Daily Crunch

0:00Laurel Orley:Welcome to the Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. This is the podcast to discover stories behind your new favorite CPG brands. Each episode brings you behind the scenes of the brand and founder story, learn what sets them apart in the marketplace, and their strategy going to market. We talk about plans for growth, practical advice for an emerging brand founder, and where to shop products that are making waves in food, beverage, wellness, beauty, and beyond. You'll also hear from industry experts, brand builders, investors, and operators you should absolutely have on your radar if you're building a CPG brand today.

0:44Laurel Orley:I'm your host, Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist with a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out. Whether you're building a brand of your own or love supporting what's next, you're in the right place. This episode was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands that drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and captures competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients that you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details.

1:27Laurel Orley:Now, let's dive into the new episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, I have the founder of Daily Crunch. You've probably seen Daily Crunch everywhere as I've seen it. It's an amazing, amazing snack, one of my family's favorites. Laurel Orley is here. She is the founder, and I'm so happy to have you on the podcast. Thank you. Well, what a wonderful intro. It's great to be here. It's true. Your snacks are one of our go-tos. It's always in the pantry. We're obsessed with the Fly by Jing collab that you did, and we truly have your snacks all the time.

2:13Laurel Orley:So this was a, this is a fun show for me to record today. Yeah. We just won the self pantry award for the fly by Jing and the good housekeeping, which is really exciting. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. I have so many questions for you, but before we dive in too much, could you give people the overview of Daily Crunch and what makes this snack brand really stand out in the marketplace? Yeah. So what we say is that we're bringing innovation to what we call a trusty, but very dusty nut snack category. So right now we're in the sprouted, we're in the nut space. You know, that's where we're living right now it is a multi-billion dollar category that frankly just consumers have had to make decisions where it's like do we want nuts that taste good that have a lot of junk in it that are caked in sugar and all these other things on the back of the packaging and the list goes on and on and on or rather boring where it's like raw nuts but not much to it so right we're picking up the aisles there.

3:16Laurel Orley:And it's the perfect combination of a clean product, but also has flavor. Cause like you said, it's usually dry if it's like quote unquote more healthy or soaked in these gross oils, right. Of like the nuts that you would find at your family's house. So what is also different with the way that it's sprouted? Because that's also a differentiation of like actually how it crunches. Yeah. So my aunt Diane, she learned about soaking and sprouting nuts and seeds in India over 20 years ago. Wow. Whenever I would go to Michigan where she's from, she would give me a huge bag of these nuts. I didn't even know.

4:01I didn't know that they were sprouted or the terminology. I just knew they were different. They crunched like a chip. And I don't like to eat raw nuts. I like to eat the, I like to eat the garbage because I wanted what tasted good. And when she would give these to me, my kids and I would literally like fight over them. And my kids don't like, we just, we love them. They just were so they, the texture difference is what brought me to it. But we have a patent on our process. It took a few years to get, but we got it last year, which is incredible.

4:36Laurel Orley:Wow. That's major, huge, major based on time and temperature, but we have a four day soak sprout dehydrate process. Um, there's a lot of, you know, science, I guess science behind when you soak nuts and seeds in water. But what we're really leaning into is the fact that when you soak, for example, almonds in water, it creates a hollow core. It expands and creates this hollow core in the center. And then when it goes into a dehydrator at super low temperatures where all that excess moisture is removed, that hollow core remains intact that gives it a crunch like a chip. very cool very cool and to have a patent around that is such an accomplishment too so what was your background before all of this um so I was actually on the media advertising side okay like Diageo it was really fun being in my 20s living in New York City working on the Diageo liquor account.

5:45Amazing. Got into all the great parties they were sponsoring. Hasbro toys. I worked on Hasbro toys before I had kids. And then for 13 years, I worked on Unilever. Oh, interesting. I worked on massive billion dollar brands like Dove Soap, the Dove campaign Paint for Old Beauty. I worked on Hellman's Mannies. I worked on Suave. I worked on these flagship brands we all know, but very specific in one siloed area of that brand, which was media, marketing, advertising.

6:25Laurel Orley:So what made you want to take the leap and become a CPG founder yourself? Yeah, well, I think one of the things I like to talk about a lot is taking risks. And you can take a risk at any point in your career and have a risk change at any point as well. I was 37 when I had my third child and I moved to Nashville from New York for my husband's company and my life changed. And I knew, you know, I love that Unilever let me work remote for three and a half years here. But I also knew when the time no longer made sense for me to be there. Right. And I took a year off and it was probably one of the most vulnerable times in my life of just not knowing my next step.

7:23And I knew that I didn't want my career to be over. I wanted to do something else that I could build from the ground up. And I kept on going back to my aunt Diane's sprouted nuts where I was like, she has something there. And I remember being so scared to pick up the phone and call her and just be like, Diane, do you want to like launch this for real? You've had this for 20 years, like in a plastic bag. And she said to me, I remember it like it was yesterday. I've been looking for a sign. Let's do it. We started.

7:57Laurel Orley:Wow. I have the chills. So what happened from there? You talked to Aunt Diane. And you're like, okay, this also feels like the great next step. What happened from there? I'm laughing because like that was, you know, as hard as that was, that was like the easy part. Sure. I mean, I had no idea what I was doing. You know, I think like Utilever gave me these amazing building blocks that we have used and implemented of a process of how to launch a brand. And I have those fundamentals, but being an entrepreneur, let's not kid ourselves, is very different than working corporate. Right. So I picked up the phone and called as many people who would let me talk to them about their businesses that they started.

8:48And I just started taking a ton of notes. Like some people who I didn't think would give me the time of day were like, yeah, I'll talk to you. And like, maybe it was like two hour conversation of everything I did to start their company. And, um, leaning in, into that first, I bought all these books off of Amazon of like how to become an entrepreneur, how to launch a food business, like taking notes, highlighting everything. And, um, surrounding myself with people who like knew how to start this. My friend Helkin, she knew how to just start businesses. So she's like, all right, let's get your LLC started.

9:24let's get everything marked like let's get you know a lawyer for that like it just all that like let's get the um now that you got it trademarked like let's get the website owned and all you know those are just like a one and done thing right you have you have to do those in the beginning um and then just you know started going from there but then obviously we launched during the pandemic, which is a whole other story. Okay.

9:52Laurel Orley:I want to know this story because truly your product, I see it everywhere. And it really has been a standout brand. And I look out brands every single day. I record at least three episodes of my podcast every week. I'm a brand strategist. I live, breathe, and sleep this space. Your brand really stands out to me with your distribution. So first, awesome job. But I would love to hear of like how you launched during the pandemic and how you really went about your distribution. Yeah. I mean, for all of those who are listening right now, I just, I want to share some advice that 9.9 % of these brands that you see are not an overnight success.

10:35It takes so much sweat and tears and challenges and setbacks in between. look at good culture, which is like this massive cottage cheese craze. I actually just had it for breakfast with CMOS. I don't know how I feel at CMOS, but the cottage cheese.

10:50Laurel Orley:I was going to say that's an interesting combination. I respect it. But that they've been around for 10 years. I haven't heard about them until this past December. That's fair. So when we launched, I thought in my head, like, oh, we're going to launch Whole Foods is going to take us in every store. Like I had, no, we launched, um, a national snack day, March 5th, 2020, when the whole world closed down. And I literally had one March 5th. Wow. And I had a retailer like actually like kind of yell at me where it was like, we're dealing with a pandemic and rightfully so this is right so that we cannot even look at emerging brands or think about them.

11:35And we, we really had to pivot at that moment where like we went on Amazon and I kind of look at 2020 and even like the first half of 21 is like really a soft launch where it was like let's really figure ourselves out. Let's really figure out our reason to exist. Right. You know we did the SKU S-K-U accelerator program during the pandemic. How was that? It was great. I mean okay this is the only thing like if you're going to do an accelerator or anything that you do, you have to be ready to go all in. Right. And if you're not able to commit to go all in, don't do it. I get like we as a team gave it 110%.

12:19And so we got a lot out of it. But there was a round that literally was like a no show. And I mean, they ended up going under. But I was like, why are you? so um we leaned into Vanderbilt which is in Nashville and started getting these incredible when I say incredible like incredible masters of marketing interns who came in and saw that what we were building and also gave it their all um and to this day there's even though you know a lot we've gone through maybe 20, 25 interns. We're, we're, they're just like still part of our family, like our crunch family. Um, but learning through groups, accelerators, and it, it was, um, it wasn't until Meyer, um, which is a Midwest retailer said, you know, and we had to throw the CPG playbook out the window during the pandemic.

13:20We're like, we can't do the whole natural than conventional. Myra was like, we're going to take you in. We're going to take you in into the majority of our stores. And that is what green lit us into the KHE Elevate program. So, okay.

13:37Laurel Orley:Is that where they were purchasing? So we got into the KHE Elevate program, which I highly recommend. I had a great experience with it. I know people have different stories about distributors, but I could not say enough things about how wonderful the Kehi Elevate program was for us. And we had to open five warehouses as in part of the program. And then that's what kind of started the momentum in Kehi and getting us up and running with Kehi. So is that the strategic partner that you had to really grow distribution wise? So basically you do not want to go into distribution unless you have an anchor account.

14:21Right. Fire was our anchor account to open us up in, in KHE.

14:26Laurel Orley:And I've seen you in Target, which is really cool too. So how did that happen? So I think that there's different phases of this launch. And I'm just, again, sharing my experience. Sure. There's the part in the beginning where you are rolling up your sleeves and getting into everything as a founder and CEO. And for me, a lot of that was sales where we had the story that I believed in. And I would personally reach out to these buyers and say, hey, like, give us a shot. And I want to be clear that like I got shot down a lot. Thrive Market, I probably emailed the buyer and I was very strategic when I don't want, you know, you don't want to be like super annoying, but we're like, hey, give us a shot.

15:20And he's like, sorry, this category is cluttered. and then we were launching Nashville hot and I emailed the buyer at thrive. I was like, you know what? I want you. And I want you to know how important thrive is to us. I will give you the exclusive. Um, so my dog is evidently also really excited about market. Okay.

15:43Um, and the buyer was like, all right, deal. I'm going to bring you in. You give me exclusive for Nashville hot. We'll bring all your SKUs in.

15:54Laurel Orley:Very cool. Cause that was my next question of the different special SKUs that you have and also the partnerships. Could you give us the overview strategy wise on that? Yeah. I mean, basically, and I'm sorry, my dog is going ballistic. I don't know what is going on with him, but, um, so look right now you like retailers want something special. And if you're able to offer that, I think in a lot of times they're willing to listen. So, you know, with Whole Foods, we gave Fly by Jing an exclusive the first 90 days to carry that ski before anybody else. And it also, you know, it's a great relationship with that retailer because then they're open to giving you more marketing support or more promotional support when you're willing to say, hey, we're only going to give this to you the first 90 days if you take it.

16:55Collaborations are also really powerful right now. They're definitely having where these brands have maybe they maybe they are your customer base. And it's a great way to add awareness where you can come together and and, you know, Fly by Jinx sells us on their website. And I can't tell you how many people order us from their website who didn't know who we were beforehand. But I do want to say, after three and a half years of doing a lot of the sales myself, we have hired a head of sales. Where as we grow as a team, we also have to know where to let go. and especially me as the co-founder and CEO.

17:46The head of sales now, she's leading the majority of the sales. And I think while, yes, I helped get some of these retailers greenlit, she has the art in the promotional strategy that I did not have.

18:01Laurel Orley:So that's a great point too, of bringing in the right team members to help fill in the spaces of, you got the doors open, but for someone to really then take that opportunity and run with it even further to let yourself also, you said you have kids, you have a life, right? And just, I think that's a great point too, because so many founders start by themselves or maybe one other person, but to really, to be able to scale and keep living your life, starting to allow that team to build. you have to surround yourself by people who are experts in the field. I know my Achilles heels. I know the things that I'm good at.

18:42I know what I'm not good at. And I make sure to surround myself with the people where I need that extra support to walk me through situations that, um, where they just honestly have the better experience.

18:56Laurel Orley:Is there one last piece of advice you would share with an emerging brand founder, maybe someone who has a cool snack and it's in that plastic bag and they're like, okay, I feel like this really could be something, but I'm not quite sure. Any advice for that person really just in the very early stages? Yeah. Well, okay. First of all, um, like what's your, you know, you're, you're going to pivot a lot and know that that's okay. You have to start somewhere. And if you know you want to do this, just start. You don't have to roadmap it out five years. Just like start the first year, start it slow. Listen to what people are saying with the feedback.

19:39If you're in a city where, you know, you're an emerging natural brand, try to go deep in that city. Look, Nashville, unfortunately, isn't a big city like New York and LA where we can just go deep in Nashville first. But if you have that opportunity, like really go deep on your local roots, because those are the stores that are going to carry you first, where you can also get feedback from, you know, Whole Foods has a local program. Broker has a local program. Publix does. And just really start to build that base where you are and surround yourself by other founders who are also in your stage. Get together once a month.

20:20Talk for two hours. You know how to be confidential. where you can just share learnings, join groups like Startup CPG, Foodbet, like just like, you know, subscribe to Nosh.com, like just start to get in that world and be a sponge, be a sponge and know that this is my biggest piece of advice. Once you start building that up, you please do what I didn't do and get your financials done first. When I say that, make sure your margins are rock solid. Make sure they are in the norm, in the average. Make sure that like, you know, um, you know, if you're going to be cash pop, you know, profitable or not.

21:11And when that will be, we launched at five ounces and that was not the right move. So we actually had to transit all of our five ounce bags to four ounces. And it was like, it took like a year and a half to do. It was a massive undertaking. And if I did my financial modeling in the beginning, look, we have things like chat GBT now. So like, if you can't afford a fractional CFO, like lean into some of these new tools that are there and just make sure that like what you're offering the customer is aligned with a competitive set, um, or you're going to and a product as you scale.

21:45Laurel Orley:That is great advice. And I know that many emerging brand founders and soon to be founders listen to this podcast. And I know that they're taking lots of notes from everything you just said, because it's really, really important. So thank you. I hope that I'm able to give a little bit because I have received so much amazing experience. One thing I learned is not to give advice, just share your experience. I think that's a great life lesson personally and professionally, which I'm learning to do. And I hope that I've been able to help a little bit and excited for the new line of emerging brands out there.

22:28Laurel Orley:Amazing. Well, thank you so much. Last question before I let you go, where can people shop Daily Crunch? Oh my gosh. If you would be so kind to want to try us. We just got into Whole Foods nationwide. Amazing. In the fall. And we would love all the TLC and support at Whole Foods. We're in the nut aisle with our fly by Jing Sweet Szechuan, our turmeric and sea salt and our dill pickle and pittas, all three of those SKUs. Please give us some love there if you're if you're feeling up to it. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time and insight and sharing your experience. And thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.

23:13Laurel Orley:Bye. This episode of the Emerging Brands podcast was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands to drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers and capture competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients and one you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details. If you're new here, hi, I'm Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist working with first-time CPG food and beverage founders. I have a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out because you're not just building a product, you are building a brand.

24:01Laurel Orley:And you want to make sure that is one that consumers love and retailers remember. That's where I come in. I've recently advised brands like Frankly Good Coffee, She's the Sauce, a new non-alcoholic cocktail line that's coming to market soon, and a hormone-conscious deodorant because food-adjacent brands count too. If you are bringing a new product to market, please reach out at withkellybennett.com. thank you so much for listening and sharing you can follow me on instagram at with kelly bennett and you can follow the show at emerging brands podcast thank you again and i'll see you on the next episode