Pitch Slam 12 - Semi-finals : RAWMANTIC CHOCOLATE

Speaker 1 [00:13] All right, we are moving along here for the Nash pitch slam. Let's move on to our next semi-finalist for the round. That's uh Kaja uh Bonse or Bosna, the owner of Romantic Chocolate. I apologize for butchering your name, but uh please go ahead.

Kasha Bosne [00:35] Hello everyone, my name is Kasha Bosne. I'm founder and CEO of Romantic Chocolate, which is women owned business located in New York City. We handcraft fresh daily small batches of plant-based energy protein bars and roped into a variety of raw organic delicious chocolates. All bars are unprocessed, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, lactose-free, nut-free, but definitely not taste-free. We often, we offer, uh, sugar-free options. They are non-GMO, no refined sugars, and no preservatives. We're also cautious certified and remarked. Ideally they should be refrigerated, but they're also shelf stable, and the shelf life is 1 year. We launched about 4 years ago when I was still simultaneously running a full-time fashion business, and at the time I thought I had the best job in the world because I was shopping every day. Today I know I have a much better job because I can eat chocolate every day. I spent over two decades in the fashion industry working with women from all over the world, and I was listening very closely to all their health challenges and struggles, and I became very passionate about nutrition because I wanted to help, but foremost I needed to squeeze them to the Chihuahua size dresses. Today you can find romantic chocolate through our flagship retail store located in New York City. Also, we sell through several specialty retailers like Whole Foods, Air One. West Side Market food co-ops, we also sell through luxury hotels, airports, uh, wellness centers, yoga studios. We also sell direct to consumer, uh, through our website. We're also on Amazon, Lucky Vitamin, and several other e-retailers. Our target market, it's 5 to 65 years old and ideally. We would like to accelerate our growth and focus on children category. We believe that children are often victims of malnutrition, and we would love to partner with some schools to be able to offer kids much healthier, much better snack options.

Speaker 1 [02:44] Let's be done. Well done. Now, I know I'm, people are probably wondering why do you have, you know, similar position products three in a row. All the, uh, semi-finals have been randomized, so this is not in any particular order. It just kind of happened that way. Um, Adrian, let's start with you. Romantic chocolate, um, you know, it seems like it's, uh, a much better for you option than some of the products out there. Um, is this a project, product that you would reach for?

Speaker 3 [03:11] Um, I'm not quite sure. We sampled the berry flavor and I love the packaging. I would definitely like pick it up and turn it around and try to figure out, I guess what it was for, um. But that wasn't quite clear, so I'm not too sure. Um, that I would, you know, necessarily go to buy

Speaker 1 [03:31] it. Matt, you know, in terms of, uh, the opportunity, the the use case, um, does that come through in the, in the packaging? Did that come through, through in the presentation?

Speaker 4 [03:40] Um, I'm not quite sure. I felt like, uh, each of the packaging had what looked like runners, um, so I wouldn't, I'm not quite clear on the children opportunity. Um, I thought there were some good flavors there. I felt like that with 7 skews. You'd be well served to have a little bit of focus. I felt like to have like a carab and a chocolate skew was a little competing, um, and so I think dialing it into your top three and being as focused as you can on your core market would be a really good move, but there were some good flavors there, but I think there was some confusion about where it sits.

Speaker 1 [04:19] Jason, uh, again, you know, from an investor standpoint, what are some of the things that you liked in the packaging that you liked in the presentation? What are some of the things that you have questions about?

Speaker 5 [04:29] Yeah, I mean, I thought the name, I really liked it. I mean, for folks that are looking for raw, I, I think that's a, a really clever name. Um, I thought that beyond kind of the, uh, headline branding, the packaging was hard to read again the fonts were kind of small, um, and, and the challenge is, you know, the bar aisle is, you, you know, maybe one of the most, um, um, crowded aisle, and so the bar is set higher and so I think that, um. The more that you can get a product like this in front of folks to make sure that there aren't issues with the packaging that you've nailed the test, and I kind of hate to say it, but, but with the bar category, it's just a whole different level of competition and you really need to stand out. So that would be my concern.

Speaker 1 [05:12] And Karen, you know, on shelf, we're seeing a lot more brands emphasize low sugar, uh, formulation. Um, the taste is so important. I mean, how do you think about the taste of these products, you know, within the context of a lower sugar, I guess, future.

Speaker 6 [05:28] I think this bar is just very different from any of the other bars I've ever tasted, so I, I don't think it's really comparable, um, it definitely screams health.