Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio right now I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Nikki Seaman, who's the founder, and CEO of Freestyle snacks. Nikki, it's so great to see you. It's great to see you too. Ray, I always love chatting freestyle snacks, one of the fastest growing brands in the food space, and just has grown by leaps and bounds in that time.
Of course caught the attention of a very well-known TV program that's called Shark Tank. Uh, you're scheduled to appear on the show in about a week's time, a week from this recording. I know we can't talk about any of the details or the results, so to speak of this show, but, uh, based on. Glow. I hope this went well.
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a, an incredible experience. The whole producing team, casting team of Shark Tank, they are all awesome. And then I personally had a really great experience with the Sharks as well. They offered some great advice and feedback and overall it was a once in a lifetime experience, so very excited to see it.
Air live. Yeah. Well, I mean, let's go back in time for a sec. I remember sitting down and talking to you about the potential for a brand like yours, which markets packages of, or pouches of olives, and now pickles. And this is not. The first time we've seen a brand get into, you know, single serve pouches or sort of that snacking format, but it was certainly the first time I had seen a brand make olives fun, make olives, a snackable treat more than anything else.
And if you could just share with our audience some of the inspiration behind the brand and how long you'd been working on it before its launch. So I, you know, taking even a step back further had always been a big snacker and very interested in the food and bev space. So I actually did an externship with wisps, the Cheese Crisp Company, and that's really where I first cut my teeth in CPG.
It was a bootcamp of. Everything from commercializing new items to working with co-packers, enhancing pitch decks, and it really gave me the confidence to go out and start my own food brand. And at the same time, I got the idea for freestyle snacks because it was the pandemic. If you recall, olive bars, buffets, anything shareable in a grocery store or really any setting had to shut down.
You know, everything went to single serve, and because of that, I could no longer stock up at the olive bar and get my fancy marinated olives. And can we pause? Can we pause there? I mean, I'm, I'm still terrified of the salad and olive bar right now. I mean, like, it was already kind of weird pre pandemic and now it's like, oh, you know, everyone's touching everything and they still have to sneeze guard, which is just really gross to think about.
Like, have you been to an olive bar since? Of course, gotta check out the competition now. And you know, the olives, do you know they're sitting out all day, day and night. So it's definitely a different experience than freestyle offers. So we wanted to take all of the good of the olive bar and put it in a pouch, essentially.
No sneeze guard needed. That's, that could be a tagline. Exactly, and the traditional olive products on the shelf, you know, they just don't really jump out at you from a branding perspective. And then when you actually do get to taste some of these products, they're just a bit watery and mushy, bland, tasting.
There's no real flavor and fusion. And so I wanted to change that and create a product that. Really bridged the best of both worlds. Solved the taste, pain points that I was finding in the category because I knew olives could be so much fresher and more delicious tasting, and then also solving the pain point of the mess and inconvenience of jars.
Personally, I was eating the jars over my sink or else the brine would spill everywhere and I was losing olives down the drain. You know, there just had to be an easier way to eat such a delicious and healthy snack, and that's how I came up with freestyle. The portability, the convenience, certainly key aspects of the brand.
I wanna go back to fun though, you know? Yes. I have a pouch of your pickles in front of me here. Awesome. Uh, this, these are your mini pickles that are garlic, dill flavored. Mm-hmm. And I'm looking at, this is a purple bag. Yes. Dotted with green and freestyle snacks. Just is written in this fun. Cute font. And again, you know, there are other brands that sell olives and pickles and pouches before.
Mm-hmm. But they're very serious and stayed and it's just like, you should eat our olive or our pickle because it was brine for eight years. Or our olives come from this special part of Greece, and it's like, you should bow down and worship upon the altar of our sources. And it's just like, why? Come on, I, I just wanna snack on some pickles and, and.
Olives here and, and I think that's the brilliance of your brand is you turned it into something that can be an easy experience, a fun experience. Mm-hmm. And it doesn't have to be part of a charcuterie board. I mean, it could be. Mm-hmm. But it doesn't necessarily need to be. How much of that drove the brand's development this, this idea of sort of fun snacking?
Yeah, so I did a lot of research on the olive category and the use cases of olives before launching freestyle, and we found that actually 70% of people eating olives were already eating them as a snack versus, you know, a side dish or a recipe edition. And so we really wanted to lean into that snacking use case.
To your point launch with really fun, bold eye catching colors. The olive category is not very sexy. Uh, it's trusty but dusty as I like to say, and it just needed something fun that would really pop on shelf and, you know, make people say, oh, what's that? I think we all know the rule. Consumers have about five seconds to decide and, and figure out what a product is once they see it on the shelf.
And we wanted to make sure to make a statement with that. Your background is in finance, and you're known, at least I've read quite a bit about you, that you're very detailed when it comes to research. Yes. You do a lot of research. You study Intel reports among other data provider companies and. I think there's some importance in doing your homework.
Mm-hmm. How do you align, mm-hmm. The research that you do? Mm-hmm. With the information that you're getting on the ground and just the feedback you're hearing from consumers and retailers about the brand's direction or where to go with the brand. I think research is really helpful as a starting point, and that's how I like to frame it up.
So we recently launched pickles. We did a lot of surveys and and studies there to see what claims we wanna have on the bag, which flavors we wanna launch with. Then once we had the product, we did actual product seeding to see, oh, is the thickness good enough? How's the flavor? And I think then you use that research, but at a certain point you just have to launch.
And I am a big believer in done is better than perfect, and I'm also not afraid to pivot and continue making changes. So for instance, on our pickles that we just launched in the last month. One piece of feedback we started to get from consumers once it was in the market and people actually had to purchase it, was that they didn't know kick and picks meant it was a spicy product.
Okay? So already we have changed the name of that product to Spicy Dill. It's gonna start rolling out soon, but you just have to be really open. You know your product's not gonna be a hundred percent perfect when it launches, and as long as you're open to receiving that feedback and making those positive changes, I think you'll really be set up for success.
That's a great point and I think, uh, kicking picks, I get it. But at the end of the day, spicy is probably an easier word for most people to understand and appreciate. I wanna talk about the packaging. This pouch format is now, I think, generally understood as being a good format for olives and pickles, and you had a lot to do with that free sales and a lot to do with that.
But at the time, I wonder how much. Education you felt like you needed to do? Certainly on the retailer front, because there weren't a lot of, I would assume, merchandising opportunities for a package like this. In that olive section, did you receive any kind of pushback? I mean, what was the general feedback?
What was the response like? Mm-hmm. From retail, Breyers, when you approach them. I would say it was mixed, either retail buyers absolutely loved the concept, and I think that really helped to get our distribution. You know, we're in over 5,000 stores to date, hoping to double that next year. I think the packaging, the colors, the fun elements of the brand really resonated with these olive buyers, you know, who are used to seeing these same products over and over again.
There was a small percentage of buyers who have said like, oh, maybe we've tried a type of snacking olive in the past. It didn't work well. There's too much education needed around, you know. Is it a dry olive? Is it a fresh olive? Is it a chip? What are you actually getting in the bag? But what's been really incredible is over the last year.
We have had several viral TikTok videos, so we've been able to reach over 18 million people and tell them exactly what is freestyle snacks, how do we put olives in a pouch without the liquid? And this is exactly what you're getting. And I think that's really helped to start the movement on olive snacks and making sure people know like, this is brand new.
I've never seen it before, but now I know what it is. I think there's another question about where it belongs in the store, right? Mm-hmm. Does it belong next to the traditional olive brands that you see in grocery stores? Does it belong next to other snacks? Mm-hmm. Like chips, perhaps? How do you put it on shelf?
Does it require clips? Do you need a box? And so all these questions, I'm assuming. You had to tackle one at a time or maybe 10 at a time when it came to where in the store this brand belongs. Mm-hmm. How much of a conversation was that with merchandisers? Was that something that you could convince them via data, via success in other stores?
At the end of the day, I mean, this is always a big question for entrepreneurs is how do I get my product in a place where most. Customers are going to see it and want to buy it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's, it's such a difficult question and something that we still work through really on a retailer by retailer basis because, you know, for instance, when we launched, we had our olives in the traditional olive aisle at Central Market.
Then we also had our olive in fresh thyme in their deli section. And it's just really hard when retail stores have such different layouts to do an apples to apples comparison of where we're gonna perform better velocity wise as of today. You know, our rule of thumb is we merchandise in the olive and pickle aisle.
Which bodes really well for us with our new pickles because we can get a really beautiful brand block of six plus skews all next to each other. It's the same buyer. And then secondary displays and placements have also been fantastic for us. You know, in the cheese section on top of the salad bar, those kind of impulse locations, maybe shippers.
But we have found the traditional olive aisle is where our product stands out the most, and it's where olive lovers are going to pick up olive. So. When you are getting this product into people's hands and getting them to eat it for the first time, what's been the most successful part of that demo strategy?
Is it the packaging? Is it this notion that you can, you know, take olives on the go and not have to put a jar in your bag or your purse? I mean, what's gotten people really interested mm-hmm. In this brand and, and getting them interested in not only trying to buying it. Yeah, I mean, I really think it's the packaging that jumps off the shelf and first kind of gives that consumer intrigue.
And then I would say after that, you know, easy is the number one word people use to describe our product. Like, this is just so easy. I can throw it in my bag, I take it on a travel day. It's perfect for on the go. And then I think people also have this element of surprise and delight where they're like.
You know, I thought the olives would be good, but they're actually amazing and super high quality, and so we continue to deliver on that quality piece, and that's why we're seeing such great repurchase. So I think it's more of a flywheel of those, those three main elements working together. I love speaking with you, Nikki, because it feels like you have a good sense of who you are and what your brand is all about, and certainly that takes time.
But at the outset, when you're launching a brand and you're a brand new entrepreneur and all these people are giving you advice, and you have some consultants that are like, Hey, give me $40,000 and I can take your brand to the top, uh, how do you cut through the clutter? How do you make sure that you are in control of your own destiny and able to take the right advice and block out the wrong advice?
Mm-hmm. It's really difficult and a learned skill. It's funny, I remember when I first launched, I, you know, would take a call basically with anyone who reached out to me. And you really just have to learn the power of no and preserving your time and figure out where your time as a founder is really going to be best spent.
So, you know, I've, I've worked on building that over the last couple of years. It's tough because everyone is a potential customer, right? And I want everyone to have this really great perception of freestyle, be super excited about the brand, but at the end of the day, there's only so many hours that you can devote to some of these conversations.
So, you know, being able to, to say no, I think is a really important learn skill. What's the worst advice you ever got? Well, I would say the worst advice is don't do it. Don't, don't launch freestyle snacks. You know, a few folks in my life, they said, I don't get it. Like olives, they come in a jar, like no one's snacking on them.
Like, I just don't see this as a business model and, you know, I just kind of ignored them and, and kept marching forward. I also got the advice in the beginning to focus on D two C versus retail. I really took the complete opposite approach, and now our G two C site is growing. Amazon's been fantastic for us.
Same with TikTok, but the core of our business is really being in stores, being on the shelf, and getting people to discover us that way. So that was also another piece of advice that I just did not listen to. If you recall back in 2021 and part of 2022, everything was D two C. Everyone was just like, D two C is the future.
You have to be invested in D two C. If you're not in D two C, then might as well just stop doing what you're doing. And of course, that changed because if people went back to grocery stores, and not everything was e-commerce. But it's great to hear that you're doing well on Amazon. Really interesting to hear that you're doing well on TikTok.
Mm-hmm. I feel like TikTok is really. Fast growing platform, but it's, it's one of the most confusing, I would say, or one of the most understudied platforms. Mm-hmm. How have you navigated TikTok, and not just from a social standpoint, but certainly from a sales standpoint? Yeah, we had a team offsite with our, our very small but mighty team last year, and we decided we're gonna invest in TikTok shop and how do we get on this channel?
And I kind of treated it like almost having a, a trainer and a workout and, you know, you had to just commit to making these videos, pulling everything together, writing these, you know, scripts for the videos. And you know, it took a little while for the algorithm to start picking us up, but then all of a sudden they started pushing out our videos.
And TikTok is incentivized to push out your videos as well, because they're getting a small commission on it. And from there, you know, we just saw the revenue potential and realized like it's worth spending our time on this channel. And to date, we've only posted organic videos, which is great. We haven't utilized their ad platform, but we run a bunch of sales on TikTok and there's definitely some tricks of the trade that we've figured out and it's really just been a, a big test and learn process, but.
The revenue potential on the platform, especially during this time of year. You know, the holidays, black Friday, cyber Monday is, is huge. I know I'm gonna get an angry email from someone if I don't ask you, Nikki. You know, you mentioned tricks of the trade. Well, what's one trick of the trade? 'cause I know I'm just gonna get it.
Someone's gonna send an email to ask a taste reader.com and like, man, that was a cool interview with Nikki, but if you had asked for one damn trick off that trade that she mentioned. So if you could, I mean, is there something specific that you could share with her audience? I would say one of the things that has made our TikTok shop successful is our bestselling item, which is a sampler pack.
So basically having a really low priced entry item to the brand so that people can get a taste of it. And then, you know, if they love the product, they're gonna go back to TikTok shop and buy your bigger full priced pack. So that pricing architecture strategy. Once you get that right, you know, I would say like pricing somewhere 10 to $15 is palatable for that channel.
And then, you know, making videos, really pushing that starter pack has been what's most successful for us. So interesting that, uh, you can drive trial on TikTok, I think. Mm-hmm. You know, two years ago no one would've ever thought that that was at all possible. And trial is really important and I think about.
Freestyle snacks on Delta Airlines and that opportunity, which a lot of folks listening would love to have their brands on an airline, any airline. Mm-hmm. Is that relationship as much about trial and awareness as it is about revenue? Could you talk about how you first got connected with Delta? Was it a sort of a, a cold pitch on your part, or did they come looking for you?
It was a great story. Actually. It was, I think the last year of, or maybe the second to last year of Expo East. It was the last day of the show. We're packing up our booth a little bit early and the Delta buyer came over. She's like, I've been looking to talk to you this whole time. And that was when we first made a touch point.
And then from there, it was about two and a half years of just me checking in with the Delta buyer giving her updates on the brand. Our operational capacity to support Delta, our new flavors. And it really came down to timing. She's like, Hey, we're looking to refresh our boxes. We have an opportunity for an olive snack.
Can you meet this demand? And we were able to do it and it was an easy yes. And you know, it definitely took a lot of chipping away at, at that relationship, but ultimately came down to timing. I think to your other question, whether it's a marketing play or a revenue play, I mean, the volumes are huge and if you can make even, you know, a couple cents per pack, then it's really worth it.
But I, I would view the airline channel more as a marketing expense, but you know, definitely encourage trying to get as close to break even as possible. That must've been a trip when, uh, yeah, you, you're right to pack up early and you're like, we're just going home. And the fire shows up. You're like, Hey, we wanna put you on all of our flights.
You're like, uh, okay. Stop packing up folks. Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah. Well, I love these stories about being prepared for an opportunity and getting into a retailer like Target is one where. That seems to be, you have to be in the right place operationally. Mm-hmm. And at a relatively mature stage of your brand's development.
But when that opportunity comes, it's pretty hard to say no. You talked about saying no, but in sort of a different context, but mm-hmm. When it comes to Target, how did you know you were ready for that opportunity? How did you make sure that you were so buttoned up that you could. Come outta the gate really, really strong and say, oh yeah, they're gonna want us in a few hundred stores now, but mm-hmm.
We wanna be in a target nationally in a few months. Mm-hmm. Target is one that I, again, had been chipping away at since I, I launched the brand. I had chatted with probably three or four different buyers that had gone on either the, um, olive desk or the deli desk. And, you know, finally, I think they were.
Really excited about our success on social media specifically with TikTok. I think that definitely has gotten a lot of buyer attention. I've actually had buyers DM me on TikTok from very large retailers, like, Hey, I must have missed you at Expo West, like would love to chat. So again, like TikTok has just been an incredible channel.
But going back to, you know, how we were ready for the target opportunity, I think. Just making sure your supply chain is in a really strong position, so making sure our co-packers are buttoned up. The product quality and taste is exactly where we want it to be. And then just really rigorous demand planning and making sure, you know, we would be able to fill that need.
And I actually took the target meeting by myself without a broker, and then once, you know, they seemed like they were interested in bringing us on, I was like, okay, I do need a broker to help me navigate all the promotions, their systems, really speak the language just so I could be buttoned up and make sure that we.
You know, over deliver on the opportunity for them. How much of your contacts and interaction with those buyers from Target really helped lay the groundwork for you being in their stores and them knowing who you are and what you're about? Yeah, I think, you know, buyers just like consumers want to know who is behind the brand, what is the brand mission, the brand values, and can they align themselves with that.
And so I do think it is really helpful. I'm a big believer in planting seeds and you know, three years later when again, the timing just seems right. Then they know me, they know the brand, and they're like, yes. Like, okay, this is now the time to bring freestyle into our stores or onto our flight. So I do think it's really helpful.
And then. I'm not afraid to ask for help. To the point about brokers bringing in other experts to really help me excel on the opportunity and make sure, you know, we can shine and, and grow within retailers like Target. How many experts have you talked to about tariffs? Not enough, honestly. I think, um, everyone's just a little confused there and rolling with the punches, so, you know, doing all they can.
I doubt tariffs had much to do with the launch of the pickles, but you know, having a secondary line mm-hmm. Means that you don't need to be, well I know it's in these pickles are basically brand new. Mm-hmm. But it might mean that you don't need to rely on your primary line of products as much as Yeah, you do.
But how did the pickles come about? How long have you been thinking about adding a second line of products? You know, I am always just thinking of different innovations. Where do we wanna go with the product line next? And pickles have always been in our pipeline. We've had some other types of pickled foods also in the pipeline that we've done some r and d on.
It actually was a meeting with Whole Foods and I had a slide, you know, here's our innovation pipeline. What are you looking for? Like, what do you need to see on your shelves? What's missing? And how can freestyle fill that gap for you? And it was a really incredible conversation. And they said, if you can make pickles happen, we would love to take them.
And so from there it was off to the races. Like, okay, this was just, you know, a concept on paper. Now we have to commercialize this for the timing for the next reset. And it came down to about a six month commercialization timeline, which was crazy. But I'm really proud that we made it happen. And you know, it was probably a little earlier than I would've wanted to launch another product line because we have so much ground still to cover with our olives.
But. Pickles are so strong. They're a way bigger market size. We've already had so much demand and excitement around it, so I'm very excited to see where we can take it. Yeah. You know, when, uh, retailers like, Hey, if you create this product, we'll put it on shelf. That sounds like a pretty good deal. Was it sort of a handshake agreement or was it a contract or No contract.
Just a, you know, a conversation. Like we would be really excited if you had this to present to us in the official review. So, you know, started working towards it then and then. Made up some samples, sent those over to the team. They loved the taste of the product, the look and feel, and then it was really off to the races, like, okay, now how do we scale this?
You know what investors love to hear is they love to hear you have a relationship with Whole Foods that Whole Foods asks you to create. Yes. Products forward them that you have relationship with Target that you're killing it on. TikTok, all these things sound really great to an investor's ears. Mm-hmm.
Certainly a lot of them wanna also hear about gross margin and supply chain and wanna believe in you to be the person who's gonna be able to lead the company going forward, which is always an odd thing to ask an entrepreneur. Are you the right person to lead this company going forward? Yeah, of course I am.
Any who, when it comes to raising money? Mm-hmm. What's that process been like? I know you bootstrapped and you funded the company at the outset, but. How do you talk to investors about not just where freestyle is right now, but the potential for the brand going forward? Yeah, we've really staved off taking any institutional capital to date, so kept continued to bootstrap with just angel investors and that's proven successful.
It's been very challenging, I have to say, because you know, we can't grow as quickly as if we had, you know, a $10 million check in the bank, but it's helped us to really grow strategically. Focus ruthlessly on margins and operate, you know, as close to break even as we can. And going back to opportunities to say no to, you know, every single retailer we look at an ROI for them to make sure it makes sense to work with them.
Any marketing opportunities, there has to be a return there as well. And I think it's allowed us to operate the business in a really sustainable way. I know the capital environment is, you know, always flip flopping if they care more about profitability versus top line. And you know, I think as long as you have good profitability, then top line always has the potential to grow with, with more cash.
So just setting ourselves up for, for some future success there. Are you profitable now? We were profitable year to date through July, but then we had the investment with the pickles, you know, some r and d expenses there. So we'll end the year closer to break even, but looking forward to profitability in 2026.
Vicki, I'm so glad that we had this opportunity to sit down and chat. I, I know there's so many things going on with you right now. Uh, yeah. Being an entrepreneur, I always have to offer this. I always have to qualify. I've never been an entrepreneur. I don't really know what it's like, but um, it seems like this is just a certain type of personality.
There's a certain type of person that can do it and that can fit the bill. Do you feel like at this point you really have embraced that role? Have you always felt like this is something that you could do? Or is it something that you have to learn how to become? I think anyone can become an entrepreneur if they're okay with the risk and being uncomfortable.
That is something that I've had to, to grow into. You know, my prior role as a management consultant was so structured. You knew exactly what you were gonna get, what your pay was going to be, how you were going to advance, and with being an entrepreneur and running your own business, it's just constant unknowns and learning every single day on the job.
You know, you don't always know the answer, but you just have to make a decision. So I think it is something that anyone can learn to do or, you know, grow into. And I had always been a wannabe entrepreneur. You know, I would listen to the, how I built this podcast. I would binge Shark Tank. And I think if you're really passionate about something and you're willing to hustle and persevere, you know, you can set your mind to anything and, and do it.
Just don't expect the paycheck every two weeks. Yeah. Not as good as a, a consulting one, that's for sure. No, well, Nikki, it really does blow my mind. The best part of my job is meeting entrepreneurs when they're just starting out, and that's why I love our elevator talk series, which you participated in three years ago as well, and everyone's bright-eyed and bushy tailed, and you're like, I'm doing this.
It's really cool. And I have this really cool concept. You know, we're hoping to be in all whole food stores next year and so on and so forth, and obviously 99% of the time that doesn't happen. But for those who do persevere, for those who do have a good plan, surround themselves with the right people, have a little bit of luck.
It's just so rewarding for me and our team at Bev Nash and Taste Radio to have seen it. And in some ways, I guess, I hope, you know, been a small part of it. So congratulations on everything you've built to this point. I hope to send you an email next week that says, congratulations on that big Shark Tank investment.
Thank you. But whether or not there was one, I think, uh, you've proven that, you know, freestyle snacks is indeed something that you should have done. And for all the doubters and those who said you shouldn't do it, uh, I'm sure there's a little bit of. There's a little bit of a smile and a sly smile that you can share with them every time you see 'em.
Definitely. I really appreciate all of those words, Ryan. Um, likewise. It's just been awesome getting to know you over the last couple of years, and I love the, the support that you showed entrepreneurs and just excited to keep growing freestyle snacks and, you know, become the household name for olives and pickles.
There you go. I'm gonna hold you to that. And in three, or maybe, maybe not, maybe not that long, maybe in two or three years, free sale will be that household name and I would love for that to happen. But until then, Nikki, thank you so much again for joining us today on Taste Radio and uh, let's do it again soon.
Sounds great. Thanks Ry.
