How GOODLES Made Mac and Cheese for Grown-Ups | Foodfluencers

0:00Jen Zeszut: Hey everybody, I gotta tell you, we're gonna talk about Built. Built Hospitality. Millions of people use Built every day, that's right, every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant. That's where Built Hospitality comes in. Built Hospitality shapes how guests are recognized and taken care of. Built's restaurant-facing platform is designed specifically for dining operators to drive loyalty with their guests. It combines reservations, guest preferences, VIP management, and payments all into one platform alongside an agentic concierge. That's right, an AI concierge that thoughtfully designs and executes experiences around your guest tastes.

0:47Jen Zeszut: Using the latest and greatest in AI technology. When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes. Built Hospitality works across the entire guest journey. That's right, the entire guest journey from delivering a complimentary course at the right moment, just the right moment, sending a personalized offer that brings them coming back again and again and again. That's right. That's what Built Hospitality is doing. It is allowing you to communicate with your guests and keep them coming back over and over. Make every guest feel like a regular every time, not just their first time, every time.

1:24Jen Zeszut: They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. That's BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant. Jen, what can you tell us about the CPG going food service? Is that breaking news? It is not breaking news. You're not going into food service. Aw. I think, by the way, you put this on a kid menu at a restaurant, okay, and my daughter sees Goodles, mac and cheese by Goodles, that's what she's ordering. Really? I think so. There you go. We are adding.

2:02You could level up kid menus. I know it's not just for kids. It's not just for kids. But I'm telling you right now. For sure. We go to restaurants and get mac and cheese. My daughter complains because it's just. Why is she complaining? Too soupy. Doesn't like soupy mac and cheese. Oh, my gosh. We get those all the time now, guys. People are like, they won't eat their mac, the kids won't eat their mac and cheese because it's not Goodles anymore. But it's true. We're adding something like 3 million new customers almost every quarter right now. 3 million?

2:32Jen Zeszut: Live from Pepsi Studios in New York City with the restaurant guy and the finance guy. And we've got Jen Zezit. Did I say it right? Absolutely right. I did. Jan Zezit, CEO, founder. No, not founder. Co-founder. Co-founder, CEO of Goodles. Not to be confused with Goodles. It's Goodles. Right, Jimmy? It's Goodles because it's really good. It's Goodles. And it's part of our Food Fluencer series that we continue to rock it out with people, making things happen in the food world. And I got to tell you, taking something that we have loved our entire life, Jimmy, am I right? Macaroni and cheese. And you know what they're doing?

3:17Jen Zeszut: They're just making it better. They're making it better, Jimbo. I love this. I love this. Listen, we are live from the Pepsi Studios today. Is that right, Chatsy? We are. We are live from the Pepsi Studios. Cheers to our friends at Pepsi. I have the privilege of welcoming you more formally to the Hospitality Hangout. I'm Jimmy Frischling. I'm a branded finance guy. I'm here with my brother from another mother, Mr. Michael Schatzberg. We are continuing, as Schatzie mentioned, our Food Flencer miniseries, the CPG, the Consumer Package Good Edition, where we're spotlighting the brands that are influencing what we eat, not just how we discover it.

3:52I want to be honest, after learning about Jen's story, I couldn't decide whether this was a food story or an adventure novel. Okay, we're going to talk about Paris. We're going to talk about a delivery van. We're going to talk about Berkeley. We're going to talk a little bit about a failed first startup pitch. You know what happens. We're going to get to talk about Mr. Ryan Reynolds, one of my daughter's favorite superheroes. We're going to talk about 200 people who want to graduate in Goodles. You know, Jimmy, we only have like 35 minutes. Are we going to be able to talk about all of that? We're going to talk about all of that, Shatsy.

4:21Jen Zeszut: That's a jam-packed show. I have cleared my schedule. I am free for the next 24 hours. We're going to have a marathon session. But are we going to talk about Pepsi? I got one for you. One of the few things that can make Goodles better? Don't tell me. Pepsi. Have a Pepsi with it. Any Pepsi. Have a Starry. Have a Starry. Have a Starry product. So many good things. So many good things. I got to tell you. Well, let's talk a little bit about how do you become the CEO and the founder of Goodles, right? How do you do that, right? like you said, Jimmy, you got to go study psychology. You got to go to Berkeley.

4:56Jen Zeszut: You got to go to Berkeley. You got to study psychology, Jimmy. By the way, if you're going to be in this business and succeed, you need to know a little something, something about psychology. Yeah, of course, man. You got to know what makes people tick, what gets them excited, what makes them sad, what makes them happy, you know? So I don't know. She studied in Paris, right? I'm looking here. At the Sorbonne. Yeah, something happened over here. of moved to Mendocino without a job, begged to work at Cafe Bougoulet. Bougoulet. That's not how you spell Bougoulet. Well, that is how you spell it. Bougoulet.

5:33I promise you it's right.

5:34Jen Zeszut: Well, anyway, Jen went over there somehow and got bored of restaurants, went to University of Michigan, went to a business school over there, Jimmy. Big Blue. Big Blue. Big Blue. Excited about the final four, I think, you know, right? spent years in media marketing roles, all sorts of things, Procter & Gamble, this, that, and the other thing. All I know is in 2020, she founded Goodles. Let's jump into it, Jimmy, because I can't look at that anymore because it's all wrong. I want you to take over and let's get some real information here. First of all, Jen, what did you get right? There's some stories here.

6:06We have Paris. We have psychology. We have Paris. We have working in a restaurant. What did Chad to get right other than the abuse of the name Beaujolais? it's it's generally all correct um you know i the funny part about all of this is you've you know looking back your life and your life choices suddenly kind of seem to make a little bit of sense if you squint of course as you're going through it at the time you're just like what am i doing i don't know what i'm doing um so yeah i just you know wanted to study french lived over in Paris, needed to make money, worked, found a little restaurant called COSI, C-O-S-I, on the Rue de Seine in the 6th arrondissement and started working there.

6:52Jen Zeszut: Jimmy, did you understand anything Jen just said? I did. I spent five years working for Société General. Oh my God. Wait, you worked at COSI? I did not work at COSI. I worked at Société General. Not you, Jen. Jen worked at COSI. She created it. I did work at COSI. What do you mean? The COSI that came over here or different COSI? So, yes. So at the time, Cozy was not over here. We're just this little fancy sandwich shop in Paris. But two brothers were interested in buying the manual of operations and I was running all the operations. So I documented all of that and helped the owner, Drew, sell the manual of operations to a couple brothers out of Chicago.

7:29and sure enough if you remember cozy the sandwich shop with really good bread sliced really thin yes chicago is like on every corner on the east coast new york washington dc everything that was my restaurant and that was my little restaurant manual of operations that i typed on my little tiny you know apple first macintosh and everything like that and it became a public company i love your story okay most people fall in love with restaurants and then they stay in restaurants you became part of the international association of women chefs and restaurateurs you literally quit your job you moved to mendocino without asking anyone for work and you showed up at cafe beaujolais i understand the confusion chassie on my on my sheet it spelled correctly and you basically show up it's like hi i'm going to learn everything from you and then i did and then boredom set in well no it wasn't exactly that so margaret fox she's an amazing female chef and restaurateur Cafe Beaujolais was like the restaurant that I wanted to learn everything from.

8:30Yes. Yeah. So moved up there. And I guess I didn't think of reaching out to her in advance. I just moved up there, found a house, left our apartment in San Francisco, moved up there, knocked on the door and said, Margaret, I am Jen. I'm obsessed with you. I love I've read every I've cooked every recipe. I've loved every book that you've written. And I want to learn everything about running your breakfast restaurant, because that's what I wanted to run was a breakfast restaurant. And she goes, Oh, sweetie, we're not doing breakfast anymore. And I was like, Oh, oh, okay. Um, so anyway, she and her husband at the time, Chris Komp were running, we're running a dinner restaurant.

9:09And I was like, all right, I guess I'll learn that. So we worked there for a couple of years and, um, fell in love with the people, fell in love with the team. But I guess for me, the fact that like an appetizer changes once a week or a new thing. It just wasn't enough dynamism for me. And I decided, all right, I don't know what I'm going to actually, at the time, I didn't know what I was going to do. So I just decided, let's go to business school and we'll figure it out from there. So was that kind of like the pivot? You know, you were in the day-to-day and then you realized it wasn't exactly, you said dynamism?

9:48Is that the word? I like that. I think setting up a restaurant would have been fun. I was like, I'd like to open a restaurant. Yes. But the day-to-day running of it was not my jam. Of course, here I am now running a CPG. And the detailed day-to-day financials and operations are what makes and breaks this company too. So you can't escape it. You got to be good at it, whether you're on the restaurant side or on the CPG side. So you describe startups as something akin to the slot machines in Vegas. Most startups, you know, you pull the lever, you know, you get a banana and you needed a cherry and the whole thing falls apart and you were done.

10:29OK, you said you weren't doing another startup. And then good old Paul. Hello, friend Paul, a former craft brand manager who spent 25 years thinking somebody, and it was going to be Jen, somebody should fix mac and cheese. You guys talk for 30 minutes. You walk into your kitchen, and your husband took one look at you and was like, well, what did he say? You walk into your kitchen, you're going to revolutionize mac and cheese. So what did he say? And what was it about that conversation that made every single alarm bell go off telling you the cherries were lining up and you just you found a winner?

11:03You know, I even avoided having the conversation with Paul initially. It was Molly, my head of R &D from my my last CPG baby food company who is trying to introduce us. She's like, you just got to talk to him. And I was like, Molly, I don't know. I know I'm not doing it again. I don't even want to talk to him. And she's like, just, just, just, just, just meet him. Uh, and so I go into this call just like, all right, I'll see if I can help him in some way, the poor guy. And it was, it was that moment where it just, you know, a giant category, multi-billion dollar category guys, Mac and cheese craft is selling like a million boxes a day of this stuff, uh, multiple billions of dollars, two brands kind of asleep at the wheel, haven't innovated nutritionally or from a branding perspective in decades, literally decades.

11:55Andy's hit 30 years ago. And I just saw the team, the plan for who we were going to go after, how we were going to differentiate all of the potential, like everything just seems so, so clear to me. And that was that cherry, cherry, cherry moment. And when I walked out into the kitchen and my husband took one look at me and he goes, oh my God, you're starting another one. And I was like, yes, I am. But it's so perfect. It's just like the stars are aligned. It never gets this good. Cash in my 401k. Paul, my co-founder, he started writing checks. I cashed in my 401k and we got to work. But that thing, which seems so obvious to us, that's when we hit the brick wall of no.

12:37And we had over a hundred investors and VCs tell us that is a stupid idea that will never work and then that was our that was the next phase uh which is no a wall of no but it's

12:50Jen Zeszut: true but you know i see cpg today and i see a lot of these brands and when i speak to the founders it seems like it's all about walking the aisles of supermarkets and looking at who dominates a section and where are there there's very little competition so you go into the the condiment space And somebody said, there's just, all I see is mayonnaise. It's from, you know, Hellman's. And then ketchup was basically Heinz. Hunts. Yeah, exactly, Hunts. And the guys from the Sir Kensington's, they came in because they said there's nobody else doing it. And it's the same thing. It's like they go in and you just look at where that's something for years and years and years.

13:35Jen Zeszut: And to your point, I mean, Kraft Macaroni G.A. has well over 70 % of market share. over$2 billion. So it's a giant category, and you don't really need to own the category. You just need to dig a little bit of that$2 billion from Kraft. And then Annie's, which is owned by General Mills today. Jimmy knows Annie's because he likes the little Cheez-It things, the Pepperidge Farm knockoff, the little Annie Cheez-It things. Absolutely. You like those. And General Mills paid a lot of money back in its – oh, God, it's got to be – it's 10, 15 years now. General Mills spent almost a billion dollars buying Annie's because they also had this.

14:11Jen Zeszut: So there was the one and the two player. And then so you're like, you go up to a whole bunch of people. They say it's a dumb idea. It's a dumb idea. But you went forward anyway and you saw the, what was it that attracted you that said that, because you don't need to own the category. What was it that mac and cheese? You're like, you know what? Is it terrible? I mean, that's all we grew up on. So I thought it was always pretty good. But, you know, now knowing that there's good news, I know it's not very good. But when we were younger, that's all we knew. We were like, oh, this is really good. but it's not really good.

14:40No, no, no, no. They've, they've, you know, there's been a lot of years of just kind of farming it for getting costs out of the system and making it cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. And so there's an opportunity, we saw an opportunity to go premium nutrition. So ours is high protein, it's high fiber, it's 21 nutrients, all from these crazy superfoods. It's delicious. The other aha moment that we had, like, you know, thinking about where the white space was and whether or not we could really steal our fair share of this category was both our competitors, esteemed competitors. They're really good marketers and really good companies, of course.

15:20But they kind of conceived of mac and cheese being for little kids. So, you know, one was like noodle art to do with your three year old. And, you know, the Annie's is push the bunny's tail to open the box. So we said, wait, mac and cheese is not just for little kids anymore. So, okay, I'm looking at Shotzi's face as he eats this. So taste it first. And now I will tell you that is high protein. That is high fiber. There's prebiotics in there. There's 21 nutrients.

15:49Jen Zeszut: My digestion is already, I feel something happening. I know, exactly. 21 nutrients from all kinds of superfoods. I feel it already. 11 grams of protein, Jimmy. Six grams of fiber. And all from plants. Ten nutritional things there. Yeah, you're eating from chlorella, which is a freshwater algae. See, I don't tell you any of this until you take a bite. No, I tasted fresh algae in there because I know. No, you did not. I know a little bit about algae. I had tropical fish when I was younger. The reason why we're doing so well is because you can't taste any of that. Like, it's on the label. It's in the product.

16:25But it just tastes absolutely delicious. But that other, that aha moment, which is it's not just for little kids anymore. So we've got kind of like Shotzi, you're eating the one that's kind of just like your Kraft mac and cheese. Is this the OG?

16:37Jen Zeszut: So this is the OG. That's the OG. Cheddy Mac, straight up cheddar cheese. Cheddy Mac, straight up. And then Jimmy, you're tasting the shell of good. It's so good. The shell of good. Oh, see, the shells. Yeah, so it's more like the Annie's with the, you know, kind of the white cheddar. But we also decided to launch with Mover and Shaker, which is a Cacio e Pepe. We've got a Shave Black Truffle. That's a little more sophisticated. I don't see a little kid liking that. That's for Jimmy. Jimmy likes Cacio e Pepe. Mostly it is adults, but you will not. There's many, many times where you meet little five-year-old Jimmy and you ask what his favorite is.

17:20And he prefers the, you know, down the hatch, which is our hatch chili popper, you know, flavored mac and cheese. So we decided that, you know, no one was really going after an adult consumer. And I feel like if we could skate to that white space with high nutrition and do something, not just premium flavors and premium nutrition, but also marketing and branding that was a little risky, sometimes a little risque. Those are both things that Crafter Annie's could kind of never follow. So we decided to take some risks, and it's clearly working out.

17:52Jen Zeszut: So you saw the market, and you saw a segment that's enormous. It's a big, multi-billion dollar. Like I said, you don't have to own it. And you're like, look, I can take a few points out of this, and I can build a business. I'm not going to go and say, look, I'm going to take all the little kids out there and all the moms that are buying the Kraft mac and cheese for their kids. Keep on doing it, because I'm going to pivot a little bit. I'm going to go after a little bit older. I'm going to go young adults up to Jimmy. we had the insight which is because if you go to a retailer and you're like hey target walmart you know whole foods whoever if we go to them and say we're gonna take your we're gonna steal some market share from your craft and your annies no they're kind of partial to a lot that revenue right because then they're just trading dollars they want to do more trading dollars yes so we say you know what this is for a totally net new consumer and we're gonna our tagline is back as Mac is back, baby.

18:46So we're trying to lure people back to the mac and cheese category. And I want to share that with your listeners, because therein lies a really big insight. If it can be incremental sales for your retailers, and you're not trying to go steal share from your main competitors, it's a win-win because now your retailers are rolling up the red carpet for you. They're like, you know, here's some great shelf space. Here's, you know, front and center. And honestly if you're a poor starving college student and you can't don't can't afford to for premium nutrition and great flavors that's fine stay a craft customer that's totally fine with us so that there that insight right there was a big big uh indicator for our current success so so he gets a hold of this somehow we don't know how do you know how uh we in the early days sent product to everyone that we could think of but you never know who's going to so you sent it to ryan's

19:42Jen Zeszut: probably got some young kids and he cooks it up and he puts it on social media and it goes viral yeah so blake actually posted it and she says this is my favorite mac and cheese but here's how we make it at our house with with the way ryan and i like it and posted it with they put cream cheese they put in like a third of a block or half a block of cream cheese in there and it's just people went crazy it's good it's really really good we finally we were like all right let's just cut to the taste we're calling it creamy dreamy creamy uh it's got more fat it's just filled with it's delicious so that's one to try for sure so when i'm doing dreamy creamy i don't have to add my own cream cheese it's there eddie it's all there it's so ryan calls you up and says i love this i want to invest and you said mr reynolds we don't need any more money your money's no good here sir didn't exactly go down that way at all however i will say that in the early days no one wanted to invest in goodwill right you said that no one and no one no one and we were paul was the only one we got a hundred no's from very very smart people and many people told us don't do it you know the other thing that they said don't do it for was the packaging so I know it's hard to see on a podcast, but the packaging, it's super colorful.

21:07It's beautiful. Very pretty. It looks a little like, I don't know, it's like bubblish as bubble gum or something like that.

21:13Jen Zeszut: It does. It looks very cotton candy-like. It's ice creamy. It makes me smile. It makes you smile. Packages make me smile. There were many people who said, this is never going to work. It should be like brown packaging or green packaging. Have a bunch of broccoli on the front. Maybe some algae doing push-ups or something. and we were like yes who are you talking to what kind of marketing exactly they're people who are like no it needs to look healthy it needs to look protein-y it needs to look green and it has to have a pill on the shelf because you're competing with so much stuff you want somebody to go like oh what's this and if mom's out there shopping with little billy you know little billy's walking around he's like mom this is what i like right yeah yes and we were out to build a mass brand And we wanted to build something that was popular everywhere, not just for the ultra marathoners in Boulder, Austin.

22:04You know what I mean? And we were just like, no, you don't get it. So thank Shotzi. I should have called you. I don't know. I know. I totally should have called you.

22:11Jen Zeszut: But you do have over 150 Hollywood investors and athletes on the cap table. So you told Mr. Reynolds and Miss Blake Lively that they couldn't, but you ended up taking money from investors. Was that before or after or now you let them in? What happened? Tell us the story. When we eventually, finally. When people start telling you how smart you are after telling you how dumb you are, now you're smart. Yeah, exactly. And once Target called and said, yes, we'll do a 2 ,000-store rollout, and we started being really successful, then suddenly everybody wanted to invest. And so it was pretty awesome having those 100 people call us back and saying, wait, wait, wait.

22:49I changed my mind. Who's on it? Who's on it?

22:52Jen Zeszut: Give me some big names. Give us some big names. NFL players, definitely NBA stars. The 49ers are investors. Like the entire team? Tennis stars. The owner, the owner. And it's served in the clubhouse there at the 49ers stadium and things like that. Really? Tennis stars, soccer stars, lots of folks from Hollywood. You know, and also regular people too. So actually, every single one of my lyrics to Tim. Well, aren't they regular people, though? Aren't they regular people, too? Don't they put their pants on one leg at a time? Yeah. They're just actually, no, they are so good, they literally hold the pants up and jump into them.

23:33They actually don't put their pants on one leg at a time.

23:35Jen Zeszut: So here's who I'm getting. Here's who I'm getting right now. You tell me if I'm right, okay? You can just either say yes, no, or no response at all. I'm hearing that Gal Gadot, Christina Aguilera. I'm seeing Aaron Gordon. I don't know who that is, Jimmy. Do you? Aaron Gordon? You don't know who Aaron Gordon is? You know who that is, Jimmy? Denver Nuggets. Come on, guys. Jimmy likes the Denver Nuggets. Yes. I heard El Caterton, big firm in there, right? Are they part of that too? Yep, they are investors. I don't know who Gingerbread Capital is, but I like the name. Fun name. Fun name, right? Cosmic VC, don't know them, but I like that name too.

24:16Jen Zeszut: So you got some really big names in there, right? You know, I think for us, we knew that we were going up against Kraft and General Mills, and we were never going to have enough money. So we weren't going to be able to outspend them ever, out coupon them. We couldn't, you know, rent cuter kids for our commercials. Come on, let's be honest. We can't afford a commercial. So we knew we'd have to do something. So we used our cap table for part of that. Like, you know, can we let in people who have reach as well since we can't afford to pay for advertising? And we also decided to outweird them. So that's like our, you know, our marketing and the way that we connect with our consumers, not throwing money at us.

24:55We're not doing very much on the paid advertising side. Everything we do is is word of mouth. I like it.

25:01Jen Zeszut: So when you went out and launched this, was protein always on your mind? Was it always about high protein? Because, I mean, right now you look like a super genius because protein is, like, the hottest thing going, especially for the younger generation, Gen Z, like, protein obsessed. I mean, I go to the point where I say that I think that, from what I understand, it's not – we're not running out of oil, Jimmy. We got plenty of oil. We're running out of protein. I understand. You see what you just said there? By the way, you said Gen Z. I know. Oh, Jimmy, I didn't even put that together. I speak for a generation.

25:36What can I say? I mean, I just, I do.

25:39Jen Zeszut: We literally have the Gen Z of Gen Z. That was great. I didn't even know that, Jimmy. I got to tell you, Jimmy. Oh, my God. See what I did there? I didn't even know I did that. That's how great we are. That's how great we are. We got Gen Z. So that wasn't part of the plan. I mean, it was part of the plan, the protein, but you kind of fell into it. No, it was 2020 when we incorporated this company. I was anti-protein back. I was told not to eat protein back then. Yeah, no one had heard of GLP-1s. Nobody had heard of any of this kind of stuff. And so we just knew that, you know, prebiotics, fiber, protein, and good nutrients and nutrition that comes from plants and superfoods was just a gooder way to eat.

26:21And we didn't do like a protein skew. Yeah, that's our tagline is noodles gooder.

26:26Jen Zeszut: Yes, see, Jimmy, because I say gooder and then people correct me. No, it's a great word. It is a word, Jimmy. It's a word when you're talking to Gen Z here. That's a word now. Gooder. Gooder. Yeah. Noodles, gooder, goodles. Kind of like this necklace. I do like the necklace. Are you noticing my necklace? I did notice that. Yeah, but the funny thing is is that protein is hot. It is. And now fiber is now like the new. It's got to have a lot of fiber. I mean, my kids are like, they can't get enough fiber. They can't get enough protein. You know what's funny? It's obvious. It seems like it's obvious to all of us that those are the things we should be eating.

26:59Jen Zeszut: But for so long, I always joke with Jimmy that for us, and Jimmy's much older than I am. But I just remember Jimmy telling me stories when I was younger. And I would sit on his lap and he would tell me these stories. And he would say, you know, Shatzy, don't eat the yellow part of the egg. And I'm like, really? No, you don't want the yellow part. I'll kill you. Just eat the whites. And I'm like, all right, Jimmy, if you tell me that. And this was like a big brother to me. And then he would also tell me that you don't want to eat any, no red meat. Red meat will kill you. Steak will kill you. You know, I was, all right, Jim, I won't eat that.

27:30Jen Zeszut: And today it's completely changed. It has. So, you know, I will say I know the company that I did before this was a baby food company. So I know a lot about the human brain. I know a lot about nutrition. And so I just, we knew that that was just a gooder way to eat. and everyone is not getting enough protein, was not getting enough fiber, was not getting enough nutrients from superfoods. And we just knew, you know, but things like all of our mac and cheese is low glycemic index. So low GI, which means it doesn't cause that sugar spike and then the crash afterwards. But we didn't even know that was, we launched and there were diabetics who, you know, who are sensitive to insulin and who are writing in and saying, Oh my God, if you tasted this mac and cheese, it's amazing.

28:14It's doesn't even cause a sugar spike. And we're like oh we should probably check that uh turns out we were low glycemic index so i will it was not genius foresight it was total right place right time right moment but isn't that luck part

28:28Jen Zeszut: of being a genius right there's nothing wrong with some luck right what do you say jimbo the harder i work the luckier i get hey everybody i gotta tell you we're gonna talk about build build hospitality millions of people use built every day that's right every day to earn rewards on housing and in their neighborhood. But now, now it extends to your restaurant. That's where Built Hospitality comes in. Built Hospitality shapes how guests are recognized and taken care of. Built's restaurant-facing platform is designed specifically for dining operators to drive loyalty with their guests. It combines reservations, guest preferences, VIP management and payments all into one platform alongside an agentic concierge.

29:15Jen Zeszut: That's right, an AI concierge that thoughtfully designs and executes experiences around your guest tastes. Using the latest and greatest in AI technology. When a guest walks in, your team already knows what they like without digging through notes. Built hospitality works across the entire guest journey. That's right, the entire guest journey from delivering a complimentary course at the right moment, just the right moment, sending a personalized offer that brings them coming back again and again and again. That's right. That's what Built Hospitality is doing. It is allowing you to communicate with your guests and keep them coming back over and over.

29:55Jen Zeszut: Make every guest feel like a regular every time, not just their first time, every time. They're a regular. Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. That's BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant. So you're getting calls from high-end restaurants asking, you know, to be made with Goodles on their menu. You started in restaurants professionally, so you know both worlds. So walk me through it. What does it look like when a CPG brand crosses over into the venues and into the hospitality business itself or the food service business?

30:38What does it tell us about menu innovation? What does it tell us about the roots? And do you feel like this is coming full circle for you? You know, it is fascinating for sure. And a few of those investors are actually like Michelin star restaurant investors. So there were a few restaurant investors who were investing in Goodles, our box mac and cheese for the masses. And I was like, OK, that's cool. But it's true. Our gluten free pasta that launched, which we launched with the campaign called Taste Great Naked because it's so good. You don't have to cover it in sauce and you don't have to cover it up at all.

31:16That is hands down one of the best tasting gluten free pastas that exists in the market today. So the, between our high protein pasta, cause we make mac and cheese and pasta as well. Actually all the nutrition that's in that mac and cheese that you guys were just eating is actually in the noodle. It's not like we're sprinkling protein powder in our, in our cheese packets or something like that. It's actually baked right into the noodle. So the protein itself, the fiber, all of that kind of stuff is in our regular pasta as well. And it's true. Restaurants are reaching out and they want both the mac and cheese on the menu and they want the pasta on the menu.

31:49and they want to say, you know, buy Goodles right there on the menu, kind of like, you know.

31:54Jen Zeszut: So is the next stop food service? Is that what you're telling us? Is that breaking news? Jimmy, Jimmy, should I tee up breaking news? Well, I just want to jump in for one second. Not yet, Jimmy. We have breaking news. Jen, what can you tell us about the CPG going food service? Is that breaking news? It is not breaking news. You're not going into food service. Aw. Unless they're ready to, like, rip open the little boxes and pour it in. We don't even have, we don't even have like a big box to sell to them. I'll get you a big box. Here it is. Here it is. I need a big box. Here it is. Jen, I'm the finance guy, but I got one for you.

32:29I got one. And there's a freebie. Okay. Goodles. Sorry, Goodles. The good stuff. Ooh. I think, by the way, you put this on a kid menu at a restaurant, okay? And my daughter sees Goodles, mac and cheese by Goodles. I got to tell you. Yeah. That's what you're ordering. I think so. There you go. We are adding, we're adding like three. You could level up kid menus. I know it's not just for kids. It's not just for kids. But I'm telling you right now. For sure. We go to restaurants to get mac and cheese. My daughter complains because it's just. Why is she complaining? Too soupy. Doesn't like soupy mac and cheese.

33:04Oh, my gosh. We get those all the time now, guys. Yes. People are like, they won't eat their mac. The kids won't eat their mac and cheese because it's not Goodles anymore. Not Goodles. But it's true. We're adding something like 3 million new customers almost every quarter right now. Three million? Yeah. So wait a minute. Let me just take a look.

33:21Jen Zeszut: It's insane. How many stores are you guys in now? Oh, I should know this off the top of my head. You say anything while I believe you. Anything you say. It's tens of thousands. I'm going to say something like 20 ,000, 22 ,000. 20 ,000 stores. 30 ,000, something like that. 30 ,000. 50 ,000. 100 ,000 locations, Jimmy. This is good. And do you do direct to consumer? Like if I go on the website, can I buy direct? Yeah. Every single flavor is at Goodles.com. We're on Amazon. But we're at Costco. We're Whole Foods. We're selling really well in the super fancy high-end stores. We're selling really well at the, you know, the food lions of the world.

34:01We're selling really well kind of everywhere because it tastes so good.

34:05Jen Zeszut: So if you're at Costco, don't you have to make a bigger box for them? Don't they want, like, the 50-pounder? No, they make, like, a box of boxes. It's a box of boxes. Lots of little boxes. Yeah, so we do have the big box, but we got to put the noodles and the cheese into a bigger bag to stick it in the box in order for restaurants. But it's a good idea. Jimmy, thank you. Hold on a second. I'm doing a Johnny Carson moment. Hold on a second. Hold on, here we go. Oh yeah, by the way, 2029, Kraft acquires Goodles to break into the whole health and wellness and have an entire new line. I can't believe it happened.

34:40It's 2029, maybe even 2028. Gen Z, congratulations. Kraft has just offered you a trillion dollars to acquire the company. Maybe not a trillion, but a couple billion. Trillion sounds big. Trillion sounds big, Jimmy. I figured I wanted to use intentionally fake numbers so that no matter when this gets done, I could say, well, I was joking about the trillion, but I did predict it would happen. How much business does Goodles do? I'm not sharing revenue, but I am sharing that we most recently— How many boxes do you sell?

35:08Jen Zeszut: We'll reverse engineer. I will give you, let's see how well you do your math. Hey, finance guy. So we're selling more than three boxes every second. Wow. Every second. Let me do some quick math. There's 60 seconds in a minute, Jimmy. There's 60 minutes in an hour. So it's a lot of mac and cheese, guys. It's a lot of boxes. It's a lot of boxes. Jimmy, three and a half million dollars a year. uh you're off by a close to a factor of about a hundred or so jimmy but she gave us a see yeah i was gonna say i was gonna i was gonna say about no i was gonna say about 40 million 40 million in sales no no no no you guys are off by a lot a lot 100 million all right well annie's annie's does annie's does oh sorry i didn't pray i didn't i didn't i didn't add a price what's what's it so for a box yeah what's a box of this stuff Three bucks.

36:05Jen Zeszut: So$2.99. $2.98 at Walmart. Okay,$2.98 at Walmart. $2.98 at Walmart. $118 million. $118 million. I don't know. That's a yes. That's a tell, Jimmy. I'm sorry. I forgot to add the price of the box on my quick count. No, Jimmy, that's a tell. That's a definite tell, Jimmy. No, but, yeah, it's only 6 % of the household. Jimmy just won the prices right, by the way. He just won. He did. And he didn't go over. We got the revenue number. He definitely didn't go over. No. He did not go over. He got close without going over. So it's between$3.5 million and$118 million. Is that what you're saying? No, no, no, no.

36:39He's the low end. He's the low end. Oh, Jimmy's the low? I only gave her credit for 10 hours of sales a day.

36:45Jen Zeszut: All right, listen, Jimmy, I've got to take a quick break. Yes. We're going to come back. We're going to come back with Jen from Goodles, right? And we're going to learn more. We've got Hot or Not. We've got the Sandwich Safari. We've got Ask the CEO. We've got Branded Quickfire. Yes. We've got a lot to get to, not a lot of time. So stay with us. And Jen from Goodles with a great story. So stay with us. Be right back.

37:13Jen Zeszut: And we are back with a little Hot or Not. Jimmy, are you ready? Jen, are you ready? No, I'm a prepper. I like prepping, and you guys didn't give me any time to prep. This is really easy. Hot or not, don't think that hard. I'm going to say something to you, like a word or two, sentence and you just say if it's hot or not. All right. All right. Cottage cheese as a protein hack is cottage cheese hot right now. Hot for sure. 3D printed pasta. Is that hot? I've never heard of it, so I don't think it's hot. And I think it's a terrible idea. I hate everything about that. Instagram only dishes. Instagrammable dishes.

37:52I it probably is hot. Yes, I would guess that that is hot um it's your opinion so it's not well my opinion is that a lot of people are doing tricks just to try to make things go viral um i'm super against that myself so i say that's not hot like i think if you are truly innovating for innovation's sake i think i saw something on social media where someone's like cooking in uh like a hotel uh toilet or something like that it's like no you're not actually doing you're doing that for the views you're you're that is

38:33Jen Zeszut: not hot it's upsetting all right let me let me keep going so instagram uh cooking in hotel toilets hot or not not okay pickle flavor everything is that hot or not uh for me hot i am big on pickles I am big on pickle juice, and I will love doing pickle shots myself. Mac and cheese. Is that hot or not? Super hot. Jimmy, what do you want to weigh in? No, I want to – wait, hold on. I like this last one. I want to ask correctly. Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese as a restaurant entree, not as a side. Is that hot or not? Super hot. Super hot. Yes. So no more kicking mac and cheese to the side dishes. No, no, no.

39:17No way. No, no. Mac and cheese on the main – That's the lead dog. That's the main stage. That's the main stage. That's the main stage. Yes, absolutely. Especially if it's made with goodles because you're getting all your protein. You're getting all your fiber. Talk about cottage cheese because you're a – I want to go back to the cottage cheese as a protein hat.

39:36Jen Zeszut: I think it's the funniest thing that we're talking about cottage cheese. My mom was eating cottage cheese and nobody liked it. Nobody liked it. My parents are eating cottage cheese with a half a grapefruit and Melba toast. Back in 1974, and nobody liked it. And the texture, the three sons could not get over the curds. We couldn't get there. Oh. Okay, but tell me about cottage cheese as a protein hack, because you're an expert in this space. So tell me what you know. Tell me what you're thinking. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely hot. I am a fan of pureeing it or putting it in a Cuisinart first to get rid of the curds.

40:11Thank you. Or cooking it down. Yes. Because if you cook it down and then the curds go away, I'm all for it. But, yeah, just add creaminess. It's like adding cream cheese to your mac and cheese. There it is. Actually, cream cheese might be a little better.

40:24Jen Zeszut: Jen, are you ready for a little sandwich safari? I'm super ready for that. Okay, we're going to take you on a little safari, and you're going to tell us, is it a sandwich or not, okay? Okay. Jimmy is very, very passionate about this. I'm very passionate about this stuff. Because he wants to know, is a hot dog a sandwich, Jen? I am going to say yes to hot dog. Is a calzone a sandwich, Jen? See, I don't eat it with my hands. I think of a sandwich as hands. Calzone. I'm going to say no to calzone. For me, it's fork and knife. Sandwich, for me, it's handheld. And it's the entire meal. It's got all the stuff in it, and it's the full meal.

41:06I don't need anything else.

41:08Jen Zeszut: Tuna on rye. Is that a sandwich? You know, I'm going to say yes to that. Yes on that, Jimmy. I'm going to say yes on that one. A croissant, could that be a sandwich if I put something in it? If I stick something in the croissant, is it a sandwich? Okay, if you cut it in half and you put in meat and mayo. No, no, that's awful. No, no, no. Croissant is not a sandwich. What about ravioli? Because that is like a pocket of pasta. Is that a sandwich, ravioli? No, because it's not handheld. You can't hold that. So your definition of a sandwich must be handheld. Jimmy, this is interesting. You've never heard this before.

41:45I have to say, I find this to be, I find Jen, Jen Z, to be one of the more interesting responders to this question. So what do you think? Yeah. Because she had a real passion that it's key to be handheld and complete. So that was very key. So, Jen, you and I disagree on a few of these things. But respectfully, one could disagree with each other and still end up in a very good place. I got respect for your interest. Are you in the ravioli camp? Oh, no, no, no, no. I actually believe I'm pretty certain that everything Shad's listed is not a sandwich. Okay. Because the hot dog bun is intended to be connected.

42:21I think it has to be two separate pieces of bread. So Shad's like, well, if the bun falls apart, I'm like, well, that's not the intention. But I want to be clear. I not only respect your answers. So pita, pita, pita, sandwich or no sandwich. Now that's a good one. Shad, you should have been leading with that. Pita is a sandwich. Pita is a sandwich. Yeah, it's a pita sandwich. Right, but to Jen's point. The bread is touching. You're cutting the top and you're stuffing it. The bread is touching. The bread is touching.

42:46Jen Zeszut: I've got to really read through. I give you a lot to think about. That's what I always think, because sometimes when you get a hot dog, it comes apart like a hamburger. It's a hamburger sandwich, Jen. Yeah. See, in my definition, hamburger is a sandwich, for sure. Jimmy doesn't think so. Well, I'm struggling with that, because I now obsessively check menus, and they're like, oh, the sandwich section. And then a completely different section, the hamburger section. I'm like, well, if it's a sandwich, why is it the hamburger part of the sandwich section? So the evidence suggests to me that hamburgers are independent.

43:17I'm also seeing a couple of handheld sections. Ah, the handheld.

43:22Jen Zeszut: All right, let's go. All right, so we learned some real knowledge there. All right, we're going to move on to Ask the CEO. Jen, we went to our audience and had them ask questions. It's Ask the CEO. And our audience wrote in some questions. They knew you were going to be on the show. And so I'm going to ask you what they – You're going to ask their questions. Yeah, that's the bottom line. Jen, I'm going to ask the question. Okay, here it goes. So this is from Mrs. Finkelbaum from Delray Beach, Florida. She is an avid listener to the show. And she writes, and Jen, it's 1130 at night. I've had a long day.

44:00Jen Zeszut: I'm opening up the pantry. I've got three boxes of Goodall staring at me. Which one do I make at 1130? night that's mrs finkelbaum from delray beach florida okay what do you tell her um it's at 11 30 at night so i'm thinking that you need something really comforting and just soothing to head into bed and so instead of something spicy instead of something that's going to wake you up i'm thinking thrilled cheese so that's our grilled cheese mac and cheese which you didn't know you needed grilled cheese mac and cheese, but just try it. You're going to realize you needed that. So thrilled cheese. I got it.

44:38Jen Zeszut: I love it. I love it. Okay. I got, uh, we got Ronnie, Ronnie Seltzer, Ronnie Seltzer from San Francisco, California. Ronnie Seltzer writes in, uh, someone in my office has never tried Goodles. What's the one flavor I start them on? This is, thank you, Ronnie, for that great question. You know, I think it's Chetty Mac. The OG Chetty Mac is probably where you start because most people have tried Kraft, and most people know what that kind of tastes like. And, you know. So you start with the OG. You don't go crazy. You start with the OG. Unless you're an Annie's person. If you grew up on Annie's and you love Annie's, then I'd say start Shullagood.

45:21Like, that should be your intro. But then start branching out. You've got to branch out.

45:26Jen Zeszut: Okay. This is the last caller. This is the last caller. This is Murray Noodleman. That's crazy that his name is Murray Noodleman. That's so crazy. What are the chances of Murray Noodleman calling in and we're talking about Goodles? Murray Noodleman from Skokie, Illinois asks, is there anything, any ingredient that should never in any circumstances ever be in mac and cheese? So my head of R &D, Molly, would say goat cheese. She hates goat cheese, so we will never have a goat cheese mac and cheese. She and I disagree about with this. For me. You like goat cheese in mac and cheese? You want to do it?

46:04I would love to do a goat cheese mac and cheese. We were actually going to do it with, we're going to do it with, anyway. Well, don't worry about it. Let me give you my answer.

46:12Jen Zeszut: What about blue cheese? Is that a good one? I mean, I feel like that's smelly. Isn't it smelly? I think that's too smelly for mac and cheese. It's too smelly, right? Yeah, I think so. I like the goat cheese idea. I like the goat cheese. For me, I know. It's going to be good. Goat cheese is very popular. Go with your gut. Go with your gut, Jen. Go with your gut. You're the CEO. No, you're the co-founder. I do not mix fruity and creamy. So for me, I say no to apple, mac and cheese. I say no to blueberry mac and cheese. With the cheese and the apples and the fruity, creamy, not going to go there.

46:45I'm open to chocolate. I'm open to all kinds of things, just no fruit.

46:48Jen Zeszut: We talked to some bagel people recently. And strawberry cream cheese. Jimmy was like poo-pooing it. I'm not a big fan. Is that disgusting or no? Disgusting. For me, I do not mix fruity and creamy. Not even like whipped cream. So there's no strawberry Goudles coming around? No, no, no, no, no, no. All right, listen, I'm very excited. Thank you for all those callers over there, and especially, I think the last one, especially. Yeah. What was his name, Jimmy? Murray Noodleman? Murray Noodleman. Yeah, and Murray, and everybody who wrote in, by the way, you will receive a box of Goudles from Jen for those really great calls.

47:26Jen Zeszut: But, Jimmy, I have one more thing coming on here. All right, here it is. It's time for the Spice is Right Showcase Showdown. Jen, we have a package inspired entirely by your story, and this is a first. Usually we joke around when we offer prizes, Jimmy, big prizes. But this year, this time, we are actually offering a two-year supply of Goodles to the winner. And this time we aren't having Jimmy go up against Jen. We're turning to our listeners. All the hospitality hangout. Everyone listening to the Foodfluences right now is going to participate. So comments on the video that we post. It'll be on YouTube and wherever else we put all of our stuff, right?

48:06Jen Zeszut: The closest without going over will win a two-year supply of Goodles. Two years, Jimmy. That's a lot of Goodles. All right, here we go. So this is Jen Zezit, right? Jen Zezit. Yes. Yeah. Original story package. And here's what it includes, Jimmy. Are you ready? Jen, are you ready? Two first-class tickets on Delta to Mendocino, California, where it all started. Okay? Wow. Two round-trip first-class tickets from anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world to Mendocino, California. Yeah, well, maybe anywhere in America. Continental United States. From anywhere in the continental United States to Mendocino.

48:43Sure.

48:43Jen Zeszut: Okay. Two first-class tickets on Delta. Okay. A full weekend stay at the Harbor House Inn. That's one of the most exclusive coastal retreats on the coast of California. Jen has spent many beautiful weekends there with her family, if she has a family. Okay. Jen, are you married? My sister-in-law was married there. Yeah, I'm married. I got lots of kids. So, Jen, how many kids? Lots. Tons of kids. You have how many kids? Three. Three. Well, that's not tons. That's three. That's two more than two. Dinner for two at Cafe Beaujolais, spelled the right way, the legendary restaurant where Jen once showed up with a job and said, I'm here, teach me everything about breakfast.

49:25Jen Zeszut: And they said, we don't make breakfast. Wasn't that the place? Yeah, that was the place. And also, Jimmy, a two-year supply of Goodles, every skew they have, every flavor, including Dreamy Creamy, courtesy of Jen herself. So the question here is, what is the total retail value of this showcase showdown? Closest guess without going over wins the entire package to enter. Leave your answer in the comments below. I'm not even being told. Jen, you can guess. I can guess? Yeah, I don't even have the answer. It's kind of unfair because I... Jen might have the most knowledge of knowing what a two-year-old is.

50:07Oh, wait. Am I guessing how much the package it costs? Yeah, the whole package.

50:11Jen Zeszut: The tickets on Delta. The weekend at the Harbor House. The dinner at Beaujolais? What do you guess? Well, I do know that you're not going to fly to Mendocino because it's a tiny little town, population 400. I think you've got to go to San Francisco, I think. You've got to go to San Francisco. Maybe you can get to the Santa Rosa airport. All right, so San Francisco with an Uber. With an Uber. Or a rental. The Uber's going to add a little bit of cost there. Jimmy, you get your calculator out. I'm ready. I'm going to say 5K. $5 ,000? Jen, you seem light to me. That seems light to me. I mean, three nights and a fancy.

50:516K? 5K? No, no, no, no. That's your final answer. Don't start changing now. I'm not changing. I'm fine.

50:56Jen Zeszut: You started to try and get me, Jimmy. By the way, Jen, quick question. Yeah? How many nights are on a weekend? Two. I think you're two. Two. Two nights, three days. Right. So you said three nights. I calculated I was going two nights. It's two nights plus the air. I'm at 6 ,800. 6 ,800. He's probably right. Jen's like, yeah, I was loving it. He's probably right. But remember, you can't go over, so don't worry. You're in good shape. All right, we have nothing here. I can't say anything. But this is going to be exciting because this is going to be determined by our audience. The real deal. By our audience.

51:28Yes, yes. It's going to have to go online and answer this question. I think you too. Let's lock it in. I think I was 6 ,800 and Jen was about 5K.

51:35Jen Zeszut: And I'm going to include one more thing, Jimmy. One more thing. and a set of good old sporks. Yes! And this is not, Jimmy, this is not just an ordinary one. Oh. This is real. This is real. This is real. This is real. This is like, I think, the Queen of England, the Queen Elizabeth. I think this was part of this. This was in Buckingham Palace, I think, at some point. We even have little hand-knitted sweaters for sporks because in case your sport gets a little bit cold or a little bit chilly in the winter, we have those too. So, yes, we will include as well, in addition to the two years of Goodalls, we will also include a set of sports for the sport.

52:17Jen Zeszut: Well, last, Jimmy, what, do you want to change your bid from 6 ,800? No, I couldn't change mine. All right, I'll let you change yours. It's locked in. It's locked in. It's locked in. All right, no change in the sports there. Jen, are you ready for the quick fire? Sure, whatever that means. Yes. What's your favorite? I mean, I know this is going to be a tough one. This is really not a fair question. What's your favorite Goodles flavor? This really isn't fair because I think you love all your little kids. I do. I do love my kids equally. But this one, Mover and Shaker, which is our Cacio e Pepe, it has a special place in my heart.

52:46It is my all-time still to this day favorite. And we actually have a company holiday in honor of this mac and cheese. So it's on May 4th, and it's fourth SKU day. Now we're just the whole company has the day off. It's actually coming up. Yeah, it really is.

53:07Jen Zeszut: May the fourth be with you. Yeah. Jen, how do you take your bagel? How does a CEO and founder take her bagel? No judgment. This is it. It is salt. So salt bagel. Salt bagel. Gutted or scooped. Gutted or scooped. Toasted light cream cheese. Sliced avocado. And sunflower sprouts on top of that. and maybe if we've got everything bagel salt on top of it but you kind of don't need that because i've already got the salted bagel so yeah that's my that's my jam let me ask you something is that something you get at your local bagel shop or is that something that you're all you make at home now you gotta get sprouts from special place and it makes it hard bring your own sprouts when you go to your bagel store and like hand them i got that little that little container because the sprouts are like in those little i just get the basics my local bagel store doesn't even do sliced they have like guacamole and i'm like no i don't want guacamole on my bagel i want sliced avocado exactly i don't know i don't know it's bad what's your uber rating over there uh jen uh i'm as high as it goes i'm so kind to them i give them do you have your phone on you can you look at your can you look i guess i don't even know but i'm so nice to them a lot of people think they're really high and then they go on.

54:30Jen Zeszut: They can't believe that they're not so high. I went down a little bit, Jimmy. Okay, 4.86. 4.86. 4.86. That is a good number. You know what, Jen? Jen, that's a good number. You have the second highest score among the three of us. Yeah. That's a good score. All right, Jimbo, you've got to bring it up. I thought it would be like a 10. I'm a 4.87. No, 5 is the highest, Jen, so you're right in good company. You're in very good company. Shatsy's the lowest among us. Jimbo, we've got to bring it home here. We are really late. Yes, yes, we do. Jen, I want to thank you so much not just for coming on the podcast but really sharing some insights, dropping some wisdom and I love that you took 150 or whatever 100 no's battled through and I have to tell you this is a super fun product doing really good things, leveling it up for the youth who need better mac and cheese and clearly adults welcome back to your favorite childhood meal Jen and her team at Goodles have created the product to bring you back adult mac and cheese, which is good for kids.

55:34Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for having me. Shatsy, why don't you close this out?

55:39Jen Zeszut: Yeah, listen, if you haven't tried it, go check it out. She's at over 100 ,000 locations globally. You can go on to Goodles.com. Yep, exactly. Goodles.com. You can order direct. You can also go and check out the Price is Right without going over. You win a two-year supply. Two-year supply. And Jen will even come to your house and cook it for you, which is unbelievable. Also, subscribe to our newsletter, HospitalHeadline.com. And check it out. Cheers, everybody. Cheers, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, guys.