Nara Organics

0:00Esther Hallam: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.

0:42Esther Hallam: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 we are going to be talking about the world of infant formula.

1:32Esther Hallam:There is so much conversation around this space, this product category. And when Nara Organics got onto my radar, I knew I wanted to have them on the podcast. So Esther Hillam is the founder and CEO of Nara Organics. And Esther, I'm so happy to have you on the show. Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. You're so welcome. So for you, what was this white space that you saw in the market for formula, for bringing a better product to market. Your products are known for being super clean. I believe certified organic as well. What did you see as like the big miss or where some brands were just not hitting the mark that you saw the opportunity to bring a new product to market?

2:27Yeah. It took me seven years to get pregnant. I got married. Getting pregnant was so hard. It was a lot harder than I was led to believe. We did IVF and we finally got pregnant. And prior to getting pregnant, I had two dogs that I treated like my children. And I obsessed about everything about my dog, their dog food, organized playdates, all of it. And then I finally get pregnant with my daughter and she's born and I wasn't planning on formula feeding at all. I was going to breastfeed. And I remember it was the first day home from the hospital and I am in tears trying to breastfeed her because it was so painful.

3:13And no one told me that breastfeeding was painful. No one told me that, you know, her and I, we both had to learn how to do this thing together. And it was incredibly challenging. And I had to turn to formula. And of course, just like I did with my dogs, I researched everything. And there was literally not a single formula that was available on the US market that I was willing to feed her.

3:38Esther Hallam:Interesting. And how long ago was this? This was now nine and a half years ago. Right. So this was really before better for you, I feel like was even a thing. No, better for you was a thing. This is I mean, I know really nine years ago, it sounds like, you know, long time ago, but this is 2016. There were more options. Right? That's dog food. We were going to farm to table restaurants were, you know, shopping at Whole Foods for organic produce. People were very aware of animal welfare when, you know, thinking about buying meat products. Better For You definitely did exist. It existed in every single category.

4:19Esther Hallam:But more in the baby food, sorry, just to give context, more of like the baby food, though. I feel like it's taken a little time to catch up. There was Better For You toddler food, like purees. Like Honest Company existed, Better For You diapers, beauty products, et cetera. But infant formula has been one of the last categories to see innovation here because the barriers to entry are so high. Okay, that was what I was going to ask next of why was this still lagging or why this hadn't kept up with the times? Infant formula is the most regulated food category in the US. Got it. That's a very specific definition.

5:01Infant formula means sole source nutrition for babies under 12 months, meaning all babies under 12 months, they're getting their sole caloric and nutritional needs from either breast milk or infant formula. And because this is such a vulnerable population, it's highly regulated. You have to be FDA registered to market and sell infant formula in the US. In order to even fill out the form for that FDA registration, you have to do an animal study, a human baby clinical trial, you have to have an infant grade supply chain, which carries with it quality standards that are infinitely harder than regular food manufacturing.

5:40And all these things take years to do just to even fill out the form for the registration.

5:46Esther Hallam:Wow. Okay. So I have so many follow-up questions. Let's start off with what were you doing career-wise prior to starting NARA? I've only been at early stage venture-backed startups. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. My first job was at Google when they were private. Amazing. I only worked at consumer facing startups. I've been a product leader for over 20 years, basically my whole career, developing and launching consumer facing digital products. very cool so what were some of those early next steps once you realize okay there's a gap right to your point the better for you was happening not to the extent that we see it today but you were starting to see okay better products are coming I'm starting to see this in other categories that as my baby grows up I see that there's some options here but as far as infant formula there's this big gap, what did you do next?

6:53Esther Hallam:Like what sent you on that trajectory to then keep going, even starting to research how hard this was? Like, what did that look like of next steps you took? Yeah. So I'll tell you the next step wasn't starting this company. Okay. Tell me more. The next step was honestly obsessing about this problem for two years. for two years I was the most annoying person that you would ever talk to because if you gave me the time of day I would tell you about how messed up the infant formula category was and for those two years not only was I annoyed but I was honestly I was I was researching and digging hoping that somebody else was going to solve this problem I was hoping that there was a company that's launching or in development or there was a way that we would have better infant formula in the United States.

7:42During those two years, I was buying European formula on the gray market. So I was importing German formula, which was not regulated by the FDA. I was buying it from a third party website. And that didn't feel well, it didn't feel great to me. Right. And I just thought it was ridiculous that I was living in the United States, a first world country, my dogs had multitude of Better For You dog food options, and I couldn't feed my baby that I painstakingly had the best product. After being annoyed and researching for two years, I realized one day that I had talked to enough people with infant formula experience and understood the regulations.

8:32And at that point, I think I was just sick of hearing my own voice and decided that I had enough information to start the company. So the first thing that I did was incorporate the company. And I told myself, fine, I'm just going to incorporate. Let's just like leave it there. And along the way, just met people with the expertise and the experience and the appetite to join me to build this company.

8:53Esther Hallam:So cool. So what was the initial concept that you had that you were even talking to people to have them understand what you wanted to build and see who would be the right partners to build it? So back then, I think initially knowing nothing, I started with the no list. All the organic formulas in the US, they all had organic corn syrup solids. I did not want that. They had palm oil. I did not want that. And soy oil. Let's cut that out. So started with the no list. But of course, once I started going into formulation and learning more about it from nutritionists and experts in infant nutrition, it became abundantly clear that there was a mountain of research and that innovation didn't necessarily translate into formulation.

9:40So the first most radical thing that we did was develop a formula that was solely based on whole milk with no skim. And that did not exist at the time. There's a lot of natural benefits that baby gets from milk fat without going into the technical, without, without going into technicalities, you know, we were able to remove palm oil, for example, because the nutritional C16 fatty acids that we get from palm oil, we get naturally from milk fats.

10:11Esther Hallam:Interesting. So why did companies not just go for that to begin with? I don't know for certain, so I could only guess. I'm assuming it has to do with cost and streamlining manufacturing. That makes sense. So once you unlocked that piece of like, okay, we're going to use whole milk. We can then remove palm oil. What were some of the steps of bringing then the product to market? Sure. Formulation was the easiest, to be honest. Really? Okay. Formulation was the easiest. I would say supply chain is a greater challenge than we had to go find infant grade suppliers, ingredient suppliers. Sure. Check off the ingredient supply, ingredient sourcing, that's also possible.

11:00Manufacturing is incredibly difficult. There aren't very many manufacturing facilities in the United States that's able to produce infant formula.

11:09Esther Hallam:Wow. So how many options did you have? At the time, there were one and a half facilities that were available to us. Wow. Okay. So that really honed it on the search. That's right. And those facilities currently, if you want to start an infant formula company today, you would not be able to use those facilities. Or my other option was going to a large publicly traded company and having them white label a product for me. But if I did that, then there would be no product innovation. I would have to take one of their pre-existing FDA registered formulations. They would manufacture it for me. and it would just be a brand that I bring to market, not a new product.

11:54Esther Hallam:Right. And I'm sure that they would own the formula too, like the actual, sorry, product recipe and it wouldn't be yours. So how, so how did you unlock this? So I traveled the world, went to Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, France, Spain. Wait, you really did travel the world? Travel the world. Literally travel the world looking for the best infant formula manufacturing facility. So what happened next? I'm on the edge of my seat. We ended up selecting our German partner. We work with a German manufacturer. They have been making infant formula for seven decades. That's longer than you and I have been alive.

12:42Esther Hallam:Seven decades. Wow. Seven decades. Fun fact, powdered infant formula was invented in Germany, which is the reason why Germany continues to lead innovation when it comes to powdered infant formula. Interesting. I didn't realize that about Germany. Yep. They were the first to commercialize it in the 1800s, in the late 1800s. And so they're the best partner there in terms of their expertise, their quality, their safety, their technology. And so we took our patent pending formulation that we built from the ground up. and we partnered with the manufacturer with the capability to be able to produce that product safely and with high quality.

13:27And so that's how we picked our partner. And then we registered with the FDA to be able to market and sell into the US. And all of that took seven years.

13:37Esther Hallam:Wow. Okay. So when did you actually enter the US market or come to market? Sure. We launched seven months ago. So we launched, yeah. Wow. Okay. I knew that you were a new emerging brand, but I didn't realize it was that new. A new and emerging brand. Wow. You're super fresh. I love it. Okay, cool. So that took seven years from when you found that partner to coming to market? No, no. From when I started the company to coming to market, it took seven years. In between, we did a human baby clinical trial to demonstrate safety and efficacy in our formulation. um before that we in those seven years we we formulated our product it's a patent pending unique formulation that doesn't exist we ran animal studies we did a human baby clinical trial to demonstrate efficacy and safety uh we set up our supply chain that's when we found our german manufacturer we registered with the fda and then we came to market incredible so how has then the market grown and shifted over the last seven years as you were working on your product development?

14:48There's more brands. There's new brands and new product that have come to the market. We experienced an acute infant formula shortage in 2022, which then allowed foreign manufacturers to start marketing in the U.S., which unlocked that for U.S. consumers. In general, I think these are all hugely positive. Parents should have choice. I only had there were only three manufacturing there's there were only three large infant formula manufacturers that was making 100 % of the product back when I had my daughter nine years ago. And I think consumers, you need choice, you need options, and you should be able to choose your formula with confidence, not because you have no choice.

15:33Right.

15:34Esther Hallam:I agree. So what is the, what was the plan then bringing Nara to market and really communicating to consumers why this formula is different? This is a, I, I was obsessed with finding the best formula for my daughter. And as a result, compromising was not an option. We did not compromise in our formulation. It has all the features that I want, including prebiotics. I had a scheduled C-section because my daughter was breached. I was so worried about her gut health and gut biome and how critical prebiotics is to gut biome and also immunity. I wanted DHA and ARA, omega-3s. So we include that in abundant levels above and beyond the required European limits, the usage of whole milk with no skim, and of course, the no list.

16:30And so from a formulation perspective, I don't want to make any compromises. And then from a manufacturing perspective, in terms of quality and safety, I wanted the best there as well, which is in Germany.

16:42Esther Hallam:Right. But to bring that to to communicate that quickly and easily to a consumer. What's been the approach for your messaging coming to market? I know you're only seven months in, but what has been resonating with consumers of how they're understanding the differentiation of the product? It's the no compromise piece. Because as new parents, and also consumers, we're feeling like we have to compromise on something. And it's not wanting to compromise, especially when it comes to our babies. Very cool. What piece of advice would you share with an early stage founder who is in your position maybe seven years ago?

17:26Esther Hallam:You have this idea, even as much as you try to shake it or say, you know what, this is really challenging and hard. This is a crazy idea. But something just keeps moving you forward with it. What would you share to that emerging founder that maybe you wish you knew early on or something that you have brought into the brand early on that you found really helpful? I would love to hear your perspective. Sure. I mean, there's so much that I wish I knew, but at the same time, so glad I didn't. Tell me more. Meaning naivety is great Because if I knew what I knew now, would I have started this company?

18:08Probably not. It was way harder, took way longer, cost much more money than I ever thought. But would I trade it for the world? No. And so I think the advice that I would give any emerging founder is to just enjoy the process. That's what I've come to realize in these past seven years. It's just really the day-to-day. The milestones are exciting and I'm really proud of them and I'm glad to have achieved them. But what I'm going to remember forever is all the days in between, all the hard stuff, all the tears.

18:43Esther Hallam:And that's so hard as a founder, especially in the early days, you get so excited and you kind of just want to rush to the finish line. So I'm glad that you're emphasizing that point because I think it's so incredibly important to stay engaged in the process and not just be so obsessed with the outcome, but really be part of the process and being present in the process. Yeah. Cause you're never going to get that time back. Like you'll never be an early stage founder. You're, it's never going to be day one. Right. Like even launch. I try to enjoy it, enjoy it as much as I can. It's never going to happen again.

19:21Esther Hallam:Right. Exactly. Thank you for saying that. I just finished a client call and advising a client. We'd finished her brand strategy and now she's working on the steps of product development and formulation. And you could tell she's so excited to get to the finish line. And I had to have one of those conversations of pause where you are. We need to really figure out these crucial steps in order to bring the right product to market. That's right. And this is fun. And that's also the fun part. I love it. Last question before I let you go, where can people now shop Nara Organics. You can find us at Nara.com, N-A-R-A.com, or you can find us at Target stores nationwide.

20:05Esther Hallam:Amazing. Well, huge congratulations. Thank you. Right off the bat, like incredible work. And I'm so glad that we captured these early days on the podcast. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you the next episode. 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.

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21:52Esther Hallam: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 try glimpse.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.

22:44Esther Hallam: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.