🥗 JORDAN WANNEMACHER & BLAKELY BAR // SALADSPRINKLES FOUNDERS

20:26Jordan Wannemaker:So we kind of came up with those elements and then started doing some recipe development. The original product was actually a toasted breadcrumb product. And that was what we were trying to make at first, but knowing nothing about food manufacturing or any of that, we were just like, yeah, this will be easy. We can just like do this in a factory. And then the more we started to uncover and untangle that string, we realized that the way we were making it was extremely expensive, extremely inefficient, created a ton of food waste. And interestingly enough, when we were testing our first batches of salad sprinkles, if you will, we were giving away for free.

21:01Jordan Wannemaker:We just had a form on our website. You could fill it out. You could get free samples and get feedback from people. And a lot of people were picking our old skew cornbread because it was the only gluten-free option. And so then we started to think like, wait a minute, are people, do they really like cornbread? I mean, I do, but I think a lot of people just liked there was a gluten-free option So when we were kind of pulling under the hood and figuring out what to do to change the manufacturing process, we came across these rice crisps and started doing some R &D with those and realized, okay, this is actually a better product.

21:35Jordan Wannemaker:It looks like a non-pareil. It has an actual sprinkle. We really wanted a consistent crumb size, and that was also really hard to do with the old process. and so we spent about a year getting from branding to true prototype and trying to figure that out and it actually ended up working out so much better because we love having a fully gluten-free product and the rice crisps are actually crispier and crunchier than the breadcrumbs were because the breadcrumbs you'd have to like put on right before you're about to eat or they would kind of get like mealy and soggy at the bottom of the thing yeah but the rice crisps like it will take me like sometimes an hour to finish my lunch at my desk and by the time I get to the bottom of the they're still crunchy.

22:12Jordan Wannemaker:And so it became not just like a feature, but like a function at the same time. That's amazing.

22:19Blakely Bar:You know, what you were saying earlier about getting some easy stuff done, like the building a business is so full of like internal, like, you know, infinite lists of tasks, right? It's an infinite game. Like if there's, you're never going to be done and you're probably never going to be satisfied because that's why you're here. You're not satisfied. And chalking up some easy wins at the beginning in the zone that you're really good at is such a like reinforcement of you've got to have some success baked into the learning, baked into the failures, because otherwise it's just depressing and it, and it can be this long road.

22:56Blakely Bar:And you know, you're looking at like, you gotta put the easy stuff on top so that you can at least have that sense of achievement, which, you know, somebody more mentally durable than, than me, maybe be able to be like fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, but you want some wins in there. And I love that you started that way. We constantly need the dopamine hits. Yes, exactly. Variable intermittent returns. You're like, okay, good. I did that. And then the other thing that I love that you said is just getting feedback from your customers. And sometimes I characterize this inside our businesses is like colliding with the customer because you could make all the best laid plans, right?

23:30Blakely Bar:You've got like the breadcrumb supply chain stood up, which is really hard to do. And then, and you're in the world with a physical good and customers behave the way they behave. And you're like, bounce, new plan. And I think that not enough founders give themselves the opportunity to learn at as early a stage as you did. I'm glad that you're sharing that lesson with the world, because I think that so many people, if they were grabbing some easy ones, but then also listening to customers like really, really early on and you improved your product out of it, which is amazing. So like, that's another thing in the win column.

24:10Blakely Bar:Yeah, absolutely. When we did that new testing, I mean, we both knew right away when we had the one, you know, and it felt so good and we were so excited about it. And you started with three SKUs, which I think for CPG is totally sensible. Like I was starting in, my first business was hard goods and I had one design and I was like, you know, this just doesn't feel like enough. Like, how can I, how can I transform this into feeling like more? And for you, it's flavors. For me, it was colors, but giving customers choice, I think is another way to kind of encourage behavior out of them that, you know, they don't feel like they're pigeonholed into one thing, but you've also got maybe like more SKUs in the pipeline.

24:51Blakely Bar:And I would love to, don't share more than you're comfortable sharing, but how are you thinking about what's next for the business? Are you happy with it is with it is with it at where it is now and maybe want to kind of like just get more share in the market before putting energy back into product development? How do you think about that tradeoff?

25:10Jordan Wannemaker:Well, I think it's like one of the best things about the way we make the product is it is really durable and easy to create new flavors with. So we're kind of taking like a two pronged approach. Like one is like product development as a way to diversify and have more SKUs, but also we're really interested in product development as a marketing tool. So we really want to expand into doing like collabs with other brands. So doing sort of like using their flavor profile or their ingredients so we can sort of like diversify, but also get ourselves out there with maybe a brand that's a little bit better known and has a little bit more brand recognition and sort of share that marketing or, you know, working with a celebrity chef or a restaurant to develop like a custom flavor just for them.

25:51Jordan Wannemaker:And so we kind of, we want it to, we want to diversify and we have our pipeline, our notes app of all of the different flavors we have is endless. But, you know, we want to be strategic about like, yes, this is a new flavor. This is something new, but what else does this add? You know, is this like opening up a new market? Is this getting a new customer? Is this, you know, helping our, for me, like I, the flavor I really want is a plain salt because I make a lot of really flavorful food. And so sometimes I'm like, I don't actually want extra flavor in this. I just want extra crunch. So sort of thinking about like, also just like, what would I want?

26:26Jordan Wannemaker:Because at the end of the day, we made this product for ourselves and it is a product that we made because we wanted it. So it's kind of like, you know, trying to triangulate what makes the most sense and meeting Copac or minimums at the same time.

26:40Blakely Bar:Yes, always a tricky balance. No sweat. Mm-hmm. And as you're expanding into retail and getting placement there, how much insight do buyers give you on that? And I think the other thing I'm curious about just as we shift the conversation toward retail is you're probably educating that buyer too because you're in this category of creation space. So do you have an approach to those conversations where you're sort of like, you know, this isn't my crouton versus your crouton. This is croutons and this brand new thing that like deserves placement on the shelf. Yes, exactly. So there is education that has to go into it every time we talk to a buyer or bring on a new retailer.

27:21Blakely Bar:We talk a lot about merchandising and how it could be in a couple of different places. What we really like right now is so we, of course, launched direct to consumer and we did TikTok shop, Meta shop. and then we put the product up on fare, which has been great because we have a direct line of communication with these retailers, right? So they're smaller, we can see their reorders. Like we are sort of the distributor where we know exactly how much they're ordering and it's easy to hear from them. Where are you merchandising it? We see that this store is doing really well. Let's find out why. The store is maybe not doing so well.

27:54Blakely Bar:Let's find out why. So getting creative with the merchandising has been huge. We find that we sell really well when actually placed in produce. So somebody who's going in, and this is like part of our pitch now, is like now that we have this data. So we have a store in Chicago that merchandises us right next to the lettuce in the produce section. Someone who's coming in to just buy, you know, their fresh produce, shopping the aisles, is seeing our product merchandise right next to it. And they're buying, you know, a three or$4 head of lettuce, but now they're buying our$10 bottle of salad sprinkles.

28:24Blakely Bar:So that becomes part of our pitch. Like, hey, increase your cart value for your customer who's shopping the aisles, but now they're getting this other like premium product. And we also merchandise well, like next to the premium dressings or with the premium olive oils, we say that we also could do well in specialty. So, you know, maybe we're with the gourmet cheeses and like the curated charcuterie seasonal display. It's also very giftable. So there are like a couple of different places where a store could put it depending on what kind of store it is, if their customer is seasonal, all those things kind of go into it when we craft our pitches to them.

28:55Blakely Bar:And I love that you're taking ownership of that storylining. Like early stage, it can feel like somebody else has all the answers. Like for me, and maybe you don't have this like hanging over your head, but in my Wayback Machine, I remember going and talking to buyers and just feeling like they were, you know, like such elevated holders of truth and like the Bible of sales was with them. They have the keys and I'm like so self-conscious about like pushing them. And I wish I had been less self-conscious about that or less afraid. And I love that what you're saying is just like, just make the suggestion, right?

29:33Blakely Bar:Just tell them how it's done because you're learning from your customers and you're sort of correlating evidence from all sorts of different channels into one. And you can help them move probably more lettuce if someone's like, I wasn't going to have of salads tonight, but damn, those sprinkles look good. And now I'm going to pick up a head of romaine, you know?

29:53Jordan Wannemaker:Yeah. I think that's a really good point. My parents always say the most annoying thing about me as a kid was my favorite word was why. Like I always want to be like, why, why not? Why, well, why does it have to be that way? You know? And I think that's like one of the fun things about coming at it from an outside perspective is that, you know, we felt sort of insecure at first. Like neither of us have backgrounds in finance. We don't have backgrounds in CPG or manufacturing, but it's like, we kind of come at it with this out of the box thinking that it's like, okay, yeah, sure. This has always been this way, but we have a new thing.

30:22Jordan Wannemaker:Why don't we put it here? And like, I think that sort of innovation has been both a pro and a con, right? Because it is hard to get people out of, they're like, well, you should just be with the croutons on the floor, you know? And it's like, well, no, that's like, that's not exactly what that is. But at the same time, like people do like innovation, people do like something new and, you know, there's so many soda brands now and so many, you know, everything. So whenever you're creating a category, it is like sort of a unique opportunity to be the person who's like, you know, the lady who invented the Swiffer, who was like, why don't we just, you know, put this on the bottom of our mop and do it this way?

30:58Jordan Wannemaker:You know, like it's, it's been like really fun to do that, but it definitely is kind of like a big push and pull sometimes because a lot of people like to do things the way they've always been done. But, you know, we're not scared of that.

31:08Blakely Bar:Well, and I think that's the beauty of being a founder is that you can kind of take this really, it's like, it's like not knowing anything at the beginning is a superpower because you're like, Well, no, no fox. I don't do anything because no one told me how hard it would be. And I love this idea. And I'm building with my friends. And like, we're just going to go find out. And I think that's one of the reasons that like smaller businesses start up and have the capacity to start up and innovate. If you're big, you know too much. And that was true for me. Like, oh my gosh, would I ever build a commodity again?

31:43Blakely Bar:Like, maybe not. Like I wasn't inventing a category, which I really respect with you guys. I was just making like a kind of better version of something that was art that literally art already was owned by every household in America. And I just didn't know enough not to do it. And I was having fun. Like, like, I'm staying up. And that led you to where you are now, right? Stay up all night for this, you know, like nobody told me the rules. So I love that about you guys that you're that there's this there's a moment where like, and you're in it where you know enough now, you're so dangerous, right?

32:19Blakely Bar:But you don't know so much that you're not willing to just innovate, even if it's not the most, in air quotes, efficient thing ever. It doesn't, innovation's not efficient. It doesn't have to be, right? Like big businesses are efficient. Let them be efficient. Let innovation be a little inefficient because that's where it comes from. Like that's the wellspring of it. And yeah, I'm curious to hear whether or not, you don't have to say yes or no, or we can edit it out if you want. Do you have competition yet? That's not a crouton or like a bacon bit, but like, is there, is there other, is there anyone counter positioning to you in the way that say like, you know, prebiotic or probiotic sodas got counter positioned to what, in what feels like overnight, but actually it was like a seven year cycle.

33:01Jordan Wannemaker:Yeah. Uh, we did have a brand come out with a package, uh, a product that has packaging remarkably similar to ours. And yeah, it's they're they're not positioned they're positioning it in the exact same way um and that was definitely you know there's sort of similar things there's other brands doing like crunchy toppings but a lot of those are sort of positioned more like they have other value props that they're doing like there's one i know of that's like strictly for protein i think they do chickpeas so it's like that's not our thing right like we're all about texture it's not a diet it's not a you know a lifestyle it's just you know crunch but um yeah and taking down I'm big crouton.

33:40Jordan Wannemaker:Really, that's like our main thing. But but somebody is positioning themselves in the exact same way and did that. And, you know, I was like super angry about it for about 48 hours. And then the more we thought about it, it was like, you know what? This means we're doing something right. This means this is something people that something that people like and something that people want. We are still the only person doing a fully gluten free version and free allergen friendly. Only chili crisp has sesame and soy as allergens in it. Everything else is pretty, you know, nut free, gluten free, dairy free.

34:11Jordan Wannemaker:So that is something that we've maintained as unique. But yeah, I mean, I think more competition and also for the brand that is copying us, they're a bigger brand. And so part of our thinking was good. You put in the work of educating people on what this is, because that's been our biggest thing is like how expensive the education is. Like we are like sort of half bootstrapped at this point. We've done a small friends and family around, but are like super tight on capital and have not had the marketing dollars that we want to like be able to really get it out there and demo it in the way that we want and explaining how the ways that you can use this product to get people to not only buy it, but continue to buy it and go through it faster.

34:51Jordan Wannemaker:So if there's more in there, you know, it's like, I feel so bad for the first kombucha company, like how you had to explain what this weird word is, you know what I mean? But like now we all know what kombucha is. We know what it does. We know what its benefits are. And like, I still have a favorite and that's the one I always buy because the branding is good. The product is good. It, you know, it fits into my life and like all of the ways that I need. And so we're like, all right, if we just like focus on still making a good product, still having good branding, then, you know, and that's kind of the other thing too, is there was no brand loyalty in the space.

35:22Jordan Wannemaker:Like name a favorite crouton. Like nobody has that. We all have our favorite cereal, our favorite soda, our favorite protein bar, but like there was no so you know fine like if you have to pick between salad sprinkles and beep then you know

35:35Blakely Bar:you'll you'll know where to go so yeah and I think we found a lot of power in our brand name as well so yes it is specific but like that was exactly the point like people see the name salad sprinkles and they know exactly what it is you know there are so many creative wonderful fun brands out there right now but you you look at the brand name you're like well cool merch but like I don't know what that is, right? And with a new product in a new category, calling it salad sprinkles, while yes, specific, we're saying it's for salads, people knew what it was immediately. And, you know, we were able to leverage like organic user generated content of people being like, I love salad sprinkles.

36:15Blakely Bar:But like, look, I'm putting them on my yogurt, putting on my ice cream, like how naughty is that? So that also created like a fun social dialogue and led to more awareness and all the good stuff that comes with it. And I think as you are building this category and you're right, like the competition has validated you and it's a rising tide of customer education, but you own the name that's defining the whole category. And so whatever they call it, it's going to be described as salad sprinkles because that's what's going on. And I just love that you own that piece of it. And I think that that's right in today's sort of like branding, marketing, I'm going to use the word again, because you said it zeitgeist.

36:54Blakely Bar:it's so easy to want something that's like weird or unpronounceable or really unique or really going to look good on merch and take out all the vowels yeah yeah and I've done that it's a good strategy you know not recommended um but what I love but you just took this you made actually what is a surprisingly bold choice in how up the fairway that piece of the name is I wish for other founders that they would sort of consider that like amongst all of the the word soup options for naming and and there's reasons for them right you got to find a url and you got to make sure that you can trademark it and there's these very tight and like check against the competition whether or not it's trademarked and very tactical considerations but just sort of settling with like well this is what our customers might understand us as it's like actually quite a bold choice and and i love it yep we wanted something that anybody could look at and be like you know from from any city you know any demographic they look at it they know it and they're like, yeah, I'm in.

37:53Blakely Bar:I get it.

37:54Jordan Wannemaker:And what we've learned from trademark law, like I understand why people just have to come up with random things. Like it was, we had to fight for that trademark. It was very hard. We were rejected at first for being too descriptive. So it is.

38:06Blakely Bar:Tell me this story. Okay.

38:07Jordan Wannemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I mean, I honestly, I'm like, if I were to go back and do a totally like off the wall career, I'd be a trademark lawyer because when I read our trademark lawyers, like responses and correspondence and like, wow, that is so cool. Like it is such an interesting thing. And the trademark, the USTPO or PTO, PTO, yes. I wanted to say USPS. Their reasons that they deny things are so banal. And there's so many examples for like, well, if this can be called this, why can't we be this? And sort of like building that argument for ourselves. We had an amazing trademark team. Shout out Moskowitz Firm.

38:44Jordan Wannemaker:They were so good at really creating that argument for us and helping us come up with different examples and also giving us what the benefits of different ways of doing that and other ways we could protect our IP with our tagline and things like that. But yeah, we were originally, it was actually a very long journey with the trademark, which as you'll remember from earlier, was the first thing we did. But the description of what we filed the trademark for matched the former product. So it being rice puffs meant we had to completely redo the whole thing, start from scratch, put us like a year behind because of the new product, which like, you know, was kind of anxiety inducing because a lot of people won't even launch until they've gotten their trademark.

39:26Jordan Wannemaker:And we're out here, you know, selling on Amazon without freewheeling. But, you know, we knew the implications of like, you know, having the sort of out there and using it with the TM like that is like a certain level of protection. And she helped us really like understand and translate those implications. But we did finally I think we can finally say that.

39:46Blakely Bar:But yes, I think it's officially checked off the list.

39:50Jordan Wannemaker:Yeah. Yeah. But it was it was a nail biter there for a while. And again, it made so much sense why people come up with random things because it is really, really difficult to get a trademark passed.

40:01Blakely Bar:So, yeah. And you're right. It's scary and potentially risky to put yourself out there. I mean, you're online, you're on fair, you're going to trade shows and it's highly exposed. And you feel like, you know, you're really investing in that. And I want to talk about your investment in trade show presence because I think it's been a part of what seems to be really moving things forward for you guys. And if you're putting like real dollars against opportunities like that and it's not just like, oh, throw up a website and, you know, make an MOQ order for the product, then not having some of those ducks in a row could be really risky.

40:36Blakely Bar:But I also think that you made the right choice to just like being in the market provides protection of its own kind. not a lawyer. It's true according to our lawyer. I don't know. Yeah. We are not lawyers. Yes. So, okay. Let's talk about trade shows for a minute. So a key channel for you all, how do you pick which trade shows to go to and then how do you execute? Trade shows is one of those really physical block and tackle. It's easy to sign up and then you got to go do the thing. And then how do you measure whether or not you do it again? So there's a lot that goes into it. so we have only done one trade show we've only exhibited at one and i highly recommend before you agree to any trade show go first walk the floor see what it's like assess the situation so last year like right when we launched right when we had like our first bottles of products in hand we put them in backpacks and we went to the fancy food show with our hats on and we were like a couple of brand new investors walking around but we got to lay the land and we were able to understand like okay if we come next year what kind of booth do we want what do we want it to look like?

41:41Blakely Bar:What are other people doing? Where do we want to be? What's a good location? That intel is so important because you don't want to be in like a weird area of a trade show that you think would be helpful, but it's actually maybe not that interesting or the types of buyers you want may not be walking through that. Like we are a vegan product, but we knew we didn't want to be in the plant-based pavilion because that didn't have a ton of foot traffic. We wanted to be with like snacks and different kinds of stuff. And like we were, you know, there was a bakery on the end of our aisles people were like oh i'm coming in i'm getting some of that focaccia and i'm gonna keep walking and like there we are um so being able to map all that out was great and then of course we walked expo west earlier this year because that is the mecca and we passed each other in the in the hallways that was a lit show this year yeah it was crazy yeah really was yeah

42:30Jordan Wannemaker:it was intense that one was definitely like it was like going from like disneyland to disney worlds in terms of fancy food to Expo West. Like it was so like intense.

42:41Blakely Bar:And you could go to the actual Disneyland right afterwards. Yeah, that's true. For anyone who doesn't know, Expo West is at the Anaheim Convention Center across the street from Disney. Exactly. Yeah, you could like, you could see Disney from it, like space. Literally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did. I did that. Yeah. I live in SoCal. Nice. Yeah. Like, you know, it would sound great after walking for eight hours at a jjo's to walk for six more hours we thought about that we with the people who did that we were like

43:08Jordan Wannemaker:we basically just went and like slept in a hotel room for 24 hours after we i think we fell asleep at pf chang's after the last day of expo as our celebration amazing okay next next year we're

43:19Blakely Bar:going to disneyland together yes i mean i'm in yeah i need an ice cream shaped like mickey mouse after that day for sure yeah for sure um so the interesting thing they're learning about trade shows is they are great morale boosters for us in the moment. And like for the couple of weeks after we're like, man, that was awesome. We've had so many great people like this happened, this happened, this happened, like people are so excited. We get to spend time to with each other, you know, in person, which is always so fun. But then we find that like, the things that come out of it are maybe not what you were expecting.

43:51Blakely Bar:Right. So like, it can take a long time to do to like, for some of those like relationships with buyers or investors to actually form. So you're kind of playing a waiting game. But what was fun is like there were conversations that we had with people who like we maybe didn't even realize who they were or they were going incognito with their badge. And then these like these fun, unexpected things happened. Right. So like you kind of need to go into it with a certain set of expectations. Like the people you may you meet may not be who you end up working with. But like all these other things could come out of it.

44:21Blakely Bar:But it can be a waiting game as well for like those relationships to form. Yeah. Yeah. I think having the patience for that and not not letting the lag get you down is so critical because you're right. You come out of it with so much energy and so many ideas and like this list of people to follow up with. And then maybe like 20 percent of those people get back to you. And then maybe like one percent of those people become a customer right away. And the rest, you're just sort of like, how can I talk to you without bothering you? I know yeah what can I tell you that we'd be yeah but building friendships and building relationships is is like you know the long game sorry go ahead no no I was just about to say

45:02Jordan Wannemaker:exactly what you're saying that like also the like unexpected is like the camaraderie with other brands because so much of it is like here in our homes and just like me and Blakely have each other but like other than that like we're like I feel like we're just talking to a wall sometimes so it's like whenever you're out there meeting other founders like the advice you get from them and connecting with them and sort of like you feel way less alone. You also are like, we're all just figuring this out. Nobody really knows what they're doing at this stage. Like it's all just kind of like guessing.

45:30Jordan Wannemaker:And that has been really nice. And honestly, the relationships with other brands has been the more immediate helpful things because those lead to social partnerships and collabs and also just like friendships, you know, where it's like, that's really important when it can be kind of like scary and crazy and have these other founders to bounce ideas off of or be like, wait, how did you negotiate this with your co-packer or, you know, just kind of like learning from each other. Yeah. And I think that's like a harder ROI to calculate, but I think like holistically is really like good for you and good for the brand.

46:02Jordan Wannemaker:So yeah.

46:04Blakely Bar:Yeah. And I think, you know, it's so easy to view other brands as just competition. And if you're just looking at their website or you're looking at their social media feeds and it's sort of like a little, a little bit detached from the human beings that are involved. It's like, oh man, this is intense. There's so much noise out there. Like how is anyone going to hear my little voice like shouting into the void, like you said? And then you get to a trade show environment and you're like, oh man, we're just on the grind together. Absolutely. You know, yeah, building friendships at those trade shows.

46:37Blakely Bar:Also so many trade shows. I mean, you're standing there for like 10 hours a day, but traffic you know waxes and wanes whoever's around you in in the aisle at you know when you're standing there in your booth like just having a conversation with the folks that are right across from you can turn into like really incredible relationships like like you're talking about because you just i mean how else are you gonna where else are you gonna find 10 fixated hours for four days in a row to like sort of stare at each other yeah exactly okay so bringing us bringing us near to the end here, but building on what we were just talking about, what do you need help with right now?

47:13Blakely Bar:Like if you were across the trade, if you had 10 hours to stare into somebody's eyes and be like, I wish they could help me with X, Y, Z, what operator help do you need from friends who maybe are listening or, you know, or maybe that are not listening, but that know you all? Money?

47:29Jordan Wannemaker:Yeah. I'm trying to pick from the long list of things. Yeah, I think that the fundraising has been a really big challenge for us. Like, I definitely think, especially coming from non-traditional finance backgrounds, you know, or not coming from finance backgrounds, we don't have like a ton of investment bankers in our network. Like, you know, I like when we'll talk to people and they're like, well, just reach out to high net worth individuals in your network. And I'm like, I grew up poor in South Carolina and I went to art school. Like, I don't know high worth individuals. Like, so there's not like, you know, like my dentist?

48:00Jordan Wannemaker:Like, I don't know. Like, so just trying to like figure that out and navigate that as like, sort of like an underdog in that way without those connections. But we are really realizing, which it feels like a boring answer, but it's true in that CPG is like a money game and you really need a ton of capital at the, at the beginning. We, our product needs a lot of education. So there's a lot of marketing that we want to do. So finishing our fundraise would do that. We also transparently, like we want to charge a lower price. Like we want our product to be more accessible to more people. And right now where we're at, if we were to charge anything less than what we are, we would bankrupt the business.

48:39Jordan Wannemaker:So trying to, we would like really would love to either find like a partner who can like help us bring down the price by either optimizing our backend in a way or optimizing our manufacturing, or maybe an ingredient supplier who wants to, you know, get in the game in this way, or more investors who sort of like see the vision for it and are willing to put in the extra money that would go towards just marketing or, you know, a lower margin at first to get that traction out there and to get it going. So it's kind of figuring out the financial puzzle is the hardest part. And I think the most like concrete wall that we've come up against where everything else it's like negotiable and navigable, but that's like, you know, things cost money, period, the end.

49:26Jordan Wannemaker:So yeah.

49:28Blakely Bar:Okay. But I love that because the bath signal is up now. So folks investing in the CPG space. By the way, some of your deck, if you're currently fundraising, I want to know. So, okay. So fundraising connections, and then also maybe like supply chain or operator connections to help you guys just kind of like scale up what you could do with capital by making like a bigger order, or maybe you could do by like optimizing some of the partnerships that you have. I think those are great answers for anyone listening like Blakely and Jordan, get them on speed dial here. Get us up. Get you guys the help that you need.

50:01Blakely Bar:This has been such a delightful conversation. Thank you for sharing all of your opinions and learnings. I'm also never, the phrase big crouton is gonna live rent free in my head for the rest of my life. They're out there. You didn't know it, but they're out there. It's like Texas toast. Yeah, that's right. Literally and figuratively. Yeah. Watch out. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Part three. Thank you both. Last question for you. Where can we where can we find you? Saladsprinkles.com. Great domain name. Eat Saladsprinkles.com. Eat Saladsprinkles.com. Yes.

50:37Jordan Wannemaker:And Eat Saladsprinkles on Instagram and TikTok. We are very active there and silly there. Again, you know, we take our business seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously. So we have a lot of fun just like posting silly stuff and salad recipes and, you know, me and Blakely being weird and it's fun. Yeah. Anti-crouton memes. Yeah. Come find us for those. And you can buy us on Amazon as well. Yes. Free prime shipping.

51:04Blakely Bar:Wow. I like that. I'm good. We have to end. I have to go shopping. I know. Jordan's enabling my shopping. What else do you want to buy? All right. Thank you both again. Such a pleasure and hope to see you on a salad very soon. Yeah. Thanks, Sam. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Commerce's Chaos. If you're listening, have a feeling you know just how much good leaving a five-star review can do for a team. Drop us a review on Apple Podcasts and subscribe to Commerce's Chaos wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to our sub stack, also called Commerce's Chaos, for more good stuff and actionable tools to build your business.