TRUFF's Founders: 'The Status Quo Is In All Of Our Hands'

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0:50Nick Guillen:Hello, friends. I'm Ray Lateef, and you're tuned into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. trough built its reputation by breaking the rules now as the company expands beyond its viral hot sauce with a major rebrand new product lines and a retail focused growth strategy co-founders nick and nick esh looney are focused on scaling the business without losing the edge that made it a phenomenon in this episode the entrepreneurs discuss the strategy behind trough's refreshed packaging, more accessible pricing, and new Aeoli line, as well as how they balance data and instinct when developing products.

1:36Nick Guillen:They also explain why bringing in an experienced CEO was a pivotal move for the company's next chapter and share their vision for evolving trough from a disruptive startup into a lasting, category-defining condiment brand.

1:53Nick Guillen:Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Nick Eshlooney and Nick Guillen, the co-founders of Truff. Nick G, how are you? Fabulous. Thanks for having us, Ray. How are you doing? I'm fantastic. Nick A, great to see you again. You too, man. Excited. Yeah. So when we first met, it was back in January of 2020. We're at the Winter Fancy Food Show. We sat down IRL in the press room, and it was a thrilling conversation for me. because at the time there was a lot of hype around Truff. There still is for sure, but no one had seen a brand like yours before and it really represented change, particularly within the category that you were competing in, Hot Sauce.

2:39Nick Guillen:One of the most interesting things about Truff is that when it debuted, it was differentiated by the fact that it was, quote, a digitally native brand. It was engineered for Instagram. Nick G, I mean, how would you describe Truff at this point?

2:59Nick Ajluni:So, I mean, our roots, I think, will always be digital. The brand was built on the internet for the internet. But as we've matured, we have really tried to do a good job at what a best-in-class CPG brand would do from a retail strategy, from hiring, from showing up where the consumer is, aside from just on social media and TikTok and the internet.

3:22Nick Guillen:And Nick A, you know, the idea of Truff, the vision for Truff was to be a lifestyle luxury hot sauce brand. And right now, you're so much more than that. When you started the company, did you envision having, say, an aioli line? Did you envision having a tomato sauce line? Did you see that this brand had the opportunity to become a food portfolio brand?

3:56Nick Ajluni:We always say we kind of modeled the business off of like Red Bull, where they had one product for like three decades and even like a Cholula, for example. And so our early days where we will never sell in stores and we're only going to sell one thing. But life happened. The Internet happened. Food culture happened. Retail happened. And I think we've risen to those occasions and evolved with the demand for what the trough brand stands for and what the trough brand can offer. How would you describe trough in, say, five words or less? Nick A. Thoughtfully crafted, accessible culinary experiences.

4:35Nick Guillen:Impressive. That was really good. I like that. Thank you. And I think that, again, speaks to how the brand has evolved beyond simply being a hot sauce brand. How do you decide on timing when you are launching new innovation? How do you think about getting not just the product right, but the time and cultural moment for a new product line?

5:02Nick Ajluni:Nick G. So it's interesting because there's never a perfect time, I would say. And especially with so many different things going on, we want to do our best to time the market and what's on trend with the consumer and kind of what's hot. But at the end of the day, for us looking at the dipping sauce category, the aioli category, we knew we could create an incredible product first and foremost. You know, we had an incredible mail line, but I think the new form of putting an incredible tasting liquid in a squeeze bottle makes it a lot more easy for consumers to use, but it allows us to now venture into things outside of hot sauce.

5:43Nick Ajluni:And with our line now, we have four incredibly tasting aiolis, our garlic parm Caesar, our smoky jalapeno, our original, and our lemon pepper aioli.

5:55Nick Guillen:Along with the new line, we've seen a brand refresh for Truff that feels like it's really focused on the retail end of what you're doing and the shoppability of your products. Again, I think this speaks to the development of Truff as a retail first brand. I could be reading into things, but Nick A., how much of the present and future of trough is really focused on retail versus online.

6:31Nick Ajluni:It's no secret that we're making a big retail push and we haven't over the last few years. The rebrand was part of a push for accessibility and education. And so like you kind of alluded to the beginning, if you hadn't been online and you were just showed up at a retail store, say Kroger or, you know, Publix or somewhere, you see this product and it just says trough down the front. maybe don't know what truffle is, or you don't know what truff is, and you don't know how to use what you're looking at. And it previously was$15. You might pass on that you're likely to pass or be skeptical or think about it and come back later.

7:11Nick Ajluni:The rebrand was a very long and tedious and thoughtful process and took us actually many years and many different, you know, work streams, different groups we worked with, and as well, mainly our in-house team actually, but the future, I think, of Truff is retail, but we're actually continuing to double down online in this moment. We're actually doing a lot of different things that we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks, months, and maybe years that are very digitally focused. If we had to pick one, it's probably retail, but the internet's not going anywhere.

7:46Nick Guillen:So you alluded to the fact that it took a lot of time to introduce this rebrand. I imagine that there were a lot of disagreements and challenging conversations to be had about making any kind of change to what already has been an iconic and very effective label. and I would be, if I were a founder of Truff, a little concerned about perhaps losing some of the magic. Yes, you definitely want people to know more about what you're selling and make it as clear as possible. But one of the things that made Truff so successful at the outset was that luxurious packaging, that beautiful vertical logo that still exists on your packaging.

8:39Nick Guillen:there was nothing else like it. And I don't think there's been anything like it since. So Nick G, I mean, how much concern did you have? What were some of those questions like? What were some of those challenges that I imagine existed? How did you get through them? How did you talk through them? How did you make sure that you weren't, again, losing the magic of what you already had was Truff?

9:01Nick Ajluni:Yeah. So it's funny. I've actually been thinking a lot about this over the last couple of weeks. And the way that I best describe it is we're kind of undergoing a renovation of the brand, right? We had built this beautiful modern house for the internet that at the end of the day had an incredible product inside of it, but the outside didn't really do a good job of telling consumers, what's the flavor profile? What is the actual product? What are some of the flavor cues? How hot is it? How prominent is truffle? And we've basically been trying to renovate what we've currently built to answer a lot of those questions.

9:38Nick Ajluni:and that has us considering, okay, maybe we got to change some of the fixtures. Maybe we got to change some of the wallpaper. Maybe the staircase over here wasn't as functional as we thought it would be. So for us, it's really trying to move into the direction of educating the consumer at shelf very quickly within three seconds when they see the product, but not stepping so far away from the true DNA and the roots of our brand. And I think one of the best things we did was keep the vertical aesthetic of the Truff logo down the front. But now we've used all of the real estate in a very productive way to answer all of those questions that the consumer has at shelf.

10:23Nick Ajluni:You know, our goal is to be America's number one premium condiment. And if you look at where Truff was to start, if you look at just like average selling price, it was an ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra premium condiment, right? Four to five times the category. And the word premium, we could talk about all day, argue it, hate it, love it. But when you look at accessibility and truly getting into tens of millions of households, it's a different proposition than selling a shiny object on the internet. And so I think every pixel of that label was thoughtfully placed there to accomplish kind of that goal.

11:02Nick Ajluni:At the end of the day, the product inside the bottle is always going to remain as top tier as you could possibly imagine. We're going to continue to source the best ingredients from all over the world. We're going to work with the best in class manufacturers to really bring the idea of this high end flavor profile that's extremely unique in our category to consumers. But now we're able to open our aperture and allow customers who wouldn't pay 15, 17, 18, 19, 20 dollars for a hot sauce to now try it at a sub$10 price point. So as we look to make the brand more accessible, we're not necessarily doing it from a, you know, how do we get all of our costs down?

11:48Nick Ajluni:How do we use cheaper suppliers or cheaper accessories for the brand? It's how do we put an offer together for the customer that allows us to capture more of the shopper market share within the category? If you look at the category, I believe 90 % of the dollars are spent between$4 and$7 price points for hot sauces. At$14 to$20, we're only speaking to a very slim percentage of the category shopper. So as we move the brand to a sub$10 price point, we're now able to talk to consumers that are willing to even consider our product because it's at a price that they're willing to pay. So we're essentially just making it more accessible through price pack architecture and also flavor innovation.

12:38Nick Guillen:Yeah, it's interesting because the way I am hearing what you're talking about is that premium doesn't necessarily mean exclusivity. It's really about quality and versatility. And I think Truff has gradually become a more versatile brand via innovation. And I think about mild hot sauce and how that could speak to a lot of different consumers and more consumers in ways that the original trough had not. How do you think about trying to innovate to reach more consumers, but in a way that doesn't alienate anyone, in a way that embraces the TAM opportunity that you might have in CPG?

13:28Nick Ajluni:yeah i mean you kind of you know nailed it right on the head with when you were alluding to like our mild sauce like that was kind of our our very first i would say venture away from our our true core you know we have our our buffalo and our jalapeno but mild essentially is a luxury version of taco bell mild sauce with you know a trough twist and so many consumers out there enjoy sauces they enjoy elevating their food with these flavor enhancers, but a lot of people don't like spice at the end of the day. And for us, a lot of people, when they look at our brand, it's like, oh, Truff's a hot sauce brand.

14:07Nick Ajluni:But we're more than just a hot sauce brand, we're a flavor elevator. And with this mild offering, it allows us to bring those consumers into our flywheel that that have sensitivity to heat. And we can deliver that thing that they're looking for. But we also now have other offerings like our early line that aren't very hot. And it really just continues to bring new shoppers into our ecosystem.

14:39Nick Guillen:Do you have to be perfect when you launch new products or is it okay to say we can iterate after this launches?

14:46Nick Ajluni:First off, one of the best things we ever did for our brand was hire a chief saucier officer, individual named Elliot, who has been an incredible, incredible resource and a leader on the R &D front, aside from our incredible operations team to really bring these products and ideas to life, as well as our marketing team, which really bring consumer insights and real data internally to say, okay, this is what's going on. This is what the number is saying. This is what's happening in grocery. How could we truly innovate and deliver incredible tasting products to our consumers. And first we start with the data and then we understand, okay, how can we really innovate in the trough way?

15:28Nick Ajluni:And a lot of times it starts with a retailer relationship. First in the past, it might've started on e-com where we could spin something up. We could test it online. If it hits with the consumer, then we'll launch it into a retailer. But now it's more so a little bit thoughtful, like nothing's ever going to be perfect, but it really needs to hit. It really needs to work. And internally, Nick and I are still extremely involved with any sauce, any product that comes to market. We have samples that we're trying constantly. We're working with our R &D team and Elliot to really fine tune things. But from a perfection standpoint, we try to get as close to perfect as possible because when these things release, it's on a big stage.

16:14Nick Ajluni:It's not just a small test and learn for our own dot com anymore.

16:19Nick Guillen:Yeah, typically when I see a new product coming out from Truff, there is a huge social push behind it. You first tease it on Instagram or other social platforms. And when it launches, it seems like there's a lot of people who were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what it would be. And I think data really helps to identify what consumers are looking for. But I think at the end of the day, gut will tell you a lot about where you should go for new products and innovation. But what really informs Truff at this point? Is it a gut feeling about a particular new product or is it really rooted in data, Nick A?

17:02Nick Ajluni:It's a mix. It's a hybrid. I think data kind of points the direction of the shift. Data is in buyers, candidly. I mean, buyers are not shy about what's missing in their set or how consumers are behaving, about wanting to partner with brands to fill needs. Data can tell you how people are behaving. We also, you know, we're pretty connected to the internet and culture. And we can just kind of see what's going on in food culture, see what's happening on TikTok, see what other launches are getting hype, see what is missing, unfortunately, from other launches. And, you know, the whole team on our end is kind of synthesizing all this information and, you know, collaborating on the quote unquote, right way forward for, you know, X category or whatnot.

17:45Nick Ajluni:And so with our Aeolies, if you look at the lineup, you know, a classic truffle is a staple at Truff. That's quite simple. But we don't want to just be a me too in the set, we want to kind of like bring something to the set that doesn't exist. And so that's why you see some of these, you know, lemon pepper is such a culturally relevant flavor. It's talked about in music, it's wingstop known. And I don't see a staple lemon pepper mayo or aioli being used nationwide. And there should be one.

18:12Nick Guillen:It helps when you have a great team, and you both have referenced your team a number of times. And you've brought a new CEO on. And I imagine that this is something that has been a long time in the making, a long time in the works, and trying to find the right person to steer the ship going forward. Just talk about your new CEO and some of the non-negotiables that you had to see in this person, such that they could take it from Truff 1.0 to Truff 2.0 without any disruption. Nick G.

18:46Nick Ajluni:Yeah. So, you know, talked a little bit about the brand renovation. And I think another big part of that renovation is bringing in leadership and a new CEO like Essie to really help lead the whole team and drive the ship. You know, Nick and I, we were first time CEOs, were scrappy entrepreneurs, a lot of gut instinct and just hustling our way through without really, really knowing. And I think with this incredible hire, it brings a lot of that traditional, really best-in-class CPG prowess to the organization. And it allows Nick and I to really lean back into our entrepreneurial roots and continue injecting that early DNA of Truff back into the brand.

19:31Nick Ajluni:But this time, we have an incredible leadership team. You know, Essie was a brand new CEO that we brought in, and we've continued to rebuild out the whole leadership team amongst many other roles that are really bringing in that new best in class, more longer term, big CPG to the organization? It's scary.

19:52Nick Guillen:I would imagine it's really scary because that big CPG experience and creating a brand that can be everywhere there hasn't necessarily been the identity of Truff for a long time. And you want the culture to remain what it has been. You want the vision to remain what it has been while building out that bigger presence. So again, you know, Nick, if I were to bring on a new CEO, if I were in your shoes, I think one of the most important things would be to make sure that that person is culturally aligned with what you guys are all about. I have a sense I've, you know, first met you guys in 2020. And I feel like I'm still talking to the same guys, at least from a cultural perspective.

20:40Nick Guillen:You're both laid back. You're both highly intelligent. You're both highly ambitious, but you're not willing to compromise. And that's been clear throughout our conversation. So when you were first talking to Essie and continuing upon that conversation, how did you know she was the right one, Nicky?

20:57Nick Ajluni:Yeah, I don't know if we're highly intelligent, but we're working on that. Yeah. So, I mean, look, it was a very kind of long process, right? It was a very thoughtful decision with our new partner, partner being the investment we took. As Nick G said, you know, big CPG is, it's its own category. It's its own industry. And, you know, Essie came from Tate's. She ran a multi-hundred million dollar P &L. She has a very long and accomplished and impressive career at various brands like Colgate, L 'Oreal. I think she's in that MTV for a stint. And we probably talked to 30 plus candidates over maybe eight months or so.

21:43Nick Ajluni:And we weren't in like some crazy rush to like, just get someone in the seat. No, it was very much so like, hey, this is what we're building. Having the right, almost like, you know, giving LeBron the ball is a really smart and strategic move at the stage we were at and the stage we want to get to. And with SE, it was kind of abundantly clear. It's funny because it's always like, you know, we'd have kind of some of these long multi-week conversations and kind of get closer to the line with one individual. And then it would kind of like not quite work out, or we would feel really good about certain of their skill sets and then a little bit hesitant or apprehensive about another.

22:23Nick Ajluni:And Truff is not like your run of the mill, just like, oh, we'll just do this. We'll add distribution. We'll do more promos. And like, I mean, we're building something truly thoughtful and special that we think can be here in a hundred years. And so it was clear with Essie that she kind of had the whole package, right? She had the CBG prowess. She understood good food and cold. She's a foodie. She loves amazing food. He's also a culinary professional. She's trained, culinary trained. She was a big trough user prior to ever meeting us. We had some good mutual friends in the network. Shout to Craig, had a happy coffee.

23:04Nick Ajluni:And every conversation we were just speaking the same language. And when she kind of put this plan together, you know, what she thinks his brand could be. It was like, this just makes so much sense. Like she's just in sync with us. She's in lockstep with us. And she has a level of enthusiasm that like you could be having the worst day ever. And you get on a call with Essie and you're just like, you're perked up and you're ready to go. And that's a really strong energy to bring to an organization. And so yeah, it took us a while, but we found her and she's been with us for over a year, almost a year and a half now.