Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Aimee Yang is changing the future of food with Better Brand & The Better Bagel, here’s how… (part 1)

Transcript

Aimee Yang is changing the future of food with Better Brand & The Better Bagel, here’s how… (part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Amy Yang for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hello, it's Doon here, your host and hype girl. Today on the show, we're chatting to Amy Yang, the founder of one of the most innovative products in the food industry right now, Better Brand. Better Brand is a consumer food tech company using applied food technologies to disrupt the multi-trillion dollar refined carbohydrate industry.
• 0:34
  Their first product is the Better Bagel, which turns the carb-heavy bagel into the equivalent of just two banana slices. And this is just the beginning. At the end of this episode, she reveals what she's working on next, and I am just so excited about it. Oh my god.
• 0:53
  Before we get into it, if you are in London on the 24th of February, I'm having a little tiny book launch party for my upcoming book, Your Hype Girl, and you are, of course, invited. Just send me an email to hello at femalestartupclub.com so I can pop you on the guest list. It's going to be super cute and I would love to meet you. Let's get into it. This is Amy for Female Startup Club.
• 1:21
  Amy, hi, welcome to the show. Hi, Tim, thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be talking to you, well, tonight, I was about to say today, but it's actually nighttime for me. And I'm just so intrigued by what you've been building. And, you know, I've been following you on LinkedIn for a little while because Andre, who is a, I guess, a colleague of sorts of mine, introduced me to your brand. So I started following you and I'm just like excited on so many levels.
• 1:50
  Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And so I will say that that kind of just organic traction and people talking about it, introducing the brand to, you know, people who they know and admire, that's, you know, been the driving catalyst for, you know, the early success that Better has had. And I think that's really special and meaningful, because it means that the brand stands for more than
• 2:16
  you know, just the products that we're putting out and that there's this greater mission that people are so excited to be talking about and sharing. So that's, that's, that's really, really great to hear, you know, about, about how you even heard about us in the beginning. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I love that. Yeah. Shout out to Andre. He has a, an email marketing agency called Floium and he's just all sorts of great. So I'm going to make sure he listens to this episode.
• 2:42
  Before we get started, can you give us a bit of an introduction to who you are and what your business is for anyone who might not know just yet? Yes. So hi, everyone. My name is Amy Yang. I'm the founder and CEO of Better Brand. Better Brand is a consumer food tech company, and we're working in and leading innovation in the refined carb space.
• 3:12
  you know, fear of weight gain or negative health consequences and without compromise. And that's kind of the gist of who we are and what we're doing and driving forward as a business to put this into some more practical perspective. Our first product, the Better Bagel, which is, you know, obviously a really carb heavy food, or the bagel is, we're transforming it into the carb equivalent of two slices of banana.
• 3:40
  So just, you know, in terms of innovation and changing the consumer experience with food is really what we're setting out to do.
• 3:49
  I'm like so excited about the future when we think about, you know, businesses like yours, when we think about lab grown milk and lab grown meat and, you know, beyond and impossible and non-alc and all this kind of stuff that's coming. I'm like, I'm just so excited for what the future looks like in five years time or 10 years time when things are just like, you know, we won't need to eat dairy. I mean, I don't eat meat now, but we won't need to. Those things will have
• 4:19
  And that's actually what kind of sparked, you know, this idea for BetterBrand to begin with is, you know, there was so much innovation, like you were saying, happening in the food tech sphere, right? Whether it's, you know, meat alternatives or dairy alternatives. But if you think about the refined carbs here, right, it's a $10 trillion space.
• 4:50
  how you count the market or address the relative market sizes. And it's a completely open space that has so much driving impact to human health and is literally the most like leading cause and driver of obesity in the world. And yet no one has come in and said, you know, we're going to be the beyond meat of carbs, right? And that's exactly what we're doing and excited to do and,
• 5:17
  put our stake in the ground in and drive large scale impact in that way. What's kind of like mind blowing to me is I just never even thought of that. Like I just never even thought who could make carbs in a different way. So what I'd love to know from you is like, can you take us back to the time where you were starting to have light bulb moments around tackling this and how one decides on bagels? Yeah.
• 5:42
  Yeah, I mean, I think probably in terms of those like moments, it started fairly early on in the journey. I've always known that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but, you know, set my career or spent the early part of my career setting the foundation. So I'd be ready to do so when I, you know, when it got to that point.
• 6:02
  So I was a CPA in a former life to learn the ins and outs of how a company operated, then worked in Bangalore, India, building Ernst & Young's global talent hub team to learn about operations and teaming and cross-control integration, then worked in consulting and litigation to learn about large data synthesis. And then once I figured out, or once I thought that I had
• 6:26
  felt that I had the foundational aspects ready, went to Wharton, got an MBA, and I'm in entrepreneurship and strategic management. And it was really there that I think, you know, despite knowing that I've always wanted to build something, it really hit me in terms of the scope of what that could be. And I think it's just because you're always in this bubble, right, for two years, and you're constantly surrounded by greatness.
• 6:53
  So, you know, I remember this period of time where Joe Biden was in the room, right? And then it was like Neil Blumenthal. And then it was like Roger Iger and Melinda Gates. And it's almost like it instills in you this belief that or understanding, maybe is a better word, that not only can you drive impact as one person, but it's almost your responsibility to do so. And so then at that point, you know, I started to think about what my personal pain points were. And.
• 7:21
  you need to be passionate about something, right? That you're building. And for me, my largest pain points were always around diet and healthy eating. Like I was always on this cycle of, you know, wanting to eat something and, and, or craving it. And, you know, if I ate it, I'd feel guilty. If I didn't, I'd feel deprived. And it was just like roller coaster, right? And it consumed so much of my mind space and garnered so much negative anxiety.
• 7:48
  that I just, I wanted to create a better way. And I mean, this is actually kind of an embarrassing story. I don't think I've ever told it before. Oh my God. Yay. Please tell it. I remember this moment when I was in high school and it was my birthday. And, you know, there was a birthday cake and, you know, on your birthdays, you make a birthday wish. And I literally wished for the ability to just eat what I wanted without having to worry about consequences or weight gain. Right.
• 8:17
  And I think maybe why it became so apparent at that time is because, you know, it's a birthday, you want to eat cake, right? But then you feel bad about eating cake and like we shouldn't have to do that, right? My husband literally says that at least once a day. He'll kill me for saying that. But he's like, I just want to eat all the things. And yeah, anyway, I know those feels. Why do we have to live a life with these limitations? You know, when we've come so far in the spectrum of just pushing boundaries in so many other areas.
• 8:48
  So then at that point, you know, I was like kind of going back to that earlier story. I was like, OK, this is what we're going to do. We're going to create this world where we don't have to worry about eating something and negative consequences associated with that. So at that point, you know, started doing a ton of market research, understood the market was was, you know, an over 10 trillion dollar market and just also started. Did you start, sorry, on bagels or just in general carb food? Lately in general was was.
• 9:18
  our scope. And then, you know, we did a ton of consumer research and testing and why I wanted to start with the bagel is, well one, who doesn't love a bagel, right? And two, you know, kind of similar to that story of, or that experience of eating cake on your birthday, I feel like a bagel's a food that just brings you so much joy. You know, it's associated with these like special brunches or occasions with your family,
• 9:45
  And, but, you know, whenever we spoke to a consumer, it's like, oh, this off-limit food, or it's like, you know, it takes away from that experience. And it, you know, you just be like, okay, if I eat it, then I'm going to have to make up for it in some other way. You feel bad about eating it. So, you know, I think eliminating that would, is really a powerful, like, emotional driver and bringing and showcasing what we can do by bringing joy and back into those experiences, right? Right.
• 10:14
  Third reason is because if we're putting our stake in the ground as leading innovators in the refined carb space, you know, what better way to start than by transforming the most carb heavy food, a bagel, into the carb equivalent of two slices of banana. You know, it's like once we built that foundation, then everything else becomes a little bit easier. And then also just in terms of relative market size and use case, the bagel market in itself is a billion dollar market that, you know, is a great trial for us.
• 10:43
  in terms of like use case and distribution, it works U2C, it works food service, it works retail and wholesale. So a lot of places where we can really test.
• 10:54
  That is so interesting and amazing and exciting. I just love it. What happens after you do your market research? How do you go about proving out the concept? And what's the feedback when you're telling people what you're trying to do? And how do you even know it's possible? I have so many questions. Well, I think, I mean, I spoke to a lot of people working on
• 11:22
  research in the space, mostly academic, to be fair at that point, because there weren't a lot of practical applications of it, which I thought was really, really interesting. So, you know, I had an idea of how we were going to start, right? And
• 11:38
  I mean, I guess with anything associated with food tech or R&D, like you don't really, you can never 100% know that it's going to be possible when you first start, right? You just have to have that groundwork, that knowledge and that passion and just thrive to say like, okay, we're going to do this. And then think about, you know, if we can do it, that overarching impact and implication that we can have.
• 12:03
  Right. So, you know, and in terms of that impact and implication, you know, and I think this is a really powerful driving factor to, you know, to put it into perspective, you know, at this point, chronic diseases associated with obesity and type two diabetes are responsible for two out of three deaths in America. Whoa, that's a lot. Yeah, it's crazy. Excess weight. It affects diabetes.
• 12:26
  37 million children, if you want to put that into perspective, 29 million Americans are diabetic, over 60 million are pre-diabetic, and, you know, in the U.S., but if you're thinking worldwide, also obesity is implicated in two out of three, two-thirds of leading causes of death in non-communicable disease, so in consumption of refined carbs is the single largest
• 12:50
  driver will be seeing the world, right? So if you're thinking about, yes, this is what we're setting out to do, but the like huge macro level implications we have on human health, kind of like, okay, like we might not be able to get there and we don't know, but it's, we have to try, right? So that's kind of how we started. And after I had that fundamental knowledge and understanding the market and, you know, some idea of how we would start, we fundraised. So we raised our first million and that was,
• 13:20
  you know, just for the purposes of R&D, right? We didn't know what was going to happen, but we were going to figure it out and start this journey and movement. And did I read that you're the first woman to raise a million dollars pre-seed in the food industry? Is that correct? Yeah, but I think it's sole founder to do that. Wow, that's cool. Yeah.
• 13:45
  Thank you. And I think, you know, I think it's because of this large mission, right? And the large scope of the undertaking. But it's really, it's really exciting.
• 13:58
  So talk to me about the R&D process. Obviously, you raised the million dollars. You're able to start working with food scientists and labs and coming up with what this could potentially look like. How long did it take? What were the challenges? And what were the best bits? What was the best part about it? So I will say that this is partially why your investors are so important, right? So for our first round, even for our pre-seed round, it was led by Versal Capital.
• 14:28
  And they're large players in the food tech space. You know, they have Impossible Foods in their portfolio. They have Just Egg in their portfolio. And they're typically a lot later stage. So they write $100 million texts, $200 million texts. And this is the first time they had come in so, so early. And, you know, that in and of itself, it opened a lot of doors in terms of, you know, just the knowledge that they had of who to talk to, you know, like getting labs to pay attention
• 14:55
  from day one, you know, and getting the right people to be willing to even get on the phone with me. And so, you know, Verso was a huge help with that. And just, oh my gosh, in terms of our, that pre-season, it was like, you know, Sean Thomas, he's the grandson of Dave Thomas, he's the founder of Wendy's, you know, was involved and Patrick Schwarzenegger and, you know, Nicole Cogan, Emmy Rossum, and just this incredible group of people who had just.
• 15:24
  a lot of passion in this space that, and I think we're really kind of driving it to help, which was certainly incredible. And then in terms of timeline, so this is the crazy thing that's just, I feel like we're just like one in a million type in chance of happening is we got it right basically immediately. You know, we work with four labs in the process on different components of R and D in the process.
• 15:51
  One lab has, you know, understands the entire scope and we actually have, you know, very well-protected IP on that from them. But, you know, we got it right from like almost immediately. And that just does not happen, you know? And, you know, if you think about Impossible, for example, going back to that story and Pat Brown, who's just an incredible visionary and genius and scientist, right?
• 16:18
  you know, he speaks about that the R&D journey was impossible and how it took them nine years of time, or sorry, not nine years of time, $9 million and a year of time to just prove their original hypothesis on how heme should be extracted. So basically to figure out that they couldn't actually do it the way that they wanted and had to start, you know, like exploring a different path and alternative. Whoa, that's crazy. Yeah, so to say that, you know,
• 16:47
  we got it right and immediately. And it really is one of those like one in a million lucky things that happened. Did it cost you the full million to do it? It didn't. Oh, very cool. Right. So, and, and, you know, I, I think that if you believe in the product, right. And, and the mission, the story of the company, and for the purposes of even driving impact, you should,
• 17:14
  Get the product out into the market as fast as you can. Get it out in front of the consumer. Start driving impact, right? And start telling your story and take the consumer on the journey with you. And I also think that's the only way to really build a truly efficient business because you need that data in order to enforce decisions. You need that feedback loop. Exactly. And so from closing around in February of 2021,
• 17:44
  June of 2021. So it was a four month. Yes. Um, so, Oh my God. I've never heard anything like it. I think we just blacked out quite frankly for those four months. I don't think, I mean, I literally did do anything, um, but work on, on better. And it was just an amazing thing, um, to do. And I'm sure I drove a number of vendors, absolutely crazy, you know,
• 18:15
  with all these asks and that timeline. But we got it done and we launched and, you know, have just been refining and working in the process. But yeah, we got it on the market pretty quickly. Wow, that is so crazy. What was the feedback when you launched it? And how did you launch it? What was your launch plan to get the word out there? So we did D2C to start. We
• 18:40
  did have some press and excitement around the product from the very beginning. But everything to start was organic, right? Because, again, it's like we were testing the messaging. We weren't sure of the scope. Like the infrastructure is something that we were still building on, right? And the product was at a point where, you know, it was good enough to get in front of the consumer, right, and illustrate what we could do. But obviously, you know, there's still going to be a constant, you know, R&D,
• 19:08
  or push to R&D and in constant iterations and improvement. So, so when we launched, it was basically like organic, we weren't marketing and we did 20K the first week, which, you know, we obviously were not expecting. But how, like, I don't understand. Was there like organic PR or was it just like you telling your friends and your friends telling their friends? Definitely PR, you know, it was,
• 19:36
  I mean, even that Forbes article that you had mentioned earlier, that was like, okay, first woman to do this and, you know, and wants to innovate on, you know, the refined carbs industry and it's the beyond meat of carbs. And, you know, we're transforming a bagel into the two, like banana slices. Like people were really interested from the get-go. 20K is a lot of bagels. And let me tell you, we struggle to fulfill that.
• 20:06
  so much on the operational backend. And we learned so much from that process. So we actually went out of stock just to catch up with fulfillment. And thank goodness, your customer base is so understanding and supportive. And you oftentimes, I don't think get that with, with brands and customers, but, but I think it was, it's driven by people who are so mission aligned, you know, and understand the scope of what we're trying to do and accomplish. And the mission we're trying to push forward. And in terms of just,
• 20:36
  breaking free of these unnecessary limitations, right? And boundaries and creating this world that, you know, really fundamentally based on this aspect of freedom, right? And so people were incredibly supportive and patient. And I'm so, you know, gracious for it and appreciative. And then went back in stock in July, same thing happened. It was like 30 some pay over 12 days.
• 21:02
  And then we're like, okay, like really need to focus on building some more infrastructure, the team. And we've been back in stock in August and we have not been like we've been able to fulfill everything and growing really quickly, which is exciting. And then in our third active month, we actually broke a million dollar run rate. So, you know, and continuing to grow and test and iterate. Oh, my gosh, that is amazing. Yeah.
• 21:28
  So like for you now, is your focus on just growing the bagel side of the business or is it to introduce new products and kind of like keep steaming ahead or both? Both. I think, you know, the overarching driver, when you say like keep steaming ahead, like that really resonates because for us, it's like this constant push to move faster, right? And expand faster and do more.
• 21:57
  So we are continuing to iterate on the bagel, on the better bagel, in terms of texture, taste, flavor, profile, everything. Again, with the consumer feedback loop in mind and using that as a basis. And we have already started R&D on a number of other products. Anything you can share? Yes. Well, so...
• 22:21
  it's really funny. People always ask like, well, how do you inform this? Is it market driven? And I'm like, you know, it's, it's really the foods that I want to be able to eat freely and not have to worry about. And pizza is one of those foods. So pizza crust, um, you know, is next. It's on the way. I love the language you're speaking right now. This is speaking to me. Does that mean pastors coming after that?
• 22:50
  We're, we're, we're testing. Oh my gosh, this is crazy. I'm so excited for you guys. Like now, obviously you've done the second raise. I'm sure that's for, you know, infrastructure and team and all that kind of thing. But what's your approach to marketing to kind of like double down on the organic word of mouth that's obviously working in your favor? Yeah. So I think in terms of, of that organic marketing word of mouth, I really believe in the power of brand. Yeah.
• 23:19
  and investing in your branding to be able to tell your story, right? Because I think what a brand does is you can look at it and it tells you so much about who the company is, you know, what they represent, and it draws your early evangelist to you. So one of the first things that we did was we brought on a branding agency that, you know, was absolutely incredible. And who's worked on the likes of, you know, Spotify, Tesla,
• 23:47
  you know, Heineken. Your website is very cool. Very, very cool. It's, you know, these world-renowned brands that speak to innovation, but are still really exciting and warm and tangible to the consumer. So, you know, we brought them on very, very early. And, you know, I think that's something that a lot of people negate is the power of your brand in helping you tell your story. And I do think that that's what drove a lot of that organic,
• 24:17
  attention, you know, initially as well. That's really, really interesting. And I can see why, like your brand is very fun and very futuristic. Yes, it's the future of food, you know, and I think it's exciting the way that it's going to be a future where without compromise and without boundaries and limitations where we can truly just eat freely and not have to worry.
• 24:48
  Oh, I hear you. Amazing. What is your key piece of advice for entrepreneurs in 2022? Oh my gosh. Build an amazing team and keep pushing. Don't let anyone tell you your vision can't be done or shouldn't be done. And just really stay focused and believe in the vision and
• 25:18
  and the impact that you can have. Love it. Love it. No, it's like there's a lot of stuff as a team. You should do this, do that. No, I love it. I love it.
• 25:33
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 25:58
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 26:20
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 26:37
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 27:02
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 27:24
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.