Matchaful

0:00Hannah Habes: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.

0:42Hannah Habes: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. 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.

1:35Hannah Habes: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 the founder of Matchaful, which genuinely is my favorite spot here in New York City for matcha and really delicious, clean treats. I know whenever I go into a Matchaful, Everything is very thoroughly vetted and the ingredients I trust and I just love their curation and especially in the summertime. The soft serve matcha is genuinely one of my favorite things to look forward to.

2:23Hannah Habes:So Hannah Hobbs, she is the founder of Matchaful. And Hannah, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast today. Thanks. It's a pleasure to be here. Cool. So I want to first start off with how did you get into the matcha business? What opportunity did you see? What was the idea for Matchaful? I would love to hear the behind the scenes of how this all got started. Yeah, of course. I'm happy to share. So we're actually coming up on 10 years this month with Matchaful. I was doing this before Matcha was cool or trending. I'll say that much. I, you know, was in CPG. I was working for right out of college.

3:07I started working for Pepsi. Then I worked for Clif Bar. And like I was just myself kind of going through my own health transformation and and figuring out sort of what was making me feel good. I was starting to eat way cleaner. I think working, you know, especially at PepsiCo and working on these huge, enormous brands that didn't really necessarily prioritize quality of ingredients or clean, clean ingredients. I grew up, you know, in a household that we had like every major brand and, you know, it was just, that was just the norm. I mean, eating these like very sort of mass produced things and then working for a company that was just this huge, you know, fortune 500 company that was mass producing these things.

3:58And, and I really started to feel it. My body just started to, um, like I was just noticing a lot of digestive issues, energy issues. Um, and no one at that point, right. This was like 2009 when I graduated college and I was in the industry, you know, until for the next, you know, five years. And no one at that point had really unlocked like, okay, eating cleaner, eating better quality ingredients is like actually going to make you feel better.

4:29Hannah Habes:And so even the term better for you was not even talked about. I graduated college 2009 too. That was not a thing. Right, right. No, it wasn't. So it was sort of kind of going through this transformation and understanding it myself, right? Like unlocking that myself before it was like well-known, right? So I kind of went through that journey and I was on that journey. And my partner at the time, I was living in Chicago and we were doing it in a long distance relationship. And he kind of mentioned to me like, hey, have you heard of matcha? He was going back and forth to Japan for work. And I started doing a lot of research and he brought me back like this little set of matcha meanwhile.

5:14while. And it was that lightning bolt moment of just like, holy crap, why does this not exist here? And I, I truly just had that, you know, kind of epiphany moment of, wow, this is incredible. Like for the first time after being in the industry for let's call it five years. Um, and really just kind of being like, I was so unhappy in the industry that I wanted to get out of it so badly. until sort of I found matcha or matcha found me. And that kind of opened up this just lightning bolt moment of like, whoa, this is, this is what I was meant to do. And this, I just became this like matcha missionary where I was, I really just fell in love with the product at first.

5:59I was, you know, telling everyone I knew how much, you know, educating them, educating, you know literally at any party I'd go to it was like I was just telling people about matcha and anyone that would come over to my apartment I would make them matcha I mean my friends still you know I'm sure they remember like these moments of like me having you know just like forcing matcha upon them and so many people at first were like Hannah like especially my mother was like Hannah like what is this like don't what are you doing right and uh and I just I would just had this sort of fiery passion that like, this is going to be big and I've got to do something with this because I'm so like insanely passionate about this product.

6:42And if I don't do something like, you know, it's just this fire. And I was always entrepreneurial as a kid growing up, but and I'd always dreamt, right. You know, you dream when you're an entrepreneur of like starting a company, right. But you don't want to just create it out of thin air. You need a reason. And it's like, matcha was my reason to start something. And so, you know, I didn't start it overnight. It was a long journey even to get where we are here. But that's really how I got into matcha.

7:12Hannah Habes:I love a good entrepreneurial story of when you feel that spark. And I feel any entrepreneur listening to this is like, yep, I totally get that. And then you literally can't look away. and everything keeps bringing you back to that thing that idea and that's when you know okay I'm on to something so what were those next steps of actually turning it into matcha full yeah yeah and I think going back to what you just said like it's all about like just trusting your intuition right like so much I still it's funny like even as I talk about I still get that feeling of just excitement of like thinking about that moment when I sort of, and I think, you know, had I not trusted my intuition or listened to my mom who said, Hey, you know, don't quit your day job or just, you know, she was more just wanted to protect me.

8:04Right. I think, you know, you, you really have to listen to, to your gut. And so, um, yeah, the next moments are, were just a lot of figuring it out. Like I, I really took my time, even though I felt like oh I just felt like there was this pressure to do like I put pressure on myself because I'm like if I don't do it right like if I don't do it right away because there were some like matcha like when I moved to New York so you know I I was living in Portland when I was kind of I was you know first tasted matcha and then was ordering matcha all over Japan source I mean I had I tasted hundreds of different matcha samples.

8:45And, you know, for me, it was, it was not just about, it was not just to create a matcha company, right? I wanted to do it differently. And I think, you know, being in the food industry for those five years was, was really beneficial in a lot of ways because it made me realize what I didn't want to do. And I think like, I remember I kind of got my hand slapped for asking where one of our ingredients came from, like if it was made in the U.S. And when I was in the industry and I just remember them being like, we can't we can't disclose that. Like, and I was like, what? Like, wow. Say like where this thing where, you know, you can't even say like if it's made in the like where it's, you know, if it's made in a different whatever.

9:28Like there was just such a lack of transparency and not just in CPG, but also in And like, you go to a coffee shop, right? Even at like so many coffee shops, you order a chai latte and it's like, you have no idea what's in there. And so I think for me, it was, it was really about creating something different and something special. And, and yes, it was centered around matcha, but something that was meaningful to me that I, you know, that kind of creating, you know, I was creating something for myself in a lot of ways. And, um, and so, you know, I was really careful about sourcing and what match I was going to, yeah, what, what ultimately I was going to be, get behind.

10:09And I, I really wanted to work not just with like a big distributor in Japan, right. That was like buying matcha from various farms and creating these blends and you just lose sight of where it comes from. Like I really wanted to create a connection with a farmer and have this connection to the food product that I was sourcing, this, you know, the matcha product that I was sourcing. So, you know, I've ultimately met our farmer, Hattori-san, who I've been working with for eight years, almost the length of the company.

10:43Hannah Habes:Wow, that's incredible. So the same farmer this whole time? Yeah, he's our, he's our like most dominant. We work with a couple other ones, but he, I mean, we sourced like 85 % of our mantra from Hattori-san. So, you know, I think for me, it was about like sustainability. He has an incredibly sustainable story too. I don't, that's like a whole nother podcast. A whole other episode. Okay, cool. We'll do a part two. But he, just like a little bit about him, like he was the first farmer in Japan to install solar panels above his farm. He's also himself an entrepreneur in that he was kind of like a pioneer around matcha.

11:19He, you know, his family was Sencha farmers, and then he could like trans, like transitioned all of his farms into matcha because he saw that there was this like demand for matcha internationally. And so he, you know, took all of his farms and that's a big, it's a big undertaking, but he, you know, converted all of them to Tensha farms to grow matcha. And so, and he also was doing everything with organic fertilizers and food waste, you know, to fertilize the, it was just such a cool story. And then on top of it, receiving like a patent from the government to install solar panels above these tea farms, which was like a big process as well, getting government approval to do this.

12:03And so, you know, our matcha that we've been sourcing is this like solar powered, right? It's all of it is grown under solar panels. And we work with this farmer who's just, yeah, doesn't sell his leaves to a big distributor. So we have a full line of transparency into just his operation. And he never, you know, he is fully in control of the whole process. So really fortunate to be able to work with him and to be able to have that transparency that, you know, that line of transparency for our customers, because that's just something that was really important to me. And then, you know, on top of it, right, like I think building something different for me, it was, I saw what was going on in the industry, cafes, coffee shops, you know, CPG products, and I just felt like I wanted to build something intentional and clean.

12:57So at Machafil, we only use, you know, unrefined sugars, maple, coconut sugar, agave. And then we also are just really, really, really diligent about the suppliers we work with and ingredient standards and using every single ingredient that we use is listed on our drink menu because we just want to build that line of transfer. And I love that.

13:20Hannah Habes:It's one of the things that really caught my attention with Machafol that everything is listed and you really could get more specialty, say, alt milks that you don't normally find other places. I'm a nerd. Like I genuinely love your stores because I'm like, wow, this is like my paradise where I could see everything listed and try new combinations. So what was those early steps? I know you've been around for almost 10 years, but the brick and mortar stores in New York city. I know that I just found your matcha granola in whole foods in union square. What, what has that been like of growing more locations?

14:02Hannah Habes:Now you have your own CPG line. I mean, talk about full circle moment. What has been that trajectory of the, of really growing the brand now? Yeah. I mean, at the beginning, It was a lot of just like doing what was comfortable, I'll say. Like I think not even comfortable, but I think, you know, I came from CPG, right? And I think for me, it was like starting like reselling, right? Like I started really like on the wholesale side. I was going into coffee shops and training them and educating them on how to make matcha within the coffee shop. And we now have over 300 coffee shops that we work with nationwide that serve Mottable.

14:45But so that's how I got started. Like, I was really like, I didn't realize that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I started on the wholesale side. And then, you know, I had a call with an I had a lot of, you know, I was trying to like fundraise really early on. I'm glad I actually got a lot of no's and didn't fundraise early on. But I think one one investor, which I really appreciated this feedback, said to me, he said, you know, you have to be able, like, you have to be able to control the experience people have with your brand. And I think especially with mantra, it was so important to hear that because I'd always wanted to have these cafes.

15:21I'd always, it was always a part of my big vision, right? But like, I didn't know how to get there. And I had this wholesale business, I had an online business, but like the dream, right? Like the big vision was these cafes. And, and that took a while. And I really, it was really just about saying yes to any scrappy thing that came my way to allow us to practice and test retail. So I started, I was at like a coffee festival with a matcha booth and these coffee shop owners came up to me and they said, you know, we don't know much about matcha. They saw that I was like sourcing it, sourcing my matcha, like a third wave coffee brand, right?

15:59I was like sourcing single origin and direct trade with this farmer. And they're like, we love what you're doing with matcha we'd love to like bring you into our coffee shop we have this open coffee bar that we're not using in Dumbo in Brooklyn and you know why don't you come and like pop up in it and I pay it was like a percentage of revenue I think I spent like no more than maybe three to five thousand dollars to get the to get it open which is like you know it's launching a cafe that much is near near impossible but um they gave you know I was able to like rent some of their equipment. I did very minimal, you know, put plants in and painted and it was all very done, very scrappy.

16:38But, um, you know, it was an opportunity for me to test retail and it was supposed to be a two month pop-up in Dumbo and it wound up being 18 months. So it was highly successful. It went well. And it just, that, but that allowed me to then say to, to get more opportunities, right? Like that one thing that I could be like, Hey, here's a little bit of proof of concept.

17:04Hannah Habes:Right. I then got another pop-up opportunity in Soho on spring in Lafayette that was incredibly successful. Um, and then, you know, then ultimately I got a landlord to want to give me a lease, right. To be like, cause these landlords, you know, they want to make sure that they're bringing you in and you're going to be successful and able to pay rent. And so I had these experiences that allowed me to get to that place where I needed to be able to confidently say like, okay, this is what we're doing monthly in our pop-up revenue and, and just feel really good about it. And have the data, right. That you can then pitch, right.

17:39Yeah. So, you know, sometimes that data is expensive and a lot of work to, to get it, but it is valuable because then it's, it's just real data. Um, and so that's how we, that's how I got started with cafes. And now we have seven, we'll have at least 10 by next year. We have two coming in Q1 and Q2. Amazing. One in Tribeca. That's like, I can announce. Um, and then there's like three more slated for next year.

18:13Hannah Habes:Incredible. I love this story. My backstory too was being a partner in a restaurant and we had two locations. And so I greatly admire anyone with four walls because it is not easy in the very least. So I genuinely appreciate how you're building and how thoughtful you are too of keeping the cohesiveness because that's not easy, right? You could have a great idea and the first couple are great, but to be consistent is a whole other ballgame. And I really genuinely see that consistency. And I'm excited. That means a lot. Yeah, no, definitely. We definitely are working on that. So it's a lot that again, it's a whole other stage, right?

19:00Hannah Habes:Of brand. For anyone who's just starting out, like I said, before we hit record, I was like, my clients are those pre-launch CPG food and beverage founders they have great product ideas we're building them into a brand they want to do better for you but it's a lot it's a lot of things also different advice like you were sharing you know what to uh who to listen to what not to listen to how to find your own path how not to feel that pressure like you also said of like you should jump into it right away like you found your own way of building. Is there any piece of advice you would share to someone who's in those really early stages based off of the last 10 years?

19:46Yeah. I mean, look, you're going to get a lot of feedback kind of thrown your way. I think sometimes it's good to listen to it, but take it as a data point. You don't have to execute on it. You don't have to do anything with it, right? People naturally like to give feedback. So, you know, take it in, but ultimately trust your own instincts. And I think for me, you know, I'm certainly not a perfectionist. I was truly just passionate about a product. So I think, but for me, it was always just about getting my foot in the door and just making these small steps. I had this big vision, right? Like But I was it was never like I never worried and I still don't worry about how I'm going to get that vision done because it's really about the baby steps.

20:43That's what all you have to think about is like just getting making progress is is really good enough. As long as you're progressing and you're seeing, you know, positive things happen, then that's all you need. I mean, the big vision is you need that, but just don't let it discourage you. I guess I will say I never really let the big vision discourage me because it's just like, and there's going to be step, you're going to take a step back in order to take a step forward.

21:20Hannah Habes:Right. There's so many things. And you just have to sort of remember that you're on this truly is a journey. And one step back actually could mean another step forward. And saying no can be a really good thing. But also you want to say yes a lot to get, you know, if it's a step forward towards your vision, take that step forward. That was so good. I needed to hear that reminder too today. So thank you, Hannah. That was great. I know I have to let you go. I could talk to you forever and I just, again, genuinely admire what you're building. Last question, where can people find a matcha full in the city and or shop at Whole Foods or online your awesome products?

22:06Yeah. So you can go to matchafull.com. Our cafe locations are listed there. We sell all of our matcha on our website. We also sell it. It's sold at Erewhon in LA. Oh, cool. As well as Whole Foods, like the Northeast region, if you're in the Northeast. And then we, our cafes are Manhattan and a very, and then Williamsburg, Brooklyn. So, but you can find all of our locations listed on the site.

22:37Hannah Habes:And yeah, I'll link the matcha so everyone could be able to have a really great matcha. Because a bad matcha, you remember, like you need a good. Exactly. You need a good matcha and this genuinely is great. So Hannah, thank you again. I really appreciate everything you shared so generously. Thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you all on the next episode. 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.

23:27Hannah Habes:Go to hummingbirds.com for all the details and let them know I sent you. This episode was brought to you by Glimpse. As we know, building a brand is not as sexy and glamorous as it looks on social media at times. A lot of those unsexy problems come into play when brands start to scale in retail distribution. Founders are always incredibly excited to see their products on shelves at major retail chains, but they don't realize all the hard work that starts to begin. Retailers and distributors are known for their processes of deducting amounts from invoices. Most of the time, those are totally valid.

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25:02Hannah Habes:With a team of in-house deduction experts who come from some of the most successful and profitable CPG companies and custom built AI with 100 % accuracy and precision. You'll recover money that you never should have had leaked in the first place. 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. Thank you again for listening to this episode of the Emerging Brands Podcast. It really means so much to me that you listen to this show, share it with your friends and support it. If you are a CPG food and beverage founder and you're ready to launch a brand, people want to shop, head to withkellybennett.com for the details.

25:54Hannah Habes:And as always, thank you so much for listening, shopping the brands featured on the show and following brands I'm working with. It means so much. See you on the next episode.