The Startup CPG Podcast

Houston Buehrle
I think my strategy one is just focus on the flavor and make sure that the bottle and the packaging does stand out. So when people are looking at that wall of yellow, then they look at ours and they're like, oh, that looks interesting. I'll try that.

00:25
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, everybody. This is Kaitlyn Bricker, editor at startup cpg. We are back with another founder feature. Today we're talking with Houston Buehler, founder of Little Zing, a Danish mustard sauce that's been in Houston's family for over a century. After Houston's water bottle company went through a recall in bankruptcy, following features on Oprah's Favorite Things and Good Morning America, Houston found himself at farmers markets. He was selling his great grandmother's recipes that his late father used to give his holiday gifts. From landing in over 120 stores in just eight months to hosting TikTok lives multiple times a week, he's building a brand that stands out in an aisle full of yellow. As someone who believes mustard is the superior condiment, Little Zing has earned prime real estate on my fridge door. Enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast.

01:20
Caitlin Bricker
This is Kaitlyn, and today I'm here with Houston Buehler, founder of Little Zing. Houston, welcome to the show.

01:26
Houston Buehrle
Thanks, Caitlin. So happy to be here.

01:28
Caitlin Bricker
I am so happy to have you here. I have to shout out my colleague Melissa. She's the one that turned me on to Little Zing. She knows I'm a huge mustard fan, and when I got to try Little Zing, I was like, wow, this is a good product. Thank you, Melissa, and thank you for being here. And for anybody who's not familiar with Little Zing, can you just give us a quick little snippet of what Little Zing is?

01:52
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. So Little Zing, it's my great grandma's recipe from Denmark. She grew up in Copenhagen, and it's been passed down through our family for literally a hundred years. My dad was the last one to make it make big batches in our kitchen during the holidays and hand them out to friends, family, and clients. It's a really unique mustard. The original flavor, it's sweet, and then it has a little bit of a horseradishy kick. But it's also a lot saucier than traditional mustard. So it's really designed to be drizzled on stuff, and it goes on literally everything.

02:26
Caitlin Bricker
I can confirm that it goes on everything. I will say that squeeze bottle format, I know people are going crazy for squeeze bottles. It really is just so convenient. You don't have to worry about washing dishes, washing a spoon or a knife. After using it, you can literally just go crazy with it.

02:45
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, that was definitely intentional.

02:48
Caitlin Bricker
And mustard, I will say it is the most superior condiment. I've told so many people this before, but if I go into a restaurant and they don't have honey mustard, I think that they should just go out of business. But now I feel like with Little Zing, if they don't have Little Zing as an option, you should probably just close your doors.

03:07
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll hopefully get there.

03:10
Caitlin Bricker
I really would love to see this movement where we do have these more niche condiments in smaller brands of CPG products that are available on a menu of larger restaurants and retailers. Like, go into their deli and be able to order Little Zing on a deli sandwich instead of a typical yellow mustard.

03:30
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. No, I definitely agree. I feel like a lot of jellies and stuff, they all use the same stuff. So having some variety with some smaller brands, more specialty items would be definitely really cool.

03:42
Caitlin Bricker
Totally. And you mentioned horseradish kick. Tell me more about your ingredients and what differentiates Little Zing from other mustards that might be on a shelf.

03:53
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, so we only use five ingredients, the same ingredients that my great grandma used. So there's no preservatives or anything like that. And it's just water, mustard, flour, which is ground down mustard seeds, organic sugar, red wine vinegar, and black pepper. The horseradishy kick comes from the brown mustard seed that we use and how we activate it during production. Yeah, it's really versatile. I put it on pizza, sushi sandwiches, like, literally everything. Some of our customers put it on pasta, so it's always cool to hear how other people are using it.

04:25
Caitlin Bricker
I will say that my husband and I just used it on corn dogs for lunch. I guess went like full toddler mode and had corn dogs for lunch. But I'm here for it. I know you're. This was your grandmother's recipe. Have you gone through any iterations when you were going back and thinking about making this into a product that made it yours, or are you staying true through and through to the original recipe?

04:51
Houston Buehrle
I wanted to stay completely true to the original recipe and the flavor and the consistency and the quality of ingredients. So I haven't touched that at all. We do have some new flavors that we're working on. One of them will be ready in about six weeks, and that will have a different spin on the original flavor. But it really did mean a lot to me to Keep the original as the original. I'm not adding anything. I'm not adding preservatives to make it last longer. So I definitely wanted to keep it the original OG recipe.

05:24
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. And I love it especially because when I do look at condiments, I feel like they're very sneaky. A lot of the times you can find so much added sugar in condiments. I was literally just looking at ketchup yesterday when I was in the grocery store. I try to buy these, like, everyday products and make them not have added sugar, but ketchup. It had 4 grams of added sugar, and I think it was a tablespoon. And I was like, that's a lot for a tablespoon of ketchup.

05:54
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, A lot of condiments are packed with sodium, too, and like, you said, sugar or even preservatives like citric acid and other ones. But yeah, I actually went to the store to make a post, and I. Do you use the Yucca app?

06:08
Caitlin Bricker
I have in the past. I haven't used it in a while, but I'm very familiar.

06:12
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. So I. I literally scanned about 50 different mustards, and they all came back with a poor or bad rating because of the sugar or sodium levels or the use of preservatives. And then I scanned Little Zing and it came back as good. I'm like, all right, sweet. Like, we. We got some good here.

06:29
Caitlin Bricker
That's great. I'm curious, like, how does a brand get onto Yucca? Do you scan it in yourself or does the platform do it?

06:36
Houston Buehrle
So if it's a new product, you have to scan the UPC code and the nutrition label and the ingredients. But anybody, if they find something on the shelf that's not in the app, they can scan it and add it.

06:47
Caitlin Bricker
That's pretty cool. Even cooler that you're basically the standout. And mustard.

06:52
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. Made me happy.

06:53
Caitlin Bricker
Okay, so I did count before we got on to record today. I currently have seven different types of mustard in my refrigerator. I have an entire shelf on the refrigerator door dedicated to mustard. Not a single bottle looks like Little Zing. Talking from the squeeze bottle format. I'm talking from the ingredient list, and I'm also just talking about the branding. So walk me through why you made the decisions that you made to create Little Zing. I want to know about the format, the bottle, the branding.

07:27
Houston Buehrle
I started at a farmer's market just to see if people would buy it, and I would recommend that 10 out of 10 times for anybody starting farmer's market is A perfect launching point because you get strangers to try your product and buy it. Once I started to see some traction, then I started to do a little bit of market research once in my local store just to see what other mustard brands were out there. And obviously I knew about Gray Poupon and French's and Heinz and all that, but there are a handful of others. But one thing I noticed is that every mustard has the same type of bottle with the same type of branding. Most stores have four different yellows, four different Dijons, four different stone grounds. So I really did see an opportunity for something new in the mustard aisle.

08:12
Houston Buehrle
So the first thing I wanted to do was put it in a package that would stand out. So that's why we chose the Boston round squeeze bottle that we use because it's completely different to the aisle. And I've been inspired by Liquid Death and what they've done with water. To me, that's just insane. So I wanted to really create a cool brand. And growing up in Southern California and the surf and skate culture, like, branding's really big down here, so I wanted to kind of embody that. So I chose a good name, Little Zing. It stands out. It's not an old school family recipe name that you see on a lot of current mustards. I thought it was catchy, easy to pronounce, and then our logo is a. It's a mermaid.

08:55
Houston Buehrle
And that's a nod to its Danish roots because of the Little Mermaid sculpture. So I put a lot of time into the branding and how the label should look, and I've. I will say I've gone through about seven different iterations of the label. We have one more coming out and then I think I'm done. But the combination of the bottle we use and the branding and the name I think really makes us stand out in an aisle of plainness.

09:20
Caitlin Bricker
I completely agree. I mean, I see it in my own refrigerator, regrettably, but it's a very good thing because my refrigerator is just a microcosm of what you'd see in a grocery store aisle. It's very cool. And I did not know the connection with the Little Mermaid and the sculpture. That's pretty sweet. I mean, you could probably make some dreams come true for these people who've grown up loving the Little Mermaid. And now you're like, here's a grown up version of, yeah, folk Little Mermaid for you.

09:55
Houston Buehrle
Demos are at a market today. Like, little kids will walk by like, look, mommy, a mermaid. And then they'll end up trying It. I'll give them a sticker or something. So it's always.

10:03
Caitlin Bricker
That's so cool. I need to get a. A little Zing sticker to add to my. Add to my water bottle. Next time I see you, I'll have to snag one. Okay, so this is not your first rodeo. Might be your first rodeo with a perishable product. But to my understanding, you had a brand prior to Little Zing. Can you tell me about your ventures before?

10:27
Houston Buehrle
Yes. So it's called Bindle Bottle. I launched it on Kickstarter in 2017. And picture a hydro flask where the bottom third screws off. And it's kind of. It's a storage compartment for car keys, headphones, credit cards, cash. So it's a great water bottle when you're working out, wearing tight your gym clothes and stuff. So, long story short, we launched that business in 2018, and we got on Oprah's Favorite Things two times, which was incredible. We were on Good Morning America qvc and it was doing really well. We were on track to do about 5 million in sales in 2023. And I'll never forget it. I was at a trade show in January of 2023, and I get a alert on my phone like, you've been tagged.

11:15
Houston Buehrle
So I, I look at it, and it's literally a picture of my face that says, houston, we have a problem. Do not buy a bindle bottle. So I, I open it, and there's every single vacuum insulated bottle uses a little lead solder to seal the vacuum insulation. So that's what we got tagged for. And we had to do a massive recall. And with that followed a class action lawsuit. And literally overnight, the business just was done. So it was really devastating.

11:48
Caitlin Bricker
Whoa. Were you not to get sidetracked from mustard? But I feel like this is very important for other founders to hear. Were you, obviously you were caught off guard by this, but were you at all prepared for how to deal with a situation like this?

12:06
Houston Buehrle
Not at all. I didn't know what to do. And of course, lawyers were involved because of the class action lawsuit. And I did jump on the phone with Disney's legal team because they own ABC and Good Morning America and all that. And it was just so scary. But it did lead me to where I am now. And I remember during that period of the bankruptcy, I just was kind of lost, and I didn't really know what to do. And we worked with a guy at the Humane Society who sold cookies at a farmer's market on weekends and he was telling me how well he was doing and I was like, okay, like, I don't know what I'm going to do next. So I thought hard about what I could sell and I remembered the mustard recipe. So that's kind of all how it began.

12:48
Caitlin Bricker
So tell me more about this because I am very interested in legacy work in general and the legacies that people want to leave behind, what they work on in their lives here and then what they want to leave behind for their loved ones or people that they never knew before. So talk to me about how your grandmother weaved in this mustard into your family's roots and then how it got passed down all the way to you to then share it with the public.

13:14
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, so great grandma made it. It was then passed down to my mom's uncle who was guarding it like hardcore. And my dad was begging him for the recipe and finally got it and he just started making it during the holidays and I remember him with giant bowls in the kitchen and when you're making mustard, it's really pungent to your eyes. So we're all just teary eyed in the kitchen. I recently lost my dad four years ago, so that it does feel really good to carry on the legacy of what he used to do. And I think that's what gives me extra passion with this, is knowing that I'm doing it kind of with him.

13:52
Caitlin Bricker
Well, I'm very sorry to hear about your dad. I do think it's really cool that you're able to help continue this for him. And maybe you can be like the Santa Claus that's giving away little zing at the holidays now. I love that. That is, that is a cool story. And like I said, I do really love hearing about legacies that people are leaving behind. I mean, maybe you didn't think mustard would be the next big thing after a bindle bottle, but here we are. And I think it's kind of a happy ending, I would say.

14:23
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, I'm really excited about it. We've grown pretty quickly over the last eight months. Our true launch was earlier this year. I went to Expo west, which was amazing and chaotic, but it was so cool. And we're going next year. We'll be in the startup CPG section. Yeah, really pumped. But yeah, just with what I've seen in the category and the traction we've received so far, I'm really encouraged. And the new flavor we have, which will be ready in about six weeks, I can share it now. It's a, a garlic miso it's really good. Big umami flavor. I used it on Salmon bowl the other night, put it on some sushi. It's insanely good. So I'm pumped to launch that in the next month or two and sample that at Fancy Food show and Expo West. I'm really excited.

15:13
Caitlin Bricker
Okay. Garlic is my favorite food ever. Mustard is my favorite condiment ever. I'm excited for this. And I'm sure if Melissa's listening, she's probably got her mouth watering right now too.

15:27
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. And same with the new flavor. We're keeping it really simple. Ingredients. It's not gonna be a sodium bomb or a sugar bomb. There's no preservatives, so that's something we're gonna keep in our DNA forever is just keeping stuff clean. We don't need the bottle to last for four years by putting preservatives in it. So keeping it clean and simple is really important.

15:48
Caitlin Bricker
Music to my ears. So you've seen growth with your brand. How many stores did you say you're in or did you say that yet?

15:55
Houston Buehrle
Today we're in about 130. A hundred of those have come in the last eight months.

16:02
Caitlin Bricker
What do you think that says about condiments in general and the CPG world and the way that consumers are behaving?

16:08
Houston Buehrle
I mean, I think people are always looking for something different and innovative and interesting, and that wasn't really there in mustard. So at the big trade shows, like Fancy Food show and Expo west, all the buyers are looking for something different. All the stores typically carry the same things. So if they're the one to find the new mustard, the new granola or whatever it is, then that's what they're going to the shows for.

16:34
Caitlin Bricker
I have only seen your product on shelf once, and I don't say that as a knock. I was so excited when I saw it on the shelves. I saw it at Leavers Locavore in Denver. First of all, Liever's was the best retail shopping experience I've ever had. I was laughing the entire time. Their team is so cool. They have these little, like, what would you call them? Like, Easter eggs around the store with celebrities and funny sayings. Super cool. Was not expecting to see little zing in the aisle, but when I did, I was like, there it is. Like, it just looked so good on the shelf. It stood out. No doubt. What is your retail strategy, if you don't mind me asking? Like, what kind of retailers are you searching out? Where do you want to be?

17:22
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, I mean, That's a really good question and something I'm honestly still trying to fine tune. One thing I've seen a lot in this industry is go deep and not wide. So I am trying to go extra hard in my backyard in Southern California. But obviously I'm not going to say no to a store like Levers. So I think my strategy one is just focus on the flavor and make sure that the bottle and the packaging does stand out. So when people are looking at that wall of yellow, then they look at ours and they're like, oh, that looks interesting. I'll try that. So. And then also just supporting each store with social content or doing quarterly sales if I'm in the area, I'll do demo. So I demo really hard at Bristol Farms and some stores in San Diego.

18:10
Houston Buehrle
But just doing stuff like that and giving as much support as you can is my current strategy. But the stores I'm kind of going for is definitely higher end. Our item is priced a little higher than most of the mustards on the shelf. So focusing on the higher end store, natural stores, stuff like that.

18:27
Caitlin Bricker
Very cool. I haven't seen you sample live yet. What is your go to pairing when you're sampling or are people just tasting it straight up?

18:36
Houston Buehrle
I sample it on salami. Ooh. Yeah. And then I wait for them to walk up, and then I'll drizzle it on right in front of them so they can get a feel for the texture and everything. And then for people that don't eat meat, I. Right now I. I've been doing it straight up, but I'm trying to think of a good alternative. A potato chip I've used before, so. And that's also a. An odd pairing. Mustard on a potato chip. But it works, so it's odd.

19:01
Caitlin Bricker
It doesn't sound odd to me whatsoever. I literally just picked up a bag of ketchup chips from Trader Joe's. I went just to pick up some goodies for a friend's bachelorette party and saw they had ketchup chips. I ate them when I was a child. Not as high quality, but if there was a mustard chip, I would be all over it.

19:22
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, that's definitely something I've been thinking about for a collab or something. Once. Once we're all set with our new flavors, I think a little zing chip would be excellent.

19:34
Caitlin Bricker
Oh, man. I'm also thinking of, like, have you heard of Nuffs N U F S?

19:40
Houston Buehrle
Yeah.

19:41
Caitlin Bricker
That if they did, like, a special edition. Christine, if you're listening, if there was a Special edition mustard cracker. That would be good stuff. Any other collabs, dream collabs that you have in your mind or like not even just collabs with other CPG brands, but spill those if you have them too. This is the time to do it. Or even like delis that you have on your radar. Anything that's on your mind. Where would you like to see Little Zing outside of a traditional retail setting?

20:12
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, I definitely want to partner with more restaurants. Like you said earlier, it's really good on pizza. So yeah, partnering with a local pizza shop or I was demoing at Bristol Farms and Lottie's Meats. They were there. They make bratwurst and stuff like that. So doing some sort of collab with them and doing a little pop up hot dog stand or something like that. And I think that really helps just with brand awareness too. You get people to try it and you have a fun setup. So that's definitely all stuff that's on the radar.

20:44
Caitlin Bricker
I love to hear it and I love Lotties. They are also a crazy good sister duo that's just making unbelievable products. All right, so I would love for more Little Zing to get into more hands and hopefully more retail doors. Can we wrap this up by you telling everybody where they can find you online so everyone can go and stock you and also stock up on Little Zing?

21:10
Houston Buehrle
Yeah, definitely. We're on Amazon, so check out Amazon. We also can ship nationwide through our website, littlezing.com and if you're on TikTok, I do TikTok live a couple times a week, have some flash sales there. So those three channels we can ship. We ship the same day, so that's a perfect spot.

21:31
Caitlin Bricker
Okay, I have to ask about TikTok live before we go. How has your experience been with TikTok live?

21:37
Houston Buehrle
I don't, I don't really know what I'm doing on there, but it works. I mean, I go live for 45 minutes to an hour and I have flash sales and I give away our little tote bags with each order. And it's been great. I mean, we're getting really positive reviews. And for a brand that's bootstrapped with no real marketing budget, it's a perfect free spot to promote your product and get new customers.

22:03
Caitlin Bricker
Okay, good to know. I'm sure other brands are probably going to hear this and be like, what am I doing? Why am I not on TikTok live slinging my product?

22:11
Houston Buehrle
Another thing is TikTok shows you how many units are sold on Your sku. So I was just doing research and I saw other CPG brands doing pretty well on there. I'm like, okay, like, I'll give it a try. And I think consistency helps. The more you do it, the more the algorithm kind of feeds more viewers to your. Your live. But yeah, I've been enjoying it.

22:32
Caitlin Bricker
Does it feel like you're kind of on like your own QVC channel when you're doing it?

22:37
Houston Buehrle
100%, yeah. I'm just repeating the same thing every three minutes because people are always filtering in and out, so it's a little exhausting. So make sure you have a water bottle next to you. But, yeah, it's fun.

22:51
Caitlin Bricker
Very cool. I am going to have to go follow you after we hang up from this call and I definitely need to catch you one of these lives. I feel like it's very admirable. And it's also just like, it probably is good practice for you doing demos because it's the same thing. You're still live, you're in front of people, and you're saying the same thing over and over.

23:12
Houston Buehrle
Yeah. And once you get over the fact that you're talking to a phone, it gets pretty easy and you can really demonstrate it. So when I'm doing it, I, I take a plate and I put some gray Poupon on there and then squeeze ours next to it just to show the consistency, like the drizzle of it. And then people are asking questions. You can answer their questions and it's a good time.

23:31
Caitlin Bricker
Very cool. I love that for you. I'm definitely going to catch you on there. All right, Houston, it has been so fun talking to you. Very excited about this new SKU that you have coming out. I will be all over that as well.

23:45
Houston Buehrle
Well, yeah, I'll let you know.

23:46
Caitlin Bricker
All right, sweet. I'll talk to you soon. All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a solid and leave us a five star review on ratethispodcast.com startup cpg I'm Caitlin Bricker, the host of the Founder feature series and editor at Startup CPG. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack and get on my radar. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new and emerging brands to spotlight. If you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our free CPG community on Slack. You can sign up via our website@startupcpg.com see you around.