Elevator Talk: Big Mama's, Cob, Tierra Negra, La Gringuita, Muria

28:39We are in the state of Illinois, New York and Texas. And what's the price per eight ounce jar? So it's currently retailing anywhere between$12.99 and$13.99, just depending what the store's margins are. Outstanding. Amrit, I don't know if you've had a chance to try this. Were you at Fancy Food Show, the Winter Fancy Food Show? You were, yeah? I was not. I usually am. I couldn't this year. Okay, bummer. But I'm telling you, if you had a chance to try this, you'd remember it for sure. But, you know, salsa matcha seems to be having a moment. Certainly over the last couple of years, we've seen a number of brands come to market, but I don't think in the same way that Tiara Negra, not the same texture.

29:24But how do you think about a brand like this and education-wise getting the message out to folks, getting the message out to consumers in particular? Yeah, I think the baseline of education is already there. But what you were saying about all the different ways to use it, I'd love to see more of that on your Instagram. Okay, definitely. We have been partnering with really great Hispanic food influencers and they're excited, they love our product, they're excited to use it and they are going to be incorporating more on how to use it in their dishes. And retailers love this type of product because you help fill out the basket.

30:05No one just buys this or just buys chicken. They want to kind of create a meal around it. So sampling opportunities at grocery stores hopefully support that if you're able to sample on another brand that already sells in that store too. And I was seeing on your Instagram that you did a pop-up with Vista Hermosa Totoposta at Expo West. And Ray and I were talking earlier about how new brands just found super creative ways to have a presence at the show without having a booth. How did that go last week? No, Expo West was amazing. You know, we were there. We did have a booth. We were always fortunate enough to be able to get one a few months ago.

30:47And first-time exhibitors actually get a discount. So I took advantage of that. And we were actually nominated for the Nexty Award for the Spice and Condiment category. And we also got selected by Albertsons for their Launchpad competition. And it was just an amazing experience to just go for the very first time and being finalists for two different things. And yeah, it was great. I apologize. Did you also do a menu pop-up at Vista Hermosa's booth or you serve their chips at your booth? Yeah. So we actually, I met Vista Hermosa back at, in New York at the fancy food show and they loved the product and they reached out to us saying if they will be able to give us some chips so we can do a collab.

31:37And 100%, we gave her, we sampled our salsa with their chips And everyone was asking like, wow, what chips are those? I'm like, oh, we partnered with Vistar Mosa. They're in a different hall, but check them out. Cool. And I think that's the thing. You've got to get people to try the product because once they do, you become an instant believer. That being said, what is your demo strategy? Getting someone to pay$13,$14 for a jar, even one that looks as amazing as yours does, can be a bit of a hurdle. How do you, how do you, what, I mean, when you, when it, when it comes to demoing, what is your approach?

32:19So the switchers that we're in, they've been awesome. They've been allowing us to demo our product. We do set up our table and we, we display the peppers that we use. We give out samples, they try it, you know, and you know, just once we show them ways of using it, they basically just throw it straight into their car, you know, and, and mostly. And the women, they want to share it with their families. They buy even two, three jars. And like, I'm going to give this to my brother or even give it to my kids. I mean, I think that's the name of the game, right? Is introducing the brand, getting folks to taste it.

32:59But for those retailers where you're not able to demo and you're merchandised next to a sea of other hot sauces, salsa matches, what have you. Amrit, do you have any recommendations, any suggestions on ways that Tierra Negra can be a bit more present and visible on shelf? I would say looking at other brands in that store, even if you're not demoing with them, just walking down every aisle and seeing if the flavors work and reach out to those brands on Instagram. Everyone's trying to create content. Everyone else has another resource to share. You might have the influencer partner. They have extra samples from Expo West that they could give to them in your PR box and just try to share resources wherever possible instead of trying to do that one campaign alone.

33:54And again, the retailers love it because if two or three or five of you pair up because you're in the same store and do a campaign to drive people into that store and teach them how to use your products, that just added$40 to the basket for that store. awesome thank you yeah that's a great point amrit um what what types of brands would you i mean i think it's kind of obvious but what types of brands would you suggest that tierra negra reaches out to i mean certainly you know you can think of tortilla chips but what are your thoughts on that i would say any kind of packaged protein even the the vegan ones because oftentimes those tastes like cardboard without a sauce or condiment on them.

34:37So any kind of chicken meats or frozen tofus crumbles, seeing what innovation came out of Expo West, if you had a chance to walk a little bit last week, I'm happy to chat offline about some brands that you might want to partner with. But I've seen people put spicy condiments on ice creams too, or cakes. So it doesn't just have to be a savory dish, especially getting consumers excited on Instagram to go and try a product offline. But the safest bet is probably any kind of packaged protein. Yeah. Also good advice. Ivan, I'd love to get a sense from you about the size of your jar and whether or not you're considering a larger size, a smaller size, how quickly people go through the jar is it something right now where eight ounces is the right size but you would be considering other potential packages uh my original uh jar size was a 16 ounce um after like finally uh partnering with the co-packer and and seeing like the cost of making this product and it being used with olive oil the cost was pretty high and um you know it just made sense to comparing it to a jar that's kind of like a chili oil or chili crips where they're more like in a six and a half ounce to like an eight to ten ounce jars just to be able to be at that same price point um it is a little bit pricier than your average red and green salsas um and for that reason i had to stick to the eight ounce um in the future i do plan on making it more for like food service too.

36:18So maybe getting it into like half a gallon or gallon size would probably make more sense. And hopefully I could be able to reduce my costs as I scale up in production. It would literally be the secret sauce for some of these restaurants and food service providers, but who knows, maybe you can get your brand name in there as well. Ivan, I'm so happy that we've had this opportunity to chat. Thank you so much for being on Elevator Talk. Thanks so much for making an amazing brand. I can't say enough about this. Folks, if you're watching and you can get your hands on some of this. I say that, I mean, I should say this about all the brands and I really do.

36:53You know, everyone who's watching and has an opportunity to support fellow entrepreneurs and eat good food while you're doing it, please do. Because there is a bit of, I don't know. I really love all the brands that are on this show. I really do. But thank you so much once again. And let's stay in touch for sure. Thank you. Have a good one. Speaking of brands I love, Caroline McGinley is the next guest for this episode of Elevator Talk. She's the owner of La Gringuita. Caroline, great to see you. Hi, Ray. Thanks for having me. I'm so happy to be here. So, yep, I'm the owner and founder of Gringuita Cookies.

37:31We specialize in baked from frozen cookie dough. So they come in preformed dough balls. They take right from the freezer, pop in the oven, and they're in resealable pouches. So you can bake just one or two at a time. Keep the rest in the freezer for whenever you feel like. We don't use any preservatives or anything unnatural, but you can naturally freeze them for up to a year. And then you get the bakery-style cookie warm and gooey in your house whenever you feel like. I never plan on starting a business, actually. I moved down to South America after graduating college to teach English as a second language.

38:01I was in Uruguay. And just after a year of living there, I started selling my cookies just out of my apartment through social media. And I was doing so in Spanish, which is not my first language. So Gringita means little American girl. And it's just a huge part of my story and how it happened. I actually came back to the States during the pandemic or because of the pandemic and the borders closed indefinitely. So I took all my momentum from selling the cookies in Uruguay and launched a business here. Outstanding. And you and I had an opportunity to meet at our Miami meetup as well. And you shared some of your cookies with our attendees.

38:41and I think there were more than a few folks jamming your cookies into their bags while eating the cookies at the same time. So I think they liked them. And I think if folks can actually see behind you, you've got some, you've got like a few photos. Yes, there you go. Of the melty, chocolatey, gooey, wonderful deliciousness of La Gringita. I'm a huge fan of cookies, especially ones that you can make fresh at home. Amrit, are you a cookie person? I don't have a sweet tooth, but I do for cookies. Yes. So if you're going to eat sweets, I feel like it should be something like this. I love how big the photo is of the product on the front.

39:26We're always telling brands to give people a hint of what's inside and you don't waste any time. I love that. I'm intrigued that some of them have kind of a gooey center. Are they all like that besides the chocolate chip? Yeah. So three out of four of the SKUs all have fillings. So I've got a vanilla cookie stuffed with mixed berry jam, a cinnamon sugar cookie stuffed with dulce de leche. So it's a milk based caramel and a chocolate cookie stuffed with a dark chocolate souffle filling. And then my classic chocolate chip is brown butter, dark chocolate sea salt. I feel like you could have a box of like a friend if his friend is sick or having a bad.

40:07a bad day or a birthday kit or something. These seem so special when someone's opening. It's not an everyday cookie. So I'm curious the best use case you've heard from a customer that sent them to someone else. Yeah, a lot of people actually use them for dinner parties. So if they're cooking and they spend their time in the kitchen, you know, with the savory meal, dessert is often, you know left to the side but um with my cookies it's easy because there's zero cleanup it's just freezer to oven and then it's impressive so it's nice with guests yeah a lot of um frozen cookie doughs they're they're designed for each one to look the same they don't look homemade they're delicious but they're not not like this so I'm sure people are trying to say that they made them themselves.

40:58Totally. And that is actually something that I'm trying to do is redefine store-bought cookie dough, just because it really hasn't been disrupted. And typically, when you think of cookie dough, you see it in the refrigerated dairy section, you don't see it in the frozen aisle. So the frozen doughs that are out there are more kind of like manufactured cookie doughs. It's not artisanal and it's not bakery style. Right. Caroline, I saw all the success that you're having at Whole Foods. Congratulations. How many stores are you in at this point? I'm just in 19 Whole Foods in South Florida and over 30 stores overall.

41:36And that's something that I'm really hoping for in 2025 is to start to expand just because it has been, you know, we were a pandemic baby. I launched the business with just$3 ,000. And now I've, you know, I've, I've self-manufactured and I'm working with an overhead and definitely I'm looking into getting into more stores. So I am super excited with Whole Foods. I was in their 2023 accelerator program, which was absolutely incredible. And I highly recommend brands apply. I know, actually, I think they're still open through mid-March. But yeah, so we'll see if we expand to more Whole Foods and other retailers.

42:24What interested Whole Foods from the get-go, and how are they evaluating your potential to grow into other regions? I mean, to grow into other regions, it's really velocity. So with the Accelerator, they are working with emerging innovative brands. brands but at the end of the day it's up to the category merchant who works with the global brands so I have my forager who's like the liaison between you know me and the category merchant but it's it's really about velocity which I do know I'm I'm hitting my expected velocity um and and then you know frozen desserts it's it's very competitive so it's small retail or you know um And it's not too much space on the shelf that they allot us.

43:10So it's really what's available and what's selling fastest. Yeah. Frozen, anything is difficult to sell because you have to open a door to get to it. It's not just right there, right in front of you. Amrit, any suggestions on ways to stand out in that freezer aisle, particularly as a cookie brand? Yeah, so similar to our chat with Ivan, looking at other brands in that aisle and see if you can collaborate on content or demos or anything to drive people into that aisle, not just the store. So if you can create some type of viral cookie experience on TikTok and everyone knows that this is the store in Florida where you can get them will help beyond saying that you're in that store, I think.

43:58And anytime people can pick up two products or two brands at a store on their list, they're more likely to go. Otherwise, they might try to get all their shopping done at another store. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm trying to work with a couple of other frozen brands in the dessert aisle and then just savory because I agree. I think that's a great idea. And I love the dinner party theme. So maybe there's some content around there. a summer dinner party on the patio. I don't know. Just getting people excited to host with friends. I think we all need that right now. Totally. Caroline, have you ever done a pop-up for Lagrangheta?

44:42Because I feel like as soon as somebody sees and smells fresh baked cookies, it's like, okay, you're going to sell out no matter what you're selling. Because everyone, well, it seems like everyone loves cookies. Totally. Yeah, I don't trust somebody if they don't like cookies. So I actually, I am like fully funded through farmer's markets. So I do farmer's markets every weekend. I bring a convection oven that's really not technically portable, but I make it portable and I bake on site. And that has really been driving awareness, especially because I'm based in West Palm Beach, Florida. So it's a really touristy, transient area.

45:20So people that walk through the market try the cookies baked, and then they become aware of the frozen dough that's available in stores. And what's the price point for a bag? It's$14.99, so each quarter pound cookie is$3.75. But that also does take some education since it is a higher price point than your average cookie dough. And I have found after people try it, it makes sense, but it's getting them to try it or showing them. So demoing, actually showing up and doing pop-ups, farmers markets and things like that. Yeah, and I wonder about individual servings and whether or not that's ever crossed your mind and not necessarily a frozen item, but something that's a fresher cookie.

46:01I think I was in San Diego and I remember seeing these really delicious prepackaged cookies that were just either in the refrigerated aisle or at the checkout counter. Have you ever considered a different option in terms of packaging or serving of your cookies? Yeah. So another channel that I'm really interested in, it's actually not the packaged cookies, like a baked packaged cookie. It's still with the frozen dough, but food service and prepared bakery. So if I could sell my frozen dough and the cookies would still be fresh baked because Because that's what I'm doing. They're fresh out of the oven.

46:46That's part of the draw. And I don't want to change that. But offering larger food service sizes and then selling them ideally in my branded cookie sleeves. Yeah, I think the coffee shop seems like a no-brainer. And Amrit, I'm sure you've been to a coffee shop, an independent coffee shop, and seen all these beautiful, delicious pastries. But most of them aren't made on premise, right? Correct. Some of them are more corporate than we want them to be. But there's also small bakeries that wholesale to other bakeries nearby. I could see some coffee shops selling these in their freezer also because you're a local brand.

47:31Yeah, that's actually a good idea. Having both the fresh baked cookie and the retail pack. I like that. Yeah. And look at how Crumbles educated people to spend a whole lot more than this on one cookie. So I think people are willing to pay for it when they can see it and smell it like you said. The virality of those is that they change the menu every week also, and they do all these crazy big collaborations. But I'm sure there's local collaborations you could do that get people excited also that could be a topping without changing your packaging. Like a farmer's market pop-up and this week we're putting this other brand sprinkles or this sauce on it.

48:16But again, not trying to create a whole new packaging for a collaboration, but just pulling in another collaborator to drive people to the farmer's market or that store. Yeah, that's a great idea. I agree. I think collaboration right now just to create more brand awareness in an economical way is definitely a good idea right now. La Gringuita everywhere. That's what we need. We just need it everywhere so that everyone can experience your amazing cookies. Caroline, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. I really appreciate it. Excited to catch up again in the future. Please stay in touch.

48:59Let us know how things are developing with the brand, especially as it relates to retail and distribution. Thank you so much, Ray.

49:16slash insider to learn more. All right, our final guest for this episode of Elevator Talk, that's Shaila Malani, who is the co-founder and CEO of Moria Foods. Shaila, how are you? Hi, Ray. I'm great. How are you? Moria Foods, we have some of your product upstairs. It's fantastic. Everyone's been grabbing at it and trying to take it home, but you're not supposed to do that. It's supposed to be shared, but tell us all about what you do. Yes. And thank you so much for having me. Both Nosh and Bevna and the resources provided by you guys have been really helpful to me as a first time entrepreneur in the CPG space.

50:00And I am so excited to be here to represent Maria Foods. This is a brand that I started, co-founded with my family, with my mom and brother. And we have been officially in the business since this past Thanksgiving. But unofficially, I kind of forayed into the food space eight years ago with a Instagram account kind of documenting my mom's home chef creations and cooking and different recipes and things like that just to share with friends and family. and then over the years have kind of made this transition into officially making one of her products which is this pepper jelly that is now the pepper number one preserve official so we it took us a year and a half to get up and running with it and really during COVID I moved to Miami to be closer to my family and decided to pursue entrepreneurship full time.

51:23We, you know, were started in the home kitchen, but quickly decided that we needed a co-packer and an official recipe to be able to scale the product. And so it took us a few months to find and perfect the taste and flavor, the distribution, packaging. And we soft launch to friends and family on mariafoods.com during Thanksgiving. And then earlier this year, we had the opportunity to exhibit at the Winter Fancy Food Show. And so that was kind of our first official, you know, launch. And so the Pepper No. 1 Preserve is our signature product, and it is our take on a sweet heat spread. So really kind of blending this trend of multi-use condiments and, you know, a product that we love and think everybody should try and should have in their pantry.

52:29it's an alternative to traditional jams and jellies and can be used as a spread and sandwiches can be drizzled on pizza or even used as a salad dressing and a marinade for proteins meats and other things like that and we're really excited to continue to scale this year we are building a local presence at a farmer's market in Miami and talking to other potential retailers and farmer's markets across the country to kind of build the brand out that way. Outstanding. Almir, I have a feeling I'm going to know what you're going to say in terms of getting Moria out to the masses. What are your thoughts?

53:25What do you think I'm going to say? I think you're going to say that the way that Shaila described Maria as a versatile product should be showcased and should be a big part of the messaging. I agree. I think of condiments like multipurpose beauty products. So if you can use it in a lot of different ways and travel with it. But in this case, I'm seeing on your Instagram that you can use it in cocktails. You can use it on eggs, basically build a whole brunch menu around it. That's that's lovely. And you have three or four photos on your Instagram, but it actually shows quite quite versatility on on how to use it.

54:04I'd love to get this in the hands of some. Mixology influencers on TikTok or Instagram and to see what they come up with and kind of give them give them a blank canvas. um yeah no honestly we a lot of the feedback has been you know people want to know how to use it they want recipes and so um when we launched in November we didn't have any of that we were really just like kind of focused on like showcasing the product and then with this feedback have been able to create some of these ads that are on our Instagram now just kind of you know broadly showcasing we created a recipe page on our website as well to kind of provide that for our customers but we would love to get you know influencers involved and I think I mean food is just it's such a fun category because anyone that you give this product to will have a different interpretation of it a different way of using it and we really want to find the best way to to build and showcase that.

55:11What's your favorite way to use it? I personally like it on just like plain toast, like bread and this or with cheese and crackers. It's really good with like softer cheeses or personally, I like it with softer cheeses, like goat cheese, crackers. I tried it on ice cream uh personally it wasn't my favorite but my brother is obsessed with that combination um and it is because the the sweetness of it does you know kind of get picked up in some of the sweet products but it has that heat at the end um and so I prefer it more with savory things but it goes well with both. Yeah, the pepper number one product, it feels like a specialty foods product.

56:06It feels like a fancy food product. And I think that's a good thing, because you know who you're selling to, you know, the channels that you're targeting. How has that process been, Shaila? How have you been able to talk to retailers, talk to distributors about your product, your brand and get it into their stores and onto their trucks? Definitely. Yeah, we've had a lot of success locally with specialty retailers because it's really, I think the face to face, you know, like being a face of the brand and pitching the product that way and kind of built talking to more experts like in very more niche spaces.

56:47So in Miami, we, one of our retailers is the Miami Cheese Shop, and the founder of that brand is very well versed on different cheeses and things like that. And so, you know, she's helped us kind of find a place within her assortment for our product. With the farmer's market, it is in downtown Miami. So it's a little bit more niche as well with, you know, being in close proximity to a lot of restaurants and like more specialty grocers. And so having conversations there has also been really helpful to get into that space. But I think we need to find a way that that's scalable because I guess it's a blessing and a curse because specialty is more niche.

57:44But we would like to be in like those types of specialty stores across the country. And so I'm still figuring out how to do that well. Yeah, it takes time. And, you know, this is a question for Amrit. You know, when you do sell to independent stores and when you do sell to specialty food stores, it's likely, you know, your velocity wouldn't be as high as those in conventional and perhaps natural. But do you think that Shiloh should still consider, and I guess that being said, do you think Shiloh should consider, you know, reaching out to a Whole Foods, reaching out to a Wegmans and those places?

58:24Or is that kind of taking her eye off the ball at this point? I think there are still local Whole Foods programs where you could sell just in your state. And it's worth reaching out to them just to get on their radar. are. I think they're respectfully, their cheese section could use a lot of new life with products like, like yours, because I feel like it's the, it's the fig pastes and chutneys. And that's, that's kind of it. Um, so for, for all of your brands, really, I wish the grocery stores kind of led people to what, what's possible by putting new brands in their, their basket versus saying here's 100 hot sauces and 100 cookies in the same place.

59:08But alongside those bigger stores, you said you're already working with cheese shops. There's probably 100 or so kind of anchor mini markets or places on fare that do a high volume. Pop-up grocer is bigger than those, but imagine like what's the pop-up grocer in another city and just kind of testing markets that way and then use that data to go to the local Whole Foods buyer in that city to say, look, we already have 500 people that have bought our product in this city. Hopefully, you have their email addresses or some kind of information about them so you can let them know. But there's also smaller grocers, mom and pop owned stores that could be great in those cities too.

59:53So my point is that there's so much retail before a Whole Foods or a Wegmans that you can build an exciting business with focusing on those stores. But cheese shops, especially butcher shops, anywhere where people might be having dinner parties too. So maybe partnering with some of the brands on this call again. I think a lot of your products would taste good together. yes definitely yeah this is very skewed um multi-purpose condiments and um ethan and carolina act we're actually um exhibiting at the winter fancy food show within our program that we did together as well so um we have we know each other we should talk about working together too yeah i can see some pepper number one and uh stuffed into a lot greg and gita cookie i mean That could be a potential thing in the future.

1:00:52Yeah, we've actually, during the holidays, one of the ideas was to do like a thumbprint cookie or a version of it that could, you know, work with this. So, Carolyn, we'll talk. There you go. Charlotte, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. Congrats on everything that you've accomplished at this point. It seems like you have quite the runway for Maria Foods. please let us know how things are going and how we can help in any way. Definitely. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you, Amrit, for your advice and insight. Amrit, indeed. Thank you so much for your insights, advice, feedback.

1:01:32It is extremely helpful. I think you shared some outstanding ideas on ways that brands can enhance their awareness and ultimately improve velocity and sell through. I think that's kind of, you know, the goal right now for early stage brands is to make sure that people know who they are and what they're all about. It's not easy to do, especially because there's just so many out there as we saw at Expo West. But yeah, just I think in general terms,

1:02:04finding creative ways to build partnerships and build awareness is the name of the game right now for a lot of brands. we got to have you back on the show as always uh i and i hope that uh you can join us sometime later in 2025 but in the meantime once again thank you so much for being with us on the show thanks so much to all of our entrepreneurs for joining us today thanks for everyone watching and thanks for our amazing team at bevnet nosh and taste radio the best in the business signing off for everyone i'm ray latif and we'll talk to you next time Thank you.

1:03:09Thank you.

1:03:40Thank you.