Pitch Slam 11 Finals - Kokada

Speaker 1 [00:18] All right. Our last presenters of the day are Breanna Atkinson and Jared Golestani. We're the co-founders of Kokada. Come on up to the stage.

Speaker 2 [00:31] I I'm gonna start off with a question for you all. Think about what is your favorite nut butter. If you feel so inclined, you can say out loud, but at least think it. I'm going to put a good amount of money on the fact that most of us said one of a few options, peanut, almond. Uh, pecan, some of us who are a little more fun, say macadamia nut, you know, there's, there's really only a few. Well, we created cocoa, the original coconut spread to hopefully change a few of your minds. So where did our brand begin? It began five years ago. Jared and I were student athletes at Duke University until 2016. Our lives were all about working out. We're constantly on the go. After school, I joined the women's Jamaica volleyball team. There I am on the right, in case you can't see me. And Jared went on to travel. 4 or 5 days a week. So we were busy, we were on the go. We didn't really have time to cook and, you know, we loved our nut butters. We were constantly eating nut butter, but I kept craving something sweet, something that would still fuel my body while I'm competing. So we ended up getting into our kitchen, we started experimenting, and we created. Kolkata. We wanted to change the nut butter category, and this is coming from a place of we love nut butters. I would also bet we probably have more nut butters in our kitchen than most of you, um, but we came from a place that we want a sweet spread to complement the nut butters, maybe change it up every now and then. So what makes us different in our category? Of course we're coconut based, but there's more than that. We're peanut free, tree nut free, gluten-free. We are lower fat, so a bit of a different of a different nutrition panel. Um, we're also free of all refined sugars, but we taste sweet and we're really proud of that. And lastly, we have a dedicated give back program, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later.

Speaker 3 [02:23] So we've received some rave reviews from our customers since we launched in October of 2020, 1 of which that came through just a few weeks ago and is my favorite is this one on the left right here, which is, it's the holy trinity of versatile, nutritious and delicious, of which we will probably be using that in a marketing campaign coming up soon. Um, and, but beyond that, just talking about who are our customers to begin with, really it's the health conscious consumer that cares about putting better for you products into their body, folks that care about, you know, buying for children that have, uh, peanut allergies or other allergies and want their kids or themselves to eat cleaner or eat vegan or eat gluten free. So those are really our customers that we're serving. In terms of our business model, we really have a four pronged approach and we have our direct to consumer through our website as well as, uh, we've been through other online retailers as well. And then on the other side we have B2B partnership which is a really we're really gonna double down on in 2022 and partnering with ice cream shops, bakeries, etc. so that way we can get our product into the hands of eventual consumers in ways that they're already enjoying. Think like having a croissant with cocaa on it and then realizing, oh, I love cocaa. I need to get this in my pantry from here on out. And then we also have our brick and mortar retailers, which we'll talk about a little bit more in terms of our future growth later on.

Speaker 2 [03:44] So you've heard about our product. We're a little bit different. You've heard about our plan, but we started Kolkata to give back. We believe that food should be good for you and good for the community, and we really mean that. From day one, we created dedicated give back programs. We donate 2% of proceeds to community building projects in Sri Lanka, which is also where we source directly from the farmers. We're really excited to continue growing, continue creating jobs. We're really, really committed to creating real impact with those dollars, not just throwing dollars at something.

Speaker 3 [04:13] So if we took a look back at 2020 and 2021, we focused on our D2C, we launched in Amazon, we focused on, uh, specialty retail. As we look forward to 2022, our big focus in retail is gonna be on naturals. And then beyond that into 2023 and beyond, we'll look at the mass retail market.

Speaker 2 [04:30] So I know we've said a lot, but here's our plan for the future. We're going to start with our coconut spreads. It's kind of our innovative product line. Um, we already have 3 new flavors coming out, but today we have two flavors, our classic coconut flavor for the coconut lovers and our brownie flavor for the chocolate lovers, both MSRP for 1099 cents in retail locations and online. Um, as we go into 2022, we'll keep working on those coconut spread flavors. 2023, you know, thinking about maybe some new coconut-based product lines. Um, but long term, what we're doing right now is, I mean, we're focusing on coconut spreads, but we're building a brand that's more than just coconut spreads. We're building a brand that consumers can trust to be better for you, allergen-friendly, um, and coconut-based.

Speaker 3 [05:13] And just to harp on it one more time, we love our nut butters, as I'm sure you guys all will know at this point. But, you know, there's opportunity for change in the nut butter category, and Cocata, the original coconut-based bread, is here to do just that.

Speaker 1 [05:30] Thank you. All right, nicely done. Um, Carol, uh, do you see a lot of white space, or do you see an opportunity, uh, for Kokata to fill a need in that nut butter space in the way they described it?

Speaker 4 [05:48] I mean, I think a lot of parents are looking for allergen-free alternatives. Uh, certainly there's like been sesame seed butters, um, some tahini butters, but again, those are sesames now an allergens, so. You're struggling with that. I do wonder about coconut because I think a lot of consumers when they think of coconut, think of shredded coconut, and that is a very polarizing flavor, um, whereas they kind of know what a nut butter tastes like. So I, there may be some, I wonder, discussion around that.

Speaker 2 [06:19] Yes, we're very busy with that discussion. Um, we, we focus a lot of our marketing efforts on education because it's kind of hard to tell what it's gonna taste like, um, but getting over that texture is definitely something that we have to talk through, um, so it's, it's just

Speaker 3 [06:32] education, yeah, and I think it's funny that you mentioned that because before cocata I was a, uh, stark coconut hater which I can no longer claim because now that after you try cocata it's so different from that shredded coconut and what we found when we launched. And we started doing farmers' markets is as soon as we give a sample out and we're just like, just get over the hump, just try it. Let us know what you think. I promise you I hate coconut too. Well, I can't really say that anymore, but just give it a try and then all of a sudden they're like, wow, I really love this. So yeah,

Speaker 2 [06:59] demoing will be key, I think.

Speaker 1 [07:00] Well, what's really important right now is how the judges thought it tasted. Eugene, how did it taste? You know, I thought it tasted really indulgent and rich. I really appreciate the fact that it was, you know, free of allergens from the nut and tree side. I do, you know, I'm really curious on like how you take this application beyond its core, right? So you think about all the nut butters in the category, you know, their base anchor was nut butter, but how they go beyond that, whether it's, you know, grab and go spreads or even in like the case of Justin's like the, uh, peanut butter cups was obviously, uh, a sort of lighting in a bottle. So I think it'll be interesting how you take this application beyond its core, uh, and then too, I think, you know, to Carol's point around the texture, I think. Trial is gonna be everything for this for this brand brand and I think you know you're gonna have to do a lot of sampling to get that consumer education up on at least you know this innovation. Gavin, uh, there was a retail roadmap outlined. Uh, what are your thoughts in terms of how that roadmap looks? Uh, uh, is it realistic for a brand like this?

Speaker 5 [08:00] So first, uh, uh, congratulations, you guys, uh, your confidence, I, it, it's, it's like very apparent and your, uh, your passion, it shows through. So congratulations with your pitch. Um, you know, in the retail space it's a, it's a hypercompetitive category, right? You're gonna be competing against. A lot. So the trial, uh, to what the other judges have pointed out is gonna be super critical. Uh, you can look at what other, uh, brands like Justin's has done, uh, with like mini pouches and things like that. I think that could be a really cool trial, uh, or, you know, trial and error, uh, portion of the thing. Uh, but I think it's a really good quality product and, uh, I would never ever have tried it, but it was very good.

Speaker 1 [08:41] Thanks, thanks, Heidi, do you see the coconut spread space is sort of ownable by Kokada?

Speaker 6 [08:47] Um, you know, honestly, I'm not sure there's, um, others out there, um, so my question for you is how do you differ from, say, like an artisana or, um. I'm not remembering the brand right now. The, uh, not Nativa, the sorry, anyway, how do you differ from like an artisana? Nutella is that no artisana. I have a coconut, yeah,

Speaker 2 [09:09] so we're really trying to create the whole, the original coconut spread. We're a better for you sweet spread, um, so we're really clear in our marketing efforts to try and use. These phrases over and over to kind of distinguish ourselves. I also love Arti Hana, um, but we, we are a little sweeter than a lot of their stuff, and we're purposefully doing that to try and carve out a little niche for ourselves.

Speaker 6 [09:29] The other thing I was looking at too is that they, um, offer a larger size for a lesser price point and they're actually organic. So, um, that is something for. Our consumer anyway in the co-ops, right, organic is a really high, uh, expectation so organic and then also glass our shoppers tend to skew higher buying in glass versus plastic.

Speaker 2 [09:50] OK, thank you. Organic flavor organic ingredients we, I would love to get certified so thanks. All

Speaker 1 [09:56] right, great feedback. Well done on the presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, and a round of applause to all our finalists. Amazing job. Well done.