Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
Welcome to your Food Business Success. This podcast is for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged food industry ready to finally turn that delicious idea into reality. I'm your host, Sari Kimbell. I have guided hundreds of food brand founders to success as an industry expert and business coach, and it's got to be fun. In this podcast, I share with you mindset tools to become a true entrepreneur and run your business like a boss, interviews with industry experts to help you understand the business you are actually in, and food founder journey so you can learn what worked and didn't work and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now, let's jump in.

Sari 0:46
All right. Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. This is a really special treat. I know I say that a lot, but this one really, really is. Welcome back Chennelle Diong and her partner in the business and in life, Justin Beaver, and we're super excited. They are the co founders of Good Love Foods. So welcome back, Chennelle, and welcome Justin.

Justin 1:16
Thank you for having me.

Sari 1:19
And you're at three peat, Chennelle.

Chennelle 1:22
I know. I'm so like, in major stages, you've been able to catch us at our big, biggest growth spurts. So this is by far the biggest, but you were there when we were just little baby company, when it was still me, and Justin was like, you know, helping on the sidelines still. And now we're both literally risking it for the biscuit, like 100% full time, all the time.

Sari 1:46
Love it. You guys have the best catch phrases for sure. All right, well, we're going to talk all things Shark Tank, but before we get into that, we're not going to do the big reveal yet. Give us the quick backstory on the business. I know people can go and listen to Episode number 72 and 135 if they want to hear the full story of each of your stages and and you've had many in between, but give us the kind of synopsis of Good Love Foods.

Chennelle 2:19
Really, this is a partnership. Justin, he's my husband. He's my partner in business. And we really wanted to bring what we've grown and learned together as a couple as it relates to food, and create it into a business, because we knew other people were feeling the same way, but we're both celiac. When I met Justin in 2008, when we first started dating, I was the first time I ever learned what gluten free was. And as someone who grew up baking and being in the kitchen constantly, I wanted to be able to provide that same sort of love and affection through food. And so I was like, I have to learn what this is. So I bought a Gluten Free for Dummies book. I taught myself what it truly meant to be a celiac and to be gluten free, and I apparently won him over. One of the first meals I ever made for him was gluten free chili and cornbread. You think it's really easy, but you know, until you truly understand all the nuances of the ingredients and things like that, it's hard, especially if you've never done gluten free baking before, gluten free cooking. So then about six years into dating, I just felt better. Didn't know I shouldn't be bloated all the time and have these other reactions to food. And I got tested, and I have the markers for celiac disease, and so just having that background, and of course, how, as you'll find out, how funny Justin is, and he's got his, we call him his justinisms. We always wanted to start our own company, whether that was going to be food or not. We worked for lots of local startups and inspired by, you know, local people here that have been doing it for themselves. And during 2020 with the pandemic, and a lot of companies like did this too, or people, I should say, entrepreneurs, were like, I want to do something different with life, like, what that's inspiration? And food has always been an inspiration. And in 2020, started really prototyping our first product and trying to develop our own brand. And Good Love was the name that popped into my head, and Justin and I worked together, we created this brand and we prototyped our first product, and then we launched it in 2021 which was our buttermilk biscuits. And now we are here today with four products. We have our own facility. We ship nationwide, and we have this amazing following of customers. And, of course, local supporters just really cheering us on, which is really exciting.

Sari 4:52
I'm just so delighted and honored. From the very beginning. You joined Food Business Success and so we started meeting, and you had all the branding down. I mean, that was an area that you came from, your world anyway, and so you did a beautiful job with the branding, but all of the logistical, legal, packaging, you know, production, all of that, and just to watch you, you know, from that little facility down south to then making a leap to getting your own facility and working through that in one on one coaching, and then you really stepping up to become the CEO of your business and just enjoying you full time, which is amazing. And I know we joke and we're going to just cuss for a second on this podcast, but your story, you're like, I just get this, the case of the like, well, fuck it, let's just do it.

Chennelle 5:54
Yeah. That's exactly.

Justin 5:58
We've already made all the wrong mistakes in life, like, but we're still here.

Chennelle 6:03
The one thing I will say about Justin when it comes to those moments where I'm like, what the hell or like, screw this or fuck this for really, is, you know, someone who believes in me and believes in us to be able to be like, alright, like, let's do this. You feel so passionate about it, then, like, go for it. Anytime I've applied for a pitch competition or wanted to take that leap. Or be like, all right, well, we're paying a really small amount of rent in a shared kitchen, but we could increase our production by, like, signing this lease on our own kitchen. And that was a huge, huge leap. And he's like, go sign it. Like, we'll figure it out after but we need this.

Sari 6:43
You guys sold your house.

Justin 6:45
We started applying for jobs up north. Like, immediately. We had no idea how we're going to cover the lease.

Chennelle 6:53
And or how to make it work, because we weren't living where our current facilities is in Longmont. We were still in Littleton, which is about an hour south, and so, yeah, just having someone be like, we need this. I believe in us. Let's just do it. Sign the papers. And that sort of led us through every big growth phase. Because you can work incrementally, you know, can be a little bit safe, but I'd rather risk it and not, you know, be safe if the payoff is going to be, you know, ultimately, in the long run, better for us and what our vision is.

Sari 7:33
Yeah. And you, you know, you did a little bit of the F it and what the hell. You applied for, like the pitch competition at Expo West. And I got to join you for that, which was amazing. So that was Spring of 23 and you guys were, you know, you were getting, you were having good traction, kind of in e commerce and getting into some local wholesalers, and then, and the Winter Farmers Market. That's right. That's really where you made it. That's right. And you got into Fort Colin stores, and people were loving you, for sure. Everywhere you went, people were like, blown away, because it does not, unbelievably gluten free, right? So but then tell us what happened. I guess would be like the winter of 23 right, going into 24?

Sari 8:36
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Chennelle 10:20
So I would say the year 2023 was kind of like our year of pitching, and like, really, really getting our brand out there in front of bigger audiences, as they related to CPG, investors, things like that. And so we kicked off the year with Expo West, as you said, that was amazing. That was like the first big stage, and also, like the Super Bowl of like, CPG, anything that was like wild to, like, really start our journey there. Then we did a couple of local ones. We won the top prize at the Colorado Collision in the middle of the summer of 2023 which is part of the CSU spur campus. We won. This was so amazing to win, but Brand Builder of the Year with Colorado Food Works, which was awesome. Then we closed out 2023 by winning Denver Startups Week's pitch competition, which was really interesting, because that was also one of those, like, screw it moments. I'm going to apply for this, because technically, it was more of that, like, tech space that you think about when you think of like, "startup weeks". But I didn't let that hold us back. You know, we're a CPG brand, CPG company, and whatever we pitched and how we presented ourselves, like, that's how we won. And that was amazing.

Justin 11:40
I'm very grateful, she says, we so much, but she's the pitcher. Like, she grew up a catcher and I was a pitcher, but now, like, I don't play baseball anymore, right?

Sari 11:52
Well, you are a huge part of the brand, for sure. Yes, she is the face on the stage.

Chennelle 12:00
But really we went viral, once towards the end of 2023 which is awesome. Like when I say viral too, like for us, it was like going from 5000 followers to 10,000 to 15,000, which was like a huge leap for us. And then, I think it was January of 2024 so kicking off early last year, we went really, really viral on one of our posts and went up to almost 70,000 in followers and got like six millions of views. It's too wild. And of course, that equated to just like this rush of sales, and we had to go through this whole pre order process, because it's literally just two of us manufacturing by hand all of our products. We pack and ship every single one of our orders by hand, and even still, but maybe at this stage of growth, we can finally hire. But all through last year, we were going through that pre order process. We would sell out, then we'd have to shut down the website, and we, you know, so hard to keep up with demand validating at the same time, but it was really rough year in terms of growth.

Sari 13:12
Every time I would see you, I'd be like, these are all really good problems to have, but they are problems, and you guys were stressed. You were stretched thin. I hope you're okay with this, but I do want to give a shout out to Kayla King, because we have her social media course, and she's the one who really helped you guys go viral and figure out that space.

Chennelle 13:34
And for you know, definitely give props to Kayla. She from the beginning, when I was still, when we were still literally hand delivering products locally, door to door.

Justin 13:45
In our 1999 Volvo cross country wagon.

Chennelle 13:51
She was one of our first customers, and like, first people to like, shout us out on social media. And it was amazing to have that and to finally get into sort of that community online. So she definitely opened up those doors. And then she helped us out with social media for most of 2023 and into 2024 and really blew up our presence that way, and that was really amazing to have. And of course, she's still like a huge part of our brand and cheering us on. So grateful for her, that she worked her magic.

Sari 14:23
Yes, 100%. Oh my gosh. All right, so you guys went viral, and all of a sudden, I mean, I remember seeing you at the Christmas party. You were like, it's amazing. And also, holy shit, like, we aren't sleeping, we aren't eating, like, we open the website and it crashes. People are like, we run out of product, you know, in minutes, insane. And then, of course, you decide to add pizza crust in there somehow.

Justin 14:54
My favorite part of the year, since you mentioned the Christmas party, was winning the costume. The ugly sweater contest.

Chennelle 15:03
That's his contribution, is what you will put it. He has his own stage. I'll pitch on a stage. But there's other ways that Justin will be Justin and also is the embodiment of the brand and the presence we're trying, the feelings we're trying to evoke. Who we want, you know our cause, how we want our customers to feel.

Sari 15:26
Good Love Foods is about fun and integration and inclusion, and everybody gets to bring their weird, right?

Chennelle 15:33
Yeah, just and to feel like you're okay to be this way, and to and to eat this way, like there's zero stipulation behind it, or, you know, we, like, take away the stigma, it's okay, and also it's safe. So there's a, you know, there's different people that eat our products and love our products. I think because we have that sort of, like, open arm, like, we just want you to enjoy food and feel that same level of care and love.

Chennelle 15:34
I don't remember what I ate 16 and a half years ago, like before her, before I met Chennelle, I have no idea how I survived.

Sari 16:07
You've been eating well, for sure, all right, so you have four products, you have started with the biscuits, then the cinnamon rolls, then the puff pastry, which is my favorite, because it's amazing. I take that to parties, and people are like, what? That's crazy, and then, yeah, did the pizza crust. So, you know, and I get your emails, so basically, like, I see the emails that are like, the pre order window opens at this time and for this long, and when it's sold out, it's sold out, and you guys are busting your ass. You are in production. You're doing all these things. I have had conversations with many want to be CPG entrepreneurs who have said, you know, I was watching Shark Tank the other day, and I saw this brand on there, and I thought, well, I make something really great, and if they can do it, I can do it. And I cannot tell you how many people I have talked down from that, but I will say that Shark Tank has been an incredible inspiration for many startups and founders and getting going. And I have a lot of people who say, maybe one day I'll get on Shark Tank. So tell us a little bit about your journey. I'm have a feeling it was a little bit of another, what the hell.

Justin 17:32
Expo West so that, like, set the bar, like you've already been on this huge stage, like, and we were successful.

Sari 17:40
It was a national television.

Justin 17:42
But we didn't win.

Chennelle 17:47
Where our vision of our brand was, you know, we, we are mainly a D to C Company. So I should say that because, you know, we, when we blew up online. I mean, people really demanded our products, and we're like, alright, let's figure out the shipping. Like, we can do this, we can ship a frozen food product. So we figured out how to do that, and then we've been able to scale from there as a brand and solidify our place in the market, and also just have that, like, really, like, high quality customer service and customer loyalty from the beginning. But our vision still is to be a grocery store staple, and to be at this, like, huge expo where it's mainly about, like retail and just being in that, CPG, I don't know that, like, high volume, high production, like focus was like, this is where we want to be. But at the time, we had like 50,000 in sales total. We were still hand delivering. I wasn't still forgetting my shipping. So I mean that to just to go back a little bit that really was a huge lift. And like, alright, if they invited us to be on the stage, like, we know we can go places. And so that was also encouraging for me, as the founder originally to like, to want to continue to set the bar high and to continue to apply for pitches, or, what are some other ways we can continue to grow our brand, feasibly, like, economically at the same time. But like, how do we continue to do that and scale at the same time? It's a juggling act. And I'm sure that's why, when you talk people down, like, I love having those ideas. And you know, we could have probably started a business 10 years ago, but through a lot of our own personal learnings, professional learnings, we felt it was the right time. And also, I think you would understand this, but as an entrepreneur, I feel like you have to have the right mindset going into it. If you have a great idea, that's awesome, but don't be scared by basically, you're just solving problems. Scaling isn't as easy as pressing a button, even like we don't have a co packer, I would love a co packer.

Justin 19:55
Shout out to anybody.

Chennelle 19:59
But even if you had the funds to get a co packer to produce your first product as a CPG founder, that's great, but there's still so many growth spurts, and, you know, growing pains that you go through that you're still trying to solve problems along the way and even through all of that, we've been pushing forward and having nights where we just, like, work double shifts and we're crying. Justin likes to say we cry in between shifts, and, like, we've grown past that a little bit. But when it came to, like, one of the biggest stages to pitch Shark Tank, it was one of those moments also where, alright, I did all this, like, I did some regional and some localized pitching. We got some really great feedback, and, you know, some prizes to help us scale. But it didn't get us to that point. And I was thinking about, you know, we could start to pitch to some local investors, and even then, like it was, well, we need to see, at least, you know, one and a half million in revenue before we even think about, you know that. And so I was like, alright, well, we're not going to be there yet, and we have to scale now, especially with our demand. And that's really what led us to Shark Tank. Also another moment, I had applied to another local pitch competition because it was a higher cash prize. And I was like, didn't get in. And that kind of hurt my ego a little bit, but at the same time, pushed me forward to something bigger. So I applied online to Shark Tank. I looked to see if there were any casting calls, at least close enough, but they were all like, either east coast or west coast, and I didn't have the money or time to spend to go to an open casting call. So I did an online quick submission, and then heard back within a couple of weeks, and then the process kind of went from there.

Sari 21:53
I'm curious, because, yes, you knew you needed to scale and you know, $1,000 here, $2000 whatever, right, $5000 here and there, is not, like going to fix that right kind of issue, right? Yes, you were able to buy some a little bit of equipment, or maybe bring in some help here and there. But, like, you guys have huge, that is your biggest issue, right? Like other people have different problems. You know, if you're a hot sauce, like, everyone knows what a hot sauce is, you can easily get it co packed. But you have other problems, of like, how do you stand out in the marketplace? You guys have, like, this unique product that's wildly amazing and you have this great, loyal, as you called them, feral fans. And you know, you have amazing branding, and the product's amazing, but the production is where everything grinds like, it's the bottleneck because you, like, said, you're doing like, the stuff is finicky. It's not like, regular wheat, you know, gluten filled stuff, and you need very specialized processes and systems for it and so you guys, I know your arm 80,000 biscuits.

Justin 23:08
That was like last year.

Chennelle 23:10
Okay, now let's probably double that, but.

Sari 23:12
That's right, so, but scaling like that, either in your own facility or, you know, if you were able to find that co packer, which is so difficult with your kind of product, is like, you need a big chunk of cash to do that, right? But I'm curious why you felt like Shark Tank was the right move, versus maybe an SBA loan or friends and family or some other kind of capital raises?

Chennelle 23:44
That is a good question, I think, for us, like we looked into that and we did, we have lines of credit, and we do have additional loans we were able to get, but that still only helped incrementally, to really help scale our D to C. And so now that we have that D to C, which is going great with it still hinges on production. I think it also was a bigger validating point for us to be able to be on a show like that, and to be able to show our brand customers, potential customers, in a different light, and to really, you know, again, just solidify ourselves in the marketplace as a brand that's here to stay, but also is scalable, and we do want to be that household staple. So I think in the long term, our vision is like we need to express that, and what better way to do that than being on Shark Tank? Of course, you don't know what the outcome is going to be, or, you know if you're going to get a deal, or if they were going to hate the products when they tried it, but they didn't, which that was awesome to like, hear like, all of these positive comments and reviews from these sharks, like, trying our products for the first time, being like this is like, blew my mind. Amazing. And you're like, oh my gosh. And so I think, you know, the outcomes could have been negative.

Justin 25:06
They were negative, which is why I feel she had the drive to apply for Shark Tank.

Sari 25:16
Yeah, you had been validated along the way.

Justin 25:20
Investors. Like, no, we can't touch you until you're at 250,000 in sales. And then, oh no, now it's half a million. The economy's changed now, oh well, now it's a million. Like we're, like, getting to these incremental, like, milestones. But there was no one actually willing to help out.

Chennelle 25:42
The funny thing is like, they, you know, they would start preface by, like, saying, you've got a great brand, you've got a great, great products, and you're showing great traction, but you're just not there yet. So why not be like, put on a stage where, at least, you know, whatever else could have happened after, like, I don't know if you want to say yet. Like, just being able to, like, show our demand in a different way and show like, I don't know, I guess.

Sari 26:13
Show the brand, right?

Chennelle 26:14
Yeah, wanted to show. It's a way to show off a little bit, and that's okay, and that's what we wanted to do. We wanted to show our personality, which is huge for, I think, why so many folks have loved our brand from the beginning, you know.

Justin 26:28
So people still understand why I was there, like, it was entertainment. Like, didn't understand I was there for entertainment.

Chennelle 26:37
Oh instead of pitching with me, but, like, talk about that.

Sari 26:41
Yeah. Investment is challenging, for sure, and it just keeps getting more and more challenging and I will say, you know, I do think that, frankly, women in CPG get a rawer deal, and this little, you know, can be a little bro club to some extent. And money is harder and harder, and it's so frustrating because it's always like, this chicken or the egg. You're like, yeah, I know you want this kind of traction in the marketplace, but we can't get there until we get some cash infusion to be able to scale up, you know? And it's like, what point will somebody finally give you a shot and say, yes, I believe in you, and I believe in the product, and I believe in, you know, the possibility of this. And so, you know, my suspicion, and you confirmed it was that, like Shark Tank was a place, whether you got, you know, whether, if all of them said no, which was always a possibility, you still get this massive exposure, and you never know who is watching. That's like, I want to take a risk on her, you know, I see the potential. And so it's the marketing, it's, you know, all the other fringe benefits that come with a stage like that. So I see, you know, I totally understand now, you know, and for when, what you definitely experience that we'll talk about is like, they also want a lot, right? They want more than maybe a typical investor would take, but it's kind of that exchange, right? And so, you know what I love, you know, and you keep talking about your vision, and I love that so much, you know, we do that in Master Your Business, where we really talk about your mission and your vision and your 10x goal, and it's like you guys want to be a household grocery staple in a grocery store, right? Not even necessarily, just only you know natural convention, you know natural stores, but also conventional like that inclusion and being you know something for everyone, like bringing in the gluten free and celiac and all of these.

Justin 28:56
Also institutional, not just retail, but just hospitals.

Chennelle 29:01
We have a larger vision past retail, but it's part of that inclusivity, but, and it's part of building whatever it is we, you know, like, I don't want to say empire, but maybe I should, business owner, because, you know, I think that's why we're still here is because of that, like grounding, we were able to get with some of your courses, but really, truly focused on the why. I think what's really hard for entrepreneurs too is, like, maybe they're a little wishy washy about their brand or understood, like, as you start to scale, even if you have a good product, there's going to be some changes you're going to have to make, and maybe not complete pivoting, but you're going to have to adjust. But like, where's, how are you going to scale something without pivoting too much? Or what are the points like we've hit so many roadblocks and issues with cash flow, basically, most of the time, the issues with cash flow like, all right? Well, if this isn't working then, like, we need to switch, like, gears completely and do this. And like, those moments are like, no, we have a great product. We have to focus on the product and remember what our vision is, and then bring it back. And then that's what's always kind of helped us, like, get through the hardest times, is like, knowing we already have quality, amazing products that aren't found on the market. And like sticking with it.