Figa Foods

0:00Ariel Altman:Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42Ariel Altman:And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is the go-to platform built for creator-powered retail activations. They're connecting everyday creators with CPG brands to generate shelf-level awareness, drive in-store momentum, and generate authentic content in markets that matter the most. Go to hummingbirds.com for all the details and let them know I sent you. 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 Arielle Altman.

1:27Ariel Altman:She is the co-founder of Figa Foods and one of my favorite local founders in New York City. I have been eating her products consistently from the very, very beginning that I had a sample. She's doing something very cool in the chocolate bar space. So Arielle, I'm so happy to officially have you on the podcast. I'm so excited to be here. This is so great. Thank you so much for having me. Feels like a dream. I remember when we were talking in the very, very early days, I think before we even had packaging finalized, I feel like I was sending you mock-ups of like packaging back in the day and giving you like samples and I don't even know what wrapping.

2:13Ariel Altman:I am really honored that I was one of the earlier taste testers to get a sneak peek of what you've been building because you've genuinely done a great job. And it's very cool to see the progression in a fairly short amount of time. You've been really hitting the ground running and it's not easy. And we're going to dive into all the things. so first before we dive in into the brand and strategy and what you've been doing to get the the brand launched I would love if you could first talk about the product because this was a hero ingredient that was totally new on my radar and it's similar to chocolate but I saw what is it food and uh wine said it was even better than chocolate network said like chocolate Network.

3:08Ariel Altman:Yes. Yes. Like such a cool shout out. So could you walk us through what exactly the product is? Yes. So the product is actually, um, instead of using cocoa beans to make your traditional chocolate bar, we use the seeds of a Brazilian superfood called cupu wasu. That's actually the cousin plant of cacao. So very similar to how apples are to pears or oranges is are to tamperies. Cupuasu is to cacao. It's actually the national fruit of Brazil, originally from the Amazon, and honestly grows abundantly everywhere, kind of like in people's backyards. And what's interesting is it grows in what they call agroforestry systems, which basically means it's a tropical forest with acai, with bananas, with cacao.

3:59And cupuasu is actually a part of that system that provides shade for the cacao and provides nutrients in the soil for the bananas, etc. However, there's not a big market for cupuaçu. And what's really interesting about it is a lot of the farmers that we speak to and kind of the consensus is, oh, our cupuaçu is thrown away or we have nothing to do with the seeds. The main use for cupuaçu in Brazil right now is sometimes they'll take the pulp and use it in desserts. Or if you order an acai bowl in certain parts of Brazil, they'll be like, do you want half acai, half cupuaçu? Because they'll actually blend it with like cream and sugar.

4:39And the seeds are primarily used in the cosmetic industry. So if you look at Haley Bieber's Rode lip gloss or Sol de Janeiro body butter, they actually press the seeds for the oil because it's super high in antioxidants and really great for moisture absorption and they'll use it in cosmetics. And so our product is the first and only company in the U.S. to actually take the seeds that are very similar to cocoa beans, take them through a very similar process that cocoa beans go through where you ferment them, you roast them, you dry them. We're working with an award-winning chocolate maker in Brazil who helped us develop the recipe and does our manufacturing for us.

5:20And we create a bar that's like chocolate, but Food Network said like a little better. The way that we like to think about it is it's very similar to like how mezcal is to tequila or how oat milk is to almond milk. It's a new take on your traditional chocolate bar that is also super high in antioxidants and has very similar nutrition profile to what you'll find in a dark chocolate bar. But the biggest differentiator is actually that it's naturally caffeine free and thing and our bars um are made with only three ingredients so it's just kupuasu dates and then we have a little bit of cocoa butter in there because it gives it a nice texture and snap and you may be wondering why should we care about kupuasu or like why is this interesting why like the world doesn't necessarily need another chocolate bar.

6:13But for those who are listening, there's a major cocoa crisis happening where - Oh, for sure.

6:18Ariel Altman:Yes. And like Hershey's has come out and raised their prices. And there's really a dire issue in the land of cocoa. And that's what really inspired the problem that we believe Figo Foods is solving, which is we're not trying to bash cocoa. We're not trying to make you feel bad for eating your chocolate. We're not trying to fully, you know, replace chocolate in your life. But we see, again, very similar to like how Mezcal came on the scene as the cooler cousin to your traditional tequila. That's how we see our bars and kupuasu fitting into the world of chocolate. We're a more interesting, really cool complement to have in your pantry.

6:59And there are a lot of problems in the cacao and supply chain. So if we can help lessen some of that pressure, then that's a big win for us.

7:09Ariel Altman:From my side of the street, just seeing so many new brands coming to market, being pitched of new brands all the time, what also really stood out to me about your brand and your product is the sustainability. That was once a discarded ingredient and how you and your co-founder, who's now your husband, which is love that, have taken something that would probably be thrown away and used in a new way with innovation. You didn't see anyone else doing it. And you both were like, well, let's us, we'll try it. Right. And I feel like any good brand story also starts off like that. And I just really love how you have been working also so closely with local makers and, you know, Brazilian award-winning chocolatier.

8:07Yeah.

8:07Ariel Altman:This authentic and really connecting the dots in a new way. Yeah. I mean, if you can't tell by my accent, I'm clearly not Brazilian, but my husband, Ronnie, is. And I think it was super, super important to us to make sure that it was authentically Brazilian. So not only do we work hand in hand with local family run smallholder farms in the Brazilian countryside, our chocolate maker is Brazilian, our design team is Brazilian. And even when I was, you know, even the packaging, the illustration, we worked with an illustrator who's Brazilian, who actually took a ton of inspiration from a specific art movement that happened in Brazil in the 1920s.

8:52And there was an artist that we were super inspired by, Her name is Tarsia do Amaral. And it was really important for us to have our own like iconography and own kind of distinct imagery that felt so Brazilian. And even if you look at our packaging, if you open up the flap, the illustration actually tells the story of the cupua sioux fruit growing in this tropical forest and turning into the chocolate bar. um so we really and even if you open up the package itself there's two flaps on the inside and there's this design that looks almost like tiles that was actually inspired by the streets of Rio so like everything that we did and still do has a really strong Brazilian influence because um Brazil obviously I'm not from Brazil but it the country had made such an impact on me every time that I went with my now husband.

9:44And I was super inspired by the amount of superfoods and just healthy ingredients that existed naturally there that no one in the US really knew about. Like, yes, we know acai, but there's all these other incredible ingredients that I don't really think are made for modern American palates yet. And that's why we were really inspired to start Figa Foods and do this. And truly it came out of, we were researching on Google like what are different brazilian superfoods and how can they be used in interesting ways and cupua su was actually our second idea we killed the first idea which was this very specific nut that only grew in this certain region of brazil but we killed it for a number of reasons and then we came across cupua su on google we literally looked on youtube and saw this woman in the amazon with like no electricity and chickens in the background make using the seeds of the cupua fruit and turning it into chocolate with like a hand grinder.

10:43And we both looked at each other and we're like, all right, if this woman can do it, we can figure this out. This was May 2024. We went on our first official research trip in August 2024. We met with farmers. We met with researchers. We met with chocolate makers. We met with chocolate executives. We met with lawyers, really any, we met with professors who like studied Kupuasu and we couldn't understand why this hadn't been done before because it seemed quite obvious to us that this could be a really interesting compliment or alternative given everything that's happening in cocoa and chocolate and everyone looked at us and said you're never going to be able to do this you're never going to make it taste good it doesn't have the right texture you're I've never had really good kupu based chocolate and you're never going to figure out the supply chain because no one knows how to do this at scale.

11:33So I'm the type of person where someone tells me, no, I'm like, okay, I'm going to prove you wrong. Yeah. And we just started to figure out, like we met our chocolate maker who is amazing and is super innovative in what she does in the chocolate space. She was like the founder of the bean to bar movement in Brazil. Her name is Louisa Abram. And when we met her, she was like, I've always wanted to work with Kupuasu. This is the future of chocolate. like I can make this taste good. We're going to figure this out. And a big part of what happened in the beginning was we tried to find any cupuaçu based bars made from small batch makers in Brazil and they all tasted terrible, Kelly, like rotten Halloween candy.

12:13And the big reason, there was two things that were driving that. One, they were overly packed with sugar. And two, a big piece of chocolate making and cupuaçu bar making, even wine making is fermentation. So grapes go through a fermentation process to turn into wine. Cocoa beans go through a fermentation process to bring out the flavors to be ready to be turned into cocoa powder. And cupua su seeds also have to go through a fermentation process. And the bars that we tried tasted rotten because they were overly fermented. And we then got in touch with a fermentation expert who's been in the cocoa chocolate world for 35 years, was also really inspired and excited by what we were doing, and developed a fermentation protocol with us that really gets the right types of flavor profiles out of the seeds without over fermenting them.

13:06And that's what we actually teach our farmers to use and do to be able to get the best result. And then we've also developed our own roasting protocol because it's very similar to coffee. You know, when you go to a coffee shop and you're like, this tastes burnt, this tastes over roasted, right? Same exact situation with cocoa and chocolate and cupua soup. So that's a little bit about how we got here. And then fast forward,

13:31Ariel Altman:we did a lot of, I have a few more questions. Yes. What was your professional background prior to this? Because I feel like you've done a great job of just getting people to talk with you that you are starting off, you know, not knowing exactly how this would happen, but you've done a great job of finding the right strategic partners to talk with and connect. So I love to see how like your background prior to this helped you get into the door or just how you've been networking. Totally. So my background is kind of on the business development partnership side. I've been at Google and I'm still at YouTube.

14:16I've been there for the last 10 years and kind of have had various roles throughout the company. I was in recruiting when I first started, then I moved to ad sales, and then most recently have been on the partnerships business development side. So my background is thinking about creative ways to bring disparate worlds together. Specifically, you know, on the YouTube side, I helped to start the health team at YouTube. So how do we get health information out in interesting and thoughtful and creative ways using the power of creators and, you know, the health industry. So I very much come from, I would say, a health background, which also inspired the fact that our bars are super clean and healthy and no junk, but also have always had this mindset of how do we make unsexy things cool?

15:05Or how do we, and I think, you know, I just on a personality level have kind of no fear. I'm always, my mindset on things is always just like, what's the worst that could happen? So for better or for worse, I have no problem just cold calling and reaching out to people. And it's, I will say like the perfect compliment in Ronnie, my husband and business partner, because he is incredibly analytical. He comes from a banking background, also works in big tech, but works on business models for, you know, a big company and, you know, very much loves spreadsheets and numbers. And obviously he's the one that speaks.

15:40Ariel Altman:That's a good co-founder. Yeah, exactly. So he got balance. Exactly. Like we compliment each other in such great ways. And obviously we really understand each other deeply and can communicate with each other, you know, really well. And we just have had so much fun doing this, like meeting kooky people, going to the middle of nowhere in Brazil. and like, you know, I'll never forget we were in this town. And I think the meeting with, you know, a farmer and there was a bunch of little kids there and they saw me come out of the car speaking English. And one of the little kids came up to me and was like asking me in Portuguese, like, are you Brazilian?

16:23And I said, no, I'm American. And the kids literally acted like I was Taylor Swift, like freaking out. And it was just such a cool moment to think about like how we are helping these communities make money off of something that would often go to waste and really making a difference. I think another just side note is both Ronnie and I have corporate jobs. We both are still working our corporate jobs. And in order for us to really dedicate a lot of time and energy into something, we really wanted it to be meaningful and not just something cool and not just something that tasted really good. But how can we do something that's also going to have a lasting impact and give us a sense of meaning outside of, you know, just creating something cool and beautiful.

17:07So I think that's been a really fun aspect of this.

17:11Ariel Altman:Something that was being thrown away and how people are creating a product around it. So let's dive into the creative aspect of how you've been getting the word out because from seeing a summer fancy food. I've been seeing you demo sampling, uh, even at your own wedding, it was our holders with the bar. You've been getting great media hits. What have been some of the strategies and creative ways you've been getting the word out and also in the U S market where most people don't know what the hero ingredient is. Totally. So I will also say we are completely bootstrapping the business, which means we are super limited on budget and marketing dollars, which I actually think in a lot of ways forces you to be even more creative.

17:59It does. Yeah. So like literally step one, I mean, yes, we created an Instagram. I have a background in content. Like I'm not great at editing. So I, you know, have been working with an editor who's taking a lot of the ideas that we come up with and turning them into videos. So like advice for founders, definitely start getting on social media even before you launch, because there's a lot of interesting behind the scenes and storytelling that you can do. But literally, I ordered bumper stickers online. And we live in Williamsburg, which is a very high foot traffic, cool area with our logo and a QR code on it.

18:35And then we also have one that says, Have you met Chocolates Brazilian Cousin? And I no joke, still go around and put them on signposts and on all over the street to be in the high traffic areas because why not? And I always think about how I, you know, look around while I'm talking and brands pay millions of dollars to have billboards in our neighborhood. So why put it right in front of your face? So if anyone's listening and they see a Figa sticker, you can scan the QR code or DM us and, you know, you'll get a little surprise. But that was actually the first way we did it. Second way we did it just to even get the word out was even though our product wasn't perfect or fully done.

19:18We were working with seeds from the year prior. We got tickets to Expo West and we literally had mini bars that were hand stickered by me, not even official packaging yet in our back pockets. And we're just going up to different founders that we were really inspired by, different platforms, people that we either stalked or listened to or spoke to and gave them mini bars and started to get the word out and just got initial feedback as well. I would say like a big piece of advice for early stage founders is it's never too early to just put yourself out there. Like I remember just last holidays, last December, I went to my first like local, it was like a naturally New York holiday party.

20:05And I was so nervous. I'm like, we don't even have a real product. Like, am I a real founder? Like, is this even happening? I didn't even have like we had broken up pieces of chocolate in dime bags or like cupua su bars in dime drug bags. And I was like, you know what? I just have to push myself and just go and just give it out to people and just start talking about it. And like I remember my pitch was not very good. I knew I was stumbling on my words and knew like there was things that I needed to think about on figuring out how to explain it to people. but the more practice that you get, the better you're going to be.

20:41So like big piece of advice to founders is it's never too early to just put yourself out there. And that all kind of led to the summer fancy food show, which was a huge moment for us. Um, we applied to get, win the free booth from startup CPG. And again, I think Ronnie and I looked at each other, we're like, are we going to be ready? Like, are we going to have products? Like I, like we, I don't know, like, but let's just try and put ourselves out there. And then we ended up winning the booth and we ended up having an amazing - I realized that. Yes. Yeah. So we ended up winning the booth and, um, we had an amazing summer fancy food show where it was like, we officially launched online July 8th.

21:20Summer fancy food show was the end of June and just got written up in Bon Appetit and Food Network and all these amazing influencers and stores and thought leaders came and were super inspired by what we were doing because it was so unique and different. Um, and that really seeing you at summer fancy food.

21:39Ariel Altman:Yeah. Yeah. And then I would say like the other thing is, you know, the best thing that we found is just getting in front of people. So whether that's working with stores that we're in and saying, hey, can we come in and do a tasting or reaching out to like-minded brands and seeing if they want to do collaborations. Another big thing for us was this summer getting involved with the farmer's markets out in the Hamptons. I saw that. Yeah. So that was also huge for us because we spent a lot of time in West Hampton and love the farmer's market out there. And truly my dream for like years, even when I used to live in LA, I was like, all I want is a stand at the farmer's market.

22:21Like it's so much fun and it's not super easy to get a stand there. We had to do a lot of, you know, coming back and networking and, and the people who run it are lovely, lovely people. And they gave us a shot July 4th weekend. And they were like, sure, you can do a pop-up. Like, let's see how it goes. And we were swarmed, like absolutely swarmed crowds around us. Um, and we sold over a hundred bars in four hours. That was like our best July 4th wasn't, but our final farmer's market was when we sold 100 bars in four hours. I think July 4th, it was like 90 something. But farmer's markets are an amazing way to get the word out, get real time feedback, just also get involved with the community.

23:05Practice too. Exactly. Practice on your pitch and really just meeting as many people as possible. Because then after that, like we bumped into someone on the street a few weeks ago and they were like, are you the Figa couple? Like I saw you guys at the farmer's market. And I was like, yes. You know, so I think just meeting with like meeting people also for us, it was interesting to see like how kids respond to it versus parents versus younger people versus like, you know, for example, my dad's generation, every time they eat the fruity, they're like, this reminds me of a Raisinette. But then when you're talking to a kid or someone that's younger, the way that the flavor that it reminds us of is like a Sour Patch Kid.

23:44So it's like using those different, I would say also analogies have been really helpful to us in helping people understand what Kupu Wasu is and how to communicate our brand. And I'll never forget, I was on a run like probably almost a year ago and it just had this like idea in my head of we're the Mezcal of chocolate. Like we're the same, but we're different. And it has its own unique flavors and spins, but we're different. And, you know, I think a lot of people also ask us, like, why should I buy this over healthy chocolate? And what's really interesting is even chocolate brands that are calling themselves healthy, look at the label because sometimes there's soy lecithins or if they're using fake sugars, that's also not great for your gut health.

24:30Or, you know, there are different coconut sugar, date sweetened chocolates out there, which are also great, but you may not realize the impact that caffeine has on you. Like I know for me, I have a nightly ritual of having, you know, some sort of dark chocolate situation. Obviously now it's vegan and kupuasu, but caffeine at night may not be the best for you. We've even heard from people. And I think the other selling point is our bars are really creamy, but they're totally vegan. And a lot of people are sensitive to milk and caffeine or like vegan chocolate doesn't have the best rep on the market.

25:07so that's been an interesting you know kind of sales pitch for us as well but I think also like advice to founders is learn as you go like we definitely don't have all the answers right now and we're still learning as we go and getting feedback and adjusting what we're saying and how we're saying it and I think what we're excited about and what we're doing is really just getting into different spaces so like five-star luxury hotels or luxury fashion brands that are really aligned with sustainability and Brazilian culture or coffee shops who also have a big focus on their supply chain and are really interested in thoughtful new and interesting flavors and ingredients.

25:46So we're really excited about the opportunities there.