Pitch Slam 12 - Winner Announcement

Speaker 1 [00:13] I am excited to let you know that we do have a winner for Nash Pitch Slam 12. Before we announce that winner, I just want people to know that uh we'd be excited to see you in Santa Monica for Nash Live Winter 2022. Early registration is now open if you have an opportunity to do so. You can save a lot of money by signing up right now. Uh, also, I just wanted to note that, uh, once again, This competition was quite, quite, uh, difficult. I mean, all the brands did such a great job. They're all to be commended. Um, you know, I've been hosting these competitions for a long time and, uh, a lot of times the brands that don't necessarily prevail in the competition or triumph in the competition end up having a really, really, really great company, um, and do some amazing things. Just off the top of my head, if you're thinking about a brand like Liquid Death. In our new Beverage showdown competition for Bevnet Live, that didn't even make it to the final round of that competition. So just please keep that in mind. Uh, right now I'm just gonna do a quick debrief with the judges just to talk about, uh, the process of deliberation, how they kind of came to their conclusions. Um, definitely wanna talk about some of the highlights that they saw with the presentations with these brands. Um, Holly, let's start with you. You know, in general terms, what were some of the, the good things that you saw? What were some of the things that really impressed you about these presentations you saw today?

Speaker 2 [01:36] I think we all really enjoyed when when they made it clear what the benefit was they're trying to deliver um and when they're really clear about the points of differentiation to what's in the market so we think everyone did uh was strong in in that way that they um. Well, I did a good job of saying the why and um calling out uh a key benefit. We we enjoyed that I I did a good job Ibrahim.

Speaker 3 [02:01] Yeah, first of all, I'm, I'm sweating. That's how intense of a debrief we had obviously some, some great.

Speaker 4 [02:07] There's only a few fistfights.

Speaker 3 [02:09] It was, it was fun, uh, uh, you know, I was most impressed honestly by we talked a lot about some of the pivots that some of the brands might need to make, and I think a lot of the founders had already acknowledged them themselves or even alluded that they were working on them. Which I think you know at this stage of the business is the key thing, right? It's like what are you learning? What do you see that you might wanna change? What can you do different? So I, I'm really excited about seeing all these brands kind of evolve over the next few years.

Speaker 1 [02:33] Absolutely, Carol.

Speaker 4 [02:35] Uh, I think all of them we thought tasted really good, um, and that's interesting because we all had very different flavor profiles and what we like to eat, but we all kind of thought that every product like. was very interesting and had something unique about their flavors, which I think as we heard over and over again today, if your product doesn't taste good, you're not going to be able to make it.

Speaker 5 [03:01] Yeah, I think I, I agree they all, they all tasted really well. I think that they, um, the differentiation on, you know, how they stood out where they were versus, um, other competitors or, or new innovative products was good and then I think everybody did a really amazing job on their, um, presentations. It was really it was nice to see everybody come super prepared and answer a lot of the questions that we had had we had coming into this.

Speaker 1 [03:24] Um, as you guys mentioned, you know, every brand that presented needs to fix something. Um, what are some of those things that they need to fix that could be really problematic down the line if they don't address them today? Again, in general terms, Mia.

Speaker 5 [03:37] Yeah, I think the one that stood out the most for me was the Poppadelics with the palm oil. Um, that was one of the concerns that I had had, but like she said, she, she was already gonna be working on that.

Speaker 4 [03:48] Carol, do you want more general terms, Ray. I feel like I'm going straight for it, um, I mean I think in general we talked about what is the competitive set look like in terms of packaging and how do you fit in there same with um price point, um, how you know with scale where can you get on pricing and what do the. Other, you know, if consumers are walking up to the shelf, um, and then where you'll live, where you'll live, where you'll live

Speaker 5 [04:16] on the shelf was a key thing there where we, we saw a couple of different, a couple of brands could have lived in a couple of different places,

Speaker 4 [04:22] and I think that speaks to my last point which is just, um. Which left my brain. It's clearly the end of Nosh Live, uh, trying to accomplish everything at once, right? So a lot of brands were like we're functional and we also have this need we solve for consumers and sustainability and we taste great, like pick something and really go after that

Speaker 3 [04:43] Abrahim. I think they nailed it. I think the question around product positioning and in-store placement is probably the thing that stood out the most to me. I think almost all of these brands could live in two different spots or could be two different positionings in terms of how to use the product, um, and so I think honing in on that is, is probably the one that stands out the most for me.

Speaker 1 [05:01] Holly, you get the last word of the entire competition. No

Speaker 2 [05:04] pressure, no pressure. I, I have to agree with all of the judges. Um, I think what I said before they called out benefits, they called out multiple benefits. This really is key. I could see, um, everyone just, but we heard them speak. Every, everyone that walks in the store or buys you online might not have that opportunity to hear the message we did and so that's why they need to be much more clear in what they really want to get after and where they want to place themselves.

Speaker 1 [05:29] Uh, you know, all the semi-finalists in this competition did a great job. I thought all the finalists presented today in a, in a really beautiful, passionate, intelligent way, and once again, congratulations to everyone who participated. And of course, thank you to our incredible judging panel. They really worked hard all day. We kept them in a room. Ibrahim was sweating, sweating a little bit, but he did an amazing job. Thank you so much, judges. Last thing I wanna know to uh all the semi-finalists and the finalists who participated today, um, please talk to the judges afterwards, you know, there's only 5 minutes of feedback that they can give you on stage, but there's a lot more feedback that they have to offer, so please try to find them here or reach out to them afterwards because they do have a lot of great feedback for you. All right, uh, we are going to, I'm gonna announce the winner of the competition. Please, when your name is announced, the brand name is announced, please come up to the stage. Our photographers would like to take a photo. Uh, the judges would like to congratulate you, uh, and, uh, I would like to congratulate, congratulate you as well. The winner of Nosh Pitch Slam 12 is. Ruwani Any rate. Congratulations. Very well done. Go ahead.

Speaker 2 [07:00] Yeah, congratulations.

Speaker 3 [07:03] Congratulations. Thank you,

Speaker 6 [07:06] thank you.

Speaker 5 [07:08] Sorry. Oh, you know I'm a hugger.

Speaker 1 [07:11] This my friend is yours. Congratulations.