Founder Feature: Sean Knecht of Tantos!

0:09Our co-packer is our lead investor, which is a very underrated aspect to a small business. Sell yourself to the co-packer about, hey, if you invest in me, this is a win-win. That could really help cash flow and just it can help accelerate the growth of your business because you're not necessarily super worried about paying your supplier within day or whatever, because they'll be a little bit more lenient because they will help you grow. Hey everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature. Today I'm sitting down with Sean Connect, founder of Tantos, the first and only puffed pasta chip.

0:48Sean's bringing a brand new snack category to market alongside his business partner and celebrity chef, Joe Sasto. Their original story started with a DM about flour to egg ratios, and well, the rest is history. We're diving into Sean's journey being on Shark Tank not once, but twice. The reality of the Shark Tank effect, we're talking orders, social, and more. And his strategy for convincing Whole Foods that the snack aisle is overloaded with tortilla chips and needs something new. No offense, tortilla chip founders. This one's full of tactical insights you won't want to miss. As always, enjoy.

1:25Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Sean Kinect, founder of Tantos. Sean, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It's great to have you here. I hear that you are fresh off of Expo West, and I'd love to hear about your experience there and all things Tantos. But before we dive into that, can you just tell our listeners what Tantos is? Yeah, Tantos is the first and only puffed pasta chip. Very short and sweet. Love it. Sounds like it's a very uncomplicated product in a world full of complicated CPG products. It's very uncomplicated, but actually a lot of people don't truly grasp what it actually is.

2:08A lot of people think or most people think it's a tortilla chip or a corn chip that is obviously puffed, but it's in the flavor of pasta. Our pellet, our base ingredient is wheat and water, the true definition of pasta. So we are a true pasta chip. So you're not cosplaying as a pasta chip. You are a pasta chip. Correct. There are some cosplaying pasta chips out there, but we are the first and only. So very excited for that. And I believe we have first to market kind of excitability to our product. And a lot of people are grasping to that. And we have a lot of momentum for us right now. really exciting it is pretty cool and refreshing i say that word a lot on this podcast but i mean there is a reason why i have different founders on here because you are bringing refreshment to the world of cpg but it is really cool to see a new idea come out it's not just a me too product which is also very exciting for consumers and i would assume as a founder too i have a business partner chef joe sasto and this was actually his brainchild and i'm just kind of the brains and operations of the actual product.

3:18I can't take credit for inventing the product. And I told him from the very beginning, I wouldn't be doing this if we weren't the first and only. Because you go to these shows, you go to the supermarket, and there's a lot of the same thing. And unless you have a gazillion dollars, it's so hard to stand out. But if you're the first and only of something, you can really own in on that language. And it perks people's ears up and gets their attention. and they're more willing to give you a shot, both from a retailer standpoint and also an individual consumer standpoint. So I would only be doing this if we had that kind of leg up and we do.

3:55So I went all in. I do think you just touched on it, the language of being the first and only. It's very intriguing because a lot of brands do like to claim that they're the first doing something. And even if that is the case, I like to say that I think it's more powerful that a consumer is having a first experience with your brand. Because there could be other pasta chips out there, but even if there are, if somebody's trying Tantos for the first time and that's their first experience, that's what they're going to remember you by. And I always say, because we are pasta, it's a universal food group.

4:29Basically, from six months old to the day you die, everyone loves pasta, unless you're obviously allergies excluded. But it's such a low barrier to entry for someone to be willing to try it because it is a familiar food, pasta. But what brings people back is our flavor, texture, and crunch. So that's what we really kind of hone in on when we're describing it to our customers and to retailers. And when they actually do try it, they're like, oh, this actually does taste like pasta. Oh, this is crunchy and light and airy and really tastes good. I want to go back for more. And it doesn't feel as heavy as a full bowl of pasta because it is puffed and so light and airy.

5:10So we think that there is room in the snack aisle for a new category of pasta-based snacks. And we're at the forefront of it. I would agree with that. You touched on this, that you have a business partner. You're a two-man show at Tantos. Can you tell us a little bit about your background, Joe's background, and how you met? Yeah, so fun story on how we met. So my background is I'm an entrepreneur by trade. I've started a few businesses up before Tonto's. And Chef Joe Sasso, he's a chef, Michelin rated. He's been in kitchens his whole life. And kind of around the pandemic time, he got out of the kitchen and started to be more of an influencer or content creator, doing pop-up dinners and really traveling full-time cooking.

5:55Joe and I met because I was watching his season of Top Chef. And that was the beginning of my personal homemade pasta journey. me and I was mixing eggs and flour and water and all this ingredients to make homemade pasta and I wasn't very good at it. It didn't taste good and I was watching his season and he was known as the pasta guy so I just decided to DM him on Instagram and I asked him a super nerdy question because I can't just ask him a normal question because people flood his Instagram so I asked him what his flour to egg ratio was and that kind of grabbed his attention he's like this is a very odd question to ask.

6:33So we answered and we started having this back and forth conversation via Instagram. And he was kind of teaching me how to make pasta. And he was in LA at the time at a restaurant actually down the street for me. We had this DMing relationship. And then fast forward a few months, my wife decided to DM him. My birthday was coming up and asked him if he does private lessons? He did. And so my wife booked me one for my birthday. And I went to his, I didn't realize it by the time, but I went to his apartment and we made tortellini together as a pasta lesson. And we started kind of talking and getting to know each other.

7:11And we immediately hit it off and basically became best friends. And long story short, we started having a more friendship. Yep. Fast forward a few months. He had a pop-up dinner at his apartment and two people dropped out last minute. He texted me, hey, do your wife want to come to this? My pop-up dinner. I have two extra seats. Won't charge you. This is pre-kid, so we dropped everything and just went. And the first dish was what he called pasta nachos. It was the original concept of tanzos, but like with caviar and cheese and microgreens and just like a one bite kind of pasta nacho. And I tried it and I was obsessed with it.

7:52I was like, whoa, what was that? Like, this was really incredible. So after the dinner, I couldn't stop thinking about it. He asked me to stay back and hang out for a little bit. So we did. And I asked him, I was like, what was that dish? And he basically kind of gave me the rundown of, oh, it's a combination of my true favorite food group, pasta and nachos, combine them. It was a happy accident in the kitchen. I was like, what's your goal with this? And he's like, I mean, I'm a chef. I want to bring this to market, but I had no background in business. So like, it's just kind of here. He's like, one day I would like to bring it to market.

8:24And I was like, that's what I do. Let's tag team this. Let's start a business. So I had to bug him a few more times over the course of the next few months. Because, you know, we were still coming off this friendship, you know, a budding friendship. And he's like, this guy, I don't know. But I kept on persisting. And lo and behold, we decided to jump all in once COVID hit. COVID hit, his restaurant closed. He was decided to make the full time switch. He's like, all right, I have time. Like, let's do it. So that's kind of how the journey began. Wow. You know, sometimes sliding into the DMs can really work and sometimes it can be a disaster.

9:00And this was a bromance, it sounds like. Listen, I have a track record with sliding into DMs. I got I met my wife on Tinder and I met Joe, my business partner on Insta. So I'm a modern love story. I think that says a lot about just shooting your shot because what's the worst that can happen? They leave you on read or they say no or just never see the message at all. I mean, I can relate to your story a lot because I have a very good friend named Claire who has a pretty massive following on Instagram. She also has cookbooks. She I don't know if she'd call herself a chef, but she's pretty crafty in the kitchen.

9:36And this was a decade ago. She just reminded me of this a few days ago. A decade ago, I slid into her DMs because I had been cooking her recipes so often and posting them on Instagram and tagging her. And then I was like, hey, if you're ever in the Boston area and you want to get lunch, just let me know. She ended up living in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a little bit because her partner was studying at Harvard. We've been friends ever since, and I helped her launch two of her cookbooks. So you and I, we are here to tell you, shoot that shot. Shoot your shot. I have two mottos now. One is now shoot your shot.

10:09And two is professional persistence. Persistence is key, especially in CPG. I have to ask before we go any deeper, what does tantos mean? Glad you asked. So Joe's pop-up series where I first kind of had the first original version was called Tanto Si, which is Italian loosely based on the term so much yes. and in Joe's kind of philosophy in cooking is when you sit down at a meal, you see all the food and you take that first bite and all you want to do is say so much yes, like let's dig in. So we kind of played around with that and I can't take credit for this. This is all my wife. She's my creative side.

10:48She combined them, Tonto Seeds to Tontos because it matches Fritos, Doritos, Cheetos, and now Tontos. Kind of the OS, a made-up word. We could get the Instagram and the URLs and all that, and it's a made-up word and ends in the OS just like Fritos, Doritos, and Cheetos. Can you tell me about your first appearance on Shark Tank and then your second appearance with Tontos? Yeah, so my first appearance on Shark Tank Company called Pride Bites Pet Products, we are a custom pet product manufacturer. It was about nine years ago, believe it or not. And that business was my first business out of college, my first kind of diving into the entrepreneurship world.

11:32I knew nothing compared to the second time, both about business and how TV shows are made and all that. Fantastic experience. I was very nervous. And we actually got a deal with two sharks. Robert and Lori is very exciting. And that business is still around. The business model has shifted, but it's still around thriving. and that kind of led me to my second time being on Shark Tank. Once Tontos kind of started, I reached out to the producers and I said, hey, just before I, I am doing this new project. Would love an opportunity to get back on. Let me know what you think. They loved it. You're still making TV, so you still have to kind of have that charm and that for TV.

12:15So they remembered me and obviously having Joe having a TV background, they're like, okay, he's TV ready. I've been on it. it could be a safer bet for them to have us back on. So we applied once for Tantos. They love the video we made for them, the video application. They looked at our numbers and they were like, okay, well, you're a little too early. Apply next season. And we were really bummed, but it made sense. So fast forward one year, we reapplied and they loved it and they wanted to kind of go through the process. So it took another like six months or so, but we got the call, we filmed, and then you don't know the air date until three weeks prior to your episode airing.

12:57And even that, you don't get guaranteed to get on because they might preempt you. They might say, hey, you're airing February 1st, but something in the news might happen where ABC needs to cut and you might not air. So nothing's guaranteed, but they gave us the heads up three weeks. We're super excited and kind of knew from my previous experience what the Shark Tank effect is. So I had three weeks to like really plan inventory and website and social and everything, all my ducks in a row. And I went ham on getting everything ready. And it went really, really smooth, very pleased with my team. And we got about 3 ,000 orders in the first three days of airing.

13:38Wow. It was a mad dash. And we fulfilled 99.5 % of the orders on time. It was fantastic. So kudos to my team. I'm not necessarily a one-man band. I run it, but I have a whole team that I outsource that helps me with everything. And we all did an amazing job. And it was, sure thing, it's a life-changing experience. There's so much to unpack there. And I think it says a lot, A, your persistence piece that you mentioned earlier is coming back in. Because you got to know the first time. And you're like, you know what? We'll go back. We'll do it. And you got it. So congrats on that. And then that planning aspect, I feel like people might not know, especially if they are new.

14:16They're looking to gain more followers and traction and putting their brand out there. And then you go live on national TV. And how do you even you had a leg up, obviously, as you mentioned, because you've done this before. But the fact that people might be going on the show experiencing this and not having the knowledge about that Shark Tank effect. I think what you just mentioned says a lot about how you can prepare as a brand. Yeah. And I've actually, because now I was on it once and now twice, but I've been coaching Shark Tank companies who are about to get on how to prepare. Yeah. Good to know.

14:52We're all in a private Facebook group together and word of mouth happens. And I, through my network, a lot of people reach out to me saying, Hey, I had a friend who's getting on Shark Tank and you're on, can you help them? So I've been doing a lot of that coaching on the side. And then it's just really fulfilling to helping brands succeed when they get on Shark Tank. You know, But it is a different show than it was the first time I went nine years ago. But the Shark Tank effect is still real for majority of the brands that get on. And not to hit a possible sore spot, but with Tantos, you did not get a deal from the Sharks.

15:22And you still saw 3 ,000 orders within three days. That is crazy to me. Yeah, I mean, I hate saying this because, you know, I went on the show to actually get a deal. I'll say this is nine years later. But with Pied Bites, we were kind of like, you know, the exposure would be amazing. With Tonto's, I actually told Joe, I was like, I want a deal. Like, I'm going in here. I'm valuation and ass. Everything is really level-headed because I'm coming in here for the deal. Obviously, really bummed that we didn't get the deal. But best case scenario for a small brand like us actually happened. We filmed.

15:59We aired. They liked the products on the show. They were trying it. They raved about it. And we did not get a deal. and we still got all the exposure. So yes, I went on to get a deal. After the fact, Joe and I went to dinner and we were super bunked for the rest of the night. But as we were kind of talking about it, it's like, okay, no matter what happens, like as long as we air, we'll be okay. And we did and sky's the limit right now. Did you hear that? That's opportunity knocking. We've been building something big and today we're ready to share it. Introducing Opportunity Knocks, a new campaign giving Startup CPG brands exclusive direct access to submit to leading retailers, distributors, investors, media, and more.

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17:32so you got the orders which is great what did that do for your social presence did you notice a difference in social too to be honest there was very little bump in social interesting again shark tank nine years ago when it was prime time friday night it was one of the hottest shows on tv now it's wednesday nights at 10 p.m it's totally in society and the tv world was streaming everything has completely changed. But yeah, if you're going on there to try to get a boost in social, don't waste your time because you're not going to see that bump. And we have a celebrity chef that was on a, he barely saw a bump.

18:10Our business brand barely saw a bump. We're talking like maybe a hundred people. But as a small brand, I would rather the 3000 orders in the hundred followers because now again, this goes back to the prep. My digital marketing agency saw that spike in not only people Googling, people searching and not only Google, Amazon, but going to our website as well, then we set up a retargeting campaign. And if you touched our site or our Amazon, we were following you around the internet for the next two weeks. And that let us have the sales momentum keep going. And ultimately what the Shark Tank did and the Shark Tank effect was raised our daily sales floor by 3x for our business, both with Shop, our e-commerce, and Amazon combined.

18:58So with no real, say we were doing$100 a day combined online, after Shark Tank, our average now is at least$300 a day. Well, to me, that for the Shark Tank, the effect is it's raising your floor from awareness play and just letting the backend algorithms of, you know, Meta and Google and all that, when you're doing targeted campaigns, It just helps you define who your target audience is that much better. And it helps improve everything in the back end. That's really good advice. Really great insight. It's definitely a unique perspective that you're able to offer to brands who are listening right now.

19:33And I will say one thing. There is a downside to Shark Tank. Let's hear it. And it takes, there is a big hit on cash flow. So yeah, the orders do come in. You have to pay for the inventory up front. You're doing a lot of marketing. You don't have to, but it would be foolish not to capture that audience with the backend spend on marketing. So it did take a little bit of a hit on cash flow temporarily. So managing that, obviously, it does catch up. But if you're cash strapped, you might want to wait a little bit for the Shark Tank because it will drain you a little bit for a short term. Also very good advice.

20:09Yeah, a lot of people don't think about that aspect of getting on Shark Tank. I wouldn't have thought about that. And also, and there's certain sites like Amazon, Shopify is different because we got a bunch of orders on our Shopify and you get that money right away. But Amazon held our money for over a month because they saw such a big spike. They're like, oh, this is kind of sketchy. You're still young brand, not doing a crazy amount. All of a sudden you spiked. We're worried that you're going to get a bunch of returns. You might be scamming people, whatever. So they held that money for over a month.

20:40Whoa. Yeah, which I didn't know that. I never, with my previous business, we didn't do Amazon. That was all new to me. And that was hurting my cash flow. I couldn't pay vendors. I was like, hey, I'm just waiting on Amazon to pay me so I can pay you. It was a juggling act for sure that was a little bit stressful as well. Yeah, that's never a fun position to be in to not be able to pay your vendors, especially if you have a good relationship, but just the principle of it too. Right. But hopefully you had very understanding vendors that you were working with. They did. Luckily, part of the Tonto secret sauce is our co-packer is our lead investor, which is a very underrated aspect to a small business.

21:22Sell yourself to the co-packer about, hey, if you invest in me, this is a win-win. That could really help cash flow and just overall the growth. It can help accelerate the growth of your business because you're not necessarily super worried about paying your supplier within a day or whatever because they'll be a little bit more lenient because they will help you grow. And they're also seeing the inner workings of your company too. That's some more great insight. I have to ask, since we were touching on social, what is it like being a co-founder with a celebrity chef slash influencer, if you may?

21:57It's very fun. It's definitely getting me out of my shell. from a social media standpoint, because I'm not personally, I'm not a big poster on social. And as we're getting more into the business and people are seeing kind of me a little bit more because of Joe, every time I'm with him, he's like, we've got to film content together. He is pushing me to get out of my shell on social and post more and be in front of the camera instead of just 100 % behind the screen. So that's been a lot of fun. And we did a lot of really fun content, both at Winter Fancy Fair, two months ago and at Expo last week that we're going to slowly trickle down.

22:36So if you follow Tonto's, you'll start seeing me a little bit more. There's some really fun content that we have filmed and it's very fun and exciting. And in the raw content and bloopers, it is just us laughing hysterically before, during, and after when we take videos. I love it. You just mentioned it, Winter Fancy Fair. What was your experience like being in the startup CPG section? It was good. It's a totally different show than Expo. We actually got a lot of good exposure, not as much as Expo, full disclosure, full transparent. But one thing that did get out of it was we met the boss of the snacks buyer at Whole Foods.

23:16And we had a long conversation. Kandor Booz liked it. We had a long conversation. And he was like, I'm not the buyer. She's under me, but she reports to me. And I was like, will you mind? Can I get your info? And can I follow up? And he did. And I followed up with him. We've been having it. We had a few back and forth conversation. And that led us to Expo where the buyer came by and said, hey, my boss told me to come by, blah, blah. So being that fancy is the reason why we got a 10-minute face-to-face conversation with the Whole Foods buyer. So that conversation alone made Fancy Fair worth it.

23:53And then we compounded that with Expo. And now we have a fingers crossed on Whole Foods, but very excited about that opportunity. Whole Foods, if you're listening, slide into Sean's DMs. Come on now. Bring pasta to the people. Anything you want to say to any other retailers that might be listening about what sets Tantos apart or why you think the snack aisle needs to be shaken up? Yeah. And I'll give you the inner workings of my sales strategy to Whole Foods. when I talked to the boss at Winter Fancy Fair, he asked me one particular question that I actually had a hard time answering on the spot.

24:30It was, who do you replace? And I fumbled my way to my answer, but then after the show, I kept on thinking about it and I went to Whole Foods the next day and I studied the entire, I walked up and down the snack aisle and what I did was I wrote down every single brand that was on the aisle and categorized it. And this is obviously specific to Salty Snacks, but I categorized it by tortilla chips, corn chips, and puffs. And then kind of alt, right? I wrote everything on my phone and I counted. It was like he had 12 to 14 tortilla chips. Most of them were just sea salt plain. He had like 15 corn chips.

25:09He had like eight puffs and like a few other alts. And I'm like, why do you need 12 different sea salt tortilla chips? They're all the same. You don't. You're creating choice paralysis among your shoppers. and you're leaving out white space for potential new innovative products like Ponto's. It is a different base. Like why do you have so many tortilla and corn? Those are stale items. Everyone has seen and tasted that for the last decades, right? There has been such lack innovation in the salty snack category, minus like flavor development, but it's still the same base fried puff or baked tortilla or corn.

25:48So we should really strategize our pitch around there is room because you're overloading your tortilla and corn chip category with the same thing over and over again. And he resonated on that. And he, I think, appreciated me doing the research and pointing out specific numbers of actual brands on his shelves. So that really helped lead the conversation. And the Whole Foods Hack Buyer came up to us and even mentioned how she really liked the differentiating fact of our pellet that is not corn and potatoes, it's actually pasta. And that was really what drew her to us. And you raise a very good point because it was at Winter Fancy Fair that Daniel hosted a panel with foragers and buyers from various retailers.