Pitch Slam 12 - Semi-finals : Absurd Snacks

Speaker 1 [00:13] Let's move on to our 6th, I believe our 6th finalists, our semi-finalists for this round. We have Grace Middle, who is the CEO of Absurd Snacks. Come on up.

Grace Mittl [00:30] Hi, my name is Grace. I'm one of the co-founders of Absurd Snacks, an allergy-friendly snacking company that creates unique, delicious, and accessible snacks for people with common food allergies. Our flagship product is an alternative trail mix that replaces your traditional peanuts and tree nuts with crunchy roasted beans. We officially launched in late March into retailers in and around Richmond, Virginia, selling online D2C through our website and working farmers' markets on the weekends. We've entered a rapidly growing category including vegan snacking, healthy, and, um, allergen-free snacking. My co-founders and I were lucky enough to be part of a pilot course at the University of Richmond where we just graduated from a month ago called Benchtop Innovations. It enabled us to create a packaged food product in only 6 months. Now that we've graduated, um, Eli, who's in the crowd with me today, uh, Maeve and I have decided to commit 100% of our time to growing and building Absurd Snacks. Chickpeas, fava beans, and green peas are the stars of the show, and we've coupled them with a seed-based granola consisting of hemp, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and even sprouted quinoa. You're probably wondering why beans. Well, I've been roasting chickpeas in my oven for years, and it turns out they make the perfect substitute for that crunch and texture of traditional peanuts and tree nuts. It also turns out that beans are high in protein and fiber, making them an excellent snacking choice for people who have a vegan or vegetarian diet. We currently have two flavors, maple, cinnamon, chocolate, both of which are only sweetened with pure maple syrup. Because we only use natural sweeteners, they're just subtly sweet, making them a super versatile snack. Our super fans eat absurd snacks by the handful on top of their yogurt, oatmeal, ice cream, and a salad, and even butternut squash soup. Shout out to my mom for that one. We take a community-oriented approach to a sales strategy, catch us in our retailers, interacting with our customers every week, doing demos and learning how to best serve them. We have big plans for summer, including recipe testing. Our first savory flavor is set to launch in September. Thank you very much and appreciate the audience for listening today.

Speaker 1 [02:37] Well done. All right, absurd snacks. Uh, Jason, it seems to hit, the brand seems to hit on three pretty relevant trends, allergen-friendly, vegan, and gut-friendly. Uh, is that something that really interests you to see the sort of confluence of those in one, brand?

Speaker 3 [02:52] Yeah, I mean, I think that, um, again, this is a very crowded category, and I, and I think a lot of these things, um, have become table steaks. And so the question is, how do you differentiate yourself? And the, the good thing is I thought once we all tried observed snacks, I thought we kind of had a wow factor. That they were different ingredients and it wasn't the traditional oats and nuts, um, so the product itself was great. The challenge was, is that I didn't experience that until I opened the package. And so I think that she's checked the boxes and actually created a very different product. The question is how do you communicate that without having to have people to open the package first? And I think if she can do that, that there's a real opportunity because it's a great product and it is different.

Speaker 1 [03:34] Karen, 2 minutes isn't a lot of time to present your brand and talk about your vision, your backstory. How do you think Grace did in terms of the presentation? I think she did a great job. Yeah, I was impressed. And is it something that would whet your palate to say, I want to learn more about the brand and sort of the metrics that it got, got to where, where it is today? Yeah, definitely. Uh, you know, Matt, when I talk, when I think about trail mix, I think about sort of, uh, a category that really hasn't evolved. There's not a lot of innovation right there. Do you think there's an innovative component that they're bringing to this category that's really different, and, uh,

Speaker 4 [04:07] I do. I, at first I'd say it's super impressive for students to have just graduated and created a brand and navigate the, uh, the grocery ecosystem and the packaged snacks space. That's not easy, uh, at any age, so super impressive. Uh, I love the name. I think it's fun, and I do think it's a new twist on trail mix, and I do think there's room for that. Um, uh, I don't get it from absurd as a name, but when I flipped it over and read their opening line about why do beans have to be boring, um, they kind of had a good hook, and I think a bean-based and oat-based trail mix is a cool, clever twist I hadn't seen before. Yeah,

Speaker 1 [04:49] the, the, the packaging definitely has a fun vibe to it. I mean, is that something that interests you? Is that something that's gonna interest consumers, do you think, Adrian?

Speaker 5 [04:56] Definitely it draws me in and I wanted to learn more. Um, I love the little character on the front and I also love you can see right into the bag, especially with a product like this with peas and chickpeas and things you don't normally find in a trail mix. Um, I think that was a great touch,

Speaker 1 [05:12] so great.