Jacoba Gundle (Mindful Proteins)

Welcome to the Achieve Podcast, the show where we highlight the leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs who are be— who are building meaningful businesses. Today we're excited to have Jacoba Grundl, who is the COO and co-founder of Mindful Proteins. Jacoba, it's a pleasure to have you on the show.

I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

So our audience can get to know you a little bit better, give us a quick backstory on your business. What do you do? How did it all get started?

Yeah, happy to. In 2018, I started this company with my co-founder, Sean Penrith. So he and I have been running this together for, what is it, 8 years now? Does not feel like it's been that long. We started Mindful Proteins as a functional beverage business. We wanted to create foods and beverages that work for you instead of against you, essentially. And our first product Our first and only product so far has been tattoo protein water, and I have a couple cans here. It's kind of hard to see tattoo protein water, and a protein water essentially gives you convenient access to protein when your body needs it the most. So I don't know if you know much about protein. It's been kind of all over the place lately. It's one of the most important nutrients for performance and recovery, and just like everyday health, your body needs protein to grow. Everyone needs protein for long, lean muscles. And we saw an opportunity to make protein more refreshing, more restoring, and something that people would actually want to drink instead of one of those thick, milky, chalky vanilla caramel mocha shakes that are all over the market, or were all over the market. I can go into a couple. Tatu Protein Water comes in 2 flavors right now. We have wild berry, orange mango. There's 15 grams of protein in each can. Each can is 12 ounces. It's super light, super refreshing, and easy to drink when you need it most.

Okay, there you go. So you got, you got kind of the spiel out, right? Here's what we do. Yes, we've got this great drink kind of disrupting the protein space. You mentioned you started this about 8 years ago with the co-founder. Tell me about what it looked like then versus what it looks like now. How many employees do you have now versus when you started with your partner?

Yes.

What's changed over that year? Give me the story.

Yeah, I would say absolutely everything has changed. I'd say there's not a single thing that looks the same as it did 8 years ago. 8 years ago, it was me and Sean. Um, I used to work for Sean. He ran a climate finance nonprofit in Portland, Oregon, and I was his operations person in our office. Um, we decided to leave for multiple different reasons, and together we came up with this idea to create this company. So in 2018, it was him and I in a coworking space with just an idea. Neither one of us had any CPG background or experience. We just thought like, we want this product, other people want this product, how do we get it to market? With absolutely zero experience. And no money to say. Also no money for that. So, and our idea was that we were going to put the product in people's hands in fitness studios and gyms and cycling studios. We wanted to go To our customers right when they needed it after working out, right? That is our that was our niche, and so we spent 2018, 2019 doing customer validation, making essentially creating the product to what it is today. It took over 100 different formulations to try to get the product into something that we really enjoy with the right flavor profiles, all of that kind of stuff. And we're like, great, 2020, let's launch. Just kidding. The whole world is going to shut down.

Not a great time to launch.

Perfect time to launch. We literally, we had everything lined up. We had co-packers, we had suppliers, we had everything ready to go. And then the world shut down. And so we also kind of went dormant for about a year. Sean and I worked, we had an environmental consulting firm, which is what was financing our Mindful Proteins business. And so he and I were running the consulting firm, saving up cash. to hopefully whenever the world opened up again, we could continue with this Mindful Proteins venture. Um, and it did, thankfully. In the end of 2021, he and I got onto our first shelves in retail. We launched the product, um, online on Amazon. It took us a while to get back up and running again because our co-packer and a couple of our suppliers went out of business during COVID as many companies did. So we kind of We knew we had a good product. We knew there were people who wanted to buy it, but the logistics were not quite in our way, or on our side. So from 2018 to now, it's— so for actual employees, it's just me and Shawn, but we do have subcontractors that do sales. We have a brokerage team, we have distribution, we have logistics, we have—

Sales.

supplying— supply agreements. We have all of these different things that are in our favor now that weren't there. Um, and the focus back then was just getting people to try the product. Is there a fit in the market for this? Will people actually buy it? And now we know people will buy it. We have generated revenue, which is great, right?

Mm-hmm.

We're, we're finally to the stage where we are expanding, not trying to break through. And so I would say everything looks different, but it all kind of looks the same at the same time.

Okay. Well, what a journey, right? I mean, the story, the grit, that, that's the word that comes to my mind with you is it's just perseverance and grit. And you're like, we are going to do this. And, uh, congratulations on, I guess, arriving. I mean, you know, you're still kind of arriving, right?

Yeah. I feel like You never really stop arriving, right?

Yeah. Well, what a journey. When you look at sales, marketing, kind of what's working for you? You mentioned not having experience in CPG and kind of that consumer element. How did you figure it out? And what actually worked?

What actually worked? We showed up. Having people try the products in person. So even now with this huge protein craze, people hear protein water and are very hesitant about that first purchase, right? They're hesitant about the education behind it, why they need it, if it's gonna taste good. So, and that even happens now after this huge protein craze back in 2018, 2020, '21 when we launched, people thought protein water and thought ground up chicken and water, and that sounds disgusting. There was no educate— we had a huge education hurdle. And so what worked for us marketing-wise is showing up to events, showing up to— I can't tell you how many tables that I set up at studios, how many big trade shows I went to. Having people try the product is what worked. You could give away as much free product as you want or try to get on shelves all over the place with as much education as you can give retail buyers who are inundated with new products and new education, but it won't work until you get them to actually try the product. And that is how we found success.

Okay, so just out there on the streets. Yes, handing out stands.

I was at marathon finish lines, I was at triathlon finish lines, I'd go to cycling events. I mean, I am based in the Pacific Northwest, and so people outside exercising is everywhere. And so I would just— I would scour the internet, find events, and set up tables all over the place and getting people to try the product is finally what got us the step up that we needed.

So it sounded like you had a little bit of industry education as well, not just product education, but also kind of teaching, hey, it's okay to have protein water, right?

Yes.

It's not chicken. And, you know.

Yeah. People were drinking these like muscle milks and it's super thick and it just sits in your stomach. I don't know. I've done half marathons. I've done marathons. I played soccer in college. I've been a very active person and I could never Drink a thick protein shake after I work out. After you play 90 minutes of soccer, the last thing you want to do is just like fill milk into your stomach, right? You cannot do that. It's thick, it's sugary, it's filled with ingredients you can't, you can't pronounce. This is supposed to be like after you go for a run, what do you want? You want water. You want to drink a can of nice, refreshing, light-flavored water that also has protein in it because protein is going to give you lean muscles. It's going to help you recover and it's going to help you build the muscle you need to do better next time.

Jacoba, there's a lot of buzz right now around AI and automation.

Yep.

How are you using AI in your business today?

Uh, I am AI hesitant. My co-founder is not AI hesitant, and so we kind of, we kind of butt heads a little bit here. Not in a bad way, but I am more along the lines of like, I want it to tell me what I need to do and then I can put my own spin on it. And so I've used AI in creating content for social media. I've used AI in creating product videos and product images. Um, that has helped a lot. You can get some really incredible product images through AI without, without spending weeks or days editing film or hiring a huge team of photographers and getting models, which can be really expensive. Um, and so those are the places that I have set AI up. Um, I haven't gone so far as to help it find me audiences or contact information, and I know there's so much you can do with AI, but I tend to be a little afraid of it.

Okay, AI hesitant. I haven't heard it phrased that way, but I think, I think that's a good way to say it, right? Yeah, people that embrace it, and there's people that are kind of a little bit more cautious about, okay, do I really want to do this?

It seems like it can do everything and I, I want to keep a human aspect to it.

Yeah. As you've tried to scale, what are some of the constraints that you're seeing? Like, where are you hitting the wall?

Cash.

Cash.

I'm sure like, like no one, like this is not news to anyone, but beverages are incredibly capital intensive. The way that we run our beverages, we do a production run and then we start selling through that product and we have clients all over the place that have— we do private label for some big names that you probably would have heard of, but we make their product and then they pull down on it. And so we have to come up with the cash in the beginning and then we get paid, you know, sometimes 6 months after we've gone through that product. And so access to inexpensive capital that has a long return rate to pay back is where we are hitting a wall. And I think every CPG firm kind of operates this way, like revenue and cash are different and cash is where we are sticking.

Yeah. So you could have great sales but be cash poor, right?

Exactly. And that's how most companies run. I feel like.

Looking back on your journey, some of the wins and the mistakes, what are some of the lessons that stand out to you?

Some of the— okay. Yeah, this is a great question. You have to be okay. And this is somewhere that I Definitely had to learn. You have to be okay hearing the answer no and not getting— not having it get you down. Um, there— the opportunity for CPG brands is like enormous. There are so many stores, there are so many different pathways to getting your product sold. And you, even if you're not getting yeses on the ones you want, there's always a yes out there. You just have to be okay and continue to persevere. Like you said in the beginning, Through all of the nos, through all of the denials or declines of your fantastic offer that you spent weeks and months putting together. That has been a huge lesson to me. I don't like— I'm a people pleaser. I don't like people to say no to me. So I like making people happy and like, yeah, this is great for both of us. That was definitely one hard lesson that I had to learn. And another one is just You'd have to just have to continue moving forward. Like, I find that our CP, this beverage brand, has done— I'd say like 3 steps back, 1 step forward, 3 steps back, 1 step forward. You think you have it all together and then something falls through. And so you always have to keep just pushing forward. It's so— it's easy to quit. It is not easy to keep moving forward. And if this business was easy, everyone would do it. And that's what I have to like keep reminding myself is just push forward. Like, we got a decline earlier this week from a, from a deal that I thought was going to come through, and it's like, I could sit here and think this is devastating, or I'll just go out and find the next big thing that is going to be our next break into the market.

We've talked a little bit about the past, some of the challenges, your struggles. Let's talk about the future a little bit. What are you most excited about?

We are signing up with our first big distributor for our, um, branded product. So for Tatchu— so we have private label and we have branded product. Tatchu is our branded product, and we are getting into distribution in the Pacific Northwest to go across many different retailers. So we are finally breaking in to getting some real sales on shelf. We've done mainly in the past, we've done some one-off wholesale opportunities with gyms and fitness studios, but we are finally breaking into grocery retail. And that is happening. It's been happening well for a month or two, but I feel like we're finally going to get there by the end of September.

Congratulations. That's, that's a big milestone, right?

It feels very big. It feels very big.

You're right. Yeah. I mean, it, it's just new startups. It's taken you 8 years, right?

Right. I know people are like, how long have you been doing this? Oh, 8 years. And you're still a startup? Yeah, we're still a startup.

Yeah, that overnight success, right?

Yes, that's tomorrow night. I can feel it. It's gonna happen.

Yeah, well, congratulations on that. Any final thoughts or advice that you want to give to other entrepreneurs who are kind of on a similar journey?

Uh, yeah, um, I may— I've covered some of this before, but be consistent and just keep moving forward. That was— that has been the number one advice that I have given and that has been given to me. Um, We definitely validate your product, validate the market fit, make sure that there's a buyer for your product. I guess this is advice for CPG brands since that's what I'm running. Make sure there's a buyer before you go into your market. Just because you think there is one doesn't mean there actually is one. And the last thing that has been hugely beneficial for us as non-CPG experienced CPG brand owners, find mentors and find advisory board members who are, who can give you advice, who are in the, in the industry. It doesn't have to be beverage to beverage, but just having CPG advice and mentors and groups and, you know, listservs that you can be a part of to just get as much knowledge as you can, then I think that's the best you can do.

Well, Jacoba, thank you so much for joining us today, for sharing your insights. For those listening, if you want to learn more about what she's building at Mindful Proteins, visit their website, drinktattoo.com, uh, and go there. And that, that'll wrap up today's episode of the Achieve Podcast. A big thank you to our sponsor, Karen Accounting, who provides accounting and financial services to business owners. And if you enjoyed today's conversation, invite you to follow our show, share with another entrepreneur who'd also find value in it. And again, thanks for listening. Jacoba, thank you so much for being a guest on our show today.

Thanks for having me.

Okay, we'll see you.