Founder Feature: Yaniv Simpson of The Conscious Bar

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0:53There's a minority of people that do not like chocolate, and it is what it is, right? But for the most part, most people do like chocolate, all forms of chocolate. And so you kind of, you know, I like to say you kind of come into the world loving chocolate and you exit the world loving chocolate. And so it's a very, very nostalgic thing. And it's a very culturally relevant item. Right. And so there's been a tremendous amount of culture and associations that have been tagged to chocolate. And we're trying to shift that slightly. Hey, everybody. this is Caitlin Bricker, editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature.

1:35Today we're talking with Yaniv Simpson, founder of The Conscious Bar, a date-sweetened chocolate company claiming to redefine the category. After getting banned from a candy store at age five, Yaniv is now building a chocolate company that aims to break chocolate out of its candy shell. He's on a mission to prove that transparency matters, and it's not just what's inside the bar that counts, it's the packaging too. Enjoy!

2:04Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Yaniv Simpson, founder of The Conscious Bar. Yaniv, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. I am very excited to have you here. I think everybody who's been listening and who knows me knows that I'm a freak for dates, so it's no surprise that I have a date sweet and chocolate bar company on as a guest. So before I give too much away, can you tell us what is The Conscious Bar? Yes. So in a nutshell, The Conscious Bar, so we're a date Sweden craft chocolate bar company. I started this company four and a half years ago at this point, and the goal was to reimagine the category and to redefine the category.

2:50It's an extremely audacious statement, and it's an extremely audacious goal. I and the entire team are extremely aware of it, but it's where the fun is, right? On the surface level, yes, we're a date Sweden chocolate company, and there's a lot that's coming past only chocolate bars, but I'm sure we're going to dive into it today in terms of what we're actually looking to do and how we get to live up to that very, very, very far-fetched goal, which a lot of people kind of roll their eyes, but that's why we're here, to do something special and make sure that we start tapping into some reprogramming of a lot of associations that have been literally ingrained into every single person who's alive.

3:32And the reason I say that is because you really come in, there's a minority of people that do not like chocolate and it is what it is, right? But for the most part, most people do like chocolate, all forms of chocolate. And so you kind of come into the world loving chocolate and you exit the world loving chocolate. And so it's a very, very nostalgic thing. And it's a very culturally relevant item, right? And so there's been a tremendous amount of culture and associations that have been tagged to chocolate. And we're trying to shift that slightly. It does seem like a very lofty goal to redefine chocolate.

4:11I mean, when I find myself standing in literally any grocery store that carries a chocolate bar, It's a lot of space, a lot of space on the chocolate shelf. Tell me how you're going to redefine chocolate. What does that mean? We hear that word redefine, reinvent a lot in CPG. Tell me what it means to you to redefine chocolate. Yes. Innovation is cool. Reimagining things is cool. Redefining stuff is cool. I think where a lot of us get lost sometimes in those big statements and big promises is that it tackles a part of the problem or kind of statement versus the entire experience. I will get to the answer of that, I promise.

4:53Just to give a little, a tiny bit of a backstory. So I got banned from a candy store when I was five years old. I always tell people that there's a very big distinction between getting banned from a store and getting kicked out. Getting kicked out means you did something wrong on that one instance. Getting banned means that my dad figured out that I'm a frequent visitor at a specific candy store at five years old. This was in England at the time. Dragged me by the ear, took me to the store and asked the guy, like, do you know this kid? And he's like, of course I know him. You see it all the time.

5:23And so when people say like, oh, I've always had a sweet tooth, like this has been a very real thing for me going back over 30 years at this point, disclosing the ballpark of my age here. And so for me, chocolate growing up was candy, right? It was a conditional thing. It's like, if you finish your homework, I'll give you some chocolate. If you're a good boy, I'll give you some chocolate. If you eat your meal, it's just a very, very conditional thing. Obviously, fast forward 30 years from then, there are better for you chocolate bars, chocolate companies. The better for you category is something that we can definitely tackle.

5:59Another question, but I wanted to create an experience that's good for you, not similar to what has always existed and not better for you, but just good for you, period. And it sounds like a small nuance, but it's a massive difference. And so, yes, it does start with picking ingredients that are actually good for you. So I grew up in England and the Middle East, so dates for me was always a no-brainer. We used to cook and bake with dates and date syrup my entire life pretty much. And so I started this company four and a half years ago, but the R &D started a year before that. So we're talking five and a half years ago, taking two superfoods, like actual superfoods, cacao is the phenomenal superfoods.

6:37It's a, I hate the term because it gets abused and, but it is what it is. It's a, it's a food that is phenomenal for you. Let's just put it that way. This is the same. Both of them go back thousands of years, right? And so combining those two and nothing else, not like you have those two and there's other stuff creeping in at the same time creates a masterpiece for an indulgence, whatever it might be. But it's a, if you take this bar, right, and you have cocoa and dates and nothing else, that is good for you. It's not just a little better for you. On top of that, there are a lot of different things that kind of people take into consideration when trying to associate themselves with a brand or purchase a single product.

7:19The entire supply chain, when it comes to the ethics around a extremely disturbing industry such as cacao. You have it in coffee as well, but cacao is a serial offender when it comes to just poor practices and having a lot of ethical issues. And so tackling that is one thing. Excess plastic. Obviously, we understand that CPG is a massive offender, CPG in general, when it comes to contribution for what happens in terms of plastic waste in the entire world. It is what CPG is. It's fast moving, consumable goods so they're meant to be replaced exactly but there are better solutions right you don't a non-plastic packaging a little bit more expensive and harder to find yes right but are they there also yes right and so the way for us to redefine a category is to number one help people understand that chocolate isn't candy those are two totally separate things right there's candy dressed up in chocolate and it sometimes is flavored in chocolate and it might have 10 to 15 percent of this thing that we call cacao, but everything else is loaded with other stuff such as sugars, preservatives, oils, et cetera.

8:26That is not chocolate in the way that I define it. Okay. And so having a phenomenal product that people can truly, truly indulge in and feel good about is number one. Tackling the supply chain and the ethics around what you do and how you do it and storytelling around that and putting it in the forefront and actually having feet on the ground, which is something that we're now really getting into. We haven't even scratched the surface is number two. Number three is today's chocolate bars, tomorrow it's going to be something else. There's going to be a lot of packaging around that thing, right?

8:57Like chocolate doesn't just fall from the trees or from the sky. It would be nice if that was the case, but you have to package it in something. There are alternative solutions and you can have a zero plastic or 100 % plastic free brand. And so that's how we plan on doing it. We want to cater an experience that's truly different, that is innovative and that people can trust, right? But at the end of the day, I think there is a major trust issue between the consumer and the brand and everything in between. And people are looking for transparency and they slash we are holding brands and companies to a higher standard.

9:30And that's part of what we're trying to inspire in the chopper industry, but within CPG in general. I think that transparency is very inspiring because it can get lost very easily, especially when you look at a set like chocolate bars. And when you're not only looking at ingredients, but then you're looking at packaging, and it sounds like you're looking at health pretty holistically here. I just can't believe that you're sitting here telling me chocolate is not candy. Until this very moment, I have always looked at chocolate as candy because it's always associated with a sweet tooth. It's always associated with sugar.

10:07You and I both know that if you were to bite into cacao on its own, it's very bitter. But pair it with dates, it's just the perfect match. So I'm very curious because you're talking a lot about your supply chain here. How did you go about securing your supply chain for cacao and then also your supply chain for your packaging too? Because those are two things that I feel like even though I've seen other date sweetened chocolate bars, the packaging is not something that people are really hitting on and you are. Yeah, great question. I'll tackle the cacao side first. And so up until recently, probably up until a year ago, we relied on our chocolate manufacturer to have insight into their relationships and where they're sourcing their cacao from.

10:51For us, the distinction between fair trade, which is something that was established a while ago, very well intended. But unfortunately, there's a lot of loopholes and some issues, let's say, within the fair trade program and what that means. Again, it bridges outside of cocoa, but especially in cocoa. And so we relied on those relationships to understand and ensure that that is direct trade versus fair trade. Direct trade implies exactly what it sounds like. Farmers are getting paid more than fair. And up until the madness that has taken place in the last couple of years where prices are everywhere and shortages are everywhere and Mother Nature is doing its thing, right?

11:29It was the perfect storm. Farmers were also getting paid two to three X of fair trade. And so as a small company, as an emerging company, as a company who's new to the industry, we relied on our chocolate manufacturers to do that and for us to have visibility into what they're doing. Now, most recently in the past year and moving forward, it's us having relationships with the farm level itself, with the cooperatives, with the brokers who are at the farm level. They have full traceability programs, traceability reports. You have a really good understanding. It's never perfect, by the way. So the reality of a brand, literally a brand and a company writing a check or exchanging cash directly with the farmer is just something that never really happens.

12:14Because there's exporters, importers, and a ton of logistical stuff that gets in the way of that, but you do have as much transparency as you can. And so I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole of why it's so incredibly difficult. But let's just say that sourcing cocoa in general is very hard. sourcing phenomenal organic certified cocoa is extra difficult making sure that it matches and is coming underneath the prop 65 for cadmium extra difficult right so it's like you take all of these different components of like giving you kind of the north star of like what can you and what can you not source on top of that of course you put on the fact that we go for a very very specific flavor profile because as you can imagine you know you meet a venezuelan person And when you use cacao from Venezuela, it's some of the most unique in the world.

13:03Same from Brazil. And it's about the flavor, right? At the end of the day, this has to be phenomenal chocolate. It can't just be like better for you or just good from a health profile. And so there's a lot of constraints. I always tell people we are the masters at making things difficult for us because there just are so many guiding principles that there are things that are negotiable and that we're flexible on. There's things that we're not. And so, yeah, securing cacao is very, very hard. It's actually never been more complicated. You're going to hear this from the biggest guys out there to the smallest guys.

13:34And a lot of them who are probably just haven't made in, they're not even in business anymore. And part of it is because of that, right? It's not just the prices, it's the scarcity. It's an arm race, right? Like it's literally like who can get it first. We were waiting on containers for the first part of the year, pretty much, which meant that we have to turn everything off. So that was very painful. and we were playing catch up, but still, it's been a great year. So that's on the cocoa side. On the packaging side, I started sourcing compostable materials and just eco-friendly materials in general five and a half years ago.

14:10I can tell you with a pretty great level of certainty that it's improved a little bit, but not that much. You would be really surprised how difficult it really is to source eco-friendly materials, again, specifically for what you need, right stand-up pouches other stuff are probably a little easier but when you need a two-piece packaging fully compostable it's out there it's just it's not easy and so I was looking at green eco books paper companies and looking at the fine print of everything and they will send you those books and say hey these are eco-friendly materials check it out you read the fine print it says 30 percent post-consumer waste and you're like what's the 70 percent made up they're like oh yeah that's other stuff.

14:52It's like, what other stuff? So you just have to ask another question, another question, another question until you get to the point where it's like, you should have never sent me this book, right? Because there are no options that meet what we're looking for. I will say it's, I understand why people don't go that route. I don't justify it. I do understand that there's a big difference between the two. It's not easy at all, but there are options. There are definitely options. And I just mentioned that it hasn't, the needle hasn't moved as much as I would have hoped it would, but it has gotten a little better in terms of availability and just options.

15:25It's not always going to be exactly what you're looking for, but for the most part, where there's a will, there's a way. That was a long-winded answer, but the short answer is that, yes, where there is a will, there is a way. It's much more complicated, and it does cost a little bit more. Of course, and long-winded is fine. You've got to get your thoughts out there. I am curious, since you're mentioning if there's a will, there's a way. Has this always been the thought in your mind for the Conscious Bar to have that transparency with the chocolate, to have the compostable packaging? Or did you pivot at some point to go in that direction?

16:02I worked for other companies for 10 years before starting the Conscious Bar. And you know, when you're working for other companies, you always, you're sitting with your thoughts and you're like, oh one day when I have my own company I will do things in this way and yeah no it was from the get right like the conscious bar is a very heavy loaded name and we often get that question it's like oh the conscious bar what is so conscious about you and what is so conscious about the company and it's like at the end of the day it's intentionality and everything it's awareness it's wanting to do the right thing everyone has the reasons for pursuing their goals and what they want to do with their companies and the certain angles they take.

16:38Sourcing the materials took nine months and working on the R &D for the actual product for the date sweetened chocolate because at the time no one was out there. A lot of people like to say that you know there was said that no one was on the shelves I promise you that. It took eight to ten months so pretty much the same time. There were options right there were opportunities to kind of not perfect it or come out the gate with like, it's almost compulsible packaging. The recipe is almost there. Let's just launch. Most people are not going to notice. And I got that feedback quite a lot from everyone.

17:13But now I wanted to do it the right way. It's something that is just a personal thing for me. It's like, I want to do it right. This is not a tech platform or a piece of software where you have your MVP and then you reiterate. And it's like, I don't want to come out with a product that I myself wouldn't appreciate and wouldn't enjoy. And again, I'm not just talking about the flavor. I'm talking about the entire thing. There's that saying done is better than perfect, but definitely in Yaneve's book, perfect is better than done, it sounds like. Yes, when possible. Yes. Being realistic and practical is also very important.

17:45We'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. They 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.

18:24Good luck, everyone.

18:29You did mention other date sweetened chocolate bars. I'm sure the million dollar question here, especially for any retailers who are listening, which I know they are, what makes the conscious bar so different from these other date sweetened chocolate bars that are on the shelves? And why should retailers introduce the conscious bar to their consumers? Absolutely. There are dates and cacao ingredients. And what you do with those ingredients is there's a lot of different things that you can do with them, right? You can pack your bar with a ton of dates. And so the no added sugar is still going to be there.

19:04How much of total sugar is there? How much fiber is there? Is it USDA certified? Is every single SKU USDA certified? What is the source? Does anyone know where you're bringing your cacao from? What does the sourcing look like? Is your packaging eco-friendly? Yes or no? There is no, we're trying. Is it eco-friendly? Yes or no? Is it certified? Yes or no? I've seen a couple of things where it's like, we try to be organic. It's like, that's a no, right? Like I tend to be very straightforward on certain things. I appreciate that about you. And these type of things are just yes and no, right? And so the experience is always going to be different, right?

19:43Hugh came out 10 years ago, Hugh Kitchen, with coconut sugar, sweetened chocolate. They were not the only guys with coconut sugar chocolate on the market. There's a reason they blew up. At the time, it was a blue ocean. There was no one else to really compete. They look different, smell different. And so they were able to expand and blow up the way they did. yeah i mean our product i will put it toe to toe against any date sweetened chocolate bar out there the flavor is different right and it's because we know what goes into it we understand our recipe really well there's a north star on the flavor which i think by the way at mass scale it's still not there it's still not the 10 out of 10 that we know it can be it's very good but it can and it will get better and so it's one of those things where dates is a trendy ingredient now and so So there's no surprise that now there's more competition.

20:33The brand that we're building and the intention behind it and what we plan to do in terms of storytelling and putting everything forward for people to really, really see what's going on, as well as building out the traceability program that we're going to build and a lot of different things. Is why I think we are now very different, but for what's coming in the near future, I think you'll see from a product standpoint as well. I'm excited and I'm sensing that there's some secrecy there. So I don't even know if that's a can of worms we want to open. But if you want to. We can't spill the beans quite yet.

21:05But there's some interesting skews in the pipeline. Let's just put it that way. I am very excited. And limited editions. Limited editions is not something that we've taken to retail quite yet. But yes. Oh, my God. I don't know when this is going to come out. But this is not going to come out in Q4, right? I think we're looking at January. Okay. So maybe there'll be some left from this seasonality. From these limited editions that are coming. But they're going to be great. I'm going to make sure you get some. You have to. They're going to be phenomenal. You know I want to try. Yes. So I do think something that I personally notice about your social media presence that's different from other chocolate brands is the educational piece around the health benefits of cacao of dates rather than it's just better for you.

21:48And like you were saying earlier, it's not that it's better for you. It's good for you. How do you approach your social media and how did you enlist the people that are on your team who are the faces behind what you're doing on social? I got very lucky. I got very, very lucky. I'm not just saying this. I am beyond blessed to have the team that I have all the way from the CMO to our kind of brand ambassador and main spokesman to all of our editors. So we have a full-blown creative agency, essentially, inside the company. And this is a joint decision that was made by my CMO and myself a couple of years ago.

22:27We decided to build our brand online and we decided to go deep into direct-to-consumer first. It wasn't an easy decision because obviously velocity, getting on the shelves, making sure that you're out there and all that stuff. And people always knock on your door saying, when are you going to be here? When are you going to be there? Which we are working on it, I promise you. But the reason for that is, again, when we started, we also went through a rebrand. So we look different, price point, relatively new concept in terms of what people were used to. We wanted to hear everything. The good, the bad, the ugly, what are the issues, what are the pushbacks, anything and everything that people had to say.

23:04By doing that, we were able to really kind of refine the messaging and really understand what is going on here. It's like, I can't tell you how many times we've heard so many different common themes and one of them being sugar is sugar. people don't know right people don't understand there's the cocoa piece which we can talk forever about how it was the food of the gods it's being this like incredible i don't want to say super food again but this incredible food that people have indulged on forever either in the form of a drink or something they ate there's endless there's a laundry list of health benefits both mind body and soul type thing and dates as well right but but this whole sugar is sugar is just some things that were like, oh, wow, like people actually don't know, right?

23:51Like they actually think that a fruit and table sugar that's processed is the same and it impacts your body the same. And again, there's the whole increase your risk for diabetes and gaining weight and all of these different things. But there's also what does it do to your mood? How do you show up for your family? There's a massive ripple effect for eating processed food and sugar loaded pieces of candy all the time. If you have a once in a blue moon, do your thing. We want it to be, again, a source of truth. And in today's world, it's 2025 today, but we've made that decision in 2022. Creative, meaning content, is the variable of success.

24:33Attention is something that is the ultimate currency, right? If you can get eyeballs and many, many, many influences and celebrities have proven that now, right? That you can just build a brand online and sell your own products and voila type thing we wanted to make sure that we have the platform to tell the right stories and educate people again on what journey are we going on and why we think it's worthwhile for you to tune in not just if you love chocolate but if you are just anyone who's interested in the better for you space and then just having a little bit knowledge about like what you should consume why you should consume it and which brands you should be associating yourself with and yeah i I mean, again, I'm blessed because I have a phenomenal team.

25:18They're very, very talented at what they do, but they're very insightful. They understand culture, right? They understand this space, but they also understand culture and that beautiful intersection of the two. So, yeah, it's awesome. It really is great. And you can just tell looking at the videos, everything is very highly produced. Everything is very well thought out. It looks gorgeous. And I think it matches the energy that you're putting into the bars, too. So, well done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. I have to ask, 2025 right now, going into 2026, what do you think it will take to become the next go-to chocolate bar?