{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Startup CPG Podcast","title":"Founder Feature: Sean Knecht of Tantos!","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1636,"description":"In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Sean Knecht, co-founder of Tantos—the first and only puffed pasta chip. Tantos is built on a simple but revolutionary idea: a snack whose base ingredient is wheat and water, the true definition of pasta, bringing a brand new category to the salty snack aisle alongside business partner and celebrity chef Joe Sasto.\nSean shares how a pasta lesson, a birthday gift, and a pop-up dinner led to a bromance-turned-business partnership, what it's really like to appear on Shark Tank not once but twice, and the reality of the Shark Tank effect—including the cash flow hit nobody talks about. He also walks through his strategy for convincing Whole Foods that the snack aisle is overloaded with tortilla chips and desperately needs something new.\n\nTogether, they cover:\nHow a DM about flour-to-egg ratios started a business partnership with celebrity chef Joe Sasto\nWhat \"first and only\" really means—and why Sean wouldn't have launched Tantos without it\nAppearing on Shark Tank twice: what changed, what didn't, and how to actually prepare\nThe real Shark Tank effect: 3,000 orders in three days, a 3x sales floor increase, and the cash flow hit nobody warns you about\nWhy Amazon held their money for over a month after the episode aired\nHow their co-packer became their lead investor—and why that's an underrated startup strategy\nThe Whole Foods pitch: how Sean counted every SKU in the snack aisle and used the data to make his case\nWhat it's like building a brand alongside a celebrity chef and reluctantly getting in front of the camera\n\nTantos is available online at eattontos.com and on Amazon, with national retail ambitions and a Whole Foods conversation in progress. If you've ever wanted to bring something truly new to the snack aisle, this episode is for you.\nEpisode Links: \nSean Knecht on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-knecht-a1398b11/ \nTantos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eattantos/ ...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/pMuUaMpWaAi3tfCEgC2OkLBVzokuLjLsIzwDIbGFqi4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hMTFl/MTgxNTNlZTAwZjU1/ZmNmNWM1ZjkwMDg5/NTU4MS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}