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I am unwilling to give up. But

0:33

I will start over from scratch

0:36

as many times as it takes to

0:38

get where I want to be. You just want to make

0:40

sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you

0:42

don't get knocked out. So

0:44

your only choice should be, go focus on

0:47

what you can control. Hi

0:49

everyone and welcome to the Kara Golden

0:51

Show. Join me each

0:53

week for inspiring conversations with some

0:55

of the world's greatest leaders. We'll

0:58

talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs,

1:00

and really some of the

1:03

most interesting people of our

1:05

time. Can't wait to get

1:07

started. Let's go.

1:12

Hi everyone, it's Kara Golden from

1:14

the Kara Golden Show and I'm

1:16

so excited to have my next

1:18

guest here. We have Jen Zezit,

1:20

who is the co-founder and CEO of

1:22

a fairly new brand that you

1:24

are going to absolutely love if

1:26

you have not tried it yet.

1:28

It's called Goodals and

1:31

I was introduced to it a couple of

1:33

years ago, right when they were getting going

1:35

by an industry friend

1:38

of mine, Deb Luster. And I

1:40

was just so excited about it and

1:43

I haven't even told Jen the story, but

1:45

I brought it home and it was on

1:47

the counter. And my son,

1:49

who's now a freshman in

1:51

college, grabbed it.

1:54

He was starving and he

1:56

liked one of those other mac and

1:59

cheese brands. He tried it and

2:01

he reads ingredients. He was like, I don't know

2:03

if I'm going to like this or not, but

2:05

I'm starving. And he had it immediately and he

2:07

became like one of your number one fans. And

2:10

he's told so many people about it. You

2:14

guys had sent over a

2:16

box recently and a bunch

2:18

of his other college friends

2:20

were over and they were

2:22

like, what is this? And

2:24

he totally, he was your brand

2:26

ambassador. So it

2:28

was, yeah, it was

2:30

so fun. And he was like, this

2:32

is really good. My mom knew this

2:35

one. You know, I mean, the whole

2:37

story's got you, he's got it all

2:39

down. And then obviously the other, the

2:41

actress that I'll get you

2:43

to chat about who has also

2:46

been involved in the brand too.

2:48

He had seen some of, some

2:50

of that marketing. So re-imagining

2:52

everyone's beloved mac and cheese.

2:55

Goodles is reinventing the

2:57

prepared pasta aisle. So

2:59

making macaroni, nutrient

3:02

dense and protein packed.

3:04

But we're going to allow Jen to

3:06

do a much better job than I

3:09

am of actually sharing a lot

3:11

more about this brand. It's only two years

3:13

old. So you're not totally

3:15

hiding under a rock if you haven't

3:17

heard about it, but they've already sold

3:19

over nine, get this, billion

3:22

noodles. I mean, that's just crazy,

3:24

crazy, crazy. So excited for you.

3:26

And so excited to have Jen

3:28

here with us today to talk

3:31

about the brand and the journey. So welcome,

3:33

Jen. Thank you so much

3:35

for having me. Oh my gosh.

3:37

I don't know. Sounds like

3:39

your son would do a better job of entering

3:42

goodles than I would, but that

3:44

was amazing. Thank you. So

3:47

excited. So what inspired you to

3:49

create Goodles? Can you tell us

3:51

the backstory? Yeah, well, the

3:54

backstory. So I've been a this is my

3:56

fourth time as a CEO. So and my

3:58

last company was making health. healthy

4:00

food as well and you know

4:03

love kind of the space and all of

4:05

those sorts of things and it's one of

4:07

those things where I was not ready to

4:09

start another company. You know that feeling where

4:11

you're like oh no no no I know

4:13

what life force goes into that thing and

4:16

I'm not I can't do it again I

4:18

just can't and my husband was like you

4:20

promise so like I promise and

4:22

sure enough well you

4:24

mentioned Deb, Deb Lester she's one

4:26

of my founding team members, Paul

4:28

Earl who is an incredible my

4:30

co-founder and an incredible branding

4:33

professor. I got Gal Gadot

4:35

who's an old friend

4:37

and also happens to play Wonder Woman

4:39

in movies and things like that and

4:41

then Molly, my Molly Mache who's my

4:44

head of R&D like

4:46

the five of us got together and

4:48

I was like hey geez it's

4:51

like a million boxes are sold a

4:53

day of that leading brand and

4:56

you know Deb Lester as you know is one

4:58

of the original presidents of Annie. About 36

5:01

years ago that any innovation on the

5:03

nutrition front has even happened so

5:05

from a branding perspective nothing has

5:07

happened. Nutritionally it hasn't evolved at all

5:09

and food science is so much more advanced

5:12

you know and then we looked at it

5:14

and we said well why is it that

5:16

main leading brands think that Mac and cheese

5:18

is only for kids and no offense to

5:21

you know Deb's former brand but you know

5:23

push the bunny tail to open the box

5:25

and you know it was like you know

5:27

noodle art to do with your three-year-old and

5:30

all that kind of stuff super

5:32

cute great and everything but I love Mac

5:34

and cheese we all love Mac and cheese

5:36

and it was just this like lightning bolt

5:38

aha that said wait a minute I think

5:40

there's a chance to not just steal share

5:42

I think there's a chance to grow share

5:44

because if you think about like I don't

5:47

know ice cream sure kids love

5:49

ice cream but everybody can love ice

5:51

cream as much as you want and a big

5:53

part of that is because brands chose

5:55

to have good branding they put good ingredients

5:57

in they get were innovated on flavors all

5:59

the time those sorts of things. Meanwhile, there's

6:01

this like multi billion dollar category is just sitting

6:03

here and hasn't evolved in 36 86

6:06

years. So we it was just it was one of

6:08

those things where I was like, I'm not going to do it

6:11

again. It was a 20 minute phone call with my

6:13

co founder, Paul, and I walked into the room

6:15

in my husband goes he didn't even say what

6:17

he just goes, Oh my god, you're doing it

6:19

again. And I'm like, I am. But

6:22

it's such a good idea like has

6:24

to happen. And like the whole thing

6:26

just popped into my head on how we were gonna unveil

6:28

So I was certain from day

6:30

one, that there is

6:32

a massive, massive opportunity for a modernization

6:35

and a re reimagining of this

6:37

beloved category, which is back in

6:40

cheese. But you know, then

6:42

we went and started to fundraise and

6:44

we got hit a total

6:46

brick wall. We were told no, in every

6:48

possible way. We were told

6:51

no, by

6:53

very serious industry people who said, no

6:55

way you can never go up against

6:57

those big companies. They're just gonna slam

7:00

you can't raise enough money to even

7:02

compete in that market. Just stay away. We

7:04

were told by VCs that our

7:07

branding and our boxes looked not healthy

7:09

enough. They were they were why weren't

7:12

they brown, they should be if they're

7:14

healthy. And if they have 21 nutrients

7:16

from veggies, and they've

7:18

got protein and all of that kind of

7:20

stuff. Couldn't you know, couldn't have like some

7:22

broccoli, doing some push ups or something like

7:24

that on the front. And you're like, no,

7:28

what are you not hearing? Like, it's not for

7:30

kids. And we need to

7:32

modernize we want to make it sexy and beautiful

7:34

and fun. We want it to look like a

7:36

disco party in the aisle. Because we're going after

7:38

young adults who don't have little kids at home.

7:40

Like we want this to be fabulous. And we're

7:42

just told no over and over and over. So,

7:45

you know, it's one of those fun stories,

7:47

you know, our last round that

7:50

we just closed, I had 32

7:53

VCs fighting to try

7:55

and lead the series A and

7:58

it was just like, where were you? time,

8:00

where we heard in the beginning, like you're not visionaries,

8:02

you know, so we had to fix our guns

8:04

and trust our intuition. But it was a fun

8:06

fun start to all of this. So

8:09

well, I think once you actually and especially

8:11

in today's market, you have data as long

8:13

as it is good data, like that's

8:16

where, you know, they're not risk

8:18

takers, right? Like so many of these

8:20

species are, you know, I mean,

8:23

they are wait and see lemmings,

8:25

right? That jump on. And there's

8:27

certainly there are some exceptions, but

8:29

there are many species that have

8:32

never operated a company before and

8:34

won't don't see the new

8:36

categories. So I'm not surprised to

8:38

hear that at all.

8:41

But I'm so happy that you did it.

8:43

So did you originally just raised through angels?

8:46

Yeah, so we started through angels. I

8:48

think it was my my founding team

8:51

member Molly, she's like, my next door

8:53

neighbor, he has water buffaloes.

8:55

I think he can write a few

8:58

thousand. I was like, we will take

9:00

it. That was our first check. So

9:02

yeah, we started with angels. And then

9:04

a very, you know, we did find

9:06

some incredible partners. Springdale identity from Springdale

9:08

came on. In the very

9:11

early days, we have Willow, we now

9:13

have incredible invest DC and institutional money

9:15

around the table. But yeah, we started

9:17

very catch this catch can and tried

9:19

to make 10 pounds a little

9:21

noodles. And we did all of this during COVID

9:23

actually. So with 2020, when we incorporated,

9:27

so we're, you know, FedEx,

9:29

we couldn't even be together. We're FedEx,

9:31

the little, you know, awful brown, weird

9:33

baggies of noodles all over the country

9:35

trying to, to make this

9:37

go. But it's

9:40

we actually used, we

9:43

kind of leaned on our community, we actually

9:45

started with 3000, what we call

9:47

our do gooders, our community is called our do gooders.

9:50

Because we're good old and we're noodles better. So

9:52

our do gooders, we had 3000 of them.

9:54

So we were shipping these little baggies all

9:56

over the country until people were giving us

9:58

like 10 out of 10 hands down

10:01

98% likelihood

10:03

to buy all that kind of stuff. So

10:05

then we felt like, okay, I think we're ready. I

10:08

think we're ready to put this into out into the

10:10

world. And so we did we launched at the very

10:12

end of 2021. And we

10:14

did just have our our second

10:16

birthday, we just turned our gone went into

10:18

our terrible twos. So we're excited for what's

10:21

what's ahead. I

10:23

love it. So obviously your product tastes

10:25

great. How would you describe it to

10:27

somebody? How does it differ? Besides being

10:29

better for you? I, I, you know,

10:32

the taste is amazing. And I think that

10:34

today gone are the days where you can

10:37

launch a product that tastes terrible, right? You

10:39

have to, especially if you're going up against

10:42

a big category as you guys are.

10:44

So what are the key things

10:46

that you wanted in a product that were that

10:49

you were not going to launch?

10:52

Unless you could get that? Well,

10:55

you're totally spot on. It's just shocked

10:57

me in that natural product. How many

10:59

things just don't taste good. It's like,

11:01

God, didn't you have friends who like love you

11:04

enough to tell you that that was not

11:06

worth launching? So we're, you know, taste,

11:08

taste, taste, number one, number two, number

11:10

three, it has to just totally taste

11:12

delicious. And even the brief was like,

11:14

make something tastes absolutely awesome. And then

11:16

cram in as much as you can.

11:18

And I swear, I mean, even

11:22

with like our protein, we don't round

11:24

up. So it was like, you know, it was right there. I was

11:26

like something point nine two. And

11:28

I was like, Molly, can't you like put

11:30

in like this much more? We can just

11:33

round up and we'll just call it 16

11:35

grams of protein per cup. She's like, probably

11:37

for sure. So we train it and I

11:39

swear you can taste something and really take

11:41

it back down. Just take it back down.

11:43

It has to be delicious. And so taste

11:45

is the most important thing. And that's why

11:47

the story of your son was so funny

11:49

at the beginning, because I don't love telling

11:51

people what's in it. And I love that

11:53

the box is so beautiful and sexy

11:55

and all those sorts of things. It doesn't look healthy.

11:58

And because if you are like, Hey, who

12:00

wants to try some mac and cheese that

12:02

has a chlorella, which is a freshwater algae

12:04

in it? You're not gonna have a whole

12:07

lot of takers. But if you say, who

12:09

wants amazing, delicious mac and cheese? And then

12:11

they get it home and that's when they

12:13

start looking at it. And they're like, oh

12:15

gosh, I don't know. Is this gonna, how

12:18

is this gonna be? I'd much

12:20

rather you take a bite first and go, what is

12:22

this? I love it. And then you tell

12:24

them what's inside. And then you got them hooked. So

12:27

it's like taste first and then nutrition is, it's

12:30

a sumplelet, but it is the reason why, fitness

12:33

fans, athletes, we got tons of our investors

12:35

or this place, this athlete community because they're

12:37

obsessed with the protein, they're obsessed with the

12:39

nutrition, they're obsessed with the fiber, the low

12:41

glycemic index, like all of those sorts of

12:43

things are great, but that's all on the

12:45

side of the box. Like if you're a

12:47

health nut, you're gonna look and you're gonna

12:49

be like, oh yay, it has algae in

12:51

it. But if

12:53

we're going up against craft and Annie's and we're here

12:55

to build a billion dollar company, yeah, we're

12:58

gonna hide that fact. It's

13:00

just gotta be up. So I think it's that magic, like it

13:02

doesn't have to be one or the other. We have

13:04

a little tagline, which is, they lied. You

13:08

can have it all. You don't have to

13:10

choose between taste and nutrition. And so that's

13:13

just our founding principle.

13:15

And it's the way that we produce

13:17

every single product that

13:19

we release. The other

13:21

thing that I should mention is flavors. If

13:24

you're going to be, say that mac and

13:26

cheese is not just for kids anymore, when

13:28

we launched, that was a little

13:30

crazy. We were launching with like the classic

13:32

orangey ones. If you grew up on craft,

13:34

you're gonna love that one. And then the

13:36

classic white cheddar, which is called Shelly Good.

13:38

If you love that one and you grew

13:40

up on that one, that's gonna be your

13:42

fav. But we also launched with some

13:44

weird ones. We launched with my palm. We

13:46

launched with a Cacio e Pepe, which

13:49

like little kids are like, oh, what are

13:51

the little black things in there? And you're

13:53

like, it's pepper. It's really relaxed. That one's

13:55

for your mom and dad. May not

13:57

be for you. But we've just continued.

14:00

to go with that. We've got Down

14:02

the Hatch, which is a hatch chili

14:04

popper. We've got some spicy ones, hehe,

14:06

Lotte. We've got Shaved Black Truffles, which

14:09

is a huge, huge hit. And there

14:11

are some foodie kids who love it,

14:13

but we are actually massively growing the

14:16

category. So at one of our mass

14:18

retailers, 81% incremental to the category. So

14:20

81% of the people who are

14:22

buying good old have never purchased a box of

14:24

Mac and cheese ever, ever before. So here

14:28

is this multi-billion dollar market that's now way

14:31

bigger because we saw that Mac and

14:33

cheese isn't just for kids. So

14:35

it's really fun. That's awesome. What

14:37

was your first store, by the way? Target,

14:41

target, target, target. We did a national

14:43

launch with Target, but we

14:45

didn't know any buyers there. We had

14:47

no way to get in there. We

14:50

had never launched before. We had no

14:52

retail data before, so it was a

14:54

total long shot. But

14:56

we kind of

14:58

snuck and snuck our way in

15:00

and got a 15-minute meeting for

15:03

this launch pad program that we

15:05

totally didn't deserve to

15:07

be in, but it gave us 15 minutes

15:09

in front of the buyer. And she's

15:13

like, you're not getting into this launch

15:15

pad program. You're totally ineligible. We're like,

15:17

oh, really? Where are we? But

15:19

we got our 15 minutes in front of her, and

15:21

the rest is history. We did a national launch across

15:24

the country. And yeah, we're now selling

15:26

not just there, but across all of

15:28

our stores. We just crossed a major

15:31

milestone, which is selling one box every

15:33

two seconds right now across the country.

15:35

So crazy. I love

15:37

that. So you mentioned

15:39

Gaudot, who you'd known for

15:41

a while. How did

15:44

she get involved in the brand? Well,

15:47

she and I had known each other before I started

15:49

this project, and I talked to her about other things.

15:51

I knew that she had

15:53

never done anything like this

15:56

before and was really curious. So

15:58

when I pinged her, I was like, Hey, what do

16:00

you think about Mac and cheese? And she's

16:02

like, oh my God. So I guess when

16:05

she was growing up in Israel, her

16:07

aunt and uncle would ask all of the

16:09

kids, hey, what do you want us to

16:11

bring from the States? And some

16:14

kids would ask for toys, others would ask

16:16

for music. The only thing she asked for

16:18

was a giant box of, at the time,

16:20

of craft Mac and cheese, but like obsessed

16:22

with Mac and cheese. So she's like,

16:24

are you kidding me? And like, no, I'm not

16:26

kidding. So yeah, it's

16:28

been a really amazing collaboration. She's

16:31

got 110 million followers or

16:33

something like that. So that really helps to get

16:36

the word out. Because if you

16:38

got to buy all those eyeballs and pay for those

16:40

with paid media, can't

16:42

raise that much. So

16:45

fun. So your branding is so fun

16:47

and unique and aims to tap into

16:49

nostalgia, I feel like, but also is

16:51

a little weird. And

16:54

I know you've talked a little bit

16:56

about that. We appreciate that.

16:58

Yeah, I love it.

17:01

So how have you thought

17:03

about branding? You've been involved

17:05

in other brands, you've been

17:07

around watching other brands.

17:09

So how did you think about

17:11

the branding of this and how

17:13

would you explain it to others?

17:16

Well, I think that

17:18

strategically, we just knew

17:21

Mac and cheese is joy. It

17:23

is, there's maybe, I don't

17:26

know. I can't think of anything else

17:28

that the world can agree upon right

17:30

now other than our love for Mac

17:32

and cheese. But whether you are North

17:34

or South, left or right, political party

17:37

affiliations, rich, poor, skin color, skin, everyone

17:39

loves Mac and cheese. And to be

17:41

able to give something that

17:43

tastes so good and give the

17:45

nutrition, it's just joy. And so

17:47

we really wanted a branding experience

17:49

that was just joy,

17:53

weird, all of those sorts of things.

17:56

So strategically, we just knew we'd also be

17:58

going up against, you know. two

18:00

very, very big corporations in

18:02

Kraft and General Mills and

18:04

really well run and incredibly

18:07

well financed and companies. And

18:10

you just can't out spend them. We can't

18:12

out coupon them. We can't out flotting

18:15

fee them. We can't rent cuter kids

18:17

for our commercials. We can't afford commercials.

18:19

So we kind of have to... What

18:21

we can do is we can be

18:23

more authentic and we

18:25

can out weird them. So everything from the

18:28

crazy colors to the crazy names, people usually

18:30

just get a huge smile on their

18:32

face when they see the names of our

18:35

product. And we

18:37

even go even weirder. Like for

18:39

example, on April Fool's, there are

18:42

so many names that we would

18:44

never choose for a commercial enterprise.

18:47

Lots of names get on the cutting room floor. Let's just

18:49

put it that way. Either they are so not

18:51

PT or they are just so corny

18:53

and stupid. But on April Fool's

18:56

every year, we like to bring

18:58

them back. So we'll put on

19:00

our website some of the names.

19:02

And just as an example, this

19:04

past April Fool's, Twist My Palm

19:07

became Kiss My Osiyago. We

19:10

had... Everything just switched out

19:12

and we made it clear. We were

19:14

like, coming never. And April Fool's, we

19:16

made it clear that it was a

19:18

total joke. But on that day, we

19:20

sold 16X, the revenue.

19:22

We had 16 times the sales of our normal

19:25

day just by being that

19:27

weird. It cost us no money,

19:29

but it's just... It's small, it's

19:31

scrappy. We don't have an agency.

19:33

We film everything in-house. This

19:36

is the team. You can't see my headquarter

19:38

of the office here, but we film everything

19:40

here in Santa Cruz. And I think that

19:43

in general, the world roots for underdogs. And

19:45

I think they like that scrappy

19:48

thing. So I don't know, we just closed a

19:50

bunch of funding, but we're not getting an agency.

19:52

We're not going to get suddenly

19:54

new fancy marketing. This is working.

19:56

Let's just keep being weird. So

19:59

it's... kind of philosophically

20:01

that's all we got is

20:03

to go up against some of these big big

20:05

big brands but really it's

20:07

an extraordinary line of branding people that

20:10

I've hired here. We have

20:12

a creative director in

20:15

Dan who's incredible. My partner Paul is

20:17

a branding professor. We have so many

20:19

like incredible branding minds around the table.

20:21

I think we also punch our weight

20:24

above our weight in terms of talent on

20:26

the brand side which is super key to

20:28

all of this. We may be a startup

20:30

but the talent is like top tier. What

20:34

are some of the most popular good old

20:38

good old flavors? I mean you've talked about

20:40

some of them like the the mac and

20:42

cheese and what would I guess what has

20:44

been the most surprising to you as

20:47

you've you've you've invigorated

20:49

a category right in

20:51

many ways but

20:53

what has been kind of surprising

20:56

to you? Yeah so I

20:58

think it's surprised really all

21:00

of us as you know because if

21:02

you think about it you know craft

21:05

as an example you know that blue

21:07

box sells the vast majority.

21:09

They have a very long tail of

21:11

other things but it's more than 90%

21:14

of their sales is that one that one's

21:16

you same thing with Annie's you probably see

21:18

a comic the white show like

21:20

that is the vast majority of their sales

21:22

and then there's a long tail of little

21:24

stuff so I think what's shocking

21:26

here is that everything that we launched it's not

21:29

cannibalizing anything else like people are like oh that

21:31

one sounds good too oh that one sounds good

21:33

too and it's like if there's eight things

21:35

on shelves there the basket is eight things if

21:37

there's nine things on shelves they're buying nine of

21:40

them they want to try all of them and

21:42

this again it's back to the

21:44

mindset you know little kids are

21:46

lost their palates are very simple so if

21:48

you're spying for your kids they like the

21:50

white ones or they like the orange ones

21:52

so those are always going to be our

21:54

top sellers because it's both nostalgic the ones

21:56

that you know you grew up with and

21:58

it's also the ones that kids kind

22:00

of love. But the truth is,

22:03

it's not a long tail, like all of

22:05

these other flavors. So just keep growing back to

22:07

size and growing back to size and keep thinking,

22:09

is it gonna start cannibalizing something? And it's not.

22:12

The other one that's surprising all of us is

22:15

vegan. We launched

22:17

what I think is the, well, it must

22:19

be because we are the number one vegan

22:21

selling Mac and cheese in the country now

22:24

in our format. So vegan

22:27

sales are like off the charts.

22:30

And I haven't told anybody

22:32

this, but since it's so close, I feel

22:34

like I gotta tell you and your listeners,

22:37

but that we are finally

22:39

launching our gluten-free Mac, which

22:42

is then the day we launched people

22:45

have been begging for a gluten-free noodle and

22:47

a gluten-free Mac and cheese. And we have

22:49

both a vegan one and a non-vegan

22:51

one that's launching in just the next couple of

22:54

weeks. And I think those are gonna be just

22:56

giant hits because

22:58

it's just tastes so much better than everything that

23:00

exists out on the market. So anyway,

23:03

sneak peek here, listeners,

23:05

there you go. Super,

23:07

super exciting. So what's been your

23:10

go-to-market strategy? You mentioned Pargit

23:12

was your initial partner, obviously

23:14

direct to consumer is such

23:17

a big part of anybody's

23:19

brand. We've talked to many

23:21

people who have started out as DTC and

23:23

then gone into retail or as

23:26

we did a hint, we did retail and

23:28

then went strong into DTC, but

23:30

I'm so curious, like, where

23:32

do you see this brand overall

23:34

going? And what is the strategy

23:36

there? Yeah, well, we

23:38

knew we would always wanna be

23:40

where Mac and cheese is sold.

23:42

So that is mostly in retail.

23:44

It's not mostly on DTC. So

23:47

we had to launch DTC because

23:49

that's the only thing that we can control. We couldn't

23:51

get any buyers to take us in the early days.

23:53

So when we launched, we were at DTC only. And

23:57

that was helpful just

23:59

because... Yeah I thought we had

24:01

five month of women. Tory and he

24:03

sold out in less than two week

24:05

and so was like okay we only

24:07

summer noodle flag and. So.

24:10

That the to see is really had

24:12

always than the and of the core

24:14

this always there to your point is

24:16

so strategically important because the own that

24:18

relationship. We. Know them, we can talk

24:20

to them we can pull them we can say say. Mass

24:23

Hey anyone? Gluten free. And

24:27

to be a lot of the sampling

24:29

with you so we can pull them

24:31

we cannot compostion and we just have

24:33

to facilitate that relationship so well. the

24:35

we always want every new flavor launches

24:37

he to see first so it may

24:40

go. Gave the target or might be

24:42

a whole thing and coming soon to

24:44

Whole Foods Adidas he gets every flavor

24:46

perfect Ever Wanna try the latest? got

24:48

old Everything. Is that girls are commonly always

24:50

launched efforts and then it rolled into retail

24:53

afterward. And so we knew that

24:55

we were all we can be very on

24:57

the channel in overtime the to see would

24:59

get smaller bar the percentage of the whole

25:01

which is exactly what has happened and but

25:04

we've never really and you know invested in

25:06

that the online advertising live we actually shut

25:08

all of that off and those are things.

25:10

we just use it as a very organic

25:13

channel. the builder ran solutions as an and

25:15

really as secure You know do have an

25:17

ugly loyal following through our our Dc brands

25:19

but most were I felt the to retell

25:22

now for sir. The.

25:24

So what's the most challenging part

25:26

of growing this company? You for

25:29

you are a serial entrepreneur fight.

25:31

You know? Have you grown a

25:33

brand that. I guess as

25:36

this much possibility yeah from

25:38

scratch and and and what

25:40

is new to you that

25:43

your your like. It.

25:45

I'll hopefully you don't lose sleep

25:47

every night, but certainly there's there's

25:49

moments and brawling a brown we're

25:51

here to flag. Ah, you know

25:53

this is a long. Yeah.

25:56

And we get that feeling all the time.

25:58

You know a thing, Never

26:01

before they don't know anything

26:03

or that is an V.

26:06

Like. Quickly on Beloved and we

26:08

have people have tattooed friending on

26:10

their body on. We have people

26:13

dressing up like people we don't

26:15

know just enough as. Bath

26:17

and She's that City max for

26:20

Halloween we have the liberties calling

26:22

asking if we knew both shipments

26:24

are baby Shower see. Our. Privacy

26:26

and showing up at lunch. Or.

26:29

Mac and Cheese branch. And really,

26:31

even if there's you know people

26:33

creating content for us and filming

26:35

commercials and is there the fanaticism

26:37

that I have never never experienced

26:39

before and it's just an honor

26:41

to be a part of it

26:43

for sure to be inspiring this.

26:45

I think the speed at which

26:47

this is filling is the part

26:49

that stretch keeps all of us

26:51

up at night and the in

26:53

the. Either word, a

26:55

scale that I thought we'd be in. And you know,

26:57

eight year than here we are in two years mean

26:59

you know we're You know? Growing

27:02

out of a com and moving on to another

27:04

movie answer that would like it's all part of

27:06

how you feel a brand, but yet this. I'm.

27:09

It's hard. Like a field like screening

27:11

around every corner. Is it's like

27:14

the Wheels anything? That the reason why

27:16

this team is so essential to success

27:18

like this is a very best friend

27:20

and senior team has been there done

27:22

that many many times. So when you're

27:24

if you're driving down you know you're

27:26

building a brand that takes forever and

27:28

you're gone five mph down the road

27:30

you can look out the window and

27:32

like the a pothole and you know

27:34

slowly see around it. But if you're

27:36

going this ah. And. You can

27:39

you hit a pothole going late fees I

27:41

there's a chance for the whole thing to

27:43

can rattle apart the we need team members

27:45

who are looking ahead who are thinking ahead

27:48

who have a contingency plans and although we

27:50

have a contingency plan to the contingency plan

27:52

and we have to be thinking about the

27:54

thing in advance and this is a team

27:57

that has that. I mean if like, rumor

27:59

is that. in 2026, this one ingredient

28:01

might get more expensive. And already we're

28:03

running line trials in North Dakota in

28:06

the middle of winter. I'm

28:08

doing something in order to like test and

28:10

make sure that we've got three options ready

28:12

to go in case that happens in 2026.

28:15

I'm just like, I love you, I love you,

28:17

I love you, I love you. So,

28:19

but that kind of looking

28:21

ahead and also maintaining a

28:23

culture where you're standing so fast. Like it

28:26

was so fun. There was like

28:28

six of us and we all did everything together. Oh

28:30

my gosh, we can't do that anymore. Otherwise

28:32

the whole thing would fall apart. So that's

28:34

scaling hard and keeping culture intact. Whew,

28:37

probably 80% of my job now. And

28:39

it used to be two. It's tough. It's

28:41

tough. You know that. Are you primarily

28:44

remote as well still? We

28:47

have a headquarters here in Santa Cruz and a

28:49

majority of the company is here at this office.

28:52

It's definitely the full marketing team, a big part

28:54

of the ops team. We have our test kitchen

28:56

here. So like a core group, the one that

28:58

kind of creates content together is all the physically

29:00

together, but sales is remote, all

29:04

geographically dispersed across the country. So

29:06

we have like half the company

29:08

that's out and about. So

29:10

that bringing people back together, having

29:12

those touchstone moments, what we call

29:15

homecoming, in doing fun

29:17

things together is tough. Like

29:19

it becomes a bigger and bigger part

29:21

of our day-to-day. Keeping

29:24

that connection to the spark and

29:26

that thread from the very beginning, even if it was

29:28

two years ago, it's still

29:31

tons of new people who weren't there

29:33

at the beginning and didn't hear all

29:35

those early stories. So you've just become

29:37

a storyteller over and over and over. No,

29:40

I love that so much. So last

29:42

question I'd love for you to share.

29:44

Maybe it's a nugget of inspiration or

29:46

somebody may have shared something

29:49

with you over the years that just like

29:51

you think back on, it's really

29:53

helped you to kind of get

29:55

back up and grow. Because being

29:57

an entrepreneur, there's way easier ways.

30:00

To make money. It's so hard and

30:02

you know the risk of failure

30:04

is very high of an I

30:06

a try and share with people.

30:08

Part of the biggest reason why

30:10

I love during this podcast is

30:13

because I get to hear all

30:15

kinds of stories and there's a

30:17

consistent thread. No matter what industry

30:19

you know it's it's hard right?

30:21

It's hard work but maybe there's

30:23

some you know nugget of inspiration

30:25

er success took the even give

30:27

to somebody who's listening who's and

30:29

first time start. Up Founder or maybe

30:32

is thinking about starting their own business

30:34

Like what was you stated that. You.

30:37

Know it really is the way

30:39

I mean the Just a cautionary

30:41

point is if. Keep. Too

30:43

much like or to do this to

30:46

really really really run through and all

30:48

on paper says my my profound or

30:50

in a paul we like the talking

30:52

off You go to Vegas and you

30:55

play a thought machine was a don't

30:57

feel that if you did the that

30:59

and you know the only way you

31:02

win anything is it. It's cherry cherry

31:04

cherry cherry cherry. If there's one Lenin

31:06

and one banana you get nothing and

31:09

thirty like So if you assessing whether

31:11

you're going to go spend. The. Next twelve

31:13

years of your life. At least

31:15

or the or the rest of your

31:17

life doing that. Like at least make

31:19

sure that it feel like there's a

31:21

chance at cherry cherry cherry cherry cherry

31:23

because it is like a third a.

31:26

Pretty good. It's. There's.

31:28

Really no way to feel it. Or

31:31

was a thing as. Except it's just

31:33

for and. Selling things you know

31:35

even if you is, it doesn't turn

31:37

out to be a series of be

31:39

honest with you have kids as such

31:41

a big commitment on that You're going

31:43

into it with the best possible town

31:45

or one summit in once you go

31:47

in. I mean a thing. I've learned

31:50

this lesson so many times and it's

31:52

just worth sharing Ina with anyone. if

31:54

you are a founder and as

31:56

you are ceo you are in

31:59

charge and If you hear

32:01

no from so many people and they're like, no, you

32:03

really should have broccoli doing pushups on the box. And

32:06

you just hear it over and over. I think that earlier

32:09

in my career, I would have said, God, maybe

32:11

they're right. Maybe we do need some broccoli doing

32:13

pushups on the box. Cause they're so

32:15

smart and they're such VCs and they made

32:17

so much money and they touch so many

32:19

things. Maybe they're right and I'm wrong. And

32:22

it's like, I think I learned in the

32:24

early days and I keep learning it over

32:26

and over. It's like, if

32:28

you're gonna succeed, at

32:30

least do it on your terms, do

32:32

it your way. Totally. You know, but

32:34

to like take their advice and go

32:36

down a path that doesn't feel right

32:38

to your intuition. Like those are the

32:40

only times in my career that I've

32:42

really faltered is trying to follow someone

32:44

else's path. You gotta like,

32:47

and if it's gonna go down in flames, at least

32:49

it's gonna go down in flames because of my choices.

32:52

So I guess that's my other thing

32:54

to everyone is just listen to your intuition on

32:56

this stuff. No one knows

32:58

your business like you do. And just cause they have more

33:00

money or titles or whatever it is, they don't know. They

33:02

don't know like you do. So I

33:04

don't know. Those are my quick thoughts. I

33:07

love that. So Jen Zezitz,

33:10

co-founder and CEO of Goodals.

33:12

So excited for you

33:14

to share all of your wisdom with

33:16

us today. Thank you, thank you, thank

33:18

you. And everybody needs to

33:20

grab a box or 10 of Goodals

33:23

for sure. And

33:25

we'll have all the info in the show notes.

33:27

But thanks again for your wisdom and best of

33:30

luck with everything. Thanks again

33:32

for listening to the Kara Golden show.

33:34

If you would, please give us a

33:36

review and feel free to share this

33:38

podcast with others who would benefit. And

33:40

of course, feel free to subscribe so you

33:42

don't miss a single episode of our podcast.

33:45

Just a reminder that I can be

33:47

found on all platforms at Kara Golden.

33:50

I would love to hear from you too. So

33:52

feel free to DM me. And if

33:55

you want to hear more about my journey,

33:57

I hope you will have a listen or

33:59

pick up a... copy of my

34:01

Wall Street Journal bestselling book,

34:03

Undaunted, where I share

34:06

more about my journey, including

34:08

founding and building Hint. We

34:11

are here every Monday, Wednesday, and

34:14

Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye

34:16

for now.