The Startup CPG Podcast

Grace Mittl
So the original recipe was definitely a brainchild that I had actually started in high school. So I'd been roasting chickpeas in my air fryer starting in high school when food recipe content started coming out on Instagram and that was all the rave at the time. Some I got from Instagram actually to start roasting chickpeas and air fryers and just had been making my own granola throughout college and just being very like hands on and very mindful of what I was eating. I was a college athlete as well and during my four years there I also worked for a bakery here in town. And so I just loved the idea of like ideating, iterating, being hands on with food. And so we had used that initial idea of like crunchy roasted chickpeas and a granola component to make our snack mix as a foundation.

00:56
Grace Mittl
But then yeah, just really wanted to dive into like the macro nutritional profile.

01:02
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 a fellow Grace, the co founder of Absurd Snacks, a brand making protein rich, ultra crunchy snacks that are entirely free from common allergens. Who we talk about the challenges of finding an allergen free manufacturing facility, how they're supporting their upcoming launch onto Amazon, and why Grace wishes she'd been more vulnerable in the early days of building Absurd Snacks. I hope you enjoy this episode and as always, let me know what you think. Hello everyone, this is Grace and today I am joined by a fellow Grace, but Grace who is the co founder of Absurd Snacks. Welcome to the show, Grace.

01:56
Grace Mittl
Thanks Grace. It's always so fun when I meet someone who also has my. Has my name.

02:02
Grace Kennedy
I know, and it's like a little bit weird because you're like wait, are you talking to me or are you talking to yourself? I don't know but I love it. It's a great name. Only great people are named Grace. So I'd love for you to introduce yourself though and Absurd Snacks to our listeners.

02:15
Grace Mittl
Awesome. Thank you. Hi everyone, my name is Grace Middle. I am one of the co founders of Absurd Snacks and we make snacking easier, safer and more delicious for individuals who have food allergies and sensitivities.

02:30
Grace Kennedy
Yes, such a cool concept and I love the ways you guys have innovated with what like a snack mix can beyond. Just like your traditional trail mix, so filled with nuts that like half the people are allergic to. So I'd love to hear a little bit about why you decided to create this brand and like why you felt it was important to bring something that was allergen friendly to the market.

02:54
Grace Mittl
Definitely, yeah. I'd love to share a little bit about our founder story because it's pretty unique and I think the reason that we're here today. We are based in Richmond, Virginia and my co founder Eli and I went to the University of Richmond for undergrad. We graduated in 2022 and in our senior year we had the opportunity to take a food and beverage management entrepreneurship course that actually allowed us to work on any food product idea that we had and actually launch it in the market. Our spring senior sp and we decided to make an allergy friendly snack mix because of our close friend and classmate who has severe food allergies. So the pain point that were trying to solve for actually came from a classmate that were working on the project with.

03:39
Grace Mittl
And so we got into sort of the CBG industry by the nature of being in this undergrad course and having hands on experience in a fail safe environment, which was really interesting. I had worked for a digital marketing firm the summer prior for an internship and worked on the search engine management team and got a lot of one one time with founders and their marketing teams. And I so badly wanted to be on the other side of that camera like actually building the brands that were supporting on the digital marketing side of things. So it was really serendipitous to be able to take this class that fueled a passion that I had and then actually turn it into what is now our full time job.

04:21
Grace Mittl
So yeah, we're entering year three of selling our free snack mixes and yeah, still based in Richmond, growing the community here. Yeah, having a great time with it.

04:33
Grace Kennedy
That's awesome. Yeah. I was curious as to like if it was you or your co founder who had allergies, but it's someone you know because I always feel like so often with brands that are failing, kind of like a niche category, there's some personal connection to the pain point. But I'd love to hear a little bit about the development process because I do think your what's in your mix is really unique and I've gotten to try them and they're really delicious and there's savory one, there's a sweet one and yeah, I'd love to hear a little bit about like what went into that development and how you decided how and what would be in it.

05:05
Grace Mittl
Yeah, definitely. So the original recipe was definitely a brainchild that I had actually started in high school. So I'd been roasting chickpeas in my air fryer since starting in high school when food recipe content started coming out on Instagram. And that was all the rave at the time. So I got from Instagram actually to start roasting chickpeas and air fryers and just had been making my own granola throughout college and just being very like hands on and very mindful of what I was eating. I was a college athlete as well, and during my four years there, I also worked for a bakery here in town. And so I just love the idea of like ideating, iterating, being hands on with food.

05:44
Grace Mittl
And so we had used that initial idea of like crunchy roasted chickpeas and a granola component to make our snack mix as a foundation. But then yeah, just really wanted to dive into like the macro nutritional profile because the pain point that we had heard from our classmate was not only was there a lack of food allergy friendly options for him, but there was a severe lack in like healthy macronutrient profiles. A lot of our competitors focus on sweet snacks, indulgent snacks like cookies, brownies, cake mixes. But what was missing for him was that functional snacking option. And so the recipe development, I mean, we still undergo recipe dev like all the time. It's a constant work in progress. And what you'll try today is definitely much different than what we had launched with like back when were seniors in undergrad.

06:34
Grace Mittl
But yeah, it really just started from taking existing ideas of how to take normal ingredients that you'd find in your pantry staples and turn them into something that's really delicious and actually like fuels the soul. So yeah, it's a never ending R and D process, but I think we've finally gotten the product to a point where it's really easy to eat and really delicious and delivers on all the value props that we're really shooting for.

06:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And for those who haven't tried it before, can you explain a little bit about like, what is an. I mean, you know, I think chickpeas are still in it, but can you explain like what is in the mix? Cause I think it's really interesting.

07:10
Grace Mittl
Definitely. Yeah. So our snack mixes are made from a sweet and salty blend of chickpeas, granola clusters, and naturally sweetened dried fruit. There's about 7 grams of plant based protein, 5 grams of dietary fiber, and only a few grams of added sugar from pure maple syrup. So we're pros to be top, not allergen free. We're naturally sweetened with pure Maple syrup and apple juice. So we're also plant based as well. So we hit a lot of the emerging consumer trends and are really just safe snack for all. We like to say that we pull up a seat for everyone at the table and it's a really good option if you have a dinner party or you're sending snacks off with your kids on a play date or something.

07:51
Grace Mittl
It's a great option to have because you never know who's going to walk in the door and might have a sensitivity or an allergy.

07:56
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious, backing up a little bit I guess too. After you guys graduate from school and you're like, okay, are we really doing this now? What were some of those first steps like to take it out of this like classroom project and into like, oh, now we're working toward like this is now your full time job.

08:14
Grace Mittl
Yes, great question. So were pretty lucky, I'd say we had one of the professors of our course was a CPG founder is still in cpg, has exited a couple businesses and he actually sent me on my spring break senior year to Expo West. I, I'm pretty sure he personally funded it, which is amazing. And I had the chance to sit down with some people from, I don't know if startup CBG was in my peripheral yet, but maybe similar organizations and just meeting with other founders. And I was able to actually meet with the founders of the brands that I was working on in that internship. And honestly I just asked them a ton of questions of like, what it was like to be a founder, what is expos, what's the purpose? How do you get here? How much does it cost?

09:02
Grace Mittl
Like all the things. And we really just have emulated that model even to date. Like I always say to people, I think 90% of what we know is passed on from founders who are willing to share their experience and willing to tell us what they did right and what they did wrong. And that has really carved out a pathway for us and a really great support system as well. So early on, like were just sponges and were just asking anyone and everyone for advice and just really leaning into the community to get those early learnings. Because were coming right out of school from a liberal arts college that we didn't specialize in cpg, we didn't have a master's in like manufacturing.

09:39
Grace Mittl
So yeah, I don't know if that directly answers your question, but it was definitely the decision to work on it full time was definitely fueled by the excitement and the passion of what were building and actually understanding that were building a product that affects 11% of adults. And we heard great feedback from the community and people that were sampling and demoing with that like oh my gosh, it's so exciting that I get to try something that I've never had before and that continues to keep us going every day.

10:08
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. It's such a new idea and product and that's definitely something people get excited about. I was also thinking about how you found maybe like a manufacturer who was able to also assure that it would be allergen free. Because I feel like you'll see something that's like no nuts, but manufactured in a facility where there are nuts. And I'm imagining that was important to you guys to do it in a facility where there would be no allergens. But was it challenging to find a manufacturing partner that could do that with you or is that like a huge thing that exists that I just don't know about?

10:40
Grace Mittl
Definitely. When we had done customer discoveries after we graduated, went through an eight week program where all we did was interview potential customers and we created some hypotheses around the problem that were trying to solve and actually found that the pain point in the consumer journey was exactly what you said. That may contain statement because frankly like the supply chain is not built for brands like Absurd snacks where mass producing various products and there's always a chance for cross contamination there. And so our manufacturing journey has been probably the most difficult aspect of building the business just simply because we have really strong parameters around what it means to manufacture Absurd Snacks and the implications of that and the values that we hold ourselves to.

11:28
Grace Mittl
And so in town actually at Richmond, there's another brand, the founder actually just successfully exited her business and she's doing amazing. She was a mentor to us and had actually co manufactured for us, quasi co manufactured. We were on the line as well. But she was a top nitrogen free brand, already had all these safety protocols in place and so she really helped us out early on. We eventually grew out of that relationship and opened up our own facility up in New Jersey actually. So were commuting up to Jersey to mass produce our snacks and then we bring them back down to Richmond and we'd actually found that partnership through startup cpg. I don't know if we've mentioned that, but we connected with another founder who had a top on allergen free space that they weren't really using.

12:10
Grace Mittl
And so we for a year had brought manufacturing in house and had ran production ourself which was a huge learning curve and definitely rewarding because now we're taking those learnings and insights into our next manufacturing partner which is going to be totally outsourced. And I'll give like major credit to Eli. He's all ops, manufacturing, production. And I don't think you want to know what our Google Drive looks like because there is like more than the FDA puts out there. I'd say we have a good grasp on what it means to be an allergen free brand and we take it seriously. And yeah, luckily again, I think like the learnings that we've had has really helped us to build like a strong foundation for the brand.

12:53
Grace Mittl
And for us that means having a super solid supply chain and creating that moat that you kind of need in order to be successful.

13:01
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. So have you guys made the jump to the outsourced facility yet or are you in the process?

13:07
Grace Mittl
So we just completed our super successful trial production run about six weeks ago and we are in the process of finishing onboarding and yeah, just kind of waiting to put a production date on the schedule, but looks like the next couple weeks will be flying out there for a full run. So we're really excited and the recipe is changing a little bit to better fit the equipment that we'll be using. So we're really excited to implement those changes too.

13:33
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm curious, as you're expanding into this outsourced facility, are there any like other things that you think that will enable Absurd Snacks to do now that you're not having to commute to New Jersey and things like that? Like what are you hoping this step will lead to?

13:49
Grace Mittl
Definitely. So yeah. So when were self manufacturing we had some inventory constraints like we could only make X number of units per month. And with this new manufacturing partner we are definitely a relatively small fish for them. And so there is basically like no ceiling to how much inventory we can actually produce because they are a larger production partner. So yeah, we are launching Amazon in June, which is our first kind of test for a stronger e commerce Strategy. We've been 110% focused on retail and really getting that early validation through qualitative feedback at demos and talking to buyers and merchandisers and really letting our consumers inform the direction of Absurd Snacks. And we thought that was easiest to do through a retail based sales approach. But now that we've founded the product, it's at a really good spot.

14:42
Grace Mittl
We decided to invest in Amazon and we're working with a great agency partner to help support that channel. So it's really only possible by the switch to the co manufacturer because now we have a lot more inventory to work with and test with. Definitely. And we're excited to test our certifications as well. We're investing in non gmo Kosher and GFCO as well, which are definitely highly searched claims on Amazon as well.

15:09
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I was curious how you are gearing up to launch on Amazon and like what sort of preparations are you making in terms of marketing? I mean it sounds like obviously you're preparing in terms of inventory but also like making sure that people actually buy it on Amazon. What are you guys putting into that?

15:25
Grace Mittl
Definitely. So we have a brand ambassador program that is a really highly engaged group of 30 or so individuals who are more of like in the fitness active space. They're brand champions. Some of them even work for us part time doing demos and field sales activations. So we're actually leveraging that community to really help spread the word about Amazon. In addition to, we have some affiliate marketing programming in the works as well. But outside of that, we really are putting our dollars behind Amazon and really making sure that we're bidding on the right keywords and ranking high enough and getting those early reviews and testimonials and participating in some of Amazon specific programs like their vine program. We're trying to keep our dollars as close to point of purchase as possible as we get the first six months of Amazon at least.

16:15
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. Sort of. On the other side of Amazon, which has been your retail presence up until now. I'm curious, as you're launching into Amazon, is your retail strategy changing at all or is it just kind of continuing alongside Amazon?

16:28
Grace Mittl
Yeah, it's definitely continuing alongside Amazon. I think we're definitely really excited to see how this omnichannel approach plays out. But we're by no means like dismissing the idea of building through retail. Our retail partners have been tremendous and great supporters of the brand and we don't see that ever kind of letting up. There's obviously like a whole country full of amazing natural retailers and we're in about this many of them. So we definitely see where absurd snacks can have tremendous growth past just our initial regional launches into more natural retailers for sure.

17:04
Speaker 3
We'll be right back. Are you gonna crush it on Amazon this year? It's such an important channel, but it's so hard to do alone and most agencies are a total ripoff. We can't afford $5,000 a month and a commission on our sales. They just don't get it. That's why I love our partners at Daybreak. They are full service, meaning they do the creative work, the listings, the logistics, and of course, all the ads, all with the most reasonable retainer out there. I work with them personally. I'm so grateful we have such a good partner to recommend out to you. Our community, they do evaluate your product first to see if it might be a fit. So if you want them to have a look, email them startup CPGaybreak Agency, and they'll do a free audit for you. Good luck, everyone.

17:46
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I'm curious how you guys have expanded. Like, which regions are you in? And like, what stores have been your targets as you've been growing? Absurd snacks?

17:55
Grace Mittl
Yeah, that's a great question. We've almost exclusively have operated in the Natural channel. So we started our retail journey with Whole Foods Market just as a local forager brand in the Mid Atlantic. And were knocking on doors, getting POS ourself for the first six to eight months until we earned permanent placement with that region. So we are now in all of the Mid Atlantic locations. And then were able to get some local placement with Kroger and Publix as well with their Virginia Local NCAP program. So we're active in all of the Publix locations in Virginia. There's about 25, and then there's about 34 Kroger locations as well that we work with. And that was a unique opportunity with a local distribution partner that we took advantage of and are growing pretty well with.

18:42
Grace Mittl
And then outside of that, our initial early supporters, like your typical mom and pop independent grocery co op, are still like, really top performers for us. I think Virginia loves local and we really lean into our Go founder story to support the community and support the brand. And so that independent channel approach I don't think will go away either, because store owners are also really passionate about niche emerging brands, and we owe a lot of credit to them for our early validation too.

19:11
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to return for a moment to your little community of brand ambassadors, like your 30 brand ambassadors. And I'm curious about how you got that up and running and like, how you found the right people for Absurd Snacks. Because I hear so often that you can't just work with any influencer. You don't want to just have any person. You want someone who, like, really aligns with your brand. So how did you go about building that program?

19:34
Grace Mittl
Yeah, so last year we did 175 consumer events, so that's a mix of like, demos Popping up at races, breweries, anything in the community, anything that kind of fit, like our requirement of consumer activation. We were there and we took that time to not only get feedback on the product, but to also invite people to be part of the journey and be part of the brand building process. And so pretty simple actually. We just had the huge like QR code on a stand up banner that asked if people wanted to be brand ambassadors. I can't remember the exact verbiage, but they scanned it, they filled it out and then we just fielded interest via email and texting. And then we started out by doing just a unboxing approach. So we would send all of our ambassadors free product at the top of the quarter.

20:26
Grace Mittl
We would give some like posting ideas and then we would give them like a three day timeline of like we would ask them to post about the product if they were going to. So that way we had a lot more like UGC content coming in on the same day. And yeah, just like a lot of organic traffic like flowing through to absurd snacks through that effort and then, yeah, just keeping them engaged. So we have a Instagram group message with all of our ambassadors where it's a space to share how you're enjoying absurd snacks or if people have questions or ideas or if they want to collaborate with each other. That's a space for them to chat and meet each other as well. And that community's growing. We're submission form like lives on our link tree and our bio on Instagram on our website.

21:07
Grace Mittl
And so it's a living submission document for sure.

21:10
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I guess if anybody's listening and you want to be a brand ambassador, you should check it out. What is your approach though to social media in general besides, you know, working with these brand ambassadors to create ugc. Do you guys have a strategy? Are you very like founder focused? What's your social media strategy?

21:28
Grace Mittl
Yeah, strategy is a strong word.

21:30
Grace Kennedy
I would say vibes. What's your social media vibe?

21:33
Grace Mittl
Exactly. So Eli and I run both of our social media channels, Instagram and TikTok. We're definitely more Instagram heavy. I don't know, I think I would say we're very founder focused. I will say that our content performs highest when there's people in the videos. Our reels perform much better than static images as I'm sure most other brands could say the same. But our community really loves like the founder facing content. So explaining like our founder story and what's absurd snacks doing today? Day in the life of building absurd snacks and then engaging with Our community partners. So every time we do a pop up at one of our running stores that we sell in or at a festival, like customer testimonials and just a lot of like live feedback on the brand seems to resonate really well.

22:22
Grace Mittl
We also do a lot of like giveaways and collaborations with other brands that are similar to our size, that have similar audiences. And then outside of that, like the food allergy community is super strong on social media. So we're constantly engaging with those brands, engaging with those influencers just organically. I think the social media community can feel, even though it's like a huge platform, it can feel really small if you're engaged with your target audience like pretty regularly. And so yeah, making sure that we're supporting other brands that are on the same path, on the same mission as us leads to like really unique partnerships and collaborations. So I'd say like social media is definitely more of our community building tool versus a conversion tool. We don't see it as a sales channel. We see it as like strictly brand building and community building.

23:11
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, sure. Are you thinking that might change at all with the launch into Amazon or No?

23:19
Grace Mittl
I think it will. We do have a paid ad strategy in place for meta at a minimum. So Facebook and Instagram ads that will run alongside our Amazon launch. Yeah, we're really excited for this more e commerce sales strategy and see how it performs. But it will be running some ads starting this summer as well.

23:38
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean now you have a link that they can go to and easily order the product, so that makes sense. I'm thinking too about meta ads and the paid ad strategy in general and just like all the money that goes into either paid ads or even just launching on Amazon and like putting all that effort in. And how have you guys been managing your funding over these last few years to be able to do a launch like this? Like, are you guys bootstrapping? Have you done any fundraising rounds? What's been your approach?

24:08
Grace Mittl
Yeah, so coming right out of school, being the chival broke costumes, we have not bootstrapped the company. We have had a group of angel investors that have supported us. We raised around at the. We closed early 2023 and have been really mindful of where we're spending and how much we're spending and when. And just given our trajectory and our history in building manufacturing, a lot of startup costs inherently built into that, we're definitely at a point where we're like, we want to start spending money because we've been super cash conscious. And just being really mindful given the manufacturing. So yeah, we're definitely using the majority of what we've raised now, like starting this summer with the Amazon launch and just taking a larger distribution approach to selling via E Comm.

24:56
Grace Mittl
So yeah, we feel really supported by our early investors and we're also part of like an accelerator and a couple incubation programs that we finished a while ago in Virginia. And the idea is that of course we don't want to be raising money forever. So we're being really mindful about when we're raising, how much we're raising and being really dialed in on our financial model and our budget. So I think we have a good grasp on what we have going on.

25:23
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. Are you guys considering doing another round anytime soon or are you kind of kicking that down the can?

25:29
Grace Mittl
Yeah, we definitely will be doing a round. We are thinking about end of this year, early next year to open up another round, but just trying to see how the first six months of this launch goes and any new retail doors that we have applied or submitted for category reviews. If we land a couple this year, that might change when and how much we'll raise. But we definitely are anticipating at least one more round.

25:51
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. I'm curious, it sounds like you've had some great like mentors and fellow founders that you guys have relied on and then group of investors who I'm imagining also are maybe good sources of advice. But as you know, new founders fresh out of college. What sort of resources have you guys relied on to grow with this business as you're kind of learning so much about it as you go?

26:15
Grace Mittl
Definitely. So we are part of the FAIR Pact Alliance. Fair is food allergy research education organization and it's a group of FAIR leaders. There's also some writers, like news writers, publicists that are on this call as well. As far as brands go, it's like all brands that are invested in the food allergy community and we sit on a council like manufacturers and marketing as well. And it's a space we meet every month and it's a space where we share ideas, we share food allergy industry related news. And that has opened up a lot of like side conversations with other brands, other manufacturers, even down to like FDA regulators that are on the call as well. And so that from an industry perspective that group has been tremendous.

27:03
Grace Mittl
And it's interesting because CPG doesn't feel like while of course it's like a competitive industry, it really on a day to day basis it doesn't really feel like that because at least for this group we're all on, we see the same vision, we're working towards the same solution, making snacking easier and more accessible for people who have food allergies. So that group has been tremendous startup cpg of course has been tremendous as well. From early learnings. I still am posting in mostly the sales channel, probably like every other day asking questions and then yeah, I've met a ton of just amazing, very giving founders at trade shows that I've connected with. And I have a couple mentors that are either like leading founding teams in their sales divisions or whatever division or just other founders that we meet pretty regularly.

27:51
Grace Mittl
So we feel really supportive by founders who are willing to get time and share their resources and share their networks. Because when there's a world of option as far as like agencies to work with, retailers to talk to, like it's kind of nice to have a little bit of insight from your founder friends of like who they've worked with, who they've not. Who do they recommend? They not recommend because as an early founder like there could be a lot of distractions and a lot of choice and sometimes a lack of decision is the worst decision.

28:18
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's a good little sound bite right there. But no, it's so true. I'm curious too thinking about the support, like how do you and Eli support each other and balance the workload between the two of you to make sure you're both also like staying sane as you create this brand?

28:36
Grace Mittl
Yeah, staying sane. I don't know, sometimes it's really hard. So what's interesting is we had met our senior year as part of this class so weren't really like friends before. We had different social groups and different clubs. And then when we decided to work on this together we just like jumped in. There wasn't a lull. We didn't take like a four week Europe trip after graduated from school. Like we just dove head first into building the business and I think by us both making that decision together and being like, well we're just going to sacrifice these first couple of years of like our professional career to see if this thing works and sticks gave us like an inherent sense of trust and inherent sense of community.

29:15
Grace Mittl
And we're both from the northeast so we decided to stay down in Virginia and just like couch surf for the first eight months and just making it work and whatever. And so we do have a really strong relationship and we definitely have like our focuses, like our day to day focus. But we do work on a lot together. And I think he's my immediate sounding board and I'm that for him as well. So, yeah, I feel like the relationship's very fluid and we both have, like, our own strategic mentors that help us and then we come together and share advice and insights and updates. And I will say it wasn't as structured as what it is now. We have, like, standing meetings every week with just internal meetings and whatnot.

29:55
Grace Mittl
And yeah, I think especially adding, we just hired four to five field sales merchandisers to support the team. So now, like, managing those people, that gave us a better sense of, like, structure and building out company culture and like, doing the things that we normally wouldn't do because it's just the two of us. So it's been really good for us, like professional development and then just. Just taking the brand to a whole other level. Like bringing more people onto the team.

30:19
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. That's really exciting. Congrats. And congrats those people who just got jobs. But I also always like to ask something that you wish you'd known before you started. Absurd snacks. Like a piece of advice that you now have. And maybe it's sometimes not making a decision is the worst decision, but what's a piece of advice that you wish you'd known on, like, day one? Sitting down, coming up with this idea and deciding to go for it.

30:44
Grace Mittl
That is a great question. We mentor a couple students at the University of Richmond, like an hour a week, basically give back to our university and just help, like, the next version of absurd stacks come to life through the university. And what we hear a lot from students and, like, early founders that reach out to us is, like, want to be perfect and, like, want to make sure that whatever they're putting out public facing has to be it. Like, or else people might think differently about, like, oh, is this really where you're spending your time? Or like, this doesn't seem like a real business because they think there's like, this immediate, but it's like, totally fake, right?

31:20
Grace Mittl
There's like, that no one, actually everyone wants to support young founders or founders in general who want to change or do something or build from the ground up something new. And I mean, I fell victim to that too, where, like, I felt like the brand had to be at a certain point in order to start sharing more about it. And were going through the rebrand process, like, were hesitant to share what were doing all the time because were constantly learning. And looking back on Elliot, I wish I would have maybe given more perspective to people and like be more vulnerable because some of those like insights and advice that people might have suggested could have helped guide us in a direction that we didn't think otherwise could be.

32:00
Grace Mittl
So I think doing like small tests, constantly testing and learning on the product and then just being really open to like new conversations and new perspectives because a lot of what we've learned has been from people who are willing to share their advice and expertise. So yeah, I think just be more vulnerable maybe early on would be my piece of advice.

32:19
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love that. And people like to see the process as you were saying, even now like your founder videos like they do the best and people like to see what you're doing and how you're managing things and how you're growing as well. We all love a success story after Phoenix rising from the ashes, so I love that. Well, my last question is just how can the Startup CPG community and our listeners support Absurd Snacks and learn more and follow along on your journey?

32:47
Grace Mittl
Well, I would love if everyone would follow us on Instagram and give a little shout out to Absurd Snacks I guess when by the time this airs will be launched on Amazon and so would love those early purchases reviews the first 90 days of an Amazon launch is like crucial to your rankability for in perpetuity, so those early testimonials and reviews would be really greatly appreciated. But yeah, we'll be at the Startup CPG Pavilion at the Summer Fancy Food show at the end of June, early July. So we're really excited to share the new and improved version of Absurd Stacks because the new production partner that we're working with will have new product fresh off the press just in time for Fancy and Amazon prime too.

33:33
Grace Kennedy
Amazing. Well then everybody who's not at Fancy Foods, go get it on Amazon. And if you're at Fancy Foods, stop by our section and try some Absurd Snacks. But it was so much fun to chat with you Grace and can't wait to see where Absurd Snacks goes next.

33:50
Grace Mittl
Awesome. Thanks for having me.

33:54
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 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 and if you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipsartupcpg.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.