Founder Feature: Liv Truesdell of FROST Buttercream

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0:58So frosting is a very controversial food, which I've come to learn. People either completely love it or you'll have people walk up to you in a demo and say, I scraped the frosting off my cake. I will never buy Sorbot frosting. And that's where I stopped them. And I'm like, well, listen, this frosting is a lot less sweet than your typical frosting. It's got 57 % less sugar. It's real butter. And they'll try it and they'll say, oh, wow, I'm normally in a frosting critic and I really like this. Hey, everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature.

1:35Today I'm talking with Liv Truesdell, founder of Frost Buttercream, an all-natural buttercream frosting made with real butter, real egg whites, and way less sugar than traditional frosting. Liv went from investment banking to small batch buttercream production alongside her mom as co-founder. In just a year since launching, Frost has won a Startup CPG Shelfie Award and landed in retailers like Fairway Market and Butterfield Market. it. We'll talk about why frosting is surprisingly controversial, what makes meringue-based buttercream different, and Liv's strategic approach to scaling. And if you're wondering if I'm licking my lips throughout this episode because they're dry or it's because I want frost, I'll leave that up to your imagination.

2:18Enjoy!

2:23Hey everybody, welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Liv Truesdell, founder of Frost Butter Cream. Liv, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I have to say I listen to this podcast all the time on my runs and it's in my Spotify wrap, Top 5 Podcasts. So I've learned from a lot of amazing founders on here and it's just such an honor to be able to chat with you. Oh, I'm so happy you're here. The Spotify wrapped, that's the first that I've heard from a brand. Did it just launch like today or this week. Did I? Wow, very cool. Well, you are definitely in my top five for 2025 for baking items, that is for sure.

3:08So for anybody who's not familiar with Frost Buttercream, can you tell us what Frost Buttercream is? Yeah, so Frost Buttercream is an all-natural bakery quality buttercream frosting. It's got real butter, egg whites, and a lot less sugar. And it's naturally gluten-free and free from all those artificial preservatives, dyes, and mouth-coating oils. Amazing. And you really are hitting on so many points that I never realized other frostings on the shelves were not hitting on. I just thought frosting was supposed to have this very long ingredient list. And even when you go to these top tier natural grocers, I personally feel like Like your ingredient list blows all of them out of the water.

3:51I appreciate that. I think one of our main focuses when we were in formulation was to get a list of really simple ingredients that you would find in your kitchen. So like farm fresh butter, real egg whites, and real cane sugar. And I think right now like that's the current trend having real natural ingredients and going back to where everything kind of started. That's a really great point. And I do hear what you're saying about the cane sugar. I prefer to eat no added sugar. I prefer date sweetened things. But there is certainly a trend right now where I see brands who are using real cane sugar, but they're just not using as much of it.

4:28And I don't feel guilty when I eat those products. So you're definitely on trend. Totally. And I think, honestly, when we do demos, I'll have a handful of people come up to me and they'll be like, so how is this sweetened? It's not as sweet as other frosting. Are you using fake sugars? I'm like, no, it's just it's honestly just a lot less. And so I think people are really coming around to that a lot more. It's funny because when I go to like bake a cake or bake cookies, at least in the past, I would see the recipe and it would say two cups of sugar or like a cup of brown sugar and I'm like holy crap when I look back now and I'm baking healthier stuff now I'm like oh my god that is a lot of sugar so tell me like how did you get into this what is your background how did you get into frost and is there any connection between your background and what you're doing today it's a great question so not really but I basically grew up baking with my mom and we both learned to bake from my great aunt.

5:29So she came from Italy and it's kind of cliche, but she basically taught us that food really brings people together. And her main focus was always on dessert. Even if you go back to ancient times, dessert is really just like the focal point of a lot of celebrations. So I think for me, launching Frost wasn't really about just like creating another form of sugar that you put on a cake, but more about being invited into people's like special moments becoming part of their memories that ultimately last forever. So that's like the real privilege behind starting Frost. But no, my like professional background, I went into investment banking first, worked with consumer companies.

6:09And, you know, I did get a great understanding of financial analysis and business strategy, but I really just wanted to be on the other side. And so after working on a deal for many months, all hours of the day and weekend, I decided to close the deal, left, and started Frost. Wow. I definitely don't see the connection between investment banking and buttercream frosting, but I'm so glad that you were the one to put the two together. I appreciate that. So you told me that your aunt and your mom, you all baked together. You got this love of baking from your family. And it's my understanding that your mom is still very involved in the business today.

6:54Can you tell me a little bit about what that looks like, what that dynamic looks like, and what it's like to work with your mom? Yeah, definitely. So when I left banking, I started Frost, and I kind of found myself bouncing all my ideas off of my mom. We have a really great relationship. I'm super lucky, and it kind of just kind of made sense that we could be co-founders together in this. We did have one disagreement about what jackets we should wear to the Food and Wine Festival, just to keep it real. But overall, we get along so well. It's so great. She has a background in consumer products, so it's really helpful to have her expertise.

7:34But honestly, like, Frost is a whole family affair. I have two older brothers who are both in film and advertising. One of them is always giving me his advice as to what the company needs to do next, which I really appreciate. and my other brother actually like designed our whole branding and packaging so no one is shy to give any of their opinions which I'm really grateful for but yeah and then my dad is giving us some pro bono legal work so everyone is chipping in. It sounds like it's all working out for the best which is great. It doesn't sound like that is the classic family business story which I appreciate.

8:15I feel like there's definitely those two ends of the spectrum. Either it goes really, really well or it goes really, really bad. A succession show next. I haven't seen succession yet, but I've heard very good things about it. It is good. Yeah. I will add it to my very long list of things to watch. When you have the free time. True. So I have a few things that I want to touch on with what you just told me about your family. One of them is the packaging. Said your brother helped design the packaging. Tell me what that process looked like. So that was honestly a long process. So our whole formulation process took a few months.

8:57I first got that got like heard a guideline that it takes 18 months to launch a product. I was like, oh no, we can do this much faster. That was wishful thinking. We did get out of prototype faster, but I think in the background of actually developing our product, we were working on our packaging. We had some pretty crazy looking Adobe like clip art styles going in the beginning. But ultimately, we kind of tried to stay true to like who we were, who we are and what we want the brand to be. So, you know, we love blue. We actually went into Janovic multiple times and we'd be like, can I look at your Pantone book?

9:31And everyone in the Janovic store would be like, what are they doing over there? So we spent a lot of time. And there are a lot of iterations, different ideas of stripes and the logo came from different people. And so it was definitely a very iterative process. And I will say, too, your packaging stood out to me when we had the Shelfie Awards. You won a Shelfie Award, which is congratulations. Thank you. You've been in business for how long? A year in January. Amazing. So it was pretty soon after you launched that you submitted for the 2025 shelfies and then won. So good for you. Congratulations.

10:12But just to backtrack, something that I'm getting ahead of myself here, but your packaging stood out to me because you did something that no other brand did, which you sent a full product in an empty container for the shelfies, which I thought was genius. I'm like this is amazing because now I have a product that I can actually eat and enjoy and then I have a product that I can take pictures of. Did you think about that when you sent it? We thought I got the idea because my brother's shelf in his room has like a whole stack of containers but when you have a frost container unless you're baking it's in the fridge and so it's away and so our kind of thinking was this is something that'll be out on the counter and will remind you that we're there.

10:59I thought it was so genius. My like little trick for when I'm taking product photos is I just take a little bit of scotch tape and if it's empty or even if it's full I'll just like take a can and I'll put a little tape on it so that it doesn't move while I'm taking photos and I did the same thing with your container. Yes. The things we do to improvise and be creative. So I gotta ask, can you walk us through what the process looks like of making real buttercream versus what it looks like to use frost at home? Definitely. So what I didn't realize was there are actually a ton of different types of buttercream.

11:41So you have American butter cream, which is what most people make at home. It's a lot of confectioners, sugar, butter, a little vanilla and milk. That one's pretty quick to whip up, but it's really sweet. And so when we were in our formulation process, we wanted to explore all the different types and why they were different and what made them better or worse. And we narrowed it down to meringue-based buttercreams. And so they're actually the most stable type. So that is made by whipping up a meringue of egg whites and creating an emulsion with butter and a sugar syrup. And so in doing that process, it can take over an hour to make.

12:20And so we felt that a meringue-based buttercream was one that really tasted like bakery quality. And so we wanted to save people time while also giving them like the perceived skill of being able to create a very finicky and hard-to-make frosting. So essentially, a formula that would normally take an hour to make, you can now have right from your fridge. You let it defrost, get it to room temperature, and then you can just whip it up. You can walk away as it's whipping, do other things, but basically have something ready to go at your fingertips that normally would take a while. And without all the added ingredients.

12:55So I feel like you are solving several issues here. One being obviously less sugar, less ingredients. It's not a health product, but it's better for you. Everyone needs a little sweetness sometimes. Absolutely. And then you're also solving this issue of time and labor. Some people just aren't skilled in the kitchen, just like you're touching on. And some people just don't have the time to even learn how to be skilled in the kitchen. So I appreciate that you're solving those issues. You know this, but I ordered two tubs of frost for my daughter's birthday because I, A, am a big fan. And B, when I look at the other ingredients on the shelf, I'm like, OK, I have two options here or really three.

13:40one I could buy a traditional store-bought bakery item which sometimes you just don't know what's in there or I can buy these items that are already on the shelf in like my local grocery store but the ingredient lists are still very long or I could go for frost and you know I went for frost my daughter had a blast like watching it in the stand mixer then we added in the red and the blue dye natural of course and we made purple frosting it's amazing honestly when i saw you you ordered it and you were using it for your daughter's birthday like that was just it made a whole month like it's so special to see people using frost for special occasions in their lives so that was really sweet and we appreciated that of course i mean i love personally supporting your brand other small brands that like that is my superpower i feel like championing smaller brands that's my thing you're amazing at it so no thank you thank you please I mean it's not possible without you it really isn't like I wouldn't get this joy in this job or joy as a consumer or for brands like yours so I do have to ask bakeries food service where do you see frost going right now you are in retail stores and you're doing DTC so what are you doing currently and where do you see frost going?

15:05Yeah, so currently, so we went to Santee Food Show. We've been getting a lot of interest for food service. For us, it seems just like a natural segue because when you do look, all of the frostings that are currently used in either in-store bakeries have a long list of ingredients or even bakeries themselves, they have to spend time and labor on actually making that frosting. So we do see a natural segue. I think where we are right now is honestly one of the challenges, which is good, but we are small batch manufacturing. So what that means is getting all of our ingredients, going to our facility, creating every single batch of frosting, and then distributing it, doing every demo.

15:49And I think the benefit of that is that we are very close to our products. We know all the ins and outs of it. And we also get all the consumer feedback. So we can iterate and just tweak our product as we go. But I think now, which as you're saying, we've reached a point where we do have a lot more demand that we are trying to fulfill, but need to scale up our production. And so with scaling up, we would then be able to get more into food service and be able to start to dip our toes into that to completely different beasts in retail. So going into that, we'll have completely new challenges and there's a lot to learn out there.

16:24But I think right now we're just trying to become familiar with the space a little before getting into it, as well as just sorting out our production so we're fully equipped to get into feed service. I love that you're being very logical about scaling so that you can survive, you know, if you're not thinking long term, then the short term might not look as pretty as you think it might. Definitely. Agreed. We'll be right back. Are you going to crush it on Amazon this year? It's such an important channel, but it's so hard to do alone. And most agencies are a total ripoff. We can't afford$5 ,000 a month and a commission on our sales.

17:04They just don't get it. That's why I love our partners at Daybreak. They are full service, meaning they do the creative work, the listings, the logistics, and of course, all the ads, all with the most reasonable retainer out there. I work with them personally. I'm so grateful we have such a good partner to recommend out to you, our community. They do evaluate your product first to see if it might be a fit. So if you want them to have a look, email them startupcpg at daybreak.agency and they'll do a free audit for you. Good luck, everyone.

17:34So talk to me about customer feedback and the feedback that you've received at trade shows. I've seen you at the fancy food shows. I know you were at the food and wine festival, which I would love to go to one day. And then you also sample a lot. I see you on your Instagram story. Tell me about what this experience is like for you and the feedback you've received. So frosting is a very controversial food, which I've come to learn. People either completely love it or you'll have people walk up to you in a demo and say, I scraped the frosting off my cake. I will never buy sorbot frosting. And that's where I stopped them.

18:11And I'm like, well, listen, this frosting is a lot less sweet than your typical frosting. It's got 57 % less sugar. It's real butter. And they'll try it and they'll say, oh, wow, I normally am a frosting critic and I really like this. So it's kind of surprising to me that in some ways that we've kind of landed on a product that binds the ground between people who don't like frosting and like frosting. It seems a lot of people really like our product. And so that's just awesome to see. I think when we went to the first Fancy Food Show, we went because we were part of the SFA course and they enabled us to just exhibit.

18:49So we went and packed up a suitcase of frosting and hadn't even done a demo yet. And so that was a really great experience because we just got a lot of validation. And that's where we met some great buyers of stores that were in. But so I think just like mainly for us, it's about educating the consumer that our product tastes very different from other frostings that are out there. And so how we're handling that is through doing in-store demos and getting it in people's mouths. Because you can post as many videos as you want on Instagram and have a very pretty site. But that doesn't do the trick as to what it would do to have someone actually taste the product.

19:31So we're really trying to get into stores as much as we can and really just get the product in people's mouths. And what's your favorite vehicle for Frost when you're serving it up at a demo? I would say on a little cupcake is great. It's a great pairing. Or we started doing some sugar cookies around the holidays. Honestly, demos are a great way to give people ideas. So even if we're putting it on different things, you know, it then educates the consumer. Oh, I can put this on pretzels. I can put this on cookies. And it's funny, some people will be like, really? Frosting on pretzels? And then other people will be like, I do this all the time.

20:07Sweet and salty? Hit me up. That sounds great. Also, I just like cannot believe that frosting is controversial. When you said it, I was like, oh my god, you're right. Like, there are some people that just don't like cake. No, totally. It's crazy. It's something I didn't totally know, but now I'm aware. So we're going to be airing this episode before the holiday season. We just celebrated Thanksgiving. I feel like that's very pie focused, very pie heavy. But now we're going into a super heavy baking season. So give us some more ideas. What can people use frost with? Frost is great if you put it in a little bit of hot chocolate to get creative.

20:48Frost is great on any sort of cake that you're making, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies. honestly you could eat it by the spoon some people tell us they bring it right to their bed and they eat it like ice cream so you can really get creative as you want okay that is like I just pictured myself like sitting in bed eating frost out of a container and I'm like don't let yourself go there don't do it no I highly recommend let yourself go there what do you think about using it for like a gingerbread house because the gingerbread kits that we buy the icing that is in there is wild I'm like this just seems like a true construction project and that this is never supposed to pass my lips I would say it's great for the decorations but it is not the super glue that holds the house up.

21:45All right. So not a concrete. Not concrete, not glue. It's the pure butter in there. That makes a lot of sense. All right. So you banged out some trade shows. You've done store samplings. Talk to me about collaborations that you've done. So we have done a variety of collaborations, which have been awesome, just because it's a great way to try the other brands products and make connections with the other founders but it's also a great way to get your product in front of another audience and so I think for us one of our favorite collaborations was with Bite and Brownie where we did a frosted brownie and actually when we were at the New York Wine and Food Festival we thought we did we were sharing a table under the fairway tent and we did some frosted brownie samples and so we actually carry them around on platters we could reach more people and one of the best moments was we got a sample to chef brooke williamson who's the one of my favorite chefs on tv and also is on triple thread iron chef and she tried our sample she loved it and so that was just like the icing on the cake right there like that was one of the best moments in terms of a collab that we've done were you like okay if we can pack up and go home now.

23:00I was. I was like, all right, that's it. I assure you there are going to be more moments like that for you. So talk to me about your retail strategy. When did you launch in retail? How far were you into your product launch before you launched into retail? And what does your trajectory look like? What are your plans for the future? So we started development in 2024, and we were kind of just going through formulations, working with Cornell to get a good product for the fridge and then took the SFA Maker Prep course where we kind of learned more about like how to actually launch a product. And then in January 25, we launched into Pop-Up Grocer.

23:45And so that was just a great experience because we got to get our product in front of people in New York City or in backyard. But then we went to the Winter Fancy Food Show where we met the fairway team who Mark and Fidel are just like some of the most supportive buyers. And we got our product into Fairway in New York City, Butterfield Market. And then we also got our product into the fresh grocery stores in New Jersey, Gliss Markets. And so I think our strategy right now and when we launched was we want to stay local. We want to grow roots locally. I think our product requires some education.

24:19It is a refrigerated frosting. It's when you go to bake, you don't normally go up for frosting in the fridge. And so that is part of the reason why we do so many demos. So we want to be local so we can go to all of those demos and support the product ourselves, just so we make sure it has like a successful launch. And then from there, like now we're starting, people are understanding the concept, more people are seeing it. So we're trying to expand out farther and farther. But I think expansion will come with scaling up our production and partnering with that co-man. Very nice. Again, sounds very logical.

24:56And I do have to say, the Fairway Market guys, those were the first retailers that I met when I joined Startup CPG. And it felt like I was just meeting old friends that I had known for years. They are a fantastic team. We did an event at Gourmet Garage and it was unbelievable. They are awesome. But I do have to say, well, it may sound logical. You know, everything changes in the moment. So that's the plan. So tell us some advice that you have for other brands your year into this. What do you want to share with other brands? I would say, first and foremost, everything takes much longer than you think.

25:37So once you accept that, then you'll start to feel like you have more wins and more successes, as opposed to worrying about how long it's taking. But I would say just to connect with other people. And shout out to Startup CPG, but I've met so many amazing founders through their community and events and their Slack channel. Like anytime you have a question, you're unsure, like everyone's in it together. Everyone has a different journey, but that's what is so special because everyone has different advice to share. And so being able to connect with people that you don't know that you've never heard of through the Slack channel is just like unbelievable.

26:14So definitely be a sponge and connect with other people because that's how you learn the most. I think that's great advice because as I'm sure you've probably witnessed, especially being part of the Slack channel, we've got, I think at this point, 33 ,000 people in there. No one's journey is the same. So everyone's got a lot to offer, different colors, different flavors. You're getting a little bit of everything in there. Totally. It's truly vast. Is there anything that you want to say to retailers that are not carrying frost yet that you think should be carrying frost? Why should they carry frost?

26:55Definitely. Well, I think there really isn't anything like frost on the market. It is an all-natural frosting that has a real bakery-quality taste. It's got a lot less sugar, no fake dyes, no fake preservatives. and it's built from using real farm fresh butter, pure cane sugar, and that you can't find. Most buttercreams on the market don't even have real butter in them, which is quite shocking and I didn't realize that until I actually read the label. And then I went around telling my friends, I was like, did you know none of those buttercreams have butter in them? They're like, what are you talking about?