Jason Starr, Consumer Ventures, Awakened Foods

I spent some time this week demoing our new Cybele's Free to Eat Ancient Grain Pops, the latest products by @CybelesFTE and the first products developed in collaboration with @AwakenedFoods. A 🧵 (1 of 9)

For any parents who have gone through this process lately, I salute you! I've gone through this twice now in just the last few years...whew!!! Great deal on @FreeToEatFoods snacks if anyone is looking to try them or stock up. I'm admittedly biased, but if you have kids with food allergies or looking for gluten-free, vegan, etc. options...these really are the most amazing cookies you can buy (I can't take any credit for that, other than eating a TON of them). freetoeatfoods.com/discount/GRADS…

Not the X content you were looking for today, but the X content you needed today

NGL I could have used this last night at mini golf (if you have young kids, you know exactly what I’m talking about)

@drewfallon12 You should follow me just for my grandpa Simpson takes on pitch decks (do it yourself, keep it simple, and never, ever, ever pay an outside agency)…just tell your story (and learn to be a good storyteller)

update: i told them this is obviously a claude output and that we want the 2 revisions promised in the SOW to be done by a human and they disconnected the slack channel 😩

Sell Through > Sell In That's it. That's the tweet.

Congrats @DU_Hockey! Go Pioneers!!!

For kids with food allergies (like my daughter), moments like this aren’t always as simple as they seem When treats are safe for everyone, no one worries, no one sits out...every kid just gets to be a kid That’s why we make @FreeToEatFoods cookies Because everyone deserves to feel like they belong BECAUSE EVERYONE DESERVES AMAZING SNACKS

Had to finally upgrade from "Legacy" @Microsoft @Outlook on a Mac to "new" Outlook (because old Outlook kept crashing my computer due to what I must assume was a massive a memory leak) Just miserable. Stupid, basic stuff still broken or mission. Formatting of signatures is totally messed up. Can't turn on/off hidden paragraph markers when editing email. Can no longer click within an email to see the conversation or related emails (this is a huge loss). This product has been out since 2020. It has been the default email client since 2022. HOW CAN IT STILL BE THIS BAD!?! Or do they just hate Mac users that much?

@Shwinnabego All good points, but despite those tailwinds there are also a TON of vitamin and supplement brands that either fail or are desperately trying to survive in a category that looks like this (all the more reason why you need to do something different to stand out):

gruns being acquired for 1.2b isn’t hugely impactful for CPG ecosystem at large imo (sure more capital and appetite since there is m&a) but what makes Gruns successful is the same reason why im8 is crushing, mars men at 100m run rate, primal queen ripping $100m+ bootstrapped, create raising $20m. They are all supplement brands. Supps have unit economics and tailwinds that other categories do not: - 80% of vitamins mins and supplements bought through amazon; can build strong dtc only business - LTV, subsc opt in and retention higher than almost any other category because of nature of use: take this thing daily if you want to feel better, look better, etc. A better for you soda does not have this kind of retention or value prop - shelf stable, lightweight, small footprint product makes shipping a single unit fairly cheap - again another reason you can build strong dtc - broad health and wellness tailwinds to optimize every part of your body and function: gut, brain, skin, heart…sleep, lift, energy, etc. - ltv to cac strong -70%+ gross margins common

KeHE is implementing a variable fuel surcharge as a result of rising gas prices

Way to go @DU_Hockey!!!

Our emails are being inundated with cold outbound emails from brands thinking we are a retailer (we aren't, we are also a brand) and asking us if we want samples. The emails are coming from a service called "contactopeners"...anyone know who this is or work with them?

My daughter was diagnosed with food allergies at a very young age and had to carry Benadryl and an EpiPen with her. Over the years we had our share of emergencies and visits to the ER. I will never forget going to pick her up at the end of her first sleepaway camp...to see how happy she was to have the freedom, and how happy I was that she made it through the week without any allergic reactions. This is why I rolled up my sleeves several years ago to help Free To Eat and its mission to make delicious, allergen-free snacks! If you grew up with or raised a child with food allergies, please comment and share your story below (and you should follow @FreeToEatFoods as we have a lot of new and exciting stuff going on!)

@willnitze Great animation! If you did this with AI the tools (and your skills of course) are getting really, really good!!!

Available for limited time only at IQBAR [dot] com. Get em while they're hot!

Apple Maps automatically launching on my iPhone and giving me directions based on where it thinks I’m going in my car (when I didn’t put in a destination, didn’t launch Apple Maps, and don’t even use Apple Maps…because I use Google Maps) is not just annoying it just further erodes my trust in @Apple

It blows my mind how many people will email a company without even looking at the company website first (e.g. thinking Awakened Foods is a retailer when we clearly are a brand/manufacturer) and how many people email someone who obviously hasn't been at the company for like 2-3 years.

Two keys to getting better results from your cold outreach: 1) Look at what a company does before you email them 2) Look to see if the person you are emailing is even still at the company before you hit send

The “I have a bag of magic beans, just comment ‘beans’ and I will send you some” shtick has to be the most annoying approach to social media engagement these days

Allbirds sold for $39M. That's not the interesting number. $43M is. That's what their inventory was worth at last count. American Exchange paid $39M for the IP, brand, customer relationships, and all remaining inventory. The inventory alone was worth more than the purchase price. That's not a brand acquisition. That's a liquidation with a logo attached. The capital timeline: $200M+ private capital $348M IPO $4B+ peak valuation $550M+ consumed Exit: $39M Revenue peaked at $297M in 2022. By 2025: $152M. Burning $0.45 of every dollar of revenue. Here's what nobody is saying: When a consumer brand reaches this point, cash depleting, revenue declining, burn rate compounding, the buyer knows the inventory is the floor. The brand, the IP, the customer list? Optionality they're getting for free. Distressed consumer exits don't get priced on revenue. They get priced on what's left on the balance sheet. Inventory, in this case. $43M worth.

@lifeofbi Truly mind blowing Great breakdown, tho