Founder Feature: Hannah Perez of SEEQ Supply

In this bonus episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Grace Kennedy interviews Hannah Perez, the co-founder of SEEQ Supply, a brand known for its clear protein products. Hannah shares the inspiring origin story of Seeq, which she and her co-founder, Ben, launched during the pandemic after Ben's job offer was unexpectedly revoked. They were driven by the idea of creating a refreshing alternative to traditional protein shakes.

Hannah delves into the challenges they faced, such as finding a manufacturer, navigating supply chain issues, and keeping customer interest alive during times of product scarcity. She also discusses the brand's early success on TikTok and the importance of authenticity in social media marketing.

Additionally, Hannah highlights how Seeq is strategically preparing for retail expansion and raising funds to support this growth. She also talks about the decision to shift towards external partnerships for content creation. 

Tune in now!

Listen in as they share about:

• Origin Story of SEEQ Supply
• Development and Launch
• Viral Moment and Content Creation
• Managing Demand and Marketing Strategies
• Authenticity and Transparency
• Retail Expansion
• Favorite Flavors
• Growth and Challenges
• Future Plans

Episode Links:

SEEQ Supply Website
Hannah Perez LinkedIn

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Episode music by Super Fantastics

Creators & Guests

Host

Grace Kennedy

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

A podcast from Startup CPG - highlighting stories from founders working towards a better food system and industry insights from experts to give you a better chance at success.

Hannah Perez
Seeq is a clear protein brand. We're focused on shaking up the protein industry and the traditional ways. We've typically gotten protein in a much more refreshing type of way. So it's more like a juice or even like a sports drink that you're used to drinking after a workout, where it goes and mixes more clearly. It has fruity flavors that it comes in and you just mix with water. So you're not only hitting your protein goals, but you're also likely getting more water intake in as well, which I find is a big benefit that we've heard from customers too.

00:42
Grace Kennedy
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the startup CPG podcast. I am back with another founder feature, and today I'm talking to Hannah Perez, the co founder of Seek, a clear protein brand. Their clear protein is light, refreshing, and packed with 22 grams of protein. I had actually never heard of clear protein before this episode, so I loved chatting with Hannah and learning about all things seek and what clear protein actually is. We talk about going viral on TikTok, managing supply chain delays after selling out, and what it's like to get Mark Cuban's approval without ever going on shark tank. I hope you enjoyed this episode and as always, let me know what you think. Hello and welcome back to the start of CPG podcast.

01:29
Grace Kennedy
This is Grace, and today I'm so excited to be joined by Hannah Perez, one of the co founders of Seeq, which makes clear protein. So, Hannah, I'd love for you to introduce yourself and seek to our listeners.

01:42
Hannah Perez
Thank you so much for having me. First and foremost, this is an incredible opportunity to share our origin story. So thank you again. Grace. My name is Hannah. I am one of the co founders of Seeq. And Seek is a clear protein brand. We're focused on shaking up the protein industry and the traditional ways we've typically gotten protein in a much more refreshing type of way.

02:04
Grace Kennedy
I love it. Yeah. Because I feel like when I picture, like, protein powders or even just like, trying to get my protein in, I feel just like immediately like, ugh, it's going to be something like, kind of gross or like plain chicken or something just disappointing. So I love that idea. And I'd love to dive a little bit more into the actual origin story of seek. So why did you guys decide to start this brand, and why did it feel important to start it now, for sure?

02:32
Hannah Perez
Yeah, great question. And our origin story is so unique because me and my co founder, Ben, we launched this three years ago. We're coming up in October, but we started working on this the spring of 2020. So we all know the spring of 2020 and the big event that was happening at that point, which was Covid. And at that time, you know, me and Ben, were recent college grads. Ben with a background in mechanical engineering myself in marketing. I had a full time marketing job at the time at this creative agency, and then was about to start an internship as a mechanical engineer. And because Covid hit at that time, that offer for his job got revoked. And fortunately, it did, because if it didn't, he wouldn't have went all in on this protein idea.

03:19
Hannah Perez
But at that time, when that happened, he was kind of like, okay, what do I want to be doing? And he tried another clear protein on the market around this time and hadn't tried or heard of really anything like it before, and just couldn't believe that it wasn't mainstream. It wasn't the thing that people were drinking after a workout. So he's had an interest in entrepreneurship and starting something, and because of this difficult time in finding a job, he decided to why not go in on this idea and try to start a protein company to make this new protein mainstream? So at this time, I was a full time marketer at the creative agency, which it was actually where me and Ben had met a couple years prior. He had gotten a social media internship there, so that's how we had first engaged together.

04:11
Hannah Perez
And at this time, he was reaching out to friends and family to basically get feedback on if this is an idea he should go all in on. And he started receiving samples from manufacturers and reaching out to get people to try this product, receive feedback in that process. He came back to the creative agency to give us some samples of this product. And at this time, my hero goal was to start a business and be an entrepreneur. And marketing was just a means of learning how to sell a product to people and to really captivate an audience. So when he came in with this idea, I was so excited, because my background before marketing was fitness. It was, I was working in a supplement store.

04:55
Hannah Perez
I had this background of understanding health and wellness, and I had never heard of this clear protein ever in my life before either. So it not only was lighting up all these things in my brain on, oh, my gosh, this could be an opportunity to start a business, but also so amazed in this product alone as a consumer myself. So in that moment that I was like, Ben, if you're working on this by yourself, I would love to, in my spare time, be a soundboard for you and ideate with you and help bring this to life. Because I see the opportunity and I'm fired up about it.

05:30
Grace Kennedy
Wow, that's amazing. I love it. And, yeah, honestly, I feel like I'm not totally sure on what clear protein is. So for the dummies like me, could you tell us a little bit about what clear protein is?

05:44
Hannah Perez
You know, it's funny. Yeah, I'm so in the thick of it, you just assume clear protein. Exactly. Yeah, clear protein is exactly how it sounds. So it's more like a juice or even like a sports drink that you're used to drinking after a workout, where it goes and mixes more clearly. It has fruity flavors that it comes in and you just mix with water. So it's a really nice, refreshing way to get your protein in where you don't have to chug a thick, milky shake right after the workout to hit your protein goals. It's actually something that you can mix up and sip on throughout your day. So you're not only hitting your protein goals, but you're also likely getting more water intake in as well, which I find is a big benefit that we've heard from customers, too.

06:27
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love that. And I feel like I never hit probably the amount of protein I'm supposed to have. So that would be definitely useful for someone like me as well, even though I don't really have, like, you know, protein goals. I'm not lifting in the gym exactly. But, you know, I know protein's important. That's what they say, I guess. So you and Ben decided, okay, we want to explore this, you know, idea, this project. Let's go in on it. What were your next steps? Obviously, it sounds like Ben had started developing some prototypes, but once you came on board, what were the next steps you guys took together?

07:01
Hannah Perez
Yeah, the next steps really were continuing to reach out to manufacturers because the minimum order quantity at the very start with the one that we liked the most was so substantial, it would have been a very large investment that we didn't know if we felt comfortable taking at the time. So we really spent, you know, I would call it eight months just trying to find another manufacturer that could make something as close to this one that we really liked. And after a full year of been basically reaching out to manufacturers, we didn't find one that was better. And we like, we, if we want to launch this product, we want to launch it in the best way with the best product as possible.

07:43
Hannah Perez
So went all in with this manufacturer, and luckily, Ben's parents believed in us so much and trusted our vision that they were willing to put the initial investment to purchase the inventory. And they said, yes, let's do it. So we ended up going with that first manufacturer that Ben ever reached out to.

08:05
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God.

08:06
Hannah Perez
And we ordered 4000 units of protein to Ben's parents house in October of 2021.

08:14
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God. Wow. Their house was filled to the brim with protein. They. I'm sure that's amazing.

08:21
Hannah Perez
Literally, it literally, yeah. Turned their entire house into our shipping center. And their living room was no longer filled with couches and furniture. It was filled with shelves of protein. And at the time, I actually had taken over the clients of this creative agency, and they ended up shutting down. I started my own little thing, and I was needing to pay the bills and stuff. Ben was living at his parents house, and he's like, I can go all in on this. This is going to be my full time thing. For me, I was managing my own clients and book of business and trying to figure out, like, when are we going to pay ourselves? And we had no clue. Like, we thought we would sit on this 4000 units of protein for potentially twelve months.

09:03
Hannah Perez
We don't have marketing dollars to invest in the business. We didn't have any money as recent college grads to invest in anything when it came to the inventory. So at this time, you know, TikTok was obviously the thing to be on, the thing that could capture a wide audience. You can go viral in the most random ways. I feel like 2019 to 2021. It was a great opportunity for businesses to really hop on that specific channel, and that's exactly what we did. So we really leaned into the founder story and building in public through Ben's accounts and making him really like the face of our brand at the very beginning to show just a real person trying to build something. And a week before we launched in October, were trying so many different things.

09:52
Hannah Perez
He was doing storytelling about starting the business, and then we had this idea to go out on the street and sample our product and just get live reactions and edit it in a way that would, you know, captivate the audience and hopefully gain some traction. And our first sampling video that we posted ended up reaching almost over a million people on TikTok.

10:15
Grace Kennedy
Wow.

10:16
Hannah Perez
And I remember at this time, we had, like, a couple orders here and there from friends and family, but that was the first day where we had, like, actual sales come through that were pretty significant. I want to say. It was like, at the time, I mean, it was 50 orders or something in one day. And we could not believe it. Ben faces me. He's like, this is going viral. We have all these orders coming through. He had his little sister packing, his mom and dad packing, his younger brother packing orders at the house at this time. And it was such a unique experience because, yeah, were so close to the brand and the product, especially with the family and their house. To just be able to show that story was so unique in honestly building the business as a whole.

10:57
Hannah Perez
So we continued to do that. We continued to go sampling. We found a piece of content that worked. So we just continued to iterate on it. And in that first month, we also started a series called basically get these guys on Shark Tank. And that really caught some steam on TikTok when we started this series, because not only did it allow us to tell our story of what we're trying to do, but it allowed people to connect with something they were already familiar with, which is shark Tank.

11:26
Grace Kennedy
Yeah.

11:27
Hannah Perez
And this ended up getting the attention of Mark Cuban's son. And we ended up seeing an order come through with the last name Cuban and the house in Dallas, Texas. And I will never forget this. This call is, well, with Ben, but he was like, you'll never guess who just ordered. And it was the Cubans. It was his son that had ordered. And he, like, Google Earth's his house, like, made sure to confirm and oh my gosh, were like, we need to figure out what, like, we can do to get his attention to comment on a video, like saying that he ordered, like, basically confirming that he has tried our product. And were starstruck at this time. So as Ben is script writing, like kind of what we can do to get his attention. We literally get tagged in a video.

12:15
Hannah Perez
It says, mark Cuban has tagged you in a video and exactly what your face is doing is what were doing. We were so jaw dropped, Grace. It was the most insane moments of our time in business thus far. And at this point, were a month into business. When Mark even posted, we had already had so much steam and virality that we only had, I want to say, like 500 units maybe left at the time. So that video completely sold us out. And that honestly was the momentum that really got us off the ground and running. But unfortunately, supply chain in 2021 was a whole battle for us because lead times on our product were already, you know, eight to twelve weeks. And like I mentioned, we didn't know how long we would sit on this 4000 units.

13:06
Hannah Perez
We had no expectation of placing that second order yet. So it was a period of time from the end of November, call it early December, to March of the following year in 2022, that were completely sold out. So we had no Black Friday sale our first year in, like, 2021, we had caught steam for a month, but then were going to be sold out for four.

13:31
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God.

13:32
Hannah Perez
Yeah.

13:33
Grace Kennedy
That's insane. I can't believe you sold out of those 4000 units so quickly. That's amazing. And definitely speaks to the power of social media and TikTok and particularly that time. That time was so uniquely, like kind of the wild West. I feel like, a little bit on TikTok and things like that, but, yeah, it's so hard to have this viral moment and then to be like, we have no more to give you. So how did you guys manage that? How did you make sure you were, like, staying in people's minds, staying reminded that, like, soon you'll be able to order this? How? Yeah, how did you navigate that?

14:07
Hannah Perez
Yeah, that was the question at the time is like, yeah, we captured all of this demand. We need to continue this momentum. And so we actually ended up waiting around, I want to say, 30 days to open up preorders. So we continued to share about the business and the story through social media and on TikTok, and that continued to create a lot of demand. We also opted in on our website at the time for people to capture their email so that way we could eventually reach out to them. We would send a lot of just, like, messages from me and Ben, just saying, here's the latest updates. But we opened up pre orders 30 days later to fund basically the next round of inventory, as well as continuing to capture that demand, get people, like, invested.

14:49
Hannah Perez
So that's really what we did, was open up preorders, capture what we could capture at the time, and then continuing to share behind the scenes of what's happening, giving them very swift updates as we would get them from our manufacturer. And honestly, just being so transparent with our consumers at the time, knowing that we are a new business, like the supply chain is unpredictable right now. And thankfully, I think because were so transparent and authentic with that message, it really allowed people to trust us when we did come out with the next run of inventory in March, even though we said it was going to come in February. So I think it's just really building in public and really just being transparent with what you can at the time.

15:31
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love that. And I think that's so important for young brands to remember is you think you have to present this, like, perfect, you know, new brand and nothing is going wrong, but people are actually more attracted to the young brands for their authenticity. So people are choosing these newer brands over a legacy brand because they love the founders story or they've connected with that founder on social media. So I think that's really good advice as well. Just being transparent is actually also smart for your business and probably also is better for your mental health as well. But so obviously you were able to do this next in March. How did you work with the same manufacturer and then you funded it with these pre orders. And then how has it gone since that drop? How have you been managing those supply chain?

16:21
Grace Kennedy
Supply and demand. Right. Because it can be unpredictable as well. And how did that first launch after selling out the first time go?

16:28
Hannah Perez
Yeah. Wow, it was incredible. I mean, we had sold out of the inventory, the next round of inventory that we had placed before the inventory had shown up because of the pre orders that we had.

16:37
Grace Kennedy
Oh my God.

16:37
Hannah Perez
So were able to get a better gauge of kind of future planning. And also at the time, it was just me and Ben and his younger brother as like our warehouse manager that we had brought on, because at this point, with that second round of inventory that we ordered, we knew it was not going to fit in the Xavier household, and 4000 units was kind of the max at the time. So we ended up getting a warehouse in April of 2022 and brought on Will, Ben's younger brother, to help manage the orders, help hire his younger friends to pack the orders with us. And were managing supply chain. And that was definitely a difficult learning curve for both me and Ben because we had never been in that position to be understanding forecasting and inventory planning.

17:25
Hannah Perez
And that was a definite learning curve for us as founders in the business. So we continued to order what we could and keep up with demand as much as we could allow for the cash that we had, because we didn't receive any other investment from Ben's parents or outside investors at this time. So were really completely cash funded, just cycling cash back into the business as we could. So in those first twelve months of business, from October 2021 to October 2022, were out of stock for at least six months out of those twelve months, and didn't spend any money in marketing thus far. Up until that point, it was solely funded through. We were solely getting demand through TikTok and social media and then reengaging through email. Klaviyo was like the only thing that were investing in outside of just inventory.

18:16
Hannah Perez
And we had crossed over a million dollars in sales in those first twelve months without any other marketing strategies outside of just social media. And also, we couldn't do anything else because of the inventory and demand that we had and constantly running out of stock, that even wanting to invest into paid advertising, it wasn't possible at that time. Now, ever since basically October of 2022, we have been able to order more inventory because we've been lean in our team, we've been lean in paying ourselves and other marketing initiatives that we've been able to order more inventory to support the demand that we had. And we have now run into the out of stock issues much less and far and few in between. Especially. I mean, now in 2024, we have over six skus on our site.

19:05
Hannah Perez
So if one does go out of stock, there's five other flavors to choose from where we're able to manage that demand more in this moment. But October 2022 is where we really started a lot of other marketing initiatives because were able to invest into paid advertising, into an SMS channel, and really continuing to capture and talk to our audience.

19:26
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. I'm curious what. And you know, you guys, sounds like you guys are both are Gen Z, so maybe you were just born with it, but what advice would you give to founders who maybe feel a little bit less comfortable with social media, or don't know how to start or feel just like it's overwhelming or they feel shy or just have hesitation around really showing up on social media? Do you have any advice you would give them about just first steps, how to get in there and make it happen?

20:01
Hannah Perez
Yeah. Honestly, when it comes to those things, I really feel like it goes back to the authenticity and just being who you are and knowing that, like, we are all human. And at the end of the day, imposter syndrome hits me all of the time when it comes to those initiatives and just like filming or anything, even me being on camera or even hopping on this podcast, it's like all those little things creep in your head. But I think at the end of the day, people just have so much respect for anyone that's trying something out of their comfort zone and building something that just trying to get your story out, even if it's as simple as just filming and not editing anything and just getting comfortable just talking to yourself on camera. It's a hard one.

20:44
Hannah Perez
It's definitely a hard one, but it's really repetition at the end of the day where it's just practice. And even if you don't post it, you just continue to practice talking to your phone and talking about your story. I also would say, I think a good tactic is having somebody almost create a podcast for you and come to a meeting or something with a list of a dozen questions and the tripod is filming and they're just asking questions and you're just answering them as if you're talking one one, where it's less talking to a phone and you're more having a conversation with an actual human that you're then able to take offline and edit and chop up, add some other clips here and there to make it interesting.

21:22
Hannah Perez
But I find that a more comfortable approach to maybe sharing, like about the story or about what's going on in product development or just other little things where you can create more of a conversation between another human that happens to be filmed.

21:38
Grace Kennedy
Totally. I think that's actually amazing advice because it feels more natural and like, yeah, you're just talking to a friend and then you can clip it into a bunch of little snippets to put on social media that you know are the best bits you have. And you can record it as many times as you need. You don't have to do it live, which is also key, I feel like. So thinking about not the social media side of things, but more the paid ads, paid marketing side of things, what have you seen to work for you guys over these last, you know, I guess it's been about two years since you've started doing more of that. What's been most helpful for you guys in the paid marketing arena?

22:15
Grace Kennedy
Because I've definitely heard from a lot of brands where they're just, again, another place where it costs a lot of money. You don't know what's really working or what isn't working. And it can feel scary to dip your toes into that when it is costly. So what's been useful for you guys?

22:30
Hannah Perez
Yeah, definitely. It is a pay to play space. At the end of the day, it is a content machine, is really what you need to support your paid advertising. I think, you know, leaning on a mix of a multi mix of media when it comes to testing things. You're not just testing one thing to hope that it works, but you're testing against all of the things that you're doing and always trying to almost play devil's advocate on every single post. I guess that you're testing against, I would also say outside of just like the media mix, finding those messages that, like, really lean into why our product is better, to get people to think differently. I think that's something so unique about our product is we're able to connect with the problem of people not enjoying their protein shakes.

23:15
Hannah Perez
That's something that we're able to lean into in a big way with paid media. It's like ditching your thick and milky protein shakes and people don't even recognize that they have a problem necessarily because they don't know the solution even exists. So that's, I think, really the way that we've leaned into paid for the most part, is really pointing out the problem and how we are the solution to that. Because like joining this call, a lot of people don't know what clear protein is. So really pointing out that problem in our paid messaging and showing the comparison of thick and milky protein to our protein allows consumers to really click and understand and be open to trying something new. And that's really what has worked for us.

23:58
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of the content machine, is the content creating machine still just you and Ben, or have you guys brought more people on to help you out in some of these arenas?

24:08
Hannah Perez
Yeah, for sure. We've definitely leaned more on outside partners when it comes to now creating the content for our business. We did a lot of it in house and internally for a while, and now we are really trying to build our strength in our business in other areas to support our future growth, that it makes more sense for us to get external partners for content and creative. So we've really taken a shift from being supported like 100% in house to more weighted now on external partners and creatives.

24:43
Grace Kennedy
That's awesome. How have you. It's probably a little bit scary to start relying on these external partners and creatives. How have you found building those relationships and finding people that you really think see your vision for seek?

24:56
Hannah Perez
Yeah, that's a great question because as we've built this brand and business, went through one rebrand last year in August where we did kind of an overhaul on our packaging and our logo and the look and feel of how we're presenting ourselves when it comes to our product. And it's really, for us, just communicating the importance of being an approachable brand in this space. You know, we are in the supplement space that typically can come off as very gym bro, I guess in that way where it can be a little bit aggressive or like telling you what to do almost in a way when it's like you're going to get big muscles from drinking protein and like, that's just not our brand.

25:37
Hannah Perez
So I think it's just allowing ourselves to share that with our partners and just saying this is really the direction that we're trying to go here's some examples of what we really like from other brands. I think that's been a big thing for us is it doesn't necessarily have to be in the supplement space to create this ecosystem of what we're looking for and what Seek is, but allowing for all of these inputs and then just having conversation at the end of the day and being super clear about our big pillars when it comes to what we're trying to represent with this content.

26:08
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. It's so hard to trust other people, but at the end of the day, if you can't get an external partner to understand your mission, then are your customers really understanding your mission? It's kind of probably a step one for anybody who has any brand, no matter what stage you're at. Another thing I wanted to return to that you mentioned, obviously you guys got that initial investment from Ben's family, and then you said you're really just funneling cash back into the business since you started doing more paid external things. Have you guys sought any external investment? I don't think you've gotten on shark Tank yet. Unless I was wrong, that is a.

26:45
Hannah Perez
Whole can of worms. The, the Shark Tank story. We actually did end up applying for shark tank because we got the stamp of approval from Mark. Yeah. And went through the diligence process and got pretty far into it where were, you know, told, like, filming dates we're going to fly out, but they can revoke kind of that offer at any point for no reason and honestly ended up being for the best because at that point were only six months into business and didn't really have a lot of traction outside of the first month.

27:14
Grace Kennedy
Yeah.

27:15
Hannah Perez
Since then we have not received any outside investment. We've continued to be self funded. We've grown our team to now nine full time employees. Wow. And we are actually currently in the raising. You know, we're raising right now. That's the goal because we have some big goals going into 2025 of being in retail. And getting into retail requires, you know, big guns. And we are fully in fundraise mode as we speak right now.

27:47
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. I actually was, that was another thing I was going to ask you about was, you know, I noticed you're all online and curious if retail is the next step, but it sounds like it is. So how are you kind of pitching this to investors when you're talking about funding and helping you guys get into retail? How are you approaching that?

28:03
Hannah Perez
Yeah, it has been. This year has really given us so many opportunities for retail that retail actually happened first. And getting the confirmation of retail has really been the real driver for getting investment. So the conversations right now with investors is one not only sharing the startup story and this unique product and brand that we have built, but also showing kind of the run rate of what this retail partner is going to bring to us next year. And that's really what we're leaning on. We're also talking with many. Yeah, we're talking with many individuals, institutions, other means to kind of make this happen. But it's a tight window, and we've had to do a lot of things since.

28:47
Hannah Perez
This opportunity has arisen, because at the time, earlier this year, when were creating, like, the 2024 game plan, retail wasn't on this year's plan, and it just kind of happened. The opportunity happened, and we're like, we can't say no to this. We want to do this. So it has definitely shifted many things in our business in a positive way, but a lot of activities has started to shake things up this year.

29:15
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's crazy. So it sounds like a retailer approached you about working with you guys, and now you're having to figure out, okay, we want to do this, but how do we fund all the inventory? How do we make this happen? And, yeah, that's intense. But, hey, if there's any investors listening, you know, hit up Hannah on Slacken and let her know if you're interested, and maybe we can get things rolling. And I know just fundraising in general is so challenging and, you know, requires a lot of hard work and patience and energy. So kudos to you guys, and I hope that you get $4 billion tomorrow.

29:55
Hannah Perez
Fingers crossed it's been a venture.

29:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I think it's gonna happen. But speaking of some of that hard work, how do you and Ben balance the hard work of being co founders, and how do you guys kind of support each other and manage that relationship while also taking care of yourself and taking care of seek?

30:18
Hannah Perez
Absolutely. Yeah. I'm so glad you asked that, because that's something that both him and I really value. And one of the core values that we really brought into the company, especially as we have big goals, to grow fast and big, is to make sure we're all feeling good doing it. You know, hustle culture can be really the killer of actual happiness and enjoying the journey. And for me and Ben, it's really important to us that we feel good doing it, and so does everyone on our team. Like, yes, we want to grow big, but making sure we remember at the end of the day, we are human. We have things outside of this business that fill our cup that we need to attend to.

30:58
Hannah Perez
And we have this thing called founder hour where me and Ben, it only happens, like, once a week or so, but we'll go and, like, do a Facetime walk or something. It ends up usually being, like, founder few hours, and it's just a time for us to just connect on the business, connect on how we're both doing, especially because we have transitioned now to all full remote working. It's really important to have those touch points with each other that are outside of the business. And we actually had one yesterday, and it's just a good reminder to each other that we've built something incredible, but we are still human and leaning on each other for that support. And I truly could not imagine doing this without a co founder and without Ben.

31:42
Hannah Perez
Truly, we compliment each other so well in everything that we've built thus far and who we are as people that I'm just so grateful for this opportunity to build this business with somebody else that has the same passion for both the growth of the business as well as the growth of each other. So, yeah, just supporting each other every way that we can, outside of just business. And reminding the team as well that it's important to feel good.

32:09
Grace Kennedy
Totally. And especially as a brand, you know, a supplements brand, you. If all the people involved in the company feel terrible and tired all the time, you know, that's not really a good testament to. To this product that's supposed to make you feel better and supposed to support your healthy lifestyle and support you. And so it's. I love that's a priority for you guys, and seems like, you know, you're walking the walk of what your brand stands for, which is super cool. So, beyond retail, what else are you guys really excited about right now? I know you guys continue to. I feel like you, when I was looking at your website, I was like, feels like there's so many flavors, but then you're also, like, limited flavor here, limited flavor there. So are there more flavors coming out? Yeah.

32:48
Grace Kennedy
What are you guys excited for? That's to come for zeek?

32:51
Hannah Perez
Yeah. So good. The future looks juicy, Grace. It looks really juicy. At the end of the day, our goal is to be the number one clear protein. We want to have the best clear protein on the market. I know many competitors already have started coming out with this clear product, and we want to be the ones really leading the charge on new innovation in this space. So for us, we're really excited about the new ways that we can bring juicy protein, clear protein to life. And we're doing that through the retailer that we're going to be launching. With this next year, you're going to see a couple different new ways of how we've created our product.

33:30
Hannah Perez
And then next year, we have a lot of ideas when it comes to the new flavors and also getting our consumers involved behind helping decide what those flavors are and what they want to see. So that's really what I'm excited for. I'm also really excited to lean back into community more and bringing our brand to life through events and in real life activations. Because that's really where I get the most excited, is when I get to see the experience of people trying our product. And it reminds me of the same experience I had when I first tried the product, when Ben came through the doors and gave me a sample and it just clicked and it blew my mind. And seeing that in person and communicating with our customers in real life is something I'm just so looking forward to getting back to.

34:17
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, totally. And kind of the origin story, your first viral moment to talking to people on the street, getting them to try seek. So I love that. And brings it all back full circle, even though I'm sure there's even more circle to go. So if people want to learn more about Seek, if they want to try seek, where can they find you guys?

34:37
Hannah Perez
Absolutely. Yes. We have a great starter pack on our website to get everyone started with a couple samples of each flavor to really get a full array of what seek is and what flavors you really enjoy. So you can find us on seeksupply.com. And our instagram is the best place to keep updated for all new product drops, promotions, and fun things that we're doing in seek.

35:03
Grace Kennedy
I love it. And my final question is, what's your favorite seek flavor?

35:07
Hannah Perez
No, I happen to actually think the latest drop, juicy Peach, is my new favorite. However, in our mainstay lineup, since that one will be sold out by the time this comes out, is definitely between strawberry lemonade and Blue Razz at this time.

35:25
Grace Kennedy
Ooh, yeah, those are some real classic flavors. I love that. Okay, well, it was so much fun to chat with you, Hannah. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. And yeah, everybody, go check out seek. Yay.

35:35
Hannah Perez
Thank you so much, Grace. This is amazing.

35:38
Speaker 3
All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, it would help us out so much if you left a five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I am Grace Kennedy. The editor for startup CPG, so feel free to add me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on slack. I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting brands to feature, and if you're a potential sponsor that would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipsartupcpg.com dot. And finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our community on slack and you can sign up via our website, startupcpg.com dot.