Pitch Slam Volume 12 - Semi-finals : Popadelics

Speaker 1 [00:13] All right. Let's get to our first semi-finalist of this round. That is Marilyn Yang, who's the co-founder and CEO of Papaelics. OK, here's your microphone, please just mind your timer. It's over there.

Marilyn Yang [00:30] Hi everyone, my name is Marilyn Yang, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Fun Gal Snacks, which is the parent company of Papadelics. Very excited to be here today at Nosh Pitch Slam 12. And even though we just met, there's really only two things you guys really need to know about me. One, I love mushrooms, and two, I love snacking. So naturally, as a picky yet adventurous eater who happens to love mushrooms, it really hit me one day that mushrooms, especially crunchy mushrooms, are noticeably absent from grocery store shelves. I've had kale chips and carrot chips, so why shouldn't there be mushroom chips too? So if like me you also love mushrooms, you're gonna love Popadelics, but if you're a mushroom doubter, you're still gonna love Popadelics. Take everything you've ever known about mushrooms and throw it out the window because Popadelics are shiitake mushrooms reimagined for the modern superfood snacker. Popadelics aren't just a snack, they're an experience. When I founded Popadelics, our goal was to create a better for you snack that actually tasted good. Packed with incredible flavor and a dense, crispy texture, our snacks will have you tripping off the taste. To produce its signature crunch, Popadelics leverages a unique cooking method called vacuum frying, which allows foods to cook at a lower temperature while retaining much more of their color, nutrients, texture and flavor. Popadelics are also vegan, non-GM. And a good source of protein and fiber. Papadelics is currently available in three addictive mouthwatering flavors trip and truffle parm, twisted Thai chili, and red rosemary and salt. Purchases also support the Fungal Snacks Foundation, a charitable foundation we also started that supports various causes centered around health and wellness. As for Fungal snacks, Papadelic's is only the beginning. We want to become a platform for innovative snacks that leverage not only the benefits of mushrooms, but other under-loved veggies. In the meantime, I can't wait for all of you to transport your taste buds to a new level in superfood snacking with Papadelic's crunchy mushroom chips. Thank you. Just leave your microphone.

Speaker 1 [02:37] Well done, Marilyn. All right, uh, let's start with Karen. Um, Marilyn mentioned that the, uh, grocery store aisle, that's the snack aisle was missing mushroom chips. Does it need mushroom chips?

Speaker 3 [02:48] It might actually. Um, I'm not a mushroom person and, uh, they were. Great. And there really is nothing like that on the shelf, so I think there is a, a spot for them.

Speaker 1 [03:00] Yeah, let's stay on the flavor for a second. Uh, Matt, you, uh, market some crunchy snacks as well. Uh, what do you think of the taste of these? And, you know, does it sort of, is there a point of reference for these products that currently exist on the shelf?

Speaker 4 [03:11] Um, I thought they were dynamite. Uh, they were very palpable. The crunch was stellar. It's one of the best crunches I've had in a snack. So the vacuum frying, it really delivered. The flavor profile was excellent. Um, Again, I don't know if the world needs a mushroom chip on the shelf, but I don't think it also needs 6 kale chips on the shelf. So I think this serves a unique, you know, slot, and it, it could earn its right because it was so tasty and fun.

Speaker 1 [03:41] Adrian, we've seen a lot more mushroom products come to market. You've reported on quite a bit as well yourself. Um, how do you Papaello's kind of fit into this emerging category, this emerging ingredient?

Speaker 5 [03:51] They definitely stand out, um, like my co-judges have said, the taste was fantastic and it was an incredible crunch. The one thing that. Kind of tripped me up, um, took a little too long to notice that these were not actually a psychedelic mushroom. They wouldn't go, you know, floating off into space after eating them. So that would be a 11 tip on the packaging I'd say yeah,

Speaker 1 [04:15] I mean, we can talk about the packaging. I mean, Jason, you know, does els pop. Comes to its, uh, branding, I think I

Speaker 6 [04:21] did. I, I like both the packaging and the product. I think one of the questions as investors we ask a lot is is this a product or is this a company? We want to see that there's a bigger picture or more of a runway. I think it's very interesting that the pitch kind of ended with this idea of a platform for underloved veggies, which I think people are being very successful. I think there's a real need for that. That doesn't mean there's not a need for the mushroom, but you may think about whether or not your pitch is about the platform where the mushrooms is your first foray into the platform, or whether the mushrooms is your, is your pitch, and that you may someday do other things, because from an investor, those can sometimes be seen as two very different things.

Speaker 1 [04:56] Excellent. Karen, did you wanna

Speaker 3 [04:57] say something? I do, um. This was the first time I've seen mushrooms that there wasn't functional benefits with it, so that was a bit of a disconnect.

Speaker 1 [05:06] Got you. All right, great feedback.