Founders & Friends

 For once I, uh, for once the dinosaur done was at the correct place at the correct time that came to technology. . Can't believe I I hell must have frozen over. Uh, you were at contacts? Uh, no. I took my glasses off. Cause, uh, the glare on these things is, is pretty, pretty bad. Are you in your side or farsighted?

I have stigmatism, so it's, uh, what's I, I don't know. Near, near far. It's so confusing. I can, uh, I can can't see things up close, whatever that is. Oh, nearsighted. Okay. What about you, ? Thank God. No, I'm good. Really? Yeah. 2020. Thank God. , you have 2020 no contacts, no glasses at at your ripe age.

Well, this summer, this summer, this past summer. I, I was seeing like double remember there was a period of like one week, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So scary. Dude. I couldn't even walk. I couldn't see. I couldn't drive. I don't know what the hell it was, but thank God. Yeah, that was like a stress related situation or something.

Yeah. You had some sort of migraine issue and you couldn't even. Yeah. Overload, dude. Overload. What was going on at that time? Uh, nothing like bad. My father had a heart, heart surgery right now. That was, that was before that. You know, I don't know what, just a lot going on. Lot going on. Yeah. Your health now is good though.

You're cranking out those thousand calorie, 39 minute, uh, elliptical sessions with no music or, uh, video . You're just grinding on the elliptical. Yeah, dude, thank God. I mean, I, I'm able to do what I do. I, I don't listen to anything. It's like a meditation for me. I'm like on that and I'm just like, I'm just like focused on like, you know, maximizing the, lowering the.

Music actually gives me the opposite effect because the music like over, over pumps my adrenaline and I may like do good for five minutes, then I die quickly like this. Oh yeah, this, I'm pacing myself like, and I'm thinking about like life and work. It's great. , try it. I do, I do. See what you mean by that.

When, when you become too dependent on music and a bad song comes on and then you have to shuffle your eye iPod or whatever to like find the, the next jolt of adrenaline. That's, yeah. That's not always the optimal workout. Right. But no, I do like the Peloton and the scenic rides without music are nice.

You can y it is try, try, try this time with nothing and just like, like think about work about life. You'll. . I feel like the, the adrenaline makes you think better when you're, when you're doing that stuff. It's crazy for me, at least to a point. I think once you start overexerting, it's hard for me to think about anything else cuz the brain is so focused on continuing to maintain that level of effort.

But God bless you if you're willing to burn at a higher rate. and feel that pain in the body and still think about other things. That's a pretty, pretty impressive focus. . Thank you. How's it going today with you? Thank God, man. Good. Uh, good man. No, no complaints. Are you sad? We're not at Expo West the big trade show, Anaheim.

Hell freaking no, man. That that is the worst show. Oh, what, uh, a hundred thousand plus participants, uh, are at Expo S in Anaheim right now. That may or may not agree with you. You know what it is? It's uh, uh, I'll tell you what it is. That show is good for like, you know, like meeting people and having fun for like, you know, for like three days, but you get absolutely nothing.

Out of it. We did it, we did a exo there one year exhibit exhibited it, and we got absolutely nothing out of it. And, you know, during the two years we, we've gained massive, massive accounts without having to, uh, be present at those any ex post. Yeah, I agree. It, it, it, there are buyers walking the floor at Expo West, which is the largest, uh, there's two Expo Expo West Expo East Expo East was just launched a few years ago.

Expo Wests has been around for 20 years. It's a huge trade show. It's. Similar to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas every year for the software industry. Expo West is the only, uh, expo for na, natural and organic food products and all the vendors associated with that and suppliers and stuff. So you get buyers walking around.

Uh, it's a great way if you're new to the industry to have a target buyer drop by your booth, but there's. I don't know, maybe 3000 booths, . So it's like, uh, in five different halls. And I spent three days there last year, and I could, and I tried, but y I could not visit every, every supplier. I mean, imagine going into a Vita vitamin shop and.

Imagine all of the vitamins you see there and all those brands being in one place, and then going to Whole Foods. And imagine all those brands being there too. There's a whole vitamin floor, there's a whole new organic products floor. So imagine going to Natural Grocers, you know, and all those unique brands that are there that aren't anywhere else.

They're all at this show presenting, and so it gets to be pretty. Muffled in terms of your brand voice, wouldn't you say? I, I, I, I think for our purpose, when, when we're cranking, we have stock at the dcs for the distributors, what we, what we're gonna do is do the, do the distributor shows like the KE or unify where you're actually exhibiting and the, and what the people that attend those shows are buyers that buy within.

Distribution network. So they will come, give you orders on the spot and that's, you know, you're actually gaining revenue by doing that. So that, that's, that's the benefit. Versus doing a, spending $15,000 on a, on a, on a natural products expo s show, getting one, one big bot broker coming to say, I'm gonna represent you.

That's what we got out of, out of the show three years ago. Absolutely nothing. You know, you got, when you're not set up in Unify K here, which we weren't. , it's very complicated for, uh, you know, those, those independent accounts, uh, that bro managers of these distributors to come write you orders and say, oh, I have this account that will pull from you cuz you're not stock in the DC They walk by you, you say, they say when you're ready.

When you're set up at you and afi, khi, you know, uh, we, we can do business, but it's uh, it's just good exposure. That's it. But you dies quickly. Yeah, it definitely does. It's, uh, it's good for early brands, but probably not so much for us who've been in the business a little bit longer. And like you said, our sales strategy right now is working with our customers deeply that we already have.

So U N F I ke who distribute to thousands of stores. Let's go to their shows and, and let's get deep into bed with, with those guys who can really drive revenue versus. , the more shotgun approach of Expo West where you just have to talk to anybody who comes by and it's expensive to fly there. I mean, I bet if we had chosen to go to Expo West this year, we'd be in the, in the whole 15,000 because the booth would be 10,000 and then.

The flights and the hotels are a agree, are just, you know, egregious because you're flying into Anaheim small airport. I was looking at flights even like three months ago, 400 bucks one way from Denver. It's a very, very, very expensive show, and that's why I don't always understand why established brands continue to go to it.

It's definitely a status. Thing, and it's good for your brand awareness, I guess, and showing you're kind of like a, we're dominant, you know, like we have a 40 by 40, we're doing good. You know, 40 by 40 foot booth is like the biggest booth you can have. So there, I think there's a bit of that y you know, uh, it's good for presence for sure, but at the end of the day, look where we've come in one month, right?

These brands launch, they have a budget to, to, to waste on market. They allocated incorrectly. This, this, I, I know for sure, like, you know, look where we're at within a month. We're already set up in Unify, right? In three dcs. We're already gonna be set up in six dcs next week in KeHE. Look at the outreach we have right already.

Uh, we got Target by the cost. You know, we, we, uh, we got regional distributor, uh, also in, in, in the west. Look, look what's happening. We got, uh, all these massive accounts that we've sent samples to, that we're waiting for responses for, and we'll probably get, uh, onboarded into, uh, you know, a lot of 'em within the next like three, four months.

So, uh, we're, we're gaining without needing the waste of money on $15,000 to, to go to Anaheim. Before we leave the expo discussion, talk about those new customer updates. , what'd you think of the naturally Boulder investor showcase that we told listeners about last episode? We attended that, uh, February 23rd.

So two weeks ago. How'd you think that went? So I, I thought the show was, was, was okay? Uh, I don't, I don't think we gained much from the show, in my opinion. Uh, you know, further validating what I'm saying. Right. It didn't bring us anything. I mean, I wanna hear your opinion too. We got absolutely nothing out of it.

No. No buyer. No investor. Uh, we're going down our, our own natural course doing what we need to do. Now, what I gained was over a cigar in a brandy with you, where we made a very, very big decision that we're going to launch an adults, uh, milk right in, in a, in a gable top version. That was the most I. The thing that I think benefited from me coming to Denver and sitting with you and, and, and, and brainstorming together what our, what our future strategy is.

And, and that's, uh, gonna change our brand. Realizing what's the, you know, we said that before the show now. We went to the show and amazingly, everybody that was there was validating how amazing this flavor was of our milk product. And that after the, you know, driving me to the airport, we're like, we're doing this asap.

We're gonna launch a adult. , keep the kids, grow that. But we're gonna do the adult version asap. And that's what I think we gained from the Denver show. The realization was that our product, just chick pea milk tastes great and it's zero sugar. And if you compare chick pea milk to flax milk, soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, it hang.

in there. I mean, people were saying it's the best plant-based milk they've tasted, and that was validation that Yeah, just the chickpea milk concept and the formula that you created works great with adults, especially compared to an adult flax milk. You know, I think we taste better than flax milk. And flax milk is geared towards adults.

I think we taste better than soy milk, and I think we taste on par and uniquely different, but just as good as oat or almond. And that was a great realization for sure that the, the kids' concept is so tight, so focused, and we add a lot of value to that segment. And we believe that segment can absolutely blow up to a billion dollar market for kids.

We should also add on to that with just harnessing our flavor and our qualities for adults. Absolutely, definitely. And, and, uh, that, that validation came from a danon scientist walking past our booth, telling us, , this is the, the best, you know, milk I've ever tried. And saying that this, uh, is incredible, right?

Hearing that from a Dan, the world's number one, uh, producer of milk, plant-based milk saying, you know, I, we bought your product for your website, uh, for reasons we can't tell you. I mean, that, that was rewarding right then and there. Yeah, indeed, indeed. And then it was rewarding to, to have all of the, you know, general public come by and take samples and all be I.

Absolutely. Um, yeah, that was basically my take away. I think when it comes to naturally Boulder, I, I left the show, first of all. We didn't get nothing. We're meeting with John from Bank of Colorado. Next week we're meeting with, uh, Eleanor from, um, an investment bank. And then we met, um, a great person in, uh, Zach D'Angelo with Rodeo cpg, who I met with last week, and who you'll meet next week, who.

Really impressed by, and who's a big fan of what we're up to and wants to help and support us. And so those three people could potentially be great partners for us. My apologies, I have very high expectation. I, I didn't mean to say it in, in, in that, in that, uh, in that way we, we, we gained. But, uh, uh, it was good.

I'm glad that I came. I'm glad that we did it. Yeah. My, my only disappointment with the. , which I expressed to you immediately afterwards when we were wrapping up and leaving. What a long day that was. It was about negative three degrees. It was cold, it was dark, it was eight o'clock at night. We're packing up our booth, walking across the blustery dark streets of Boulder with our chickpea milk, and I'm just like, that was good, but it could have been better because.

We could have received more support from the naturally bolder team themselves, and there is probably 15 people on their board that were all there. I think one came by our booth and we only had eight booths and we paid money to be there. So I was disappointed in the naturally Boulder team for not supporting the startups by at least coming by their, their booth and talking to them, the startups that they.

You know, claim to want to support. We're at your show, we're in your house. We're one of like eight people that you selected, and we were just pretty much interacting with the general public and not those sort of insiders, you know? And that was a little disappointing. 'em. Yeah, I, I, I, I hear, I hear your, Uh, where you're coming from and I, I, I, I, I see, I see.

I agree. But it, it, it further reinforces what you said earlier, that with Expo West, we, we don't need to go these, these routes with trade shows. We, let's just get tight with our consumers on Instagram. Let's get tight with our customers like U N F I and KeHE, and we don't really need to worry about this industry stuff.

it'll, it'll all, it'll all come together. Uh, the, the way we're going, the way we're doing it when it comes to customers, we have a new customer. Lassens Markets in la announced it on LinkedIn. 11 stores in the Los Angeles market, great natural and organic, uh, market there with, with Lassens. Uh, they focus on the same products you'd see in Whole Foods or Natural Grocers.

Pulling product through KeHE. So very excited to ship to Lassens through KeHE as soon as possible. Yeah, that's a h that's a premium chain. So that, that'll do good for us. And that's just one of many, many, many accounts that we will we'll have access to. Once we get in the, you know, the new KeHE system and we launch that.

There's so many of those that will, will, will solicit, uh, once we're set up. Uh, you know, even lassen, you know, can't take it unless we're set up in the nude KeHE. We'll be hopefully the next 60 days. So that's key to get it set up. Absolutely. We submitted for Whole Foods Leap Program, their local and emerging brands program.

That submission happened last Friday. We will know around May if they select us for the Rocky Mountain region since we're headquartered in Denver as a local brand. And uh, hopefully we have good news to share on that. Come may, June. Highly recommend that for any other founder who's in this space to submit to the Whole Foods LEAP Program.

Applications open every year on March 2nd. They close, I believe, April 4th, and then next steps are given to people who advance, uh, come May, June EV every year, and they're in their second year of doing that. We also submitted to the Target Accelerator program similar to the Whole Foods LEAP Program. This gives founders a $5,000.

no equity. So a $5,000 grant and you get to participate in their accelerator program, which helps you learn more about how to work with Target, and it obviously gives you a nice inside track into getting your products into target. We submitted for that February 2nd, and we'll know on that one, uh, in mid-April.

And then Kroger also has an accelerator program. Theirs opens in May. and we'll, we will submit for that. We'll, hopefully we'll know about Whole Foods and, and, um, target, but you know, we'll definitely be open to submitting for the Kroger program as well. Back to Target. We met with Target last week. How do you think that went?

I thought it was great. I mean, the fir the, the first, the first thing is, you know, finding a buyer. We had access to the buyer, right? For this, for this category. Uh, buyer says, Send me samples when you ask him, can we, you know, when you pitch the brand, uh, the fact that, you know, he sent us an invite for a call.

I mean, these are all positive, uh, things. And then during the call, the buyer of the refrigerated dairy tells us, I like your product. Uh, I think you're onto something here. He's gonna try it. And, you know, he said, I'm looking at taking it in. Uh, you know, uh, he gives us three timeframes. One would be for August, October, or January.

And he said, I'm, I'm thinking January of 2024. Hearing that on, on the first go around is quite incredible. You know, the buyer of the largest, uh, mass retailer out there. So, uh, this is huge for us. It is, it is huge for us. . It was a great meeting. Uh, people say that a lot coming outta sales meetings. Um, it's kind of an overused term.

Oh, that meeting went great, you know, because nobody wants to see him, but I've actually had bad meetings and , you know, where they just tell you no. Uh, like straight up. I remember having a meeting with, uh, BJ's, big account in the, in the Northeast, and you always think when you land a meeting, . That's a good sign cuz it is.

It's a good step. Landing a meeting with a retailer. It's a great step. Means that they've are interested. And I remember we got in that BJ's call and she simply got in the call to tell us no and why. She said no, , so that can happen too. So it's good that we avoided, avoided that. Has that happened to you, John?

Where you get a meeting, you're excited and it's just a complete No. Oh, I got a story for you. I actually, I actually met, I, I was actually invited to meet with Walmart. on November 11th for, uh, my, my, uh, my egg egg product business. A buyer invited me to go there and wanted me to do a cutting. I was there with a broker.

I flew in to Bentonville, Arkansas. I got there around 11 o'clock. Broker picked me up, um, went straight to Walmart headquarters, went to the kitchen where they booked us to do a cutting, uh, warmed up our egg bites and our egg pat. And put it on a plate, give it to the two buyers that invited us to come there and said, oh, wait a minute, this is plant-based.

I said, yes. She goes, I'm the buyer for real eggs. I thought this was real eggs . Oh, no. So, yeah, so, so, uh, I'm like, okay, um, can you, can you, uh, recommend this to the buyer? She goes, no. I'm like, okay. So I just came all the way out here. Uh, then it was, you're the wrong buyer. Both I and the broker were disappointed.

I went back to the hotel, it was around like three o'clock, uh, had dinner and just went home. Uh, yeah, took an early flight at 3:00 AM the next morning. Got out of there. But I, I mean, meeting, meeting with buyers, it's, it's, it's always, uh, , you know, reaching out as a crapshoot, getting an appointment as a crapshoot, whether they'll like it.

So I think, you know, all these points that I mentioned on the target call are great. I have buyers that tell me, leave me alone. Right? You, you know, you gotta keep going until you get that yes or no. So, uh, you don't wanna harass them, but you wanna be in their face. And that's the strategy I. , you know, to, to, to, to, to gain accounts.

Absolutely. It is. And that's actually, I was looking at the Kroger. So Kroger put out a, um, a guide for new vendors for their accelerator. And I was reading like what their tips were outta curiosity. and their tips were very much what we already do, but one of their tips was like exactly what you said it was.

They actually said to vendors in this packet for perspective accelerator program vendors, be persistent with your supplier manager and push for a yes or no. You have every right to get a yes or a no. And these supplier managers, these buyers, these vendor partners, whatever you want to, whatever their, their title may be, they have dozens and dozens of current vendors, and then they have all this outreach.

But Kroger was clear it is part of their job to give you a yes or no. And so John and I are very polite, but persistent, pleasantly persistent. And pushing for that. Yes or no, you know? And then if it's a no, you, you definitely wanna ask why, you know, what can we do? You know, there was a no, we received from a.

you know, Aon, you know, and it was not that we don't like your product, it was just that kids items don't do great in our stores. Our demographic is people young in LA without kids. And if you know Awin, that makes sense. It's a very premium hip store in la. And so we said, cool. When we launched the adult milk that John talked about earlier, we'll get back.

and they're like, absolutely. So you, you, you can always push for a yes or no, and you can always find maybe a pivot in, in the nose, right? That's right. And, and, and, and, and, uh, it's, it's, it's to all entrepreneurs don't be intimidated, right? Uh, you, you, you just keep pushing until you get an answer. That's, that's what it comes down to.

And there's nothing wrong with it at all. . Exactly right. Exactly right. There's no reason to be sh uh, meek in that scenario, but don't be annoying. They also had a good point in that Kroger, uh, packet. Um, they said, have a good email tone and be consistent with your tone. And I think that is like really great advice if you, if you are like, you are very consistent in your tone.

It's, it's very nice, very friendly. informal, which I think is excellent, and it's short. I, and, and, and that's something that I, so if I email a buyer, my emails must be four sentences or less. One sentence, double space, another one. And do that two more times. So it's just four lines. Hi, I'm Kyle Watts. I'm the FO co-founder of Tally Kids.

We are a fortified chick P milk substitute with zero added sugar and 21 added vitamins and minerals. Second line. The kids market has a huge opportunity. I'd like to send you sample. Please share a good address for samples. Thank you. Like that? Is that, is it? Hold, hold, hold, hold. You do not need to write anything more than that.

And I, I, and I just rattled that off, but it could be shorter than that. Hold, hold there. I would like to send you samples. I would rephrase that to where, uh, please advise and address where I can send samples. You know, I do use that now. I do use that now Cause I saw you did that and you said, I'd like to offer you samples.

And then your last line is please advise and address for samples. Thank you. Right, because if you're asking a question, . Um, they might, they could say no, but if you tell 'em what's your address, you know, you're, you just, you know what I mean? Like, those, those, those are important little details. Um, never leave like a, like an open question for them.

Right. You know? You know what I mean? Like, that's, that's, uh, important. It is, it is important to not make it seem like they can reply or they can't reply. I, I expect you to reply, no, I don't want your samples, or I expect you to reply. Here's my address for sample. Exactly. Yeah. And then always put like, don't just attach your cell sheet, which is like an ugly PDF Adobe document that somebody has to double click and some spam filters and corporations won't let them open.

Attachments. , attach your sell sheet for sure, but also always put a picture of your product in the email below your signature every every single time. And this is something I'd recommend you start doing as well because when you see the beautiful product, it's the first thing you look at cuz your eyes are like, okay, cool, this is the product, boom, here's the email.

Um, opening a ugly pdf, they won't always open it and you don't want that good. We submitted to Publix. That's exciting as well. Publix is a major grocery chain in the southeast, in, in Florida. And that that, that, that was a nice new development that occurred on Monday. Yeah. What's, what's nice about it is the fact that the actual account rep says, uh, you know, submit that, that, that's a big inviting welcome that you have a good shot here.

So Definit. . That's very good. And remember how we talked about reset windows? That re won't even happen until August. And the target one, if you missed it, would be next January. And so that's how, on top of it, you have to be in this business. You, you don't just make a product and then go to. , you, you have to make your product.

Uh, and I think we did okay with our timing. Um, but in terms of innovation for major food brands, you always wanna get all of your innovation done and ready to ship by September of whatever year you're in so that you can submit on time for October, November, December, Jan, Feb. Ours wasn't ready until Jan, so we did.

that fall review schedule for resets. So we're falling into a lot of later dates now, but it is what it is that's, they rotate their reviews. I mean, these guys have to stay organized. They have dozens and dozens of vendors. They can't just go back and look at plant-based milk just because you are the new kid on the block.

They looked at plant-based milk. They made their decisions in February. They're looking at it again in August. See you in August. So that's kind of where we're at with some of these big conversations. Right? Yeah. Let's, let's talk about something interesting. I'm gonna bring up a subject about the chickpea.

Yesterday I was at Whole Foods and I sent you pictures of probably about half a dozen of products from chips to yogurt to. , uh, whatever it was made outta chickpea pizza, pizza crust, pasta. I mean, this, this, this, today, yesterday you sent me a drink, made outta chickpea. Uh, you sent me also today another, uh, product made outta chickpea.

This product, this protein base is gonna be the next, uh, mainstream protein for sure, without a doubt. And we we're, we're at the right time in the right place offering what we're offering. I, I agree. Obviously, I'm a, you're coveted business partner. We have several investors who also believe in that hypothesis.

What, what were your thoughts on, uh, the milk substitute ruling, if you wanna tell the folks about, about that? Uh, I, I thought it was definitely to our benefits. Uh, we were, we were hoping for a, a, a better, uh, outcome. Um, but. Uh, you, you can provide more. Yeah, it'll help us. So basically, the FDA has, for years been in a protracted legal, been in the middle of a protracted legal battle between the Plant-based Foods Association and the American Dairy Farmers Association over the terminology of milk.

Is milk a standard of identity for cows milk, or can milk be used interchangeably with plant sources? , the dairy organization says you can't use the term milk unless it's dairy milk. Obviously, plant-based foods say, we don't wanna change our name, we still want to use almond and soy milk. Terminology ruling came out that yes they can, even though they don't have the nutrition of dairy, we were hoping that the term that the legislation would say you have to be called a milk substitute.

if you have the nutrition of dairy, and if you don't, you can't use the milk at all. That would've been. sort of nice for us because we would've been one of very few brands that could be called a milk substitute, so we didn't get that. So almond milk can still call itself almond milk. However, there's a major caveat and the plant-based association is upset about it because they have to now say if they have less than the nutrition of dairy, they have to put a call out on their packaging.

a harsh example, but the best one is similar to how you see nicotine or cigarette products say, may cause cancer. Again, not this serious, but just that's the what. They're gonna have to put a call out on their almond milk saying does not contain the nutrition of dairy. Tally won't have to do that. Call out and they call it voluntary.

But what's interesting is that it's really not voluntary according to plant-based foods association because. You are open to lawsuits if you don't do it. So if you choose to not put this call out on your almond milk that has one gram of protein, it opens up litigious lawsuits where a consumer could say, I thought you were milk.

Why didn't you have the sticker on your package? I'm suing you for not being like milk. And so I think we, we will see over the next year folks putting that disclaimer on their package, but not on tally. We won't have to do it, which is pretty cool. Absolutely. We submitted to Albertson's, SoCal division and that went well and also to pavilions in Los Angeles.

So those, both, those submissions happened, uh, earlier this week and very excited about. , those are gonna be good, good accounts for what we've submitted so far. We're gonna, we're gonna have national presence in, in six months, all, all across the us and then we're also live on Amazon. And I wanted to, uh, take a minute to, to tell folks how, how to do that, if you don't mind.

Yeah, so basically Amazon Seller Central. You can be fulfilled by Amazon, and what you do is you have to have a seller central account set up in their system, which is pretty easy to get, but you do definitely wanna trademark your brand because then you can be part of the Amazon brand registry and have your own brand page.

Otherwise, they just think you're another reseller. iPhone charger cables, right? Like anyone can sell an iPhone charger cable, but only Apple has the official brand for that. So definitely trademark your brand and join the Amazon brand registry. And then it's pretty simple. It's all through their portal, which was super interesting.

You just need to organize your pallets to be below 1500 pounds per pallet. They have this. Exact minimum. I think it's cuz they use robots, John and, and they don't want their robots to be strained. I was like Googling it and like that definitely seems to be the case. So you have to have pallets that are less than 1500 pounds so that their automated warehouse can, can pick 'em up and move 'em around.

And then you just literally organize a shipment all online and they come to your warehouse. Pick up your pallet that's custom built for their specs, for their weight. They drive it to their warehouse and then boom, it gets distributed out into their network. And then you're eligible for Prime. So if you go to amazon.com and search Tally Kids Milk, you'll see both of our products on there available for purchase, uh, in the six pack format available via Prime because it's, we're, we're in Amazon's network.

The alternative to that would be just to make your products available, but not be in Amazon's network and you fulfill the orders, but then you don't get Prime. So highly recommend fulfillment by Amazon and just going through the steps. I did it all and one day and they came and picked up our product and got us into their network within two weeks.

So definitely been a, a good experience so far on Seller Central. Big caveat with Amazon is, You have to advertise with them. Like it's definitely pay to play, so no one's gonna see your product. It's not gonna pop up on any pages, uh, if, if you don't pay Amazon to promote your product. And the last thing I'll say too is you need reviews.

And they have this great program called Amazon Vine, which it's pay for a review, but it's okay because you get those reviews and then that's when you see. The caveat of I received product for free for this review. So it was a bit of a caveat there, but we have now eight five star reviews because we participated in that Amazon Vine program.

And you can only do that once and. And you pay for the product, but you can do anywhere from 10 to even like a hundred reviews. You're gonna pay to ship it to them. It costs you about 10 bucks a pop, but it could be really worth it to get your reviews and your credibility set up. Yeah, that's exciting. We got great reviews also on it so far.

People loved it. Yeah. Yeah. We have gotten great reviews and they seem to be pretty honest too. Yeah, honestly. Okay, so in terms of something that I, I kind of wanna do next. I wanna get a board of advisors going do, do you have one of those for, for Simply Brand foods? Uh, we, we do not, no. But I do think it's a very, very good idea to put it in place.

I'm, I'm thinking like a board of advisors, maybe just starting with three and doing a board of advisors, uh, three people. Uh, one would be a salesperson. So a salesperson that we really respect that's been in our business, a voice of the consumer. So somebody who. Is an advocate of Tally kids who has done a great job supporting our brand, who is a consumer of the brand and knows other parents.

So I think the voice of the consumer person would be a parent and someone who's using Tally kids and who has a good business sense and could make sure we're always on on the right track in terms of our consumers. And then I think operations, I think it always helps to. if we're on the right operational path and saving money where we can and set up appropriately.

So I think three people. W would you add on to that over time? Sure. I think to get going right now, it would be a good base to have your suggestion of three and as as we grow and we need to fill void, For the, for certain position. We, we can, we can, we can add. Cool. Let's do it. And then in, in terms of, uh, of fundraising, how do you feel like that's going?

I'm very happy. Uh, what, what, what we're getting back right now is, is what we want as far as, uh, you know, getting set up with SPVs and getting so, sort of commitments so far from the, the network. Few people that. Talking to and I, I feel confident that we'll, we'll get a very nice amount in the next 60 days.

What we have going for us is our shelf life. Right. That's, that's the most important thing. Mm-hmm. , we have right now, you know, nine months shelf life and obviously we're, we're doing a, a test with a, you know, shelf life company to get it to maximum one year or 14 months. But, you know, my other company, Simply Egg endless

We're dealing with a 60, 70 day shelf life. That's horror. I mean, you know, we make something that is horror. We make something, it has to be picked up within a weak window. Get it to, you know, the 4,000 store network, uh, in Canada, us, whatever, and, uh, you know, make sure that, that it sells in that 60 days.

Right. , not 70 days. 70 days. Our shelf life, you get stores pull it off the shelf shelves. It's by 10 days. So we have 40 days to sell the stock. That's. That's brutal. It's uh, actually today is the 60 day anniversary of our first day of production, so we'd already be expired if, if we were refrigerated. That would be tough.

Exactly. What are you up to this weekend? Uh, what am I doing? Just relaxing. Nothing much really. How about you? Uh, one of our investors, actually, both of 'em. They're a married couple. They both invested separately and they're, my friends are in, are in Denver for the weekend, so it's gonna be exciting to hang out with them.

Is that, uh, your buddy from, from childhood? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Clay and Kelsey. Nice. Semi regards, please. I, I, I will be sure to do, to do that. All right, John. Have a good rest of the day. Uh, good rest of your, your Thursday. You as well. Let's kick butt tomorrow, Friday and have a good weekend. All right.

See you buddy. Bye.