Pitch Slam Volume 12 - Finals : Popadelics

Speaker 1 [00:13] Right now, it's time to get to the second part, part 2, that is, of Nosh Pitch Slam 12. We have 3 more presenters to go, beginning with Marilyn Yang, who is the co-founder and CEO of Papaelics. What up? And you can use either microphone. Just keep an eye on your timer, please.

Marilyn Yang [00:33] Perfect. Hi everyone, my name is Marilyn Yang and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Fun Gal Snacks, the parent company of Papadelics. So I thought that the best way to introduce myself and who I am is that absolutely none of my family or friends were surprised at all when I said I was starting a mushroom snack company. And you might think that's because I come from a business background, so of course, you know, I would maybe start a business someday. But I'm talking specifically about the mushroom piece of it. So growing up, I was a really weird kid. I would order a supreme pizza and only pick the mushrooms off of it, and I was also super, super picky. Sorry, mom and dad, but the one thing they could always get me to eat were actually mushrooms. And so now actually let me introduce you to my co-founder Mike Casale. Uh, the reason he's actually not here today is that he's kind of holding down the fort over at the Javits Center at SFA Summer Fancy Food Show. Hopefully some of you guys had the chance to stop by our booth 7533. Um, and so as you can see as a two-person team, sometimes we quite literally have to be two places at once, um, and actually Mike and I are both partners in business and in life. And so how one reason how I knew we would be that we were meant to be actually was that we really bonded over our mutual love of mushrooms when we first met actually over mushroom pasta, of course. And so growing up, you know, I was that weird friend, right, who liked mushrooms, but it seems like that other people are finally catching on, you know, mushrooms are in furniture these days, they're even getting into fashion, but then you walk into the grocery store aisle and you know, you see a lot of kale and cauliflower, but there's really not mushrooms out there yet and specifically mushroom chips or something crunchy and the stuff that's out there today that are mushroom based are largely unflavored, unbranded, and just kind of unexciting. And so naturally, like a lot of couples during COVID, we decided to take the next step in a relationship and start a company. Uh, so that's how, uh, Papaelics and Fung Gal Snacks was born. And so with Papaelics, we're reimagining shiitake mushrooms for the modern superfood snacker. We really wanted to create a fun, modern, edgy brand that actually got both mushroom lovers and mushroom doubters excited about eating mushrooms. And. But more importantly, we wanted to create a snack that actually tasted good. Papadelics aren't just a snack, they're an experience packed with incredible flavor and a dense, crispy texture. Our snacks will have you tripping off the taste. We also really wanted to create some distinct culinary inspired flavors, and we've actually found that between these three flavors, the public is pretty evenly split, so there's really something for everyone. So our first flavor is trip and truffle parm, and we really couldn't actually resist the temptation to go double mushroom with this one, so there's, you know, truffle on top of the shiitake. But if you like truffle parm french fries, and this is the one for you, it's also some of the best vegan Parmesan you'll probably ever have. Uh, the next is twisted Thai chili, and for this one, we actually wanted to create a spicy flavor that was actually spicy, but not too spicy. So this has some of those smoky notes that you maybe might find in a really nice barbecue as well. And our final flavor, red rosemary and salt was actually inspired by stuffed mushrooms. So kind of what you might find in an Italian restaurant, has a lot of those herbal notes to it, simple but super flavorful. So how are pappadelics made? We use a unique cooking method called vacuum frying, which allows foods to cook at a much lower temperature, which allows them to retain much more of the nutrients, color, texture and flavor. We've also been blown away by all of the positive support and actually fans that we've gathered along the way, including some organic support from influencers Ilana Hadid and Rumer Willis. And actually we just soft launched in February, so, and, and actually just started shipping in April. So a lot's really happened in just two months. We're currently building out D2C including our website on Amazon, and we're actually currently carried in 8 states in independent natural food stores and growing. And because Papaelics is such an experiential snack, we're also very focused on the events Channel, and in particular, we will soon be announced as the official snack of a top 10 music festival that's happening later this year, so we're super excited to be sharing that hopefully very soon. So what's next? We eventually want to expand into national natural food chains and possibly look into brand extensions for other types of mushroom-related products under the Pappadelic's brand. But as for our parent company, Fungal Snacks, we want to become a platform for not just mushrooms, but other innovative snacks that leverage other underloved veggies. And along with our parent company, we actually also founded a charitable foundation, the Fun Gal Snacks Foundation, which we hope to support other types of causes related around health and wellness. But in the meantime, I can't wait for all of you to transport your taste buds to a new dimension in snacking with Pappadelic's crunchy mushroom chips. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [05:29] Well done. You can hang on to that. Cool, um, Papadelics, you know, uh, Marilyn talked about Funel Snacks as having, you know, uh, as becoming a platform for better for you snacks, but as it stands right now, do you see Papadelics as, uh, reaching mainstream consumers, as being attractive to mainstream consumers, Holly?

Speaker 3 [05:47] Yeah, we, um, first I wanna say it tasted delicious. We tried 2. We didn't try the truffle parm, but the other 2 had a great flavor and a great crunch, and also liked the fact that it was a whole mushroom versus pieces, um. Well, I have to say that one of the concerns is the name in terms, it's really fun and it could be really catchy for some, and then it could really turn some folks away because it's. I know I saw on your website FAQ is saying there's no psychedelics or anything included in it, but, um, that was a little bit of a concern is that it could be some, you know, maybe it wouldn't be appropriate in some stores that people might have felt comfortable carrying it for that sake while others be really excited because it's fun and different, you

Marilyn Yang [06:27] know, I think we really wanted to create something more modern and edgy to really draw people in. I mean, to be honest, there are a lot of media. Miocre mushroom snacks out there. And a lot of people claim not to like mushrooms. And so we kind of wanted to overcome that barrier through the shock value. So we really went all out with something like this. And again, we're pushing hard into the events channel, and we feel that having branding like this, we almost view ourselves like an alcohol brand, uh, where we really want to go hard after music festivals, you know, live sporting events and whatnot, and have that branding behind that as well.

Speaker 1 [06:57] Ibrahim, fellow Whartonite over here, you know, uh, I'm interested here given your both background, both of your backgrounds, uh, what you thought of the presentation?

Speaker 4 [07:05] Yeah, first of all, I'll second that I love the product. We, uh, the twisted chili, uh, excuse me, twisted Thai chili was, was particularly really strong. Um, I would say two things. One, just to build on the dialogue you guys had about the question of naming and edginess, I think you could actually keep the like poppadelics lean into the seventies motif. I would just then be super explicit on the front panel that this is not going to get you high. Like I probably. Spent 2 minutes just double checking before I before I ate it and so like in store you don't wanna have people have that that level of investigation or

Marilyn Yang [07:36] what can we say our flavors are actually out of this world, so you might actually have a bit of a flavor trip.

Speaker 4 [07:42] Got it, got it, um, so that's the first thing I would say. And then the second thing is I'm curious to, to maybe talk a little bit more about the cooking methods. So you talked about a, a vacuum frying. Uh, or is that, was that the right term?

Marilyn Yang [07:53] Yeah, vacuum frying. So it's actually, uh, it's more of an industrial cooking method. You can't do this at home. It requires very specialized machinery. I don't know if anyone's been to an oil and gas refinery, but that's kind of what you're kind of what you should picture. It's this large cylindrical tank. What it does is it essentially sucks all of the air out of a vessel. It kind of lowers the pressure within that space, and, uh, I'm not a scientist, but apparently if the pressure is low, you can actually cook foods, the boiling. Point of water, for example, is lower temperature and so you're, you are cooking kind of in a traditional, you know, frying in this case with oil, but because of the low pressure and the low temperature, it's allowing the food, in this case the mushrooms to retain much more of their nutrients and it's a pretty common cooking method in Asia. It's not broadly used here domestically. The, the big player that uses it here would be taro

Speaker 4 [08:38] chips. Got it. So my, my only comment there would be that I would take a second look at the types. Oil you're using, I think right now the one we tried had 3 different oils. I think it was like palm, canola, maybe 1 other. I might look at something that's a little less refined because I think it detracts somewhat from like the, the better for you positioning, but

Marilyn Yang [08:54] overall actually that's a great point. We are actually in the midst of an ingredient reformulation. We are actually in the process of making all of our seasonings organic as well as replacing the palm oil and getting rid of the canola oil. Very

Speaker 4 [09:04] cool, um, but yeah, overall I thought the, the positioning and the branding was great.

Speaker 1 [09:09] Carol, how do you consider papaelics in this, uh, growing sphere of better for you snacks and better for you snacking?

Speaker 5 [09:14] I mean, I agree with the, uh, questions around is it a psychedelic. I remember the four sigmatic guys saying like they would get stopped at demos like, is this mushroom coffee gonna get me high. Um, I do think a lot of people also associate mushrooms with like adaptogens and things like that, so there might be confusion around functional benefits. Um, my other comment is just you're trying to build two brands at the same time, Fungals and Poppadelics, and I might just kind of focus on one to start. Uh, to me, Poppadelics has a lot more leeway in terms of what you release, whereas Fung gals is kind of mushroom focused. So maybe you just lean into that and just do

Marilyn Yang [09:55] Poppadelics. You know, actually we see poppadelics as more of the test case for what we could do, kind of an example of what we might do in the future. In particular, we think there's an opportunity with applying the vacuum frying cooking method to other vegetables that you might not commonly find in the aisle.

Speaker 1 [10:10] Mia, you get the last word. You know, Marilyn talked about Papaelics solving a problem that is out there on the market. Do you agree with that sentiment?

Speaker 6 [10:18] Um, I, my concerns were similar to Ibrahim's with regard to the ingredient. Um, same with the packaging. It seems as though, you know, it, it's geared towards natural specialty, but, um. The ingredients don't, don't actually sort of go that route as well, so I'm glad to hear that you're changing those. My other question was the SRP on it. What is your suggested retail price on the, the bag?

Marilyn Yang [10:39] Yeah, so this is a 4 ounce pack is 10.99, but then we're coming out with a 1.4 ounce pack that's 599.

Speaker 1 [10:45] OK. All right, great stuff, great feedback, presentation. Thank you.