Griffin Spolansky - Scaling Mezcla from Boston Bodegas to 9,000 Doors

today we're speaking with Griffin Splansky
co founder CEO of mescla
plant based Puff Crispy Protein Bar that's gone from
I think door to door sales in Boston bodegas
to 9000+ retail outlets last time I checked
probably a more at this point
Griffins are I think
UVA grad former Walker on the cross player
ended up uh
on the 2019 national championship team
Griffin just first off
for the maybe
the small amount of listeners in the CPG world
that maybe are are not as familiar with Mezcla
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
and then we'll take it from there
yeah well
first off Adam
thank you for having me really appreciate it
and yeah for those that are not aware
mezcla is essentially a functional treat
so we sit between high protein bars
that are dense and chalky
have some have a lot of functionality
but aren't enjoyable to eat
and then snack bars that have no functionality
and don't really do much for you
so we really sit right in that in between space
and this started I was an athlete in college
I was surrounded by protein bars after practice
and I thought the options were boring
they were generic from a flavor standpoint
they were like I mentioned before
dense and chalky and just unenjoyable
from an eating experience standpoint
and I really wanted to create something different
I thought there was white space
because I wanted something different myself
and I knew that
my friends and family would want something different
as well so that's what I went after
right and it was
how could I create a bar that was light and airy
and left you feeling good
but something that felt like it was made thoughtfully
something that had unique flavors
and different textures
and that was really the emphasis behind Mezcla
I met a lady named Coco Citello
she's actually from Mexico
and we started literally making recipes
and testing ideas out in her kitchen
and that's what we called the mezcal
means mixture in Spanish
and it was all about the mixture of flavors
and ingredients and textures
that went into the bar so that was in uh
in 2019 that we started working on it
and then we officially launched in August of 2020
with your co founder Coco
you guys are starting to test recipes in the kitchen
and then I think it sounds like
you think you ran into some obstacles along the way
LED you to start working with a food scientist
to kind of hone in from a formulation
R&D standpoint but um
doesn't one question I had was
I think one thing that I love about the mescal bars
is just that they're like you said
they're not some of that more dense protein format
it's more that puff crispy format
did you know you wanted to go with that format
right from the beginning
or were you guys testing a bunch of different
kind of textures formats
before you eventually honed in on that specific
yeah I mean
we tested so many different textures and formats
we tested everything from like
bars to chips right
like we were literally testing everything we could
the whole idea was just like
the snacking market feels really generic
and feels very mass market
and we wanted to create something that felt more
thoughtful so again
like we tested so many different things
when it came down to bars
our perspective is
that we wanted something that consumers could see
when they were eating as opposed to just like
a blended mix of everything
and they kind of didn't really know what was in it
so we like the idea of having
you know pea crisps
and initially we had amaranth in there
and we had like
all these ingredients that people could actually see
and feel and taste
and that's what carried over to what Miska is today
that really resonates in terms of
everything blended together
don't know what you're eating
for sure that definitely resonates for sure
and then it too it just like
it just doesn't feel like real food when it's like
blended like that right
so I think that was my issue as well
when I had so many bars I was just
I was eating these bars for functionality
but I wasn't eating them for the experience
and to me just like that
that equation didn't make sense right
it's like why can't you have functionality
but also have that experience
and the eating experience
to me is one where you typically right
like see what you're eating and like
taste those different textures and bars
you didn't really have that
so yeah
that the only way I could eat them
was when I was drinking them with water
so I could like
but um
how did you guys decide
what flavors you guys were gonna launch with first
I mean I
for the record I was 21 when I started the brand
or maybe 20 so I had no idea what I was doing
and you know I'm
I've Learned a lot
I still don't fully know what I'm doing
but I don't think anyone really does
but I would say for me it was
it was all gut like
our first three flavors were peanut butter chocolate
hot chocolate and matcha vanilla
peanut butter chocolate was just obvious right
like there has to be a peanut butter skew on shelf
I think that just like
inherently made sense
matcha vanilla was one
that was just a passion project for me
I always loved matcha growing up
and I was like wow
like there's no again like
going back to the whole premise
we wanna make bars fun and exciting
we wanna make the flavor story fun and exciting
and there were no matcha bars in the market
I was like why
right like they're
they're very well could and should be
so that was that was really important for me
and then we had a hot chocolate
it was kind of simulated a Mexican hot chocolate
and that was really a collaboration between me and Coco
trying to think through like
what would be really interesting and unique
that isn't out there already
yeah the Mexican hot chocolate flavor is probably my
my favorite protein bar out there
in the market it's
it's amazing
yeah it's
it's a really good flavor
for some other up and coming founders
that are just really in the
kind of early phases
they're just about to start formulating a
let's just say the kind of
a better for you bar today in 2026 what's
I don't know a few things that come top of mind that
like recommendations you'd have for them
or things that kind of tell them to watch out for
that might trip them up along the way
because we don't want more competition
but uh
but yeah I
I think
I think what I would really say to anyone starting any
any brand right in the in the food space
not just bars is
and I said this I was
I was speaking on a panel a few days ago
and I said this right
like
number one well
I'm not gonna go in particular order
but like
number one is when you talk with your investors
do what you say and say what you do
I think there are a lot of people
that promise really big things
early on and get themselves into a lot of trouble
slash like
aren't able to raise in the future
so that's like one really important thing
two is keep it simple
I think a lot of people try and make things so complex
and so sophisticated
because they think that's the smarter way of doing it
I would argue the best operators do things the simplest
um three is unit economics matter right
like margins are really
really important and like
economies of scale do help slightly um
as you scale but in the end of the day
like having a really poor margin
just expecting one day that
that's gonna flip due to economies of scale
is a bad strategy in my opinion
and then number four like
just create a product that people want
and a product that's really good again
like it's really simple
the equation is really simple
like you need a product that people wanna buy
and you need a product that can make money right
and then like
the middle part is like
how do you get it from like
your warehouse to them in a very efficient way
so like
that's kind of how I think about it
simple but not easy I think is pretty common for sure
testing you know
and doing that kind of bench top R&D
at some point I assume
you got to the point you nailed down the formulation
and then you started searching for co packers
finding the right one
and it's gonna be a good fit for you
what did that process look like
in terms of
transitioning to one from kind of the bench top
what did that look like I mean
shameless plug for for keychain now
but I think it's much easier to do it now
than it was in the past
so go to keychain and find a co man that way if uh
if you're in search of one
that's what I would say I would do now
if I were starting a a new CBG brand
but in the past I mean
I was just literally hitting people up on LinkedIn
hey like
do you know any good bar commands
um hey
do you know any like
good commands in general
that could connect me to bar commands
right so like
it was all about just connecting
it was also on social media too
in terms of like Instagram
not really Facebook I guess anymore
but like Instagram right
like hitting these people up
and just literally asking them for help
I think that was the biggest unlock for me
is
realizing how receptive people in the CPG industry are
to helping um
so I would definitely push that
that angle for sure very hard
and by the way like we're
we're still how do I put this diplomatically
like it's never easy to find the perfect co man right
you're never gonna find the perfect co man
so I I would say
in general it's important to find a really good co man
that you can scale with
but it's also important to always have conversations
and we're still having those conversations
with other co mans yeah
so I think that's really important
a to like
you know keep your comment honest
and b to understand what else is out there
yeah once you found that one
that much you found was gonna be a great fit
at least for that you know
phase of the company
was it hard to convince or
I guess get that co packer excited about
I would see some some young founders and
and assuming that was the case
uh what you feel like got them excited
and kind of got them on the same page as you
yeah I mean
it's super hard I went down
had this whole presentation ready to go for them
it was clear that I was very thoughtful about
you know what I put on paper
so I think that was really helpful and
and scored points for me for sure
I also know that they were looking for business
because one of their big customers was just acquired
and went to a new command
so that was really helpful for us as well
but yeah it's
it's very hard you have to sell yourself
you have to sell the idea
it's always helpful
when you show that you've raised some money
as well because they know you have some backing
but yeah
I mean everything
everything in life is is a sales job
in my opinion you know
whether you're selling your co man
whether you're selling the company
whether you're trying to raise money
whether you're trying to sell to a buyer
so yeah
just another another aspect of sales
and this time you're you know
you're selling yourself and
and the dream yep
totally on the same topic of kind of supply chain
production side of things
I think I saw recently you had posted on
on LinkedIn asking for recommendations
which kind of just got me thinking like
what does a supply chain look like
for meslas as much as you're willing to share
and kind of how have things like raw
material sourcing changed as you scaled up from
what I'll say is is a few things
number one when we initially launched the brand
we always had a country qualifier
in front of our flavor name
so for example
we had like
Japanese matcha vanilla
we had Italian pistachio chocolate
and we had to source
all those ingredients from that country
so that actually really restricted our supply chain
for example Italian pistachios right
like if there's a drought one year
there's an issue with the crop one year
it's very hard to get pistachios from Italy
and by the way like
Italy is not one of the top two or three producers
of pistachios in general
so like
off the bat even if the
even if there's a good year for Italy
right as you scale
it gets harder and harder to get supply pistachios
so we remove the country name
because that was really constricting our supply chain
and now what we've done is two things one
try and lock in annual contracts
to make sure that we have the supply there
and two have secondary and tertiary suppliers
to make sure that if there's an issue with our primary
we can move on to that secondary
and tertiary option
so I would say like that's the biggest thing for us
and your point
we went from producing 50,000 bars year one to
you know
producing hopefully 20 to 30 million bars this year
right so like that
that obviously
equation changes a lot as you continue to scale
packaging design side of things
thinking back to way those early days
what were some of those kind of key variables
or most important things that were top of mind for you
when you were building out the brand identity
positioning voice
packaging design for the brand
and maybe another way to put it
like what do you remember
was kind of
key items that you put top of mind in the brief
for whoever agency designer
whatever you were working with
well again
like what I did and what I would do are
are two separate things we'll take both of them
I do I do want to be very clear on that
I think early on I tried to be very sophisticated
in terms of how we were showing up on shelf
so very high end look very high end feel very
and this is redundant
I hate when people say very unique
cause it doesn't make sense
but I'm still gonna say it like
you know very unique flavor names
trying to be really differentiated
and I think that almost hurt us in some ways because
when you're so differentiated
I think it's almost confusing to the consumer
you need to actually spend money
to educate the consumer so for us
what we tried to do was just be a little bit more clear
and it's not like
necessarily like
an issue with being sophisticated
or an issue with being unique
but I think it's an issue with
with not being clear enough on who you are
and I think that is ultimately what boils down to
for us now is
we need to be extremely clear on our value proposition
and on why the consumer needs to buy us
if you're not extremely clear on those two things
you lose people in the in between
my next question you guys did a
a fairly large fairly significant rebrand and
and packaging design I think like a year or two ago
I think it was in 2024
what was the what was the y
behind the rebrand meeting
you may be seeing some updates coming again soon
oh nice
but uh
but yeah I mean for
for us the trajectory
has been online then to natural
then to like
mass conventional and to club
and what we've realized is
the packaging that works online and in natural
isn't always the same packaging
that's going to work in mass
conventional and club
so for us the big thing is
and it goes back to what I was saying before
like how do we even be more clear on shelf
and that's what we're trying to do
and that's what we were trying to do
with that updated branding
was like how do we have more clarity
you know when consumers walking by the shelf
and they look at your brand for two seconds
like how do they exactly like
immediately know what you are and what you stand for
and that's what we're trying to do
like before
our flavor names were smaller
before our calories and protein calls were smaller
so we just tried to like
make everything a little bit more clear
and a little bit more effective
yeah communication
how I know you you know
the brand wasn't 10 years old at that point
but it was still I mean
I definitely had a strong
fairly strong brand presence in the market
definitely had some some loyal following
loyal fans I imagine
when you decided to go to this rebrand
and going through the process
how were you thinking about
balancing that need for a fresh look
obviously
there's a reason you're doing the rebrand in the first
place the redesign in the first place
versus keeping some of those
you know legacy
familiar brand elements to those existing
you know loyal fans
when they're walking down the aisle in the store
you know one can be able to find it right away
and two just feel like it's still
what they kind of know and love to
to a certain extent if that makes sense
well yeah
I think I think there are two things here
number one is we did a soft change over
so basically what we did is
we had all the boxes on shelf that were old
and then as we had new boxes coming to market
the new box would be sitting
right next to the old boxes
so it would be very clear hey
like this is still mezcla
like this is just a different
an updated version of mezcla
you would have called like
an old Mexican hot chocolate flavor
next to a new hot chocolate flavor
so people were very very clearly understood like
this is the same brand so that
number one was really helpful for us
outside of that we still kept core elements
of what we were doing before
so for example
the product showing up really large
on the front of the pack is really important for us
the brand name
showing up very clearly on the front of the pack
is really important for us
the flavor names by and large
staying the same is really important for us
so they were improvements and updates
it wasn't like we went from
you know mezcla with this big bar in the front
with this Mexican hot chocolate flavor to
you know a different name
or even mezcla with like
different flavors and not showing the bar in the front
right so we were
still had a lot of consistency
between the two packaging formats
and that was really helpful for us as well
I think there's a happy medium right
if you're if you're shifting things too frequently
I do think you run into issues
and I think I've been a culprit of that honestly
in the past but
I think
if you're not changing things based off of clear
direct feedback and clear
direct signals like
for example like velocity signals or Amazon reviews
whatever it is right
like whatever you're looking at
then I also think that you're stagnating
so I think that's an issue
yeah
from a go to market retail standpoint
started going door to door in Boston
selling into bodegas up there
ultimately I think getting into
I don't know 50
75 doors before you landed with a
a distributor in the northeast
which I imagine started scaling up doors more rapidly
rest is history at this point
might just be obvious we're already living in the area
but why why Boston specifically is as a starting point
it was really New York and Boston
Boston made sense because one of my friends
Will Bernaki was actually working for us part time
and he lived out of Boston
so he was literally like going door to door
hitting all these places
talking to a few distributors in the area
so it made a ton of sense
whereas I was in the city
I didn't have as much time to go door to door
cause
I was focused on so many other things in the business
so that was like more of a natural market for us
just given the the personnel that we had at the time
problem when it comes to distributors is
you need accounts to land distributors
and you need distributors to land accounts
like how did you figure out how to climb over that wall
let's say
I mean my perspective on this is if you can accumulate
caught like 30 to 50 accounts in a large city in the US
caught like like for this example
like Boston or New York right
cause that's where we were
and you start to make it much easier and
and by the way like those accounts need to go
need to work with one distributor right
or need to at least work with the same distributor
only put it that way so
for example
if you can get 30 accounts that work with rainforest
in New York City right
or 30 accounts that work with checks in uh
in the Boston area right
like then it's easy to go to
to check sort of go to Rachel's and say
hey look
like
we're already selling into 30 to 50 of your accounts
why not just take us in and at that point
they know that they're gonna be getting cash
because it's a decent not large
but at least it's a decent business
so like that's kind of the way we did it
and then we got a small distributor on board
and then for the larger distributors
like the UNFI and the case of the world
you really need to get one of their anchor accounts
so you need to get Whole Foods or sprouts
or Fresh Market and that's how we went that angle
now if you had to ask me like
would I go about doing it the same way again
I would probably say no I would actually
probably I would focus geographically
and I would focus channel specifically
but I think I'd go after a larger retailers
in the beginning I'd start ECOM
and then I'd go after a larger retailers from there
and then build out the smaller retailers after
that's probably what I would do right now
just
cause it's a very expensive and difficult game to play
and it's not very high dollars
but it is good for visibility
so there's a trade off totally
what should brands understand about DSTs
that maybe some don't and how they differ between those
you know the bigger guys like the unfas and the kgs
be careful with DSDs that's the one thing I'll say
I mean they
they can be really great
but they're expensive and the contracts can lock you in
so just be careful that's all I would say
cool that's super helpful
I've definitely seen you talk about getting growth
but with a a really focus
with a big focus on profitability
which seems obvious
but maybe not as obvious to some people
but definitely respect that approach
and seeing you talk about how you saying
you know you say no to accounts
if you don't think
you're gonna be able to hit profitability
fairly quickly
what is that actually look like in practice
of an account you decide to say no to
because the metrics or whatever data you're looking at
indicated to you that you were
you were not going to be able to hit profitability
fairly quickly so to me
it's more like broad PNL based
if you will so
for example I think that sometimes
bringing on accounts
that will help the business grow a lot
can maybe justify
if they're not profitable in the first call
like six months to a year
of course
there needs to be profitability on the horizon
but what I would say is the way I think about it is
it's number one profitability
but it's also a function of how much cash you have
as well like
there is this balancing act
between growing and being profitable
especially in the beginning
like if you want to push growth harder
sometimes that means you need to invest more
which obviously in the end of the day
means you're probably going to be less profitable
if you want to grow a little bit slower
that's okay you invest less
and the EBDA is a little bit higher right
so like
there is that balancing act
so for me like
it really is a function of cash
and like
our plan basically
my goal has been like
how do we about 2 x year over year
and how do we do that
with being as profitable as possible
and again like
if cash in the bank is really high
then we can talk to our our board of directors and say
hey like
maybe we're gonna push a little bit more aggressively
and we'll be a little bit less profitable
but instead of 2 x we'll 3 x
and then vice versa
cash in the bank is a little bit lower
then maybe we pull back and say
we're only gonna one and a half x this year
but profitability is gonna be a little bit higher
but the one that I will say
like by and large
the most important thing
I said this earlier in the conversation
is unit economics need to be in a good place
because if that's the case
you can pull back on spend pretty quickly
and again like
it does depend on the top line numbers
like typically like
get to a decent place profitability wise
unit economics are a mess
it doesn't matter like
you're kind of just like
on a hamster wheel raising money
you're never gonna get to a point
where you can actually be profitable
or at least will be very very
very difficult yeah
kind of brought up a question for me in terms of um
how did you go about building out your board
I assume you know
some of the board members are just part of what their
what their terms were to it to invest
I imagine uh yeah
how did you go about building out your board
and what's like a
what have you found to be a
I don't know the best way to put this
good effective board dynamics
let's say
yeah for sure
so right now our board is technically five people
it is me it is
Steve Platt is one of our advisors
and he's incredible
he's been with us now for about two years as an advisor
and then we have three of our largest investors
so that is the board composition
inherently the board
the largest investors typically take seats on the board
so that's how that worked out
Steve is someone that I felt really comfortable
adding to the board he is really thoughtful
really smart
and I think he's a really good presence on the board
so to me like
it made a lot of sense to add him
I have one person I can elect to the board
and made a lot of sense to choose him as that electee
Yep makes sense
um from a pricing standpoint
in those early days and where it looks today
compared to you know
what the bar market looked like
and has that evolved over time since
it's hard I mean there
there are like
two ways that I think about it
one way is what makes sense for us
from a margin standpoint
and a unit economic standpoint
and then two is like
what makes sense on shelf
and sometimes those like
those two pieces of the pie don't actually like
create a whole pie if you will
um so there is some
there is some you know
some nuance to that to say the least
but yeah
that's the way I look at it
one is like
what margin do we need to have in the end of the day
to build a really strong business
and then number two is like
where do we need to sit on shelf
and we're like
even playing with that right now
because in some places you know
the consumers more price sensitive
and some places the consumers less price sensitive
so what does that look like
you know as we build the business
so I guess the hard and fast rule for me is
there isn't a hard and fast rule
but you do need to look at like
your unit economics number one
and then what the shelf looks like
and try and find that like
that middle ground that makes sense for both
that's helpful let's talk about Costco for a second
always a big milestone for brands getting into Costco
what did that journey look like for you guys
in terms of getting that first buyer meeting
getting the commitment
and then once you got that commitment
all the steps leading up to a successful launch
in the northeast region yeah
I mean to
to me early on
the idea of getting into Costco was unfathomable
I just even
even the operations behind it was
was like such a
like strenuous thought for me to think through um
just like
building a brand like
truly like
mass scale but
we actually met our point buyer last year at Expo West
he is incredible a huge brand advocate
and he's a great person to work with
and we essentially like
worked through
what the pack was gonna look like with him
the pack size what the offering was gonna look like
from a pricing standpoint
and you know
he made it much easier to figure out
you know the
the maze that is club retail
if you will and that was a really big unlock for us
on top of that we did bring on a broker as well
who had a lot of expertise with Costco
because when you're launching into Costco
with no previous Costco experience
like I mentioned before there's a lot of
there's a lot of nuance that goes into it
and there are a lot of costly mistakes
that you can make
if you don't have the right people in the right place
to help support you so
you know the way we thought about it was like
we need support from a great buyer
which we have we need support from a great broker
and then we also need internal support
and we have an incredible VP of sales and
and director of sales underneath her who uh
who have really dropped the ship there
and then the last thing I'll say to you is like
all that is great
and you can get a huge order from Costco
but you also need to be able to make good product
you need to be able to deliver product on time
and in full
you need to make sure that pallets are in good shape
so our ops team also does an incredible job
just keeping up with that demand
as well yeah totally
merchandising tactic standpoint
pretty sure I've heard you say that in store demos
educating the consumer and you know where to buy
are really how you've kind of overcome
I think you called it subprime shell space
and you really push pretty hard on secondary displays
as well on the demo side of things
what is a what have you found
is what a well executed demo program looks like
number one before we kind of go into
like the metrics of how we think about success
from a demo standpoint you need to have a great product
like if you don't have really good product
that people actually enjoy eating
with good retention which you can easily see online
then I would say avoid demos at all cost
because they are really expensive
number two as I would also say that
demos are very different per retailer
so I think that's really important right
a Costco demo is very different than a Whole Foods demo
which is very different than a target demo
so I think that's like
really important context to go into it with
now what I'll say for demos is typically
the ROI is not there in the short term
because they are expensive
but what I think is important to think through
is that LTV of the customer right
the retention of the customer
and then also like
how you're just building general brand awareness
and then the last thing I'll say too
is a lot of buyers appreciate you getting in
the stores
and working with the stores to actually push product
so that's another like intangible way of
you know
kind of thinking through the importance of demos
but you know I think everyone has their own equation
how they think through success of a demo
but to me it's like
what is the price of the demo all in
including your cost of goods
cause obviously you have to sample some of your product
you know what does the return on that look like
how many units are you selling essentially
and then from there what do you think LTV is
and how is that gonna essentially like push to velocity
lift on shelf yep totally
like how do you go about securing that space
like especially as a up and coming challenger brand
when I imagine some of the bigger
well capitalized brands
are trying to box every other competitor out
and then you know in the top
on the topic of you really focusing on growth
with a profitability mindset
what's the kind of cost versus trade spend math
that you use to kind of decide
when a secondary display opportunity
is gonna be worth it
I mean look
so I think I think
a lot of that boils down to
your annual trade spend budget
so for example
let's say you're budgeting 15% trade spend
you know
what I would say is display opportunities are really
can can be really great
they need to be the right opportunities
and sometimes right
like you can get a display
and the increase in velocity
can counteract
how much you end up paying for the display
right typically
there's a promotion layer into it as well
so like
it doesn't that's obviously not always the case
but sometimes that that could be the case
where you actually are net profitable on the display
so that's a different story
but by and large for us
it's like the more displays we can get
the better you know
if they are not net profitable
then how do they fit into that
like trade spend budget
if you will sure
and that's really the way that we
that we think about it and again
like especially in newer retailers
it doesn't it typically does not work out this way
but the goal is like
if you're launching with a newer retailer
and you're more of that like
up and coming brand
I think it's really important to at least
push for a display on launch
again like
often times that does not happen
but I would always push for that because I do think
you know you're launching at target for the first time
no one knows who you are in target or whatever
let's say out of 100 buyers
10 know who you are
it's really important for you to get that end cap
or secondary display opportunity
right off the bat
so you expose yourself to people very quickly
you guys closed a little less than 10 million bucks in
in March as a Series B total of raised
I think just a little under 17 million so far
just kind of
zooming out on that fundraising capital journey
just for kind of a first time CPG founder
which is what what you were as well
getting ready to raise their first institutional round
in today's market
what's just a few things that you tell them to focus on
and keep top of mind
and give them the best chance at success
say what you do do what you say
number one like
you know we raised
so our two largest investors have collectively
put in eight or nine million dollars into the business
so like
literally half of what we raised has come from two
two investors and both of those investors
put less than $300,000 into the business
in total between the two of them
the first time they invested
and the reason
they kept doubling down on their investments
is because every time we told them
that we were gonna do something
we did it and again
like that won't always be the case right
there will be years where there are down years
there will be years
where you don't do as well as you expect to do fine
but by and large it's really important
that you hit the numbers that you're projecting
or at least get close to them
and I see a lot of founders pitch
going from zero to 100 in three years
when they know that's not going to be the case
because they want to get money in quickly
and I think short term actually
that can help you raise money
sometimes at a faster clip
but I think long term
it gets much harder to raise capital
when you don't say what you do
and do what you say so to me
that's really important and again I
I do want to like qualify
not every year
is going to be the year that you expected to be
and there will be some years
that you don't have those numbers
and that is okay
that shouldn't be a year after year thing where you're
like basically saying that you're gonna do X
and you end up doing you know
X minus 30% or 40% yeah
and I would imagine at least
at least in my experience
in those years
where it's not even going nearly as expected
is like one of the really important things
is being totally upfront and honest
and keeping for sure communication lines open
rather than the opposite of uh
you know the investors getting surprised
at some point where
things are not going as they should be
or expected for sure
let's say completely agreed yeah
honesty um
that's the thing I was saying before
like it's so simple when you boil it down right
but it's like
being an honest person is one of those things right
like sure
you can try and lie your way out of things
you're going to get caught at some point
and it's not going to work out for you
so agree
yup yeah
um
I heard you say something that
that jumped out to me you talk to me
you said a founder's job
part of a founder's job is to create FOMO
what do you mean by that
but I I really do believe that
and to be honest it actually kind of frustrates me
I wish especially on the investing side
I wish that more investors were just
rational with their decision making
and this is not a dig at any investors
but I think
a lot of investors
get really excited about momentum and hype
and they do have fear of missing out
so they really want to be in that like
cool brand and a lot of times
not even a lot of times but sometimes
those cool brands
may not actually be great brands at their core
and then sometimes you have really great brands
that are more boring
in terms of how they approach things
but you know investors aren't excited
cause there isn't as much FOMO built up
so what the thing that I probably said
which I do 100% believe
is when it comes to fundraising and just in general
you need to create a bit of FOMO
and a bit of excitement around your brand
of course on the retail side
that's not even a question
but like more on the business side
just because people want what they can't have
and people want the the new shiny object
and again I kind of hate that it is that way on
on the business side
but I do think that's a really important thing for
for founders to know is like
how do you create FOMO when it comes to
to raising money specifically
but the other thing I heard you say was that um
you had pointed to boshons and
and Justin Gill as I think you said
I quote the model of how to build it right today
can you talk more about what you meant by that
yeah I mean look
I just think that they did a really nice job
they stayed really narrow in their product focus
and they built year after year very consistently
with great talent
and obviously had a really successful exit
um and then on top of that
like I said earlier they had delicious product
so I mean
I think they just they they
they did things the right way
from the outside looking in
of course I don't understand the intricacies
or pretend to know the intricacies
of the business itself but from the outside looking in
I think they did a really nice job
um it's interesting though right
like
let's say botsons didn't sell
and let's say botsons ran the business for another
Justin ran the business for another two years right
and for some reason they just had a downturn and like
it just didn't end up with this like
picture perfect story
I wonder if you would still point to it as such
like a success story
right
so that's always the funny thing that I talk about
is just like
there's literally one degree where it
goes from like
this was a home run to like
this is just another another business
right again
clearly
they crushed it because they sold the right time
but it is it we
I obviously play the cross in college
and we always talk about this
where it could be a tie game
and you go into overtime and if you win
you're like wow
we just did things right like
we're preparing the right way
like we know exactly what you're doing
we're doing and then if you lose
you're like oh
we need to reevaluate things right
and it really really is
such a small degree of difference
between winning and losing
when it gets to that level
so just something interesting to think about
for sure no
it's so it's funny you said that
and they were basically saying like
did Groon sell too early and I was like
I mean sure
you probably make that case
but would you have turned that down after three years
I absolutely not
absolutely not no
I think they they crushed it
absolutely so haha
last question for you I did
you're just
and you know
super knee deep in the CPG space
outside of mezcal maybe
let's just even say
outside of the bar category in general
any specific brands or and
or just kind of trends in general in the CPG world
that
I've just been kind of piquing your interest lately
things you've been tracking
not that something you'd necessarily like
pursue or related to mesh club
but just something that just piqued your interest
in general
I mean I think
I think Coconut Cult's a pretty incredible brand
definitely a brand that I
I admire I think Fish Wife is a pretty incredible brand
a brand that I admire yeah
so those are two brands that like
you know we're
we are not competitive with them at all
and I don't plan to ever be competitive with them
but just two brands that I think
are doing a really great job and
and building the right way
there are obviously a lot more
but those are two that just come to mind pretty quickly
I agree with those both those yeah
Griffins has been awesome
um
what's the best place for people to fall along with you
specifically and then
what's the best place for people to fall along with
what's going on with the brand these days
as well for sure
well more importantly mezcla
follow us at eat mezcla.com
you can buy us at retailers
from Whole Foods and sprouts
to target and select Costco's
as well as obviously
online on our website and on Amazon
I would say for me people can follow me
Griffins plants on Instagram
I am trying to build my TikTok account
but it's pretty brutal right now
so that's gonna take a little
little time to figure out
but uh
but yeah most importantly
mezcla by mezcla I think you're gonna love it
if you haven't tried it before
and if you wanna follow me
obviously you know where to find me
and LinkedIn too
so perfect awesome
thanks Tristan
going to your board
how did you think about pricing mescal in the market
just retail in general from a velocity
for sure so a few things
which ever you talk about secondary displays
you were on Allison Kane's podcast not too long ago and
I don't know exactly what I said
I saw someone post something on LinkedIn this morning
there's so many of those protein bars over the years
force it down force it down easier
number one don't do it
from a a commercialization standpoint
fast forwarding a little bit out from those early days
different formulations
asking for dice pistachio supplier recommendations
for sure well
timely question
it's a great question it
can you share an example
you talked about um

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