#14 - Sarela Herrada & Matt Cohen @ SIMPLi

Episode Recap:

ReGen Brands Recap #14 - Sarela Herrada & Matt Cohen @ SIMPLi

Episode Transcript:

Kyle Krull - 0:00:16
Welcome to The ReGen Brands Podcast. This is a place for consumers, operators and investors to learn about the consumer brand supporting regenerative agriculture and how they're changing the world. This is your host, Kyle, joined with my cohost AC. Let's dive in.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:00:33
On this episode we have Sarela and Matt who are the cofounders at SIMPLi SIMPLi is supporting regenerative agriculture through their regenerative organic quinoa and other retail and food service items. In this episode we learn about Sarela and Matt's journey, starting SIMPLi and their big vision to ethically source the highest quality single-origin ingredients while tackling fraudulent international supply chains, combating climate change, and improving the livelihoods of farmers and their communities. Tons of epic dialogue in this one and we were thrilled to have Sarela and Matt join US fresh off of a big Nexty Award win at Expo East.

Matt Cohen - 0:01:13
Let's dive in.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:01:16
What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Regen Brands Podcast. We are fired up today to have Matt and Sarela from SIMPLi fresh off of Expo East and a nexty award. So big time, Congrats to you guys and thanks for coming on the pod.

Matt Cohen - 0:01:31
Thank you, Anthony and Kyle, and thank you. Thank you both for having us today. We're super excited to talk with both of you and to share the SIMPLi story with you today.

Kyle Krull - 0:01:41
Awesome. Yeah. You know, I think Anthony and I are both pretty passionate about just getting to know people in the regenerative space. This conversation is really just basically doing that on the record. So you know, we all get to know each other together and it's going to be fun. So for those who are not familiar with, SIMPLi give us like a quick lay the land, like what kind of products do you make, where can people find you and things like that.

Matt Cohen - 0:02:03
Yeah, absolutely. So just to give a really high level, what SIMPLi is we are a international ingredients brand. We really focus on Regener gang certified products. We are a fully vertical supply chain company. So which means we work direct with our farmers all over the world to bring great products to our to consumers across the US and yeah, so we just really focus on the environmental impact, the social impact, but obviously the the farming practices too that that we work with our farmers around the world with.

Sarela Herrada - 0:02:37
And the products that we focus on are grains, beans, oils and superfoods and it was really a natural growth into growing to these categories. We launched SIMPLi with quinoa being a superfood grain in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia and we just learned about rotational programs and what makes a really healthy soil and ecosystem. So beans was a natural addition to our categories and and we just continue to grow from there, really following what the land has to offer and SIMPLi can be found today. In over 1000 restaurants across the US in food service, we work with great partners like just salad or splendid spoon or meal kit companies as well. And on the on the retail side, you can also find our SIMPLi regenerative organic certified quinoa line and our olive oil lines in Whole Foods independent stores as well and we're about 500 stores today.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:03:32
Nice love, incredible. So we got a lot of things to talk about. We got to talk about vertically integrated international supply chains. We got to talk about startup CPG, you know, lifestyle and what that entails. We got to talk about how we do the certain products that y'all do regenerative because we haven't really talked about those products before. But you know, we know starting this business with all those different variables has been probably a crazy story. So just take us through the origin story and how this whole thing got started.

Matt Cohen - 0:04:02
Yeah, absolutely. So for SIMPLi we started right before the pandemic, so in January 2020. So we when we when we really set out and and started SIMPLi we were actually focused on food service. So CBG I think.

Kyle Krull - 0:04:19
We have the worst time to start a food service focus business anywhere in 20.

Matt Cohen - 0:04:23
20 So it's the rest just.

Kyle Krull - 0:04:24
For being here, you know, that's that's incredible.

Matt Cohen - 0:04:28
In in hindsight, absolutely. I think if we take a flashback to January 2020, I think the everything was bright. The the market's doing well. Obviously people are out and about going to their favorite restaurants and quick service what have you. So we were really excited. But really for us when we really saw what we really sought after was a few things. It was to create a company that. Could actually have an impact in a in a meaningful and tangible way. But throughout myself we we love to travel we love to immerse ourselves in different cultures to meet new people of all walks of of of of the earth and and really just to dive right in and try new foods all over the world. So and we saw a white space of of really looking at. The transparency of international supply chains, understanding where the food comes from, who grew it and we couldn't really find a company that did that for pantry items. So we really set out to create SIMPLi to be that trusted ingredients brand. So when you're, when you're in your pantry at home or when you're going to your favorite restaurant and and eating different ingredients that we would create SIMPLi to be that trusted partner.

Matt Cohen - 0:05:17
So for us it it was really focusing on traveling the impact that we make and and I think we've been able to really check all the boxes really well and we've been fortunate to really grow from the pandemic. So yeah, we started out in food service. Three months later, every single restaurant shut down. So really again it's just we had that had that entrepreneur mindset and the pivot quickly. So retail was doing real really well and also prepared meals was doing really well. So we got into both of those channels and and.

Kyle Krull - 0:06:21
Walk us through. What does that look like? If as a food service focused company who suddenly has to like, OK, we need to pave it quickly. You know, what did that actually look like in terms of what did you have to do, how did you have to, you know I did from a food service perspective, did you even have branded products with labels or is that something that start from zero when you switch to retail? What did that look like?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:06:41
And why did you start in food service? Because I feel like that's very non traditional. Yeah, I want to know that as well.

Sarela Herrada - 0:06:46
Yeah, absolutely. When we started to, my background comes in food service. I have been in the food and supply chain industry for about 12 years myself. Most recently I was the head of food and Beverage at CAVA, which is a fast casual Mediterranean.

Kyle Krull - 0:07:04
For the record.

Sarela Herrada - 0:07:06
Thank you, thank you, thank you. And Matt and I were we've been together for eight years now. So we've always wanted to create this concept and something to connect all the things that Matt mentioned to a product and how do you bring the farming story and the traceability and the visibility and the impact socially and environmentally. So we decided to to launch SIMPLi that was around October 2019. So we had a few months to put this together. We had our first container of quinoa come in and around. February, so we had three National Food Service accounts signed with us and we were already set up in distribution. We were working with be good up in Boston in pizza in DC and little little bit up in New York. So amazing, amazing stores, over 100 stores right off the bat and we're so excited and March 2020 hit and we were stuck with.

Sarela Herrada - 0:07:40
Um £44,000 of quinoa and nowhere to go. And it was just right and it was. It was. That's a lot to.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:08:15
Take home and eat, you know? Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 0:08:19
It grows when you cook it, man. It's like, you know, it's a lot of quinoa.

Matt Cohen - 0:08:23
Yeah, yeah. More. It double s when you when you cook it. But uh, so yeah, we, we were in our home, which we both live in Washington, DC in a in a small condo about 650 square feet. So obviously the pandemic happened, you're locked down South. Not only are we trying to grow a business, working with each other 24/7, living with each other and doing all of that in 650 square foot.

Kyle Krull - 0:08:51
The visual I'm getting is you guys 650 square foot apartment, like swimming in quino mob, literally. I'm sure that was probably somewhere else, but that's what I keep thinking about. Yeah, but started about to keep going.

Sarela Herrada - 0:09:04
Yeah, and until today, if you get a ride in our car, you will find quinoa in the side in between the seas. It was any friend and family that has come to their house and visited. They leave with a few grains of quinoa in their bag because it's just it was everywhere.

Matt Cohen - 0:09:20
There was everywhere, yeah. So that it was incredible. But for us, I mean, we we had a brainstorm right off the bat of. How do we, how do we move £44,000 of quinoa into not only develop a packaging that works for for CPG, but also do that overnight. So for us as a company again really staying true to focus on sustainability, we wanted to create packaging that was also sustainable that would look well on the shelves or online since really it was only online that we were going to open up with and that's how we kind of came up with a craft bag because. Actually from a bulk perspective for quinoa, when you bring it into the US, it's really £25 craft bags or £50 craft bags. So we really just took that idea and just minimize it to to a CPG level and that's when you say.

Kyle Krull - 0:10:12
Craft bag? Like what material is that made out of?

Matt Cohen - 0:10:15
Yeah, our first iteration was literally like the lunch bag you take with you when you go to middle school or elementary school. That type of material which we learned doesn't hold well when you're going through a distributor to go to the shelves. I mean, yeah, the number of times we saw our quinoa on the shelf that we would have to clean up when we got into brick and mortar. Was more more that more times than I can count my hands but so that that's been an entire learning experience. I mean the the packaging we have today is much more doable and durable in brick and mortars. But so we we started out with that we were even very thoughtful about resealing craft bags because obviously it's a little bit more difficult to do we so we had we had a specific like a pin or what would you call it. It was like a pin that you would that we put on every single bag which obviously from a labor perspective is super intensive and we we created a few dozen of those those bags and I think our first brick and mortar was it was a local boutique and then from there we we kind of just scaled tremendously.

Sarela Herrada - 0:11:27
Yeah. And yeah, definitely we had to take that product and repackage it. So we had to find retail was definitely a channel for it, but then we also had both partners, right. Milk has not mentioned milk kits and manufacturing was a second area where we wanted to focus on. And just really start to building all their supply chains, which it was part of our strategy, but it wasn't that the year of launch, right? We had that for year three or four. But looking back that's what SIMPLi has been able to to grow and be successful because we are diversified in all these different revenue streams and in different areas and different audiences where our customers can really connect in food service on meal kits, but also on retail.

Sarela Herrada - 0:11:44
And it wasn't only the £44,000, but it was also the supply chain that we've been able to build. So at that time it was whatever was in the water, so few other containers. And then the commitment that we made back to our communities to build the vertical supply chains that that we wanted to have for SIMPLi and the transparency that we were built upon. So it was a whole supply chain of. Not finding a market for it was just not an option. For us. It was which market can we find and how do we repackage it. And for retail, we couple blocks from our house where was a shared kitchen space called Mess Hall in DC and we were able to get a membership working with AL who runs the program there and it's great, but we were also really tight on the budget because.

Sarela Herrada - 0:12:33
We had everything on inventory and building these supply chains and being upfront and our business is super capital intensive. So we got a membership that it was from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM the graveyard.

Matt Cohen - 0:13:06
The graveyard.

Sarela Herrada - 0:13:06
Shift and and Matt and I will have our day job and then we'll have our night job and we will transport. From our sublease Warehouse 1 pallet at a time and we would take the pallet down, put it in our car and bring it to mess hall to repackage it into the hold.

Kyle Krull - 0:13:26
On just just for the visual, what kind of car are you driving where you can throw a pallet of quinoa inside the vehicle?

Matt Cohen - 0:13:32
Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a small SUV, but we looked at the weight, I think the most weight you want to have is £560.00 of additional weight outside 5 individuals. And at any given time we're about two or £3000. So if you saw our car today, it's definitely lower to the ground. The suspensions on it are are definitely wiped out.

Sarela Herrada - 0:13:54
Yeah. And that's why Kima was everywhere, right? There's always, there's going to be a little trace in the car, but you know, looking back that has really for us, for Matt as leaders now of this organization and and now we have a team of 20 amazing employees that, you know, we couldn't. Do what we do now without them. We have a great warehouse of 30,000 square feet and outside of Baltimore we are distributed nationally for retail and food service or thousands of restaurants and as I mentioned 500 retail spaces and we couldn't done that without the team that we have in place and the resilience that. Those early months really brought for Matt and I.

Matt Cohen - 0:14:37
Yeah, it's just being scrappy early on. And I mean even today we continue to be scrappy as much as possible, but it's definitely a different mindset when you have an entire team. But yeah, we can't do, we couldn't do what we were doing today with our, with our, without our broader team.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:14:53
Yeah, I I know all about massive inventory risk repacking product and being scrapped because the family business is a family fresh produce business. So I I feel you there. I've been there. Let's, let's shift gears into that supply chain, right. So let's talk regen practices, let's talk actual products. Let's talk why Peru, why? Why Greece? You know why these items? So just hit you with a bunch of questions, but maybe we'll start with the chemo first. Why the region, what makes it regenerative? Just give us a little, a little glimpse into practices, but also the supply chain.

Sarela Herrada - 0:15:24
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it brings back to our origin when we got started. So the idea of SIMPLi was bringing. Transparency onto these complicated, lots of middle party supply chains that you see on a global scale. I think that domestically we do a really good job of telling this story of where food comes from with supporting your local farmer and your local ecosystem. But how do you do that in a global economy where the majority of food is being imported and that idea of bringing vertical supply chains and transparency into the market was. What it was kind of built upon as we started to expand into products, I'm Peruvian myself. Matt and I have been to Peru over 10 times together. And Kim is one of those crops that it has been westernized, it has been in the market, consumers know what it is, but the supply chain in the origin of it are not getting the benefits of that.

Sarela Herrada - 0:15:59
And we've seen that first hand, you know, when we were you know we've been hiking in Machu Picchu but also in the Andes 15,000 square feet up with 15,000 feet up on the on the mountains. And it's it's small farmers, indigenous, exactly what you think what you know people use and put pictures on their packaging, it's it's that. But they're not the ones benefiting from this amazing market that Europe and the US has being able to create and customers are adjusting to it and why is that? So we started to dive in and it's because of all the middle men and the parties in between that are taking advantage and really managing that that demand. It's when we got started, I remember pitching quinoa and people would say to me, you know, this is a crazy crop prices are going up and down. How are you going to manage your, your COGS? When I went to the farmers, the buying price from them has been stabled, you know, maybe a 510%.

Sarela Herrada - 0:16:50
Delta, but not what the selling prices has seen and it's because the middle men parties had managed that price so much to create that high demand into that market. So there was so much noise and we just wanted to cut all that and bring a product that the consumer was familiar with it. But let's tell that transparency and the agricultural practices that are growing upon regenerative organic for us game really all about by learning the indigenous practices that are. Communities were doing that are small holder farming communities. We're doing for thousands of years that respect they have for the land for Pachamama and Peru specifically and.

Kyle Krull - 0:18:00
Pachamama is that like, is that a region or is that like a type of like an indigenous?

Sarela Herrada - 0:18:03
Practice. It's kind of the mindset of just pachamama needs soil on the on the native language, and it's all about just you live by the land, you respect the land the land gives you, you should give. When we go out to the farms and you know, we're eating and drinking with them like you cheers your beer, but the first pour is to the land and then to you. So.

Matt Cohen - 0:18:26
Which which by the way you're only using One Cup. These communities that we visit it's 1 cup and and many beers but we all share 1 cup and and that's like the connectivity in addition to the beard and sitting across from one another eating amazing meals that these these communities cook.

Sarela Herrada - 0:18:45
Yeah. And that whole concept of indigenous practices and respect the soil and being able to create an ecosystem was true to what we were trying to build. And that year in 2020, the movement of regenerative organic and the pilots that ROA was doing with Doctor Bronner's and and Patagonia provisions were coming to light and the. Alignment on what that is built upon is very similar to what our indigenous communities are doing. And it creates a certification and a way to educate the consumer on all these amazing things that communities are doing, they've been doing for thousands of years or farmers that want to transition back to a regeneration state. So we wanted to be part of it and we wanted to to be a brand that advocated and stood for that as well.

Matt Cohen - 0:19:37
Yeah. And just adds that two of our pillars like I mentioned from the beginning is the environmental impact and the social impact and that's extremely aligned with with Roe, with regen regen of organic alliance and what regen of organic certifications about. It's not only the the focus of the health of the soil, but it's also making sure that you're fair trade or fair for life. So again from our core, we've just been extremely aligned from the get go. And that's why we've really been focused on, been very committed to growing our our rock focus.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:20:10
Then in quinoa, what are the actual practices that are most important to make it regenerative like I could tell you what it is for be for, for pasture poultry? Is it, is it cover cropping, is it animal integration, is it crop rotation, you know in that region and in that crop like what, what really makes the difference?

Sarela Herrada - 0:20:24
Yeah, it's a combination of all of them is minimum dilage is. Rotational crop is a big one. It quinoa rotates with lupini beans, which is a yeah, if you're familiar with it, it's super high on protein. And we're just so excited to continue to advocate for it and bring it to market because we have a lot of lupini beans now to sell and find it for it. So because it rotates with our quinoa and that was one of the first items that that we launched, it also rotates with potatoes. Or oats. It depends where quinoa grows. There's two main areas in South America. One is the high altitude, which is about 15,014 to 15,000 up. That's going to be a little bit drier. It only depends on natural irrigation, so just the rainy season and there's one crop per year. Also maintaining the biodiversity of the of the area is really important and.

Sarela Herrada - 0:20:51
That that crop is going to be a little bit more resilient to pest just because it is so high up so that you really don't experience much pest. The pest on the quinoa is mainly birds because of the sweetness that could that could grow on the grain. But there's a second region which is a little bit on the lower side, so maybe like 10,013 thousand feet up and that's the the beautiful valley of the Andes in Peru where a lot of. Diverse foods grow and that's where quinoa rotates more with chia seeds. Amaranth also grows in that area. Lupini beans also grows in those areas. So there's a little bit more of other crops that are welcoming to to the quinoa and for us also regeneration.

Sarela Herrada - 0:21:43
Because this is a crop that is natural to that area, to the Alta Plano of Peru, we focus on the leadership development of the Community and I think that has been the big piece that has stopped for farming small farmer holders. To benefit from the export market, which it has been, the leadership development side, the education, how do they there might be already doing this work but how do they segregate maybe some conventional tooling from some organic tooling. How do they keep track of the farmers, their yields, their storage, their invoicing for companies that SIMPLi so the. All the leadership that comes with the development of a coop is what hasn't been done in this area and that's where we come in to really support.

Kyle Krull - 0:22:50
That's incredible. And you know one of the cool things about doing this podcast with Anthony is picking up on these recurring themes that happen throughout various different brands. And there's three I want to hone in on that. You to just sort of like, you know, revealed to us and it's the decommoditization of whatever the food is, which like you said takes the middleman out, allows you to two. Develop a direct trade relationship with the communities who are actually producing the food. And I had a third one, I just completely forgot what it was. But .2, I'm curious, like what are some of those leadership? Oh, sorry. I remember .3 was looking to the land to see what other types of product innovation you can bring to market that come from those same relationships that you have. But I'm really interested in what sort of leadership development projects you put together in some of these communities where you've developed these relationships.

Sarela Herrada - 0:23:40
Yeah, we can talk about Mario.

Matt Cohen - 0:23:42
Yeah, yeah. We we have multiple examples of of developing the leadership or even creating leadership within communities that don't even have an existing Coop cooperative. The reason that we refer to cooperatives, if you guys, we work with farmers that have typically one to two acres, maybe 3 acres of land. So from feasibility standpoint we can't certify every single farmer so. What we do is we'll work with cooperatives or we'll establish cooperatives with some of these indigenous communities. So collectively they're all certified together under one, under one cooperative. But using Mario's example, it's been incredible what we've been able to to achieve with with him and obviously with his commitment of of SIMPLi and and vice versa. He was just a conventional farmer and and we we went to visit him. I think the first time I met him, I think Stroll met him before me, but the first time I met him was through during the pandemic. So in Peru specifically, the pandemic definitely was prolonged even further than than I would say US and and some other developed countries around the world just given their infrastructure and and what have you. So they're still very, very tight on protocol and traveling.

Matt Cohen - 0:24:39
Even up to I would say the end of 2021 and for us being essential business because we are dealing with food and we we have the opportunity to to actually go visit these communities and continue operations throughout the pandemic. So when we went to visit Mario, he is just extremely bright. So much positive energy comes out of him and and that really spreads to whoever he speaks with. But I think that the broader community definitely looks up to him, to his expertise, to his knowledge and what have you. And and we sat down with Mario and we we looked at what he wanted to do in terms of goals for his broader community, in terms of the farming community and and where he was today and where he wants to be and based off of that conversation with him. We developed a plan to work with him and we really work with all of our farming communities. We don't dictate anything. We established what those goals are and for Mario, we established what those goals were. We established a plan to get from where he is today to eventually become USDA organic certified, which we were able to achieve, and then also work towards regenerative organic certification.

Matt Cohen - 0:25:50
Which which we have achieved with them as well this year and to go through that entire journey and I think we mentioned journey a lot throughout the regeneration process. It is a journey and and we work with farmers who are conventional, we work with farmers who are transitioning to organic, we work with farmers who are organic. Our ultimate goal is to have all of our ingredients, our TARP entire portfolio rock certified. But we also understand there's clients out there, there's consumers out there who. Who want to just have USD organic certified or have transitional product as well. So we really serve our consumers, our clients on the mass scale, but still focus and hone in on working towards regenerative practices and we've been able to do that really well with Mario and the broader community.

Sarela Herrada - 0:26:58
Yeah. And to add to the to the leadership piece, I think that that is probably one of the most important things to develop vertical supply chains. And also to develop the programs, the Matt spoke of transition and certification and the reason why we're so aligned to certification is because it provides a premium to to our communities, right? Like we can be amazing storytellers and we can be amazing at sharing what they do. But if we're not able to prove the work that they're doing with a third party audit, then it is going to be a tougher sell for the customer to be able to align to that. So and we also, it holds ourselves accountable as well, right. It holds ourselves accountable and it holds our communities accountable where there is so much fraudulent activity happening at the crop level and we see that, we see that all the time and you know we get offered product that is grown conventional with a. Black Market Organic Certificate for paperwork to be imported. So it holds. It just holds all different parties accountable. But leadership, I think leadership just to add one more thing, leadership is really important because they're the ones that are going to be running this program. It's not manana, it's not our agronomist.

Sarela Herrada - 0:27:54
It's not SIMPLi staff, you know, we we're here to facilitate but not not to run the programs.

Matt Cohen - 0:28:17
Yeah, just that real quick. I mean, in terms of being able to charge a premium for rock certified products, I mean, it comes back to its accountability, but it's also validation. And that's really what Roa ROA is, is there to really validate the work that we're doing from a thirdparty perspective, from an unbiased perspective, which then consumers can also trust. Through that certification and and through that stamp on our products that not only we're doing things right, but we're getting validated by a third party. We're being held accountable and in return we're holding our communities accountable too to make sure that they're doing the right farming practices, that they're making sure that the the money is actually going back towards the community. And they're not holding it for themselves because you do see that in the marketplace. And yeah it says I think it's accountability and validation among the entire supply chain.

Kyle Krull - 0:29:09
Totally makes sense and it's really great way to have to to run and build a business. I want to shift gears a little bit here and talk about you know I mean we really appreciate you sharing kind of the origin story and how you ended up in the position that you're in, how why you're selling, what you're selling. Let's talk about some like traction you know you mentioned that you've got whole food, does that Whole Foods global or is that Whole Foods in the DC region or where where you at specifically?

Matt Cohen - 0:29:31
Yeah, with Whole Foods we're we're in multiple regions. So we're on both coasts and and we're really excited to to have an opportunity to grow with Whole Foods given our alignment through organic agriculture that they obviously are very committed to this program like ourselves. So and it's also the type of consumers, the conscious consumers that are shopping at Whole Foods, also the chefs that work at restaurants and and quick service they're they're shopping at Whole Foods and these natural channels. So there's a lot of overlap and alignment. For for our customers and also for our core values admission as a company.

Kyle Krull - 0:30:07
And how are you guys positioned within the category because you're rock certified? To my knowledge that's the First Rock certified quinoa in the aisle. Is that correct or are there others?

Matt Cohen - 0:30:16
Yeah, we were first to market for for Regenniver gang certified quinoa and we're also first to market for a number of ingredients that we source out of our out of the countries and South America. And for us as a company, we're really excited about not only the traction we've had to date, but what's in our pipeline. So one of the things that we've been focused on is it's really expanding the offerings for Pantry items. We're really focused on innovation in the middle of the aisle, which there hasn't been a lot or much of in the past decade. So if you think about, again, grains, beans, even some super foods and and oils, those are the four categories we're focused on in terms of what we're launching. Early next year it's going to be 55 new bean types, which I think we'll believe we will be first to market for, for being regenerative organic certified. We have an additional grain that we're going to be launching and then also in the Super Foods category, chia seeds will be another item. So but for us it's really focused on the pantry items and in terms of innovation, we think about innovation in two ways, one, how we can be more value added and and really the regenerative organic certification.

Matt Cohen - 0:30:58
Its value add, it's a, it's a, it's a a better product obviously it combats against climate change. So it has the environmental stamp pack and then it's also with the social impact. But also the second piece of innovation is how how can we create packaging to be more sustainable. Obviously when you go through the middle of the aisle you see a lot of plastic. So how to how can we move away from plastic into more sustainable packaging and that's something that we're really focused on and and really lives throughout our company.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:31:59
I want to draw attention to one thing that I think is really different about y'all than most of people that we talk to or most of the regen brands in the space is. What I'm hearing is you sell ingredients, you have the ingredients channel, you have the food service channel, you have the retail channel. Like we've mentioned the Pini beans in this conversation. But when I go to your website, I don't see anything about the Pini beans because you're not selling them at retail. And I think the average consumer doesn't have a lot of education there. You know, I have a little bit of background in both food service and retail distribution, but people fair to realize like sometimes the quinoa that you get at the store is really way different than the quinoa that you eat at a restaurant. And I'm not saying that's the case for you all, but educate just the average consumer on. Why that's important from a regenerative standpoint in the biodiversity and the crop rotation, but also how it affects your business and how shipping. I don't know what what Lipini Bean would be, but a 30 pound bulk lipini bean food service versus a £5 retail versus quinoa, you know, because you're dealing with more commodities than just what people would see on your website.

Sarela Herrada - 0:32:55
Yeah, that's a really good point, Anthony. And I think that Matt talked a little bit about this, about the journey. It's about the journey of regeneration and in order for us to make that work and to support. The 97% of conventional agriculture that leads the industry today in transition that to where we want to what the goal is within SIMPLi which is to have diverse ecosystems. We have to create a market for all the different crops that are that are the rotational crops, but also they're in different stages doing that transition if it's conventional, transitional, organic or regenitive if it's a. Quinoa that will rotate with that lupini bean or the chia that rotates with amaranth or maca that also rotates with oats, right? And we started in Peru. I'm Peruvian, so I am biased, but it is a super diverse country of all of the things that has to offer, but we've been able to expand. Airline has an amazing chia seed program with that rotates with sesame seeds and we are creating market for those two items and that also rotates with kidney red kidney beans as well in Argentina, sunflower oil in Brazil, we're working with protected indigenous communities for ASA E that are going to be wild harvest. Greece was the second country we launched.

Sarela Herrada - 0:33:56
With because Greece agriculture is very similar to South America, there are small holder farmers that follow small amounts of land and the single origin authenticity of its food. It's incredible at a nutritional level point as well. We bring Kalamata olives that are from Kalamata. We're bringing extra virgin olive oil from the Sparta Phillipanessa region and then in the northern region we're working on a. The first regenerative organic bean program in in in Greece for Gigante beans that rotate with lentils and rotate with chickpeas and then Ukraine, Ukraine was the third country I think that we started working out of for sunflower oil. So we have been there through the the war and it happened, yeah so we you know our what our communities are going through. We were building a regenerative organic sunflower oil program out there.

Sarela Herrada - 0:34:51
Which obviously had to be paused with everything that happened. So we transition to Argentina to have dual supply chain. But because we're so deep embedded into these communities into the work that we're doing, we have to create a market that is diverse enough just like our supply chains are. And that's where diversification of being a ingredient supplier for CPG brands or manufacturers, it's important for us, but also having a channel food service. Where we can work with high volume and have the economies of scale that we need to have right of the bat for these supply chains is important. And then retail is really important because we have to educate the consumer on what is regeneration. And it starts with a consumer to make those decisions. So when they go to their favorite restaurant a couple miles down the road from Whole Foods, they can see SIMPLi or they can learn about regenerative organic and what it stands for.

Matt Cohen - 0:36:11
Yeah, I think, I mean, education is absolutely key for learning more about organic agriculture. And I think we are given what's going on around the world today in terms of just natural disasters. It's not isolated to regions. Natural disasters are happening worldwide. Whether it's forest fires, droughts, snippet changes to temperatures where there's water or air, I mean and that's one of the first things that every single farmer we visit, which again this is all throughout South America and also Europe. So it's not just isolated in specific region. One of the first things that comes up in conversation is the impact. That their farms are having directly contributed by climate change, they're seeing drastic changes and we're talking about just a number of years. I mean, get sometimes even one or two years. But drastic changes, changes over 3-5 years of what it was to today and how that's affecting their yield and how that's affecting their crops, how it's affecting the delay of the crops, which all has an impact on their livelihoods by getting back to education, I think again.

Matt Cohen - 0:36:53
And why we're really excited to work with Whole Foods and there's other platforms out there as well. I mean thrive is another great platform from an e-commerce perspective, but working with align minded companies and that have. Really impactful and powerful platforms such as like Whole Foods and thrive have. It really will accelerate the education of conscious buyers to understand why they should purchase regenerative organic certified products versus conventional products. And and really they're able to put their money towards brands that are making an impact. And I think also, I mean we're just one brand out there. There's a lot of great brands out there that are doing a lot of wonderful things and and and we, we as brands have to work together as well, we're going to be much more powerful.

Matt Cohen - 0:37:33
To work collectively versus individually, I know there's been a number of awesome brands that you that have been on this podcast so far and and that's just awesome to see. But for us to work together, we're going to make a lot more progress sooner by working together versus individually.

Kyle Krull - 0:38:19
You're really speaking my language. You know, I someone who like, works in retail, I build a thing called the Rejain coalition, which is. Bringing regenerative brands together to create educational opportunities and promotional opportunities for retailers to be able to figure out how to support retailers, it's really hard. But I want to talk about what's not in my wheelhouse right now. And I'm so interested in as somebody who grew up working in restaurants as a waiter at, you know, small independent locations and like giant corporations like PF Chang's. You know, I worked at PF Chang's for like 4 years. How do you tell a regenerative story? When you're providing ingredients to those restaurants, like is it like menu call outs? Is it educating the staff? Like what does that look like?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:39:00
Great question.

Sarela Herrada - 0:39:01
Yeah, that is a good question, Kyle. And for us we start with the leadership at the restaurant group. So we work with you know as I mentioned just salad or chopped or sweet cream dig in and is having that alignment right of the bat for their customers and is working with their team on how can we take that education piece. And in which platform can live. So with just salad we were able to do lots of different activations. I mean it's a brand that in score and it's DNA is built on on sustainability. So understanding that the movement of healthy soils sequester carbon, reverse climate change, I think it, it, it is digestible for their customers and and for their staff internally with chopped it was about really. Telling the story of why is a Kalamata olive from Kalamata different in the authenticity of its single origin versus other different olives in the market is a natural preserved and fermented oil which I believe is the only is one out of two types of olives in the market. That doesn't add any color additives or any chemicals for the preservation piece of it. Is is is natural with vinegar in the rotation of of six months but.

Sarela Herrada - 0:39:48
It could be activated through digital media. Social platforms of course is powerful newsletters. We do also brick and mortar activation, so menus on their menu boards on the physical menu as well, where is SIMPLi rock ingredient or SIMPLi ingredient. We also do a lot of education with just like handouts. Papers, we've also looked into having a we have an olive oil program with a pizza group on the olive oil, you know, squeezy bottle for the olive oil until information. So if you got to get creative and it's also what the brand allows us to do or they want to communicate to their.

Matt Cohen - 0:40:57
Customers and it's really for us as a company because we have these fully vertical supply chains. What really makes us stand out versus some brands out there is the storytelling. It's the storytelling of the entire journey. I know we say journey in many different aspects, but for the journey of the food from go to these farms. We capture the story of the family that are actually growing these ingredients. We capture the story of how the ingredient itself is grown. We capture from taking that ingredient, say from from the middle of South America and Paraguay and bring that all the way up to Baltimore, MD or to California. And then from there, it'll get shot out to hundreds or thousands of restaurants across the US telling the entire story, because I think that that's what really resonates with consumers. It's seen.

Matt Cohen - 0:41:16
All the work that goes into bringing these great quality ingredients to to their plate, I think it's something really special and that's and so it makes it easier to tell the story when you have content like that. Also when we're working with likeminded brands they they see the value of SIMPLi they see the value of the work we're doing and we're empowering them through the demand that they create to really make a change for the better through food for the world I think. But I think that the big opportunity here that that. To be mentioned is also to get the conglomerates out there to get those large corporations that really are less focused on the impact, focused more on bottom line and and cost. Those are the ones that are going to really move the needle, really move the the rock in a positive way. We have to get them on board to really focus on regenerative or gangsterified products in order to really have meaningful impact in a in a in a more shorter timeline.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:42:45
Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that. And two, two kind of comments in a question. One is I think you guys have killed the branding. I'm a, I'm a pretty big brand snob, but the brand's phenomenal to, I think it's a really unique kind of vantage point to think about trade spend or trade marketing from non, just a from a from not just a traditional retail brick and mortar and cap ad spend, you know component that you guys are obviously activating in those other channels. And then three, you know I'm an investor in the space and so when I hear a line partnerships, a line partnerships, one of those other themes that we've heard in almost every conversation that Kyle talked about is we need regenerative capital just like we need you know regenerative this or regenerative that. So super curious, you guys have been all over the place, you've gone through the pandemic, we're talking different channels, we're we're talking all these different ingredients. How have you funded this whole thing and and how is that all played out?

Matt Cohen - 0:43:37
Yeah. So we we've been able to to grow as quickly as as possible just by finding impactful investors. And for us as a company we, we have done a small equity raised, but we really focus on on increase our debt capacity because for us as a company our our our business model is inherently capital intensive. One of the things that we do is, is we'll pay especially with all the indigenous communities we work with and the protected indigenous communities we work with. One of the benefits and and really value at is to pay our farmers upfront so not to have payment terms with our farmers because wow, they don't, they don't, they don't live off of much at all. I mean it's incredible just just how how they are to live based on their income. But one of the ways that we can really have an impact on a farmer level and and and also build trust, I think that's the key point here is we have to build trust which which takes time to build trust for these communities. But we'll pay our farmers upfront, we'll even have programs where we'll finance the seeding. For the harvest. So again that's another way that really helps out the farming communities. So for me and for us at our SIMPLi we really focus on finding debt capital, working capital that allows us to to implement those type of programs. Right now we we just work with with regional banks and and eventually we're we'll have the conversations for institutions but I think also given the impact we have it as as an organization another channel that is is available.

Matt Cohen - 0:44:36
For us is working with nonprofits and working with NGO's who provide loans that are connected with the impact and and so that's something that we're we're readily having active conversations with as well in in tangent with just working with our our regional bank and what have you.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:45:26
I want to touch on that debt piece map because I don't think a lot of people understand what that is the opposite of. So status quo right in the CPG universe is a farmer gets paid by a middleman ingredient supplier and they might pay them on 306090 day terms. Then that person would supply that ingredient to a KO man on 306090 day terms. Then the brand would order from the KO Man and they would pay them on 306090 day terms. And the whole thing is disjointed. It's all elongated and there's all that time and money, basically money. Lost in all that time and what you're talking about is going directly to farmers, helping them pay to actually grow, right the the end product and then paying them immediately on the off take, right. So there's just so much money and time saved and it's so radically different and and then you have to adjust the financials to accommodate that. But just kudos to you guys and I wanted to for the average person just to kind of draw that out.

Matt Cohen - 0:46:18
Yeah, absolutely. It said I mean everything you said does make a capital intensive, but the I think the the benefit too though is is going quick to market. I mean that's definitely a strength of ours is the resiliency of our supply chains. We didn't have any disruptions throughout the throughout the pandemic, but also throughout the the global supply chains that the issues that they and the challenges that they've been having especially in 2021 that was definitely a strength of ours because we don't have any middle people because we're paying our farmers upfront, we're building that trust, we're able to get product out quickly from country of origin. Into the US and then distribute it out with our with our partners. So there are benefits to to working with that type of model too, but it absolutely benefits both us and the farmer.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:47:01
Absolutely.

Kyle Krull - 0:47:03
I know we kind of touched on future outlook a little bit earlier. You mentioned innovation, a few other things, but I do want to get a little bit deeper into you know from a retail specific like branded product specific, you know, viewpoint. What does the future look like? You know, you mentioned some potential new products to market. Are there new retail partners that could be coming online soon that and no pressure, you don't have to really reveal that if you don't want to realize it's kind of an invasive question as I asked it. But you know are there specific, you know markets, you mentioned coast to coast distribution or have you guys tackled you know, center country yet, you know what does all that look like?

Matt Cohen - 0:47:35
Yeah, for us, so I think from the get go we really focus on, we understood that in order to scale. As a company and to have just a global scale distribution is key. So for us, we really focus on having distribution both in food service and retail which we've been able to achieve. So for read on the Food service side, we work with all the main broadliners or the largest the US food, Cisco, PFG, GFS. We also work with regional distributors too that are just. Awesome distributors in the Food service side. On the retail side, we do work with Unify Coast to coast. So we do have that distribution footprint in terms of our growth and new retailers.

Matt Cohen - 0:48:06
We're just really excited about the product launches that we have that are coming online in the next six months. The reason you can't see the lupini beans yet online on our website is because it's still going through Rd. but we have finalized that. So we will be launching that in the coming months, so that.

Kyle Krull - 0:48:34
Look, can you talk about what sort of format that's going to be in the beans? Is it going to be caned? Is it going to be perishable like?

Matt Cohen - 0:48:40
Yeah, it's going to be dried bean, so. So just like whether quinoa, which again is in sustainable packaging, we extended that packaging for all the products that we're launching or for most of the project products we're launching in 2023. But like I said, it's, it's 5 bean types that are going to be dry, dry beans. They're going to be coming from either Peru or Greece. We also have a new grain that's going to be coming from Peru and then the chia seeds and the Super Foods category. So those will all be launching in 2023 for the holidays. So talking a little bit sooner in the next couple weeks. We actually have a really exciting product for the holidays that we're launching, which is going to be salt.

Matt Cohen - 0:49:03
It comes from Mara's Peru, so in the Andes, so it comes from natural water springs high up in the Andes. We work with an amazing woman producer, her name's Olanda, who develops and and harvests the salt. And we have two other salts that will be blended with some spices as well, just in time for the holidays.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:49:41
Wow. D2C retail. Where can people find that one?

Matt Cohen - 0:49:44
Yeah, that's going to be D to C to start out with, but we're actively talking for brick and mortar as well for retail. So hopefully, hopefully you'll be able to find that in your local grocery store in the next couple of months.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:49:58
Very cool.

Kyle Krull - 0:50:00
So.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:50:01
That that's the SIMPLi future let's go macro and we always kind of tee this conversation up with the question that we ask everybody and really what the question means is how do we scale Regent, right. But the the specific question is how do we get regen brands at 50% market share by 2050.

Sarela Herrada - 0:50:20
That's a that's a heavy question.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:50:23
I left you a lot of times, cirella, so you take as much time as you need, OK?

Sarela Herrada - 0:50:28
No, I appreciate, I appreciate framing it that way because we certainly have to make that change with a timeline in mind in order to in order to see what we're experiencing, right. Like, I mean climate change is here and if you haven't experienced it, I don't know where you're living, you're living under a rock, but it's it's tangible to everyone and everywhere in in the world that we've traveled and we've been able to visit. So we have to make that change either. We have to celebrate and maintain the amazing work that our indigenous communities are doing. So they don't have any incentive to not continue to do that. But most importantly, I think we need to reverse the monocropping in the the industrial agriculture that we see in order to bring to to bring back those practices. So I think to get there from a macro perspective. The way that United States, which is one of the biggest markets in the World, North America for consumerism, the way the supply chain food supply chain is set up has to radically change. The way that we think of purchasing has to radically change and this goes from CPG companies, from the Co MANUFACTURINGS, but also most important the retailers.

Sarela Herrada - 0:51:26
Where I I mean I get why mono cropping leads and and works right. It's effective you plan ahead you have your volumes you can control it. It it it is I'm an engineer myself so I I you work from at the productivity level and understanding what the what the yields are going to be and what what can you control the most in order for that demand that that is not changing on COVID head. That's when outages and supply chain disruptions happen because they may completely change of how consumer consume food. So these long massive global supply chains could not adapt quick enough because they were not fast enough to do so. So that vertical integration has to be a way.

Sarela Herrada - 0:52:23
Where big brands, Big AG has to follow in the way that our internal domestic North America supply chain for distribution and buying and education to consumers has to radically change. Where we should not expect strawberries to be around all year around here in Baltimore, MD in any supermarket that I go to. So consumer habits have to change and we have to make radical change in supply chains.

Matt Cohen - 0:53:14
Yeah, I I think just sorry, go ahead, Kyle.

Kyle Krull - 0:53:17
I was just gonna say, I think it's really interesting the way you framed up like the control aspect of conventional farming. And I completely agree that that's like, that's what they're trying to do. But it assumes that the environment within that control doesn't change, right? But when you start to realize that controlling that environment has drastic impacts on everything else and when, to your point, when there's disruption in the environment, everything goes down to hell in a handbasket. You know what we're seeing now with the war in Ukraine and all sorts of other reasons, like synthetic inputs have gone through the roof, those prices, so whatever you think you might be controlling, like these are our costs, whatever, it's actually not really in your control. And there's some detrimental effects by assuming that we can control all these things, whereas the regenerative production method is significantly more resilient because it doesn't rely on all of those externalities. So I just think it's really interesting way you frame that up and that's the the thought process it might be down. But Matt, go ahead you there's something else you're going to comment.

Matt Cohen - 0:54:12
On, yeah, no, I think the only thing to add is I mean a great way because we can't have radical change overnight. Obviously consumers they had, they liked what they do and and and change is is not comfortable for consumers. So I think in terms of really make a change for the long term. It really starts not only with the consumer to be more curious to understand the benefits of of moving away to more seasonality, but I think in terms of restaurants and and just stores out there that move to like seasonality, right, seasonality, menus, seasonal menus etcetera. I think that our baby steps in order to really change the patterns of how consumers eat today and I think that will allow us to really make changes. In terms of our buying patterns, in terms of our eating patterns to move away from mono crafting, but I think I mean is that and just education is going to be key in terms of how we can actually make a meaningful impact in the next five years through regenerative agriculture. And I think a lot of people are starting to understand the amount of benefits it is to purchase for Janet Evergang certified products, but we're just getting started. I think it's also what third party third, third parties with the Bills are getting passed through our government, not only in the US but also abroad in, in, in Europe and elsewhere. I think we, we collectively not only brands but consumers and government entities and NGO's, we all got to work together in order to really move the rock and in order to really make progress in, in the next couple of years.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:55:48
Yeah, couldn't agree more with all those points. I this seasonality thing is always so tricky to me because I come from that produce world and you know, my grandpa started selling produce in the early 1900s. And so there was only strawberries in America when they were grown in California and they're in season in California and Florida. That was it. You didn't see them in this in the store other than that. And now we do have them all year round. We have grapes all year round because we have a global economy and I. I think that that ship has sailed. Like I don't know if consumers are gonna ever going to be willing to go back to not having that selection. So I think the the question for me is then how, how does that, how does it go from we sell 3 pallets of strawberries at that store a week. Do we sell one and we're and we're we're replacing that with something else that's like. More seasonal and I I have yet to figure out like what the answer to that is, but I do think it starts on the food service side because that is the they're the curators and they're the tastemakers of of diets and then those those purchases are followed up at retail. So Sir, I'm just curious on what your take like what are the what are the levers we can pull to like increase that seasonality?

Sarela Herrada - 0:56:52
Yeah, I think it mean it's, it's a complex problem, right, because when there is demand growing, countries will follow. So we're seeing that right now. I mean we've seen it with avocados, right, huge demand of avocados in the market. So farmers has stopped growing what it was native to them potatoes and switched that crop to avocado growing. Now there's this massive surplus of avocado or there was last year of avocados and then plus has dropped. So now there is all this avocado in the market and farmers don't want to grow in next year, so. The demand and supply is what really drives what farmers grow. I have a really interesting story about such an inchy. I don't know if you're familiar with what that that is, but it's a superfood out of the Amazon side of South America. And Korea was a big buyer of such an inchy for years because it was trendy.

Sarela Herrada - 0:57:31
It was an item that they put a great marketing commercial out there in the market really welcome such an inch in the superfood powder. But it as a trend trends die. So farmers would you know they were so excited about this crop because it was a high paying crop for them because in their mind there was a demand, but it was a trend demand. So Korea stopped importing such an Inchi and now the Amazon has. A bunch of such a inch in the market that it is a crop, it is a it could be a wild crop, but it could also be a harvest crop. And they put money into the processing, which is where the investment of the farming comes in for powderized product. And now they're sitting on powderized such a Inchi stock and the prices just bonded and the that's their day-to-day so.

Sarela Herrada - 0:58:21
Trends and creating seasonality into menus is something that it has to be thoughtful into. What is there a supply of and how can you educate consumers on that for example quinoa when you know high demand but lupini crop stock to decrease because. They didn't. There was no market for it because consumers were not aware of it. No one really educated for it. So it is our job now to educate why is lupini beans so great for you, for the farmer, for the environment, super factor protein, why are the potatoes really good for environment? I think that we do you know we consume a lot of domestic potatoes, but.

Sarela Herrada - 0:59:05
If we wanted this global economy as you mentioned where you are expecting potatoes to be in your shelves all year round, we need to import potatoes from communities that are going to have that that crop available because it is good for rotation of certain items. So it is starts, I think the creation of menus and discovery places at the restaurant is is. And especially on on the fine dining side is where the trend starts. But how do we work with the community of chefs to educate them on the concept of rotational crops and availability of these crops to be introduced into the market?

Kyle Krull - 1:00:06
And people.

Anthony Corsaro - 1:00:07
Truly have no idea how unseasonal the majority of our diets are. And this is like. Produce business, love the produce business. Everyone works their butts off. They respond to market demands like the business that we have is because of the economy that we have. So no finger wagon, no finger pointing, but like apples we grow 1 crop in Washington and we throw them in giant rooms with no oxygen. So they last for the whole year I hope. Potatoes we do the same thing, onions we do the same thing and it's like guys those those onions were harvested like nine months ago and they're still good and they taste fine and like. It's an amazing like testament to modern like.

Anthony Corsaro - 1:00:13
You know, industry and whatever, but it is it good you know or is is something else good like you know, we just have to, we no one really knows the exact answer to those questions, but we need to be talking about it.

Kyle Krull - 1:00:52
Well, and I think it's like a macro cultural level. It's like the decommercialization of essentially everything that kind of needs to happen. And I really believe that that trend is already beginning now again. Going back to my PF Chang's days, you know, the whole point of PF Chang's and Starbucks and Cheesecake Factory and these humongous multinational things is that everything tastes the same wherever you go, the exact same ingredients. And as the consumers continue to demand those types of products like it forces the producers to grow those types of products. But if we can get rid of that and focus more on supporting independent local people who are sourcing those types of ingredients, that can help to build that sort of economy because then the the farmer has a choice. Instead of like hey, the only people I can serve are the people who need this spec onion, you know, to your point I think that sits in this room for nine months because that's what PF change is going to buy in 10 years. Whatever it is, I don't know. But if there's, if we can create those local regenerative economies, then I think it allows the production level to focus on like what their environment really allows them to grow rather than trying to pigeonhole, you know, square peg into a round hole because that's what they think the next hot trend is going to be.

Matt Cohen - 1:01:58
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's that gets back to. To collective action in terms of you have these multinational franchises and and and brands out there, restaurant brands out there, if they add 11 item to their menu that is more seasonal and again we can't make the change overnight. Consumers are just they're just not going to go along with that but we. If we have these baby steps and over time evolve the menu from what it is today to what it can be to really incorporate the future of how sourcing and how farming should be that I think that that's going to be a really meaningful step. And and we have to get them on board because they're the ones that are serving millions of customers around around at all times. So we definitely need to get them involved in this.

Kyle Krull - 1:02:47
Well, big part of the way to get there is, is having the ability to support brands like you, you know, so I think it's a good place to to call it an episode. So really appreciate you guys diving this into your whole story. I think what you're doing is awesome. I really love the food service and retail like simultaneous parallel approach. So yeah, thanks for sharing everything. And you know, just quick last thing, where can people buy your product? Is it SIMPLi.com eat SIMPLi.com? Is that what it is?

Matt Cohen - 1:03:15
Yeah. So SIMPLi, so SIMPLi ends with an I instead of a Y. And really the reason we can't about that is because of of impact, innovation, international and ingredients. They all start with I and that's really why we decided to go with I instead of Y. But yes, it's eat SIMPLi with an i.com. You can find our products online and then also through different commerce platforms, your, your local Whole Foods and other natural retailers.

Anthony Corsaro - 1:03:43
Love it. Thanks y'all so much. Congrats on everything.

Sarela Herrada - 1:03:46
Thank you both. Thank you for having us today and being a platform to educate about regenitive.

Matt Cohen - 1:03:52
Thank you everyone.

Anthony Corsaro - 1:03:57
For show notes and more information on our guests and what we discuss on the show, check out our website regenbrands.com that is regenbrands.com. You can also check out our YouTube channel, Regen Brands Podcast for all of our episodes with both video and audio. The best way to support our work is to give us a 5 star rating on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe to future episodes. Thanks so much for tuning into the Regen Brands Podcast brought to you by the Regen Coalition and Outlaw Ventures. We hope you learned something new in this episode and it empowers you to use your voice, your time, and your dollars to help us build a better and more regenerative food system. Love you guys.