 Welcome to start up the storefront presented by Orabora. All right, welcome to the podcast on today's show. We're talking to Toast It. Thanks so much for joining. We're here to talk about your Shark Tank story, what happened after the beginning of the company. For people who don't know, what is Toast It? What's the company? First of all, thank you for inviting us Diego. We're super excited to be here and we're fans of your podcast. I'll try to be as quick as I can. So Toast It is a brand of better for you Latin American food staples. We first started out by basically trying to fulfill a personal need. We moved to the States about seven and eight years ago, respectively, and started our corporate careers here and just started noticing how we were missing sort of a little bit of our culture or our traditions that we had when we lived back home in Venezuela. One of them being eating arepas every day. Arepa, it's basically like like a corn flour bread that typically Venezuelans and a lot of other South Americans eat daily almost. And it's typically made from scratch, but it can take up to 20 minutes to make. So when we moved to the States and we had, you know, this hectic lifestyles and corporate, corporate careers, we found ourselves losing this tradition and just started innovating with recipes and started thinking how we could bring this product in a really convenient way, but also using really great ingredients and keeping the recipe as traditional and as as close to the real thing as we could. And so that's how everything started in our own kitchen and, you know, it evolved into what it is today. For people who don't know, arepas are delicious. I recommend anyone to try them. This is a story. It's so funny. The story you guys are sharing. If you guys remember Junae from from Brazibites, similar story, also on Shark Tank. She was on our podcast, too, where like the pan de queso from Brazil, she just wanted to bring it back and, you know, bring that culture to the United States, which I love the mission. I love when entrepreneurs, when it's like bigger than just a business, it's like there's a part of home that they're just trying to share with the world. Did you guys have any background in CPG or in food where you were like, OK, this kind of makes sense. Yeah, I actually worked at Popsico for almost five years. I started out leading financial planning for one of their first direct to consumer brands and then went on to lead finance revenue management for their beverage business in the Southeast. My sister was more focused in marketing and consumer insights within the banking industry. But yes, we did have some experience. And when we first launched our first products and started selling through e-commerce, I was able to identify that our repeat rates were really interesting by my knowledge of the industry. And that's when basically we decided to invest more and more time on the business. And we found out that we really had something special. That's interesting. So you guys are you guys are like the dream team? Yes. But that said, just to add to Maffi's background. Well, she did have a lot of background in CPG, but at the same time, and I think you would agree, Maffi, when you start something on your own, it's a completely different story. You you start with limited resources, just learning every day about production, about so many things that you don't even know exist when you work in corporate. And so that's what makes it very interesting and at the same time, really difficult. Yeah. What was the the first product? So obviously you can do arepas, you can do a whole variety of them. And so what was like the what was the one the one you went to market with or the one maybe you just made for your small group of friends and family to test to see if the recipe was right. So our initial product was the arepas. We started out with two skews, our original traditional recipe, the one that you would eat in Venezuela and in most of South America. And then we decided to innovate a little bit with a second version, which had chia and flax seeds. A lot of people love them, they're varying on trend. So that was our second product. And then we moved on to our third arepa version, the yuca and cheese arepa. It has real yuca root, white Latin American cheese. It's it's delicious and one of our best sellers. And then we moved on to pandebonos, which if you're familiar, our traditional Colombian cheese bread, they're also super popular in the US. So we thought it'd be a great, great way to move towards a second product line and possibly continue growing our products, our products, not only to be arepas, but more a Latin American food brand. You said something earlier where you guys started as an e-commerce business. Was the play to always sort of try to dominate the e-commerce space? Or did you realize you'd have to be CPG also? But obviously e-commerce is a lot better, a lot easier, the margins are better, and then the eventual valuation of the business is bigger. But how what are you guys today? Are you still e-commerce? Is it CPG? Is it a hybrid? So no, we actually started with direct to consumer because we were that small, right? So I mean, I'm actually really proud to say that we started out very small. We started in our own kitchens, cooking ourselves. Eventually we were able to hire help. And then when we saw that the business was actually picking up, we saw that the repeat rates were really great. And there were some interest, real interest from retailers is when we were able to migrate into a more industrialized system. But we do believe that when you look at consumer behavior, it is more I guess some more established consumer behavior to actually go to the retailers to do your grocery shopping for the week more so than buying for groceries online. Still, we know that there's a population that buys their groceries online, but it's still limited compared to the percentage of people that are still going to the stores. Although we do believe that it's an interesting venue to explore and have your direct to consumer channel to educate the consumer and have the option to buy from there. If there's anyone that wants to explore your brand and try out your products. Right now, the great majority of our sales are coming from retail and we do believe that it's a faster way to scale. And at some point, where do you guys get the idea to go to Shark Tank? Is that do you guys get approached by them or are you guys seeing it on TV? You're just a fan. What was the moment you were like, I think we should apply to Shark Tank. Well, we've always been fans of the show, of course. I think it's for both of us. It has been a great avenue for understanding how businesses work in the U.S., how they can scale, how it's important exposure is and contacts, etc. asked to, you know, or compared to what our experience was living in Venezuela and, you know, founding and managing businesses there, which is so different. I just want to remind people that we've only been living here for seven years. So it has been a bit of a learning curve and everything is so different. But the show has been great for us to educate ourselves as far as how to found and grow a business. At some point, I'm going to say we're part of one of those communities around CPG in the U.S. that are so great. And someone shared a link to apply to the show and we were like, well, let's let's go ahead and try. You know, we we never know what might happen. We didn't have great expectations because it's so competitive. But we just went ahead and, you know, applied for the show with our best intentions, with without some any expectations. And, you know, be careful what you wish for because eventually we passed and passed auditions until they finally gave us a green light. That's amazing. And how long after your company was started, did you guys get on the show? So we first started selling in 2020. So it was three years after we first started. I want to ask you this just personally. And so I was born in Peru. You guys are from Venezuela. There's a part of, I think, at least for me, when I moved to America, I just thought like, oh, my God, like you can do anything here. I really felt like that because politically, you're in a safe environment. Capital wise, you realize like you can kind of do anything. There's no real rules or in the sense of like there's no one holding you back. Right. It's just up to you. When you guys moved here, did you did you always have the ambition to start a company? Did you feel like the environment was just so different when compared to South America, Venezuela, that it just felt like a different part of you could sort of explore this creativity of business? What were your like your personal journeys into that? In my case, it definitely was. I do believe that there are some certain constraints in South America to start a business to your point before about accessing capital or even certain, I guess, limitations when it comes to how seriously people could take you in certain countries. It certainly is in Venezuela. You know, we're two young women at the time. You know, at some point during our our journey, we were both pregnant, too, which could also, you know, seem like a limitation or sort of like a deterrent for some people to invest. So I certainly felt like this was a great place to innovate, to be creative. And I felt like, you know, really the sky is the limit. Shows like this also helped us a lot. We listen to a lot of entrepreneurship podcasts where you can listen to stories of a lot of really inspirational people that, you know, aren't necessarily the people that you would think would start businesses that are very, you know, successful, which are typically like people who went to certain, you know, universities or had a certain background or had certain backing, you know, where immigrants that came here, women and we were able to identify ourselves and see our stories reflected on some of the entrepreneurs that started businesses and were really successful, you know, people in later stages of life or people that didn't have the specific business background and being so successful, right? So we felt inspired and felt like we could also do it too. Yeah, let's talk about your shark tank experience. And so before you get on the show, did you do a lot of preparation in terms of who you wanted to land a deal with? Who you were hoping to land a deal with? Did you know there would be a guest shark? If did you know who it would be? Sort of give us a window into the prep, maybe the day before. And then ultimately to when you like get on the air and you and you're standing there in front of them before you're about to record and pitch. OK, so yes, we did a lot of preparation ahead of the show. So first of all, we started preparing months in advance, even when, you know, we were going through the first stages of the auditions until we finally were given a green light. When they finally told us, you know, you're coming to LA, here are the, you know, here are your tickets. We made a very extensive list of questions of what typically gets asked during the program and, you know, answered each one of them, made sure we were really prepared to answer each one of the questions. And then sometime ahead of the program, we were actually told who our guest shark was going to be. We were actually very, very excited and actually prepared even more questions that were more tailored to his background, his businesses, etc. because we really, really wanted to close the deal with him. And so, yes, and you need to prepare because you don't know how your nerves are going to respond and how well you're going to respond at the time. So as much preparedness as you can have, I think it always, it's going to help to our surprise. I think he was sympathetic from the beginning. I think he was able to see something in us because he was also an immigrant. And I'm talking about Daniel Lubecki, which we eventually close to deal with, who's a founder of KIND. And so we were very lucky in that sense that he was very sympathetic and understood the business from the beginning and was actually not as tough as we thought he was going to be. We prepared some really, really tough questions and made sure we were able to answer in the right way. So, yes, we prepared a lot and practiced the pitch extensively until even one of us lost her voice. And so we had to stop rehearsing at that time. I know a couple of things they always touch on. And obviously Mark Cuban in the room is always in the better for you category, right? And so he always wants the low-carb option of the thing. And so you guys checked that box, which I thought was great. And then when it came to, I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this, but so you can choose at some point, basically Kevin O'Leary is on the table and so is Daniel. And so you have Mr. Wonderful and you have the founder of KIND, who you know can help you guys out. Mexican-American legend of a human. Wow, what was, internally, what were you guys thinking when you have to make the decision? You know, like who do you marry? You know, it was like the bachelor. It was like, were you guys thinking at all about Kevin or was it simply Daniel's our guy? I think, you know, going into the show, we already knew that we really, really wanted to close a deal with him if we could, if he was interested. Of course, there's always what's actually gonna happen in reality and who's actually gonna be interested in your business. And then you have to really assess who's best for your business out of the people that are showing interest, right? And I think at that point we might've considered, but since we knew because of his background, because he's also an immigrant, he was able to build a business from scratch, which is also what we're trying to do. It's so much knowledge that is invaluable that we could gain from partnering with him that we were really, really interested in working with him. So at that point, I don't think it was really a question, but yes, and to my sister's point before, when we were working, you know, in corporate and had some sort of experience in CPG, yes, that is true, but when you try to extrapolate that into building your business from scratch, there are so many differences. Even from starting a brand from zero with limited resources, when you start to really craft what you're gonna try to do and where to invest your money to gain brand awareness and try to build your brand, you're talking about building a brand with millions of dollars in a budget when you're coming from a corporate standpoint, from building something with so little. And so I think the skill set and the tool set, it's completely different from building something from a corporate standpoint. And not only that, it's also negotiating with retailers when you're such a small brand that you don't have that much money to put into promoting your products. It's also dealing with co-packers when you're such a small brand and balancing having healthy margins with trying to introduce your product to the market and offer competitive pricing, right? Even though the margins we know aren't that high until you're able to reach economies of scale. So it's a different tool set that you need and it's hard to gain that from a corporate career or even corporate mentors. So we really knew that we could really benefit from having this type of partnership. And did the deal go through ultimately after the show? Yes, so we're actually still in negotiating process but we've already went through the due diligence process and are still trying to close the deal. That's awesome. Have you learned, like obviously it's sort of fresh but have you learned anything from him or has he given you guys any advice since the show that you really value? He actually has. So without having closed the deal yet which we're still in the process of doing we've been in three calls with him already and he's already shared insights and recommendations on what we should do regarding the show airing and how we should capitalize on the extra awareness, et cetera, et cetera, as far and other items related to the business that he's interested in exploring. What did you guys see just from a sales perspective after you guys aired? It's pretty significant. As far as e-commerce, I could say it's more than a 10,000% increase. We're already seeing like over 100% increase in some of our retailers. So it is pretty significant and it's only been some like I think 12 days since our show aired. Wow, that's pretty amazing. That's huge. Yes, thank you so much. Most of the companies we've spoken to I think the range I've heard has been something like between 80 to 200,000. Obviously there's a huge range in product but that's been like the numbers which has been amazing. And so where are you guys now in terms of trying to capitalize on the moment? What stores are you in now? Where can people find you guys? So we're available in about 500 public stores in the Southeast. We're also available at Walmart stores in the Southeast, Whole Foods in Florida and Winn Dixie in the Southeast as well. You can find us in the international first and food section in all of these retailers. As far as plans for the future, we're of course really interested about exploring new regions because we're very focused in the Southeast and that was of course very strategic because of our target demographic. But there's also a lot of Hispanic people living in other regions in the US that we're really interested in exploring and also exploring new product innovations that we think are missing from the market. I think that's very close to what we are, which is exploring staples that have kind of been lost into the culture here or people immigrating from Latin America to the US and have lost some of these traditions and staples that they were used to eating back at home and we're trying to innovate and bring this to the market. Do you have a hint or something you're working on like a special dish, a special treat maybe that we can see coming up from your brand? We're actually really excited about a new product that's coming in. We're launching in very soon in about a couple of months. It has plantain, so we're really excited about that. I know plantain is very popular in Latin America and in the Caribbean and we love plantain. This is actually one of our abuelas recipes that we used to eat around Christmas time and we think it's gonna do great and it's something that we've never seen in the shelves before. Wow, all right, so for people listening who are probably gonna go to the store and buy your product, what happens? So I go to the store, I'm in the international food section, I buy it, I bring it home, is it air fryer? How do I cook it? You can use an air fryer, you can use a toaster oven, your regular oven, even a frying pan, you can basically heat it up anywhere and you don't have to wait until it's thawed or anything. You can just take it directly from the freezer and place it on your air fryer or whatever it is you have. Five minutes and they're ready. And is it gluten-free also? What are they? They're all gluten-free. All of our products are gluten-free, they have no sugar added, no preservatives and made with really great ingredients. I love it. Well, listen, tell people where they can find you on Instagram, obviously you mentioned the stores before, but where can they support you and the brand? Thank you, yeah, so you can follow us at Toasted Foods on Instagram and most social media channels. Our handles are the same at Toasted Foods and we hope you're able to find us and support us and find us in the stores too. We'd love you guys to try out the products. Well, congratulations on the success, congratulations on the show, congratulations on having a baby, that's amazing, good for you, I know that's a lot. Thank you so much. And it's just really, it's nice to see South American sisters do this thing, new mothers, females, founders, so an inspiration to all. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast, thank you. Thank you Diego, thank you for the invite. Thank you so much for the support and making it to the end of the episode. If you haven't already, please leave a review and share the episode with your friends. If you never want to miss a beat on all things entrepreneurship, make sure to follow us on socials or daily content. See you next Tuesday for another great episode.