The Startup CPG Podcast


In this Founder Fundraising Journey episode, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Troy Bonde, co-founder and CEO of Sauz, to trace the winding path from a college side hustle to building one of the fastest-growing brands in the tomato sauce category.


Troy's road to Sauz started with a hand sanitizer and thermometer dispenser he and childhood friend and co-founder Winston sold to schools during COVID, using the proceeds to fund early angel investments and, eventually, Sauz itself. Frustrated by a commoditized tomato sauce aisle with no flavor innovation, Troy and Winston sold their cars to bootstrap the brand, launched at Erewhon in July 2023, and scaled from 10 doors to 3,500 in just 12 months, landing Whole Foods, Central Market, and Target distribution along the way.


Hannah and Troy dig into how Sauz built a data story compelling enough to win over major retail buyers, when and why the brand knew it needed institutional capital, the emotional and practical challenges of fundraising, and what Troy wishes he'd done differently around unit economics and hiring.


Listen in as they discuss:

  • Troy's unconventional path from teenage car salesman to M&A banking intern to tomato sauce founder
  • How a pandemic side business selling hand sanitizer dispensers funded Sauz's earliest days
  • Why Troy and Winston felt tomato sauce was overdue for the same reinvention seen in beverage brands like Poppy and Olipop
  • The surprising science behind flavors like hot honey and summer lemon marinara, and why they make dinner special
  • How Sauz turned demo data at Erewhon into distribution at Central Market, Whole Foods, and Target
  • The moment Sauz knew it needed to bring on institutional capital to fund growth
  • What made Coefficient Capital the right venture partner for Sauz
  • Why Troy believes velocity alone doesn't guarantee a smooth fundraise, and what else matters
  • Lessons learned about unit economics, hiring an ops lead sooner, and building a high-trust team
  • Troy's approach to deciding when to take outside advice versus trusting his own gut


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Creators and Guests

Host
Hannah Dittman
Operations and Finance Correspondent at Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Troy Bonde
Fundraising just generally is not easy. It's high stress, it's massively time consuming. It's this mixture of data aggregation and while also painting a picture and selling a vision. I think what's likely most difficult is one like it's not easy to drive best in class velocities, right? And investors are looking for best in class velocities. Like velocities are the North Star for in many ways whether a business is investable. And so I think that's one note though, it's maybe fundraising adjacent. It's such a critical piece of how simple it will be or how streamlined your fundraising experience might end up. I know a lot of founders that have incredible velocities that have had dozens of term sheets being thrown at them. And I know founders who also have great velocities but have still had a difficult time raising capital. It's this.

01:01
Troy Bonde
You really there's a balance of a large enough market, a massive TAM and great data within that TAM to be able to communicate an opportunity that venture can't ignore.

01:14
Hannah Dittman
Hey everybody, I'm Hannah Dittman, Operations and Finance host of the Startup CPG podcast, and today I'm joined by Troy Bonde, co founder and CEO of Sauz. For another Founder Fundraising Journey episode Sauce is reimagining the sauce aisle with a bold, modern take on tomato sauce for a new generation. What was once a pantry staple reserved for quick budget friendly dinners has become the centerpiece of the plate, packed with craveable flavors, vibrant branding, and a fresh perspective on a category that had gone largely unchanged for decades. In just a few short years, Saw's has become one of the fastest growing brands in the category, earning national distribution, building a passionate fan base, and successfully raising institutional rounds of funding.

01:57
Hannah Dittman
In this Founder Fundraising Journey episode, we dive into Troy's entrepreneurial path from selling cars in high school to launching his first business with his best friend during college, and ultimately using the proceeds from that venture to fund the dream that became Sauz. We explore how he and his co founder identified an opportunity to disrupt a legacy category, build an exceptional team around the business, and made the strategic decisions that helped fuel SAW's rapid growth. Troy also shares what fundraising looked like as the company scaled, how they earned the confidence of institutional investors, the importance of thinking several steps ahead as a founder, and the lessons he's learned while building one of the most exciting emerging brands in CPG today. Throughout the conversation, his entrepreneurial instincts, strategic mindset and relentless focus on execution are on full display.

02:43
Hannah Dittman
Whether you're Raising capital, building a challenger brand, or looking for inspiration from a founder who spotted an overlooked opportunity and executed at an incredibly high level. This episode is packed with practical insights and plenty of motivation. Go grab a jar of Sauz, cook yourself an incredible meal and enjoy the episode. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Hannah and today we're back for an awesome founder fundraising journey episode with Troy Bonde of Sauz. Troy, welcome to the show.

03:17
Troy Bonde
Hannah. Thank you for having me.

03:19
Hannah Dittman
Thank you so much for being here. We're happier for you to be here. Huge fan of your brand and what you're building. I love pasta. I love sauce. So you're right up my alley. Before we dive into a little bit more of the awesome stuff you're working on with your company, I'd love to kick off with a brief background of your career, the journey, and the path that led you to building sauce.

03:39
Troy Bonde
Yeah, of course. So I'm a co founder of the brand. Kind of a non conventional path tomato sauce. I was a sophomore at USC when Covid hit. I was interning at a merchant bank in lower middle market tech, media, telecom, M and A. The goal was to go finance. I was a business major and I had started dropshipping a product that we can get more into, I think in maybe a future question. But had started a company at USC in a totally different industry. It was entirely Covid dependent and somehow pivoted in the tail end of COVID tomato sauce. So I actually began building the brand as a sophomore in college and I was selling Chevys as a freshman and sophomore at usc.

04:22
Troy Bonde
I was a car salesman in high school, had kind of an automotive industry past and then into proper finance in the M and A world for a summer and after that straight into tomato sauce. So a little bit non conventional, but it's so happy with the way it's worked out. Of course.

04:39
Hannah Dittman
That's so exciting. What an entrepreneurial person you are. And clearly you have a great sales muscle. I mean, car salesman as a high school student is crazy. I'm like, I had to hustle hard for my high school job. So you must have been one impressive kid for them to trust you with all of that.

04:55
Troy Bonde
It was the year the new Corvette came out, so it was actually pretty easy to sell Corvettes that year. I got lucky, but you were crushing it. But I've got a big passion for cars and so, I mean, as you know, when you're passionate about something, it makes it either more easy to convince that person to hire you to speak on their behalf or maybe simpler to excel at the job. So that was fun. It worked out. It didn't end up being. It wasn't something I wanted to do long term. I knew that. But a great learning experience.

05:24
Hannah Dittman
Yeah. It's so funny how all these formidable moments or formative moments in our youth end up sticking with us and influencing us in certain ways. We pick up the important things, and it all guides the path. Before we dive into a little bit more about your company, I'd love to know. Clearly, you were kind of pulled to entrepreneurship relatively early. The fact that you were dabbling in this in college and then off to the races, what about it was intriguing to you? Or do you feel like, felt your personality or your skill set better than maybe pursuing the traditional finance path that you had kind of explored A little bit?

05:57
Troy Bonde
I loved my summer in banking. I think what was most exciting to me about working in finance that summer was that, for example, we had one business were on the sell side of that was a predictive weather systems business. They were actually manufacturing both the hardware and the tech to predict the weather and effectively create, you know, satellites that were licensed then to news stations and even to foreign governments and militaries. And I remember this deal was crazy. It was like a wild business, Difficult to price. How do you value such a niche business with a huge tam, but still very strange, like nothing my team had ever seen. And my favorite part was the disagreements we would have on the value of the business, the multiple we could command with the founder. This founder was a maniac. Like, an absolute maniac.

06:44
Troy Bonde
We thought he was nuts, and he was so passionate about his business. Like, he was the strangest, yet most infectious personality. I found that as kind of a common thread across our entire portfolio of businesses we'd work on. I mean, my favorite part always was getting to know and meet these founders and see how starkly different so many of them were. There were, like, very few common threads, which I thought was the most interesting part, other than each of them had this insatiable will to win or this judgment that seemed, in our eyes, so clouded because they felt their businesses were worth so much more than we thought they were. Right. And so, I don't know, I think that entrepreneurial spirit, I guess if I could pin it to anything, it would be that all of them had some sort of wild entrepreneurial spirit.

07:30
Troy Bonde
And that felt infectious. I mean, when I was working as analyst, it felt like I was doing all of the grunt work that then led to the value Creation, but I wasn't creating the value. And so, you know, I feel like what was probably the catalyst for me to do so and take the leap was that I wanted to be the one creating the value. I love building things. I love ideating and being able to execute. And in cbg, there's nothing better than having an idea and then experiencing holding that idea in your hand or tasting it or drinking it. So I think that likely was it. I mean, I loved what I had done in banking, but I knew it wasn't for me because I felt like almost a bird in a cage.

08:08
Hannah Dittman
I've spent a lot of time with founders throughout my career as well, and I echo your sentiment. Their backgrounds are so different. Business acumen even is very different. But it's just, I think the other exciting poll is just the admiration and respect for the grit and the willing to fight it out. It's people that are constantly facing obstacles and challenges and overcoming them. And I think if you have any of that like underdog mentality or kind of that excitement about climbing a mountain, it's the thrill of the challenge, I think also that really attracts a lot of those people. And what I think it's the same way that people admire athletes for doing hard things.

08:48
Hannah Dittman
I think you're looking at someone doing incredibly hard things that you understand are so hard and you're seeing them succeed at it in various different ways with different approaches. And that's really exciting. And now here we are watching you succeed and doing the hard things. So I'd love to pivot and talk a little bit more about what exactly the mission, the vision and what you've got going on with Sauz is. I'm sure we have a lot of fans already in the audience. Myself and the startup CPG team, we're big fans, but would love to convert any other listener who maybe hasn't heard about you guys yet.

09:20
Troy Bonde
Yeah, we are a new generation of tomato sauce in primarily in grocery, but also D2C, solving what we feel was an innovation issue in a category that consumers know and love but have not been excited by or felt excited for in far too long. In my mind, the tomato sauce category should be a discovery category. The consumer should be excited to walk down the aisle. But unfortunately today, and especially four years ago, but even still today, when the consumer enters the category and meets the shelf, they're faced with many New York restaurant to retail brands, which are great in so many ways, but you can only have so many and very little flavor innovation. What we feel is an Entirely commoditized category one that is dominated by marinara, arrabbia, tomato, basil, roasted garlic, and pomodoro.

10:09
Troy Bonde
And we felt like, as Gen Zs, a new generation of consumers expects more than just a commodity at the shelf and primarily in premium. Our goal is to provide more value in the premium set than what one might otherwise find and in turn, to leave a lasting impression and a memorable experience, to build loyalty and lifetime value with the shopper. So my goal really is to bring flavor and excitement to a category that I feel for far too long has been commoditized. I think in the long term, you'll see that we also feel we have more opportunity to introduce new verticals to the category as well. So I feel like the core focus is Sauz is here to bring more value to the shopper. And in bringing more value, we're also elevating the consumption experience.

10:57
Hannah Dittman
Very well said. And I particularly resonate with this. And it. I think it's delicious. And I feel like is such a gap that you're filling. I remember growing up, I grew up from relatively humble beginnings. And for our birthdays, we got to pick what my mom would make us for dinner. Like, we got to decide what dinner was going to be. Essentially, that was like, our birthday thing. And I always pick homemade spaghetti because homemade sauce was so good. And anytime we had jar sauce, I was like, womp, womp, because it just didn't even come close at all. And it makes so much sense to be able to offer something that comes a little closer to that, like, homemade delicious feel where you're actually craving it, you're wanting it.

11:40
Hannah Dittman
Not like, oh, yeah, well, we only had 15 minutes for dinner, so this is like the subpar shlop that we're gonna eat just for sustenance versus, like, really being excited about it.

11:50
Troy Bonde
I say this all the time. Nothing will ever match homemade product. Like, there's nothing that beats grandma's homemade marinara. I think what's interesting about our product is that it's almost irreplicable in the kitchen. If you were to try to go make hot honey marinara at home, I promise you it'll taste like honey. I can't even try our product off the line until it sits in a jar for two days because the honey has to sit and emulsify and marinate, and the product needs time to mature. If I tasted our hot honey, I actually remember the first production run in la. I tasted hot honey off the line, and it tasted so sweet. It tasted like honey, no heat. It tasted like it didn't have tomato in it. And I freaked out. I called the CO packer over. I said, what's going on?

12:35
Troy Bonde
He said, just give it two days. And he said, I'm just warning you, we're going to run summer lemon in about 45 minutes, and you're going to say the same thing to me. And I tasted summer lemon marinara off the line, and it tasted like I'd had a shot of lemon juice. It was horrible. And he said, give it two days and come back and let's meet and we'll cut them on the benchtop. And they were perfect. Like, unbelievable and perfect. And so, you know, we have a few skus that I would say maybe could be more easily replicated in the kitchen at home. But what's interesting is that summer lemon and hot honey, you almost can't make those at home. It's impossible to do homemade. So you're right. Like, there's nothing that beats homemade product.

13:12
Troy Bonde
I think angle that I never would have expected to have to pursue or to want to pursue is how can I bring product to market that is still familiar enough to get the consumer to be willing to try, but that can't be made at home? Like, where can I offer value that could not be found in someone's own kitchen? So just a caveat there, a side note about how we think about innovation.

13:34
Hannah Dittman
I love that, and I think your products make a ton of sense. It's exciting to eat. It's delicious. And at the end of the day, when you're wanting food like that, it's comfort food, and you're wanting to feel like it's delicious and satisfying, not like a cheap version of the thing you wish you were actually eating. You want to be like, oh, I'm so glad I'm actually eating this right now. And that's what leads to customer satisfaction and all the brand love that you guys have received. So. Yeah. And exciting, fun flavors. And I know you're talking about discovery earlier and thinking about kind of being the aisle being a discovery aisle as well. And I think there's two ways to take that statement.

14:10
Hannah Dittman
One is brand discovery, meaning there's been so many stodgy, classico incumbents that have been sitting on their shelves that have just been getting by. So there's brand discovery, and, like, there's all that going on. But then I think there's flavor and palette discovery as well, and maybe exploring something new that you've never even tried. Like, maybe you've never had a hot honey pasta before, and this is kind of your first experience with something like that as well. And I think it's double the fun when you're experiencing a new brand, a new modern offering, but also new flavor profiles and new things like that.

14:44
Troy Bonde
Exactly. I think convenience and utility are so important, but the reality is, like, I want to leave a lasting impression on the palate of the consumer. Right. And so product and experience do reign supreme. I think, of course, bias. But I feel like we've done a good job of packaging up convenience, utility and experience together as a means of really communicating outsized value at the shelf. But you're totally right. I mean, it comes down to, you know, can we offer an incredible product at a great price that is not a sacrifice? Like, can we actually leave an impression on the consumer's mind that makes them want to go out and associate with the brand or, you know, build tons of loyalty between brand and consumer in the future? And that is a product of. No pun intended. Great, great product, great sauce.

15:34
Hannah Dittman
So, yeah, product first. It all starts there. And I think you've got a very sharp mind about who you're serving and how you're doing it and a lot of respect for the diligence that probably went into that. Now that we kind of got the lay of the land of who you are and what you're doing, I'd love to really understand the story of Sauz from ground zero to where we are today. I know that you have a co founder would love to understand what the journey of coming to market was and what the journey in terms of capital needs and funding and team building and all of these things. How has this all unfolded for you all over time?

16:08
Troy Bonde
Yeah. So going way back, I guess we, Winston, my co founder, we grew up together. We went preschool, middle school, high school, and college together. We were sophomores at USC when Covid hit. We were sent home. We're from the same hometown. And so he was interning at a real estate development firm virtually in la, and I was virtual with an a merchant bank. And we found ourselves working together. We were bored during COVID we'd kind of work together. He'd be on his internship in one side of the room, I'd be on the other. And after the. The days were done, we'd go do something together. We'd play. Honestly, we'd play a lot of Fortnite, we'd play video games. We felt like were wasting our time.

16:47
Troy Bonde
And after a few weeks of doing so, we'd Shut the laptop from the zoom calls and say, there's gotta be something more productive we can do, right? And so we brainstormed a bit and we had this thought of trying to better bring or more efficiently bring students back to the classroom, primarily at usc, but potentially at any and every large gathering or school. And the thought was when we would go back to class, we'd assume that professors would be handing out masks, they'd be taking temperatures and they'd be sanitizing hands and so forth for us. We felt like we had this opportunity to combine two of those things in selling a hand sanitizer dispenser with a built infrared thermometer. And so we ended up sourcing a product from Shenzhen, China that was exactly that.

17:34
Troy Bonde
It was like a standard hand sanitizer dispenser with a thermometer gun built into it. And so it's actually funny, we bought one sample from Shenzhen, China, it arrived, we tested it worked perfectly. And we cold emailed a public school in our hometown and they said, come on in, test the product. We want to see it and if we enjoy it, we'll buy it. And so I put on a coat and tie, I drove over to. It was Glendale Unified School District in la. I demoed the product and that evening we had a signed purchase order for something like $25,000. And I called Winston. We freaked out. We were celebrating. And then we realized we didn't have enough to fund the P.O. We had to wire a manufacturer in China $10,000. And I ended up going to my grandfather, who was 90 at the time.

18:23
Troy Bonde
I told him, I need $10,000. I promise you I'll pay you back in 15 days. It's net 15, it's signed by the state. We're going to provide sanitizer products to the public schools. And he wrote me a check. He said, if it never comes back, you know, I won't be mad at you. And I wired it to the manufacturer and five days later we shipped by air. Pallets arrived on my mom and dad's doorstep and we delivered them by hand to Glendale and they paid in 11 days. And so we all of a sudden felt like, you know, we had this business on our hands. We were cold emailing all day, all night, and next thing we knew, I mean, we scaled that business really in 90 days to almost seven figures. We almost touched seven figures in like a quarter.

19:02
Troy Bonde
And if you look at a quarterly P and L, were straight up one quarter and straight down the next. And so we'd stuck in that we had netted a sum of money we never would have otherwise expected to during that summer. But it wasn't sustainable. We owned no IP and we knew we had to pivot to something. If I wanted to get out of banking and he wanted to get out of real estate that had longer legs and that we could own and build and that had brand equity and that we could drive brand affinity toward. And it ended up being tomato sauce. And so that really is the origin story. We looked at each other one day and said, look, we need to pivot or else we're going back to finance. What should it be? And coincidentally, were cooking.

19:41
Troy Bonde
We had an office in our hometown and we'd cook either pasta or chicken parm five nights a week. Winston, my co founder, is very culinary and like you said earlier, Hannah, he had never purchased a jar of sauce in his life. He'd always made it. He'd always made it. His grandma had a recipe and his mom had a recipe and he had a recipe and we would buy jarred tomato sauce because were cooking on this little stovetop burner in the office while I was drafting emails and he was boiling the pasta and we'd go to Whole Foods or Sprouts or Bristol Farms or Ralph's in Southern California. And every time we'd go, we could not decide what we wanted to buy in the category because we didn't want to associate with really any of it. I mean, we'd walk. And again, it's not.

20:21
Troy Bonde
There's a lot of great brands in the category. We love most of them. But as two Gen Z's, we'd walk the perimeter. We'd walk by Beverage and we'd see Poppy and Ollipop and Sanzo and Half Day and all these bright and colorful and exciting brands. And every subcategory of grocery felt that way. And tomato sauce was the opposite. It was old Italian east coast and were west coast kids and we deferred a flavor and it was totally commoditized. And somehow we decided there was this two pronged approach we could take in building a cheeky and fun and dynamic and exciting brand like what we'd seen Poppy and Olipop do and pair it with innovative and on trend flavors like maybe what we'd seen in the protein bar set or really in most other condiment sets as well.

21:05
Troy Bonde
And went all in and we kind of looked at each other one day and said, let's, you know, if we're going to do it, we have to do it, and there's no turning back. So that really is the. I mean, that's the brief version of the origin story, but it went from an internship to really dropshipping for our first business, and then a real pain point, which sounds crazy that tomato sauce could ever be a pain point for anybody. But a lack of excitement, you know, when you're sitting in front of a computer screen all day.

21:31
Troy Bonde
And I, I say this often about our consumer, but for us then, sitting in front of a computer screen, getting denied by most that we would email and losing deals and having to really fight to win, there's something about being able to be excited by your meal and to be able to take a deep breath and to enjoy and have this semi serotonin boost when you take a bite of hot honey marinara, that makes the day a little bit better. And I think when I look at our consumer, for example, at Target, you go to the average shopper in Minneapolis shopping at Target, They've had a long day at work. They're supporting a family. They don't go home and think to themselves, I wish I could bring my family to a Michelin star meal in the West Village for a couple thousand dollars.

22:17
Troy Bonde
I think they're more conditioned to consume the way fast casual has been built, or in ways that are convenient but still enjoyable and exciting. We've never bought into the notion that the consumer in Toledo, Ohio, is craving a Michelin star meal from a New York restaurant. And so I think what we had felt then, the consumer still feels today. And it's that we're focused on excitement and the experience on the pallet and all that we can build to drive a lasting impression for the shopper.

22:49
Hannah Dittman
Right.

22:49
Troy Bonde
That's what it all kind of came down to. And that's what drove us to take the leap and start the business. I think the opportunity was one that was almost more emotional than anything.

22:58
Hannah Dittman
Yeah. So well said. And wow, so much that just got laid out that I was just so impressive and interesting. First of all, food is definitely joy and dopamine. And it makes sense. Makes sense. Like a lot of people derive so much happiness. And if it's good for you and tastes good and feels good and is accessible and easy, I mean, you're ringing all the bells. It makes a lot of sense. So intuitive. And what enterprising minds. I mean, my gosh, the business sense that you both had at such a early stage in your career is so impressive. And to even understand the ways in which you need to look and analyze a business and the foresight you need to have to understand where things might fall off the wheels and what fundamental business model change would need to be implemented.

23:39
Hannah Dittman
For something to be a viable, successful long term enterprise, I think is just really impressive and takes a lot of people learning the hard way or a long time of learning to figure that out. So going kind of back to the beginning days, were you guys using the capital that you earned from your hand sanitizer sales to then bootstrap and fund the sauce and the SaaS journey?

24:01
Troy Bonde
That's correct. We actually. So what we did was we almost split the net proceeds in half and we began investing in early stage consumer deals. We'd never started, of course, a food business in our lives. We'd never worked at one. We wanted to find a way to look under the hood and one to be able to see what works and what doesn't and kind of get a look behind the curtains at different categories. But also then get to know various founders and be able to learn from them and tap into their networks. And so we took about half of it and wrote small angel checks into early stage consumer brands. And were able to build a network that way pretty quickly. And the other half went entirely toward building Sauz. I had sold, I had a Mazda Miata that I loved.

24:44
Troy Bonde
I wish I never sold it. And I sold my Miata and Winston sold his Ford F150 and went all in. And so we really split the proceeds in half. And I think were pretty tactical in being able to accelerate the path to building. As you know, CPG is such a small world and such a small with a lot of great people who are entirely willing to help. And I think as a result of us tapping into the industry early, you know, far pre launch it shortened the learning curve a bit. And so that's how we approached it. We went early stage consumer checks that were very small but that allowed us to have information rights to be able to take a look under the hood and then full speed on building and commercializing Sauz.

25:27
Hannah Dittman
Gosh, again just so smart. Your guys business strategy and the business acumen is so impressive and very clear differentiator. I'm just like blown away with how structured your thinking was and how logical the approach was.

25:40
Hannah Dittman
And a lot of wisdom actually shown in your early days that I'm sure has helped you avoid a lot of pitfalls and allowed you to get to the traction that you're seeing so early on what point was it no longer just the two of you in the business, what was the milestone moments from launch to that point forward, or maybe if it was even pre launch of when did you think about institutional funding and what was the journey and the milestone rollout of your business from you guys saying, okay, we're angel investing, we're in our diligence mode, we're going to learn and really just soak up everything that we can. All right, we're ready to press go. Now what?

26:16
Troy Bonde
You know, we launched in July of 23 and I graduated in 2022. So we started building the business in 21. We didn't get to market until 2023. And you know, I think there was a ton of, I mean, from our family and friends and those we told were starting this tomato sauce brand, I think a question mark about if it would ever come to market. But one, were hyper obsessed with product and we took a long time to launch and were definitely delicate with what were going to introduce as a first impression. But we also lined up an Erewhon launch, which was huge. And so we launched the brand in July of 23 at Erewhon.

26:54
Troy Bonde
We didn't know what to expect, but we sat in those stores and demoed and demoed week after week and we effectively manufactured this data story that was unbelievable by virtue of one, demoing tons, I mean, spending as much time as we could doing so. And then two, we saw a ton of organic lift and retention. And I mean, even today our vodka sauce sells almost. I mean, don't quote me on it because I haven't seen the data last week, but if you look at the last six months, we've probably sold 30, 40%, maybe twice as much vodka. Like, we've sold a lot more vodka sauce in that store than any other SKU from any other brand. And it began when were in the store getting to know those who actually shop routinely at Erewhon.

27:38
Troy Bonde
And we, you know, we took that data story and were able to gain Central Market and town and country market distribution. And I think the question mark for us was, of course it works at Erewhon, a consumer that is not highly price sensitive in our backyard where we can demo. But will it work between the coasts and especially at Central Market was a big question mark. And we launched at Central Market on Bogo. I think Central Market expected us to move like a thousand jars and we moved 5,000 in four days. And so we saw a huge lift at Central Market. And from there we packaged up all of the Data we had and we pitched Whole Foods and Whole Foods authorized us for SOPACT distribution. And from there it was kind off to the races.

28:24
Troy Bonde
I mean, we really went from 10 Erewhon stores to 3500 doors in the span of 12 months. So it was wild growth trajectory. I mean, we pitched Target in January of that year, so we'd only been launched, call it like four months, five months really. And we gained chain wide target distribution. And I think what the buyers were really willing to buy into without a ton of data to support it, was that were going to be as incremental as any brand had ever been to that category. When we pitch the vision just the way we would to venture to buyers, I think they understood and resonated with the fact that we can do things in a fundamentally unique way to drive Gen Z and Millennials to store. We're not going to cannibalize existing dollars. We're going to build new dol.

29:11
Troy Bonde
We're going to play in a unique vertical in the category and in doing so, we're going to build cart value in categories that otherwise wouldn't see overlap with tomato sauce. I guarantee you if you pull some of the shopper data on our consumer, they're buying more skincare products than what the traditional 50 plus consumer might be. Or there's overlap that is far unique and also entirely incremental to adjacent sets. And so that I think was aside from the fact that every time a buyer sampled our product, they generally enjoyed it and felt it was so different. I think the fact that we could bring an entirely new demographic, a far younger consumer that is soon to be the majority of purchasing power in the US to their stores. It was an easy sell at that point.

29:55
Hannah Dittman
Huge congrats. I mean, wow, rollout. Story of a lifetime. And I can't imagine what behind the scenes was like. And the CO man was probably like,.

30:03
Troy Bonde
Oh my gosh, many ways, a nightmare. And that's really when the team began to grow. To answer your question, when we committed to Target, we ran the numbers and said one, how are we going to make this much product? We have one line were cooking in LA and we have no ops team. I was booking our freight. Winston was actually packing pallets and loading them up on trucks.

30:24
Hannah Dittman
I've done the pallet jack. Done it, yeah.

30:27
Troy Bonde
And I was booking all the freight. I was communicating with DCs, I was talking to buyers and we realized really quickly that wasn't sustainable. And so the team grew from there. We hired in Ops Which I think is just so critical early. And actually I didn't mention we did hire Cameron, who is still with us is our head of brand pre launch. So she joined pre launch. We were always focused on marketing. Cameron was at DOE for a long time. She really built the socials at doe, the edible cookie dough company. And I think when she joined Doe it was like 500 followers and when she left it was a hundred thousand or something organic. And she's incredibly talented and we also do owe that growth story does not happen without the incredible brand that Cameron was able to build.

31:10
Troy Bonde
And still to this day continues to. I am not a marketer, I'm not a brand guy. The reason Sauz is cool is not because of me. And so Cameron was our first team member to join in October pre launch. So she joined in October, we didn't launch until July and then we hired an ops by the turn of that year. So from there the team grew quickly. I mean today it's 13.

31:34
Hannah Dittman
Incredible. At what point were you guys feeling the need to pivot away from the bootstrap self funded journey and decide you needed some more serious capital muscle to get in the business?

31:46
Troy Bonde
Yeah, you know, we had raised pre launch, we raised a little bit of cash from a fund called Palm Tree Crew and Palm Tree Crew is Kygo, the DJs venture arm. They're incredible awareness partners and we saw that as highly strategic to be able to launch with a bang, a huge impression and to drive a ton of virality. I would say when Whole Foods committed and then Target, we knew we needed cash to fund growth. I mean it's no secret that my category is not incredibly high margin. It's highly price sensitive. If you go to the tomato sauce category at a Whole Foods tomorrow, you'll probably see a lot of yellow tags.

32:25
Troy Bonde
I think the consumer has been trained in the past to buy on yellow tag because there hasn't been many outsized value propositions for the consumer to be willing to part with their hard earned dollars at full price. And so we knew we would need to fund the business with venture. And so we actually met Coefficient Capital at Expo west that year. So our first real Expo west and Coefficient loved the category, they loved the product and similarly we really enjoyed the Coefficient team. We thought they were and they to this day continue to be incredibly thoughtful. They're very talented investors and were able to paint a vision for us as well that we could buy into.

33:04
Troy Bonde
And it was that, you know, this business can be a huge category player and not only can compete with those who are in the category today, but can be, you know, that brand that is incremental to any store, any account, any food service partnership, any channel we play in. And so, you know, I think it's a two way street, of course, always when you enter these partnerships with Venture. But it's been great, really. We did know though, you know, the minute a handful of big kind of blue chip retailers committed, we would need to fund with Venture for sure.

33:37
Hannah Dittman
I mean, that is just such a capital intensive move. And I hear you on the margin, it makes a lot of sense. I'm not super familiar with the category, but conceptually, like when I think about the psychology of it historically, pasta sauce is dinner on a budget. You know, it's like got to feed the whole family in a cheap way. It's not high on people's list of like, oh, I'm craving this, so I'm really willing to spend on it. It's like a functionality budget purchase typically and it's transitioning now into more of a treat mindset.

34:07
Hannah Dittman
So you've got to like grapple with obviously bringing an interesting option but not being so far and away on a price that you're losing the beginning of the customer journey that's originally getting them there and slowly getting them to change their mindset or psychology of what that purchase really is for them without kind of sticker shocking them too much. So it's a tight walk to walk. So you've done two institutional funding rounds and then a pretty sizable bootstrap as well. What do you think? You know, reflecting back on your fundraising journey, obviously you're so well spoken, have a really compelling story and a lot of traction to show and proof points. I'm sure even in you're in the best case scenario in a lot of ways of fundraising.

34:47
Hannah Dittman
But I'm sure there was still challenges for others listening that are pursuing this or thinking about it in their own businesses. What do you think the biggest challenges of fundraising are and how did you all overcome them?

34:57
Troy Bonde
Yeah, you know, it's tough. I think there's always, whether it's with the consumer or with an investor, it's always difficult to get somebody to part with their dollars. Right. We've learned that for sure. Fundraising just generally is not easy. It's high stress, it's massively time consuming. It's this mixture of data aggregation and while also painting a picture and selling a vision. I think what's likely most difficult is one like it's not easy to drive best in class, velocities Right. And investors are looking for best in class velocities like velocities are the North Star for in many ways whether a business is investable. And so I think that's one note though. It's maybe a fundraising adjacent. It's such a critical piece of how simple it will be or how streamlined your fundraising experience might end up.

35:48
Troy Bonde
I know a lot of founders that have incredible velocities that have had dozens of term sheets being thrown at them. And I know founders who also have great velocities but have still had a difficult time raising capital. It's this, you really there's a balance of a large enough market, a massive TAM and great data within that TAM to be able to communicate an opportunity that venture can't ignore. I think also in my mind many founders, it can be difficult for many founders to feel like they're giving up a piece of their own business which so many are so emotionally attached to. And I think some advice for young founders for me would be that being non territorial is your best friend. You have to of course due diligence on your venture partner or those who are investing in your business.

36:34
Troy Bonde
But Winston and I have always been in the camp that we would love to grow this business in a way that builds value for everybody involved. And I think that particularly as a first time, really am a first time founder is most important because like I would love to be in this industry for 30 years and if I could build an incredible outcome for so many, I think it would only give me incredible future opportunity to fundraise either from the same parties or from others. Right. And so I think the most difficult part is semi emotional as well in that founders really do feel like they have this love and passion for what they've built.

37:10
Troy Bonde
And it can be really difficult to be deluded or to feel like you're giving out, you know, outsized rights to somebody who maybe you don't know that well inevitably. And the second piece really is building an incredible data story is not easy. I tell founders often it was almost easier to raise money pre launch than it is post launch because you have no data to check you. You can really sell this vision. If you have to raise against your data, it's going to be incredibly difficult if your data is a tailwind. It'll be an amazing process.

37:37
Hannah Dittman
It's all really helpful and hard won insights for sure. Is there anything looking back now that you have all of this learning and experience that you wish you KN when you first started your company as it relates to funding or capital management specifically.

37:53
Troy Bonde
I wish I had more. And we'd grown so quickly that I would say, I wish I could have focused more on pushing my unit economics to a place that would allow me to not have to capitalize the growth or fund the growth so much. That being said, it's always easy to look back and say, oh, I wish I could have bartered a better contract for my tomatoes in 2023. Right? Like, it's easy for me to say it, but in practice it probably wouldn't have happened. I do think your unit economics are the lifeblood of your business. You will live and die by your margins. And so if I could go back, I would make it even more of a core focus than maybe it was then. I would have likely hired sooner.

38:34
Troy Bonde
I think I would have hired an OPS a lot sooner than I had. And that to me, is kind of a different side to the same coin when it comes to unit economics. Having somebody who knows better than you at what they specialize in is an incredible lift for any business I love. Somebody said to me the other day, and this isn't. He didn't mean it literally, but he said, some of the best founders I know make themselves obsolete. And it stuck with me. I've been thinking about it a few days because, like, not obsolete in the sense that, you know, the founder's off in San Tropez, but more so, like, I think building a high trust organization is so important. Each individual leader in their department at my business acts as the CEO of their department. Right.

39:17
Troy Bonde
And I can learn from those CEOs, I can learn from every individual departmental head at my business. And it's made me such a better operator and such a better founder, and it's helped me better fundraise and do all these things. And so I would say I had a lot of great industry friends and founders who we'd invested in early, who helped me learn things that I otherwise would not have been able to quickly. But I wish I had the team internally maybe a bit sooner to do so. And I think some hires really do pay for themselves. And that's something that was difficult for me to learn early on. Specifically in ops, if you have a great OPS system, it's the best advantage you can build. In CPG, in my mind, if you're living in grocery is on the OPS end.

39:59
Hannah Dittman
So true. And especially with the food products, because it's a different animal than some other categories, for sure. And there's no perfect scorecard. I mean, their business concessions have to be made all the time in the same way that, you know, you don't get in 100% of your wish list. When you go to a co man, you're either going to eat it on time, quality or cost. You're going to pick one of the legs of the stool that's going to have to give a little to get some of the other stuff. And that's business, too. And hopefully investors who are thoughtful and operationally minded have some knowledge about that enough to find the right companies to work with.

40:32
Hannah Dittman
And I feel like that's also kind of just a testament to the investment partners that you choose, the ones that understand all the different ways you're navigating the business and what the reality is. Like boots on the ground for you. Before we pivot into a case study from Slack, I would love to just ask you know, you've had this exciting, incredible journey so far with Sauz. The past seems like chapters and chapters, book and itself of all of those exciting things and different obstacles and roads you've walked. What does the future have in store for you? What milestones are you working towards with your current investment partners? What's the real dream for the whole extended team that has been brought on board of where this company is going?

41:11
Troy Bonde
I think proven that product works in tomato sauce at scale, and we've really made a dent, though still low ACV, we're about 9% ACV. And the next competitors, I would say are 45, 50. So we have a ton of upward opportunity at tomato sauce. And I think we've proven thus far that flavored tomato sauce works at scale. Consumers are looking for experience and a way to excite their family or their friends in a category that most know and love. And that is such a huge piece of even the American identity. Right. And of culinary culture here. But also, you know, I think in the future, what is so exciting to me is that we have a product platform that allows us to play far beyond jarred tomato sauce.

41:54
Troy Bonde
And though I promise were just talking about ops, I won't execute on this in the near term. But I think we have permission to do things that nobody else in the category can do in a way that really does appeal to Gen Z and millennials and even a far broader spectrum of shoppers and can live in the daily life or in the pantry. And also, I think we have a means of, I see a few verticals of the business today. One of them, its core is flavor innovation. That, again, has been so true to what we stand for. And who we are in building excitement and experience. We just launched a basic basil marinara, which is maybe the opposite of what you would expect to be when you consider flavor innovation.

42:35
Troy Bonde
But it was an April Fool's joke that went viral and we figured we could do basic better as well. Right. So we've also, I think we have a means of doing the norms in a way that is actually also more incremental and more experiential. And if you try our basic basil, you'll know what I mean. But I think the third to me is that there is a world in my mind where the category needs utility. Is there a way we can even further a value proposition and communicate even more value through utility? You know, you see fiber trending everywhere, you see protein trending everywhere. And not that I want to capitalize on trends, but I think that, you know, convenience and comprehensive solutions to nutrition gaps are important.

43:17
Troy Bonde
And so if I can offer a means for a consumer to fill a nutrition gap by virtue of enjoying a jar of tomato sauce at dinner, I would love to. So those are things we're exploring. I think we have an amazing product platform that allows us to do things nobody else can. We're not restricted to Italian foods. We're a sauce brand. And more so than just a sauce brand. I think we own the tomato. I always say, like, we own the modern tomato. So anything tomato related, I think you might see us play in. But I really see three verticals. I see more flavor innovation in the future. I see actually a push to do basic better and to do things that consumers already consume highly, routinely, in a way that elevates the consumption experience through quality and flavor.

43:59
Troy Bonde
And with basic basil, it is the most basil blasted marinara you'll ever try. And the third is utility. I think there is a world where, and I believe in today's world and in the future, you will see more utility in food than you ever have just beginning with fiber and protein. But, you know, who knows where it will land? And so if there are ways that I can offer value there, I'd like to explore it. But for now, it's flavor, it's tomato sauce, and, you know, it's exploring basic basil and things of those sorts.

44:27
Hannah Dittman
I cannot wait to try new flavors from you all. And basic basil. That sounds amazing. I like I said, huge fan. And I think flavor innovation is so exciting for existing customers that already love your brand and can't wait to meet new versions of you as you try on your different outfits and the different things that you've got going on. I could sit here and ask you questions all day long myself. You've got a wealth of knowledge and are such an articulate, passionate founder that it's so fun to talk to you. But I would love to give the floor up to the broader audience. As you know, startup CPG has the largest slack community in the industry with now over 35,000 members.

45:03
Hannah Dittman
I'd love to pull a question directly from our channel and have you answer it as a case study for any founders that might have a similar question. Today's question is how do you decide which advice to take about your business and when to stick with your own gut and approach?

45:17
Troy Bonde
I generally look to take advice from those who have done the things I want to do. And I mean that in a way that when I'm thinking about ops, for example, I know who I'm calling. I know somebody who has built the most streamlined ops system you could ever think of. When I think of finance internally in my business, I know somebody comes to mind who is has the strongest financial acumen I've ever met because I've seen them do it. You can measure tangibly what they've done. And so generally, I would say when I take advice about business, I like to look for those who have done pertaining to the specific advice I'm looking for, have done what I'm looking to do.

45:54
Troy Bonde
But I think also, for example, when I look to venture, right when we're fundraising, I like to put myself in the position of if I was in vc, how would I want to operate, what would I want to do? What stage would I invest, what size checks would I write? And I think taking advice from those people is always interesting too. Right. And so to me, it's really finding those who you admire, those who are in many ways the best at what they do and who have done what you would like to accomplish and take advice there. Otherwise, you know, often even in fielding advice from those people, you gotta trust your gut like I do.

46:28
Troy Bonde
I like to stick with my own gut often, specifically when it comes to anything Sauz related because I do feel like I tell founders this all the time, like no one knows your business the way you do. You're living in it, you're breathing, it's. You're behind closed doors, in the mud when things are great and when things aren't so great. So I think my gut generally will tell me whether to take their advice or to take my own. And so I kind of trust my gut.

46:51
Hannah Dittman
You know, your gut has a phone, a friend feature yeah. So I love that.

46:57
Troy Bonde
I think that's kind of how I look at it. But yeah, I love to. I mean, I think the best people to have around you for advice are those who have done what you'd like to do.

47:06
Hannah Dittman
So well said. And I think the humility you have as a founder also really comes through. And it's clear that you kind of started out your journey learning from so many different people. This was almost a perfect question for you without realizing it. You know, you started out with your data gathering and your diligence and understanding the world you wanted to live in before you stepped into it. And it makes sense that you've continued on that intellectual curiosity and willingness to learn and grow and being coachable but still being determine in what you're looking after, which is kind of the perfect founder profile. Thank you, Troy. This has been the hugest pleasure. Tons of fun chatting with you.

47:39
Hannah Dittman
For any founders that might want to get in touch or follow along on your journey, or any investors that might want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to get in touch or to follow along? And second part of my question, for anyone that is interested in Sauz in particular, do you have any openings or opportunities with your own company or advice for anyone that might want to get involved?

48:00
Troy Bonde
Yeah. So I will say to follow along our Instagram is probably best at getSauz. That's fun. It's exciting. We post things that sometimes I look at and say, what are we doing? But they work right? So fun content, a lot of team content. And you'll get to know the brand and people very well through Instagram. I think me personally, LinkedIn is always great. I used to be more active on LinkedIn. I'm not as active now, but I'm always checking DMs and I once in a while. I'm not posting personally as much anymore, but I don't think many care as much about what I. I used to post more when, you know, before we launched the brand and now I'm like, I don't think anyone really cares what I have to say, but I hope they do.

48:38
Hannah Dittman
Hannah, we care. We care. You're here, but feel free.

48:42
Troy Bonde
Anyone can DM me on LinkedIn. My email is my first name. @GetSauz.com you can feel free to email me. It's just troy@getsauz.com and then in terms of advice or we're always. The team is growing quickly. We don't have any openings today, but I'm always happy to be introduced or to meet anyone aspiring to break into the industry. And I think one note, like you had mentioned, Hannah, we've been very fortunate. There's been a ton of tailwinds. It's great timing. I think our team is motivated. Winston and I have always had a shared vision for the category, but it's the people around us who have given us the opportunity. Right. And so I am always happy and willing open emails, open DM to be a helpful resource any way I can.

49:27
Troy Bonde
Two and a half years ago I was in the same shoes, you know, many of the pre launch founders that I meet today. Right. And so I would just say to anyone looking to build or to join a team, like so much can change in such a short period of time. Like just it really has been amazing and I feel fortunate to be, you know, highlighted the way, you know, you've highlighted me for the last hour. So yeah, I'm always an open book and here to support.

49:51
Hannah Dittman
Well, thank you so much again, Troy. This has been such a pleasure. Tons of insights, tons of learnings. I think a lot of people will be both inspired. Inspired and also hopefully taking up some nuggets of wisdom away from your story and the journey that is Sauz so far. We're all rooting for the next chapter and excited to go out and try more of your products. Thanks again.

50:10
Troy Bonde
Thanks, Jenna.

50:12
Hannah Dittman
Well, friends, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, the top globally ranked podcast in CPG. And if you love this podcast, you'll love our Slack community even more. Here at Startup CPG, we're a community of brands and experts and you should join. Sign up @startupcpg.com you'll then get an invite to our online Slack community of over 35,000 All Star CPG members, hear about amazing events near you and all our special opportunities to get you in front of buyers, investors, brands and more. It's a free community. So what are you waiting for? I'll catch you on the next episode and I'll see you on the Slack.