Founders Feature: Lucy Dana of One Trick Pony

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0:59I think the kind of playbook on CPG has historically been you start in natural, then you go to conventional, then you go to club and it's like you follow these like steps. And I was always kind of nervous about what was going to happen to us after natural. I'm like, are people really going to pay eight dollars for this little jar? And like, do people really care about the Argentinian thing? And now I feel like we have more mass appeal. So we're talking to a couple of like, you know, the big club players for next year and the following year. And so like, I don't think you have to follow that playbook anymore.

1:29But I also do feel like we have this mass appeal that if you want a brand to work long term, Like you can't just plan the natural channel forever. So it's giving me hope that we're like getting inbound from some of these bigger channels and we'll see. Hey, everybody. This is Caitlin Bricker, editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature. Today, we're talking with Lucy Dana, founder of One Trick Pony. One Trick Pony is a two ingredient peanut butter made with Argentinian peanuts. That's literally turning the world of peanut butter upside down. Lucy's solving the oil separation problem that everyone hates, and she's building a brand that's gone from fighting for every retailer to getting inbound requests from the big players.

2:11With videos hitting millions of views and jars hitting nearly a thousand shelves nationwide, One Trick Pony is proving that solving a silly little problem can change everything. Enjoy! Hey everybody, welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Lucy Dana, founder of One Trick Pony. Lucy, welcome to the show. Thank you. As someone who has binged like dozens of these, I'm so excited. It's my time to shine. Oh my God. I feel like I get so starstruck when I'm talking to founders. Like you all are my celebrities. Like I could see somebody from TV, movies, whatever.

2:49But if I see a brand founder, I'm like, make way. I love it. Let me talk. Here's my brand hit. So I'm very excited to have you here today, not only because I just love to geek out with brand founders who are making incredible brands, but I'm also really excited because you do have a standout product, which we're going to get into. But first, can you tell us what is One Trick Pony and just a little bite-sized blurb? Of course. So at One Trick Pony, we make really, really good peanut butter. That is the trick. We make two ingredient peanut butter, so we use Argentinian peanuts and salt and nothing else.

3:28And because of that, it means that the peanut butter will have that oil separation that everyone hates. So we just launched new jars a few months ago to help combat that situation. This is not your first rodeo when it comes to peanut butter. Am I correct? It was in 2022. I mean, I was a lifelong eater, lover of peanut butter, But we were in Argentina for my brother and my sister-in-law's wedding because my sister-in-law is Argentinian. And we were kind of doing what we do best on vacation, which is eat the local peanut butter wherever we go. And we were just blown away by the taste and the texture of what we were eating.

4:04So went home, did some research, realized peanuts are indigenous to South America. So it's like the original climate they're supposed to be grown. And therefore, I think they're a little bit naturally sweeter. So we kind of looked at each other and on a whim, we were like, should we make a business out of these peanuts? and here we are almost three years later. Wow and when you started the jars that you have now do not look like they looked three years ago four years ago on the shelves. Correct yeah so we launched with kind of just a standard jar it looks like this just kind of your standard 13 ounce glass jar similar to what a lot of other brands have on the shelf and we were in business for two years with those jars so we got into a decent amount of stores we were doing e-commerce but behind the seems there was a lot of operational headaches with these jars.

4:51So kind of our first horror story was we were producing in Argentina with these jars. So we were importing to the US fully jarred and a big 20 foot container showed up at our warehouse with, you know, tens of thousands of jars. This was our first order. We were go big or go home. We were so excited to sell it all. My warehouse calls me and they're like, hey, the lids don't really fit on. And I'm like, what? Like, you know, you plan for all these things to go wrong, but like the lids not fitting on a standard jar was not one of them. So we've had a lot of issues with our jars from the start. But, you know, we fixed that and they were operating correctly.

5:27But everywhere I went, every demo I did, every customer I talked to, this notion of the oil separation kept coming up over and over again. So either people had been eating natural peanut butter for a while. They knew kind of the necessary evil of this oil separation, but they still complained that it was messy. or people were used to eating peanut butter that has a stabilizer in it and they weren't willing to convert because they didn't want to have to deal with the oil separation. So we got to thinking like, okay, we're having these issues with our jars anyways and people don't like this oil separation.

5:58If we're not going to add palm oil or some sort of emulsifier, then what can we do? We can look at the outside of the jar and kind of reimagine this thing from scratch. So almost like two years ago, I guess at this point, we started kind of imagining what these jars could be and what the solve could be. So we hired this studio, we gave them the pitch of like, fix the peanut butter jar and like no kind of guardrails beyond that, which in retrospect was probably not the best because they came back with some of the craziest ideas, like one of them had a whisk in the lid. So you would like put on the lid and then it would kind of like whisk it.

6:37And And then, you know, when you take it off, who knows what happens with the lid and the whisk and the mask cover. That sounds messier than the situation with just a flipped jar. Yeah, but I'm like, you do know we need to like sell this in store to real people. This is not a joke. Yeah, exactly. You need a refund. But they got us like closer. And, you know, we had always been hearing from customers that they were already storing their peanut butter upside down. So kind of, you know, took us a while and a lot of iterations. But here we are and we launched these new jars in July of this year. I am not only intrigued by obviously the way that it sits on a shelf.

7:13You're flipping the jar upside down. That's how it sits. That's how you look at it. You can flip it over, obviously, to get the peanut butter out. But the colors, too. Can you tell me like what went through your minds or your designer's mind when you were choosing those colors? Because you do not see anything like it on the shelves. Jar, color, everything included. Yeah, I feel like so much of food shopping in real life is like stopping the scroll almost, but like in the aisle. So instead of just stopping the scroll on like your Instagram with your finger, it's like stopping the stroll almost in the aisle on like how do you capture people's attentions on the shelf.

7:51So I don't know. People always throw this around that like you have three seconds to capture attention in a grocery aisle. And I don't know if that's made up or not, but that's what we're going off of. So kind of everything in the peanut butter aisle looks the same. It's all like beige and dark green and brown. And I get it. That like signals natural, but natural doesn't have to be boring, I guess, is our kind of ethos. So we had already been using purples and greens and we were kind of like, let's just go for it. So our jars are bright green, bright pink and then bright blue. And when you walk down the peanut butter aisle, it definitely catches your attention.

8:25And then our other big kind of like trick is that it sits on the shelf upside down. So the jar sits on the shelf with the lid down. And that means that the oil is rising to the top of the jar, which when you flip it over at home is actually the bottom of the jar. so when you open it for the first time you're not met with that oil splash in that oil pool that you're used to in other jars so it's actually on the bottom and the kind of like thicker peanut butter is at the top so once you give it a really good stir there's no splashing no mess and it should stay really well combined and then it's up to you at home if you want to store it lid side up or lid side down to kind of make your own adventure.

9:03I really love it because my husband is usually the one that's making the sandwiches in the morning. My daughter will have a peanut butter and jelly. He'll make whatever he's having. And he texted me and he was like, this is perfect peanut butter, by the way, because we have peanut butters that we bought and we love the flavor. Obviously, we only get the natural ones. The ones with the stabilizers are like not for us. But we do always have this issue with the oil pooling up. It's kind of a pain in the ass. It's a mess. And it doesn't make for a great sandwich making experience. But you're so right.

9:36Like from that one time that we peeled the foil off the top of it, we start it once, never had to start it again. Every morning, I'm still like trying to train myself to be like, oh, is this going to leak? Am I going to have to stir it? Not once. It's truly amazing. I cannot believe that you were the first one to do something like this. It's like we needed this. When you see so many products that are hitting the market and And you get in this like feedback loop or this things are the same things over and over again. But then when you see something like these one trick pony jars, it is so different.

10:09It is funny. And I feel like it's kind of a good business lesson that our first two years, like we were growing and we had, you know, some loyal fans and customers. And it was going like fine, I would say. But it wasn't like overnight, like smashing success. And I kind of felt like we had to like fight for every like retailer and customer. And it felt kind of like this uphill battle. And I think part of that was like because we weren't solving a customer need. And I feel like everyone talks about that. They're like, you know, how is it different? And what problem are you solving? But I was kind of like, you know, it's cute.

10:41And like we're a fun brand. And like it's delicious. And what I've realized is that is not enough. And so now with these new jars, I really feel even though the problem is so silly when you zoom out of like the world, like we're solving oil separation and peanut butter. But like it is an annoying 30 seconds of your day. And so if we can fix that for people, like, why not? And now we actually are solving a problem. So instead of just a cute brand and delicious product, now we're actually solving a need. And I feel like our momentum has completely changed. Like, now we have retailers inbound to us, which is, you know, a new feeling.

11:15And part of me is like, oh, should that have been a red flag before that? Like it wasn't so not that it's easy now, but wasn't so like, quote unquote, easy and that it felt like this uphill battle. And versus now, like, you know, more opportunities are coming inbound to us. And I feel like that is like a signal that we're actually solving a problem. Well, getting the inbound request to have your product stock. How does that feel? It's crazy. I mean, yeah, I feel like before it'd be like we would either, you know, be harassing these people on LinkedIn or if we did get the meeting, we were kind of like willing to give them everything.

11:49Like, sure, we'll pay a slotting fee and sure, we'll do this. And now it's like I feel like we can almost be more thoughtful with like who we're partnering with and where we're going and what we're offering. And like, I don't know, it feels way different. Obviously, it feels better. But I'm also glad that I had those first two years to kind of like learn that like, you know, it is hard. And like you have to have grit and determination and like learn kind of where to give and where not to give and that it wasn't always kind of like easy sailing. It is interesting because I feel like when new products are launching to the market or new formats like you have, it does take this educational aspect.

12:24And if you miss the boat on the education for the consumer and for the retailers, you're just not going to get the customers. But the fact that you have people coming to you means that they got it. you communicated it, it's working, and now they want a piece. It's really cool to hear about. It also is like, probably a lot of brand founders feel like this, but like you're posting on social media so much. And part of it is you're thinking, am I just talking into the void? And like, who cares? And, you know, a small following. And I have these Instagram friends that I'm like DMing, but like, is anyone really noticing and caring?

12:57And a few of the big retailers that we're talking to now for next year actually found us on Instagram or TikTok. So we had a couple of videos about the new jars go totally viral. Like I think they have a combined 6 million views now. And you know, my best performing video on our old jars was like 10 ,000 views. Like it was like nowhere in the stratosphere of what these videos did. So it is cool. Again, it's kind of like that feedback loop of like, oh, people actually care about this. And people want to watch and they're like giving us their attention and then it pays off because kind of the right people are lurking and getting sent these videos too.

13:32Do you feel like your messaging from the first iteration of jars to now has changed because was your messaging for the first jars that these are Argentinian peanuts and they are grown here and this is the origin and do you now take that same messaging and infuse it into the new jars or is it more so just this is a jar that's flipped in the oil is not going to separate and you're good to go it is interesting yeah our first messaging was all around the argentinian peanuts and it was like that because that was kind of our only differentiator and i would say it a lot and people would be like okay and you could kind of tell they just like didn't really care and i had worked at coffee company before this so it was all about single origin and like you know, knowing down to like the hill in Colombia that the beans were coming from.

14:19So I kind of thought everyone would care about that. And they really just like didn't. So we still use these Argentinian peanuts. We still talk about it somewhat, but it's definitely not like the main brand pillar anymore. And you kind of learn from social media and from doing demos and stores what people care about and what they don't. So when you're demoing, you literally have five seconds to tell your whole spiel to someone and they'll literally be like walking away. So if you don't get it in that five seconds like you're done. So now I focus on that. It's two ingredient peanut butter and why we're in these jars.

14:51And then if people say like, oh, it's so delicious. Why is it a little naturally sweet? Then kind of the secondary message is the Argentinian peanuts, but we're definitely not leading with it anymore. Very cool. 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. 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.

15:25I 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.

15:44I am curious about now that you have these new jars and you're not focusing so much on the ingredient, what has that looked like as far as capturing retailers? Do you feel like you were pigeonholed before because you were kind of looking more for an artisanal retailer, or at least that's how it comes across in my mind. Maybe somebody who's looking more for a specialty item, whereas now, do you feel like you are open to so many other doors that you have this format that everybody wants and it's solving a problem for everyone. Definitely. I think the kind of playbook on CPG has historically been you start in natural, then you go to conventional, then you go to club and it's like you follow these like steps.

16:26And I was always kind of nervous about what was going to happen to us after natural. I'm like, are people really going to pay eight dollars for this little jar? And like, do people really care about the Argentinian thing? And now I feel like we have more mass appeal. So we're talking to a couple of like, you know, the big club players for next year and the following year. And so like, I don't think you have to follow that playbook anymore. But I also do feel like we have this mass appeal that if you want a brand to work long term, like you can't just plan the natural channel forever. So it's giving me hope that we're like getting inbound from some of these bigger channels.

16:58And we'll see. I'm really excited to see what comes next. Going back a little bit, you did mention that you worked for a coffee company previous to doing One Trek Pony. Can you tell me a little bit about your professional background and maybe how that's meshed into what you're doing today? Yeah, so I always loved food. I would come home from middle school and watch 30-minute meals back-to-back with Rachel Ray as a 12-year-old. And it was always just like kind of a hobby and something I loved. I went to college. I started a food magazine there. And then when I graduated, I temped at Williams-Sonoma's corporate offices.

17:32So I kind of always thought I was going to go like straight into food and just stay there. But I moved to San Francisco and kind of fell into the tech lore. So I worked at Uber for five years in the early days in different operations roles. And it's kind of funny now, obviously, looking back, hindsight is 20, 20 and everything, you know, fits into these nice boxes. But it was one of those things where like I was on the mapping team and I'm like, what is this ever going to do for my career? Like, I don't want to be a professional mapper. But, you know, you learn like how to be really analytical and how to, you know, work cross-functionally.

18:03And so obviously those skills translate to like anything, especially now being kind of a solo founder. It's very helpful to know how to like, you know, work in Excel and do all these things. And then I went to Blue Bottle Coffee. So I was a product manager for their digital team for a little bit. And then I was the chief of staff to the CEO. So again, like in retrospect, I was running the e-commerce website for about a year. And it was during COVID when things were like gangbusters when everyone was ordering online. And again, I was like, I don't really want to run an e-commerce website. Like, what is this going to do for my career?

18:35and now here I am, you know, running an e-commerce website as part of our business. So again, like, it's good just to have this like wide range of experiences that are super helpful if you do ever want to run your own business. And then being a chief of staff is basically like a CEO in training, kind of like you're in the board meeting, you may be the one taking the notes, but like you are in there and you're getting exposure and you get to kind of see and think and like, you know, witness how the leadership team is running so that was kind of like the best experience I could have gotten not knowing but this was coming next you know I was a chief of staff in my prior role right before startup CPG and as you said that I'm like so she does everything because people used to ask me like so what do you do as a chief of staff and I'm like the better question is what do I not do I feel like it's like women our generation love being chief of staff I don't know what it is I I have like my friend group was probably, you know, like 15 people and probably like 10 of them have been a chief of staff.

19:34And we always joke, like, how many chiefs does it take to like, you know, change a light bulb or whatever? Because like all of our experiences were so wildly different. And like some people were running these huge companies and some people were basically like admins. And, you know, it's such a catch all title. But I think regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, like you are just getting to see everything and have that like, you know, front row view. Totally. I think, well, at least from my perspective. in my experience and it sounds like you may have had the same experience the role is very much like the glue that was kind of holding everything together not to like toot our own horns or anything but like it is very much cross-functional and you are hearing everything yeah exactly everything that goes on like and you have to take the notes you have to make sure everyone's getting everything done you have to make sure everything goes smoothly so it's very much an operationally focused role, regardless of people thinking that it might just be like a glorified assistant, executive assistant role, which also has a need to.

20:33I mean, I plan many and I'll say, but no, it's definitely like high, low, similar to how a founder is like one day, you know, you're like meeting with VCs and raising lots of money. And then the next day you're like shipping out swag from your house. So it covers that same kind of like scope, I feel like. And you also mentioned that you're kind of a solo founder. So talk to me about your team. What does that look like? And what does your day to day look like? Yeah, so I co-founded this with my brother and my sister-in-law, the one I mentioned that we were at their wedding, but they run a chain of bagel delis here in D.C.

21:05and in Denver, and they just announced them to be Chicago. It's called Call Your Mother. so my sister-in-law is a trained chef and she does all the culinary stuff there and then my brother's you know CEO kind of like running the show front of house so they have their hands very full with that so they definitely help me on kind of like big decisions and my sister-in-law is involved in all the culinary stuff but day-to-day it's just me and I have kind of like a team of fractional help right now so I have an operations person and a marketing person and a bookkeeper that helped me and kind of like jump in here and there.

21:37But day to day, it's just me. So trying to keep things lean until we hit certain revenue goals and then hire where we see fit. Do you feel like at this stage in your growth that you wish you had more help? Or do you like kind of keeping those cards close to your chest? Yeah, so we are about to go through a command search. So I called my ops consultant and was like, hey, do you have extra time this month? Because I'm definitely going to need your help on this. But some months, you know, when it's smooth sailing, like we don't need extra help. So in that sense, I like keeping things like super lean right now.

22:09And then hopefully next year we'll bring on some full time help. Very cool. What do you see happening in the next year for One Trick Pony? I see a lot of retail growth. So right now e-commerce is still 40 ish percent of our business. And I love e-commerce. I love that we have that direct communication with our customers. But I do think people aren't going to go out of their way to like a specialized website to buy peanut butter forever and that it needs to be convenient and it needs to be where you're already shopping for groceries. So that has been kind of our real focus for the last, you know, six months with these new jars is having these retailer meetings.

22:45So hopefully a lot of retailer launches and growth next year. And then it'll just be a focus on how do we get off the shelves. very very cool I'm excited for you I do have a funny question for you because you mentioned social media kind of like shouting into the void and that's how I'm connected with you online I'm seeing your face pretty much every day with one trick pony content coming through my feed but I did get to meet you in person at the Asheville grocery run and you told me you had a little mishap with your luggage please tell us more because I haven't gotten the full story yet this is the kind of stuff that I'm like in the moment you're like how did I get here how do I get out but for the fact we can all laugh about it so because peanut butter is technically a liquid according to TSA which you know we can fight that but you're like wait have you seen my jars?

23:41And I'm like, have you started it now? So anytime I travel for work, even if it's just for a day or, you know, I did a day trip to Minneapolis, I have to check a bag if I want to bring peanut butter. So I came down to the grocery run event in Asheville and I was there, you know, for 24 hours, but I had to bring all these jars of peanut butter. So I checked a large away suitcase and on the way back, I've had two suitcase mishaps recently. So I'm going with this one, but So I get to the Asheville airport on the way back and I have this empty bag because I used all the peanut butter at the event.