Long Table Talks Popcorn Flour Pancakes, Post-‘Shark Tank’ Growth

Long Table is betting its innovative popcorn flour ingredient will help it tell the “love story” of regenerative farming to a wider audience while opening up new distribution channels outside of the Midwest.

Though it has been on the market since 2017, the pancake and waffle mix brand saw its sales skyrocket after appearing on “Shark Tank” in January 2023 and has since been navigating how to continue that momentum into sustained growth. Eager to take advantage of new retail opportunities, Long Table is now seeking investment to fund its production needs and offset the cost of its packaging refresh.

Founded by husband-and-wife team Samuel Taylor and Lindsey Whiting, the Chicago-based company has slowly built itself from farmers markets into a 3-SKU line of mixes — Popcorn, Blue Corn and Gluten-Free, the latter made with sorghum, almond meal and cornmeal — now available in about 175 doors across 18 states.

The company sells 3-packs of 12.7 oz. bags for $33.99 online and single bags for about $8.99 in retail.

The mission is to bring more regeneratively grown heirloom whole grains — including its signature popcorn flour — to consumers, Taylor told Nosh. “It’s next-gen pancakes from old-gen grains and powered by love.”

Long Table’s entire product line is Non-GMO Project Certified and its gluten-free variety has been certified through Beyond Celiac’s program. For now, the brand claims its supply chain is regeneratively grown but doesn’t have Regenerative Organic Certification.

Last year, Long Table took its story to “Shark Tank” – with the help of personal friend and return customer, actor David Schwimmer. Although Long Table did not receive a deal from the investor “sharks,” sales jumped to over $1 million dollars in the eight weeks after the episode originally aired, Taylor reported.

This February, Long Table was featured in a “update segment” (different from a rerun) which brought about 24 new retailers and approximately $50,000 extra in sales to the brand in that month, according to Taylor’s calculations.

Translating that increased demand into sustained growth is the new challenge. Long Table has been steadily scaling into new retail partnerships while being cognizant of not moving too quickly.

The brand is available in ecommerce on Amazon and DTC. Its biggest retail account, Fresh Thyme, carries Long Table’s three varieties in all 70 store locations, but the brand is also targeting new retailers in other states like Kentucky and Texas. Two regions where Long Table sees opportunity that it is currently unavailable in retail is Pacific Northwest and New York where it has gotten many requests on WeStock, a digital data platform where consumers can request that a product become available locally.

At the end of 2023, Long Table onboarded with KeHE and has been looking for the “​​right broker who understands our lane and has a demonstrated track record of doing well with brands that make the leap from direct-to-consumer to retail,” Taylor said.

Storytelling Through Packaging

Part of its pragmatic approach to expanding distribution has been revamping its packaging to increase visibility on-shelf and totally relaunch its website.

The rebrand brings an artistic representation of not only pancakes and the farmland where Long Table sources its heirloom grains, but also circus tents, acrobats and the distant skyline of Chicago in an ode to the founders’ backstory; when they met, Taylor was working in live theater and Whiting was an acrobat.

“It’s sort of a love letter reference to where these recipes began, which were my hopeful attempts to get Lindsey [Whiting] to come over to my house and just spend time with me as I cooked her pancakes,” Taylor said.

Telling the brand story on the front-of-pack came out of some advice from the investors on “Shark Tank”; Taylor was told to increase the brand’s social presence and highlight the value propositions of a fluffier, higher protein product created from popcorn flour.

The company also wanted to more closely align with its core mission of supporting sustainable agriculture and relay the importance of sourcing directly from regenerative farmers in the Midwest to consumers. The brand is an active member of the Artisan Grain Collaborative.

To broaden this mission supporting smallholder farms further, Long Table has taken a recipe from the Masienda marketing cookbook and started a “Short Run” video series that uses storytelling to explain why sourcing is integral to creating a holistic food system.

As part of the “Short Run” series, Long Table is also producing limited, single farm-origin mixes that highlight the regenerative agriculture mission. The brand released a Ginger Cookie Pancake Mix in homage to a family recipe of Whiting’s grandmother.

Yet, rebranding, supporting the demand of new retail partners, scaling production and producing unique marketing content and products all cost money. The company is currently raising a new investment round that hopes to net about $1 million through either a SAFE or convertible note.

So far, Long Table has nearly $300,000 committed with “some bigger irons in the fire” that will hopefully bring new investors onboard in coming weeks.

Raising capital is a new lesson for the startup. For Taylor, running a CPG brand has been a “learning experience” where the company is “continuing to learn and now just making new and different mistakes.”