232. Founder Stories: PSquared - Morgan Rucker and Olivia Stevermer

0:01Olivia Stevermer:Welcome to Startup to Scale, a podcast by FoodBevy. I'm your host Jordan Buckner. Join me as I talk to aspiring entrepreneurs, seasoned industry experts, and everyone in between as we unlock the keys to growing from startup to scale.

0:18Olivia Stevermer:One of my favorite things to do is to talk to new business founders. as I remember when I was starting my brand T-Squares and I had a lot of excitement, but there are a lot of things I didn't know as well. And it's always great kind of hearing about what the journey looks like in those early days. So that's why today I'm excited to talk to Morgan and Olivia, who are the co-founders of P-Squared. Their first product is the banana flavor protein putty in a squeezable pouch. Morgan and Olivia, welcome.

0:48Morgan Rucker:Well, thank you so much for having us, Jordan. I feel like this is such a full circle moment because actually a few years ago before we had the brand, your podcast really inspired me to create my own brand and learn more about the CPG space. And so this is just absolutely crazy. So thank you so much for having us.

1:06Olivia Stevermer:Oh, of course. Oh, my gosh. That means so much.

1:08Morgan Rucker:Yeah. I feel like maybe subconsciously we named our business P-Squared because yours was P-Squared. That could have been it. Yeah.

1:17Olivia Stevermer:Totally. Okay. I love that. And I mean, it's so exciting because you just launched in June 2025. So this is recording. It's about a couple of weeks, almost a month after the products went live. How are things going, starting out?

1:30Morgan Rucker:Going really well, better than we could have expected. And the feedback has been really great. And especially for a first round, it's been pretty difficult these past few years, being able to work out all the intricacies of the brand and the actual production of it. So for this first round to get such great feedback, it's been really nice. Yeah, just to provide some context. So our product is a protein pudding and it's in a shelf, like it's shelf stable and it's in a spout pouch. So we've been working on this for years just because it's taken so long to get the development and like the everything right.

2:05So that's essentially why like we're so excited that the first round, like we were able to

2:09Morgan Rucker:get it out. It went well and why it took so long.

2:11Olivia Stevermer:It takes so much to get a product out into the world. And it's both like really exciting and nerve wracking, I know, from personal experience. And you've been working on this for years. So tell me what it looked like back at the beginning. How did you two come together and decide you wanted to start a product company?

2:27Morgan Rucker:Oh gosh, so many details there. Okay. So originally, I was trying to create a protein bar back in college because I just noticed that so many in the market were not meeting my standards. They weren't clean. They weren't plant based, yada, yada, yada. And so I basically went home and started in the kitchen, bought a bunch of different ingredients and was trying to create a protein bar. And then I got like this weird idea to just blend all the ingredients together and it became a pudding. And so I noted that idea down like interesting protein pudding doesn't exist really. I'll come back to this.

3:03Morgan Rucker:So a few years later, I graduate. And then me and Olivia were in the same entrepreneurial program called Venture for America. And in a like chance meeting, we were roommates in Tulsa, Oklahoma for one weekend. And we bonded over basically our like wanting to fix the food industry. And we like we're talking about this protein pudding idea and other food ideas. and we came together to create this company and we asynchronously worked I was working in Arizona on the recipe and she was working in Minnesota and in St. Louis and yeah and then we both moved to San Antonio part of the entrepreneurial program and reiterated the recipe a ton so it's been a wild journey yeah like we were just texting each other like random stuff we were blending up and And then it was kind of just a mess.

3:49Morgan Rucker:I'm just, like, texting photos of here's what iteration 37 of Sweet Potato looked like. It was... Exactly. The Sweet Potato one was not bad, but...

4:01Olivia Stevermer:That just brings back, like, memories that I had. Because I think with T-Squares, we went through, oh gosh, like, I think at the end, there's probably, like, 85 different iterations. I don't know. Somewhere between, like, 60 and 100. I lost count after that point. But it was both, like, really exciting and exhilarating. but then also that feeling of like okay is this good should we keep changing but if we try this like there's this idea that you could go on forever and you have to decide at some point like okay this is it and so as you were going through that journey what was the moment we realized like all right we have something that's we're really confident at least to launch to like

4:33Morgan Rucker:hit the the go decision i i can take this okay well okay so morgan and i both just really like healthy stuff so i think our palette was kind of messed up because the first iteration was like Like, this is so good. And then we started sampling and everyone's like, nah, this tastes like bad overnight oats. And we're like, okay. We got more confident as we really just began doing more sampling, asking more people what they thought. And then this took us about a year to realize, but we really knew nothing about shelf stability. We kind of had hypotheses. We were doing a bunch of research online, but we did not know what we were talking about at all.

5:09Morgan Rucker:And so finally, after about a year, we talked to a food scientist that was like, yeah, you got to get the pH down if you want this to be shelf-stabled. So then we reworked all the recipes to add like a fruity twist so that an acid profile would make sense. And we were kind of like nervous, but people really liked the sour candy kind of taste. So just a lot of feedback is what made us feel confident with it. I think what made me feel confident with this was when we were in San antonia we drive up to austin every weekend and we make our our pudding samples and hand it out of an ice chest and people actually a would take it we were probably what an 85 win rate on that and then also they liked it well it was really so yeah it was really awkward when they said no because we'd basically like crash people's picknecks because we have ice chest like who are you we're the pudding oh my gosh that's hilarious i know sampling is always like the weirdest thing

6:08Olivia Stevermer:i just remember t-squares at one point right because like i think we probably stopped selling by the time i started doing this podcast but they were made with um puffed millet as one of the main ingredients like almonds and a bunch of other stuff and someone came up to like a demo table one time they're like this just looks like bird food and i was like well puffed millet or like millet's actually like the number one ingredient in bird food so you're not wrong but like people can eat it too so i was like i don't even know how to respond to i'm like okay it's not for you like definitely understand but that was hilarious so putting products in a spouted pouch i know is very challenging and so why did you decide to go with that packaging format and what did it take

6:52Morgan Rucker:to get a viable product in it yeah so i well i did track in college and i just noticed that the pouch was really popular. It was mainly like go-go squeeze was like the main thing, but people just loved the pouch packaging. And there's so many trends towards the pouch packaging, especially like it's really taken off in Asia. It just really adds that like convenient element, you know, you don't need a spoon, just makes it way easier for on the go. But yes, it is not easy. Like we would reach out to manufacturers and a lot of them have minimum ordering quantities of 500 ,000. Morgan got one for literally a million.

7:28Morgan Rucker:Yeah, I'm like, I'm sorry. Yeah, so just a lot, like lots of rejection, lots of outreach, lots of trying to get the science down, working with like a spout pouch expert has been really great. Anything to add, Morgan? Yeah, I think it was definitely like we realized it was going to be a little bit more difficult I'm creating a non-dried good in a spout pouch in the initial beginning part but as we scale I think that it's just gotten easier and easier so that initial like two plus years of development basically I think has really been worth it to get it exactly the way that we wanted it and we've received feedback that hey like I had a really long day like for example we had feedback from a yoga instructor and she's like no it's been great I just pop it in my bag and I had a really long day.

8:17Morgan Rucker:And I just, it helped me sustain like all throughout my shift. And I think that convenience aspect has really paid dividends.

8:24Olivia Stevermer:I love it. What did it take to actually find a manufacturer that was really to produce them?

8:30Morgan Rucker:Lots of word of mouth, actually. And I feel like that's what we've learned in this space is that it's not on the internet, you just have to continue to mass ask people. Luckily, the CPG space has been really great. And everyone's so kind and will refer us to people that they know but yeah the online investigative route is a little

8:50Olivia Stevermer:bit difficult so i mean like you find a manufacturer are they like yes immediately or it takes some

8:55Morgan Rucker:convincing yeah yeah because a lot of it gets to be oh sorry you're good i feel like it got to be kind of discouraging because a lot of manufacturers would have calls back and forth and then they would It just kind of goes to us after a fourth call. But persistence. Exactly. I think like some manufacturers were more receptive to us because they probably saw like two young entrepreneurs and wanted to help out. Whereas some people I don't think really took us seriously. Yeah, it happens. But I think like also it's just because this product isn't really a staple in the U.S. And it's a little bit harder to get more manufacturers on board if they're not really familiar with it.

9:38Morgan Rucker:That was the biggest challenge, but luckily we were able to find one that took a chance. So it worked well.

9:44Olivia Stevermer:Nice. You know, it's always interesting because I remember trying to find the manufacturer for T-Squares. We actually started off self-manufacturing, went to a first co-packer. They didn't have the right equipment, but we kind of like force fit the product in. And they were saying, being like willing to take a chance on us. But then they got like a million bar order from another company and basically like dropped us. without even really telling us they were like sorry we can't schedule line time for you we're like hey we're running out of product and we're like whole foods wants our product like we're already on the shelf but we're running out and they just like ghosted us basically even after they like did three manufacturing runs for us and then we went back to self-manufacturing had another co-packer that didn't work it's like fifteen thousand dollars in ingredients and time and all this other stuff and then just went back to self-manufacturing and yeah i kind of like live through just like the difficulties of finding someone to work with you and i think it wasn't until i talked to someone that works as like a food scientist or someone works with a lot of manufacturers and they're like it actually turns out that like most manufacturers lose money on the first couple production runs because of all the setup and so they actually don't like bring on new products that don't have like a long-term viability from the beginning because it costs them And so it really is a big hurdle to overcome.

11:04Olivia Stevermer:And so I'm glad you were able to navigate through that process.

11:08Morgan Rucker:Yeah, like Olivia said. Oh, sorry. No worries. It's like a weird challenge you don't necessarily anticipate before because you think like, oh, logically, we give them money, they produce the product, but you don't necessarily think that we're competing with like the opportunity cost of them working with another like bigger product. So it's, yeah, another challenge to learn. Yeah.

11:30Olivia Stevermer:what's been the most fun part of this process of you two working together and bringing this

11:35Morgan Rucker:product to market so many parts i would say like honestly one of the top things was talking to more people and seeing the joy on people's face when they get to try the product and them seeing that they really like it and they resonate with it but then also i think it's been really nice getting to know olivia and honestly like she's my best friend and like we started out as business partners really dedicated to this mission, but it's just been really rewarding to be able to grow this with her. Yeah, it's just really good to have like someone in it with you. And Morgan and I, like we just, I don't know, we get along so well, and you couldn't even have like, predicted it necessarily.

12:12Morgan Rucker:We just moved to Texas on a way we barely knew each other. But it's worked out super well. Yeah. And that's been a fun part of it.

12:19Olivia Stevermer:That's really exciting. So now that you've launched, you're a couple weeks in, What are you thinking about in terms of analyzing what's been working so far and any next steps on your plans? Is it like, all right, let's sell through all the initial production run. How are you thinking about growth from here?

12:38Morgan Rucker:Yeah, so this initial run is basically for us to be able to gather a bunch of different data and see like feedback from all of our customers. Also, I think it's more so it's interesting because it's the first product, but it's a little bit different than we're thinking about in the future. So we like taking all of this feedback. Like, for example, our product is a little bit more sour than usual just for the safety aspect. It's interesting that some people actually really like that. Like Olivia mentioned earlier, they kind of relate it to sour candy. I've gotten a couple people actually related to Fruit Riot and the people that really like sour love it.

13:16Morgan Rucker:But then people that don't, you know, it's not really for them. And so from taking all of this feedback, it's kind of interesting to see what should we tweak in the future. So, yeah, definitely more of a data round. Yeah, just testing. We're selling e-com and then also like we're testing out cafe, gyms, really just trying to see. It's kind of hard to identify who the sauerkraut is. So I guess that's kind of an interesting thing to find out. But we are hoping, so this first round we just produced a few thousand. We're hoping to go to a larger manufacturer the next round or potentially do like one additional round of a few thousand before the larger manufacturer and hopefully get some type of investment for the larger round.

13:58Olivia Stevermer:Yeah, I think that's definitely a challenge that happens in this space. And I went through it myself where you have a vision of like the original product that you want to make. And then you end up making changes and tweaks both from manufacturing realities, but then also customer feedback over time and figuring out how to navigate that. You know, it's interesting you mentioned in pouches, right, the natural way of reducing or making it shelf stable is usually adding lemon juice or like, you know, citric acid in there. It's interesting because I have two young kids and they eat applesauce, but they always say it's a lemon applesauce as the flavor.

14:32Olivia Stevermer:because of the lemon, like, citric acid, keep it in there. And so I wonder how, you know, you might continue to lean into that as you do flavor variations, right? So you have the banana, maybe there's more, like, citrus flavors that are just the base as you do it that lean into that having the citric acid or lemon juice, whatever that is in there, to make it last, where you actually incorporate the limitations of the product or, like, the things that you need into the flavor profile, so you're constantly, like, learning, iterating from it.

15:02Morgan Rucker:Oh, 100%. It was actually Olivia's idea to make it more of a fruit flavored twist with every bit of the flavors because originally we had chocolate, vanilla, blueberry matcha, and strawberry. Blueberry matcha and strawberry stayed the same because they're both fruit. But then we changed chocolate to be chocolate cherry and then vanilla just became banana. But then we did think about, you know, a lemon flavor in the future. I feel like that'd be pretty easy to do. But yeah, we just have banana at this moment and are definitely looking to expand the flavors we've also thought about a mango sticky rice sounds appealing that's on my notes still i think that would be a solid contender i love that how are you getting the word out about

15:43Olivia Stevermer:the products what's your main kind of growth avenue a lot of it's word of mouth in addition

15:48Morgan Rucker:to organic traffic me and olivia have been posting on social media for god i think it's been over a year and a half now every single day so we put out a video of the day we switch off uh for instagram Instagram YouTube and TikTok we also so when we were in um Texas we're in Los Angeles now I don't know if we mentioned that but we did like a startup program and every sort of sampling event we did we're always collecting emails even when we went into the parks in Austin collecting emails in person so yeah mix of in person and then yeah we post our daily videos and plus word of mouth oh and pop-ups we're doing one tonight actually i guess it's not going to air in time for people to get go back in time to thursday july 10th 7 p.m west hollywood run club i love it i think those in-person events are always where you can

16:39Olivia Stevermer:learn like the most you're talking to like customers people are using and sampling the product and getting their feedback and so i think it's really interesting how i'm learning that sour angle i'm curious to have you learned anything about like people's perception of pouches or how they've been like really encouraged and like enthusiastic about it or how they've been like asking questions but then like like it what's their feedback then yeah i'll i'll answer my side