#226 - Hungryroot 101: Launch Your Brand & Master Smart Cart Shopping

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with the Hungryroot team for an exclusive inside look at how the fast-growing food tech platform curates products, personalizes grocery shopping through its innovative Smart Cart technology, and simplifies meal planning for millions of customers.

The Hungryroot buyers reveal exactly how they evaluate new products, source clean ingredients across categories like meat, seafood, and snacks, and navigate operational challenges in packaging, shipping, and scaling partnerships. They break down what makes a product launch successful, how customer feedback shapes category strategy, and what emerging brands need to know before pitching to the platform.

The episode closes with nearly 20 CPG brands pitching directly to Hungryroot buyers in real time, offering listeners a rare, behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to launch and grow on one of the most innovative personalized grocery platforms in the market.

Listen in as they discuss:

• How Hungryroot's Smart Cart personalizes grocery shopping and meal planning
• What buyers look for when evaluating new products and brand partnerships
• Sourcing strategies and emerging trends in meat, seafood, and clean-label snacks
• Operational challenges with packaging, shipping, and ready-to-eat meal innovation
• The importance of brand volume and scaling successfully on the platform
• Why the launch is just the beginning: ongoing support and growth strategies
• Real-time brand pitches from nearly 20 CPG founders to Hungryroot buyers
• Opportunities in food innovation, clean ingredients, and personalized nutrition
• How customer feedback drives category expansion and product curation
• Keys to building successful long-term partnerships with Hungryroot
  
  

Episode Links

Hungryroot Website: https://www.hungryroot.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hungryroot

Chris Battaglia - Director of Strategic Sourcing Meat and Seafood, Hungryroot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-battaglia-47569347/

Nika Mosenthal - VP of Food Experience, Hungryroot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikamosenthal/

Keri Cardenas - Category Lead, Hungryroot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keri-cardenas/

Julia Bello - Director of Category Management, Hungryroot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliabello/

Daniel Scharff - Founder, Startup CPG LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danscharff/

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Show Links:

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• Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [e-mail]
• Episode music by Super Fantastics
  
  

Creators and Guests

Host

Daniel Scharff

Founder/CEO, 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.

Julia
Don't sleep on Hungryroot. I think for small brands and for large brands alike, we consistently get the feedback that our volumes are significant. Even for large, well known brands. We are in their top one to three accounts in terms of driving volume. So we are definitely smaller than like a Whole Foods or a Sprout. But in terms of total customers, we are rapidly growing and we drive tremendous volume. So don't underestimate what you could do on our platform.

00:44
Daniel Scharff
You know, I bet those Hungry Hippos wouldn't have been so hungry if they knew about Hungry Root. Hungry Root is one of the top online grocers. They are almost at a billion dollars in sales and they actually work today with just 800 SKUs, which means anyone lucky enough to get listed with them is in for huge volume. So today's podcast was actually a webinar that we did with their buying team, but it's so valuable I wanted everyone to hear it. There are going to be a few instances where it's clear we're talking about a slide at the beginning, but I think you're going to love it anyways so we're just posting it here. I hope you think it's great. And at the end we even had time for some quick pitches from brands that were in attendance.

01:21
Daniel Scharff
All right, I hope you all enjoy it. Here we go. Hello everybody. I'm Daniel. I'm the founder of startup CPG and I am really excited about today's webinar. We love the hungryroot team. Getting in with hungryroot is a huge opportunity for any brand. Some brands already have been lucky enough to get to work with them. But I mean it's just a huge opportunity for massive volume. Getting your brand seen by incredible people who are educated, health conscious shoppers love great products and the Hungry Root team themselves are just awesome people. Also, we had the real privilege of getting to do an event with them last year. Our New York holiday party was in their office and that was just such a great time. And we're also going to be doing a grocery run with them for this holiday season.

02:12
Daniel Scharff
So I'll post that link here in the chat. But yeah, for anyone who's curious, the recording. So if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe thing here. If you want to access this later then also make sure you subscribe to our YouTube. I'll put the link here. So thank you Hungryroot team so much for joining us. I wonder, before we jump into the slides, could we just do A quick round of introductions. Nika, do you want to kick us off?

02:35
Nikka
Yeah, for sure. Thanks so much, everyone, for tuning in. We're so excited to talk to you all. I'm Nika Bosenthal. I lead what we call our food experience team here, which encompasses all things category management and sourcing, brand partnerships and research and insights.

02:48
Daniel Scharff
All right, I'll just pick an order by who's on my screen. So, Julia, do you want to go next?

02:53
Julia
Yeah, sure. Hey, y', all, I'm Julia Bello. I'm the director of category management here at Hungry Route. I lead our team of category managers as well as our merch ops, and really excited to get to share this time with y' all today.

03:07
Nikka
Thanks.

03:08
Daniel Scharff
All right, Carrie coming to you next.

03:10
Carrie
Yep. Hey, everyone, I'm Carrie. I am the category manager for snacks, sweets, plant based beverage supplements. Probably something else that I'm not thinking of right now, but it's so great to be here. Love being part of the CPG community, and great to meet everyone.

03:26
Daniel Scharff
All right, and coming to Chris. Many of you may already know him as being a famed guest on the startup CPG podcast, one of my favorite episodes. But Chris hit people with the intro.

03:37
Chris
Thank you, Daniel. Great to be back on the show. My name is Chris Battaglia. I'm the director of strategic sourcing for meat and seafood here at Hungryroot, AKA the meat guy.

03:48
Daniel Scharff
All right, cool. So just to kick off, do you want to take us through a couple of the slides and then I'm going to have a bunch of questions? I know other people will have questions too, but I think the slide's probably a great place to start.

03:59
Nikka
Yeah, sounds great. So I'm sure some of you are already familiar with our model. For those that aren't, we do things a little differently here at Hungerroot, so thought it would beneficial just to give you an overview of who we are and what we do. So at hungerroot, our mission is to help people feel their best by making it easy and enjoyable to eat healthy. For most Americans, eating healthy is one of their top priorities. But also for most Americans, it's something that they're struggling to do. And 88% Americans are metabolically unhealthy when we look out at traditional grocery shopping. And the opportunity that we saw is that it's a really challenging, overwhelming experience. It takes a long time. It's stressful, and customers going out and not knowing what to buy or how to use it leads to a lot of food waste.

04:47
Nikka
And on average, people throw out 30% of what they buy. So that's where we come in. We are your assistant for eating healthy and we do that in a pretty unique and cool way. So we have a proprietary AI system that's called Smart Cart. And what Smart Cart does is it learns all about you through our onboarding quiz and your shopping behavior while you're on the site. And it learns your goals and preferences and foods that you like and dislike. And then based on all that data, it shops for you every week. So it automatically pre fills your cart with groceries and recipes that we think that you'll love. You still have all of the agency as a customer to completely edit your order or to start from scratch, but 60% of what smart Cart recommends, we end up selling to customers.

05:31
Nikka
So that just shows the value of starting with that pre filled cart base, which really reduces the cognitive load and the effort for customers in doing their weekly shop and meal planning. So for customers it is a big time saver and a big stress reducer. And for brands it's really interesting approach because we are not putting your item on a shelf and you're waiting for someone to find it. We are putting it directly into customers carts of the customers that we think are most likely based on data to love that item. And if it's a recipe item, we are pairing it with other recipe ingredients and giving customers the instructions of how to make that into a recipe that is going to taste delicious. So we're really doing a lot to support all of the items and brands that are on our platform.

06:18
Nikka
And because we are ultimately responsible for shopping for customers, we take that responsibility really seriously and have a very rigorous and focused approach to how we do sourcing and how we do SKU curation here. So everything that we bring on, we get amazing insight from our AI in terms of what formats, what nutrition, what flavors are resonating with customers. That combined with the category management team who is deeply embedded in the market and trends, and then our culinary team who samples every SKU that we bring on. So everything that we bring on, we want to be innovative and delicious and of course meet our sourcing standards around being clean and better for you.

07:00
Nikka
So all that put together, we end up with a really curated, exciting assortment that our customers love and gives us a lot of trust when customers come to shop with us because they know that it's going to be delicious food that we really vet to make sure that when they get it, they're completely satisfied. And so the assortment comes together with an awesome digital experience and a vertically integrated supply chain and then, of course, our technology. And that all creates really a first of its kind and very unique AI food and wellness products platform. We are about 10 years old as a company and continuing to grow really quickly. This year, we'll do about 700 million in revenue, which is up over 50% from last year.

07:44
Nikka
And looking forward to a really exciting 2026 where we'll be expanding revenue again significantly and also expanding our SKU count a fair amount. So we are super excited to do events like this and get to talk to you all and hear what's out there as we think about what's next for 2026.

08:01
Daniel Scharff
All right, that's a great overview. Thank you. Just one question I had right off the bat was I think there's a difference in terms of how brands can get to work with you. Where I remember, like, years ago when I was applying to Hungryroot, they were telling me, like, yeah, you can, like, get in with us. And then you're in a position where brands can add you into their basket. Or there's like, there are other programs where you're automatically in their subscription. And if you're in that, it's going to be just an enormous amount of volume because obviously you guys have so many boxes going out. Like, what is the opportunity that typically brands would be applying to, like, you guys for? Is there still that distinction?

08:36
Daniel Scharff
Or it's like, no, the smart cart is just grabbing whatever from our assortment is going to work best for every single person.

08:42
Nikka
Yeah. So more the latter. Every item that's on our platform is what I'll call smart cart eligible. And if it's going to be a match for the customer, it's something that smart Cart would recommend. We sell both groceries and recipes. We sell a lot of recipes. So if you're a produce item, the volume there can be very high because that's something that's going to be in a lot of recipes and really core to people's meal plans. That said, we have success across all categories and really see that smart cart drives exposure and trial for everything that we offer.

09:15
Daniel Scharff
Cool. And I mean, congrats on all the growth. That's amazing. I mean, to be, like, growing 50% at this point is incredible. Where do you think all of that coming from? Like, probably I remember, like, during COVID I think every online service got a huge boost, right? Everyone like, a really heightened awareness of what we're all eating and then, like, wondering about grocery stores. So I imagine that kind of put you on another tier as well, but where do you think it's all coming from now?

09:40
Nikka
Yeah, I know. I think were certainly a company that saw that Covid boost and were lucky to sustain that Covid boost because I think ultimately the value prop is there for customers and the value prop being that we are at the intersection of making it really simple and easy to eat healthy, saving you a lot of time and also making that experience fun and exciting. And while you're eating healthy and while you're saving time, you're also eating delicious and exciting products and brands. So I think it's just that we have found this a sweet spot of really adding value to customers lives and saving them time and adding joy.

10:14
Daniel Scharff
Amazing. And then there are some other e comm retailers out there. What do you think really differentiates you from like a consumer is trying to figure out between the different options out there, what's going to bring them to you over some of the other options out there?

10:28
Nikka
Yeah, I'll start, but everyone else feel free to chime in. I think first and foremost, smart cart and the AI component of starting not from scratch. When you're going to that virtual grocery store, digital grocery store or brick and mortar and you're just like, what do I do? You never have that feeling at Hungaroot because we fill your cart for you. And I think that's just a huge cognitive load decreaser. So I think that first and foremost, and then two, I would say just the amazing assortment that everyone on the call has curated so that customers just trust that they don't need to try the best product, we've already tried it for them and we've picked it and that's what they're going to get in their basket.

11:05
Chris
And personalization, I mean, that's a huge part of how we are servicing our customer. I mean, if you don't like something and you put it in your platform that hey, you don't like zucchini, you're never going to get zucchini in your recipe. So I think personalization is definitely one aspect that differentiates us from all the competition.

11:22
Julia
I think it's also that we straddle both. Like if you want to shop by recipe, you can do that. If you want to shop just by standalone groceries, you can do that. And I can't think of another platform that offers that. So it really is. And if you want to do both, you can do both. So I think it's the best of both worlds and we have the full assortment of meat, seafood, produce, ambient items, whereas I Don't think some other retailers have caught up with that in the E commerce space just yet.

11:49
Daniel Scharff
Cool. If anyone in our audience is lucky enough to be a hungry root shopper, maybe you can weigh in as well. What keeps you coming back? But it's nice branding too. It looks cool. The ads always look really good and like healthy and that's great. Okay, so yeah, good question from the audience. Also from Bill. So how do you describe the demographic of your core customer base? I don't know if that's a Nika question. I also have a bunch of questions coming up for each of you.

12:13
Nikka
Yeah, no, thank you.

12:14
Julia
Great question.

12:15
Nikka
I'll take this one. So we have a few different customer Personas that we think about and try and get in their mindset as we're sourcing products. But we tend to over index on suburban families is really our core customer. And I think those are the reason for that, is those are folks that benefit the most from the time saving aspects and they're solving for kids and family members that have different dietary preferences, different dietary restrictions. And to have one platform that will simplify all of that and take that all into account, I just think adds a lot of value for them. So that tends to be where we over index the most.

12:49
Daniel Scharff
That makes sense to me. Also, as a city liver, I'm always like, I don't know when I'm going to be home. It's hard to schedule deliveries in the suburbs. I'm like, I know when I'll be home. So. Okay, one more question for you, Nika, and then I'm going to move to Julia after that. How do you think about which categories really to prioritize when you're especially sourcing brands? Like what you're out there like, oh, we have too much of this or too little of this. How are you prioritizing different categories?

13:13
Nikka
Yeah, definitely. We take a very data driven approach to how we do assortment strategy and there are a bunch of different angles that we look at. It's definitely a combination of art and science. On the science side, we're always looking at sales per SKU per order at the category level. And then we have a taxonomy that goes out to subcategory so we can really drill into beverages are doing well and within beverages it shakes or produce is doing well and within produce it's prepackaged berries. So we look at that to understand what we should be leaning into. We also look at the market and how the market is composed.

13:51
Nikka
Always are comparing ourselves to that and then customer feedback every SKU that we send customers give us a thumbs up or thumbs down and we look at that and we do a lot of surveys with customers as well. So making sure that we are getting SKUs that fill gaps that we have that are going to perform well and ultimately are going to taste delicious and are aligned with the feedback that we've been getting from customers.

14:12
Daniel Scharff
Cool. How many SKUs do you guys have overall right now?

14:14
Nikka
We're around 850 today. And getting.

14:17
Daniel Scharff
That includes all of your owned brand ones, correct?

14:20
Nikka
Correct, yep. And getting to 1200 by the end of next year.

14:24
Daniel Scharff
Cool. Okay. All right, Julia, I am coming to you. So, Julia, can you tell me a little bit about what everyone here is wondering? How do you evaluate new products? Even people are already asking like, yeah, how do I submit? Like, how are you going to look like that?

14:39
Julia
Yeah, Well, I think first and foremost, there is a very real operational component for sourcing products in a DTC E commerce environment. Just fundamentally, like the very first lens that is just really an easy one is what are the constraints that we have to operate within due to this model and this box that is going directly from our fulfillment centers to customers. And so there are things that come with that. Like, we don't ship glass in our current state, can't ship anything that requires to be frozen throughout the entire supply chain. So like ice cream, we can't sell that today. So I think that's like the first and easiest lens that we evaluate products.

15:19
Julia
And then after that, it really starts with understanding what's important to our customers and what are their needs and how can we best serve them through the products we source. And we believe that every item in our assortment should tie back to a direct value proposition to our customers, whether that's helping them put together recipes or bringing in convenience items or unique flavors and products they can't find anywhere else, making sure that we're really delivering on the value that customers expect from Hungryroot. And then I think from there it's like, okay, well if we think that our customers are going to benefit from this item, then we start to think about incremental impact. Is this something that's really going to move the needle for customers? And if so, let's give it a shot.

16:03
Julia
I mean, the reality is we are a limited assortment retailer, and so that means that we have a very curated assortment and that means that every item really needs to earn its space within the assortment and driving customer satisfaction.

16:19
Daniel Scharff
Okay. And I know you guys are so data driven. If you're looking at products coming in or if you're going to a trade show, like, do you just have a list of, okay, these are all the needs that we have right now based off shoppers, based off what the data is telling us, or do you just have all that stuff intuitively and you're walking around the show looking to discover products that you could see fitting into that, or is it different from either of those?

16:41
Julia
I think it's both. I think that there are very specific need states where, like, oh, gosh, okay, like, we really need to build out and expand this part of the assortment and we have a very specific sourcing mandate for that segment. And then other times it is just, we really understand our customers and looking at things and seeing how it might. Because there's a lot of things that we don't know about or haven't tried before. And so that's where that exploratory discovery lens comes in.

17:09
Nikka
Of.

17:09
Julia
All right, we understand our customers. Now let's go and look at products that might be interesting.

17:14
Daniel Scharff
Okay. And you did mention the operations part. How does it actually work with brands that get to work with you? Are you going to take it all direct to come through distributors? Any other, like, requirements people would be aware of?

17:24
Julia
So a lot of our suppliers do go direct. If we can make MOQs work and shelf life and all of that triangulation, we do prefer to go direct, but we also do work with Kahe and can set items up that maybe are a little higher MOQ or require that being the best model. So we do either.

17:42
Daniel Scharff
Okay, perfect. What's a good pitch for you? And by the way, is it like, mainly submissions are coming through the website, people meeting at trade shows, people hitting you on LinkedIn. Like, what's the most common way that you're actually finding brands?

17:55
Julia
Yeah, all of the above for sure. We don't have a very rigorous submission process like you might find other brick and mortar retailers, for instance. It's not like, okay, here's your window to submit. We're really reviewing things at all times throughout the year. But from a pitch perspective, I always really just want to hear, like, what makes your product or your brand worth paying attention to, what makes it special. And I also really want to hear who is the target customer that you are aiming to serve with this product and how it brings value to them.

18:28
Julia
If a brand doesn't have a strong sense of who their target customer is or if it feels like it's a bit too aspirational because that happens sometimes brands are like, oh, well, we Want to serve everybody and it's like, well let's like really narrow that down and research who that target customer is. I can tend to get a little skeptical if that story isn't pretty strong because I need that information, the team needs that information to be able to translate that to the hungry root customer and how there might be overlap there. I also really want to hear how they're going to help get the product in customers hands in boxes. Just because we're an E commerce retailer doesn't mean that we don't expect them to come to the table to help drive sales.

19:08
Julia
And so I want to hear how they're going to help partner. It's not enough just to get launched on the site but how are they going to stay engaged in selling the product? And then I think the last thing, and this is something that especially for early stage brands I don't think is talked about enough. But just speaking to their supply chain and their sourcing and their production management, like it doesn't have to be exhaustive. But especially given just the volatility of the global supply chain environment right now I really need to understand like how big of a risk is it to bring your product in? Are you going to be able to keep us in stock? Are you going to be able to hold pricing for a reasonable amount of time? So do they have redundant supply for key ingredients?

19:50
Julia
I just want to know that they're savvy on the supply chain side. If we're going to free up a space that is so limited for us, we need to know that they're going.

19:57
Carrie
To be able to deliver.

19:58
Daniel Scharff
Okay. And quick reminder to people because I think everyone right now is just like foaming at the mouth. Like I need to work with you guys. So Carrie did actually paste the link to learn more about becoming a hungry root supplier if you look in the chat. So thank you for doing that. And I also want to remind everybody because we got a couple hundred people on here now we are doing an event at the hungry root office and a bunch of them are going to be there. That's on December 9th in New York if you happen to be in town. Definitely check that out. I just posted the link in the chat. It was a blast last year. What a good time. Okay, cool.

20:31
Daniel Scharff
So just coming back and then I know you guys are expanding so you mentioned going from 800 to I think 1200 SKUs but like what does it take if I get to work with you? I'm like I want to work with you forever now. What would it take to, like, for me to get delisted from it or for it not to work out. Like, what are you looking to see? To keep people or to decide people aren't the right fit?

20:50
Carrie
Yeah.

20:51
Julia
I mean, certainly from a KPI perspective, like, we're assessing performance just as any other retailer would. Industry standard metrics like velocities and profitability, spoilage, things like that. We also do heavily weight that customer satisfaction piece and product ratings that customers can rate. So weigh that heavily and oftentimes equally with velocity. So we want to make sure that the products that we're carrying are high satisfaction items for our customers and then also making sure that it's something that our Smart Cart tool can sell and knows how to sell. There are just some items that our Smart cart just. It's a little trickier to sell. And some of those items we just might need to wait on or come back to if Smart Cart is struggling with some of those items. So that's definitely a consideration.

21:39
Julia
But then I'd say beyond KPIs, like, we really evaluate and weigh heavily the state of the relationship with the brand. Again, it's not enough to just launch with us. Like, we want people who want to stay engaged, who want to build, who are responsive, who are willing to work with us on troubleshooting and feedback marketing opportunities. I think that's really where the relationship gets special, is like when we have that really engaged brand and that can be a small brand, that can be a larger brand. Like, we've seen success throughout the spectrum. And anyway, I think that's just where the special sauce comes in, where everybody wins. The supplier, us, Hungryroot and our customers. So high engagement is really important.

22:25
Daniel Scharff
All right. Amazing, guys. What a good time this is. I think there's so much engagement happening in the chat right now. I think everyone really just is having a good time here. Thank you guys for this. This is such a fun session to get to do. And there are a couple hundred people on right now who are just like, yeah, drooling to get to work with you guys. All right, Chris, Meat guy, I'm coming to you next for a couple of questions here. So, Chris, I know you've, like, done sourcing a bunch of different places. Can you tell me what's different for you about sourcing at Hungryroot?

22:53
Chris
I'm not sourcing whole animals like were doing at Whole Foods and having to break that animal down amongst a thousand stores. I think the biggest difference or the most unique thing that we're doing here is portion size. I think the days of the old 16 ounce ribeye, those days are gone single. You might not like to hear that Daniel, but it really is. The average portion in meat and seafood is around 10 to 12 ounces, so 5 to 6 ounces person. So finding a supplier or a coman that can pack these sizes out, suppliers that can do custom packaging, actual veggies. We're doing the super tots in January. It's normally like a 16 or 21 ounce bag. I think they're going to do a 12 ounce bag for us specifically. And I think that all relates back to zero food waste.

23:37
Chris
That's something that we really believe in and we really strive to help our customers with. Because like Nika said, 30% of what we're buying every week in the grocery stores people are throwing away. And that's because you're getting a bag of 12 apples. You don't really need the 12 apples, you need like four of them for the week. Let's be honest.

23:54
Daniel Scharff
We need forecast software for our home, for our grocery shopping. Like how much do I really eat though? I need some software to help me with that so I don't buy those extra apples. Chris, you mentioned actual veggies, which is just one of the standout meat alternatives. Let's say what are you seeing right now from demand and what options you want to have for meat versus meat alternatives, Plant based, whatever you want to call it.

24:18
Chris
I mean we're definitely seeing the plant based category take somewhat of a hit. I think in comparison to companies like actual veggies, they're not really taking a hit. I think they've differentiated themselves in that category alone between beyond meat and all these other companies that are mass producing these, I'm going to say highly processed plant based proteins. People like actual veggies are doing much better because your whole ingredients, you can see within the item itself, what's in the item and the ingredients within them. So outside of some of these special, I'm going to say niche companies that are thinking outside the box. Yeah, plant based is definitely, we're seeing a small digression with it. And meat is always king.

24:57
Daniel Scharff
How do you think about like the stuff that you source within the broader portfolio of what everyone has? Like, are you looking at any like basket data of what do people buy who buy actual veggies? Like and go with adverse meat stuff like that or like typical complimentary products? Do you work with like the rest of the team when you're doing that or are you mainly Just like in your lane, focused on the meat and meat alternatives.

25:18
Chris
I mean, I'm definitely in the meat lane. I'm in the ready to eat lane. We've launched quite a few ready to eat meals and ready to heat meals. I've just passed on the plant based category to Carrie this past year. I think she'll admit it's a very challenging category to get used to. But at the same time, I think we see opportunities within that category. Even though we're seeing the demand come down.

25:40
Daniel Scharff
You're able to go out there.

25:41
Chris
There's plenty of great suppliers. I think they're doing good things. I can't recall the Bacon company plant based that we're bringing on. Carrie might be able to remind me. But I mean these are things that we know our customers want and they want it in their basket. And then I think what we're also seeing in relations to that actual veggies example is they'll have that steak, that beef steak or that chicken breast with these actual veggie super tots and mix the two between themselves and feel fine doing it.

26:06
Daniel Scharff
Okay, awesome. And speaking of Carrie, I'm going to come to Carrie next. Carrie also just answered a question that people had asked about which shows this team goes to. So I threw this up here. So Fancy Fair San Diego Expo west of course, and Kahi Denver. And everybody stay tuned for a big announcement about Kahee Denver. It's going to be a big one from us about Khe Denver. Just grocery run coming up for everybody at that show. So it'll be one of the coolest things we've ever gotten to do. So stay tuned about that. All right, so Carrie, coming to you. There's a lot of stuff that you cover.

26:38
Daniel Scharff
I wonder if you could just give us a little bit of an overview for like what's doing really well, what cool products are out there, innovations across a lot of the categories that you want work on. What's some stuff that's really popping?

26:49
Carrie
I mean I think the items that tend to perform the best, let's say regardless of the category, are primarily convenience focused and high like health attributed. So really clean ingredients with recognizable clean ingredients and then with different formats the customers can either take on the go or something like that they can make very quickly for dinner that evening. Those tend just to do really well. And then of course they have to all taste great, good. So taste is always king. I mean we see trends changing in snacks and even beverages with protein is becoming more and more important to the customers as they're understanding, like, what's important to longevity. And then there's fibers, a newer trend as well that we're seeing pop up and people are specifically looking for.

27:39
Carrie
So I'd say overall, like, taste and ingredient quality is always going to be number one because that's really what our customers are looking for. But then, like, the attributes change depending and on trend, and I think we follow pretty closely in line with the rest of market on those things.

27:54
Daniel Scharff
And speaking of clean ingredients, what ingredients do you think are clean right now? And maybe if anyone else wants to chime in also, I'm just always curious because you're really at the heart of this and you know what your consumers are saying. Are there any that you think are turning the tide right now, like things that are people are seeing as cleaner or things that people are turning away from right now?

28:13
Carrie
Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a lot of debate what defines a clean ingredient or not. And then, like, what's the truth behind it all? There's a lot of conversation about seed oil right now. I'm sure everyone on this call has heard an earful of it. So avocado oil tends to be driving a lot of, like, the ingredients that we're seeing in new products being shown. But I'm not sure if that's a forever trend as much as it's a right now. And then I think also with clean ingredients, like, people are trying to move away from sugar alcohols. They're looking like cane sugar's making a new comeback, which is an interesting change to the way people were shopping before. So I think it's more about recognition.

28:53
Carrie
And the ingredients that are in the profile gain away from, like, binders and fillers, which I think is. Has always been everyone's goal. I don't think that's ever really changed. I just think that the definition of what those ingredients are has evolved as we continue to get better and better at making food.

29:11
Daniel Scharff
I really like that answer. That was super interesting. You're getting a lot of love for it in the chat, too. And it's interesting to me also when people will say they're looking for clean ingredients, but then go still and buy, like, diet soda with the worst sweeteners in it, which I do also. But it sounds like you really see it in the data, though, that people really are shifting with their wallets towards those cleaner ones. So that. That's really good info to have. I'm just wondering, are there any big gaps in your portfolio now or opportunities that you're like, oh, yeah, actually we've been looking for a little bit more of these kind of things.

29:43
Daniel Scharff
I don't know if it's around like fiber like you mentioned or more avocado oil products, any other kinds of things that you're like, if only someone out there in the couple hundred people on this call has this kind of product.

29:54
Nikka
Yeah.

29:54
Carrie
I can share with you my unicorn.

29:57
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, please. And that's a question for everyone. Also, in case anyone else has unicorn things to throw up.

30:02
Carrie
I mean, one thing I will say, I think that we've done a really great job building an assortment that does highlight the ingredients and the health goals that our customers have been wanting and looking for. I think that Hungry Root Superpower is we actually really do listen to our customer and we base our strategy most heavily on what they're asking for and what they're thinking and saying and feeling about the products that we've onboarded and try to test as much as we can with them to better understand what they want. So in my like, generally speaking, a gap, it's not really a gap that I'm always looking for something that is nutritious, delicious and is as nutrient dense as you can get it that fulfills like a snacking occasion or a beverage occasion. That's really huge. My unicorn is plant based meat alternatives.

30:51
Carrie
It's such a tough category for a million reasons. Our model, we can't ship to our customer frozen. So number one, it has to be refrigerated or it has to survive a refrigerated storage like with for at least five days so the customer can enjoy it for their week's groceries. But then it also needs to be made with nutritionally dense ingredients and offer a protein value that makes it worth being center of the plate. And that's a tall order. It's not really common in the marketplace, especially slackable or refrigerable. That's been pretty tough for me. So if anyone's in that market, please use the link so I can take a look at your products. I am definitely actively search.

31:31
Chris
You're doing a great job, Carrie.

31:32
Carrie
You're doing a great job actively searching. But yeah, there's been some really interesting things too that I've seen along my search. I'm just. It's an omnivore world and our customer is primarily an omnivore and they like plant based proteins as a flex option, but not as their primary. So it's a delicate balance between does it make an omnivore happy and is it good enough for a Vegetarian if it was their only source of protein.

31:56
Daniel Scharff
All right, there's a lot of action in the chat right now. There are a lot of people like, ooh, ooh, me. So, guys, it might get lost, but just so you know, definitely fill out that form if you're one of those people. I know a lot of you're going to hit them up on LinkedIn. Also, I want. Does anyone else want to throw out any of their big opportunities or unicorn stuff? Any of the other folks from the hunger root team want to chime in on something that they.

32:17
Julia
Yeah, I would say premium sauces and condiments not in glass is a challenge. We see an opportunity to bring in more premium items within that space, and a lot of it is in glass, and that's just not something we can ship right now. So I think anything outside of glass, in glass, heavy categories, even, like, oils, vinegars, things like that. But, yeah, I think overcoming the glass hurdle sometimes is challenging in certain categories. And sauces and condiments for sure would fall into that category.

32:50
Daniel Scharff
Nobody wants that glass to break with mayo all over their whole order, of course.

32:56
Julia
Right.

32:56
Daniel Scharff
All right, Nika or Chris, you got anything you guys want to highlight?

32:59
Nikka
Obviously, ready to eat Prepared foods has been a big focus for us over the last 12 months. Really will continue to be a big focus for us. So both heat and eat meals and fresh prepared salads that are. If you could package sweet green or cava or your favorite fast casual restaurant and get it to the customer is still delicious and interesting and in great condition and great shelf life. Those are always products we're looking for.

33:22
Daniel Scharff
All right, y' all heard it. Chris, anything from you?

33:25
Chris
Nanika, hit it. That's what I was going to say.

33:27
Daniel Scharff
Awesome. Okay, I am going to come back to you, Carrie, for another question. So I would say answer it one of two ways. Either, like, what can brands really do once they get to work with you to make it a success? Or maybe you could just give an example of one brand that just nailed it. Like, yeah, we love working with them. They crushed it for us. They did all this stuff to support us and reach the consumers.

33:47
Carrie
Yeah, I can share with you. Actually, we just invited one of our brands to come speak to the whole hungryroot team just so that the whole team could learn more about them. And that was Sunnies. And Sunnies is one of our OG brands that we onboarded. And truly, Katie and Lisette have been really great partners to work with.

34:08
Julia
Number one.

34:08
Carrie
Obviously, they're obsessed with their brand and they're obsessed with their customers and they want to have great product, but they also are really great listeners and I think a lot of their success has come from listening to the feedback not just of their customers, but also of their category managers and that's really enabled them to drive innovation. The velocity at Hungryroot is incredible and they're really just killing it. But it's mostly because of their hard work keeping their product in stock and they've really prioritized us and it's exciting to have been their first national launch before even they went national with Whole Foods or Sprouts.

34:45
Daniel Scharff
So, all right, makes a lot of sense. So I thought we could do something fun, which is maybe even invite a few brands to like do a 15 second pitch just to hear who's out there, because there's so much action in the chat. But before we do that, could we do just like one quick rapid round around you guys with like, okay, we've talked about a lot of cool stuff here today, but like, is there one thing that you really just want brands to know about Hungry Root? Maybe something that we haven't covered or just like a feeling that you have about it and what it's like to work there?

35:12
Daniel Scharff
Or what something that we might not know about all of your colleagues or it can be about the application process or working well with you, or just something about the background of the company. Just something that would just like, I wish for everyone out there to know this about us. Like, just let that be context for when you engage with us or the interactions you have with us.

35:32
Chris
I think the first thing is know who we are. A lot of brands reach out and have absolutely no clue who we are. They think we're a meal kit company, which is very frustrating after we've done all this great work. And I think if they know who we are and how we operate, to Carrie's point, if you mentioned like, okay, what do you do? Frozen to slack and they don't know even what that is. That's something they need to know ultimately. Know who we are before you reach out, maybe do some homework on us. I think it shows just professionalism, maybe.

36:00
Daniel Scharff
Even place an order. I don't know if you really want to know.

36:03
Chris
Some of my best suppliers that, come on, that's what they'll do. They'll order a box, they'll see what we have, they'll say, you know what, these chicken nuggets are terrible. I can do better than that. And at least they've gone and ordered the Box and figured that out.

36:15
Daniel Scharff
Oh, I've never met a terrible chicken nugget. They're all pretty good to me, but okay, mine's excellent. Okay, anybody else want to go next? All right, Julia, please.

36:26
Julia
I would say don't sleep on Hungryroot. I think for small brands and for large brands alike, we consistently get the feedback that our volumes are significant. And even for large brands, well, large, well known brands, we are in their top one to three accounts in terms of driving volume. So we are definitely smaller than like a Whole Foods or a Sprout. But in terms of total customers, we are rapidly growing and we drive tremendous volume. So I would just say don't underestimate what you could do on our platform.

37:03
Daniel Scharff
I like that one a lot and it makes a lot of sense, and that is what I've always heard. But also you can just do the math. I mean, if you guys are doing 700 million in revenue, that's selling the products that come in your boxes and you have only 800 products to choose from right now. Whereas if you compare to like go into a huge grocery store, there could be a hundred thousand SKUs there. So just very nice velocity from that. I love that one. Okay, Nika, do you want to go next?

37:32
Nikka
Yeah, I'll pick up on that. I would say that we really view our brands as true partners. We have tried 20 crackers before we try and select your cracker. So we really want you to succeed because that means we're successful. It means our customers are happy. We've been around now for 10 years and hearing the stories. Chris and Carrie have both been fantastic at starting programs within Hungryroot. So we tell our supplier stories to our team members and just the stories we have of were the first customer for this brand and now we're their biggest account and they're a big brand. And we've grown and they've grown. We view us as being your partner and being on this journey together and our success is your success. So we're very invested in picking awesome brands and growing together.

38:17
Chris
Yeah, well said. That's well said.

38:18
Daniel Scharff
I love it. All right, Carrie, you want to bring us home?

38:21
Carrie
Yeah. I would share that. The launch is not the finish line. It's really the first hurdle you really have to cross. Yeah, you can get into on our shelf, but maintaining the product, listening to the customer feedback, working creatively with our teams to solve for problems, being great communicators, those things are even more important. It's not really a situation where you get to just drop it in and then you're done. It's never ending evolution that we're working on together to not just improve your business and grow your customers, but ours as well. So as a category manager, I'm thinking a lot about how are we going to grow together and what value do we offer each other? And the launch is just the beginning. There's so much more to come after that.

39:10
Daniel Scharff
Beautiful. I really want to echo for everybody that I have always heard from everyone how great it is to get to work with the Hungryroot team. So I wish that for everybody, not everyone's gonna be able to get it, but I do. Like, I think you guys will be extremely happy, as you probably can surmise from this conversation. And so let's hear from some brands because there are a lot of people out there, and we're just gonna do like, maximum 22nd a couple pitches and see if we can get a few people in on that. All right, Tim is up first. Yep. All right, Tim. I feel like I'm in your dojo. Where am I, Guy? I have your product somewhere. Oh, nice. We make gut nuts. They're the first and only fermented and dehydrated almonds, cashews, and peanuts.

39:55
Daniel Scharff
So we're basically trying to snackify gut health. Stanford says that if you get six servings of fermented food per day, it boosts your gut health. And so we're trying to make that easier for people with our fermented snack nuts. Tangy, umami, Crunchy, savory, sour. All right, good stuff. Okay. It's so good. He said, I have a four pound bag of them and I just crushed them. I had to get another one. I just am like, that's a good product. Okay, cool. All right, I'm gonna let in our next pitcher here, and I'm wondering if any of these are the unicorn that we've been looking for. All right, Kimberly.

40:29
Nikka
Hey. Hi.

40:30
Julia
Hunger root team, thank you so much for doing the introduction and telling us a little bit about your company. I'm Kimberly Lau. I'm the founder of Bake Me Healthy. We make a delicious top nine allergen free upcycled dark chocolate chip cookies. They come in snack packs like this. Zero grams of added sugar, eight grams of protein, four grams of fiber. So, Carrie, I think we're hitting all the points that you mentioned. We're sustainable. So we're on a mission to fight food ways just like you. They're delicious. They're soft baked, they're dark chocolate. What more could you ask?

40:56
Carrie
For.

40:57
Daniel Scharff
All right. Nice job. Okay, I'm just gonna keep it rolling here. Isn't this a good time, guys? So efficient. All right, Grace, what's up?

41:06
Nikka
Hi.

41:07
Carrie
How's it going? I'm glad I'm semi presentable today. My name is Grace. I'm one of the founders of Absurd Snacks. We are an inclusive snacking company that.

41:16
Julia
Makes chickpea based snack mixes that are.

41:18
Carrie
Rich in plant based protein and high in fiber and completely free from the top nine food allergens. So we make it easier to snack together by using real foods and simple ingredients.

41:29
Daniel Scharff
Yes. Okay. I love it. All right. And everyone definitely, if you have your product, like hold it up so we can all see it because that's the good stuff. All right, here we go. Bringing on Tony from the chat line here. All right. I feel like a real radio show. This is exciting.

41:44
Chris
Hey, how you doing?

41:45
Daniel Scharff
My name's Tony Ruble. My company's Abeo Avocado Foods. We launched a plant based mayo made out of over 80% fresh Hass avocados. And because it's made out of avocados and not oil, it's 75% less fat and calories than traditional mayo. And it is not glass. It's two ounce plastic cups. So I'd love to talk to you. That one feels like a setup. Like we just guided the whole conversation towards the intersection of avocado oil and condiments in a plastic jar. I saw Carrie lean forward during that.

42:15
Chris
Great job, Tony.

42:16
Daniel Scharff
Great job.

42:16
Carrie
Thank you.

42:17
Daniel Scharff
I look forward to being in touch. I'll reach out on LinkedIn. Thank you. Perfect. Nice one. Okay, cool. I'm just going to keep it going here. All right, we've got Neha coming in.

42:27
Carrie
Hi, I'm Neha.

42:28
Nikka
I'm from Mongfu.

42:30
Carrie
So we are kind of a unicorn that you describe.

42:33
Nikka
We converted lentils into a plant based tofu alternative. It is refrigerated, but you can consume.

42:40
Carrie
Lentils in entire new form. You can pan fry it, bake it.

42:44
Nikka
Air fry it, and add it to.

42:46
Carrie
Any recipes of your choice. So now lentils are no longer restricted.

42:50
Nikka
To only soups or stews.

42:52
Carrie
You can basically add lentils to your sandwiches, wraps, salads. The possibilities are endless. And people love our products. We are from Colorado. We also made lentil based snacks that are high in protein, high in fiber, gluten free, soy free, and we would love to collaborate with you. So definitely I submitted the form also and we are just changing the game of how people see lentils till now.

43:19
Daniel Scharff
All right, thank you. So much Neha. Okay, just keeping it rolling here. Hey, Maureen.

43:24
Carrie
Hi. I've been listening, but I also took your quiz, and my first delivery is coming to me on the 17th, and.

43:30
Nikka
I'm super pumped about it.

43:32
Daniel Scharff
Nice suck up. Good job, though.

43:35
Nikka
I did it before, though. My name is Maureen Cacioppo, and I'm.

43:40
Julia
The founder of Florida Pure Sea Salt. Florida Pure Sea Salt is a gourmet.

43:44
Carrie
Salt company that crafts high quality, safe.

43:46
Julia
And absolutely delicious products for your food.

43:47
Nikka
And cocktail rooms while protecting the waterways.

43:50
Julia
And being socially responsible.

43:52
Carrie
We have pouches that are made of recycled material that are recyclable. We have about 50 SKUs. We often do larger glass jars with bamboo lids, but we had these pouches.

44:04
Julia
And we have about six different flavors in the pouches right now. And our pure sea salts, and it's all flake salts, all natural, 85 minerals, super delicious. This is our garlic infused sea salt, which I think is the best garlic infused sea salt on the market.

44:18
Carrie
But really, it's elevating healthy meals to make it easy for your meal prep.

44:23
Julia
For you and your families. I would love to learn about working with y'.

44:26
Nikka
All.

44:27
Daniel Scharff
All right, nice job. You guys are making me look good today. All of these great pitches. All right, I have to let Karen in because she said in the chat she had the unicorn. So we. I think we gotta see.

44:37
Carrie
Hi, I'm Karen Akouri, the founder of Drench Clean Dressings, Marinades, and now sauces.

44:43
Julia
We just launched these.

44:44
Carrie
Better for you clean sauces. So, Julia, these are for you. So this is, as you can see, it's a better for you burger sauce. So very similar to Big Mac, but tastes so much better. And this is, you can guess, better for you chick fil a sauce, but super clean. All the ingredients are transparent. We use no refined sugars, no seed oils, nothing artificial. You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry, so they're all recognizable. And these are our dressings. Super clean ingredients. This is our number one seller, our Mediterranean lemon, and our signatures are citrus honey. We're in over 4,000 stores nationwide across 49 states. We're in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Wegmans Central Market, the Fresh Market, Meijer Albertsons. So we're even doing really well in conventional. And we would love to be your partner. I love hungry roots. So thank you.

45:38
Julia
And I will be filling out the.

45:39
Carrie
Form, and I'd love to send you some samples.

45:42
Daniel Scharff
All right. Nice job, Karen. Thank you. All right, letting in Jen Ko here. Here she comes.

45:51
Julia
Hi.

45:51
Nikka
I can't See anybody else right now, but hopefully you guys can see.

45:54
Daniel Scharff
We see you. Yes, we see you.

45:55
Carrie
Okay, perfect. I am the co founder and CEO of daim. I have a packet right here. We are a premium MSG seasoning company and yes, we're not in glass, so easily shippable. And we have three premium flavors all celebrating Asian culture.

46:11
Daniel Scharff
All right, awesome. Make an MSG great again. Here we go. Okay. Great job, Jen. Thank you. Here comes Christina.

46:19
Nikka
How are you guys?

46:20
Carrie
I'm Christina Cown.

46:22
Nikka
I'm the co founder of All Phenoms.

46:23
Julia
We're an organic sparkling super drink.

46:26
Carrie
We wanted to make great clean drinks.

46:28
Julia
That serve body, gut and mind without any compromise.

46:31
Carrie
So we made sure that we're clear.

46:33
Julia
With our labels providing transparency. We have no artificial flavors, colors, sugars.

46:38
Nikka
Preservatives, and we use organic fruit juices and botanicals.

46:41
Carrie
We're based in Southern California and growing across the US with other natural retailers.

46:46
Nikka
And would love to talk to Hungryroot.

46:48
Daniel Scharff
Because I'm a big fan of your.

46:49
Carrie
Mission and I think we're value aligned there.

46:51
Daniel Scharff
All right, nice job. Okay, we got Anu.

46:54
Carrie
Hi, guys.

46:54
Nikka
I can't believe I got picked.

46:57
Carrie
My name is Anu.

46:58
Nikka
My company is Bluenose Probiotics.

47:00
Carrie
I'm from Canada, so I was the.

47:02
Nikka
One asking, hey, do you guys work with Canadian brands?

47:05
Daniel Scharff
So, yeah.

47:06
Carrie
My product is Kefi Lassi.

47:09
Nikka
It's first of its kind plant based probiotic beverage made out of fermented kefir with all seen ingredients.

47:17
Carrie
Our probiotics are also microencapsulated for higher survival rate and it's really good for the gut. It has 35 different kinds of good.

47:26
Nikka
Bacteria and yeast with 50 billion good bacteria in one single serve bottle.

47:32
Carrie
I'm just a startup.

47:33
Nikka
I've received amazing feedback in the last.

47:36
Carrie
Couple of months since I launched in July. So yeah, I'm really looking to collaborate and partner with Hungry Root and see what we could do together.

47:45
Nikka
Thank you.

47:46
Daniel Scharff
All right, thank you, Anu. Nice job. Okay, chef, you are up. Hi. You know how truff was big two years ago and hot honey is big this year? What's next? Why go to Italy to get truffle or China or Asia to get honey? Where we have something that's so amazing in our own backyard. It's maple. I believe the next big thing should be something to do with maple. And that's what we do. We have a skew, a product which is chipotle maple barbecue. When you taste it has almost a time release mechanism where first thing you taste Is sweet. And then the smokiness comes in and then towards the end, it's the hot. And we are launching with sprouts early this next year in January with three of us queues.

48:33
Daniel Scharff
So super excited about it and hopefully get an opportunity to pitch to you guys at Hungry Oats. It's a hell of a journey that you go on when you try it. It's super good. My favorite is the Chipotle barbecue. It just like multiple things happen in your mouth when you have it. It's amazing. All right, great job. Okay, there are a lot more people in the queue, but we do try to end on time here. So I'm sorry we didn't get to everyone, but we did have hundreds of people on for this one. There's a lot of interest. So I really want to thank everybody. Again, I'm sorry if we didn't get to yours, but definitely submit on their website. Thank you so much to all of you guys.

49:08
Daniel Scharff
This was just an incredible way to spend an hour here getting to learn all about hungryroot. And thank you so much for just all of your engagement with these brands. Just want to remind everybody that you can catch this on YouTube and also if you want to meet the team in person, maybe check out our grocery run event with them that is coming up again in December. This is going to be on December 9th in New York in their office. I'm going to paste the link here just one more time so everybody has it, and that'll pretty much close us out. Anyone from Hungary want to have the last word?

49:39
Nikka
Just want to say thanks, everyone so much for tuning in and the pitches were phenomenal. Really, really impressed and excited to get to meet some of you folks in person in December. Please come by.

49:48
Daniel Scharff
I totally agree, everyone. Like, you never know. You're, like, rolling the dice on. All right, I'm gonna bring a bunch of random people up here. You guys all crushed it. That was awesome. Such exciting products. Some of those are just a great fit, I think, just for everything we just heard also. So thank you again, Hungry Root team. Guys, let's hear the chat. Please thank them and definitely hit them up on LinkedIn and meet them at the trade show and all the good stuff. You know what to do. All right, thanks, everybody. Bye. Bye.

50:11
Chris
Thanks, Daniel.

50:11
Daniel Scharff
Thank you.

50:12
Julia
Bye.

50:14
Daniel Scharff
All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. If you loved it, I would so appreciate it if you could leave us a review. You could do it right now. If you're an Apple podcast, you can scroll to the bottom of our Startup CPG Podcast page and click on Write a Review. Leave your company name in there. I will try to read it out. If you're in Spotify, you can click on about and then the Star Rating icon. If you are a service provider that would like to appear on the Startup CPG podcast, you can email us@partners startupcpg.com lastly, if you found yourself grooving along to the music It Is My Band, you can visit our website and listen to more. It is super fantastics.com thank you everybody. See you next time. Sam.