Hannah Awada - From Selling Hummus in Shanghai via WeChat to Launching in All Mejier Doors

today we're speaking
with Hannah Awada founder and CEO of Hummus Goodness
Michigan based brand making authentic
Lebanese style clean label hummus started the company
in a in a church kitchen actually in 2019 I believe
since has scaled into close to 15 stores nationwide
including some pretty big names like Meijer
Natural Grocers King Supers uh a number and more
um so yeah really excited to get into it
and first off for the listeners that
maybe are not as familiar with hummus
goodness love to just get quick lay of the land
just in terms of kind of the origin story
why behind the brand core products
in the lineup cause I know it's a it's a pretty solid
lineup and then if you want to just call out
there's any like new retailers
you just got into that you want to call out that you can maybe drive some people to
and then we'll go from there I'll be great
so thank you so much for this introduction Adam I'm
excited to speak to you today so yep I'm Hannah
Watada I am the founder of Hummus
Goodness and while I did start Hummus Goodness in 2019
in Michigan I actually started my little Hummus
empire or Hummus Dream
when I was living in Shanghai China
with my husband and three kids um
we were there for his career one day
when at the time I was a stay at home mom
part time substitute teacher
and one day I went to a party
I took hummus with me everybody
loved it told me to sell it so I did
I started selling hummus literally
out of my kitchen window called the company
Hummus House and I sort of to expats like you and I
one of the
coolest things I did there during that time was I developed
different flavors of hummus cause as a
as a Lebanese girl
I mean hummus comes in one flavor it's the original
but I grew up in a very traditional Lebanese
household where there was always hummus
and I always found myself
like gearing towards like
oh French onion dip oh guacamole oh queso so I started
adding some really fun flavors to the hummus
that I would eat it but I quickly found out that everybody
loved the flavors so I did that in Shanghai for
nine months before my husband's job
repatriated us back to Michigan
which is the Middle Eastern capital of America
Adam you could get good hummus at a gas station
around here wow really yes yes you can
so when I went to another party here in Michigan
and of course being Lebanese
mom always says you'd never walk into a party
empty handed it's rude I brought a tray of hummus
with me and I really didn't
think much of it other than like people will
enjoy this so I took the hummus to the party everybody
loved it and said Hannah you should really sell this
and I was like I don't think so
Shanghai was a supply and demand
thing that's not a problem here in the US so my friends
challenged me to go to a store and buy hummus
and see what I thought about it up
until this day I had never bought
store bought hummus in my life
so I went to the store and I picked up lots of hummus
and I was really excited to try them all and
prove them all wrong that we don't need more
hummus but I when I opened up all the containers
I started trying different flavors I was like this is
this is not the hummus that I grew up with like
Lebanese hummus is like it's happy
it makes you smile it's delicious it's made with love
and what I got in these cups
was just something that tasted ultra processed and just
not special I started hum
and then well then I looked at the label
and then I understood
why it didn't taste like my mom makes it
and that's because brands um we're using soybean oil
sunflower oil citric acid sodium benzoate like
all things that don't belong in hummus so
start hummus goodness with a very simple
idea and mission of making really good clean authentic
Lebanese style hummus
that not only I would be proud to serve
my family and friends but that my children
would be proud to serve their family and friends
back in the US building the business
here like are there any things that
eight or nine months or so that running the business
via delivery business and you know via Wechat
where I'm sure you had a lot of great like direct
that really has kind of helped you ever since yeah
three things number one the flavors
I realized in Shanghai I had I was like the Baskin
Robbins of hummus I had like 30 different flavors
and it was on a rotation every week it would change
I Learned to hone in on flavors like for example
Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin pie
flavored hummus the Americans
loved it the Europeans wouldn't touch it
so then the week next week I made a
savory pumpkin hummus the Europeans
loved it the Americans didn't like it at all
so I really Learned how to hone in on different
flavors and profiles that worked well for people
number one number two customer service
it was people put their order in on Wechat
the same way if you're looking a big WhatsApp group
imagine like a WhatsApp group with everybody
throwing their orders
at you and giving you their opinions
and what they want so you definitely learn customer
service and how to just go with the flow
and and not to read into things too much
and the last thing was logistics um and the importance
of setting up strong distribution I was selling
500 containers a week because I had like
nine different distribution warehouses like houses
not warehouses but distribution houses around Shanghai
and that's how I mean it was great the first week it was like one
neighborhood
the second week there was another neighborhood
then by the fifth week like there was like nine neighborhoods
buying hummus from me
so I Learned logistics very quickly there
Lebanese
style hummus with you know only real ingredients
instead of citric acid fresh garlic and what not
without you know giving
away any too many trade secrets like we're
what were some of the key
things that you felt like you really had to get right in the formulation to make sure it tasted
like what you grew up eating not just
I don't know a cleaner
version of what you can already find in shelf and then
while still while doing that also optimizing
for what was really you felt needed from a a um
shelf stability standpoint as well
yeah so when I started the company
we had like a seven day shelf life that was it yeah
and then had it tested
and realized oh we actually have a 21 day shelf
life so that was awesome
and kept making it the same Lebanese
way with the really clean ingredients
what I realized
was there were different things that we could
change and do to help increase
our shelf life while also staying authentic
so you know a little bit extra lemon juice
the olive oil helps like even things like garlic
do help with your shelf life so the ingredients
within the hummus themselves
does contain like natural preservatives
which does definitely help with your shelf life
we've also perfected like time temperature controls
to help extend our shelf life our current cup
has like an oxygen
barrier in it which does help us as well
it gives us a few extra days but one of the biggest
things that through this was in order to stay authentic
we had to be a made to order company
not a made to stock
so when our retailers our distributors
put an order in with us
we're not pulling them off the warehouse
our team is making it that week
we're then palletizing it and shipping it
we have built a structure in our
within our own organization that will allow us to
continue to scale that way without any issues
and for us
that is the way that we could stay authentic
because it's it is hard
it is I mean it's very tempting
some days that you don't just
you know throw some sodium Benz
away in there and get extra 20 days out of it
but I can't do that and so there's
harder things that we have to do that makes it easier
to get a better soft life yeah no
eventually when you were back in the States
moved in your own facility and then eventually
transition to to a co packer which I think is a
what when and what were the key decision points
along the way when you eventually
went into your own kitchen and then
that second decision point when you said okay
we're outgrowing this we need to
we need to find a copacker
yeah absolutely so I started when I was in China
I made the hummus in my house when I moved to Michigan and
I could no longer do that
yeah it's not legal it's it's not a cottage food law
a cottage food item here so I had to find a space
so I went to a local church
kitchen and we rented out space
there they had a nice kitchen and somebody
had just left so we were able to take over that space
to produce
the hummus and we stayed there from April of or
I think we started in August there August of 2019
and we remained there until 2020
where we then moved to a manufacturing
partner and the reason we left the church was
we just got too big there wasn't enough
you're gonna hear this from me a couple times
there wasn't enough refrigerator space
and so once we ran out of refrigerator
space we had to make a decision
if we really wanted to grow and scale this business
the right way we gotta get out of the church we need a
you know we needed some place that had a loading dock
you know cause up until then I was like handing
boxes to the delivery guy to put up on the
it you can't run a business that way
so for us that was the inflection
point and it was a really risky move
we were in the middle of Covid
when we made this decision
we really thought when covid happened that we'd probably
go out of business but we actually grew and expanded
because
retailers couldn't get hummus from the big brands
because they didn't have
trucks and workers and we were
delivering from the back of our truck so it was fine um
but so for us that was when we
decided to move to our own space
and at that point we rented a facility
and did a build out in Southfield Michigan
and we thought we were gonna be here for 10 years
we landed in there on Martin Luther King Day January
2021 and we were excited
and everything was going great we were able to maintain
our bills paid for the overhead everything was going
really well we were producing a couple days a week
doing about 7 800 cups a week we were in a great spot
things trucked along very nicely until
and I know we're gonna touch
upon this shortly so I won't tell too much of this part of the story
but yeah
we did get into a major retailer in April of 2022
where we went from making
700 cups a week to like over 7,000 cups a week
I could not handle it
um and so we ran out of refrigerator space again
and we had to find a manufacturing partner
but it was the right time for us to do so and I mean we really took baby
steps to get to that point and we waited
until we were literally busting out of the seams
to make any changes yeah
Meyer that I think was like 7,000
weekly capacity with a 14 day turnaround so
my question was was were you were you able to
somehow pump those 7,000
cups out within 14 days in your own facility
or you got that order and then I can't
imagine you were able to somehow find a co packer
that quickly have them turn it on and then turn it on
imagine you still have to just figure out
how to turn that around yourself
and I am resourceful
and our refrigerator was not going to hold 7,000 cups
but we had a neighbor next door
that was in the process of going out of business
and he had two walk in coolers
that were being not utilized that were
I've never seen coolers
that big in my life well now I have but up
until this point I mean they were the size of like a room
they were massive
um and so we rented space from him to use his building
to use his refrigeration and that held us over
until we found a co packer
so that worked out really
really well for us that's nice yeah that's great
decide okay it's time for a co packer
once you made that
mentally in your mind said okay we need to now make this switch
how did you what would that what did that process
look like in terms of actually finding the right co
packer that was gonna be a good fit for you
what were the key variables and factors
that were top of mind for you in terms of when you were
you know diligencing and and kind of comparing
your options yeah so up
until that point to to fulfill the Mayer order
we were working like 14 days straight we worked
all day every day to get their orders
done for them I got lucky
to be very honest with you I grew up in a very
Lebanese traditional household um in Toledo
and my dad was very well connected
with a lot of he had a lot of friends
and he had a friend who owned
a hummus manufacturing company and I
remember being a little kid and sitting on the floor
eating like hummus and baba ganoush
that he had just made and it was amazing
and I remained in contact
with him when I started my business
getting some advice from him as we were were
scaling and growing just advice friendly advice
and when we got into Myer
I called him and I said hey you know you've always been so helpful
and you've been so generous with your time and I have this
opportunity to get into to expand and grow in Myer
but I I can't fulfill the orders he said to me
are you willing to work for this
and I was like I'll do whatever you need me to do
I don't care like whatever he's like okay
I can do this for you we can do this together
and so we went over to this manufacturing partner and
his company would produce his hummus in the daytime
and then
we would go in at 4 o'clock at night in the afternoon
four afternoon
and we would work until about 2 o'clock in the morning
to produce the hummus wow and he has been an
amazing partner for us we could not be more blessed
and we do call him a partner he is not our co packer
yeah sounds like it it's such an informal like process
this is a very very family feeling you know
way that we do our products even till today with him
and he's really helped us
he's allowed me to work on the business
not work in the business anymore
so it's just a matter of luck and knowing
the right person who
really really took a chance on us and has been amazing
that's that's amazing that's awesome
are have gotten
or about to feeling like they're getting to that inflection
point where they're just like they're outgrowing their own production
you know totally makes sense what are
I don't know a few things they should keep top of mind
honestly it's it's all in communication
and it's all in their eagerness
but also a little bit of apprehension of helping I think they need to have a little apprehension if they're
overly eager I don't know
when we started with our manufacturing partner he was
very supportive of how we want
of the process that we wanted to maintain
uh we also Learned a lot from him
but I would really say your number one thing is you want to make sure that they have good communication
and that they are there
that they really want you there and that they want you to grow our manufacturing
partner we work on a dedicated line was a dedicated
staff that only works exclusively on our line
so wow it's the same like five people
we ended up hiring a director of operations
who oversees all of our production today
so that we can make sure that all of the products
are made right
made on time and in full like every single time and so
there's a lot of co packers
out there that won't allow you to do that but there are some who will
and who actually invite it
and our manufacturing partner invited
us when we had this we said hey we can bring you Dr
operations we can really help you know
keep an eye on our brand
so you can still focus on your brand
and that was a great
it was a great opportunity for us so
again it was always all about key communication
with him letting him know what we have in the pipeline
what we
what we got what we didn't get so that he knew how to help us grow and
scale
but that is all it's all about good communication
with a copacker totally I
yeah you're not the first person I've heard that from
story which I think is pretty awesome I think you
told me that a competitor
went through a pretty big product
recall probably one of the main
and then that sounds like pretty quickly if
hundred and fifty
or so to some of their local store locations
to all of their
plus big Myer supercenters
yeah just diving in a bit more detail in that front
maybe just walk me through kind of how that relationship
started and evolved and how you were able to
take advantage of that situation and make the most of it
absolutely so in 20
I think early 2020 before covid happened
I went and I pitched to a Myer local format
store called Woodward Corner Market if you're
if you guys are not familiar with a local format store
they have a more of a boutique touch
and they're only focused on food
but they have the authority to purchase
directly from people
without going through all the Myer
Myer um obstacles to do so okay
we I pitched to my first buyer her name was Natalie
and I showed her the hummus
and I thought for sure she'd say yes and she said
you know honey I am Armenian
I know good hummus this is good hummus
but the answer is no
you are not you are not ready for a Mayer
store even a local format at this point I was printing
labels on my home computer we had no seals
I mean it was it was a different kind of
a different day for us for sure um and so we I
she said but I'm gonna give you some advice
my advice to you is get some printed labels
get a seal on your cup go get into some more retailers
and come back and see me
and I did just that I took all of her advice
I went back and saw her about August of 2020
and she brought me into her local store
I also got into a couple of the other
Myer local format stores
at the time there was three of them
we got into all three and we were
we were so excited to be there and it's
it's from a place of sincerity I love doing demos
so anytime they asked for demos
we were there doing demos
at pretty much every weekend
supporting the stores just being a really good partner
shopping there on a regular basis
keeping an eye on my inventory
refilling the shelves when needed
rotating product for them and and they noticed
and in uh 2022
we had this you know that we have this facility
we want to grow our business a little bit
so I had gone to the local uh
to this to Natalie and I said hey Natalie
I think we'd like to try getting into a few local
stores in the area
would you be open to that and um
as we were we were trying to help fill the shelf space
with the product
recall we thought we'd get a couple of stores out of it
and she was like well actually
you guys have been an amazing
brand for us and we could not be more proud
our local
format team has nominated you to go into Super Centers
wow so you will be receiving a call from your buyer
from the buyer very soon
I had no idea what I was gonna get what I got myself
into honest to god I thought three or four stores
you know
but she our buyer was
amazing they brought us into 150 Myer locations
which is all we wanted at the time we did not want to take all
stores and fail so we took what we could chew what
we bit off what we could chew which we thought was 150
stores that was also a lot for us
and even at that time we continued to be a good uh good
brand for Meijer uh
still supporting their stores with demos
even the local format stores I
remember one day I was doing a demo at this Woodward
corner store after getting into Meijer and a
some another brand
saw me there and was like girl you're in Meyer
now what are you doing here doing these demos
and I was like
business does not this
the work does not stop when you get into the store
that's when it just starts and so we
continued being a good brand for Meyer
supporting their local events
speaking at different um opportunities with them
where we got to like showcase our
story and how we grew with Meyer
and so that was all great
but we assumed that as soon as
as soon as the competitor was able to get their
their production back in order
and get back on the shelf that Meyer would probably
say hey it's been fun it's time to go but they didn't
it was amazing
we actually expanded at that time from 150
Meyer stores to 273 my I think it's 2 78 now
278 stores so we are now chain wide all Meyer stores
this took us from being a cute little boutique
brand that could sell it like you know your beautiful
plum markets and your bushes and your Hines to a retail
to a brand that could also be sold in conventional
pretty quickly pretty big purchase orders probably
started coming in the door pretty quickly as well um
you know we never really talked about you know what
if you've done any raised any capital at all or not or
at what point but how are you able to
how did you figure out how to fund those those
I imagine pretty big purchase
orders coming in in rapid
succession to be able to actually fulfill those
they were very big purchase orders to be honest
with you for for us at the time it was like um
we every penny that we were making in the business
we were putting right back in the business
I was not pulling a salary
my business partner was not pulling a salary
so keeping that model we did not have to um
we did not have to raise
capital at that time so that was really good for us
to be honest Mayer has great payment terms
as well so we were being paid very very quickly
and the reorders were coming in on a weekly basis
and so that was very very helpful I mean
that was
that's really how we did it we just kept it lean
kept it careful pay our bills on time on the due date
but that was the
that was really how we did it at that at the early days
you felt like that my relationship has been
almost like like a marriage and now that you're in
a number of other you know bigger retailers
what have you found is is unique about working in
with and I guess succeeding in admire
compared to other ones
yeah I think so
there you know there's a lot of talk about
emerging brands and how how do retailers
support emerging brands um
and you know I've gone to many conferences
and I've been on panels
and I've spoken and I've listened
to all these different
people talking about how retailers
are going to help these emerging brands
Meyer is a retailer that is helping their emerging
brands they really really are looking for those
success stories and they aren't just it's not just talk
it's not just you know pretty little headlines
for LinkedIn they're really
they're really doing their best to support their brands
who are emerging they they you know once there is
we are at the point now where they do treat us like a regular
brand
so now we're no longer considered their emerging brand
but up until that point they really
they really help you they give you
people who you can work with to go in like a sounding board
we've worked with Carla Hendon Travis Kelsey
everybody over there has been really really helpful
sorry Casey
I was gonna say Travis Kelce there's no one works
there sorry sorry Travis Kelce no Travis and Casey
who have been
really great about helping us grow in with Meyer
so that's what I would definitely say and we are seeing
support with Kroger
Kroger gives us support with King Super's
natural groceries gives us
support as well I'm not downplaying anybody at all but
Meyer I think also cause we are in their backyard
there's that special like relationship with them
yeah of course
that was the first big one too totally makes sense
wide range of retailers from Meyer to
Bristol Farms to to others how do you think about
which retailers
to to go after and focus on and it and in what order
yeah I think early in our days we were like anybody
that will take us we're so excited of course
anybody anybody and we opened up DCS
that we had no business opening up
without any accounts so today we
we're doing it the opposite way that we did it at
Meyer at Meyer we started with local retailers
and then got an anchor account which was Meyer
now we are doing it the opposite way
so we are expanding we are opening into the northeast
for the first time which is very exciting
in about a week from now with Giant Foods
so we have taken that approach
as well where we are looking for our anchor account
and then we are building our system
around there we love our independent retailers um
and we are where we are today because of
independent retailers so but we we have Learned
the hard way that you really need that anchor
account so that the
independent retailer and you can also be successful
that are maybe a few years behind you anything
anything come to mind in terms of
that you made looking back now obviously
hindsight is 20 20 that
you made in kind of the early days of retail
expansion that some of those other up and coming
operators can can maybe learn from and and avoid
yeah I would definitely say make sure you understand
exactly what you're getting yourself
into with the retailers
as well as with the distributors
understand what you signed
and the paperwork and the cost is the cost
associate and I know everybody's talked about this like oh you know how expensive it can be to work with the
the big bohemians and there's so much to that
but there are ways to mitigate
that and that is by finding that anchor
account and making
sure that they are the one that you want to work with and that want to work with you as well
right totally
we like my my number one advice to you and to anybody
out there looking
and and that was a mistake that we made
in the beginning
was that we just went anywhere we could
and didn't build up that ecosystem of like
retailers who wanted to support us yeah
I think the other thing I know we're gonna touch on a little bit was
to step back when you get on those shelves and take a look at yourself
in the set and make sure that you're standing out properly
national expansion from here so we definitely
have this dream of world hummus domination so earliest
you know local hummus domination for today
right now are in the next 12 to 18 months I mean we're
we are talking to all the big retailers that everybody
wants to talk to obviously
but we are also concentrating on
picking up more independent retailers
more mom and pop shops
retailers that have 10 15 20 stores where
where we belong
and so that is one of our big things in the next 12 to 18
months is to really build out along the um
the Giant Foods
where Giant Foods is located with those retailers
continuing building
out with the where we are with King Supers
and Natural Grocers in that area
that's where we're really focusing our energy
on I think a lot of brands they they go too wide
and too big too fast and you really can't
support that without raising a ton of capital
and so while we're happy to raise a ton of capital
we want to make sure that when we do so we are spending it
wisely
and so we're all about building up where we are which is
Midwest Northeast Rockies and slowly into California
retail tactic standpoint
and you're you're competing in in a
you know section of the store
against some you know fairly established
brands I think I don't know sadores
probably the one that comes top of mind
first like what have you found or
some of the core tools
and most impactful tactics you found that have really
yeah the biggest
impact in terms of driving velocity at retail
demos
demos I think at this point look at
Sabra did something amazing Sabra taught everybody
what is hummus so for the most part like
80% of people you're gonna sample to
know what hummus is what we're doing now is showing
people like what real hummus
should actually taste like
and we always tell them like
our goal is this our goal
is that you go to your favorite
Lebanese friend's house or Lebanese
restaurant you try the world's best hummus
and then you come and try hummus goodness and you say
wow that's almost as good as what my sister in law made for us last week
and the best way to do that is demos
and getting it into people's mouth so we spend
a lot of our resources
and our time I to this day I still do demos
not as much thank god but cause it was a lot
but we do still do a lot of demos we focus on the demos
community engagement events I mean we're we're moms
and we are advertise we are marketing to moms
we know who our
customer is it's the mom who's looking to make her life
easier she wants to buy her kids better
for you healthier for you products
without having to question
if they're going to like it
cause how often do you buy something for the kids and your kids are like
you know like we don't get that and so demos
community engagements and we do social media uh
we have a great social media um manager
she's been doing a really great job for her account
and then the packaging
the packaging change has really helped us
if we're not there it's speaking our story
to the customer when we're not there today yeah
last year going from I think
what you described to me as a standard
clear cup with a white lid to the current
you know really bold colorful personality driven
packaging so I guess where I just wanted to start with
was first it was just like start with why
meaning like what LED to the decision to go to that
go through that big refreshing in the first place
absolutely so I thought our packaging was good
that was nice it was cute adorable
you know it was good I was invited to a marketing event
to be a speaker at an event with a
with a friend of mine and I met the best marketers
I've ever met in my life there I mean geniuses honestly
and I told them all my story
I'm social I like talking to people so I told everybody
my story and hummus goodness and the next day
I would say three or four people came up to me and they were like we have a question
for you and I'm like yes and they're like
why doesn't your packaging match your personality
and I was like huh they're like yeah your packaging
does not match your personality
you are like sunshine and bubbles
and your packaging is just cute
and it was in that moment that I started looking at our packaging in a different light
and I was like okay
we do make outside your mom's the world's best hummus
like when it comes to a packaged cup
it is delicious it is amazing
but it wasn't talking to the customer and it wasn't
showing our personality yeah
I mean I would stand at Meyer
sometimes Adam and I'd be like where's hummus
goodness where's hummus goodness
you know you don't want to do that with your brand
no you don't so we made a massive decision
which was not only to
rebrand but it was to completely overhaul
the look of our hummus and how that would impact
the set look as well
so we went from a standard cup to something
when I saw the packaging design that our company
did shout out to Crew Marketing you guys were amazing
a little plug for them I cried
I I was at a loss and I'm never at a loss for words
but I cried
and I was at a loss for words and I was like
this is like me on a package like this is amazing
and really really
I think at that moment and with our new retailers
and looking at our sales at Myer
previous into the sales that we have today
our branding speaks when I'm not there
it says the story of hummus goodness when we cannot
tell you the story and it was right
gosh I wish I did this like a year ago two years
ago we weren't ready for it two years ago honestly
but I wish we did it two years ago
because I could only imagine where we would be today
thinking back when you're going through the
the brand refresh process were there any
decision points along the way that you recall being
notably contentious and and
like like required a lot of debate
there was a OK there's a one so before
before covid all of our hummus had fun names
the beet hummus was called like the notorious RBG
roasted beet goodness
the spicy was called a Raging Bull so everything
had a cute name but during covid I realized that
people were not taking
their time to linger at the shelf
they wanted to get what they needed and they wanted out
so we changed our names classic you know spicy garlic
very simple
so when they did this rebranding
um the first one that they showed me was the beats
and they spelled it with a Z
and I was like there's a typo
I'm a teacher so I caught the typo
and they're like it's not a typo
and I'm like no there's a typo
beats ends with an s and they're like
we want to match your energy and I was really unsure
of like these interesting
names like that we called the pickle the Big Dill
the garlic is garlic
glory so they're still like a little remember
you know you can still understand
what the names are very simply but I was very nervous
about these name changes
and then they looked at me and they were like
are you happy with the packaging
I'm like I am and they're like just trust us on this
just trust us we got you and I am very glad that I
let it go trusted
the process as they say because the
the names are super cute and when we're doing demos
people are like I love that name taco
that's so cute you know and
oh garlic glory like the names are fun and
interesting and it adds a little bit of
it adds a little bit of fun and color
to a set that has been very beige
for sure the last 30 years yeah
balancing the need for obviously
you know a need for a fresh look that's why you're doing it in the first place
while keeping some of those
familiar elements for the people that had been
and probably are still to this day you know really loyal
customers of the brand and buyers of the brand
so that when they
walked down the aisle after the new brand
refresh rolled out
you know it still felt familiar to them
didn't feel like it was totally a foreign brand
and also just felt
familiar enough so then you're walking down the aisle
again they could find it right away and not
feel like lost like
where did my brand go that I always buy
I'll be transparent we probably
should have done a better job on that
I think that you we lived in a bubble and our
a bubble of our own minds
where we thought oh people will know we'll put it on Instagram
people will know
we'll talk about it we'll send a newsletter
people will know it'll be fine but we did something
dramatically different than what we had before
yeah and so once we realized
no people don't really know that we've changed
our brand that's where we started
doing a lot more social media on it
as well as Instagram Instacart ads
showing the old versus the new and more in store demos
and so I think my biggest take away from a rebrand
if you are going to overhaul your rebrand
so your branding so much make sure
don't step over dollars to pick up pennies
so we probably should have immediately
brought on our marketing
agency or our branding agency to execute that
um launch for us
we're like oh no we can do it ourselves
they are now our marketing agency of record so
that helps
but that was that's my number one advice to anybody
undergoing a massive rebrand
is to make sure that you make sure that everybody
knows as much as you think you're saying it
like I think we posted like 50 times
about this rebrand people still didn't know
you gotta post it over and over and over
again really really have a good plan
which we did at the end
but we probably lost a little bit of time
you've got a pretty like decent food service
in this as much as
other things um but I think you guys are in
you know various universities
some of the Delta Sky lounges at or at least the Delta
Sky Lounge at at the at the Detroit Metro Airport
how do you kind of think about
food service as a channel alongside retail
how they kind of complement each other
so food service has been a really fun channel
for us to play and to pretend and to grow in actually
with hummus it's not like a bag of chips so it's an un
there are a lot of them are unbranded opportunities
so you have to like weigh in and
what that does to your company
it does help to build up like your production
and it keeps the the team busy
with making lots and lots of buckets for
all these different accounts
um but for the majority of them are unbranded
uh we do have to work with these um
people whether it's Chartwell's
Delta Sky Lounge etcetera
to get a little branding in there there are some
but there are some cool things that happened out of it I was at an event
one day it was a pickleball event and
I was talking to somebody
and they were like you know who has really good hummus
and I'm like who
and they're like the Delta Sky Lounge in Detroit
that's good huh
we're not branded up there and I was like that's us
he's like there's no way I'm like no that's really us
he's like that red pepper hummus
is something else up there
so we see it as an opportunity to get more people to try our product but what we're working on now is to get a little bit more of some recognition
out there
um so that people know where to get it from afterwards
food service is a really good way to supplement
your business especially
when you're looking to increase your capacity
and to fill the lines up yeah
there's so much more we can do in it and it's been a very
very fun exciting journey for us so far yeah yeah
five years or so
which is super impressive and then I think you eventually
took a pre you did a pre seed round with
Michigan Rise how did you think about
kind of the timing of of when and how to take
outside capital and then what how are you thinking
about what that looks like into the future
so we start taking outside capital when we realize
that we don't have a product that's very expensive
and so the margins are not and the margins are healthy
but they're not huge
numbers'cause the product itself is not that expensive
right and we really wanted to increase our brand
awareness out there get our message out do the rebrand
and it was at that point that we were like
I mean we can I mean we're still not paying ourselves
at that point and it's like you know
there's no more money
that we could bring in to pay for a rebrand
and they're not cheap
there's no more money I mean demos cost money
in store sampling events cost money yep for retailers
cost money and it was at that point that we
saw these opportunities for growth we saw you know
Meyer brought us into all the stores
we got a yes from Natural Grocers
that we were like okay
we are leaving our backyard now where we can
control things we're gonna need to bring in some money
to help us make sure that we are
successful once we get on the shelf and it was at that point we
decided to speak with Michigan Rice
and then a couple of like family and friends
mentioned to me that you've got a pretty
solid network of other I think majority Michigan based
CPG founders that you lean on how important has
has community
been for you in general as kind of a founder in building
this this company and guess what does that support
look like in practice that maybe other founders
can kind of seek out being entrepreneur is very lonely
and it can be very lonely I'm sure you've heard that before and I
I am lucky enough to have a business partner
her name is Laura Lozier she's absolutely
amazing she runs all the food service of our business
and the back office support
keeps the engines going and the checks coming out but
if you don't have an a like a business partner
like I do even with a business
partner it can be lonely we don't know everything
neither Laura nor I went to school to be hummus makers
you know
Laura came from Oracle so she understands big business
big world spreadsheets budgets all that stuff
I was a teacher so I Learned
very early that there are people out there who can
help us avoid the bumps
along the way and they're generally
other brands and you meet them doing demos I have a
my little brother owns a company called Midwest Juicery
so he's a it's a really good clean juice line and
he gave me a lot of resources
early on that avoided me from stumbling
and then within the state of Michigan
you know you go to these demos at
you know your local stores
and you meet other brands and
you get together for coffee like every now and then
in the summer
months we all get together for like cocktails
it's really nice um but and everybody
has something that you can learn from we have one person in our group who's huge in food service
and so they provide us like
an unlimited amount of free resources of information
um amazing person is really good at TikTok and they
give us advice on TikTok
and you know we're good at being hustlers
and we give good advice on being hustlers
and focusing on moms and and stuff like that
Michigan is really unique I don't think people realize
how many brands come out of Michigan
you know you got pop daddy popcorn they're amazing
chunk nibbles Midwest Juicery
Monos Authentic Great Lakes uh chips
there's so many great brands and we everybody's always
very excited to help the other person
last question for you any um
any brands that you
specific brands or just trends in general across CPG
it doesn't have to be in kind of the hummus world
but just in general that things have kind of just piqued your
interest
things you've been watching closely as of late
honestly
there's a lot I think back like you know five years
ago you look you go to the grocery store everything
looks pretty much the same I go to the grocery
store now to see what's pretty out there I love
they're calling it Kitchen Couture
I'm just I am in love with all Kitchen Couture
items items that I probably wouldn't ordinarily buy
like fish for example like I mean I
I ordinarily would not buy fishwife um
because it's not something that I would eat
but I bought it because it's so pretty
so I I have a serious appreciation
for really pretty items I am looking for anything
that's not on the ordinary personally
things that are seed oil free
when they need to be seed oil free
I mean I'm not looking for seed oil free for everything
but really
it's just I am looking at all the pretty things out there I went to Expo
West for the first time
walked the show it was a lot of fun and I was just
in awe with the beautifulness of like products today
I totally agree with that
hundred percent yeah people everyone is
kind of raised the bar across the board it feels like
100%
so it's been fun to like go on like a little treasure hunts
totally yeah um
yeah Hannah this has been awesome
what's um what's the best place for
people to follow along with you specifically
and all your expertise that you've gained
over the years and then what's the best place for people to follow
along with with the brand as well
yeah absolutely so LinkedIn
I'm under LinkedIn I go by Henati
which is my Lebanese name with
parentheses of Hannah Awada
you can find me on LinkedIn
our website is Hummus goodness.com we are very active
on social media as I mentioned
so please feel free to follow us for giveaways and
recipe ideas and inspiration and new stores
and then if you are shopping at Meyer
King Supers Giant Foods in a couple days Bristol Farms
please uh
swing by grab some of our hummus
give it a try let us know what you think
perfect
awesome Hannah
this has been great really appreciate the time I think
I think that's the pod Yay thank you this was fun
in those first I think you said like
conversations with customers or what not anything
you really focused on building a really authentic
olive oil instead of soybean oil fresh lemon juice
church kitchen and then
what that journey look like in terms of
yes cups or so which your points I think X or so
okay so eventually you
but they're just really nervous about handing
things off to a copacker which is
which kind of opened the door for you
for other up and coming brands
you went through I think a pretty major rebrand
how are you thinking about
channel which I think your business partner runs so I know you're probably not as in the weeds

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