To secure one of their first major corporate accounts, co-founder Chrissy Holler bypassed traditional channels by sneaking into the Google campus cafeteria. She found the chef and pitched them directly, successfully getting the product stocked for employees.
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In their search for a scalable process, the founders experimented with a completely unconventional method: using a paint sprayer and heat guns to coat almonds with chocolate. While it failed, it demonstrates a crucial, scrappy innovation mindset.
Directly approaching large organizations is often ineffective. Instead, emulate Slack's growth model by getting individual employees to use and love the product. This creates internal champions who advocate for wider organizational adoption, pulling the product in rather than pushing it from the outside.
When the Target buyer asked if they had supply chain issues before offering a chain-wide launch, the founder instantly said 'nope'—despite producing in a 'chicken coop.' This bold move secured the deal, forcing them to rapidly scale.
To perfect their recipe, the founders didn't just experiment randomly. They carefully deconstructed a high-end chocolatier's almond with a knife to understand its unique properties and palate, which informed their own development.
To secure a critical partnership with Beyond Meat after another deal collapsed, Emma Hernan didn't use traditional channels. She systematically reached out to every account Beyond Meat followed on social media, correctly assuming this network contained employees or close connections, and successfully landed the deal.
To boost visibility for their risky chain-wide launch, the founders negotiated for a coveted end cap. Instead of a hefty fee, they offered Target an exclusive peanut butter almond flavor, turning product development into a powerful marketing asset.
Breezy Griffith's early ventures, like selling sorbets and sandwiches at a loss, weren't failures. They were crucial learning experiences that built the foundational skills and resilience needed to launch a successful CPG brand.
When 40,000 lbs of almonds arrived rancid just before their Target launch, the founders' emergency plan was to deploy an 'army' of friends to buy out bulk bins at every local grocery store and Costco to meet the deadline.
Unable to find footwear experts online, founder Haley Pavoni drove to a premier biomechanical testing firm. She walked in, pitched her idea to the CEO, and immediately got a shortlist of the exact development partners she needed, bypassing months of searching.
Unable to find a co-manufacturer through traditional means, co-founder Breezy Griffith scoured esoteric chocolate blogs, found a chocolatier's comment, reverse-engineered their screen name to find a phone number, and cold-called them at home.