Hey, folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I am honored to be sitting down with Ian Tecklin, who is the founder of Ripi Foods. Ian, it's great to see you. Great to see you. Thanks for having me on. Congratulations. Ripi just closed a two point four million dollar funding round that we wrote about on notch.com.
How long did that take to put together? Yeah, really exciting moment for us, as a company. That was a few months in the making, a-as anyone knows w-who's looking to raise money, from the initial outreach to investors to preliminary diligence processes to getting really into the diligence process in depth and getting into long-form documentat- like, it takes several months.
I'd say we, we kicked off the process towards the end of last year. With the holiday season, we hit a little bit of a lull. But I'd say all in all, it took about three or so months, three or four months, and got a deal done and couldn't be happier to have Cutting Horse on the cap table in addition to Great Circle Ventures and Paperboy Ventures and Super Angel Fund and a number of other folks as well.
Pretty impressive for a brand that started or launched in February of twenty twenty-five. And before we hopped on the mics we were talking about this, and you have, this is gonna sound bad, no experience- -in the food industry, or you had no experience when you- Absolutely true, yeah ... when you started this company, yeah.
You were a talents talent guy for a number of years. So I worked... It's interesting. I worked at a talent agency- Okay ... but I wasn't a talent guy. Okay. So right before starting Ripi, I worked at a family office doing early-stage investing and new incubations, and then before that, worked at a big talent agency, UTA, doing corp dev, so focused on M&A and growth equity investing and strategy-related initiatives across sports and entertainment and media.
Okay. So you were around a lot of talent- Absolutely ... but you didn't manage talent. I think that actually is better for you. Yeah. I think managing talent could be a pretty hectic job. It wasn't as glamorous, but it was a lot of fun, working on the deals that we looked at. What really propelled you?
What got you interested and excited about starting your own brand? Yeah. For me and starting my own company, it was... and I say this humbly I always told myself I wouldn't leave a comfortable situation and dive into this crazy world of entrepreneurship, let alone, CPG entrepreneurship, unless I had a high level of conviction around whatever idea I came up with.
And- Ripi happened to be that idea and to me, it's about taking an idea and going through the motions of manifesting it and ultimately having it culminated into a physical product that elevates people's weeknight meals and whatnot, but it was a long path to get here. Obviously, happy to get into the origin, but what was helpful at the experience at Maximus Ventures was working with founders and early-stage operators.
And really for the first time in my career, being able to get exposure and rolling up my sleeves and seeing what it takes to bring, a business from ideation to execution. Whether it's at, the pre-launch stage or pre-seed or seed stage, regardless of the category that, you're entering the industry or sector that you're entering, it's a very similar process, and that was something that, really interested me as someone who always felt like I had this entrepreneurial bug.
Did you always feel like you were gonna be a ravioli entrepreneur? If you put this on my bingo card- ... 10, 20 years ago I would've said you're absolutely crazy. But it's funny how life happens. So I first saw Ripi in Miami. I was down there for a meetup that we held, a Taste Radio meetup, where if you're not familiar, listeners, I don't know how you aren't at this point, it's a live podcast networking event that we hold in various cities across the country.
And I did a Whole Foods check-in, and I saw this beautiful brand that I had never encountered before in the frozen section. I immediately grabbed it and took a picture and put it on Instagram. A lot of people responded, with emojis or said, "What is that? Where'd you find that?" So on and so forth, and clearly you did something right on the branding front.
We launched last February, as you mentioned, but we spent all of 2024 building behind the scenes, focused on really two things. One was product development, R&D with our co-packer to take the recipes that Joe my partner and chef in this venture, that he developed on a small scale and going through dozens of iterations to commercialize them and make them feasible at scale.
But second was branding work with our agency. We worked with a fantastic agency, Truffle, in terms of brand strategy, visual identity, logo, packaging design, web design. For me, it was really important, arguably one of the most important things. Obviously, we have to have a great-tasting product, but branding was so important to me because, it's everything that people see, on shelves.
And it was important to come to market with a polished brand and to have packaging, most importantly, that popped because that's your billboard, and we're dealing with really deep preconceived notions, entrenched biases that people have around frozen food. When people think frozen pasta, they think Stouffer's and Lean Cuisine, for example.
And I'm not knocking it. There's always going to be a market for- brands like that, but to be able to flip those preconceived notions on their head and convince people that, the freezer aisle can be a destination for delicious food, and Ripi is that go-to premium brand to help you elevate your weeknight meals, that has to be communicated on the box first and foremost, because that's our most important billboard.
And I can't tell you how much that means to me, the fact that you came across us on shelves and were like, "Whoa, this is interesting." That's exactly, the moment that we're trying to create, and then obviously once people try it, that they'll become a recurring buyer and become a ravioli evangelist, as I like to say.
But branding first and foremost was so important, and we spent all the time in the world to make that happen. Yeah. Listeners, if you have an opportunity, definitely check out the branding for Ripi because it screams premium, it screams delicious, it screams convenient. Everything I think that you wanted to...
i'm assuming that you wanted to communicate on front of pack does that. Yeah. I want to stay on the branding front for a sec because you mentioned this agency Truffle, and when I think of truffle, I think of expensive. Yep. And it is an investment. Absolutely. You do have to spend typically to get great brand identity- Absolutely
strategy, et cetera, and a lot of folks don't have the money to do that, especially at the outset. But for you, it was worth every penny. Absolutely. And look, every founder's situation is different, and, there are folks who raise a ton of money out of the gate and go, nationwide in a major blue chip retailer out of the gate.
There are people who are bootstrapping it and creating their own labels and starting in farmer's mar- Like, either approach, works. Every situation, every founder's situation, every company's situ- is different, and so I'm never gonna knock one approach or the other. For me, branding was so important.
I needed to come to market with a polished brand, and I was willing to make that investment. I was very clear upfront with my existing investors at the time. We had raised about one, 1.1 million pre-launch, and I was very clear with my investors that this expense for branding was going to be the most expensive bucket, but it was 100% worth it because my opinion was if we come to market with weak branding, weak packaging design, weak storytelling from a brand perspective, weak webs- everything that goes into making a brand, we're DOA.
That was one of the things that I took very seriously, and we spent the money, we spent the investment. Again, nearly 12 months bringing that brand from what I thought it could be into my head to fruition and I thought it was worth every penny. And as you mentioned, of course, if the food doesn't match the premium visual identity of the package- Exactly
you're not gonna have that customer come back for a second time. First and foremost, the product has to taste great. There's a lot of brands that I see, and I'm sure a lot of your listeners, I'm sure you know a lot of bra- that have fantastic branding and fantastic packaging and fantastic socials, and you try the product and you're like, "What?"
How is that sustainable? For me to build a sustainable business, a lot of things obviously have to go right, but first and foremost, the product has to taste great and your branding has to resonate. And I had a lot of confidence in the product that we had developed and wanted the brand to carry that messaging and pique interest.
How'd you f- connect with Joe? 'Cause Joe, pretty well-known guy in the food community, Top Chef alum. He's known as the pasta guy. He is the pasta guy. Yeah. He is the pasta guy. He hates when I say he's the pasta guy- ... 'cause he's very humble by nature. I met him in summer of 2020. This little thing called COVID was going on.
Restaurants were shut down. People were cooking at home more than ever before. I was living in LA working at the talent agency that we're talking about. Our deal flow stopped. I had so much more free time now, and I one day was walking the aisles of the grocery store by me and had this light bulb moment, a genuine light bulb moment, looking at some of the frozen pasta options, and thought of Ripi right then and there, and started to diligence the market, and, figured there's something here.
But I'm not a pasta guy. I love tasting pasta. I love eating pasta. I don't make pasta, though. And so I just DM'd Joe on Instagram. At the time he... We debate this, but I could've sworn he had about 10,000 followers. Okay. And now he has close to a million, if not higher, across Instagram and TikTok and YouTube.
And I DM'd him and said, "Hey, I'm a huge fan." I'd seen him on Top Chef, the year or two prior when he was on it, and made it pretty far, and was following him and following all of his pasta content, and DM'd him and said, "Hey, I'm a huge fan. I have a crazy idea for a pasta venture.
Can I tell you more about it?" And coincidentally, he lived five blocks away from me in LA at the time. And so during COVID, every week for the next six to eight months, he would drop off a different pasta, a different filling, a different shape, a different dough. I gotta back up and pause here 'cause this doesn't sound like a normal connection.
No. What about your approach resonated with Joe? I think it was the pitch, and this is a similar pitch that we give to retailers as well, but it was an opportunity to bring the restaurant to your freezer at home. Joe, from a content perspective on social, has done a great job in creating pasta content and other types of content and connecting with people and showing people how to elevate their, meals at home.
Same thing he did, in, in the restaurant game as well. This was taking the quality that he, had really perfected in restaurants and that he perfected in his own kitchen and was sharing, on social. This created an opportunity to bring that quality to the masses, and that really resonated with him, and he has a very focused business mind.
He left the restaurant game, I think it was 2019, to really be an entrepreneur and bet on himself and become a full-time content creator and write books and be featured in TV shows and do paid collabs and partnerships and events. And so this plugged into, his pasta universe, if you will.
Yeah. He's been involved in CPG prior to Ripi. Yes. Tantos, I believe is the name. Yep. Tantos is his pasta chip brand. Yes. So he must have seen the horror stories about commercializing products. A pasta chip is a crazy idea, but I remember tasting it and I was like, "Okay, this actually kinda works."
Frozen ravioli, the ones you make at home, you have all the great ingredients that you wanna use. It tastes great, I'm sure. You put it in your freezer, you take it out. "Ah, this is exactly what I was expecting." You go to a co-packer, co-manufacturer, and you say, "Hey, this is our recipe," and they produce it for you, and it comes out, and you're like, "Wow, this is just not what we expected."
Again, going from concept to commercialization can be very tricky. Absolutely. What was your experience? It took us nearly 12 months to finalize these recipes and commercialize them. For me, really, when you asked that it triggered two thoughts in my head. One was how methodical I was in the approach, and this is where I think my background as an investor has really suited me in that I spoke to 18 co-packers prior to selecting the one that we work with now.
If there's someone who makes frozen pasta at scale, I've spoken to them. And so it was really important to find that right commercial partner, which brings me to the next piece is I feel like I'm very good at identifying the right talent to help get to where we need to be, whether it's Joe in developing the initial recipes and being a value add from a promotional perspective, bringing on Truffle from a brand agency perspective, bringing on our current co-packer who worked with us for nearly a year to commercialize the recipes and make them feasible at scale.
That's pretty rare, but they saw what we saw, which was this was an area that was ripe for disruption, and they wanted to be along for the ride. And so we went through dozens and dozens of iterations to bring our initial three SKUs to market and did all of that in 2024 in parallel with all of the branding work.
So again, 2024 is just a big behind-the-scenes build year for us, and then again, launched in 2025 in February of last year. How do you not fall in love with your product? Because you could think, and Joe could think, that this is a delicious product that's really gonna work well in a particular retailer with a particular consumer who will- Be looking for a premium pasta like this, and then that consumer says, "This isn't for me."
How do you make sure that you are delivering on the flavor and value that your consumer, your target consumer wants? Yeah. It's such a good question, and the answer is there's no perfect answer. There's no data that you can look at that says this is a winning pro- there's so many variables. I trusted my palate, I trusted Joe's palate, I trusted the R&D team that we assembled, and my friends and family and my wife's palate.
We had a very close insular circle of folks who tried the initial batches. But ultimately it was really Joe and I, and we complement each other very well and again, just have very good palates. And I knew what good pasta, and Joe obviously knows what good pasta can taste like, and we went off of that.
We didn't do any customer surveys or pay for third-party sampling and feedback and whatnot. We just trusted our gut and, again, going back to just having this high level of conviction around the opportunity, I knew that the customer was there because I would talk to people, and just anecdotally myself, but also just talking to friends and family.
I didn't eat frozen pasta, and I would talk to friends and family, "Oh, do you eat frozen?" They'll say, "No, I don't eat frozen pasta." And I'll say, "Oh, do you eat pasta?" "Oh, I love pasta." Which told me that there was a branding and product issue in the market today, which is what we're solving for. And so I, again, just had a high level of conviction, trusted my instincts, my palate, and obviously in partnership with Joe, we created products that, have resonated so far.
Price point, however, is not for everyone. Let's call it what it is. Ten dollars at Whole Foods for a box, nine ounces. Yep. And it's a meal for two people. Yep. Which for me, I would buy that in a heartbeat because that speaks to me in a way that's very clear and again, delivers on the value that I want out of a product like this.
But it's not necessarily something, at least at this point, that can go far and wide across America in every retailer, in every channel. When it came to pricing strategy, what was your thinking? How did you determine that you could deliver on the value that you wanted at the price point that a consumer would be willing to pay?
Yeah, it's a great question and the thinking around pricing is the same thinking that we had around Overall branding and most importantly in product. It's always about striking that right balance between being sophisticated and elevated, but accessible at the same time from an ingredient and from a pricing perspective as well.
We are a premium brand. We're meant to elevate your weeknight meals. Our flavor profiles are elevated. We're meant to empower you as a home chef. We're for people who, are full-time working professionals or busy parents or just appreciate good food and are looking for a quick, convenient indulgence and don't mind paying a premium, but also don't wanna compromise on the quality or the convenience that they're used to.
I think it's a terrible strategy personally to try to be all things for all people. We wanna be a national brand embraced in the majority of households, but I also recognize that $9.99 is not palatable for everyone. I think it's good value in that for $10 you, you get to feed two people, so it's $5 of value per person, which is fantastic compared to the restaurant quality that you're getting.
For a pasta entree for one in a restaurant anywhere you are, it's $22 to $34. And so comparing that, there's certainly price value there, but I also recognize when people see the more conventional legacy brands in, in the space today, they're three, four, $5. And so yes, we are twice as much, but I think that we're worth the premium for the quality that you're getting, for the clean label that you're getting.
But I also recognize, it's not for everyone. Finding a co-packer that you can rely on is a huge key to successful brands. Arguably one of the biggest. Yeah. So how did you find the partners that you needed that you could count on? Yeah. It was one of my criteria when I was talking to these co-packers in twenty twenty-four.
I had really four non-starters. Look, you're never gonna find a co-packer that checks every single box you're looking for, but it's about finding the right partner that checks, at the very least, the non-starters for you. One of them for me was they had to have a large enough facility that we could grow into, but also not so large at the outset where the MOQs are so high and, it's really intensive from a working capital perspective.
We found the right partner where we can grow into it. I know we have a great dynamic right now. I know we're nationwide in Whole Foods right now. We're launching nationwide in Target in about a week, and these guys can support- Congratulations. Thank you so much. These guys can support what we're looking to do there.
And so for me, it was always about, again, just the word of the day is being methodical in the approach and not only understanding what your non-starters are, what are the key criteria that you need in a co-packer to bring this concept from ideation to execution, but also making sure that you have a partner who's willing to invest the time and resources to help get your recipes to where you need to be.
Find a partner where the margins, most importantly, make sense. We talked before about if your branding really isn't resonating out of the gate, you're DOA even with a good product. I would argue if your margins don't work out of the gate or at the very least, you don't have a clear path, to scaling margins to a sustainable way, then you're DOA.
So there's so many criteria and that's why obviously the co-packer, if you decide to go that route, is so important, and you're basically in bed theoretically with that partner for the first couple of years at a minimum, if all goes according to plan. Did you feel like you had any leeway to work on pricing with your co-packer?
I don't know if you had any kind of retail deals at that point. I don't know if you'd already spoken with Whole Foods. It's kinda like that chicken and egg situation. Hundred percent. Yeah. We didn't start talking to retailers until we had commercialized samples. So twenty twenty-four from call it January, February of twenty twenty-four to October, so it was almost ten months of product development work that it took to commercialize our recipes and get true, call it retail-ready products or commercialized samples, if you will.
Once we had those towards the tail end, then we started talking to retailers. Because retailers, they'll always ask really for two things at a bare minimum, digital renderings of the packaging design if you don't have physical packaging- ... and also commercial samples. It doesn't have to be retail-ready in a box, but, at the very least bench top samples, so they can see directionally what this looks like.
It really is the chicken or the egg, but to be considered by any retailer, my POV is you need to have those two things. And so we've had those two items covered in October or so of 2024, started talking to retailers around that time, and then launched into retail for the first time in February of last year with a handful of more independent regional players that took us on early.
So with your co-packer, they must have seen opportunity. They must have seen that you were focused on creating a brand and filling a white space that existed out there, and that it could fit into a Whole Foods. It could fit into a Target at some point. What gave them confidence, though? What really made them feel like they wanted to work with you and that they felt excited about the opportunity for the long-term future of Ripi?
Yeah it's rare that you get a co-packer that really leans in, but when you have it, it's a special partnership. I think... And not I think. I spoke to, I mentioned, 18 co-packers. Every single one of these pasta manufa- It's a very old school way of life, and I say that with all the respect in the world.
These are primarily family-run businesses passed down generation to generation. They've been in the pasta game for decades. The co-packer, and really all of the ones that we, we spoke to, but the co-packer we're working with now, I think what resonated was they've seen the industry for the last several decades.
They've been in this world, and they've seen what we've seen, which is it's long been dominated by more conventional value brands from legacy companies, and it was time for a new emerging brand like ours to really disrupt things in a meaningful way by leaning into true chef-driven, elevated flavor profiles that were differentiated to have branding that really pops and is modern and bringing energy to the stale category.
That's an argument, on the product and brand side that I think really resonates well in both a natural and a conventional setting, both at a local and nationalized level, that they saw and, wanted to be a part of. It's exciting when you have your branding right, when you have your co-packer locked up, when you have a partner like Joe Sasto, and then you walk into that retail buyer's office, and you've really gotta prove yourself, and you really gotta let them know that this is something that's going to bring incremental value to their stores.
They're there to make money. They wanna make more money. Absolutely. This is capitalism for you. And if you're going to be on shelf, you're replacing something else that wasn't making as much money. Is that the story? Did you essentially just say, "Look, you're gonna make more money if you bring our product in," or how does that conversation go?
Yeah and even getting to that point, there are thousands if not tens of thousands of decisions that have to be made across every facet of the business. And so just hearing you describe that process, I'm like, "Wow, it really is that easy?" But I will say there are a ton of steps along the way to even- Sure
get to that point, and so many variables, so many things that could go wrong. It wasn't, smooth sailing. But again, aligning yourself with the right partners, I think is a huge unlock. Now, the pitch that we've been giving to retailers since the outset, before we even had a retailer, was really twofold.
One is we'll say something along the lines of, "Look at your existing frozen pasta set. It's a lot of sameness. It's the same conventional value brands from legacy companies. Not knocking that at all. But take out your lowest performing non-private label brand, replace it with Ripi. Existing customers who like that, conventional lower priced option will go to another lower priced brand or your private label, or they'll trade up for Ripi.
And so it's an incremental margin opportunity for you. But given also, most importantly, given our branding, our brand positioning, given our flavor profiles, we're bringing a new type of buyer to the freezer aisle today that historically doesn't buy frozen pasta." And so it's that two-pronged argument of an incremental margin opportunity for you, but also a new type of buyer that we're bringing to the aisle that has really resonated.
And you look at the frozen pasta set in every single one of these retailers, and it's the same situation, which is why I think we've had so much success, bringing on, these large and small retail partners at the same time. Getting into Whole Foods is one thing, and congratulations again on- Thank you
on, as, as quickly as you did. Actually, how did you go national as quickly as you did? 'Cause it... Typically, you go a couple regions here, a couple regions there, and then you eventually you get to national, but you guys got there so quickly. Yeah. It's a bit of luck. It's a bit of just having a great dynamic and relationship with the Whole Foods buyers.
But really, it's credit to their belief in us, and them seeing the white space opportunity and looking at their frozen pasta set and saying, "Look, this pasta tastes great. The branding works. Let's give these guys a chance." Brands start out in one or two regions in Whole Foods. You see some brands start nationwide.
For me, I would've taken anything, but the fact that they said, "We wanna launch you nationwide out of the gate," it's just so unbelievably humbling and energizing. And look we're only a year into this business, and so I think it just speaks volumes to the broader ecosystem that, hey, if this is good enough for Whole Foods, this is good enough for us, and I say that with retail buyers in mind, but also with consumers in mind as well. Whole Foods wants you to be on shelf, but they also want you to turn on shelf. How are you supporting the brand in store? Yeah, there's a lot of levers that can be pulled as you think about what drives velocity, especially in a category like frozen pasta that I would argue is one of, if not the slowest moving category in grocery, which is weirdly enough what excites me most about this opportunity with Rippy is that it can, really change that, and we've done so, in a short amount of time.
But as I think about all of the marketing levers, it's having a whole system that works hand in hand. There's not just one. There's in-store promos, there's retail media and shopper marketing. There's paid social, there's paid collabs and partnerships, there's experiential things that we do with Joe, in different restaurants around the country n-near Whole Foods markets to get the word out there.
A lot of different, tactics to drive, but ultimately I would argue, and I don't have any data to support this, but I would argue the biggest marketing opportunity that we have is just the billboard that is our packaging in the freezer aisle as the average shopper is walking the aisle and sees us.
Going back to what we were talking about branding being so important, I would make the argument most people buying our product and really any product in CPG aren't doing so because they saw your Instagram post. It just happens to be a product that they saw on shelf that piqued their interest.
Obviously, having other marketing tactics be executed, part of the broader marketing funnel is helpful in getting the word out there and being top of mind, but I would say our packaging is one of the most important marketing vehicles that we have. I shop at Whole Foods as much for just everyday grocery as I do for discovery.
And part of it for me is I'm in the industry, so I wanna see what's new. I'm trying to figure out what trends are out there. I think that's relatively typical of a Whole Foods consumer. Absolutely. Is it as typical for a Target consumer? I feel like they're different beasts, but you do see a lot of products in both retailers.
I guess what I'm asking is, how did you identify the opportunity for Target to be as fruitful as the one at Whole Foods? Look, we wanna be a nationwide brand. We wanna be able to play in natural and conventional at the same time. I don't think that we have to be limited to one, because pasta is a staple of the American diet, and it's a resilient category in good times and bad.
It's not going anywhere anytime soon. I thought what we're selling is almost ubiquitous and could play in different retail lenses. Target is very interesting in that historically they were viewed as very conventional, really not known for grocery, but known for hardware and appliances and cosmetics and apparel.
But they've really made it a point in the last, six to twelve months with their new CEO and having this new revamped strategy to become a destination grocery, in the veil that Whole Foods or Sprouts or Wegmans have become in, the last several years. They wanted to become that beacon for discovery, that place where you can discover new emerging brands, where you can be exposed to new flavors, and be that place where those first trends are started.
And so they saw what we're seeing, which is this whole rise of the premiumization of the freezer aisle and the rise of the at-home chef, if you will. And so the ability to provide a convenient indulgence that is Rippy that can help you elevate your weeknight meals and enjoy your, weekly pasta in a great way, that really resonated.
Can you pull the same levers as you did at Whole Foods in Target? You're in eleven hundred stores. You're going to eleven hundred stores at Target. I imagine it's going to be a slightly different experience with the rollout there and making sure that you're getting off to a great start. But are there any lessons that you can pull from your experience at Whole Foods and apply to Target?
It's a great question. I would say the marketing playbook will likely remain the same. One of the biggest lessons coming out of the Whole Foods rollout was just the importance of execution and making sure that shelves are stocked, that we're displayed properly. There's a lot of variables in this business, obviously.
You can spend, as we talked about, almost a year, if not more, fine-tuning your branding and your packaging and your product. But if you're not displayed well in a way that makes your brand resonate, if boxes aren't standing straight or if- They're dented ... they're dented or what have you, that reflects you as a brand.
Someone looking at that will be, "Oh, I don't know if I wanna try that." And so making sure that field sales and merchandising is really executed and buttoned up, this all takes months obviously. Nothing's perfect out of the gate, but really wanna m-make it a point to focus on that as early as possible to give ourself the best chance to succeed right out of the gate.
Helps if you have a great team. Absolutely. And Whole Foods has been a great partner as well, and I can't say enough great things about them. Hey, I saw your brand at Whole Foods, and it looked beautiful, so whatever they're doing from a merchandising standpoint is is to your benefit for sure. On your LinkedIn page right now and less than a day ago, you pointed out that you've been the only full-time employee at Rippy since you launched, which is crazy.
Yes. Deep breath. Don't remind me. Zen, please. But how have you operated as a solo employee for the company? It's not for the faint of heart. It's a very specific type of person who likes to wear many hats and has a chip on their shoulder and something to prove, but is also just naturally very curious and motivated to turn this into a success.
Again, not for everyone. I would say I'm very blessed to have fractional partners that we've beefed up in the last several months. But last year, which was our first year, ten months of the year that we were live operationally, I had two fractional partners, which was a bookkeeper to close my books every month and a sales broker.
Other than that, it was just me. Now we've brought on to support Whole Foods in a meaningful way and to support Target in a meaningful way. We have about six fractional partners from ops for demand planning and production management and order management, have my sales broker, have my bookkeeper, have a field sales and merchandising company, a retail media agency a freelancer for social and paid media.
All of this, is really driven obviously by me, and I say that humbly, but the execution is really done by valuable fractional partners that I've surrounded myself with. But now we're at this inflection point where, it's a lot for me to manage, and we wanna play offense, especially with this capital that we just raised, and so it's time to bring on some full-time heads, and that's what that post was all about.
I imagine that fractional partners can help you be more cost efficient in your company. But do they care as much as full-time employees? How do you get them to buy into the vision that you have set out for Rippy? I know you're gonna give blood, sweat and tears to this company, but will a fractional employee do the same thing?
It's a great question. The right answer is twofold. One is our fractional partners we have now I think care, and it manifests in the work that they do, but it's not a guarantee. I would say that there are so many talented fractional people these days who used to work at large companies or small companies, for whatever reason left, and either started their own consulting or fractional practice or work part of a larger fractional firm and are just as talented, if not more talented than a full-time person.
And they're just cheaper. It's about bringing on the right individuals or right firm that ideally have a good reputation, you've worked with or know someone who's worked with them, you know the logos that are on their website that bring validation. For me, I wanted to bring on fractional partners that I knew that they were pre-screened by all of the work that they had done with logos I'd seen on the website or with people who had, referred me to them, for example.
You're hiring for two positions, director of operations and director of growth right now, and in the meetings you'll have with these potential employees, I have to think that they have to be in love with the brand. They have to be bought into your idea and vision and also the potential exit out there.
It's a scary word. It's an uncomfortable topic, especially for a brand that's, what, fifteen, sixteen months in. But they have to think that maybe there's gonna be some light at the end of the tunnel for them personally. Hundred percent. So how do those conversations go, or how do you envision those conversations going, again, for, a relatively early-stage founder like yourself?
Around an exit? Around the idea of Ripi being this generational brand and a potential exit- Yeah ... down the line. It's funny you said it was a touchy subject. I a hundred percent agree, and I don't understand why, though. I think more founders need to be honest with themselves and talk more about what their objective is here.
And I'm not talking about, my goal is to help elevate people's weeknight meals and create the best pasta in the... No, I'm talking about what is the business objective here from an outcomes perspective. You have two options. It's either you scale this business to a lifestyle company where you're funding your day-to-day and it's cash flowing, to a point where you have distributions for yourself or your investors and whatnot, or you're scaling this thing to an exit.
Other than that, you're in this dangerous middle ground where you're just coasting, but if you take on money, those investors are gonna expect a return at some point, whether it's via distributions or it's via liquidity event. My goal, and I've said this privately many times, I am trying to be more public about it, but the goal for us at Ripi is to be, the number one player in frozen pasta, to be a category leader in the space, and to get to a liquidity event.
That is the goal. I'm in it to make money for myself, for my family, for my investors, for my employees, and that's the goal. Every founder has their own objective, but for me, it's all about laddering up to how can we be as attractive of an acquisition target from the outset, from a product perspective, a branding perspective, a financial perspective, to make this company as attractive of an asset as possible when it comes time to sell the business?
It's a straightforward approach, and I like it, and I think it's probably attractive to a lot of investors who are saying, "Hey, if we're gonna give you 50, 100, $500,000, yeah, we wanna see a return on this, and we wanna hopefully see a big return on this." Nothing's a given, but at least from an investing lens, and I put my own money into Rippey as well, I have a lot riding on this on top of taking money from institutional funds and friends and family.
There's a lot riding on this right now, and I don't take that for granted. And whether someone put in, a five-figure check or, a seven-figure check, it's the same feeling to me, which is I have a responsibility to be laser-focused on turning this business into a success and getting a return for the people who believed in me, especially early at this stage.
And I know we'll try our best. I'll work harder than anyone. Nothing's obviously guaranteed, but you hope that you get there and God forbid it doesn't work out, I took the swing. And so as bad as founders feel where a business doesn't work out or investors, lose their money you can never knock someone for starting a bus- And I, meet founders all the time who are struggling or recently closed their business and, you have a lot of sympathy for what they're going through.
One thing I'll never do is knock someone for starting a business because I know how hard it is and how much effort goes into it. But as long as you took the swing, there's something, admirable in that. There absolutely is, and I'm really glad that you took the swing, Ian, 'cause Ripi is a great brand, and this has been a great conversation.
I think our listeners are gonna get a ton out of it. So thank you so much for taking the time. Good luck with everything going forward, and we gotta stay in touch. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
