Founder Feature: Marc Brown of ONOIN

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Marc Brown, founder of ONOIN — a line of shelf-stable, pre-chopped and flavored onions in 100% olive oil designed to save you time and tears in the kitchen. ONOIN comes in four flavors — original, garlic and herb, jalapeño lime, and ginger and lemongrass — and is designed to go on or in anything, from eggs to meatballs to savory oatmeal bowls.

Marc is a food scientist with a master's degree from Drexel University and a seriously stacked background: R&D and industrialization at Danone, Head of R&D as employee #8 at Clio Snacks, and R&D and contract manufacturing work at Hain Celestial. He came to founding ONOIN with a rare 360-degree view of the food industry — from bench science to co-manufacturer negotiations to retailer conversations — and shares hard-won lessons throughout this conversation.

Together, Caitlin and Marc dig into why chopped onions in a jar hadn't been done before (and why it should have been), the origin story of the ONOIN name (credit goes to his brother-in-law at a backyard grill), and what makes a co-manufacturer relationship truly work. Marc breaks down the three-part pricing transparency framework every brand should demand from their co-man — raw, pack, and toll — and explains why trust and belief in your vision are just as important as the contract.

They also get into the realities of early-stage distribution, how to build a velocity story with the right retail partners, and why knowing your product well enough to tell a buyer exactly why they need it on the shelf is non-negotiable.

Listen in as they cover:

• How a graduate school innovation exercise sparked the idea for ONOIN
• Why shelf-stable pre-chopped onions solve a problem that fresh never fully could
• The naming journey from "Yun" to ONOIN — and why the name works on shelf
• The three things every brand must demand from their co-manufacturer: raw, pack, and toll
• Red flags when vetting a co-man and why trust is the ultimate filter
• How Marc's background at Danone, Clio Snacks, and Hain Celestial shaped his approach to founding
• Building a velocity story with retailers who actually believe in your product
• Why knowing your product's ideal placement in store can change your whole sales conversation
• Reducing food waste — one of ONOIN's often-overlooked benefits
  
  

Whether you're a founder navigating co-manufacturer relationships, a food scientist thinking about making the jump to your own brand, or a buyer looking for the next smart pantry staple, this episode is for you.

Episode Links:
ONOIN Website: https://eatonoin.com 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eat.onoin/ 
Marc Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-brown-41500546/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

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

Caitlin Bricker

Managing Editor @ 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.

Marc Brown
There needs to be transparency on pricing and what is driving cost. If somebody will not give you the breakdown of these three things, you are in trouble. Raw pack toll what is the cost of your raw materials going into that? What is the cost of your packaging? Whether each jar lid label costs x and then finally toll how much does it cost to turn those raw mater into that finished product and then find someone that believes in you and the vision because you cannot scale like that where every single time you're worried about a production or this or that or payments or finances or inventory. That's not a way to build a business.

00:45
Caitlin Bricker
Hey everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing editor at Startup cpg. We are back with another founder feature. Today I'm sitting down with Marc Brown, founder of ONOIN shelf-stable, pre-chopped and flavored onions and olive oil designed to save you time and tears in the kitchen. Marc's a food scientist with master's degree from Drexel and a seriously impressive background at Danone, Clio Snacks and Hanes Celestial. We're diving into how he came up with that genius name ONOIN in meaning the onions go on or in anything, why co manufacturer relationships are make or break for food brands, the red flags to watch for when choosing a coman, and his advice on building velocity stories with retailers who believe in your product.

01:30
Caitlin Bricker
Plus we're talking about why transparency and pricing is non negotiable and how to know your product well enough to tell buyers exactly why they need it on their shelves. As always, enjoy. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Marc Brown, founder of ONOIN. Marc, welcome to the show.

01:52
Marc Brown
Thanks for having me, Caitlin.

01:54
Caitlin Bricker
Finally it feels like we've been trying to get this done for years and I take all the blame. You know what it's like having toddlers running the household and sickness and all the fun things. But thank you so much for being flexible and understanding and I can only imagine your product kind of plays into that saving time element that all parents need.

02:18
Marc Brown
Absolutely. Yeah. I think everyone's looking for a shortcut or a hack in some way, shape or form. Whether it's cooking, parenting, commuting, whatever.

02:27
Caitlin Bricker
Give me all the hacks. But before we get into any hacks and more of ONOIN, can you tell all the listeners what ONOIN is?

02:34
Marc Brown
Of course. So on. Oh in is a line of shelf stable pre chopped and flavored onion in 100% olive oil made to help you save your time and tears while cooking. And it's Designed to go on or in all your favorite food. And ONOIN genius.

02:51
Caitlin Bricker
My phone want to autocorrect ONOIN to onion every single time. And I'm like, come on, this is a household name for us. It needs to be for you too, Siri. Like, get it together.

03:01
Marc Brown
We're working on the Merriam Webster dictionary, people. Yeah, it's gonna take a little while.

03:05
Caitlin Bricker
I have to say, when your brand came across my radar, I was like, this is genius. I used to be so pro fresh ingredients when it comes to getting garlic, getting a bulb of garlic at the store, never once did onions cross my mind. I use minced garlic in a jar all the time. Like, it seems like it's not that big of a time saver. It absolutely is. So when I saw Anu and was doing it with onions, I couldn't wrap my brain around why this hadn't been done before. And especially in the way that you are doing it. So can you tell us what brought you to creating ONOIN?

03:41
Marc Brown
Yeah, of course. So the spark of the idea actually came about in graduate school. So I was in my got my master's degree in food science. We were looking for innovation, looking across the grocery store, trying to combine categories, seeing what out there or not out there that people might actually want. So my thought was I was also happening to be working for an onion distributor at this point. But my thought was, why is there chopped garlic in a jar and not chopped onions? To your point, Caitlin, everybody uses it. It's a timesaver that everyone's looking to just save anything while they're cooking. So onions have a bigger built in pain point of they make you cry. So I thought, great, what if I can combine the shelf stable part of the chopped garlic, but also then sort of adding in flavors. Yes.

04:21
Marc Brown
I know that they sell pre chopped onions chilled fresh, But I say that only really solves one of the problems. You still have to know how to cook or you still need to have your garlic and your herbs and everything else you need for a balanced and delicious meal. So we sort of did all of that for you. And our stated target demographics are people, myself, you as well, Caitlin, that have young children that are looking for a way to make dinner easier, healthier, cheaper. Young professionals that don't necessarily know how to cook this sort of gives them that crutch and that help in the kitchen. But again, I think everybody is really looking to eat healthier, easier, and cheaper at home. You rarely find someone that's like, yeah, you know what, I'm actually trying to Eat out and eat way worse for me.

05:01
Marc Brown
That's sort of the opposite of what we're trying to do as a society. How can I help you right with.

05:05
Caitlin Bricker
This on a win, I also need to know, how did you come up with the name? Was it many iterations of coming up with a name for your product or was this just like hallelujah moment where you knew that this was it? Take me through that process because it's genius in my opinion.

05:21
Marc Brown
Thanks. So I sort of did this a little bit backward. As I just mentioned. I thought of the product and the concept first and then tried to build a brand around it afterward. So the first name that I thought of and tried to trademark was actually called Y U n Think like Un Yun Yum, something like that. But short, sweet, to the point again, still kind of a play on words. But Fun Yuns, anything like that.

05:45
Caitlin Bricker
Exactly. That's what came to mind for me.

05:47
Marc Brown
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Fun Yuns, Fun onions, whatever. But Yun apparently needs fortune, I think in Mandarin or something like that. So there was a trademark taken. So it forced me to kind of go back to the drawing board. And I swear to God, I credit my brother in law with this. But were grilling, I had, you know, early iterations of the product and he said something along the lines of it can go on or in a hamburger. And I like played around with my head and I kind of wrote it down. I was like, oh crap, that's actually really genius because I know I explained the name everything else. It definitely works better as a visual gag. But what I'm thinking about, when people are seeing it, whether it's an ad online or on the shelf, you mentioned the garlic.

06:24
Marc Brown
That's traditionally wear merchandise next to in a grocery store, that jar says garlic mine. At least when you read it quickly says onion, you at least know that there's an onion inside of it. Traditionally next to sun dried tomatoes as well. But you kind of pick what you need. It removes that little bit of friction from the shopper on shelf. People don't buy what, they don't know what it is. So once they see, okay, that's a jar says onion next to the garlic. Great. That's probably a jar of onions. Let me pick it up when I try it out. That's really how the name came about, but it's how do you communicate to somebody what's inside the jar while also trying to build brand equity? And I think that was the what we came up with.

06:58
Caitlin Bricker
I think you nailed it. And when I asked you how to pronounce it. You were like, it's ano and it goes on or in anything. And I was like, duh. Because when I see it, just like you're saying, if I were to walk past that on a shelf very quickly, even if it wasn't something I was looking for, garlic is something I'm looking for. So the cousin next to it's speaking to me. Even just with that one little swap, I imagine you also had no problem trademarking on ONOIN.

07:25
Marc Brown
So you actually can't deliberately misspell things for trademarks. So we're on the supplemental register, but because we're using it in commerce, we're okay. And obviously the design and all of those things are protected. So we are protected in terms of on O. But if somebody came and put the word onion on a jar, they are allowed to do that. Of course, you're the first mover and first to market. But it's being able to communicate to shoppers is really Paramount. People say, oh, I don't like the name or I don't understand it. And I say to that, good, you're thinking about it. You know, it's any kind of brand name that can evoke emotion, whether it's positive or negative, is better than something you do not think about ever again. And you walk past it and you'll never think about it.

08:04
Marc Brown
I don't care if you walk past my jar and you hate it and you hate the name and you're thinking about me. There's 10,000 SKUs in a grocery store. How many of those do you think about on a quote unquote regular basis or have names that bother you? Great. All press is good press.

08:18
Caitlin Bricker
I love that standpoint. And I think we are tending to see more brand names out there that are very unusual and that are eye catching and that stick with you. And I think you make a great point that all press is good press, even if it's bad press. And just like you're saying, they're still thinking about you, even if they hated the name and they had a visceral reaction or it stuck with them somehow some way. So you're getting yourself out there.

08:44
Marc Brown
My DNS and emails open if anybody has a better name, but trying to communicate what the product is and that visually and everything else, I think I did a pretty good job. And if this was Mark Special Sauce, no one would have any idea what it is. And that just makes it that much tougher to educate a consumer about what it is, get them to try it and Understand it.

09:03
Caitlin Bricker
No offense, but Marc, special sauce sounds pretty lame.

09:06
Marc Brown
Well, yeah.

09:08
Caitlin Bricker
So I know what it is. I gotta know. I know you have an interesting background, but we haven't had a chance to really dive into it. And I think it positions you very well as a food founder. So can you walk us through your professional background? Pre Ottawin? Of course.

09:25
Marc Brown
So I think I mentioned briefly I'm a food scientist. I have a master's degree in food science from Drexel University. Previously got a bachelor's in from the University of Wisconsin. But you know, I didn't actually know. I always wanted to be in the food industry. Wants to be a doctor. There's the recession. What's recession proof? I always struggled my weight a little bit. So I kind of fell into food science and I absolutely loved it. When I was doing my graduate program, I saw all the different things you can do with it. Engineering, chemistry, product development. So I fell in love with the product development and the business side of things. I never like on a bench in a lab all day. That was just not for me.

09:56
Marc Brown
I like to see how things are actually affecting the real world, purchasing habits, things like that. So I used to work at Danone. I was doing R and D, so I developed new types of Activia. And then I was on something called the Yogurt Industrialization Manager. And I love the food industry, but I really got to see another level of it when I was stuck in R and D. I was working one brand, couple projects at a time. Yes, it was innovation, renovation, engineering. So I was kind of seeing the full gamut of how to develop a product, but really seeing where the capital for the entire business and capacity planning and what segments are being treated higher priority, whatever else. Because this was at the time at Danone after we had purchased White Wave.

10:33
Marc Brown
So it wasn't just yogurt anymore, but it was still soy milk at that point on Horizon Organic Dairy. So it was really kind of looking where everything is slotting in. Do we have the capacity that we have the capability to run all of these things, New innovations? And then I went over to Cleo Snacks. So I was the first director of R and D right after the founder so reported right into him, the CEO. And from there it was really an education of, yes, the same R and D things. But how do you run a new company? How do you fundraise? How do you deal with new doors and problems and growing pains and wearing multiple different hats.

11:06
Marc Brown
So while, yes, I was hired as the director of R and D and Quality, I was onboarding new co managers, I was doing procurement, I was doing quality, safety, everything because that's what you do in a startup. So I think that gave me a really good view of what it takes to be successful as a startup in the industry and what it really means to own not only your department but put your hands wherever they're needed. And then finally I was at Hein Celestial which kind of continued on the R and D and co man journey. And I think this is also relatively significant because I had the gigantic company experience with Deno and I had small company experience with Clio. So I hane Celestial because there's a lot of brands like that 50 to 100 million space that's sort of mid size.

11:44
Marc Brown
So I got a sense of okay, work with the larger brands with under our portfolio, the smaller one, the larger comands, the bigger segments and kind of negotiating from a position of strength, from a position of weakness and to really kind of build those relationships. And I think that's what really helped me bring this product to market. Because as I was looking at different co manage of product development, I wasn't just talking about from an R and D side but leads higher ignition for the business, how we would work together and understanding the margins and how things actually flow from raw material to finding a co man to a contract with that co man out the door to your three pounds to a distributor, to a retailer and finally being paid on all of those things.

12:21
Marc Brown
I only really had let's say 60% of that puzzle solved. Now I'm working on the rest of it, the distributor, retailer conversations and it's having the other side of it to lean on. I think is really important that I can throw myself into those that side of the business and not worry about my product development or my coman or future innovation because that's going to all fall under me anyway.

12:42
Caitlin Bricker
Wow, it sounds like you have the ultimate primer to become a CPG brand, especially in food. That is unbelievable experience. I don't believe I've spoken to a founder yet who's had the type of experience that you have. And the food science background is, I mean invaluable.

12:58
Marc Brown
Thank you. Yes. And I try and pass this along. I know, you know, through startup CPG and all of these other trade associations, I've met with so many other early stage founders and I extol the virtues of Coman and R and D and getting your operations and supply chain under control before you're building a brand, before you're worrying about Pitching to retailers like you need the base of your business and the product. I would say your co men, they own your product, they make it for you. So you need to have a really good relationship. You have to trust them with everything. This is your baby. So I really try and help a lot of the other early stage founders that I come across with these sorts of things. So again, anybody who's listening My DMs emails always open.

13:36
Marc Brown
If you have a coman R and D question, please I'd like to at least chime in because we all like to help each other out and will get paid forward in some way, shape or form.

13:44
Caitlin Bricker
That is a really fantastic offer and I really hope that people take you up on it and they should follow you when they do that too. So would you say it's fair to say that for any brand who's thinking about starting in food and beverage, first thing that they want to do is look at comands in this supply chain?

14:04
Marc Brown
I've spoken with a number of early stage founders with an idea. I hate to say this because I was in this space a year ago. I don't wanna say are easy, but there's lots of people with ideas. Can you act on it? Even the earliest form? Yes. Building a prototype, doing it in your kitchen or even a commercial kitchen is nice, but I was just talking with somebody the other day about some of these things and I said they're looking for a coma. And I said okay, sounds like you need lots of pieces of equipment. What's the most important piece of equipment? If you're looking for somebody that does frozen soup but also potato chips, what's the most important for them to have? Is it the soup kettle, is it the fryer or is it the freezer for the soup?

14:40
Marc Brown
Because you can, obviously you can buy equipment, you can bring something else in, but you really need to make sure that there is a snowballs chance in hell that you can make this product consistently at scale, at a price that works somewhat. It doesn't need to be completely optimized in terms of cogs and yield, whatever else. But you need someone to sell your vision because at some point you're going to grow out of that commercial kitchen or like Target or Kroger or somebody else comes calling, you do not want to be scrambling for a Conan. It takes a long time to hammer out details, to run trials to make sure that everything is working as intended. I don't want to say it's not the best advice, but it's really either you're going to be growing out of your coned or growing into a coned.

15:17
Marc Brown
There's going to be very few times when you're at the exact right spot, because either you're hopefully growing and you're going to grow out of them or you're too big initially. So it's always kind of be on your toes and whether looking for somebody for freight improvements or relationship improvements, whatever else it is. But the product has to be manufacturable. Lots of good ideas out there that are just not going to work because you need crazy expensive equipment and this, that the other. And you're going to be competing against a can of black beans for 99 cents. Like you can't be priced at $10 for whatever else it is. So it has to be realistic in that space.

15:50
Caitlin Bricker
That makes a lot of sense. And I feel like, and maybe this is naive of me or I don't even know what the right word is, but when I see a product that's clearly homemade, there's something about it that doesn't feel quite safe to me. But when I see a product that is clearly manufactured, something about that feels like a safer bet to me. As a consumer, I'm not going to.

16:17
Marc Brown
Call anybody any plants out, but I've been to a lot of plants in my day and not all of them are humming as nicely as you think is all I'll say to that. Lots of different manufacturing. The food that you're going to get is clean. Everybody has policies, procedures, records. The food that you're going to get from any of these people will be clean. This sqf audits, there's all this paperwork. So yes, there's always going to be things here and there. But for the general part, your food is clean as long as somebody kind of use all the policies and procedures that they should have in their home kitchen. But yeah, going back to that, it's just very hard to get repeatable results also in your kitchen time and time again.

16:51
Marc Brown
And as your scale grows, either you don't be hiring somebody to do that, or it's going to be taking more of your time, which then leaves less of you to be doing the other activities that you need to run a business, whether it's podcasts or fundraising or anything like that. You can't be in the kitchen cooking all day because you're the only person that knows exactly how this is made. That's not a scalable idea. If you have to be there on site with your hands in the mix every single time, you're just really Setting yourself up for a harder time down alarm.

17:16
Caitlin Bricker
Great points, great advice. Before we move on to the next topic, I gotta ask, do you have any red flags that scream out to you when it comes to choosing a coman?

17:25
Marc Brown
Yes, and I always say this. 1. Transparency. There needs to be transparency on pricing and what is driving cost. If somebody will not give you the breakdown of these three things, you are in trouble. Raw pack, toll. What is the cost of your raw materials going into that? What is the cost of your packaging? Whether each jar lid, label costs x and then finally toll. How much does it cost to turn those raw materials into that finished product? Couple things on there. 1. Toll. Because you need to understand what's driving that number. Is it total number of batches per day? Is it output? Is it yield? Why is that number the way it is? How can we lower it? But also yeah, sticking on my product.

18:06
Marc Brown
For example, let's say onions are only grown in California and they have a drought and onions are twice as high and my co man wants to charge me more for products. Show me your pos. Show me that onions went up x percent. I will pay you that money. The way I've always operated as a coman is this is not real numbers here people. All of my components together cost a dollar. I pay my coman a dollar 25 because he gets 25% margin and that's how it's built and that's how it's always going to be. Onions go up again. Now we're at $2. He takes 25% now it's 250 for a jar. If I know what's driving cost, I have no problem paying for it. But now onions are dirt cheap now they're 50 cents, whatever.

18:42
Marc Brown
Now I want to get paid back now I want that my cost to go down. You can't do that without transparency. So it needs to work both ways. There needs to be a trusting relationship. And as I said before, they are the stewards, the owners of your products, whatever you want to call them. But they are the ones that are running it on a. I don't say daily basis, but hopefully a weekly or monthly basis. If your volumes are nice and strong, you have lots of productions. You have to trust them. The end all be all is you have to trust them. They want to see your success because they make more money as you grow.

19:11
Marc Brown
If they don't believe in you and they're kind of messing with you and not treating you well, find someone that believes in you and the vision because you cannot scale like that where every single time you're worried about a production or this or that or payments or finances or inventory, that's not a way to build a business.

19:26
Caitlin Bricker
That is excellent advice. I guess I never really thought about it that way. As if it's a relationship and they have to believe in the product that they're manufacturing. It makes so much sense now that you've said it, because we hear people say, and the last ingredient is love. Well, it kind of sounds like it's the truth when you pick your co man.

19:45
Marc Brown
Mentioning my background as a co main manager for the previous couple of years. I have a team of R and D people. I have my engineers, I have my procurement. I have everybody. I was the relationship manager because that is so important. Of when our R and D team screaming that this wasn't done correctly or this or everything has moved out our contract. The most important thing is are you getting what you ordered on time and in full? That's the really the most important thing. So it's relationship, but also are they giving you what you're supposed to be getting and is it good quality and do you like them? That's pretty much it. I went through a lot of detail, but it's pretty simple.

20:18
Caitlin Bricker
I love it. I think that's great insight and you touched on this a little bit. But as you get to scale, that's when you have less time as a founder to focus on the things that you might want to focus on, the fun things, like being on a podcast. If you have the right co man, great. You might free up some more time. But let's dive into what sales and distribution has looked like for you so far. What did it look like when you started compared to now and what have you learned throughout the sales and distribution process?

20:46
Marc Brown
So there's sort of two ways to do that in terms of do you get the retailers interested first and then you find a distributor. Especially this very early stage. It can be chicken egg, where a distributor, they want to know that you have anchor accounts or accounts that they can ship to. That way when you ship them product, it's not going to sit in their warehouse. And then when you pitch a retailer, they want to know, this looks great. How is this getting to my doorstep? What is the price? Do I like working with that distributor? Do they service me well? Are their prices good? Whatever else. So it can be a little bit of a chicken egg situation there. So I would say also similarly, it's relationship driven. Find a distributor that you like working with your account rep or whatever.

21:23
Marc Brown
Else it might be, but find someone that you actually enjoy working with and then same thing. The sales perspective is obviously I'm a very early stage brand, so I throw myself into a lot of these conversations with the retailers, the brokers, this, that, the other. But eventually things are going to be left to their own devices. So you want to make sure that your broker is going to manage the distributors well, that they're speaking your language, they're speaking as the word of you, and that they're going to manage that relationship well with the calendars and the promo schedules, everything that you've aligned on. But a lot of it does come back to relationships. So pick your distributors and your partners well and then in terms of sales, focus on the stores where you think you're going to be successful in.

22:00
Marc Brown
So personally I'm in that greater New York City area. I was not pitching Erewhon and Central Market. I'm pitching the stores in my backyard. Yes, I don't say too conventional for me, but too mass at the moment, or there might be a couple stores within that group that may not be the best sellers for you. That's okay. Focus on where your product is successful. Focus on a velocity story with partners and retailers that believe in you. Make sure that you're getting a sell through, that you're listening to consumers, you're doing your demos. But then use those numbers to then take to other retailers and say, hey, you put me in the center of the store. I sell way better in produce. And here's why.

22:33
Marc Brown
Look, this is what we did with when it was merchandising produce next to the chopped garlic versus next to the tomatoes or whatever it might be. But try and find the people that are supporting you now and continue to work with them. And there's a lot of people in this industry that honestly don't have your best interests. But like I said before, there's 10,000 SKUs in a grocery store. Nobody cares about your single one unless you're Coke or Pepsi or something like that. So it's really work with the people that you like working with that again, trust, believe in your product and blow it out with them. Use that story to take to others and continue your expansion.

23:05
Caitlin Bricker
I think it says a lot too about knowing your product and your product's consumers too, because you're talking about the facings in the store. Being able to say it actually does do better over here, even though you think it does well over here. Just like test it out. Being able to have that relationship with your buyer. I think is unbelievable. I find that it's easier when you're working with smaller retailers. But what has your experience been? Have retailers been receptive to your feedback when it comes to the customer experience?

23:35
Marc Brown
Yes, they have. Because this is a sort of a unique product that's shelf stable. Some people, we tell them to put it in produce again next to the minced garlic. That's where the ideal spot is. But sometimes I end up in the center of the store. And in some of the smaller grocery stores, when I say center, it's not the big jumble like it might be a Publix or something like that. So you're still accessible. But people walk into produce more, they walk around more. You kind of see like, let me put three jars here, leave some in the center store, leave some in produce and see what sells best. So again, they're starting to do that now with targeted displays as well on the butcher counter, things like that.

24:06
Marc Brown
But when you know your product and what you converted to a grocery store, the buyer is going to be a thousand times more receptive when you say, yeah, I know that it's a higher dollar ring than some of your other ones, but great. It's more margin per ring. You know, you need to sell twice as many of that product to have this. I sell more per square inch than this person. It's incremental. To your shopper you can come up with to tell your buyer why they need your product is a really big help for them to bring it in because you know what you're talking about and not just, hey, it seems interesting. People like it. Take me.

24:34
Caitlin Bricker
So tell the buyers why do they need your product?

24:36
Marc Brown
They need my product for the exact same things I just said. It is incremental to their shelves today. It's a higher dollar ring. And it's actually solving a need for people that does not exist today. And in between a couple of your categories, however, chopped onions have a pretty big shrink and they don't solve people's needs. So might as well have some shelf stable that doesn't go bad and clean. Label ready when you need it and share with us.

24:57
Caitlin Bricker
We know the name ONOIN. What are people using ONOIN for?

25:02
Marc Brown
So check my Amazon reviews. Everyone uses it everywhere. It started from the morning. Your eggs, your sandwiches, your salads, your dips, your dressings, marinades, meatballs, burgers, hot dog, vegetables. It literally can go on or in anything. It is a very simple way to make your life easier, tastier. And that's pretty much it.

25:24
Caitlin Bricker
We do a Lot of savory oatmeal bowls in my household. And we put it on top or in the mix. We usually do an oat and red lentil base. And then we'll do some hot sauce, an egg on top, maybe some like hemp seeds sprinkled on and on it. One, it's the best.

25:41
Marc Brown
It is.

25:41
Caitlin Bricker
And tell everybody the flavors that you have offered too.

25:45
Marc Brown
Sure. So we have garlic and herb flavor, jalapeno lime for all your Latin and Mexican cooking. Ginger and lemongrass for your Asian style cooking. Finally, we have original. So if you want to give it your own spin or just, I don't want to say plain onions because they certainly are flavorful, but the original is just onions, olive oil, lemon, salt and vinegar. And no, they're not tickled onions. They're just a little bit of vinegar for that ph Val.

26:07
Caitlin Bricker
It's perfect. It's a perfect product. And I think more retailers and more consumers are going to be picking up on the convenience factor. You mentioned this when we first started the episode, but I was the type of person, I grew up in a pretty small home and I used to wear goggles when I first started cooking. I don't have to worry about the tears when I'm using onaway. It's super useful. And like I mentioned before, being a toddler mom, I need every single second of my life back as possible. You are making that possible for me. So thank you.

26:39
Marc Brown
Thank you. And something that we didn't even talk about because there are so many benefits to this product is stop throwing away that half an onion in your fridge. You use half an onion in the recipe or you buy a bunch of herbs and use three leaves. That is also prevents you from doing that. You have all the ingredients you need for authentic meals without needing to go buy and waste onions or herbs or peppers, whatever else we are there when you need it ready to go.

27:01
Caitlin Bricker
That's a great point. Or watching them sprout in your produce rack at home.

27:06
Marc Brown
Yeah, I mean, I don't have specific numbers onions, but estimates are between 30 and 40% of all food from grocery stores is wasted. So if the numbers from my deck are to believed, you're talking about close to billions of pounds of onions are thrown out annually. That's what we really don't like to be doing in our food system. We want to get away from food waste. So, yeah, stop wasting half an onion or your herbs today. Pick up some onion and put it on or in anything.

27:28
Caitlin Bricker
More love for the alliums, please. I have to ask you, do you have any plans to do shallots?

27:35
Marc Brown
Yes. I have to figure out exactly what the next pipeline looks like of innovation, but in terms of red, white, shallot, green onions, chives, you can kind of do anything within that. And it's funny you said that word because one of the brand names I considered also was awesome alums. And my wife was like, no one has any idea what that is.

27:52
Caitlin Bricker
I do. Well, I think this is going to be huge. I really do. I believe in your product. I believe in what you're doing. I think people are wanting to cook more and are wanting that convenience more and more in their life, and you are delivering a fresh product. This does not taste like something that's just been sitting in a jar or a container. It tastes like freshly chopped onions. So more people need it. That's all I have to say.

28:18
Marc Brown
I appreciate it. I know you've always been a big supporter since day one, so I really appreciate that.

28:22
Caitlin Bricker
Of course, it's my job and it brings me great joy to be supporting brands, so I'm happy to do it for you too. Marc, let's get ONOIN in more people's hands. Can you tell us what your website is and what your social handles are and if you're open to it, what your LinkedIn is? I know you threw out an offer to give some advice, so hit us with it.

28:42
Marc Brown
Yeah, of course. So the website is eatonoincom. Our socials are eat dot on oen and again, my name is Marc Brown. M A R C Brown, like the color. Please look me up on LinkedIn. Like I said, connect with me. Always happy to talk food or help out with food science. As Caitlin said, I like to bring people joy through food as well, so love it.

29:06
Caitlin Bricker
And I gotta say too, before we go, my daughter's been super into Arthur books lately. And do you know who the author of the Arthur books is?

29:14
Marc Brown
You know, I have a signed copy upstairs. I met him when I was like five.

29:17
Caitlin Bricker
Yeah, I was gonna say at the beginning. Oh, and you forgot you're also the author of the Arthur book series too. It's Marc Brown spelled exactly the same way for anybody who's listening.

29:28
Marc Brown
And Arthur the ardvort for those younger listeners who missed that on pbs.

29:32
Caitlin Bricker
Ye oh man. Marc, this has been fun. Super insightful. I think founders are going to walk away with a lot of notes on this one and hopefully retailers are taking notes right now on when they're going to bring your product in I appreciate it. We love it. All right, I'm sure I'll see you soon, and we'll definitely talk soon. Bye.

29:50
Marc Brown
Thank you so much, Caitlin.

29:51
Caitlin Bricker
Take care. Bye. CPG BFFs we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG Podcast. As you may know, we're not just the top globally ranked CPG podcast. We're a community of tens of thousands of CPG founders and experts, and you should join us if you haven't already. Head to startupcpg.com to sign up. You'll get an invite to our Slack community, hear about events near you, and get access to opportunities that connect you with buyers, investors and other brands. It's free. So what are you waiting for? I'll see you in Slack and in real life. Thanks for listening.