Founder Feature: Bone Broth Tomato Sauce and a New Twist on a Family Recipe- Liana Krasnow, Noodo

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1:16it's been really interesting to figure out our positioning as we launch because we're a new sauce on the market a new italian sauce and i've kind of strayed away from that and like focused on our biggest differentiator, which is the simple ingredients, the bone broth. And retailers have really liked that because no one else really is doing that in the space. So I think a lot of the retailers have been really excited to take on the product. And some of them have even spoken about positioning us in two different aisles, which is a really interesting take positioning us in the pasta sauce aisle and then also positioning us on shelf next to bone broth, which has performed really well in some of our local independents.

1:55Hey everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature. Today I'm sitting down with Liana Krasnow, founder of Newdale. Tomato sauce is made with grass-fed bone broth. Liana grew up watching her grandparents make sauce from their Connecticut garden, and now she's putting her own spin on the family recipe. We're diving into what inspired her to leave the corporate world to become a CPG founder, why she's offering unique sizes like an 8-ounce jar, the story behind that beautiful tomato-shaped window on her bottles, and becoming a last-minute exhibitor at Expo, which ended up working magic for her brand.

2:34Plus, she breaks down why she's focused on natural and independent retailers rather than conventional, and she shares her advice on dotting your I's and crossing your T's before moving too fast. We hear from founders on this podcast every week. If you're a brand and you want to get new opportunities right into your inbox, text CPG to 833-605-7002 and we'll get you hooked up. As always, enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Liana Krasnow, founder of Nudo. Liana, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. It's great to have you here.

3:15There's been so much buzz about your brand. I feel like every time I sign on to Instagram, I'm seeing something about Nudo from the beginning when you were first launching. There was so much buzz and then your new branding. We're going to get into it all today. But before we do that, can you tell us what Nudo is? Of course. So Nudo is tomato sauces made with bone broth. We have three different SKUs. All of our sauces are made with grass-fed bone broth and made in the Italian traditional way of making tomato sauce. I did see a video on your Instagram the other day of your grandparents making the sauce.

3:50And I just thought this is so cool. So can you tell us when the moment happened for you? Where did Nudo come from? What inspired you to create Nudo? Yeah, I think it all stemmed from me being a little girl watching my grandparents take care of their garden. They've had restaurants growing up and really just take pride in cooking. And that was the way that they showed their love and each summer they would harvest all of the tomatoes from their pretty big garden in Connecticut and make something called passata which is a certain type of way of making sauce where you would take all the tomatoes and run them through a food mill to remove all the skins and the seeds and really just keep the most flavorful part of the tomato into your sauce so I think watching them do that has really caused a lot of the inspiration for Nudo.

4:42And then my dad actually launched a local sauce company about 20 years ago with the exact family recipe. And I started thinking two years ago about the white space in the market and wanting to be really different than what most of the sauces are. I really started removing some of the ingredients that our family used, like white wine, and replaced it with something that's a little bit more nutrient value, like the bone broth. So that's kind of the origin story of Nudo. It's funny that you say white space because I think when most people, myself included, look at a sauce shelf, there does not seem to be much white space.

5:16But then you dig a little bit deeper, just like you're saying, you start adding those ingredients or taking ingredients away. There certainly is space to play. So what inspired you to use bone broth over, say, I think I've seen sauces that have like whey protein in them. Not my favorite, but what inspired you to use the bone broth? Yeah, I think a few different things. And going back to your point of they're not looking to be white space in the category, I didn't want to just launch our exact family recipe because I think it could have gotten a little bit lost in the category, just kind of a lot of those Italian heritage claims.

5:51So as I started experimenting with ways to remove the wine, just kind of coming from a more health conscious consumer and all the data that's going around alcohol. And just as a mom, I think having alcohol as an ingredient list can always cause some level of concern, even if it's cooked off. So we kind of started experimenting with everything under the sun. We did non-alcoholic wine. We did like the most crazy things. And at some point, someone even did suggest a powder. And if you think about sauce, it's mostly liquid with the tomatoes. And we really didn't want anything to mess up the texture or consistency or even the taste or the chalkiness.

6:30So we kind of started focusing on how my grandmother used to make her sundae sauce. And she would simmer meatballs for hours in her sauce every Sunday. And the more we started thinking about that, the more we realized that there probably was just some bone broth in there. And that really draws out the flavor of the sauce. So our intent with all of our R &D was to make the sauce as flavorful as possible without adding actual meat to it. And then obviously the extra, I don't want to say protein because there's a protein craze, but a little protein boost from the bone broth is definitely a benefit.

7:02You know, it doesn't hurt. What are your grandparents' thoughts on your sauce? Are they with it? Are they not with it? Are they like, what are you doing to our recipe? I got to know the tea here. What's going on with them? Yeah, I think it's their sauce recipe. So they definitely know that something has changed, but they're happy. Like they think it's great. They think the texture is super important for our family. And they think that the texture is absolutely perfect. And it really just tastes like nana sauce minus the meatballs in it. So I think we really nailed it. That's awesome. And I know this.

7:37You are a mom. So this must be something that your kids are into eating. My daughter's tried it. She's been into it, which I think is huge. Yes, it has added protein in it, but that's a win for moms and dads who can get extra protein and nutrients into their kids' diets. So you're a mom. Tell us more about you and your background. Yeah. So grew up doing a lot of the restaurant operations, probably most of my early childhood, going into early adulthood, and then graduated from college, worked at a startup that was more in advertising and automotive, and then actually moved on to pharmaceutical advertising most recently.

8:16So it was my most recent corporate job, lots of regulatory, but it was really great and really gave me the experience in corporate that I think I needed to kind of excel into being a founder and the fast pace and the client expectations. but yeah as a mom I think it's super important to make a product that kids love and going back to like the texture component I think a lot of adults might be like not scared to say that they don't prefer chunky marinara sauce and want something more smooth a lot of our consumers have said that they used to throw a bottle of another sauce into a blender to just smooth it out so I think that has been something that's been super important is us focusing on the texture and the smooth and And Chunky is really kind of a play on peanut butter with like the smooth and crunchy.

9:05So that was kind of something I was thinking of pre-launch, really focusing on how we can convey our texture to as many consumers as possible in a really easy way on shelf. And with the Chunky, a lot of people have said it's been off-putting, which is interesting. But essentially, our Chunky sauce is just a marinara. God forbid you have an actual chunk of tomato and tomato sauce, right? Yeah, I know, which is most of the sauces in the category. I think there's only one other that doesn't do it. Well, I have never looked at the pasta sauce shelf like that before. Yeah. I guess I do need to dig a little bit deeper beyond the ingredient list and actually see what's chunky and smooth.

9:47It's not something I've ever shopped for, like smooth versus chunky. But now that you're saying it, I'm like, oh, OK, I guess I need to do a little bit of homework over here. Yeah, definitely. Your eyes will open. How many sauces do you think you tasted in R &D as you were developing your own? Probably about 80. Oh, my God. Yeah. And we actually use my family's restaurant. They obviously have a restaurant, so they have a commercial kitchen that we were able to use. Bonus. Yes, huge bonus, I must say. Also definitely gave me some type of wrist injury with tightening all of those jars. But other than that, it was great.

10:25It really like let us lead the R &D, which I think a lot of founders kind of struggle with, with the delaying of the feedback and the samples to food scientists. It really just gave us that hands-on approach that we really needed to come up with our final recipe. Have you had any outsiders come into the process as you were developing your brand like for the formula? Oh, no. No, it's just been us. That's pretty cool. Yep. Just our core family. Yeah. I really like that you're leaning specifically on the family recipe and just like, no, nobody else is getting eyes on this. You're not touching it.

11:01Yeah, we really took the initial family recipe as the base and then just reworked it. I know I spoke to another founder who was talking about this consumer liking score that I've never even heard of. I don't think I have either. And I was like, I feel pretty confident with where we're at. Well, I think that says a lot. Again, I have to just say it because the sauce market is so saturated. I've talked to other sauce brands. They felt the same way, but they still have this persistence to launch their product into the market. So what is the reception been like between customers and retailers for Newdale?

11:36Yeah, I think that's a great question. It's been really interesting to figure out our positioning as we launch because initially we're leaning into we're a new sauce on the market, a new Italian sauce. And I've kind of strayed away from that and like focused on our biggest differentiator, which is the simple ingredients, the bone broth. And retailers have really liked that because no one else really is doing that in the space. There is another sauce that is using powders. It isn't whole food ingredients. So I think a lot of the retailers have been really excited to take on the product. And some of them have even spoken about positioning us in two different aisles, which is a really interesting take positioning us in the pasta sauce aisle and then also positioning us on shelf next to bone broths, which has performed really well in some of our local independents.

12:22And then in terms of the consumers, I think most of them have already really been educated by how Kettle and Fire has done a phenomenal job of really educating consumers on bone broth and why it's beneficial. So I don't think there's been as much educating on our front, which is really great and just something new and exciting that a lot of them are excited to try. Wow. Being able to get a double facing in a store is pretty cool. And also for the retailer to be the one to suggest it is even better because they know how precious that floor space and shelf space is. So to be able to say, actually, we want it in two different places is really impressive.

12:58Yeah, it's been great. And I have to talk about your branding. When I first saw your brand, it was kind of like a paper logo prototype. And then when I saw your brand refresh and your actual labels, I was wowed. Of course, there are so many pasta sauces on the market that are in clear glass jars, but I have not seen anybody doing it like you are, where you have that tomato cutout and then you can see everything behind the tomato. So walk me through that design process. And if you're cool with it, tell us who helped design your products for you. Yeah, of course. So I worked with Jane from Jane's House and I have to shout out Sophia as well because we had a lot of late nights.

13:40but I think I was heavily involved in the design process and at first I think some founders have a complete vision of exactly what they're looking to do and I didn't really have that vision. I think when you have another brand like our family brand and then you're going into another brand it gets a little bit clouded so I just really wanted to focus on fun in colors and doing something different in the space like I know a lot of people have said like why is your vodka sauce pink and I'm like, why not? Like, does it need to be orange or what it typically is in the category? The little peek through window was actually something that Jane kind of suggested as I was talking about transparency of our ingredients.

14:20We are doing a little bit of a refresh where we're making that window a little bit smaller and then adding some call outs on front of pack. We had a lot of different revisions before Expo West and with the timing being limited, we really just wanted to ensure that the product was as best as it could be. And I think we removed a lot of the important USPs that some of the consumers are looking for. So we're going to be adding potentially a protein call out and also adding a made with grass fed bone broth. So I think a lot of the consumers, even though it's under our logo name, just might miss it.

14:56And of course, we want this to be for the consumers who eat meat. So those are the two little revisions that we're experimenting right now but the branding really came to life and the brand board and just focusing on super fun and the household pantry item was really just our mission. I love it and I also do like the sizes too because I think that also helps it stand out on the shelf. I don't typically see jars that are in that like long skinny format versus like the big fat jars so I like that too. Yeah. Also fits It's way better in the refrigerator if you don't use the whole jar at once and stick it on the door.

15:36It does. Actually, we're hesitant on launching our eight ounce jars solely because no one really has done it in this space. And they're meant for single serve. I have not been able to convince any retailer to take it on just because no one is doing it in the space and they don't understand the need for it. But there are a lot of singles out there. Yes. We do like reduce waste and not have to put their tomato sauce back into the fridge. and most of the time when you're putting that sauce in the fridge you can either forget about it and by the time you open it next it's moldy. Exactly. So I think that's been really important for us is trying to convey that about the 8 ounce and then the 16 ounce is also unique because it's smaller than the typical 24 ounce and I think it really just goes back to reducing waste and making sure that it's the exact size for the people who are eating it.

16:23I feel like there's some anti-Valentine's Day campaign in here for you. The sauce for singles. I see a lot of cookbooks out there too that are like cooking for one. I don't know if there's any like brand new ones that I've seen, but I've seen those cookbooks before on shelves, especially when I'm at like used bookstores. It's not something I'm particularly looking for, but I think it is a cool angle that you're saying that because there are a lot of singles. You also think about people in dorm rooms who need like extra protein hits, more nutrients. I think it's a good idea. And you're so right about the sauce just sitting in the fridge.

16:59We use their like paper stickers that just dissolve in water. We use those when we remember to, but I don't even know how good sauce is supposed to be after you open that jar. It's kind of like a guessing game. We haven't gotten sick yet, so food scientists don't come for me. Yeah, a lot of brands don't even put that on their label, which is really interesting, which is why I've made sure we've called that out, that once it goes in the fridge, it's only good for about five days. All right. Good to know. I've seen cheeses before, like Parmesan cheese from Whole Foods, for example, their 365 brand.

17:33It says use within three to five days. And I'm like, who is using like two cups of Parmesan cheese in three to five days? Not me. Definitely. So did you have to consult with food scientists for the shelf life for your product? How did that look like? Yeah, we actually just used a local lab. So we actually were fortunate enough to have a lot of existing relationships with co-packers in labs based on the family recipe that we've been jarring for quite some time. So no, we didn't really connect with any food scientists at all. Still true. Any snags that you've run into working with a liquid product and in glass?

18:15It's like the double whammy. I need to know if you run into any snags and share any stories with founders who are listening. Yeah, I think glass is tough. The heaviness, the breakage, it's really tough. And it kind of makes us not a D2C brand immediately. And besides even just the glass and the breakage, I think we surveyed a lot of consumers prior to launch on if they would want to purchase or just their shopping behaviors and if they purchase their tomato sauces in store or if they would be open to purchasing online. And I think 89 % said that they purchase on their grocery run and they wouldn't be reluctant to purchase online.

18:56So that kind of really like dictated our go-to-market strategy. I think a lot of brands can't execute really well on D2C, but our efforts have just been really focused on retail and penetrating retail and making sure that we're going into the right doors where our consumers already are. And as being more of a premium product, we are more geared towards some of the natural channels, some of the independents, like where our consumer is shopping for more premium goods already. You just answered my next question, which is going to be around your strategy for retail. It sounds like, yes, you are looking to get into natural channels, but are you looking at conventional to try and persuade some conventional consumers to look at your brand?

19:37Yeah, I think that's a tough conversation because we're launching into a really big retailer this fall that I can't share yet, but I'm really excited to share. Going into a lot of doors and they are not natural, but they're not conventional. So it's going to be really interesting to see how we perform, especially one of our first big retailers. But I think my concern with conventional is a lot of those consumers have been purchasing the same sauce for so many years that changing that behavior just becomes very expensive. So we've really kind of focused our next strategy on just natural and making sure that a lot of our consumers are actually making tomato sauces with bone broth from scratch, which is really interesting.

20:18They're skipping the aisle entirely and don't think that jarred sauce is very good. So I'm really excited to prove them wrong and for them to be able to grab something that they feel comfortable and confident feeding their families. This is a funny conversation because I was just recently in a Shaws in my parents' neighborhood. We have Shaws around me too. I'm sure you probably have them in Connecticut. More leaning towards the conventional side of things, not so much organic and natural, although there are some sprinkled in there. I am a Whole Foods customer and I go to natural food stores. But when I went to Shaw's, I was like, I just need some time in here to explore because I could not believe the flavor combinations that I was seeing and like just the products themselves from a conventional standpoint.

21:07I mean, I was seeing like Pepsi and Mountain Dew for soda streams and I was seeing fried chicken ice cream and like all these things that I was like, I need to explore. I'm not going to taste these things, but like what is going on in conventional right now? It was just like a very apocalyptic vibe to me. Yeah. Like, what are they going to do next? I definitely don't want to cross off all conventional stores. I think some of them are doing it right with bringing on more emerging brands, but I don't think the data is showing that quite yet. Yes. So I'm a very data-driven person and I kind of need to make sure that we're going into the right retailer at the right time.

21:47I think it's a good call. I just had to share that experience because I was like, wow, usually I'm going in to like discover new products to take home and buy. But now I'm just like, I just need to have some fun and see what's out there right now. but I would be inclined to grab Nudo on the shelf if I saw it because I wish I had a jar with me to show everybody what it looks like but it really does stand out with that branding so well done with you and with Jane and yeah just great all around. I think you had also mentioned before that there were bubbles that popped up on your label. How did you mitigate that?

22:23Yeah I actually I have a jar I can show. Yes. This is our little eight ounce jar. Cuties. Yeah. So the bubbles, there's definitely a little bit of bubbling still occurring. I don't know if you could be able to see just some small ones right there. Very tiny. But these jars are filled at about like 205 degrees. So when they get filled, they go through a very light water bath after they get their cap on and And then they go to the label machine. And unfortunately, these labels, they were able to withstand the heat, but they just created these like bubbling effects. So once they cooled down, it definitely got a lot better.

23:02But we're looking at different materials currently just to ensure that that doesn't happen again. And I know that with the window, our options are a little bit limiting. So if you are a founder who is looking at doing a transparent window, your options are a little bit limiting with labels. So we're just trying to keep in mind what we can do. We were looking at paper with like actually cutting out the tomato, which is interesting. We just hope that that doesn't rip on the line. So there's a lot of little nuances with the little tomato window. Hey, I think it's pretty good that you're figuring these things out now instead of way down the line and have to just like get rid of your stock and your supply.

23:39I'm sure you're working with some supply right now. But I have to say, too, as a consumer, yes, I'm the editor here. But as a consumer, I would never discount a product just because I saw a bubble on a label because we're going to recycle the jars anyway. And it's not that the product and the packaging isn't so gorgeous, but I'm not putting it on a bookshelf or I'm not saving it. So I wouldn't bat an eyelash if I saw a bubble on a package. That's good to hear. It's what's inside that counts, right? Exactly. Any advice that you want to share with other CPG founders that are considering building a brand or in the very early stages?

24:20Yeah, I think just really networking has been great and meeting other founders who are in a very similar space has been really beneficial. And just also making sure that you're dotting your I's and crossing your T's, as people say, because I think as you start moving really fast, just things can just get forgotten about and making sure that you have all the systems set up prior. And I also worked with a go-to-market strategist, Danielle Calabrese, from It's All Happening. And she was absolutely incredible just to get us all set up with our COGS. It's also super important because I think as a founder and as a first-time founder, I have some experience in the operational side of things.

24:59But going into like pricing and retail, there's just a lot of hidden costs that you may not be ready for. Sounds like you had a very good team behind you for this too. So it's great to hear. Yeah, definitely. They really helped pull everything together. Do you want to share anything about your experience at Expo West as a first time exhibitor? Yeah, I think we had a very last minute opportunity to exhibit. Someone dropped out of the North Hall and were able to take their booth. And it was a prime location, corner location. So you're kind of getting foot traffic from both sides. I would say as a brand, a lot of brands are like, what's the ROI?

25:39Is it worth it? I've seen LinkedIn posts of people saying like the after events of Expo are actually more beneficial. In my opinion, we landed four different accounts from Expo that are really worthwhile. So I definitely see the benefit of going to Expo. We only had three team members, including myself. We definitely needed like 10 or 12. so I would say just make sure you have enough staff and also the ROI really just comes from consumers trying your product getting their honest feedback being able to like make that face-to-face relationship and if you don't land a deal I think going the next year and the next year and them just having that brand awareness is super important.