Mamala Organics

0:00Rebecca Schwartz Smith: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. 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.

0:42Rebecca Schwartz Smith:And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI-powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free 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 a founder who is really helping carve out a new product category.

1:34Rebecca Schwartz Smith:It's a product category that's been on my radar that I'm genuinely excited about seeing it get traction. It's desperately needed. And so I have Rebecca Smith. She's a founder and CEO of Momala Organics, which is a supportive snack for moms, right? So Rebecca, I'm so happy to have you on the show to talk all things supporting moms and getting really good functional snacks in the hands of super busy moms who are doing it all. Thank you. It's so good to be here, Kelly. Thank you. So I wanted to first understand a little bit more, like I said, this is this fairly new category that we're seeing specifically towards moms.

2:24Rebecca Schwartz Smith:And I would love to hear from your perspective what you see the white space being. What do you think is really currently the gap in the market? And what helped you land on your functional snacks as like that thing that you really wanted to dive into? Yeah, I think, you know, in terms of, you know, being a mom and an entrepreneur, these ideas come to us out of the most obvious need state. So for me, it was being in kind of acute postpartum, which I look at the fourth trimester as really being acute postpartum because it's actually an up to 10-year nutrient critical life stage and having a handful of supplements and a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal at 4 p.m.

3:10and saying like, what have I fed myself?

3:12Rebecca Schwartz Smith:Right. And it was really an inability to easily access the nutrient-dense whole foods. I knew my body needed to really address the full spectrum of symptoms. When I looked at the market, it was a lot of amazing balls, bars, and cookies focused on lactation support. And even though I was breastfeeding, I felt an incredible sensitivity toward almost the alienation, women existing in postpartum, not breastfeeding, that there was really no product geared towards them. So that's really where the initial idea came from. And then kind of from like a data standpoint, over 50 % of women are no longer breastfeeding after the first three months in the United States.

3:51So how can we address 100 % of women in this season of life? So that's kind of, you know, the initial thought around it.

4:00Rebecca Schwartz Smith:So just to clarify too, you were saying that postpartum is considered the first 10 years after giving birth. So that's a really long, that's a decade. That's a decade. And so all the products on the market, by and large, are saying, by and large, is that first three months, but saying that there is a huge gap of the nutrients that a person who gave birth needs to replenish in their body to make sure that they are healing and supporting themselves through this stage of life. And we also have to remember, you know, there's nutrient depletion, but postpartum is, you know, it's physical, mental, and emotional.

4:44Rebecca Schwartz Smith:And the baseline for that kind of everything that we're contending with is our nutrition. So it's really the first place for us to start. So interesting. Okay, so how did the concept of the product come to life? Yeah. So, you know, anecdotally, I'm, you know, I'm a young mom. I'm on the playgrounds. I'm at the pediatricians. I'm on airplanes. And I keep seeing women reluctantly sip on a go-go squeeze or a once upon a farm. So I'm seeing them already adopting this format. You know, pouches amongst toddlers, ubiquitous. right a huge popularity amongst endurance athletes utilizing this format so I was like this format's so great why can't we make it functional addressing what our bodies biologically are going through at this time why can't we make it taste great and why can't we make it beautiful so we're leaning in to this notion that it's a little luxury giving yourself this moment of respite and nourishing yourself.

5:46But then I had to learn, you know, about the entire world of pouches, which is a crazy world. I mean, you know, like 90 % of pouches on the market are either made in retort or hot fill. So that's really cooking product in the packaging. So I needed to find a way to make this product where we weren't cooking product in the packaging. We ended up landing on aseptic and much less nutrient degradation, much fresher flavor, but a more expensive way to make these.

6:17Rebecca Schwartz Smith:Right. And what was interesting, I saw you in person at Expo West, which was such a treat. And I saw a lot of innovation around pouches and it wasn't just for kids anymore. And I thought that was really interesting. And I was excited to have you on the podcast today after seeing this wave. Do you think that moms are more open to having a pouch because they are on the go or just they've been kind of finishing their kids pouches and now they're like, okay, what's, what pouch can I have for myself? Do you see that as the shift? I think both, you know, I think you see something enough, you become open to it.

6:58You're going to give it a try. I also think, you know, really educating the consumer and being clear about what these ingredients are and how these ingredients actually address what our bodies are going through. We developed this with a dietician and scientists because we needed it to taste good. But the first thing I said to my dietician, who's another mom, um, who, you know, she was a dietician for the Marlins. She's worked in clinical settings. I said to her, I was like, this, these are the symptom sets we need to address hormone regulation and balance, immunity, digestion, and microbiome health, tissue repair, and muscle function, calm, sustained energy, sleep support, and lactation support.

7:35So every single ingredient in here, we need to ensure that there's evidence around it that it does the thing we say it's going to do. And I think that education, you know, coupled with that it does taste good is, you know, even if people are like, I don't know if a pouch is for me, when they understand really what the pouch is doing for them, they're more inclined to give it a go.

7:56Rebecca Schwartz Smith:That totally makes sense. And I know that you had a really great beta launch. But before I get into that, I would love to hear more about what you were doing prior to launching a CPG brand. Yeah. So I spent over a decade in New York City as a PR working with brands. So launching and supporting the growth of fashion brands, you know, some emerging brands and then some, you know, more institutional brands. And then I was in-house with a client as their comms director for a number of years. So I worked so closely with founders for so many years. And I always kind of had this desire, if I cared about something as much as these founders care about their craft and their artistry, I think I might want to do it.

8:45And entering, you know, new parenthood and seeing this giant gap and this huge population of women that were desperate for something that could help them. I felt compelled. But to be honest with you, I was like, I'm not going to be the one to do it. I'm not smart enough. I'm not capable enough. I'm not all of these things. And it really came time when I had very V1 samples and I had a conversation with a friend's sister who has worked in CPG for a long time. And I was sharing all these like spooky doubts. And she said, Rebecca, just keep moving forward one step at a time until you can't move forward anymore.

9:23And that time just never came.

9:26Rebecca Schwartz Smith:Yeah, that's a really good piece of advice, especially when you're going into a new industry, you are stepping into a first time founder role. It's really scary and daunting, like genuinely. And so I think that's a great piece of advice. So what did it look like to start taking those steps again coming from fashion PR doing something totally different what were some of those initial steps to create the product and really create the brand because I know you've built quite a wait list for your product which is super impressive but I would love to hear how you started making those initial steps forward well I think the brand the I kind of took it the brand does one thing And then the product does another thing.

10:15So what we were able to do in the early days was drive around. I'm based in Miami and I was driving around South Florida trying to find a co-manufacturer and just trying to get something that people could taste. And it was those initial conversations with women in my circle, having them taste a product that really let me know this has legs. Like people are interested in this. It is good. And at that point, it is good enough. and then you know separately from the brand side it was looking at who is my who is my target audience how do I want them to feel and that was you know that's a big part of kind of the process in like the early days of PR how are we talking about this how are we living it how are we inviting people into I say inviting people into the mamala verse what's going to be their experience in there.

11:04And that was kind of those initial early steps. And it was a lot of scribbling on paper and sharing them with, you know, other kind of creatives and asking them for their feedback. But I have to say there on one hand, you really want to protect this seed of your idea, right? You want to, you want to keep it close. You don't want to invite any negativity around what you're growing. You do want to share with like the right people. And one of those people was another mom in my daughter's class who I shared what I was building with. And she said, I love this so much. She owns, she and her husband own a branding agency.

11:46They were like, I want to help. And it was those small connections, those people that said, I want to help. They raised their hand. They wanted to get their hands dirty. We wouldn't be where we are today, which is still super, super early without them.

11:59Rebecca Schwartz Smith:That's a really great point. And my work as a brand strategist for pre-launch CPG food and beverage brands, so many founders feel that anxiety around when should I share about it? Who should I tell my idea to? And I am more of the mindset of share with the right people because that's what's going to help give you momentum because we can negotiate ourselves out of anything all day long. And I, I'm sure you've seen that meme as an entrepreneur of like, Oh my gosh, I have an amazing idea. Oh my God, this is horrible. Wait, I can figure it out. Nevermind. It's crashing burning. And then it's like, wait, hold on.

12:41Rebecca Schwartz Smith:It's all working out. It's coming together. Right. It's like, it really genuinely is. So I love that you're saying how you were starting to talk to the right people. And it sounds like you were able to find the right people or start connecting with the right people because you were getting clearer on what you wanted to build. And I think that's a really big unlock too. Once you start really understanding what you want to bring into the market, you start then picking up on who would be the right people to talk to. Exactly that. And also as I'm developing this idea, I'm becoming more and more conscious of how women are moving through life cycle stages.

13:26So menstruation all the way through menopause. So we're kind of ideating on this idea of support snacks. We're developing these. And very quickly I'm saying, okay, well, what's next for her? You know, she's, she's experiencing postpartum. How are we showing up for her in just her general menstruation and women's health? How are we showing up for her in perimenopause? Because so many of us are actually, you know, we're going right from postpartum directly into perimenopause or sometimes simultaneously living in both. So how are we taking care of her through the full life cycle, giving her the convenience of getting some food as medicine nourishment into her day to day life?

14:03Rebecca Schwartz Smith:I'm sure you saw this at Expo West, but I definitely saw an uptake in women's health products, which was so great to see. I, you know, every year I want to see more, you know, last year we saw a little bit. I think we saw a little bit more this year. I love that you called out that you saw kind of some traction happening in the pouch space because that was something they picked up on. But, you know, in a lot of the recaps, I haven't seen people talking about it. But no, I genuinely saw it. Yes. Which I think is great. And it speaks to convenience. At the end of the day, when you're busy, if you're a mom or not, like you need something quick.

14:40Rebecca Schwartz Smith:We're on the go. We're traveling again. We're moving again. And so I was walking the floor with Danielle Calabrese of It's All Happening. And we were noticing pouches and sachets. And we both love sachets. Like anything that comes in a sachet, we're like, done. I'm here for it. So I like that your product is in that form factor. And I'll be honest, when I first saw it, I was like, huh, I wonder if moms would eat from a pouch. But then also seeing it at Expo, it was a light bulb. I'm like, oh, this is becoming a more of a common form factor. And it totally makes sense of your demographic that this form factor makes sense for them.

15:22Rebecca Schwartz Smith:So I think that's really clever. I hope I, you know, it's my hope and my thesis that it will just get bigger and bigger. Yeah, no, I saw an uptick. I definitely did. That was really interesting is when we launched our beta within two weeks, 11 % of customers came back. And so I'm emailing them. I'm like, why are you coming back so quickly? And they were saying, you know, either my partner or my kids are stealing them. And so that's a huge, that's a huge plus for us. Mom's making 95 % of the purchasing decisions. You know, we hope she's buying for her and that the whole family can enjoy. So that's a good point too.

15:58Rebecca Schwartz Smith:So essentially anyone could eat it, but it is based off of the nutritional needs for postpartum. Exactly. So So I, you know, you'll look at the back of our pouch and look at our ingredients and you'll see there's no mystery ingredients in there. You can pick everything up at the grocery store. We're just making it more convenient for you to access them. Is it more whole foods or more of like supplements too? Okay. All whole foods. We like to say that we're a compliment to your supplement. So we sit nicely beside a supplement. You know, you can only get so much. They're called supplements for a reason.

16:32The rest has to come from whole foods. So let us help you get those in.

16:36Rebecca Schwartz Smith:Totally. So you mentioned your waitlist and doing your first beta and people already coming back for more, even in a short period of time. So how did you build up that initial waitlist for the beta product? Yeah, I like to say it's just like personal inertia, just being out there and doing the thing. But it's a combination. I want to say in the early days, but that was mere months ago. So it's really how am I spending my time? I'm spending my time meeting with a lot of practitioners, OBGYNs, pediatricians, lactation consultants, doulas, physical therapists, dieticians and nutritionists. I'm pitching, pitching, pitching them.

17:17Lots of moms groups, lots of texting people and saying, hey, can you share this with five friends? Can you share this with five friends? And really, that was how we did it mostly. um and then we you know we also I hosted these events that I call my mama la mind melds we're on a kind of national tour right now we just did two back-to-back in New York two in LA um we're heading to Nashville Austin Palm Beach Dallas Denver so it's going to be a busy spring um doing those events also is really helpful I did about five before we even launched really being thoughtful about getting people outside my direct circle.

18:03Like how can I tap into people beyond me and bring an interesting group of people together, welcoming them into the mom lovers, having them try the product, giving them the language to talk about what we're building. And, you know, in those days I didn't have a conversion metric around it because we didn't have product to buy, but it was really being out in the world, recognizing what this is, recognizing the name and being able to share what the mission is. And that was really, you know, a big part of building it also.

18:37Rebecca Schwartz Smith:Which is a great point. I'm a huge supporter of building brand community. I think it is genuinely a game changer, which it sounds like you did a lot of and continuing to do a lot of and how are you getting the event set up or is it like a friend of a friend or people are introducing you like how is it kind of popcorning to new locations all of the above so I always start by kind of not necessarily having a host but like two people that I'm really looking to in the community they're going to help me find the location we're going to do it at which we're usually typically doing it at a great residence.

19:18Um, okay. So we're popping up at somebody's home. Um, and then we're using maybe a couple of people, people from their direct community, maybe a friend of a friend lives in said place and I'm reaching out, I'm inviting her. I'm saying, can you bring two of your friends? And then it's a spider web effect from there. You know, in New York, we had, I try and keep them at 20 people in New York. We had like 30 people at each event. So it's, I really try and keep them small though, because, and then I like to invite other complimentary brands into the mom livers. So I'll bring a beauty brand, I'll bring in a matcha brand, you know, kind of whoever, um, is interested in being part of it and aligns with, you know, kind of our brand pillars.

20:03Um, I want to welcome them in like all ships rise with the tide.

20:07Rebecca Schwartz Smith:And what is the experience that you're curating in your mom averse so it's nosh and schmooze is how it starts and then we do a circle with a compelling prompt um and that's like a very i'm in a mom's group called misha that marika frum started which is and so it's very much like a kind of prompt in her in her vein um we also open a couple spots always to Misha. And the prompt in this tour has been about basically, when did you feel like the truest version of yourself and what did you need to shed to get there? So there's a lot of like cracking open and sharing something. And then I partnered with a good friend who has a practice called the Born Method.

20:55And together we go over zone of genius numbers based on everybody's birthdays. We have everybody's birthdays ahead of time. And we basically connect, okay, this is the time you felt your most truest self. Well, this is your zone of genius number. And this is what typically holds that number back. So, you know, we're noshing, we're learning, we're connecting. That's super cool. And that's, that's what this tour is all about. I'm sure the next tour will, will have maybe something different. We've done great programs with different sex therapists. We just kind of like anything that delves into the experience of being a woman in this world, we're touching on.

21:31Rebecca Schwartz Smith:Very cool. And so when is your next production run of, because I know you sold out, right? Yeah. So we did our first beta. We sold out of 4 ,000 units in a little less than six weeks, which was great. Congrats. And then I was like, oh my God, we don't have more product. So I scrambled to get in touch with my co-man to say, we need to do another production run. We are a week out from our next production run. And I'm told that every single pouch they have is faulty. And the lead time for the pouches is 16 weeks. No. So I can't make more product. So what am I doing? What am I doing? So I'm waiting is what I'm doing at that point.

22:15And I had to figure out quickly, how am I going to keep growing my social? How am I going to keep people engaged until we can make more product? And it was a gut punch. But I had to figure it out. I had to keep people engaged. So during that time, I was doing a lot of practitioner partnerships. I have this like series called Practitioner POV, where I really went through all of our practitioner partners and had them share their insights and their expertise with our community. We do features of like cool moms that we profile on our site. So we did some of that. We really leaned into the education component.

22:52And it was really just trying to figure out how best to keep people engaged and give them information they can sink their teeth into, not just kind of trash that is just there for no reason. Right. So when do you think you

23:06Rebecca Schwartz Smith:could get products back into people's hands? No, we did. So finally, about five weeks ago, we ran our production run and three weeks ago we were back on the market. So we're back in stock now. Congratulations. Oh, it's such a, it's like an anvil's off my chest, but now, but now it's just like the pressure's on your back. Right, right, right. Because you want to sell. And, um, so now we're finally back in stock, which is great. And it's, it's going really well, but now it's like getting to full commercialization. Cause as I said, we're still in our beta packaging. And what do you see the trajectory?