
FounderArc · 2025-12-17 · 34 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
40 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Josh Sizemore brings two decades of CPG entrepreneurship to this conversation, detailing how he transformed a bankrupt $200 million heritage brand - Original New York Seltzer - into a 40,000-store distribution network in roughly a year. His strategy combined speed, hiring beverage mentors, and leveraging the brand's heritage equity. Beyond that revival, Sizemore shares how he identified and capitalized on opportunities ranging from a private Tennessee aquifer (premium water brand) to Cary Foods' powdered kombucha innovation with BK Co, which scaled to hundreds of millions in revenue. He explains the challenges of managing diverse business models - from e-commerce (cbd.com sold to Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart's team) to 1-800-Got-Junk's franchise system focused on GM quality and culture. Now, Feast Fast represents his latest bet: partnering with a doctor and scientist to bring diabetic-safe snacks to market. Throughout, Sizemore emphasizes speed of execution, hiring strong operational teams, and focusing relentlessly on culture and customer experience as his core operating principles across wildly different categories.
He hired experienced beverage mentors to steer operations, leveraged the brand's $200 million heritage equity and strong consumer/retailer preference, hired 2-3 brokers to call on retailers, and moved extremely fast on operational priorities like securing a bottling facility and securing distribution quickly before consumer memory of the brand faded.
Powdered kombucha removes fermentation, delivers 10x the probiotics in a shelf-stable stick form, includes prebiotics, doesn't require cold storage, and tastes better than traditional liquid kombucha - delivering significantly higher value per serving while being easier to distribute and market.
He mentions a "bad divorce" with his partners and an early sale, indicating co-founder conflict destroyed value despite owning a legitimate 10-million-gallon-per-day aquifer with bottling facility in Tennessee - success isn't guaranteed even with strong foundational assets.
He identifies common threads (culture, employee experience, customer experience) and applies proven operational frameworks; he hires strong operational leaders for domain expertise rather than learning everything himself, then focuses on people, margins, and go-to-market strategy.
Feast Fast is a diabetic-safe snack brand founded by a doctor and scientist; Josh joined approximately 9-10 months before this interview after being approached by the founders, leveraging his CPG expertise to commercialize their medical/scientific credibility.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode has scattered CPG-specific data points - the AB distribution pullout killing ONYS, probiotic count differentials in powdered kombucha, the diabetic snack market size - but is predominantly a loosely structured career retrospective padded with generic entrepreneur platitudes and significant filler. The insight-to-runtime ratio is low for a 34-minute episode.
it went bankrupt, but it only failed because of the founder. They actually got an offer from AB for 4,400 million to acquire the brand. And he didn't want to sell, but AB was their exclusive distributor, so they pulled their distribution
if you're in a fasted state or ketosis, your blood sugar and blood glucose has to remain steady and baseline. And if it spox, you're
The episode is almost entirely a career retrospective with no counterintuitive frameworks, contrarian arguments, or first-principles thinking surfaced. The diabetic snack market-positioning angle has a germ of insight but is never developed beyond surface-level product description.
I think being an Opportunistic, probably. Person with that mindset
it's always gratifying when you can have to dos to get checked off
Josh has genuine multi-venture CPG operating experience - reviving a bankrupt brand to 40,000 doors, building a novel powdered kombucha brand, running a 1-800-GOT-JUNK franchise - making him a real practitioner. However, his track record is mixed with multiple early or messy exits and the flagship current venture is only months old.
I think we went from 0 to 40,000 stores in like a year, which was pretty crazy
jumped into the kombucha business, uh, and started uh, a brand called uh, BK Co. And uh, it was the first of its kind, powdered kombucha. And built uh, it built it up to a couple hundred million
Some concrete numbers and named entities (40,000 stores, 150 million US diabetics, 10 billion vs 1 million MCUs, Cary Foods, KIND, AB) give the episode texture, but many key claims stay vague - 'couple hundred million,' 'ended badly,' 'couple of years' - and no margin data, customer acquisition costs, or verified revenue figures are ever shared.
I think we went from 0 to 40,000 stores in like a year
if you had, you know, a regular RTD, had 1 million MCUs or whatever of probiotics, ours would have 10 billion or whatever
The host predominantly mirrors the guest's statements back as affirmations or asks generic 'tell me more' follow-ups; there is virtually no pushback, no probing of multiple admitted failures, and no challenging of vague or unverified numbers. The episode functions as an unchallenged career highlight reel.
Oh, wow.
Feels like a monumental lift. But it must have been pretty gratifying to look back after, you know, a couple of years and go, yeah, we got, we got the tailwinds behind us a little bit.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
In this episode of FounderArc, Blaine Bertsch sits down with Josh Sizemore, a seasoned entrepreneur in the CPG world, to unpack a career defined by speed, resilience, and reinvention. From selling basketball cards as a kid to reviving a bankrupt $200M beverage brand and scaling it into tens of thousands of retail locations, Josh shares how opportunistic thinking and relentless execution fuel long-term success. The conversation dives into what it really takes to rebuild failed brands, move fast in crowded consumer markets, and adapt across wildly different business models - from beverages and bottled water to CBD e-commerce, kombucha, and franchise operations. Josh opens up about burnout, hard-earned lessons from imperfect exits, and why experience often matters more than a “perfect” outcome. Josh also introduces his latest venture, FeastFast, a breakthrough snack brand designed for people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, and anyone focused on fasting and ketosis. He explains how clinical testing, patents, and disciplined product development are helping FeastFast deliver snacks that don’t spike blood sugar - while still tasting great.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Foreign.
Speaker B: Welcome to Turningpoint. I'm your host, Blaine Burch, co founder and CEO at ah, dry Run Cash Flow Forecasting Software where we help the office of the CFO leave spreadsheets behind and model everything from cash flow through to complex scenarios with clarity and control. And joining me today is Josh Sizemore, a longtime entrepreneur in the CPG space who is helping to launch Feast Fast today to deliver safe and healthy diabetic snacks. Welcome to the show, Josh.
Speaker A: Thanks Blaine, appreciate it. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker B: So uh, we were talking before the show a little bit and you mentioned like I know you've been uh, involved uh, in the CPG space for a long time. You launched a ton of different um, uh, different products and, and but I wanted to go all the way back to the beginning. Where was the first I um, guess time that you thought, hey, you know what, I, I think I'm going to dip my toe into this entrepreneurial space.
Speaker A: Um, that's a good question. So I can go way back. And me and my best friend was in, I think we were in fifth and or sixth grade and we talked his dad into building us a card uh, shop out of a shed. And so uh, we loved basketball cards, we loved playing and that's what we did was we played basketball and I played basketball, you know, through college, et cetera. But we had probably 10,000 basketball cards and we're selling them in class, in classroom. So we were like why don't we just take that shed and have your dad build it and we can set up shop. And we were literally did and we was making like 5, 600 bucks a week as like 11 year olds from people around the community, from kids in the community. So that was pretty cool. It was probably my, definitely my first like, you know, toe dip into the entrepreneurship and then you know, fast forward. Um, it's just, I think my, my mom was she, you know, my grandpa on my mom's side was a um, he owned the first TV line on the first telephone line in our little small town. And uh, so it, it could be you know, a little bit of inherited stuff. My mom, she had one of, she had a really big uh, scrub shop. She's had been in the medical field for 40 years. She's retired now but she had at some point along the way she had a scrub shop and I helped her with that when I was in 16, 17 uh, so that was cool. And then you know, I moved from Kentucky. I lived in a town of 900 people so I moved as soon As I could. I moved out to Miami and started my career in retail. And, um, you know, just wanted to work my way up as fast as possible, uh, and did so. Moved to LA and had some big jobs with Shanola, uh, and Lacoste. And, you know, those are great, uh, in their own way, but kind of what got burned out. And then that's when I jumped into more consumer goods and specifically beverage, uh, for. I was living in Detroit at the time, and my buddy called me. He's like, I just bought this brand called Original New York Seltzer. It was, you know, $200 million brand in the 90s. It's really ahead of its time. Went bankrupt. Crazy, uh, story on how he got it. The owner was kind of a kook, I think, but ultimately he, he found a way to get it. And, uh, he called me, he's like, hey, you want to come out and try to build this brand for me? And I was like, yeah, try. So jumped kind of head first into that. And first thing I did was, uh, uh, hire some really great beverage, um, folks, uh, that can be my mentors and also kind of help me steer the ship. And. But, you know, it was such a valued and heritage brand and had, um, a great stigma behind it. And so it was super easy to get back into retail and distribution and wholesale. I think we went from 0 to 40,000 stores in like a year, which was pretty crazy.
Speaker B: Oh, wow.
Speaker A: Wow. Yeah.
Speaker B: So you're, you're, um. I just want to circle back a little bit because you had these experiences and like, you know, as I talk with entrepreneurs, it's, It's. This is very common. It's like these experiences start to stack up and it's, um. Entrepreneur's always got that. That eye out for opportunity. And, you know, it's like, that's oftentimes what, you know, it's like, oh, good opportunity. Over here, over there, over there. And you start zigzagging back and forth. Um, and, you know, you mentioned, uh, you know, kind of the. The burnout from working for the big brands. But what. There, there must have been like, what was some of the foundational things that you grabbed from there that went, okay, I'm prepared to go and take on this, uh, this bankrupt company and see if we can get it back and going.
Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I prepared. I don't know if I was. I don't know if I said that to myself. I think. I think you just have an, you know, to your point, there was an opportunity. And I think being an Opportunistic, probably. Person with that mindset, um, felt it was, I guess I felt it was time to like, just take a leap and try something different and new. And you know, I trusted my friend and um, like, you know, the, the burnout was happening. So it just felt at that time it was good timing to like, kind of do something else, you know. Uh, so whether I was prepared or not, I definitely wasn't prepared for, for the beverage thing, but I was prepared to make a, you know, hopefully good enough decisions to uh, move us forward in the sense of whether it be operationally or culturally or, um, you know, manpower or whatever, whatever needed to be. I felt like I could, I could be nimble and um, tackle that head on, I guess.
Speaker B: Yeah, I want to dig into this one a little bit because, uh, um, companies are under a lot of pressure right now. You see it everywhere. There's a lot. And I'm quite interested in how you took a, uh, brand that had essentially failed. But you guys saw opportunity, your friends saw opportunity, and you actually figured out there's a path forward, there's a way that we can actually get a little bit of momentum, a little bit of wind at our backs again. Um, just talk a little bit to that of you show up, first day and you're like, okay, we got a problem here. You know, how did you just start to move the boulder, you know, like that massive, uh, rock in front of you to get to the point, like you said, where you got to 40,000 stores, where you're actually in 40,000 stores.
Speaker A: Yeah. So I think a couple things to take note of. One, I move really fast with anything I do. Like, I go hard and fast and like, I don't stop until something gets done. And if I tell you I'm going to do something, one, uh, hundred percent will, it will get done. And then to the point of like taking a failed brand. It did fail because it was, it went bankrupt, but it only failed because of the founder. They actually got an offer from AB for 4,400 million to acquire the brand. And he didn't want to sell, but AB was their exclusive distributor, so they pulled their distribution and ultimately he went bankrupt. Um, so, you know, in that sense the product was great. He was just a dumbass and didn't really take note of it. I don't know, I don't want to say he was dumb, but hearing from my friend on what he, what, how, what he had to go through to get the rights to the trademark from him. Yeah, it was out there. Um, so, but just jumping in day one is just like, all right, I got 10 things on my list that I need to do now, and I'm going to try to do them as efficiently and as fast as possible. You know, got to buy a bottling facility. Okay, that's, that's a big one. So that was number one. You know, hire a couple great beast. That's number two. Like, talk to distributors, talk to, you know, that's number three. Talk to retailers. That's number four. Like, you know, and the list went on and on. So it's just getting everything knocked out as fast as possible. Um, and so, and that's how I continue to do, that's how I continue to live today and work today.
Speaker B: Well, and imagine at that point too, like the time is of the essence because people recognize the brand and I imagine you don't want it to disappear because you would start to lose the equity that's been built up over all that time.
Speaker A: Yeah, well, it was. So the brand hadn't been around for 10 years. So it was, there's been a long period of time where nobody saw it for, you know, from, um, many years.
Speaker B: Oh, wow.
Speaker A: And so, and so that was the one that was really the only thing I was like, concerned about was, well, how would this be adopted back into, uh, consumer behavior? Um, you know, the retail channels, the distribution channels. Like, you know, are we, you know, should we go retail? Should we go food service? Should we do this? So there's many questions and unknowns, especially from a, a bankrupt brand. Wouldn't you learn? You know, I didn't know, like, it only went bankrupt because of, uh, the guy's faulty. You know, whatever he did, it wasn't a bad product. So when I learned that consumers, I mean, and retailers loved it, I was like, yeah, this is, this could be an opportunity for us to, to kind of strike quickly. Um, bringing an old brand back that everyone loved is sell, sold through really well, especially in California. And so we did, we hired, you know, two or three brokers and, you know, got, you know, put their feet to the pavement and started calling on retailers and it just started happening. Mhm.
Speaker B: Feels like a monumental lift. But it must have been pretty gratifying to look back after, you know, a couple of years and go, yeah, we got, we got the tailwinds behind us a little bit.
Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. Like, it's, uh, it's always gratifying when you can have to dos to get checked off. You know, as an entrepreneur, you know, that's, this was Kind of my first, you know, I was, I was being an entrepreneur and going outside the box. But you're still. It's not your brand. You know, I didn't create it from scratch. I didn't, you know, I was just put in a scenario where I needed to build it kind of from back from scratch. Um, so it's a little different. Um, but yeah, I mean, you know, I stayed on until 2022. Uh, ah, that's when we sold the brand. But, um, but during those years, you know, I made a big move and moved to Kentucky and started my own water brand during, uh, that time, so.
Speaker B: Well, yeah, so tell me a little bit about that. What was the, like, what opportunity did you see there? Um, um. And like, how'd you say, okay, this is the time, this is where I'm gonna take a bit of a leap and, and create something else. So that. Just on my own.
Speaker A: Right? Yeah, it was a super interesting how it came about. I was meeting with a, uh, the board of a university, uh, and one of the board members wanted to, uh, chat with me afterwards and go over, like, a bunch of businesses. Yeah, just get some advice or whatever. And so one of the things he mentioned was that he, he owned this aquifer in Tennessee that had a modeling facility on it with three more, three other partners. And he said the water was amazing, produced 10 million gallons a day. And I was like, this guy's full of. There's no way this is true. Uh, and so I, you know, we decided to meet again the next day, and he brought me all the documents and it was all legit. Um, and then when I saw it, I was just like, this is. This is it. This is, this is what I want to do. Like, so I asked him if he can meet with me one more time the next day. Um, and I went home that night, or back to my hotel room, and I literally built a business plan for the first five years, created the deck, went through the financials, like, created the branding, the brand, the name, how we wanted to position ourselves as a premium brand, uh, everything, and brought it back to him the next day and presented it. And I told him, this is how much money we need, and if he wants to do it, I'll move back from la, you know, in five or six days, and I'll jump in head first. And he said, let's go. And then that was, that was, that. And, um, so that was, you know, built that up for four years. That was a really fun time, honestly. Uh, even though it ended badly, with a bad divorce and, um, you know, selling early and all this stuff. But it was a great time. Like, I lived actually 2 hours, maybe 2 hours, 15 minutes one way from our plant, uh, and, and source. And I drove it every day, four years every day. Uh, and unless I was in retail meetings or investor meetings, I was there at the plant, bottling the water, loading the water. You know, it was, it was, it was awesome. So, so much, so many lessons learned there. Um. And, uh, yeah, unfortunately ended, you know, not as well as I, uh, hoped or could have for sure. But, uh, it was great, Great, uh, learning experience. Uh, no doubt. Yeah.
Speaker B: Well, and that's, that's the, um. Uh, unfortunately, like, you hear that all too often too, as I talk with entrepreneurs all of the time. And it's. Even when things are successful, it can be a real challenge to, to, to get it all tied up in a neat bow at the end. That's, That's a really hard thing to do.
Speaker A: Yeah. And success is, you know, that's a big word. Right? Uh, like people. Everybody has a different definition. And so it's, you know, I'm sure some people would look at it and say, yeah, man, that's crazy. That's so you. That was so successful. Me, I was like, yeah, we fucked up and fell short, you know.
Speaker B: Yeah, it's, uh, um, the entrepreneurs, I guess, burden is you have a vision in mind and if you don't reach that. Yeah. Other people could look and say it was a success. Uh, maybe not in my mind. And sometimes it can be the flip side too, because I've seen that too, where, uh, you can have a business and the investors will think it's not a success. It's not the unicorn we wanted.
Speaker A: Uh, Right.
Speaker B: But the founder actually, they get, they get in the black, they get profitable, they build a nest egg, they make a. Build a business. And from their point of view, it could be like, this is actually wildly successful from. So you're right. Success is a very different, uh. Um, everyone views a little bit differently. And I know as an entrepreneur, it's. It's whatever's in your mind is what counts the most, I guess.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, um. And if you're just looking at money. Yeah. Then you could go up or down. Yeah. It was successful or was it not? You know, that's just a point of view of what. Money equals success. But for me, it was a success. Success in the sense of the experience was awesome. So that was definitely a success.
Speaker B: Yeah. And those experiences are so valuable Ah, that's, that's generally what powers the entrepreneurs forward and, and helps um, them you know, find that next opportunity as well. And um, so, so what is sort of, you know, went a little sideways at the end there for you. What, what, what was your next sort of endeavor you tackled?
Speaker A: Yeah, so we uh, uh I moved back to LA and started uh, an e commerce uh, platform called cbd.com and it was kind of this Amazon uh, for CBD brands. We literally built it on Amazon's you know, outline. It would look just like Amazon when you logged in, et cetera. So we had all CBD brands probably in the world, 90% of them. And um, it was in LA, uh, and it was still a pretty gray area at the time. So you know, figuring out marketing, especially online direct consumer was a little difficult. Uh, we did it, we did it pretty well. Um, but we started adding components of like hospitality and retail into the, into the mix to uh, ensure that your brand would you know, get a X, uh amount of more exposure, give us a little more revenue in the, in the bank. Uh, started doing same day delivery breeze in, in la which was great. Um, and then we did it for a couple years and then sold it to Snoop ah Dogg and Martha Stewart's crew. Um, wasn't a great exit but you know, good experience. Um, and uh, from there uh, I kind of did a right turn and moved up to San Francisco and became president of one um, 800 got junk. I don't know if you know that
Speaker B: brand but uh, yes, I think I've uh, I've heard of it. I don't know just from seeing the trucks go by or if I heard a podcast. It may have been that one on How I built this or something like that. I don't know if they were on that show or.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Brian, yeah, Brian, he's from Canada. He, he was the one, he's the one that founded it. But uh, yeah, I mean it was you know, 25, 26 year old business, very turnkey, great uh profit margins, you know, um, so it was great in that aspect. But there was no go to market strategy. There was no marketing pivots, there was no um, you know, things like innovation. Um, it was just higher great GMs and have great customer service and you'll you know, your uh, one, your franchise will do 25 net net, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: But again I was just kind of hanging out making sure that our GMs was, was good. You know, it wasn't Nothing special. So uh, did that, did that for a couple years, got uh, bored honestly. And then uh, jumped into the kombucha business, uh, and started uh, a brand called uh, BK Co. And uh, it was the first of its kind, powdered kombucha. And built uh, it built it up to a couple hundred million. And um, the board wanted me to move to Wisconsin and take uh, the whole operation to Wisconsin. And I just didn't want to go to Wisconsin, honestly. Um, so I helped him find a new CEO and kind of stepped away from that and uh, was advising. Go ahead.
Speaker B: Sorry, I want to circle back a little bit here because what I find really interesting again we were talking about opportunity and you went from uh, you kind of went from a brand to suddenly to like an online community which is, that's a totally different model, right? Like a completely different model. And I know, I know myself. I came from uh, you know, I came from ah, you know, owning a creative agency to starting a software company and thinking I knew more about it than I actually did. You know, that's because. But you know, it's like, hey, I know enough, right? And sometimes enough to be dangerous. And then, and then you go to um, uh, like okay, we got to get a go to market strategy for this, this um, this junk hauling business and then back over to uh, uh, um, a consumer product business. How did you, how did you navigate and prepare and actually stay on top of such diverse changes in different business models and um, all the different problems that come with them?
Speaker A: Yeah, I think, um, so with, with cbd, I was again trying to put my, even though we were online business, I try to gear it, you know, I tried to put my hard retail hat on and consumer goods spin on it to where we were physical and in market and in hotels. And now we're delivering the goods to you. We're not just online. So in that sense I kind of made those things happen. Um, and then with 100 got junk, it was, you know, it, it aligned with my ethos which was culture, employee experience, customer experience, like that's got to happen. So we were a lot super aligned on that stuff. Uh, so it was easy to jump in and like make sure that things were happening in that sense. Uh, and then, and really that's, that's the business because it's such a seasoned business. They're already, the operations is already turn me and you just really gotta focus on the culture and the experience. And if you're good at that, then you'll thrive. So um, and Then, you know, jumping into the beverage, I felt very confident at that time with, uh, as far as the kombucha. I felt very confident that I could create a brand around this new, innovative concept because it tasted really good. And I hate kombucha, but it was really good. So we had really good flavors. And then we launched and, yeah, it took off.
Speaker B: So who, uh, where, like, where did that idea come from that was you got connected with the innovator that actually invented this powdered kombucha?
Speaker A: Yeah. Um, so Cary Foods created the powder, and they're the biggest, first or second largest food ingredient company in the world. Um, and they're also in Wisconsin. And, um, yeah, got connected with them. They had this opportunity and they had some, you know, VCs behind it that wanted to put it in market. And one thing led to another, and that's when I built, uh, the brand.
Speaker B: I'm a little curious on the, on the. Just a totally different side note here. How do they do powdered kombucha? Because kombucha is, um, like the health benefits that come with it. I always had it pictured as more of a, like a fresh product. Uh, how did they make that sort of transition? And I'm just, I'm more curious on the, on the actual product side. Cause I'd never heard of it before.
Speaker A: Yeah, it's. So kombucha is fermented, basically fermented vegetables that create a pre and probiotic. Well, not even a pre. Not even a, A prebiotic, but just a probiotic. Um, um. So that's really what kombucha is. And then when you put that liquid that it has been created into another liquid to make it taste better. I mean, in my opinion, none of them taste good as far as the liquid ready to drink, uh, drinks. So they found a way to just remove the process of fermentation and go straight to creating, uh, a powdered form of the probiotic. And we were able to do, also put a prebiotic in this powder. So, you know, if you had, you know, a regular RTD, had 1 million MCUs or whatever of probiotics, ours would have 10 billion or whatever. And, uh, at the same, you know, and this small stick, and it gives you more bang for the buck. You know, it tastes. It tastes much better. It's. The more value there is skyrocketed versus what you're getting in the store. It's shelf stable. You don't have to keep it cold. So there's so much, so many more benefits to it. Than a. Ready to drink.
Speaker B: Yeah, I find that really interesting. You know, um, those benefits are. That's such like as an entrepreneur, that's such an opportunity when you're. I don't, I would never go into CPG space because I don't know anything about it. But you know, when you're talking about shelf stable and thinking, oh, look at that, it's like check mark, check mark, check mark, check mark. Um, great for the entrepreneur, great for the business. But then now you have also on the flip side, a way to really market to the, the consumer. Uh, and say this is also really easy for you. And it's, you know, it's got the benefits. It's like the benefits. Everyone wins. It's a win win. Both you and the. On the, and the consumer.
Speaker A: Right? Yeah, 100%. Like it's uh, it's rare that you find something that's innovative but also can scale easily without, you know, and, and not have too many roadblocks. I think the only, the only hurdle was just having the consumer can understand what the powdered piece of it was. Right. Um, because to, to your point earlier and to your question, like you thought kombucha was something different. How can you be, how can it be a powder? So that was really the only kind of hurdle. And you know, the marketing uh, push that we did was um, you know, we did like legit commercials on like Hulu and like you know, to just to make sure people understood exactly what was happening.
Speaker B: Yeah, um, yeah, no, I find it really fascinating. It's just a space I, you know, hear, hear a lot about, but I don't know uh, much about it. It's not what I'm exposed to. Um, so where did you go from there? Like that was a uh, big win that sold and now next thing up, what's the next opportunity you saw?
Speaker A: So uh, from there I was just doing a lot of uh, advising uh, other startups or big businesses and about, I don't know, nine or 10 months ago, got approached by these folks who were um, wanting to put their snacks in the market. They were a doctor and a scientist who had known each other for a long time and they were overweight and went uh, through this weight loss, uh, pro, not program weight loss journey I guess. And uh, through that journey, the, the, the mechanism they use was fasting and ketosis. Well, um, you know, through that journey they also wanted to eat snacks that, you know, because all these keto friendly snacks, you know, in the, in the market, like they tried them all and Being doctors, they blood testing themselves right after they tried, and all of them spiked their blood sugar. So they're like, you know, and what people, a lot, a lot of people don't understand is if you're in a fasted state or ketosis, your blood sugar and blood glucose has to remain steady and baseline. And if it spox, you're. Yeah, they, you, you know, you're kicked out of it. So they wanted to create a product that uh, and a, uh, snack product that did not do that, that did not kick you out of ketosis or kick you out of fasting and didn't spike your blood sugar or insulin. And so they worked on it, worked on it, and they found, found something that did. And for the, you know, for two years, they, you know, went on this weight loss journey, lost 100 pounds each, plus. And then they started this program called Foy fasting and started utilizing these, you know, started getting their own clients utilizing these snacks that they were homemade making, really. And, um, they were working. So nine or ten months ago, they're like, we want to put this in the market at scale. And, um, someone found me and uh, you know, this really aligned with my ethos and passions and health and fitness. Um, and I knew the market well. I know the market well. Keto and. But the one thing that got my attention even more was the fact it didn't spike your blood insulin and your blood glucose. And so that was an opportunity for us to really make a play to be the top snack brand in the world for people with diabetes or pre diabetics. Um, you know, 150 million just in the U.S. which is insane. And just think, every time you eat a snack or something, you have to check your insulin levels, right? So what if you had a snack that you didn't have to do that, A consistent food product that you could always count on, maintain your insulin levels, not have to worry about it. And that's what we want to be. And um, we even have a patent on our, on our products, which is crazy. I've never seen one in, in the food space. But, um, but I don't like to get into too much to the wee in the weeds on the science and the patent. I just want to make sure people understand that, you know, our products are delicious. You know, they don't spike your blood sugar. Um, and we have four SKUs of, uh, cookies right now, four flavors. Uh, we're coming out with, uh, cereal and crackers before the end of the year that are even better than our cookies. And um, yeah, we, uh, we're here to help these folks and we think we got a big opportunity to do so.
Speaker B: That's, you know, it's, it's always amazing to hear the stories of people solving problems, their own problem, and then seeing opportunity out of solving that problem. And this case is really interesting because they solved their own problem, then went and looked and said, it actually solves a really big problem with a lot of people. And I imagine that recognition was somewhere where they thought, we need to do something, uh, about this. So, um, I'm curious a little bit about like, you've just, you've stepped in, you know, really quite recently, and they're just getting started. Um, what, you know, having gone through this a number of times, what are some of the steps that you, you need to take to say, here's how we're going to get some traction, get some traction fast. And even though it's really unique in what I expect would be somewhat crowded, uh, space though.
Speaker A: Yeah, it's a huge crowded space. Um, that's why, you know, having the point of view of a safe diabetic snack kind of sets us apart from that crowd. But yeah, going back, I mean, it's, you know, uh, they didn't have a brand, they didn't have a, you know, all they had was some homemade cookies that they've been making or snacks, you know, different versions. So one was ensuring that we could have a consistent snack that was consistently not a, uh, spike in blood sugar. So we tested, tested, tested, we got that. Next was find a co packer and a co manufacturer that could create these cookies for us and understanding that they also need to be able to create our crackers and our cereal down the line. So, you know, one of my good friends was, uh, his former COO of, uh, kind, um, and he gave me a list of manufacturers, you know, and out of that list, it was a long list. It came down to like two that could actually pull it off. And then it came down to one that could actually pull it off. So we've been working, you know, so contacting them, making sure that they can do it and you know, them proving themselves and going through the trials and the samples and um, you know, figuring out cost and our cogs and you know, now it's packaging, now it's branding, you know, creating that, creating the, you know, the brand, the logos, the packaging, you know, the messaging, uh, uh, and then it's to, you know, when are we launching? You know, once we launch, how are we going to get it out. It's the marketing team, it's the TikTok team, it's the Google, it's all everybody that's kind of hopefully working together to get our name out there. Right? So that's, that's kind of how it, how it goes. Um, you know I have a, I have a really great spreadsheet guy that uh, he's ops and finance and he kicks ass. So he finds every little dollar cent we can, you know, we can save um, and those, and those things will be better as we scale and you know, um, become, you know, get bigger um, and be able to order more product and from our co man etc. But we're uh, in a pretty good place. We uh, you know we, we launched about two and a half, three months ago and had a, a good two week launch and then it, you know, somebody hacked our meta account and kind of kicked our ass for the next two months. And uh, so we literally had to start over about three weeks, three weeks ago, uh, as far as our ads and stuff. So but you know we're starting to pick back up again and uh, you know we'll get to where we, where we wanted to be, where we need to be, uh, sooner than later. Uh, I, uh, I know, I know that. And uh, yeah, it's a, it's, it's an interesting journey but once you've done it so many times like you know it took me literally about six months to you know, create this brand from scratch to in the market. So um, and you know that's working 247 trying to you know, do everything, you know, as fast as you can as, as but, but as efficient as you can. Um, and uh, and yeah, it's uh, it's fun. You know, it's, it's hard to do but we think we have a great uh, we have to think if we have a great product. Uh, and we'll. Well I know we have great products and our cereal is actually even better than our cookies and our crackers are. I mean I can't believe they taste that good honestly. And do what they do.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Uh, so if people wanted to find you guys like uh, they're, they're listening to the show and they're I need that product. Know someone that needs that product. How should they find you?
Speaker A: Yeah, um, the product feast fast co Just uh, go to the website, check it out and it's as of September 3rd we'll be on Amazon. So you can do, get on Amazon. Um, and for people that go to the website. Uh, for your first order, uh, try Feast Fast Fam 25 and you get 25% off your first order. So.
Speaker B: Terrific. I'll definitely drop that in the show notes. And, um, uh, well, thanks so much, Josh, for being on the show. Really enjoyed it. Really great stories. It was interesting hearing about an area that I don't know that much about, to be honest. So I was quite fascinated with that. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker A: Yeah, man, I was glad to talk and it was nice to meet you. I was glad to be here.
Speaker B: And, uh, for those of you out there, if you're a CFO or you're on a finance team and you're still buried in the spreadsheet, please come see us@dry run.com. we're going to make your spreadsheets basically go away, save you a ton of time, get that accuracy into your forecast, and also give you something that you can present management that they can understand at a glance. So, uh, again, we're@dry run.com.
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