because this person was explaining it to me and I was like, wow, you really need to be giving a class in this. Because a lot of people talk about it and then they were saying that, you know, a lot of people's mistakes, especially when they're small brands and they get into a unifi or keiki, like you're working with a national distributor and you need to have that national money, right? And so she was explaining it to me and so she was like, stick to regional distributors. So for me, my strategy has been working with as many regional distributors as Possible and building that velocity. Building that velocity. And if there's a grocery store who doesn't want us to work with the regional distributor, well, like sometimes we kind of walk away because we know we're not ready for like a unifier Kahi.

28:44
Cynthia Duran
But I'm in Kehi. You know, I decide to work with regional distributors and I'm not saying anything bad about KK and unify. What I'm saying is like, you just need to know when you're ready to be in those distributors.

28:54
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And like you said, especially when you're bootstrapping, it's like every penny counts. Like, you know, those are expensive jumps and particularly like to expand in that way. So that makes a lot of sense. And I'm thinking about as you were speaking, I love how you also just like call out everyone you've gotten learnings from and like that has supported you. And it's such a great quality. I feel like as a founder and something I see you do also within the startup CPG community is you're such a, like, you know, founder resource and like always willing to connect with other people. And something I wanted to talk to you a little about. Well a, you're our, one of our community leaders for our startup CPG community in Seattle. And I'd love to just hear a little bit about like how.

29:34
Grace Kennedy
And I'm not just asking you to gas up like startup cpg. I just more mean like how being in community with other founders and like the resources that have supported you as you've been on this journey as largely a solo founder, what's been helpful?

29:48
Cynthia Duran
Yeah. So startup CPG has been an amazing community. Like I don't have anything bad to say about startup CBG because you guys provide so many resources. Like I remember when I found out you guys existed, I always talk about this. I didn't understand distribution or brokers. And I remember I was so confused. And there's this video that's like one is. I don't remember if it's 101 distribution versus brokers. Right. And so that video kind of broke down. What was the difference between a broker and a distributor? Right. Because sometimes when you're starting out, those two can get confused. And the reason I say that is because some brokers work with distributors and you're just like, wait a minute, but how does that work? Right. And so understanding how that little world of its own functions was very important. Right.

30:45
Cynthia Duran
So that kind of video was amazing for me to understand. And then also I remember I did a learning video which was around, like packaging because, you know you can get sued for certain things in your packaging. And so that was another one that was like, cool. And to kind of listen to her talk about it was another thing. And then also the investment, like, conversation that happened a few months ago, like, stuff like that. So, like, having all of those learnings and like, having all of the access has been great because one thing I learned in CPG is like, it's tough to combine a lot of that information. And so, like, when you have that at your disposal and you can absorb all of that for free, you definitely do it.

31:30
Cynthia Duran
And another thing that I love that you guys do is like the grocery runs and all of the sampling events in the different regions. Right. And if you're a bootstrapping company and you can't afford to go to Fancy Food or Expo west, like, this is a good way for you to get exposure to buyers. Exposure in different regions too. I know we just went to Austin for the Whole Foods grocery run. And then I know last year we did the Expo as Backpack Ran brand. Backpack Brand with you guys too. And so, like, doing all of these different things can really help you because you're getting that exposure and also networking and getting to know all the people in the industry.

32:12
Cynthia Duran
So, yeah, Startup CPG has been an amazing resource and like, you know, leverage that as much as you can if you are bootstrapping and you're trying to learn more about retail.

32:22
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. Wow. Well, thanks for saying all those nice things about Startup cpg and I'm glad it's been a good resource for you. And as you were talking, I was also thinking about, like doing all the sampling and things like that. And I know what my response to papusas has been, but I'm curious about what your community's response has been in terms of like, your family members and also just like the larger, like not only Salvadorian community, but just like the customers and what their response has been to trying your pupusas.

32:53
Cynthia Duran
Yeah, so my Salvadoran community, so we are very involved with our community in Texas and Houston because there's a big Salvadorian community in the Houston area. And so we are involved with two nonprofit organizations down there. One is Friends of El Salvador, the other one is Central American Collective. And so both of the nonprofit organizations, one of them helps build schools in El Salvador, provide resources to low income kids and families, and the other one helps like, artists in the Central American communities, like artists that are like doing movies or like books, etc. And they're all Both non profit organizations. And so we've seen a lot of, like, support for our brand. But sometimes we do get that, like, oh, pupusa shouldn't be frozen. From our community.

33:44
Cynthia Duran
We totally understand that since we are bringing in our culture, which has never been in the freezer out in the United States. And so, like, a lot of people have, like, men like, oh, pupusas shouldn't be frozen. Why are you doing this? And blah, blah. But we have a lot of people who are supportive because they don't live in big metropolitan cities. So finding pupusas are tough to find. So they're very happy and supportive. And so I get sometimes emails from people saying, thank you for creating this brand because now I can get, you know, my own pupusas from you in places that I can't find them. And it's cool. But my family, they've been great about it. They were actually at Expo west for Pitch Slam.

34:26
Cynthia Duran
They came out and some of my cousins who live in Boston were like, why didn't you tell us? We would have flown out.

34:31
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God.

34:33
Cynthia Duran
And I was just like, girls, this is just a pitch lab. They were like, we wanted to be there. And I was like, okay. I was like, whatever, you know, I'm sorry. But it was cool to have them there and to really see all the work that was done. And my mom, she was diagnosed with early onset dementia, like, last year. So her being there was kind of really cool for her to experience that. And she was really thrilled and happy. But, yeah, no, my community, part of it has been supportive and the other part hasn't. But I'm not saying, you know, I totally understand where everything comes from. But yeah, like, people have been very receptive, especially for the beans and cheese pupusa. They're like, oh, this reminds me of a bean and cheese burrito. And I'm like, oh, cool.

35:16
Cynthia Duran
And so one of the cool things, too, that I've learned is a lot of people eat them in different ways. Like the beans and cheese one, they like to put a fried egg on top with avocado. And I was like, how y' all are getting creative. And then some people like to take the loroquo and cheese one. They like to put a hot dog in the middle and fold it like a bun and eat it like a hot dog.

35:40
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God.

35:41
Cynthia Duran
I know. So people get very creative. Other people tell me they buy kimchi and eat it with kimchi. So it's been really cool because, like, I'm like, yeah, traditionally you eat it with your hands and with curtido and non spicy salsa. But people are creative. Like I'm not going to judge you. Like if you enjoy my product that way, I am so happy. Like please tell me like how creative you're getting with my product.

36:06
Grace Kennedy
Well, I can tell you that I was deeply not creative and I just had it with salsa but it was still delicious. I'm not as creative as some of your other customers, it sounds like, but that's really fun and it's always, yeah, it's cool to hear about how other people are kind of like reimagining eating their own thing you created. So as we wrap up, I always like to ask like how can our listeners learn more about Zynga? Where can they buy Zynga and or where can they learn where they can buy Zynga and how can they like follow along your journey as you continue to grow and expand Zynka Foods.

36:39
Cynthia Duran
Definitely. So if you follow us on social media, it's just cincafoods.com X I N C A F O O D S. You'll be able to like find us that way and you'll be able to learn what stores we're launching in because we're going to be launching in two different regions this year. Yeah, I know, I'm not saying anything. I'm keeping launching a new product. Yeah, I'm not talking about it yet. So we're launching a new product, we're launching a new region. And so, you know, if you really want to follow our journey, go follow us on Instagram, TikTok, even on LinkedIn. I'm very bad at posting on LinkedIn for Zynca. And then also if you don't live in Washington state or Texas, you can definitely buy our products on the Home Shopping Network. So on their website.

37:30
Cynthia Duran
So we're one of their, you know, brands on there. And then if you live in Texas, you can find us at Central Market and if you live in Washington you can find us at Town and Country, Met Market, PCC and then a few other stores. But you can also go to our website, senkafoods.com and you can go to the store Locator and find more information of where we are.

37:51
Grace Kennedy
Amazing. Well, I'm so excited to see what the new product's going to be and where else you're going to launch this year. So excited just for the general future of Zinka Foods and hopefully you'll be near me on the east coast soon so that I can go buy my Zinca foods, but it was so much fun to chat with you. Cynthia all right everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, it would help us out so much if you left a 5 star review on ratethispodcast.com startupcpg I am Grace Kennedy, the host of the Founder Feature series. So feel free to add me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack. I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting brands to feature.

38:34
Grace Kennedy
And 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 community on Slack. You can sign up via our website startupcpg.com.