🫘 MATT COHEN // SIMPLi CO-FOUNDER & CO-CEO

0:00I'm Sam Rose and you're tuning in to Commerce is Chaos, the podcast for consumer brand founders who know that building a business is messier than the highlight reel shows. Your supplier just missed their deadline, your top product is out of stock, and your competitors somehow launched the same thing at half the price. Sound familiar? Every week we dive into the real problems that keep founders up at night, from inventory disasters to supply chain nightmares, because surviving the chaos is what separates brands that fail from brands that scale. Today, I'm talking to Matt Cohen, co-founder of Simply.

0:32Matt left a decade in financial services to build one of the biggest regenerative food brands in the country, starting with 80 farmers in Peru and a promise to buy every harvest. Let's talk about all of this. I'm really excited to meet you. I am a fan of the brand and also just of the way that you've built the business and who you've chosen to build it with, which selfishly rhymes with some of my own choices, and also your background. So we both work with our spouses. We both have backgrounds in finance and we both chose to do something nearly ridiculous. Now I'm imposing on you. Nearly ridiculous on the shoulders of that.

1:08And I would love to just kick us off by just having you tell us the story of what made you lose the suit and tie and put on a pair of, you know, hiking boots and go to Peru. Well, thank you, Sam, for having me on today and excited to share more of Simply and how we got started and everything that has been accomplished since over the last five years. But in terms of like before Simply and coming from a finance background, I think it really dates back to when I was a kid. I grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, and I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I think what started was a snowball stand on the side of the road, pretty much right outside my house.

1:47So you see kids having lemonade stands. I had a snowball stand. Then went to sell candy, started with like door to door selling like the Pez candy. And then I eventually would sell at my school until I got, I think I got a warning where I would get suspended by the principal if I continue to do that. So I stopped that. You didn't just give him a cut? Well, that's the thing. Actually, that's the thing. I would not. There was a classmate who was asking for free candy. I was like, no. And then she went to go tell on me. And so that's how I got caught. I wouldn't provide a cut to a classmate. Where is she today, Matt?

2:26That's spot on. I'm not sure. That was literally back in middle school. So it's been a couple of years. But I did for a very short period of time of the newspaper route. But it was more so I would wake my mom up at five in the morning. and she would drive me instead of riding the bike. So that didn't last very long. And then I kind of got away from that for a number of years through high school, college, and I went to finance. I was derivative valuations in the earlier years and then went to corporate development and M &A. And I think what really inspired me to get back to and ultimately start simply was during my in-corporate development, I was able and had an opportunity to meet a lot of different entrepreneurs.

3:10I was working in a hotel company that was one of the largest in the world. And so not only did I have the benefit to work with our executive team, but I had a global presence and learn so much around marketing and finance and operations, business development. But I was also able to meet a lot of entrepreneurs and sit on the other side of the table and hear their stories. And I think that got me really excited and inspired me to then get back to my own roots. And so it was a combination of that. And then my co-founder, Sorella, who is also my wife, on our first date in D.C. in 2014, we talked about how we one day want to be entrepreneurs.

3:51And food did not come up during that date or as a business idea. But so that definitely evolved from 2014 to 2020, where ultimately we saw the opportunity to create Simply. And the rest is history. Okay, well, what ideas did you talk about on that first date that you didn't do? I think what is funny, it's more so on the tech side, I would say. I mean, I knew that I wanted to create a company that could drive impact. I wasn't sure what that was, though. And I think similar from Sorella's aspect, she actually did consider starting an alcohol company, bringing in alcohol from Brazil. And she was in the very preliminary stages of exploring that option.

4:34So I think it was a combination of driving impact. But also because we, Sorella and I love to travel. We love to immerse ourselves in different cultures and to try new food. And I think we're very much foodies. And I think the basis of that was really how we came about simply where we were backpacking in South America. Sorella is from Peru originally. and we were in the Andes, 14 ,000 feet up at late Tikitaka, where we came across a farmer that they spoke Quechua, which is a dialect that neither Sorrell nor I speak. And what was incredible is that we sat around a table and we had such an amazing experience through the connection of food.

5:17And it was, I think at that time, that really was catalytic for us that we have something special here where we can tell the story of the farmer, we can bring great quality products to market and have that authenticity, integrity for the products we bring to market. And so that was really, I think, the seed that has now flowered. See what you did there. Okay, so you're having dinner and you're using food as the communication and kind of relationship glue. Did you become friends with that farmer? And then was the idea that you could kind of like help them to continue to build the ecosystem that they had started?

5:56or was that more just like the seed, again, for something that you kind of took back home, brewed on, and then came back and said, okay, you know, we like this model. We like this supply chain. Yeah. It's a combination. The exact farmer we may work with today, but it wasn't the first farmer we worked with, but it was that region. It was in Puno, which is right outside Lake Tikitaka. And so, yeah, the basis that, I mean, they were bringing food to us. They were cooking for us. And the hospitality with all of our farmers globally, not just in Peru, is incredible to this day. It's one of the most special things, I think.

6:30One of the unique opportunities we have as well by working with farmers directly is to experience that hospitality. So that community was first in terms of where we sourced from and the basis from there. And then we've grown to something much more significant. So quinoa was the first product we brought to market. Extra virgin olive oil was a second product from Sparta Greece that we brought to market. And then today we have 75 products in 13 countries. Sourced from 13 different countries. Sourced from 13 different countries. Wow. That's a lot to bite off. Now I'm doing it. Yes. Oh boy. Don't start that again.

7:08Tell us a little bit about what it means to be regenerative and organic in this context. Because I know that it really raises the bar. But I'd love to hear how kind of you frame that and define it and maybe also sort of the opportunity that you're seeing there. And what I perceive is kind of like a market leading approach to getting the word out about regenerative farming in the first place. Yeah. So the basis of when we started simply back in 2020, our three pillars as a brand was focused around quality, social impact and environmental impact. And also, simply, S-I-M-P-L-I, the I stands for innovation.

7:45So, creating a business model that challenges status quo, doing it differently, impact ingredients, and integrity. And so, the core values of simply from day zero was really around that. And so, it came very organically when we – because we didn't know about regenerative agriculture. That wasn't part of our vocabulary when we started the company. And so when we came across regenerative agriculture and regenerative organic alliance and what regenerative organic is, we were already doing it. I mean, and not only were we doing it, but the farmers we work with have been doing it for generations. It's that indigenous knowledge that farmers have.

8:25Ultimately, the farmers know what's best for their land because they've been doing it for generations. Their fathers and mothers have been doing it and their grandparents and great grandparents. So I think what we've been able to achieve, though, is that with Genetic Organic Alliance, they've been able to structure these learnings that they've seen across the globe into a certifying body that holds a higher standard to our food system for brands and stakeholders to abide by. And so regenerative agriculture is the big balloon out there that is the purpose to regenerate, to improve the health of the soil, to leave it in a better place than where it came.

9:10And I think that's like the general basis of regeneration, whereas regenerative organic is built on organic. And so for us, we wanted to make sure that because there's a lot of certifying bodies out there, you don't want to get lost in all the certifications. We don't want to have 20 certifications on our packaging that you see on the shelf. And we saw the most alignment with Regenerative Organic Alliance. Regenerative Organic Alliance focuses on three things. It's farmer welfare, animal welfare, and the health of the soil. So there's a lot of overlap with the three pillars of simply when we started the company and what ROA stands for.

9:44And we wanted to make sure that all the work we're doing behind the scenes is getting validated by a third party so that we have that stamp of approval for the consumers who care about that around the impact. We can show up not only from a marketing standpoint, but truly third party validation behind the scenes. That's so cool. How much are you as a business responsible for manifesting these relationships as compliance versus finding suppliers who already have the certifications? Or are you helping farmers also get the certifications or just paint that landscape for us a little bit? Yeah, absolutely.

10:24So I think that's one of the ways that simply stands out is that not only are we really listening to the customer and finding ways that we can solve what the customer is looking for, but we also look back to the farmer when it comes to innovation. And part of our passion as a company is we have the ability to influence and change our food system. So if a farmer is conventional, we will develop a plan with them and get them organic certified and then even regenerative organic certified. We have a framework called the Regenerative Pathway Program. That can be applied to any farmer in any country.

11:04It's been done now in 10 countries where we've been first to market with products or first to market in terms of the entire country from a certification standpoint. And so that's a value proposition we offer farmers. But ultimately, it gets back to allowing us to bring great quality products to market. What we are seeing around the products is that not only are they clean because they don't have pesticides or glyphosates and also no heavy metals, we're seeing on average across our portfolio 35 % increase in nutrient density. Simply products are 35 % more rich in nutrient density compared to USDA benchmarks.

11:43And that's because of how they're grown and also at times where they're grown as well. Wow. And you're leading the charge on a lot of that. Yeah. So we're working with the farmers directly and doing that. And it's definitely more work versus, I think, as a typical CPG brand, you figure out what product you want to go to market with and you focus your time and efforts there. And then you just work with like a broker or an ingredients company. But we're doing both. We're figuring out the supply chain. We're figuring out where products are grown best, building those supply chains, and then bringing those products to market.

12:20Okay, now I'm going to bring you into like some nitty-gritty stuff. has any of your sourcing really gone wrong in the past? Like where you put in all of this effort and you try to establish a partnership and all of a sudden it could be the weather, it could be an earthquake, it could be that the farmer thought that they wanted to scale, but realized that like that's not actually the lifestyle that they want to have. Or I don't know, I'm just making stuff up. But when this goes right, it's pretty easy to imagine how the rising tide just lifts all the ships. What happens when it goes wrong? Cards on the table.

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13:33Ready to ditch the chaos? Visit endlesscommerce.com, mention commerce as chaos when you reach out, and get three months free. Because your op stack should be your competitive advantage, not your biggest headache. Yeah, we definitely have had our learning experiences. I mean, even setting up the first supply chain, which was Peru and bringing in quinoa. So it was January 2020. We started as a food service brand and we brought in 44 ,000 pounds of quinoa that were floor loaded because we would just go to the warehouse and palletize them ourselves. So it's a great workout, by the way. If you ever want to have like this alternative workout, going to a warehouse and they call it lumping, but just palletizing product, it's an incredible workout.

14:24But all the learnings of setting up that first supply chain, of being able to export and import products and working with the setup. There's so many learnings with that. I think more importantly, which the silver lining has allowed us to be a much more resilient business is that if we look over the past five years from a supply chain perspective, there hasn't been a normal environment. We have COVID that led to global supply chain disruptions that has led to port congestions, major port congestions where containers were stuck at ports for like 90 days or more. We were headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

15:03The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed and prevented containers going in and out, followed by tariffs to now more recently the wars in the Middle East and the disruption that has there. So I think we've gotten comfortable with the uncomfortable when it comes to supply chains. But I think that to answer your question in terms of something not going right, there's I mean, there's a lot that hasn't gone right. And you just have to be agile, scrappy, especially as a small business. But there is one project that comes to mind. It was Acai. We partnered with the Nature Conservancy, so TNC, a global nonprofit that is doing amazing work north of Macapá, which is north of Buleim in Brazil, which is known as the true origin of Acai.

15:51of where it was first found to be grown many, many years ago. And so we had to get a approval from the government of Brazil to go to this protected indigenous community. And then the way we got there by plane, by boat, by car, by all the transportation modes, but you're deep, deep in the Amazon. So you're taking like the small kayak that is motored by, it's equivalent to like a weed whacker that you would use. And that's how they get around these really tight and narrow parts of the river, the Amazon. But ultimately, we didn't bring it to market because the cold supply chains are completely different than dry supply chains and the complexities that go into it.

16:35And I think it was the right decision. But I think that's an example where you have to learn to say no to for the best interests of the business. Yeah. Yeah. It's so hard, especially when, you know, they're like Econ 101. You talk about some costs. But when you're in it, it is so, so hard to like just accept that. And, you know, you're making none of these decisions are one decision. They're all like hundreds of individual everyday decisions that you're making. And so to figure out which one is going to be the one decision where you're like, no, is so much harder than than like 100 yeses. And that's how you grow to be a great leader is to know when to say no.

17:14I want to say, I don't, I am not sure I have that badge yet. I like the regenerative CEO. That's what we need. We need a certifying body. Well, here's, here's the thing about, here's the thing about leadership, a thing about leadership, like what makes you a pretty good entrepreneur, I think is ignoring so many people telling you to say, no, that's how you build something extraordinary that no one else thinks is possible. That's how you build like a breakout business. And so you kind of have to really practice this muscle of like ignoring everybody when they say no or not right. And that comes from your family.

17:51It comes from your employees. It comes from your customers. It comes from your suppliers. They're like, this is impossible. And you're like, I don't believe you. Or the customers are like, I don't want that. And I'm like, someone else will. So you practice that muscle so, so much and it gets so big from exercising it. And then you have to really balance that out with like a completely different instinct around when to actually take no for an answer. Because the whole thing that got you here was saying yes a bajillion times. Yep. Despite everybody's, you know, like warnings. Absolutely. And it's not only ignoring those, but it's also using no's as fire to inspire you more.

18:28Because, for example, when you're talking to investors, you're trying to raise money to grow the brand. You're going to get hundreds of no's and one or two yes's and you're going to get those no's before you get the yes's. And so you should use those no's not as a way to put you down, but as a way to fuel you to continue on doing what you're doing. I feel like that's part of the game, right? Is like maybe there's like a big investor cabal where they all get together and they like decide. like and if if you get through a hundred no's then like then they've all pre-decided who will say yes to you but it's definitely the last person in line yep i i believe i mean i've experienced that myself i'm sure many founders have so it's not too far off out there it's like the there's an old trick with hiring a salesperson which is and not that i've employed this but but maybe i have.

19:18I don't know. Anyway, if you say no to a salesperson and they come back to you and they're like, but wait, why? And like, I really want this job and I would do a great job. And here's why you should hire me. Then, then like, that's your signal that they're the right salesperson. I don't, I don't necessarily have the like, I'm too, I'm too soft. Oh, I think, I think that's a great approach. I think ultimately like everything happens for a reason. I'm a huge believer that everything happens for a reason. And I think one of the, But as a business owner or scaling a company, one of the most important decisions you make is who you hire.

19:51And there's that edge that you fire quickly and hire slowly. But I think ways that you can evolve or have not only a better onboarding process, but more importantly, a really good recruiting process, saying no and making sure they come back. Or like, say, for example, not responding until they send a thank you note. If they don't send a thank you note, then that's the end of it. Everything happens for a reason, but it's part of their strategy to that. And I think it is really impactful in the long term. Yeah, I agree with you. I do do that one just to put my secret recruiting sauce out there. Like, I got to send a thank you note.

20:24And that always makes me feel weird because I'm a thankful person. I'm a pluggable light person. So I'm like, yeah, I'm sitting here waiting for them to do it. And it feels like that. But I want to send one. But I have to I have to like practice restraint. There's definitely been one or two times where we were ready to extend an offer and we never got the thank you letter. And unfortunately, we never pursued that path. But I think, again, the team that we have today, too, is incredible. I think, I mean, that's the end result. As we were talking, I pulled up a picture of me lumping pallets during COVID.

20:57And it'll restart in a second. But Brian's standing inside the truck. Same kind of thing. How heavy were those boxes? Oh, gosh. I think, I mean, probably 25 pounds each. Yeah. Yes. That's what we would do. because in the early, we were bringing 25 pounds and 50 pounds. And so 25 pounds, I believe, was 80 a pallet, and then 50 pounds was 40 a pallet. So I got really good at, not only is it palletizing them, but the shrink wrap them. Oh, yeah. We didn't have the automated shrink wrapper. So I would do that for many, many pallets. It's so funny doing, like, it is an amazing workout. And then also it's a mental workout because like doing palette math is really, like becomes really interesting.

21:46Like how do I optimize that? It's a nice way, like, especially when you wear multiple hats early on, like when you're in the beginning stages, if you want to take a mental break, go out and do the operation things. That's a nice way to do that. One of the challenges for us was always that like above 25 pounds and it's a team lift. And then, I don't know, we always try to optimize for the lighter boxes. Was that from a compliance standpoint? Yes. Yeah. Again, risk and reward. I think you understand what risk you take and you might be less risk averse early on. And so as you continue to grow, then those kinds of compliance and things come in place there.

22:25I think there's a few things that I won't share today, but I'm sure that - Yeah, right. We're pausing the recording. We're going to say all the things that OSHA would be mad at. And that will be right. I mean, you fake it till you make it, right? And so I think more, I mean, there's probably very few entrepreneurs out there that just go there as straight as an arrow and getting what they've accomplished. Yeah, I agree with that. Like just being willing to take an unconventional approach to stuff and then also just put in the sweat equity yourself is like, I mean, I don't know. that's like the crucible that we're all, you know, fired up.

23:04But I really do think it creates such an ability to be a dynamic problem solver. Absolutely. And that is the best way to learn as well, right? Just getting your hands dirty, no matter what it is, whether you're working on your website or, I mean, we're in the ages of AI. And so just diving right into AI and the different resources out there for that to something that's more tangible of getting your hands dirty, literally with operations, if you're in the food space and you'll learn a lot as well. And you can actually optimize your processes and do things that maybe are not done right, or that you can figure out ways to be more effective, which then saves costs or drives more revenue to the business.

23:44I remember during COVID, there was such high demand for what we were selling and people were livid about it. No one understood, not even as many people knew what supply chain really, really was, you know, it was like a thing that would show up in the newspaper every once in a while. But like, now everyone gets it. There's like ports and like time. It takes time. There's drainage. But at the time, you know, there was just so much, so much pressure to get inventory out, like in the absolute shortest possible timeframe from when it arrived. So like, here's some unconventional things I did. Like there's a, there was a FedEx distribution center and we had an air shipment come in and it was like four o 'clock on a Friday.

24:29And I'm like, I'm like calling them and they're like, no, it's not going to be delivered. It's not going to be delivered. I'm like, where is it? They're like, well, it's in the distribution center. And I'm like, but where I'm standing at the front door, lock it. I will bring my pallet, like I'll bring it to a pallet jack. I've got an MHE license. Like we're taking it out in the front door of the building. And you guys, they let me in. they let me in and like they brought the stuff to the gate because they have a whole cage thing that you can't go that you can't go the safety issues and all that yeah yeah and and but like making friends in moments like that is so like you just gotta find the guy or the gal who's like okay sam okay all right i'm unlocking the front door and then we would do i like this opposite story at like a i think it was a ups distribution center and the pickup pickup came and went picked up a bunch of stuff, but we worked for another like seven hours.

25:23Well, distribution centers open 24 hours. So it's like 1130 at night. And we're like, we would like these to go out tomorrow, please. And so we put everything in a truck and we drove it to the UPS distribution center and then just like basically pretended to be another delivery truck. And like, we got it in. That's it. I mean, but that's incredible because you had a consumer mindset there. You were making sure that your customers would get product on time. And I mean, that's the proper mindset to have as a business owner, right? We had a very similar experience where it was, I think, in our first year of business, and we were bringing a product for a customer that was trying to get everything out before Christmas and New Year's.

26:04And so we also had to airship this product, which is just exponentially more expensive than 20 times more. Yeah. And what happened, Sorella got COVID and she got COVID that just like knocked her out in terms of just really sick fever, brain fog, all that. And so what I did was, and we were having issues similar to yourself, like we couldn't pick it up. If we picked it up with the timeline that FedEx gave us, then it would have been past the date for our customer to get it out to their customers before the holidays. And so I drove up to, we were in DC. I drove to New York City because I believe it was JFK where we air freighted to.