Eat Senza

0:00Jake Block: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.

0:44Jake Block: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.

1:27Jake Block: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 co-founders Krista and Jake of Eat Senza. This has been one of the gluten-free pastas that I'm adding into my rotation. Their packaging is super cute. They were just at Pop-Up Grocer. And I feel like they're one of the brands that is making allergy-conscious foods cool and fun and not scary and boring. So Krista and Jake, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast. Thank you.

2:07Krista D'Archi:We're so excited. And I love that you said that we're making it fun because I think that's probably our biggest pillar that we focus on.

2:14Jake Block:I can get that sense. And even from because, again, I'm a nerd about all of this. When you all sent out the little totes with the box of gluten free pasta, I was like, yes, it's cute. It's fun. My girlfriend's two daughters, they're nine and 12. They were fighting over that little tote. It was like a battle of who was going to get the little tote. And it's just and one of them is gluten free. So I was like, oh, this is perfect. So I definitely got that vibe and energy from you both and the brand itself.

2:50Krista D'Archi:Yeah, we so badly want to bring levity to the pasta aisle. And I think even with the little tote, we were thinking about it more from a campaign sense. Like imagine someone walking down the street with a little tote with a box of pasta in it, like their paparazzi moment. Count me in.

3:07Jake Block:That's the best.

3:09Krista D'Archi:That was the entire idea. So I'm glad that it's been received super well.

3:14Jake Block:Yes, it totally landed at this house. But before I nerd out too much about your strategy and your backgrounds, I would really love to hear about the brand itself. How did this brand idea come together with you both? Sure.

3:32Krista D'Archi:So a few years ago, my sister was diagnosed with celiac disease. And as anyone who gets a new diagnosis has to do, she had to just like totally reinvent her approach to food. and then in that process we were just like on FaceTime one day and she was like I can never eat pastina again and for those of us who like grew up with pastina it's very much so like a comfort food of our childhood that really does stick with you in adulthood like when you're in your first apartment by yourself and like no one's there to cook for you all you really want is a warm bowl of pastina and she was like I am going to be missing out on this like healing piece of my life forever now.

4:07Krista D'Archi:And I was like, well, why don't we just make the pastina? Like it does exist. I will be fair. Gluten-free pastina is a thing, but it's mainly in Italy. It's not really in the US market. And if it is, it's not good. It's something I'm passionate about. It's something Jake's passionate about. We both love food. So we're just like, let's jump into CPG. Can't be that hard.

4:29Jake Block:Okay.

4:29Krista D'Archi:It's very hard.

4:30Jake Block:Yes. It's totally hard. And though that speaks to your entrepreneurial spirit of, okay, we don't really see something that's perfect or awesome or fun or something that I want to put into my grocery cart. So I'm going to make it, which again, is the beginning of any good entrepreneur story, in my opinion. So what was your background prior to the brand? What were you working on when you got that call and had that light bulb moment? Sure.

5:05Krista D'Archi:So for me, I was working in social for about like four or five years at that point. I was working on just like fun niche internet brands, considering doing a pivot, but not sure exactly what that pivot would be for me. And then right as I was really getting into the nitty gritty of Senza, my company got closed by our parent company. So it was kind of like a message from the gods of like, you need to be doing this company full time now. So that was how my pivot came to be.

5:32Jake Block:Yes. Yes. It sounds like the pivot really came to you as far as like, oh, no, we're going to we're going to change course. Yeah. OK, Jake, what about for you?

5:41Krista D'Archi:Yeah. So I have a I like to say that I'm like a consummate builder of everything and anything. I'm just so I love taking something from idea to physicality. And I've traditionally been a video producer, but I did it for CPG brands for a really long time. Oh, interesting.

6:02Jake Block:OK.

6:02Krista D'Archi:Yeah, yeah. So I basically helped three very different brands scale through paid and video. I was shooting commercials in our apartment during COVID. Like that's what that's the type of stuff we were working on. And more recently, I pivoted to tech, where I do a lot of video strategy and production. But that being said, I have always loved CPG. And we're like, absolute nerds when we walk through the grocery aisle, like we stop, we look at CPG. at every single brand. We take note. And I think for both of us, what Senza started off as was an idea that Krista wanted to solve for. And immediately I was like, let's do it.

6:45Krista D'Archi:I think we were at a point where the only risk that you can really take is not taking a risk. We wanted we wanted to give it a shot. And I've seen so many founders of different confidence and expertise levels try. And the only differentiator that I've seen is confidence.

7:10Jake Block:So that's a huge piece of the puzzle. I'm so glad that you said that because I know for so many emerging brand founders, especially ones who listen to this podcast, they're just building up the confidence because this is doing something they've never done before. What helped you both feel confident in taking that step? Because it sounded like you worked within CPG and on the periphery, but not necessarily in the brand founder seat. So what helped you feel confident in saying, yeah, we could figure this out?

7:45Krista D'Archi:Yeah, I think the biggest help in that respect is connecting with other founders and learning that the struggle really is not one that you're in alone. I've made like some lifelong friends in the past year just from starting this journey and connecting with others about how freaking hard it is. Right. Like anything from packaging to like co-man contracts. It's all something that everyone deals with and no one is like better or worse for their understanding or lack thereof, especially at the beginning. But I think generally what gave us the confidence to push forward here was we wanted it. Like we just, we just, we just so honestly wanted it.

8:28And with

8:29Krista D'Archi:that journey, Crystal was all in, uh, and I was able to kind of come in and support like wherever I could. Um, and, and with that, like for us, we think that there's a very, very clear need in the market to make allergen free food in a way that doesn't feel like it's screaming at you. Right. We like like we always like imagine this visual of being at a dining table with like your entire family. And there's nothing worse than when someone knows something's gluten free.

9:06Jake Block:A thousand percent. And as someone who was vegan for 15 years, I was my food was always pushed to the corner at the end of the dining or not even on there. It was just like in a dark corner of a kitchen of like, okay, you'll eat this and we're going to have this beautiful spread. So I could empathize. I feel like the gluten-free and the vegan people definitely hang out in similar circles. And it's like the food, if you have a food sensitivity, you're off to the side and everyone else is eating this amazing food. And the reverse, if someone knows that it's gluten-free or vegan, they're like, oh, oh no, that can't be good.

9:46Jake Block:Right. And so I like that visual of having everyone be cool about what's on the table and your sister could also eat it. That's a real vision. I like that.

10:00Krista D'Archi:Thank you. And I think it helps too, because for us, we thankfully don't have any allergies or intolerances that we have to go by. So we can be trying to make things that tastes like the original and we're able to like keep eating the original too. So we have that to

10:15Jake Block:like balance as well. That's a cool way to taste test also and making sure that you're getting as close as possible. So what were the steps that you all initially took to start actually creating a gluten-free pastina? What were those early steps that you took that I literally saw it on the shelf at pop-up grocer.

10:41Krista D'Archi:I wish I could bring it over here, but our first step was buying this huge pasta machine from Italy that we just keep on the counter now because we can't use it for actual production. I was like, I'm going to order this crazy massive extruder. We're going to try a bunch of different recipes that I just formulated in our kitchen, see what tastes the best. It worked from a recipe development standpoint because I was able to actually try different corn to rice flour ratios, a little less water, a little more water, but we could not get the shape right. Got it. And when doing dried pasta, you really need to make sure you're following the correct protocols as well for drying it because that's like, you know, food safety 101.

11:23Krista D'Archi:Like if it's not properly dried, then there's so many other risk factors. So it was never going to be something that we could make ourselves, but I really wanted to try even if it was just for like a month or two. um so that was our first ever step and then we started trying to find co-mans around the u.s we really wanted to make sure we were doing it domestically just to keep costs down and also give us the opportunity to like fly wherever we need to fly right i mean i would love to be flying to italy like once a month and stuff but it's definitely much more affordable and sensible to stay here um and then i actually did a program with e cornell and the center of excellence in And yeah, they do a food spark program for like emerging brands.

12:05Krista D'Archi:So I was able to do their food product development course and learn just about like, you know, the safety of food product development, the different avenues and like people to talk to. And I gained a mentor through that as well. And I met another founder of a pasta brand and she referred me to her co-man. And then that's kind of where that blossomed and became what it is now.

12:24Jake Block:What a cool way to, again, put yourself out there and start seeing the pieces come together. That food program in particular has been on my radar because I met them at Fancy Food. And learning more about it, I'm like, oh my gosh, what an incredible resource. So I'm so happy that you just mentioned that. How did that get on your radar?

12:51Krista D'Archi:I found the Center of Excellence first. Um, I've always been interested in food science and I know Cornell is like a huge place for food science, um, in general across the country. And being in New York is just like such a gift to find things like this too. It truly is. It is. Like we're just so blessed here. Um, the center of excellence is only available to like New York brands, businesses, and like residents. Um, so I was kind of the perfect fit because I wanted to start the company in New York, have as many operations in New York as possible. And also like, we just live here. right and then I found the food spark program incredible so what were those next steps so it

13:30Jake Block:sounded like that program really helped you find the correct co-man actually have a commercially viable product what were the other steps that you were doing maybe in the background to just get some brand awareness some buzz letting people know this was happening and and literally what you were cooking up. I would love to hear the mindset around the strategy because again, you both come from really cool backgrounds that I could see totally fit into building a CPG brand.

14:03Krista D'Archi:Yeah, for sure. So I think for us, there were a couple of things that were like super, super clear that we needed to do quickly. CPG today, obviously, pretty easy to understand as far as the paths in which you could go, right? So for us, we chose to bootstrap the company. Every single dollar for the first six months of this company was us, right? We wanted to make sure that we had the full control over the actual company. And we wanted to make sure that when we were ready to make a decision, we could do it in a way that would keep us profitable so that this isn't a flash in the pan, right? So the way that we ended up moving forward, which also kind of aligns with the marketing question is we, we, we spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to kind of do pre-orders and proof.

14:59Krista D'Archi:So we played around with Kickstarter and Kickstarter is something that's kind of near and dear to both of our hearts. I like, I funded a Kickstarter film in high school. Like that was like, I had a dream of being a director and I want to do a feature. But that being said, it felt like the right moment for us because we could raise the money from people that wanted to try our product just because they thought it was interesting. And two, once we had those funds, we knew we would be able to hit a campaign goal because we've done it. Like we've from a social standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, that's probably our superpower as kind of founders.

15:43Krista D'Archi:so uh we leaned in we were we started to shoot as much content as possible on instagram um on tiktok uh we went all out with our with our kickstarter video uh which i shot i was gonna say

15:59Jake Block:what a perfect combo of saying let's make a cool video series for our kickstarter i mean

16:05Krista D'Archi:what a great team yeah it worked out really well and all of our friends like kind of came right a board to help us out. And like, we were able to push the boat forward because we had a lot of people rowing. And I think, I think for us, that was the best part. Just like being able to see everybody come together to try to help us make this happen. And to be honest, like today, if you're not willing to do that piece of the puzzle, I think you're in for kind of a rude awakening. as far as wanting to push out content, be a face, be a personality on the internet for your brand.

16:49Jake Block:Especially if you're bootstrapping. It's one of the biggest things that I was at an event yesterday and we were talking about this. A pretty large platform was asking my opinion about founders being the faces of their brands and being on social. And I said, well, those are primarily also bootstrap businesses. You are one of your biggest levers to move the needle and to create buzz and build relationships and build community. Why not pull that lever if you can? And I think people are really burnt out from very generic brands being sold by huge conglomerates. People want to see interesting, fun perspectives, people who are taking leaps.