The Startup CPG Podcast

Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
The truth is the retailers are partners and it's helping them understand, like, hey, we think this rebranding would help us resonate better with our customers because we also have customers who love the product, who would have it when we're doing catering. But on the shelf, they're just kind of disconnected because it's just not speaking to them in the way that they would like. So the biggest thing I've learned is brand awareness. You know, how are people discovering the product? Who's discovering the product? How are people responding to the product? And that's what I would say I spent 2024 working on how do we really, you know, get that consumer awareness? So we started doing a lot of things. We're doing food service now.

00:47
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
We're now in hospitals, in universities because we realize it's, you know, getting into retail is great and being on the shelf is great, but how are you really driving brand awareness? How people discovering your products in other ways so that when they go into retail, you know, is resonating with them.

01:07
Grace Kennedy
Hello everyone and welcome back to the startup CPG podcast. This is Grace and I'm here with another founder feature. Today I'm talking to Ehime, the founder of Sweet Kiwi, a frozen whipped Greek yogurt that's transforming the way we think about better for you indulgence. Ehime's journey started in her own kitchen as a personal solution to a health challenge. But her delicious product quickly turned into a fully fledged business. We talk all about how she went from homemade kitchen treats to whole food shelves, the lessons she learned from her rebranding, and how she's scaling her brand awareness across new channels as they grow. I hope you enjoyed this episode and as always, let me know what you think. Hello everyone, this is Grace and I am here with Ahime, the founder of Sweet Kiwi. So welcome to the show, Ahime.

02:04
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Thank you, Grace. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

02:08
Grace Kennedy
Yes. I'm so excited for everyone to learn about Sweet Kiwi. I'm such a fan. It's really delicious. But I will let you introduce yourself and what Sweet Kiwi is to our listeners.

02:19
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Hi everyone. I'm Eheiming and I'm the founder of Sweet Kiwi. Sweet Kiwi is a frozen whipped Greek yogurt that really bridges that gap between functional nutrition, better for you and great taste while delivering and satisfying that sweet tooth.

02:35
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. And it, the whipped texture of the yogurt is, reminds me of like a cold mousse and it's so yummy and decadent and, yeah, really delicious. But I'd love to hear a little bit about why you decided to create Sweet Kiwi and, you know, launch this product, at least as far as I know, didn't really exist before.

02:58
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Yes. So I was diagnosed with a uterine fibroid that was the origin of everything. And I didn't want to have surgery because I had, you know, just seen my sister go through a terrible time in the medical system with the same thing. And I decided to go for a dietary change. I started meal prepping, and I was doing really well, but I was a big sweet tooth. And it was such a heartbreak not to have any desserts because a lot of them didn't quite fit into my dietary requirements. I tried a lot of healthy stuff, but I quickly learned that healthy men taste suffered, and I love my decadent treats. So I was just trying to find a way to have something that satisfied my sweet tooth, but was able to deliver on the nutritionals that I needed.

03:42
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
And I was playing around with Greek yogurt in my kitchen because it was a great substitute for cream. It had, like, high protein, and that kind of just led to Sweet Kiwi. I came up with this product. I would take it to work. My friends loved it. I had quite a close team at my job. And, you know, one day my boss just said that, you know, you could do this as a business. And, you know, that was the light bulb moment. And I started thinking, but how would I even, you know, start a business? And that's really how Sweet Kiwi came about.

04:12
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. Sometimes you need someone else to say, like, wait, this could actually be something more than just a thing you make for yourself. And what were you doing before deciding to create Sweet Kiwi?

04:23
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I was working for Citigroup. I was actually doing bankruptcy litigation. Completely different. All the way from the food industry.

04:32
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely very different. But, hey, I mean, may come in handy, I guess, if you know anyone who goes bankrupt. So when you decided, like, that question, right, of like, well, how would I actually create a business? I think that's a found a question. So many founders, you know, are faced with when they have this idea, but they may not be from the CPG industry before. So how did you start answering that question for yourself?

04:57
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I started doing a lot of online research. And one day I went and I was like, you know, I just won't even know what it's like to run a business, like, run a restaurant. So I took a job working in a restaurant in Dallas at the Time I used to live in Dallas, and I was working at this restaurant called Genghis Grill and just, you know, would work in different sectors of the business. And for me, it was a defining moment because I would work from 7 in the morning to 4pm in the afternoon, and then I would go to the restaurant 5pm to almost midnight. I was meant to be tired and exhausted and just feeling burnt out. But I started to realize, like, 5pm to 12pm was like, the best time of my day. Like, meeting people, learning new things.

05:42
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
And for me, that was that moment where I realized I really wanted to do this.

05:47
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. That's such a sweet story, but also, I can imagine, extremely tiring to do all that. So after you realized that this was, like, doing this sort of running a business was really what was lighting you up? What were some of your first steps towards actually turning this concoction that you'd been making in your home kitchen into something that, you know, could be packaged and sold to consumers?

06:11
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Doing a lot of research, and then I found the Penn State ice cream program. I signed up for that. I did the ice cream course, and then I also did culture dairies manufacturing and ice cream manufacturing course as well at Penn State. And I just kept throwing myself into a lot of, like, learning, you know? And then we started doing catering. So we would cater for, like, residential buildings, commercial buildings, partnering with companies like Busuto, you know, like, just people who would try the product. And that really worked out well. Like, through that process, you know, we kept growing and people kept discovering the product.

06:47
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's awesome. Catering is a way in that I feel like I don't always think about in terms of cpg, but makes a lot of sense. So when did you start moving out of maybe, like, the catering or the learning phase and into, like, can we get this into retail? Or can we have someone. Yeah, just buy this at a shop?

07:09
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
So were working out of the kitchen, and they had someone from Whole Foods come into the kitchen, and they liked the product and they saw, like, potential in the product. And that was the time that it occurred to me. So I never thought that were ever gonna be a retail company. I was just trying to create this product that we could sell to people, maybe have a physical store where people could come by. And that was the first time the seed to be in retail was planted and were able to create, like, a packaged product present to Whole Foods. And the first time we got denied because were trying to be innovative. And we thought, like, hey, why don't we do something different from what everyone else is doing on the shelf.

07:48
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
And we decided to come up with his short, fat, thick packaging that was outside of the 16 ounce pint shape just because we just thought that it would be so unique. Like, people will be so attracted to it because it was so different. And yeah, cold boots was like hard. No. And so, yeah, we learned our lesson the first time. Everything on the shelf is measured. It's a science. Like, you can't do a different size that's gonna disrupt the way, like, the packaging is on the shelf. Yeah. So they were like, yeah, if you're willing to, you know, change the packaging. And so we did. We got another opportunity to pitch again. And this time we had the right pint size and shape size. So we finally got our.

08:28
Grace Kennedy
Yes, I love that. And when, how long did it take from that? Like, first, like, you started creating this in a commercial kitchen and you were just working till you getting into Whole Foods. Like, what was the time span from, like, initial creation to retail?

08:44
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Maybe like a year. We got denied, I would say took another year to get another meeting with Whole Foods from when we got our first denial. So before that, maybe about six months before we got our first meeting. So maybe about a year. Six months.

08:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. I just, I like to ask that because I know these things always take time and a year can feel like a really long time to sit around and wait for another meeting. But it is kind of the nature of the beast. So it's interesting. I had no idea that you hadn't really envisioned Sweet Kiwi initially as a retail product and more as like a ice cream, you know, maybe like a shop or something like that. So once you started to think about Sweet Kiwi now in this more retail focused way, how did that change your strategy and what were your next steps after having those meetings with Whole Foods?

09:34
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I think for us, it was just trying to understand this industry that we didn't understand, like, the whole retail thing. Like, what do we need to do? Oh, we need to be pitching to new stores. We need to be trying to get into new retailers. We need to be doing demos and promos. And it's all these different words that's so different from the initial plan that we had to just sell directly to customers. And it's such a different thing because you do catering, people pay you up front and you come and you get the products. If you have a store, people are coming in, they're buying and they're discovering the products. It's completely different from being in A retail store, people discovering the product a bit differently, but you don't get to engage with them like we typically would.

10:17
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
And it was also that learning that you have just a few seconds for people to decide your products is what they're looking for, which is why kind of, you know, informed our new rebrand where it was basically like, hey, you know, what is driving the purchase? And, you know, what needs to stand out for someone to realize, hey, this is the. The product I'm looking for.

10:39
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And with those questions, when you're saying, what driving purchase, what did you guys find for sweet kiwi? Like, what is driving people to purchase your product? And, you know, with the rebrand, how did you try to tap into that?

10:51
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
We discovered that people loved that it was a Greek yogurt in the freezer section, and people also loved the taste of our products. They loved that it was sweet. It had a perfect balance of sweet and tart. That was a big thing for customers. We interviewed, I would say over 150 customers, and we got the same feedback. And after a while, I think one of the things I've learned in the industry, it's not how you see the brand or it's not what you want. It's about what customers actually want. And then taking all the feedback that they gave and highlighting what was most important for them. What was the number one thing that was driving purchase? Okay, Greek yogurt. We decided to make that more prominent on the packaging and then also highlighting the taste.

11:33
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
And we do that on the lid, where we talk about it being, you know, perfectly sweet and totally tart. And that actually became our slogan because we realized that were speaking to a customer who really likes that, doesn't like something that's too sweet, but likes that perfect balance, like, kind of customer who maybe would love a kombucha, who maybe would love, like, an ollipop, not too sweet, but has a hint of sour as well, and in a perfectly balanced way.

11:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And, I mean, you're. You're speaking to me as a consumer right now. You're like, someone who would love kombucha and someone who would like an olipop. I'm like, so me and someone who loves sweet kiwi. So. And I love, like, something, like, you said, a little tart a little bit, but also a little sweet, but not too sweet. So you hit that right on the money. But when you guys decided to rebrand, how did you manage that with, like, the retailers you were already in?

12:24
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I think it's also communicating what we discovered. The truth is the retailers are partners, and it's helping them understand, like, hey, we think this rebranding would help us resonate better with our customers because we also have customers who love the product, who would have it when we're doing catering. But on the shelf, they're just kind of disconnected because it's just not speaking to them in the way that they would like. And so I think the retailers also understanding that and understanding the need for the rebrand, they were really excited. Like, they. All our retailers were really excited about the new packaging, the new rebrand. I didn't have one retailer that was like. They were like, this is so beautiful. This is really exciting. We can't wait to have it on the shelf.

13:03
Grace Kennedy
That's awesome. I love that. And that's just also a testament to the fact that, like, you are, you know, on the right path of, like, oh, this is a good decision. And this is resonating with people. It's resonating with our retail partners, and hopefully if it's resonating with them, it'll resonate with customers as well. Absolutely, yeah. And now that you are, you know, a few years into business and you are in a variety of retailers, what's been your approach to, like, further scaling your retail presence? I know also, obviously, as a frozen product, there are many challenges that come with that. But. Yeah, how have you been approaching that scale? Because you are, I think, what, like, four or five years into business. So I imagine you're. You're thinking about that now. So. Yeah. What's been your approach?

13:46
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I think for us, our approach has been building our base, building a customer base, building a cult following of people who love the product. And so with skill, we're trying to go deeper with retailers as opposed to always adding new doors, learning that sometimes taking on this industry is focusing on a region and then winning that region before moving to another region and also finding different ways to reach the customer. So the biggest thing I've learned is brand awareness. You know, how are people discovering the product? Who's discovering the product? How are people responding to the product? And that's what I would say I spent 2024 working on how do we really, you know, get that consumer awareness? So we started doing a lot of things. We're doing food service now. We're now in hospitals, in universities.

14:38
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Because we realize is, you know, getting into retail is great and being on the shelf is great, but how are you really driving brand awareness? How people discovering your products in other Ways so that when they go into retail, you know, is resonating with them.

14:54
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. So has your approach to building that brand awareness been to sort of be in different channels, or has there been any other ways you've been trying to build that brand awareness?

15:05
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Yeah, there are different ways. I mean, we've been doing more activations, partnering more with, like, startup cpg. We're doing the holiday party on Monday. We're so excited. Finding more ways to get people to try the product. And the truth is, everyone's a customer. Startup CPG guys are customers, fellow founders are customers. It's just making sure that the brand stays in people's minds. Just like me, I tend to put myself in the shoes of the customer and the consumer. Right. Like all the products that I buy every day for my kids, how did I discover them? And I found it somewhere. I tried it, I loved it. And then I became a converted customer. And sometimes no one had to market it to me. Sometimes it's discovering it.

15:49
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Maybe I was in a hospital and I went and looked into cafeteria and I saw a new product and I was like, that's interesting. And picked it up. Because sometimes the retail stores, the shelves are so full of so many brands, it's trying to get attention. But sometimes if you're in a different space where it's not a lot of brands and people are able to spot your brand, it's a great way for them to discover. And then once they love it, they go back to retail and they're looking for it. So just kind of applying the lessons of me as a consumer into how we're approaching our brand.

16:22
Grace Kennedy
As you were saying that, I was thinking about all the brands I've met at different startup CPG events or have been sent free samples for the Shelfies or for this podcast. And then I've genuinely loved it and gone to the store and bought it myself because I'm like, wait, this is amazing. I don't. I. I can't rely on free samples for this my whole life. I need to have it be something I'm buying myself. And also, I obviously love supporting small CPG brands.

16:48
Grace Kennedy
But another thing you mentioned that I wanted to ask about, as you were saying, doing, like, collaborations and partnerships, and I know you guys did a collaboration with Smurfs, which is so cute, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about, like, how that collaboration came to be and in general, a little bit about your approach to doing collaborations.

17:05
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Like that the Smurfs has a movie coming out in the summer of 2025 and we met a licensing agent who had pitched it to us and it was our first time, you know, hearing about licensing and it just sounded really cool. The fact that we could make, you know, a cool flavor, it's something that has always been in my background. You know, in my catering days with Speak Kiwi. We've done a lot of brand collaborations with a lot of major brands in the past and that, you know, I love doing those brand collaborations. So as soon as she said it, I was like, yeah, this is what I love, creating flavors. And of course they're going to be blue. So even better finding like really fun ways to get that blue color naturally. So it was really exciting. And I love the Smurf.

17:50
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
So it was a great collaboration. I'm so excited for the products to launch next year and be on the shelf. We're launching those in Albatsons nationwide, so we're really excited about people getting to try that. And the movie launches in the summer so we're very excited.

18:07
Grace Kennedy
That's amazing. So that was kind of just an inbound outreach from that team?

18:12
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Yeah, absolutely.

18:14
Grace Kennedy
That just speaks to your brand awareness then, doesn't it? It does. I love it. And another thing I wanted to return to was a little bit more about sort of the nitty gritty of retail. All the fun, the not fun stuff that, you know, nobody likes to talk about with free bills and slotting fees. As you've been growing into different retailers, how have you been managing some of the expenses that come and some of those like more challenging negotiations maybe with retailers about like making sure not only that you just get in, but also that you have a fair contract and that it's going to work for your brand on a long term basis.

18:52
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
For us, I think it's understanding that it's a partnership and when it doesn't feel like a partnership, need to walk away from it. But I think that for the most part we've been really lucky and blessed to have retailers who really believe in the product and have allowed us to negotiate better terms and not necessarily have to pay any of the slotting or use some of the slotting for marketing. Just finding creative ways to entice the retailer into not charging a slotting. One being that we're a small brand, it's a product that people need. I mean, there's a lot of ice cream on the shelves. But how about your customers who want like a frozen yogurt, for example, something that's better for them. But I think that We've been really successful at avoiding slotting and a lot of expenses.

19:41
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
But it's really approaching the conversation and the relationship as a relationship, as a partnership. That's a win for us and also for the retailers. And I think another thing we do is really cultivating those relationships over a long period of time and not, hey, here's a presentation, let's just get on the shelf. But really building that relationship with a lot of retailers over a period of time. Most of the time, like even with Whole Foods. When we got into Whole Foods, it was a conversation that happened over a period of a year where, you know, we've been showing up. And I'm really good at following up with buyers, sending them updates about the brand and just saying, like, hey, here's what we're doing now.

20:16
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Oh, here, you know, here's something that we just launched, or here's what we're doing, you know, in spite of whether we get a yes or we get a no, just. Just continuing to show up. And after a while, you build that relationship. And I make that clear in the conversations. Whether it's a distributor or it's a retailer. My thing is you should want us to win because if we win, you win as well. Right. So it has to be a partnership because there's no other way for a small brand to grow if it's not a partnership.

20:48
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. I think that's great advice for founders because I think sometimes as founders, people do think of retailers as like a kind of you boss man on high and what they say goes and you have to just do what they say. And thinking about it like a partnership is so important. And again, not being afraid to walk away if it's not. Even though that feels probably really scary to do if you have to make that decision.

21:13
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
We've had to pass on certain retailers because they absolutely had to do a slotting or free fill. And while we understand that we're too small to be able to take on that expense and maybe now is just not the right time.

21:29
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And thinking a little bit more about that, like as a small brand that's also getting, you know, some amazing opportunities and growing pretty rapidly. How are you managing that balance of like, we're small and we're scrappy and our funding is limited and we're in Whole Foods and we're launching in more retailers, you know, in 2025. How are you managing that?

21:52
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
It's tough. It's a hard balance because I think that you have to be small, but then project a big Image. So I tell people, like, you're small, but you project a big image because that's how you get more opportunities, right? But then sometimes it's balancing that it's a projection and it's not the reality of what your company is. Like, I apply for all the stuff. Like, I apply for all the startup CPG grants that sometimes I tell myself, like, oh, my God, they're going to be like this sweet Kiwi. She wants everything for free.

22:23
Grace Kennedy
We love giving away things for free. So apply to everything.

22:26
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
So I'm like, oh, my God. I know that they're newer brands, they're smaller brands, but we still need this. Like, we still need the support. So I'm gonna apply anyway. And it's just that you remember that you're projecting an image. Everybody else needs to see the image. You have to remember that you were in Whole Foods, we're in all these stores, but we still need. We're still small brand, and we still have to be scrappy. We still have to be. That means not employing a whole team of like 10 people now because you feel like, oh, hey, we're locals. We need this. We need this role. We need that role. And just being smart about how we're growing. And that's what I try to tell myself and my team.

23:08
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Like, we're projecting an image and we're going to get there because the projections for all of us, it's for all our partners, but for us to also see the vision of where we're going. But we have to remember what we really are. We're a small business and we have to keep being scrappy, keep doing whatever it takes to keep growing and keep building.

23:27
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious, too, about your team. Like, how have you made those decisions? Or how have you known when it was time or when you could afford to bring on another team member? And, like, how did you decide what team members like or what roles, I mean, were really essential? And what roles? You're like, okay, I can keep doing that role myself for now.

23:50
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
So certain things, like, you know, after you start retail, you're just like, wait, what are deductions? What's the chargeback? I'm like, yeah, I knew a finance person because I don't understand, like, okay, so I give them a product, then they charge me back. Why are they charging me back again? What does that mean? And it's like, yeah, I think it's time to bring on a CFO or it's time to bring on an accountant. And that's how you know, so we've also come to the place where it's like, okay, we're in all these stores. How are we doing marketing? We need to do activations. Okay. I think we need a marketing manager at this point because it's too many things that I'm having. You know, when were just in Whole Foods, it's like, oh, you want to do a demo? Sure.

24:31
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I'll schedule a demo on Saturday. I'll go myself. I'll do the demo. Now we're in so many more stores. It's like, you can't do all these devils now. You need to start, you know, working with external partners. And sometimes it's not always bringing on a team member, but working with someone externally to solve that need really quickly. And also with team members, we work with some people fractionally because we're just not where we can afford, like a full time team member. And also the need is like, maybe I just need someone to do it like three times a week or twice a month so they don't need to be full time.

25:06
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think there are a thousand decisions you have to make a day. So I'm sure giving a few decisions away is very relieving. But obviously you can't give them all away yet. Plus, Sweet Cooey's your baby, so you can't give away all the decisions anyway.

25:22
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
No, at all. Not at all. Because there's still so much and I feel like we're still not there yet. There's still a lot of, like, a work that I still have to do myself. I'm still the chief everything officer of the company.

25:34
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. As the chief everything officer, what has been one of the challenges of being the person who wears all the hats and how have you kind of managed the growth of Sweet Kiwi over these last five years while also staying, like, sane and not crumbling under the pressure?

25:53
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I would say it's tough because it's like always having to do everything. And some of the downsides to that is having the ball drop on something like, oh, there's a deadline for this, and I have it in an open tab, but I also have like 20 open tabs, and it's a lot and it's getting to everything. One of the things I did for myself this year was get an assistant to make sure that I wasn't, you know, so the things that are dropping, it's her job to pick them up and send reminders like, hey, you're supposed to do XYZ or you're supposed to be on this interview with Grace. You're on the wrong interview. So that really was such a big help for me this year because my goal was don't drop the ball on so many things.

26:33
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I can't tell you how many applications for startup CPG I have in an open tab and I'm supposed to complete. And then I look at it's like, oh, close. And I'm like, no, I missed it. You know, so those kinds of things, having an assistant who can pick up on all those things and make sure that they get done, it's been a complete lifesaver. And I think with running CPG and having more balance with life, it's just. I can't say I have the formula yet because I have two kids and life is really crazy all the time. But, you know, just finding time to step away and take care of yourself is so important. Like this year, I'm so determined to have a Christmas holiday. I just want to shut down.

27:14
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I want to take some time for myself before we jump it into a new year doing the same rat race all over again.

27:20
Grace Kennedy
Totally. I hope you get a Christmas holiday, too. Well, this episode will come out after the Christmas holiday, so maybe you can report back when you post this episode on your channels whether or not you had a Christmas holiday. But I really hope you get to do that.

27:33
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I hope so too.

27:35
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. So as we get towards the end, I also really like to ask about, you know, a piece of advice and particularly as your woman of color, to maybe other founders who, you know, share your identities, and they're earlier on in the process, maybe a month in, or they're even just thinking about launching. What sort of advice would you give to other, you know, women of color founders?

28:00
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I would say just trust your gut. Trust and believe in everything that has been given to you to do. Because a lot of people are going to have opinions about your product and about what you're doing, but lend to trust your gut. Because I've experienced that there's so many people and they're probably not wrong. There's a lot of experience in the rooms in CPG spaces and there's a lot of advice and sometimes it gets really overwhelming, but just start. The truth is there's only two ways it can go. You start and you're successful, or you start and doesn't work, but you leave with so many. So much experience, but not starting. You already know what happens when you don't start. Then you don't build anything. But if you start, you never know what you could build.

28:45
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
I mean, I'm inspired every day by people in the CPG space, like by the innovation, by the ideas. And when I listen to their stories, it's just someone who decided to just start and they didn't ever see where it was going to take them. Even with us. Sometimes I can't believe, like, how did we get on the shelf at Whole Foods? This is so crazy. This was just supposed to be something that was making for myself. So just start, put in the best work that you can and just keep moving forward every day. Put one foot in front of the other every day and just keep putting in that work. And you just never know where it'll take you.

29:21
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. And speaking about where it will take you, I'd love to hear a little bit about what the vision for Sweet kiwi is in 2025 and beyond.

29:31
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
So for 2025, we're trying to grow our food service distribution, trying to grow our retail distribution and our brand visibility and presence. We also have some international opportunities which we're excited about 2025. So we're really excited for what that's going to bring. We have a lot of retail in the pipeline and we're super excited about that. But I would say that for me, for our vision for sweetgiwi is to continue to build a brand and a product that's really impactful, that helps people live healthier lives, but also something that's impactful for our communities. And that's something that I keep in the center of everything that I do. It has to be impactful.

30:13
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. And where can people learn more about Sweet Kiwi and follow along as you continue to grow in 2025?

30:21
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Yes, you can follow us eekiwi USA on Instagram and other platforms and you can find us on our website@www.sweetkiwi.com.

30:31
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. And go check out your local retailer that stocks Sweet Kiwi and try their delicious whipped Greek yogurt. It's so good. I think you'll love it. And thanks so much for coming on the show. Ahime.

30:42
Ehime Eigbe-Akindele
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.

30:46
Grace Kennedy
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 five star review on RateThisPodcast. 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. And if you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for free to join our community on Slack. You can sign up via our website, startupcpg.com.