Podi Life

0:00Welcome 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.

0:42And 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.

1:35If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you.

1:47Alak Nanda: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 on the podcast who is creating such a flavorful spice line. I'm not kidding when I say I use her spices to the very last drop, especially her garlic spice. I have used it on almost everything I've been cooking with of recent days. And I literally was scraping out the very last drop because it is that good. So Alak Nanda, she is the founder of Pody Life. And I'm so happy to have you on the podcast today. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you so much for having me.

2:36Alak Nanda:I'm excited to get into this. Yes. So let's first talk about what is Pody Life. This is a very cool spice line. You're doing something different in the space. And I would love to hear what you saw as the opportunity to build this brand. Yeah, so Pody Life is basically the first better for you South Indian pantry in the US. When we started off, there was no one really creating anything dedicated to South Indian flavors or, you know, meals that are really cooked at home. A lot of what I really felt when I started the brand was what you eat at a restaurant is not what I grew up eating at home. And home-cooked meals were a lot more aligned to sort of what the West kind of understands as the yogic diet, you know, very like fiber forward, vegetable forward, very flavorful, not very heavy in terms of sort of the fats that are used.

3:41Alak Nanda:And I think when you think Indian food from a restaurant, you always think, oh, it's going to be a heavy meal. Right. You think of like chicken curries or something along those lines. Yes, and creamy and thick. And it doesn't necessarily, that's not how I grew up eating at home. And I really wanted people to sort of understand that. And also, there was, I feel like, a trend towards eating more vegetable forward meals. This was four or five years ago during the pandemic, a lot of people were cooking, a lot of people were open to trying out new flavors. so it was that that I had noticed in the market and I really wanted to share sort of the flavors that I was growing up with and we started making these potty the word potty itself actually in four South Indian languages means powder it's a very humble word that's spoken I mean in four languages that's spoken by like 350 million people it's it's a large group of people and And it's while the word is very humble and it translates just to powder, it's actually, I would say, sort of the secret tool in many South Indian home cooks kitchens.

4:52Alak Nanda:And it is oftentimes a seasoning. I mean, I simplify the seasoning because you don't need to cook with it. You can sprinkle it on cooked things, but you can also cook with it if you'd like. but it's made out of slow roasted lentils and then spices and herbs and nuts like coconut, peanut, sesame, and aromatics like garlic. And so most of our, actually all of our seasonings, so we have a line of 10 seasonings now, 10 potties, and all of the potties actually have lentils in them. There's not a single one of them that doesn't have lentils. And that is what gives it sort of like this breadth of flavor because it gives a nice base, a nice nutty, earthy base on which you can, you know, build flavor.

5:37That's so interesting. I didn't realize that with the lentils.

5:40Alak Nanda:Yeah. And that's actually the base of all of our seasonings. And that's what is unique. We don't use any fillers. Everything has protein naturally in it. Everything has fiber naturally in it. And of course, it's very rich in flavor as you've experienced, right? And yes, it really is. And that's something that really struck me of you don't need a ton of spice, but it really well flavored. And I'll do it with salmon and I'll put it before I put it in the oven and then maybe top it a little bit at the end. But it just creates just a very nice flavor that you don't have to add a lot more to it. Exactly.

6:21Alak Nanda:And you can do that with cooked rice. So the traditional sort of way of eating it is you take a lot of cooked rice and then you mix it with vegetables and then you add putty on the cooked rice, almost like a furikake, almost like a zaatar, you know, so it's that's what I say to people, like it's like the zaatar and the furikake of South India. but here the way bodies are made it's oftentimes one or two flavors are highlighted the most so the garlic one you know highlights the garlic and the chili flavor and then you have the curry leaf one highlights the curry leaf flavor the peanut one highlights the peanut flavor you know and then we have a coconut one that's very coconut forward which is great on like a shrimp or you know even for flavored rice or on salmon on seafood so pretty much every family has their own recipe for it.

7:11Alak Nanda:It's sort of like how Chinese families have a chili crisp recipe of their own that's kind of like passed on across generations. Puddies are also sort of the family signature. And all of our puddies are our family recipes. In fact, these are all my mom's recipes. That's really cool. I didn't realize that it was passed down in your mom's recipes. So So what were you doing during the pandemic or professionally before starting the brand? I would love to hear what was that inspiration to take your mom's recipes and now create a CPG line with them? Yeah, so I am actually trained as a chemical engineer and economist.

7:54Alak Nanda:So those are those are the degrees that I have. And I practiced both of those degrees for a decade. I was a health care consultant. I worked with large pharma, actually. And a lot of times I used to work with the sales and marketing departments of large pharma companies, especially with their diabetes portfolio. And it kind of hit too close to home because my both of my parents had a history of diabetes. Right. So and to be working in that sector and in that field really made me think about and for me, like health has always been kind of the forefront of my life because it was around, I think, early 30s was when my dad was first diagnosed with type two diabetes.

8:35Alak Nanda:And I really wanted to be that, right? Like I wanted to break the cycle. I wanted to make sure that I would not be like, this would stop with me, that I had healthier habits that, you know, because we live in the age of information. They grew up in an age when they did not have that, right? And we're so much more empowered with how to eat, what to eat, like, you know, what kind of physical movement, fitness practices we should follow and all of that. So and I always kind of came back to food as a as sort of like the foundation on which health is built. And I, you know, I hired nutritionists, I hired trainers and pretty much everyone emphasized sort of 80 percent of being healthy and staying healthy as food.

9:19Alak Nanda:And how much of that is eating adequate protein and adequate fiber, because if you only focus on protein, then the protein does not pass through your body and it doesn't necessarily impact you really well and hence you have to always partner it with fiber right it's instead of like having psyllium husk or like you know you're better off eating actually a lot of vegetables to get your micronutrients also right so it's this combination and I also I think my training like my chemical engineering degree was a pre-med chemical engineering degree so I was you know I just had a lot of interest in in healthcare in general and seeing how the healthcare system is set up in the US, a lot of it is not preventative knowledge.

10:03Alak Nanda:And I feel like even within the CPG space, I mean, firstly, it was the interest in health that led me to being in the food industry. But also, I think when I was thinking about sort of the mission of the company, one of the things that I really wanted to dig deeper into was to also be sort of like an educational platform. So we talk about, you know, within Body Life, we send out newsletters, we talk about food science, we talk about like things like fiber, protein, balanced meals, which is not a very common sort of thing, even, you know, a big part of our audience is the South Indian diaspora.

10:43Alak Nanda:and and that kind of like conversation around food is not necessarily predominant so it was important to me that we talk about food not just from a nostalgia not just from a flavor and you know you know and community all of those are which are very prevalent but also to talk about the health aspect so that is interesting that those conversations aren't as prevalent right When you think actually a lot of better for you or a lot of brands maybe that don't even have that much of a leg to stand on with health and wellness or talking about it all the time. So what was part of that strategy for you?

11:25You wanted to make sure that that was woven in and making sure that it didn't get lost. Like you wanted to bring that to the forefront. Yeah.

11:36Alak Nanda:I mean, so it started off with during the pandemic. like I learned to make putties. So, you know, I was, I was a healthcare consultant, I was traveling around, and I was always carrying my mom's putties, like they always showed up in my care packages. And I would sort of like cook in very non traditional ways. And that I would just be doing like roasted vegetables, and I'd be sprinkling putties on them, I would, you know, like, yeah, like, I eat a lot of salmon and a lot of fish and a lot of chicken. So, So, you know, for me, putty was that easy way to add bold flavors without elaborate cooking.

12:10Alak Nanda:But flavors that were familiar to me, flavors that I really enjoyed and flavors that I wanted to integrate into sort of like all sorts of meals. Right. And I found myself doing that. And I knew that that was not necessarily how everyone else cooked. But then it was during the pandemic when I really learned to make putty that I started to appreciate sort of the artistry in the making of potty because I was like wow this actually has like a baseline of slow roasted lentils it has a baseline of you know it like the ingredients came together for me in a way because they they're all there's so much ancestral wisdom in also the combinations like the garlic potty that you're talking about has yes 15 ingredients you know it has coriander a large amount of coriander which is great for digestion you know and it has the base lentils there is urad dal, which is black gram lentil, which is incredibly fibrous, which is not something you use even when you make dal.

13:07Alak Nanda:You know, when you're making dal, you use a red lentil. Like India has such an incredible legacy of lentils, different kinds of lentils and podis, like some podis, like the curry leaf podi uses four different lentils. Oh, wow. So, so it's, I wanted to sort of bring that forward. But I wanted to do it like talking about health, I think is also very, it can get very serious and intense. And we wanted to write the brand very art forward and enjoyable and sort of like an immersive space that people would like being in. And you see that in our packaging, you see that in our social media content, it's very like art forward, very, light and fun.

13:54So what made you want to make the leap into starting the brand itself?

13:59Alak Nanda:A lot of my friends were asking me to make putties for them after I learned to make putties. And I was like, I think there's something here. I'd love to sort of like, it was also just the interest in building a brand. I think I wanted to see what it was like to build a brand that would help my mom sort of create a legacy of her own. She was a stay-at-home mom all her life. But she is an incredible, I think she's a culinary genius. She's not professionally trained, but she has like the fundamentals of how to build flavor. Like she has that pat down, right? And so within the business now, we self-manufacture all of our products in a commercial kitchen in Atlanta.

14:39Alak Nanda:And she's the one who creates the recipes. I'm the one who tweaks it. And like, I run it like an experiment. She'll give me like the first version of the recipe. I measure everything out, redo it, create several versions, and then we test it out. And then I scale the manufacturing. I get to use my chemical engineering chops. And then I work with like a food scientist or a safety protocol person to help us figure out, you know, everything else around it. And that's something we've built up for all of our products in the past few years. That's so cool that your mom is behind the scenes too. Yeah, yeah.

15:13I love that. So what has been the strategy of getting the word out? I mean, I know that you said that a lot of the diaspora is rooted in the brand and who are shopping it. But going outside to people who maybe aren't familiar yet with some of the flavors or how to use curry powders in a different way than maybe just thinking about a traditional Indian curry. what has been some of the strategy of helping connect those dots?

15:47Alak Nanda:Yeah, I think in our first or second year, we did a collab with Task for a Code. That was helpful in sort of reaching out to new people. So collaborations is definitely something we do. Pop-ups is something we do. Social media has been incredible for us in terms of like growth. Sending out products to different people and them sort of like, you know how you post about how you use it? And similarly, other people, like people have kind of made it their own, which has been incredible, right? Like when product goes to people who did not grow up with it, but they still enjoy it and they find their own way of using it, which is exactly what we wanted it to be.

16:28Alak Nanda:Right. Which is also the reason why on the jar, each jar, we actually have like three just visual icons for how you can pair it. Yes. And I found that really helpful. Exactly. So that is exactly how we've grown. We've grown by people kind of making the product their own and figuring out a way to use it. And because it's a seasoning, it's not complicated. Like you can put it after you're done eating, after you're done cooking, or during your cooking, in the middle of cooking, like whenever. I like how it is simple and more intuitive. And really, those icons, I was like, oh, I could put this on salmon.

17:06Oh, I could put this on chicken. Oh, I could put this on rice. Again, I love when a brand just connects those dots. So it's so easy and becomes intuitive on how to use. And it's been fun exploring different flavors. Also, I love your peanut. That is just amazing. I've made Pad Thai at home a few times and put that on it. And I just like to sprinkle it on different things. But it's so good. Yeah.

17:36Alak Nanda:I love peanut. like especially like you said in like sauteed noodles I also love it on like a bowl of Greek yogurt like if you're ever trying to eat a bowl of yogurt and kind of making it savory it has that I don't know that perfect blend of the nuttiness makes I feel like Greek yogurt nicer and and there's just the hint of chilies and that sweetness that peanuts have naturally it's a beautiful blend like you can just try it on a bowl of Greek yogurt okay we'll definitely have to try that for sure. So what has been your vision now going into the new year and really growing and expanding the brand?

18:14I know, did you say you have 10 SKUs now?

18:17Alak Nanda:So we have 10 parties, but we also have three one pot meals. That's right. Yes. Yes. So we have, and the one pot meals are all millet based. So we kind of like pick ingredients that we've grown up with and really use that a way as a way to anchor the set of products that we create, right? For putties, it is lentils for one pot meals. It's also lentils. All of them also have lentils. But on top of that, they also have millets and millets are these. Do you know what millets are? Yes. Yeah. So a lot of people don't know millets in the US, but I think they're an incredible grain, right? Drought resistant, very easy to grow, climate change resistant, high in fiber, great micronutrient profile.

19:08Alak Nanda:And that's something, again, I grew up with. So we wanted to create these one pot meal mixes that have spices in them, that have lentils, that have the millets, that you literally just need to add to a pot, add some water, and then you have that like base spiced risotto type of a meal. So we have three of those cues all of them still very deeply rooted in south indian food culture um versions that we've grown up with but we've kind of just like made modifications right to them so there's a pungal there's a besipilabad and then there's a moringa dal and moringa again something i've grown up with it's super it's actually native to south india um and we've you know it's it's a casually grows as a tree in south india and we you know my mom used to just like pluck those leaves and chuck it into dal very if this was something that she used to do and moringa is like a super tree it's incredible how much how much moringa has um so we have a dal that's that has moringa in it so that's been another incredible um community favorite like those products that's like subscription works really well for those products so that's something our community has been enjoying quite a bit that makes sense of people just having it on auto ship so it's always stocked Exactly.

20:22Exactly. That's great. Is there anything on the horizon that you're really excited about for the brand?

20:29Alak Nanda:This year, we are actually, Q1 especially, our focus is on getting into Amazon. And we've kind of done all of the market research around that and really like geared up towards that Amazon launch. So I'm super excited about that because I think we've found a space that we could sit in on Amazon. So I'm quite excited there. And then partnerships and collaborations is another big focus for us this year. Awesome. I love it. Is there any piece of advice you would share with someone who is maybe sitting on an idea that they've been kind of playing around with and they're like, okay, I think this could be a brand.

21:10I keep coming back to it, but I have this other profession and I don't know if this makes sense to make the leap. What would you tell them?

21:21Alak Nanda:I think figuring out a way to sort of take the pressure off, right? Like you don't have to get it right from the get go. This is like running a business is an iterative process, right? As long as just take enough risks that it doesn't push you out of the game of taking those risks. And if that means having your full-time job and doing this on the side, then that's what you do. If that means doing a small run in the beginning, if possible, and like testing it out in farmer's market, then that's what you do. But I think it's taking the pressure off to do it big and, you know, succeed, right? I think part of the process is also facing some amount of that failure and seeing what lessons that failure has in store for you.

22:06Alak Nanda:That I would say has been like the biggest shift for me. I think when I started off, it's like, okay, it needs to be this big, it needs to, you know, land in so many places, but we're also a bootstrap business. So for me, it was really important for us to have a solid foundation on which we could iterate and grow. And we've been able to achieve that. And the fact that we self-manufacture also allows us to launch products quickly and test it out and make those changes and not have the pressure of, you know, that MOQ and having to sell that entire MOQ and then figuring out production schedules and all of that, right so now we have a very solid manufacturing base we have a very solid we've iterated even our packaging so many times like what you mentioned like that the icons and all of that that came out of that was the second version of our packaging like the first version did not have that and we actually used to send postcards to people which had like little notes on how they could use it but then a lot of them were like you know oh I didn't even notice the fact that you had text on these postcards.

23:11Alak Nanda:So then we switch to, okay, then it needs to be icons, you know, like it needs to be extremely visual. So easy to understand. Exactly. It needs to be super simple. So that has been an iterative process of like talking to customers, understanding it, understanding sort of how they're using the product, what is helping them and all of that. So that's great advice because I think to your point, so many founders put a lot of pressure on themselves right out of the gate and you're doing something brand new. So it takes some time and you have to get feedback. And this is why I'm also so obsessed with doing work pre-launch so that you have a lot of things figured out before you even start selling.

23:54But I think that's a really great point of pushing yourself to do it, but also not pushing yourself out of taking opportunities or taking leaps and taking risks and taking chances to see what works. So I think that's a great piece of advice. Last question before I let you go, where can people shop Pody Life?

24:18Alak Nanda:We love people to come to our website and explore everything we have because we always have something new. We are constantly doing new drops. And our most recent one is something called a curd chili fleur de sel it's a finishing salt so we've taken a french fleur de sel it's actually from the small town that my partner's mom lives in so actually source it from the small town and then we've taken something extremely south indian which is these are curd chilies and a curd chili basically is a chili that's been fermented in yogurt spiced yogurt and sun-dried and that process is kind of like soak sun-dry soak sun-dry and that's repeated until the chili is saturated in this like tangy spicy flavor and then we air fry it and crumble it up into a salt and it is the best thing that we've created and I'm super proud of it and it's such a it's such a coming together of her you know me and my partner's heritage and I'm it's been our bestseller for the past two quarters.

25:25Alak Nanda:So congratulations. Thank you. That's really cool. Thank you. Yeah, it's been it's a I'd love to send you I'll send you one of those. I'd love to hear what you think. Totally. That's something my girlfriend would be absolutely obsessed with. It's totally up her alley. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Well, thank you again for sharing. This was so insightful and I just really admire how you're building. Thank you, Kelly. I appreciate it. You're so welcome. Perfect. Well, everyone go check out Pody Life. I'm going to link it in the show notes and in my shop my and thank you again for coming on the podcast.