Former CanDo CEO Matt Clifford On His Approach to CPG Consulting
After over 10 years as a CPG food executive, including co-founding banana snack brand Barnana and then running keto-friendly bar company CanDo for the past three years, Matt Clifford has taken a step away from the day-to-day grind of running a food company and has set his sights on helping other brand founders and executives build and grow their companies. Clifford took a little time before the holidays to talk to NOSH about what he is doing now, his insights observing the industry from a new perspective and the trends he is keeping an eye on in 2024.
Moving From The C-Suite To The Consultants Table
In September, Clifford announced he was stepping down as CEO of CanDo and was moving into consulting. In the last three months, he has started working with Rodeo CPG and has found that although the transition has been fulfilling, it comes with its own challenges.
“The thing I don’t like is you’re very much the uncle and not the father,” he said. “You come over you, you check in on how’s it going. Let me help here. Let me hold the kids. And then you’re like, alright, I’ll see you in a week.”
Taking a backseat from being the primary decision-maker and feeling in control of a brand’s trajectory is not an easy transition, Clifford said, but his new role does give some perspective on the industry as a whole and how brands can do a better job reaching consumers.
As Clifford put in a recent LinkedIn post, “understanding the consumer is like playing hide-and-seek with a ghost. Elusive, unpredictable, but undeniably intriguing!” With his consulting role, he is able to use his successes (and failures) running a company to help brands navigate the complicated world of CPG food from a 30,000-foot view.
Conceding that he gets to choose the brands that he works with and often finds himself coaching industry friends, he is focused on the “not Earth-shattering information” that makes up the nuts and bolts of successful brand-building, he said, like market strategy, broker selection, retailer identification and selection, and how to do a launch that he hopes will bring value to the companies he works with.
“What I hate in this industry is rent-seeking, and I feel like there’s a lot of it that happens. I experienced it in building a brand,” he said. “People want to just hold on to the back of brands and act like they’re helping, but they’re not helping. I think a lot of what I’m doing is more of helping brands avoid that and then just really adding value.”
⭐ Possible Food Trend Stars Of 2024
“Protein is here to stay” but it is “underwhelming” how few brands use protein as a tentpole to innovative new products, he said. Outside of Orgain and Kodiak Cakes there is a lot of potential for protein to be used as a main tenet of a brand rather than just a labeling callout or a SKU within the broader portfolio.
Similar to protein, Clifford called out cognitive benefits and the consumer’s drive for “deeper control of their health” as being prime areas of growth in the new year. One ingredient that he is keeping an eye on is creatine, which was once relegated to body builders wanting to gain muscle quickly. Now, brands are using creatine for its brain health properties.
Finally, Clifford is monitoring how consumers are trying to balance caffeine intake while needing more focus and alertness throughout their daily lives without relying on highly caffeinated energy products or coffee.
“I think you’re gonna see a caffeine handshake,” he said. “Things you take with your caffeine, whether it’s ashwagandha or Alpha GPC or L-theanine or GABA — this quote-unquote ‘nootropic space’ can be like caffeine facilitators…there needs to be balance.”
