In this post, we cover our interview for our "Together Talks" campaign, with Nourish and Founder, Arianna Beetz. Nourish is not a chia pudding. It is not a protein powder. It is the best of both worlds: a protein pudding made out of chia, ready instantly. Just scoop, add water, stir, and enjoy anywhere. Nourish solved your high-protein meal replacement needs in seconds with real food ingredients.
"Together Talks" feature # 143: Nourish presented by KLS - Dedicated Logistic Services for Excellence -Driven Businesses In The USA
Story of how it was created?
I created this two years ago when I incorporated. But the idea really came to me before that, when I was on the go all the time with my lifestyle. I have a consulting background and before that I was actually in academia and I would travel quite often. I would be on the go all the time and never really have time to find a nourishing quick meal when I was on the go. Everything around me either had some sort of preservative or just wasn't high enough in protein for what I needed as an active individual.
I'm really passionate about physical activity. I'm always on the go, and always trying to find a gym around me. I just really wanted to to solve for that problem. That's where the idea of creating something that was 100% clean, but also an actual meal that you can eat on the go came to mind. And Nourish developed out of that idea.
What is the meaning behind the name?
I chose the name because it not only represents just eating, but I think what you put in your body has a deeper meaning. Nourish, more widely encompasses not only feeding your self nutrition, but nourishing your soul, nourishing your body and nourishing the planet. That's actually our mission to nourish your body and the planet. We're focusing on something deeper than that. We are not just giving you the nutrients that you need to go on in your day, but really deeply fulfilling you at all levels.
What separates your company from competition?
We are the only product out there, the only meal replacement/protein powder that you can eat with a spoon versus drink. What I mean by that is any other protein powder or meal replacement that comes in a powdered form, you add water to it and it's a liquid. We actually use chia powder so that when you add water to it, it turns into a really delicious creamy pudding. We are able to do that organically with no added binders or thickness thanks to the power of upcycled chia.
The reason that we did that is because I, as a person was always on the go, I just was not satisfied with drinking a protein shake. To me, that is not meal, and I'm actually taking a stand against the idea that things like girl dinners or things that are truly not nourishing or an actual a meal. There's actually research to back me up. If you look at two food products with the exact same caloric content, but one, you actually eat with a spoon, being a proper meal versus drinking one, the one that you eat with a spoon keeps you full longer.
Not only are we all organic, all natural, no fillers or anything, but also we are an actual meal.
What have been the biggest challenges?
I think one giant challenge has just been the unpredictability of supply chain issues. For example, I had one of my suppliers pull out last minute and had to find a new supplier. Secondly, I thought that it was very important for Nourish to be USDA organic certified. But gathering that paperwork took forever. I was supposed to launch in August, now our D2C launch, when you'll actually be able to get those products in your home is looking to be end of October or beginning of November.
Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
We're launching Nourish D2C, and at some local retailers here as well. We're supe excited and what I'm most excited about I think is really establishing product market fit, getting feedback from customers, and really proving the concept that people want to be able to eat their food with a spoon versus the liquid format.
Then next year, I don't want to reveal too much, but this is meal replacement and we do have two additional SKU's planned that will serve as a snack to complement that. It will possess the exact same mantra of providing what truly nourish you, filler free, preservative free, to make sure that Nourish mission is aligned.
How are you learning to be the face of the company?
That's another thing that I found terrifying. It's been a huge shift for me to be honest. Again, I have an academic background and formerly I was constantly doing things like presentations and giving talks at conferences, et cetera. But that came with a lot of planning and it was very thorough. Now fast forward to its 2024, marketing has completely changed. For social media, some people suggest you post daily, so obviously there's not that much time for preparation or planning.
That has been that mindset shift from being a perfectionist in that sense to really just adding value to people's lives daily, but thinking a little bit less and just taking the plunge has been been quite challenging for me as a founder, I would say.
What have you learned from being an entrepreneur?
I've learned that I will make a ton of mistakes and that's absolutely normal. To the point where it's not that I've stopped judging myself for it, but at some point you just have to have empathy and roll with the punches and try to make mistakes as fast as possible. Then just learn from them as fast as possible. So many things to me that now in hindsight were like, oh, duh, that was really obvious, maybe I shouldn't have done it that way. Y
I think that's been the number one, learning. Coming from the academic background where you read one paragraph (in your 20 page paper that nobody's going to read anyways), like a thousand times. And now shifting to that 80, 20 perspective has been quite, quite different, but just learning to embrace that and have empathy and compassion for myself.
I think that's been the biggest learning as I make mistakes daily.
What is the next thing you need to develop as a leader?
For me it has been getting really comfortable in that, in being the face of the company and almost shameless in the sense of promoting this product because I deeply believe in it. I've worked on it for two years. I know it fills this need in the market of really providing you a nourishing meal on the go and having the confidence to go out there and sell that relentlessly. Reminding myself that I know that people will metaphorically or physically probably close doors in my face at first, and that's just what it takes. Having that skill set will be, I think, a fun one to develop as I start sales.
Talk about the difficulty of being a solo founder?
I'm a huge people person so that's been a struggle for sure and some ways that I manage it would be one, my lovely husband. Even though he has a full-time job and it's quite a challenging one he still finds time to help me on the weekends and is a great support system. In the evenings, I constantly pick his brain. Just yesterday we spent five hours packaging little samples that I'm going to send off to to people. Lots of fun manual labor, but we just talked strategy to entertain us meanwhile. That's been really helpful.
Going forward I think to just leverage my network. People in CPG have proven to be exceptionally nice and it's really great because I come from a completely different background yet, people are willing to talk to share their insights. I've made a ton of new friends. So that's been really, really helpful.
And then third, making space for socializing, and I would say intentional socializing because I'm super busy. Making sure that I still have human contact with others throughout the day, whether that's via lovely meetings like this right now, or something in nature. I'm really into physical fitness, going on a rock climb with a friend or a workout with a friend as a socializing for the day that's been really helpful.
The fourth thing is if I were to find somebody that is equally as passionate as I am about the Nourish success, of course, that's something that would be open to down the road. I'm keeping my eyes out for people that are as passionate as I am. And I've already been able to find some really incredible mentors that just because they love the idea and they love the product, they're checking in with me. Forming those connections and those incredible people where they do formal or informal mentorship and maybe some of them in the future would be strategic partners with me, I think is really helpful as well.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
The creativity aspect, that's been a blast. There's so much grind as an entrepreneur, you wear all the hats, but the hat that I love the most is the strategy and the creativity. To dive in a little bit deeper, coming from this academic background, the part that I enjoyed the most about academia was coming up with research ideas and then being able to test them and designing a study that tests them well.
I have a similar approach with this business, what's my go-to-market campaign going to be or what strategy am I going to use? Can I be creative to design different marketing strategies? I think doing that and then testing them or starting to put that together has been really fun and I can get carried away really fast and that's been a blast. Now executing them, of course, the nitty gritty aspects can be a little difficult for me to wear all the hats, but just the ideas and seeing them come to life is such a blast.
Discuss the Nourish mantra?
The sustainability aspect of Nourish and that's just something that I would love to share a little bit about. Sustainability has always been really, really important to me and I think that there's this trade off right now between convenience and sustainability and we live such busy lives particularly in the U.S. that unfortunately we just don't have a lot of time to think through our carbon footprint. I personally really appreciate the brands that are able to make it easier for us to be sustainable and Nourish is trying to tap into that.
We not only plant one tree per purchase sold, we use again, upcycled chia. But to me, sustainability is a core aspect of Nourish and just a core aspect of how I live my life. And I would hope that within the next years, more and more brands continue to really actionably shape themselves in that way. Yet it's difficult, as it comes with a lot of tradeoffs. For example, my packaging is 40 to 50% recycled. that came at a big cost disadvantage. It was a difficult strategic decision to make, especially as I'm starting. But it was me truly being clear on the mission of the nourishing your planet first that caused me to make the decision that, this is worth it as well.
What is your why?
I think I deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply believe in making well-being more accessible to people. I am a first-generation college student. My mom and I moved here from Peru when I was seven with literally just two suitcases and she moved us here for me to get a better education. I've seen the different barriers that people face to well-being and to me I'm just really passionate about making healthy lives easier to access for all. That's what nourish is really about, it's trying to make convenience healthy and healthy not only for a person but also for the planets as well. We donate one tree per product sold. Everything is organic, I try to use up-cycle ingredients whenever possible and so whenever things get hard I just realized that Nourish is my way of making a bit of a dent in the planet to really make a positive impact to people's well being.
If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your industry?
Consumers are more excited to try small goods from smaller brands That's that's definitely a plus but there's definitely been a lot of instances where I realize it is really tough to get started as a small company. I know it's worse in a lot of industries, think of pharma, I can't just go in and try to make a drug, there's a million regulatory things and I'd have to raise a bunch of capital. But also being the CPG space is beneficial for that sense, but there was still a lot more barriers to entry than I expect so I wish there was an easier path for new companies who are bringing innovation or change.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
There's been quite a bit of little moments, but I think one stands out. I've been doing a lot throughout the two years. In the very beginning, I started doing a lot of pop ups and I would just go to different gyms, different areas and give samples and get feedback. And then just recently now that I have the MVP version of the product, I started to do that again.
Number one generally, and probably other founders feel the same, was when people start giving you positive feedback and share really, really deep stories of how they've connected with your products.
One particular example I have in mind is my friend, DM'd me and told me that she's incredibly excited about Nourish because one of the main ingredients is upcycled chia powder and she said that she started to incorporate chia into her diet more. It has really helped her. She had this pain a couple of years ago and through Chia she was able to heal herself and that she's super excited about my product because it takes quite a bit of time to make Chia pudding on the go. With this she's going to be able to solve that pain point that she has. That really touched me because it was a way for me to see my visible impact. Anytime people share those stories with me that really makes me happy and keeps me going and lets me know I'm on the right path.
Piece of Advice
This is true of Nourish and I think it's true in general, it just actually goes back to what I did my dissertation on and that is that adversity is really hard but the moment that you overcome it and that you reflect on how it makes you stronger then you're actually flipping it on its head. Using that to your advantage and then it can actually empower you. It can help you live a life that research actually shows that you would actually perform better, you're less likely to experience burnout and you're more likely to experience life from a more grateful lens if you're just able to reflect on how you've grown from your adversities.
As entrepreneurs, we face adversity daily. People face many forms of adversity. so I would just say integrating that into your daily life is absolutely key in the unpredictability of entrepreneurship.
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Nourish and Founder, Arianna Beetz. , for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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