Pitch Slam Winner Announcement

Speaker 1 [00:19] So thank you all for coming. Here's Ray Latif.

Speaker 2 [00:26] Ray Latif and judges and a trophy that one. Or maybe more founder will get. Interesting. Well, I'm just, you know, yeah, you gotta, you gotta keep the uh suspense going as long as you possibly can. Um This is, this was a really, really great competition and I loved hearing from all the founders of all the brands and it just goes to show just the amazing work that entrepreneurs are doing and driving this industry forward. So big round of applause for all of the brand founders that presented today. Before we announce the winner, a couple of things. Uh, we're going to do a bit of a debrief with the judges, nothing too long. They're gonna talk about some of the things they saw from the brands that were great and some of the things they need to think about, these founders need to think about as they continue to scale. So let's start with Luke. You know, just in a general sense, what did you really love, uh, that was a sort of a through line in the presentations from today?

Speaker 3 [01:28] Number one was passion for sure, and then so much in the kind of international global flavors. Like so many of the brands were, were in that space and doing it really, really

Speaker 2 [01:38] well. Yeah,

Speaker 3 [01:39] Jackie, they're all so polished. I mean, yes, there can be packaging tweaks and things to, you know. Uh, turn up, but I think they all did just a really, really good job presenting.

Speaker 4 [01:52] I agree. I'll say something different, which is the product quality was very high. I think all the products were excellent.

Speaker 5 [01:58] Ashley, yeah, I like the innovation and I, it was a really hard decision like we had a narrow close call but innovation for me.

Speaker 2 [02:05] Yeah, let's reverse the order and talk about things I need to think of as they continue to grow in scale of some stumbling blocks that you all have seen in other brands actually as a founder and entrepreneur, I'm sure. You want others to be careful of some of the things that you tripped over.

Speaker 5 [02:21] Yeah, I think the branding was a big thing across most of the brands today, so definitely looking at the branding, looking at the right certifications and the callouts is one of the big focuses I would say.

Speaker 4 [02:33] Well, related to that, there was a, obviously a lot of these brands were global or ethnic in their nature, and I felt like there was a little bit of um calibration needed in terms of the founder story coming through more authenticity. I think people were being too shy about making that front and center and that's a missed opportunity in my view.

Speaker 3 [02:52] Jackie. Yeah, I would piggyback on that. I think the storytelling, if you go to, you know, the social media of a lot of these brands or their websites, you get the full picture. You feel the personality, and I feel like they need to bring that to the packaging.

Speaker 2 [03:06] Mhm. Luke,

Speaker 3 [03:07] yeah, I mean, you have 2 or 3 seconds max for a consumer to understand what is happening with your product, and I would say maybe echoing some of Ashley's comments. Like it really the biggest opportunity I see is continued honing of that package. It never ends. Packaging is continually being in. Iterated and iterated would be a very good goal for all the rants.

Speaker 2 [03:27] Amazing judging panel. We got so lucky today. Thank you so much, judges. Really good job. OK, before we announce the winner, uh, just one more other thing I want to note. Live stream viewers, stay tuned because we're going to be sitting down with the winner of the Nosh Live Pitch slam as part of our Tas radio studio. That's gonna happen about 10 minutes after the announcement, so stay tuned for that. Also, I know everyone had such an amazing time at Nosh Live this year. You gotta come back next year. So Nosh Live, uh, LA 2026 is happening on December 3rd and 4th. Bevnet Live, Rebound Live, you can see all the dates. Of course, Bevnet Live in June of next year is happening on June 10th and 11th. We would love for you to register right now. I believe there's a small discount if you do so. That's what they pay me for. That's right there you go. All right. It is now time to reveal the winner of the Nosh Live LA 2025 pitch slam. And the winning brand is. Rotten. Michael Fisher, come on up to the stage. Come on up, Michael. The judges would like to congratulate you. Well done.

Speaker 3 [04:51] Congrats. Good job.

Speaker 2 [04:55] Good job, job.

Speaker 3 [04:57] Congrats. Hugs. You did great.

Speaker 2 [05:02] Put her there. Well done. Let's hand over the trophy to the winner of the Nosh Live pitch slam, Michael Fisher in Rotten. All right. Once again, thank you all so much for coming to Nosh Live. We hope to see you next year. And for those of you who are sticking around for Bevnet Live, we'll see you on Sunday. Thanks again. Great job. Well done. Ray. Hey, folks, I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of the Tas Radio podcast, and we're here at Nosh Live LA 2025 in Marina del Rey. And sitting with me right now is the one and only Michael Fisher, the winner of the Nosh Live Pitch slam. The founder of a brand called Rotten. Michael, it's great to see you. You too. Thanks for having me. We just saw each other actually. What am I talking about? It's not, it's not like I saw you yesterday and here you are today.

Speaker 6 [05:57] You just led me down the back stairs. I

Speaker 2 [05:59] really did, and you led us through an amazing You led us through an amazing exploration of Rotten, which is a pretty incredible brand. For folks who may have missed your presentation, what is rotten?

Speaker 6 [06:12] Yeah, Rotten is a candy brand. We make freakishly delicious candy with way less sugar, packed with prebiotic fiber and zero artificial dyes.

Speaker 2 [06:21] Yes, we are about to have some on hand. Uh, I would have thought it would be fun to like stack this high with rotten candy. Maybe you will at some point, but, uh. No, your presentation was was fantastic, and I think the judges saw some real opportunity, a real uh runway for success and not just like, you know, success in one channel or another, but like a real mainstream opportunity for the brand. When you were thinking about creating Rotten, um, did you, did you see it as becoming a a really big brand? I know that's kind of a weird question to ask, but a lot of times I talk to entrepreneurs who think about sort of the niche opportunity versus, you know, the scalable one.

Speaker 6 [06:56] Yeah, no, I think, I think it's a great question. That was definitely a big focus from the very beginning was making something, making a better for you product, but not making it for any sort of niche health and wellness subgroup but really making it for the masses. I, it came out of kind of, you know, what I was looking for as a consumer and then from that I started talking to as many people as I could talk to. And I kept hearing from everyone, these are people who don't exclusively eat natural or exclusively eat organic, that everyone wants to be eating healthier. Whether they make those decisions in their diet, that's a question, but everyone, you know, generally has a, you know, base goal that they wanna be eating healthier, um. And yet when I was, you know, putting healthy candy in front of them or even talking about healthy candy, it was off-putting. Their immediate reaction was, well, I don't think that's gonna taste good. And so the whole premise of Rotten is, let's just be a really fun candy brand. Let's make delicious candy and we can be better for you and we know people want that, but first we have to serve what they're looking for from candy.

Speaker 2 [08:06] When you were preparing for this presentation, it's only 4 minutes long. You don't have a ton of time. There's some Q&A afterwards as well. But what do you feel like you really needed to get across? What did you want the judges to really understand about this brand and how did you prepare for it?

Speaker 6 [08:20] Yeah, I think a big thing for me that gets me excited about what we're doing and I think is helpful in talking about the story is really to talk about our category and what's happening in our category um we have a big potential because we're playing in a big category and I think we also have a big potential because we're building a product that meets where the category is moving it's where the data shows it's going, um, and so. I think that that sets us up for success and shows that hey I'm not just making something because it's a product I wanted but look like we're making something that the market is saying there's a need for this and there's a growing need for it um so that's really big I think the other piece is ensuring that I'm talking about like how's the brand been validated so are we selling online? are we selling in retail? Who are those retailers? How are we selling in those retailers, um, that's really important. And then I think the, the big piece also is just showing. Great, the categories is going in this direction, but like where's the white space? Like are other brands not moving in that direction fast enough or not moving in the right way and for us a lot of that is really leaning into like our brand white space and how we stand out and so, um, you know, made the decision to take up some of our 4 minute presentation time and show a launch video that we just made for a new product

Speaker 2 [09:46] which was hilarious by the way.

Speaker 6 [09:48] Yeah, that was, that was fun, um, like really happy I got to show that here, and I think it just again lets people see, OK, this brand feels different, it looks different, it sounds different.

Speaker 2 [09:59] One thing we didn't necessarily get to, uh, at least in the Q&A is the, uh, gut health benefit. Uh, you include prebiotics in the, in the candy. Why do you feel like that was an important component of rotten?

Speaker 6 [10:14] Yeah, I think for our customer, there's really, there's a few key health benefits that draw them to the product. First will be the sugar reduction, so the product's lower glycemic, lower calorie. And lower sugar kind of all those together. The second is gonna be the inclusion of prebiotic fiber and the gut health benefit there. And then the third is really kind of using the natural colors, natural dyes, um, in terms of the fiber in the gut health piece, uh, we find that that's a really helpful way to talk about our product because. We're not just talking about, uh, hey, we're making this thing and it has less of this bad thing, but we can really talk about some of the good for you benefits that you get from eating rotten.

Speaker 2 [10:59] Well, I love the idea of eating better for you, Candy, and I'm a big consumer of it because I used to love, you know, eating the stuff that we all grew up on, Skittles, Jolly Rancher, Starbursts, things like that. And now that I can eat them without the guilt as or as much guilt as, uh, you know, I had when I was a kid. Not that I really had any guilt as a kid, you know, I mean, like I wasn't like, oh, I hate myself because I'm eating so many Starbursts, but no, it, it's, it's pretty amazing to see what you're doing and do it in a really fun way, right? I think one of the most brilliant parts of your presentation today was when you talked about how much fun rotten is, the vibe that you bring to this category, and I think you're right, you know, in a weird way. Um, sometimes we forget that food and beverage can and sometimes should be really fun. So,

Speaker 6 [11:43] yeah, and I think, um. I'm definitely inspired a lot by Liquid Death and you know I just moved to LA when they launched actually and the, the, the ethos of that brand which was it almost asked the question of like why can we not market and entertain the exact same way an energy drink or a beer brand is doing um I think you know we ask ourselves that same question like just because we are the better for you product. Shouldn't put limits on how our brand can show up and what we can say and what we can do.

Speaker 2 [12:16] You

Speaker 6 [12:16] know

Speaker 2 [12:16] what's really ironic? Liquid Death participated in one of our pitch slams, our new beverage showdown from, I think it was about 7 years ago. They didn't even make the finals, so we have 12 semi-finalists for, for that particular competition, and Mike Cesario was basically laughed off stage, the founder and CEO of the company, but there probably wouldn't be a rotten, or at least this iteration of Rotten without Liquid Death, and you might not be willing, winning this pitch slam. Without Mike and Liquid Death. So, uh, pretty interesting stuff. Well, Michael, congratulations again on winning the pitch slam, a $10,000 ad package, a trophy that's gonna have your brand, your name, all, all out on it as well. So, I, I'm sure we're gonna be talking again really soon. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you to all the folks who are watching our live stream yesterday and today. A lot more to come when Bevnet Live kicks off on Sunday. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, signing off for our incredible team at Bevnet, Nash and Taste Radio and signing off for this fine young man right here. I'm Ray Latif and we'll talk to you next time.