YouSaid · the spoken record

Madeline Haydon

lines on the record: 76
first: 2024-05-13
most recent: 2024-05-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It really is a mixture. It's a mixture of product fit at the right time in the marketplace. When we launched plant-based was becoming a thing, e-com was becoming a thing. And I also give a lot of credit to the team. When I was maxed out on credit cards, I had an amazing founding team. You know, Michelle, who was one of my first marketing hires, she put our trade shows on her credit card, including the travel and hotel. And I really believe in, you know, the culture AIDS strategy for lunch, as Peter Drucker says. So in addition to that, yes, you have to have a good amount of luck. You can call it luck or you can call it God. And I think that it's really important to have success, have sometimes like people like me so that other female founders, other people of color be.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I actually just announced that I have worked with the board for the past few months and we have handpicked and identified a wonderful CEO successor to me. And I am going to take some time off and I'm going to find out what I want to lend my time and efforts to in this next chapter.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. First of all, my job is to make sure that I'm doing the best decisions for the brand, including its leadership. Have I ever built a 100 or a 200 million dollar brand before? No. I mean, well disclosed. This is my first time as a CEO. And am I the right person to lead this brand at this stage? And I realized that my professional goals have shifted a little bit. You know, I want to contribute to helping make it easier for other female founders to access capital, to be able to have board diversity, not just in terms of I'm a female and I'm a person of color, but also I don't come with a traditional financial outlook that a lot of board members tend to be on corporate boards.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we launched nationwide in 2018. That next year, 2019, was this magical year where we were at Amazon Small Business of the Year. We were entrepreneur of the year. We were Inc. 5000 number 13 nationwide, number two for food and beverage. Then, yes, then the pandemic hit. But because we had built this robust online channel, when the pandemic hit and consumers didn't shop in the stores and turned online, we already had our supply chain and logistics well established. And yes, we did grow through the pandemic very quickly because we had put that firm foundation down on e-comm.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nestle's the Denones, now the Starbucks and the Chobanis, with like 36 employees. And so, you know, we've always felt like David and Goliath's situation.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I would say, first of all, it sounds like a lot of money, but when you compare even our, you know, call it 42 like total raised, that is a fraction of what our competitors had raised, whether or not it's super creamer or ripple or califia. It takes a lot of money to go into the grocery store. This is not an industry where it's easy to bootstrap your way because grocery is just so expensive. And so the purpose of that was to really have growth equity. And so it allowed us to build out our team. And our team is still very small guy. We are like 36 employees. And we're the number one plant-based creamer in both the natural channel and e-com channel. Number two for Milo. So we are competing against those huge multinational companies that we talked about before.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We couldn't control where we were at because we didn't need to require refrigeration. So after three years of trying to talk to retailers into putting us psychographically where we should be, which is in the chilled dairy set, we ended up saying, fine, we will make a refrigerated product. And that was the unlock with Kroger. They wouldn't put us into their set that didn't need refrigeration. And so when I committed to the buyer that we will come with a gabletop, and he asked me, okay, are you ready to swing for the fences? Because you're going to have to supply us. And can you really supply Kroger? And I said, absolutely. Then we got to work”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was actually our curse at retail because when you went into a store like Sprouts, you could either be in shelf-stable milks or you could be in the coffee tea aisle or you could be in the chilled creamer set. And we knew psychographically where would you look as a consumer for a non-dairy or plant-based creamer? It's going to be in the chilt it with the milks and the other creamers.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, in order for me to raise that next round of capital for us to field our growth, I'm going to have to prove to these investors that we aren't just an internet brand, but we're going to be able to be successful in retail. And that was the first year that we were not profitable because I had to invest in a sales team and brokers and pay slotting fees. And it did take me a couple tries. You know, the first try I took getting into a store outside of PCC, they didn't like the fact that we were selling online because online, Amazon then was considered their competitor. And so I ended up reframing it to make it be less about risk for the retail to be able to say we're bringing with our brand an installed base of a multi-million dollar business online. And we know that our consumers would like to buy our product in your stores.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was still raising money, still raising money, and having limited success. And I remember there was an investor that I really wanted to invest in NudBond. And he said something that was crushing to me, you know, Madeline, it seems like you've really been able to prove yourself online. And that's great. But I need to see that you're not just going to be an internet darling. And you might find it will be very difficult when you go into retail. You know, I'd love to see you when you get into more distribution. And I was just incredulous because this particular investor that I really wanted to invest in our company, just something he said about still doubting us even when we had built this multi-million dollar business online past five million dollars and still had doubts about whether or not we'd be able to make it in retail.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That retail without significantly increasing your team, but whether or not you sell $1,000 a day on Amazon or a hundred thousand dollars a day, you can still do it with one person online.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was just ruminating on what he was saying and just thinking, am I building this business wrong? And I'm doing it in the backwards way. And I realized he's talking about it from the perspective of silk. Silk is huge. And yes, for silk, e-com is probably a very small ancillary channel for them. But it's enough for me at nutpods and it has benefits. I don't have to wait to get into retail for whenever the reset periods are. I don't have to pay slotting. I'm already paying Amazon for their commission. And now I look back and not only does it make sense, but it was absolutely the right choice for us. It also allowed us to just have a couple years of learning our brand before we made that significant investment in retail. I think the biggest thing is that you can't scale.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And I asked him about what do you think about going to e-com as an initial channel strategy? And he said, e-comm is going to be about 20% of your revenues and really where the money is at is at retail. So you really should push for retail.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was my whole business model, and it was going to be the quickest way that I could reach people to sell en math. And I remember attending a trade show, and I got introduced to the silk marketing manager. And I'm like, oh, hot dog, I finally get a chance to talk to someone this right in my lane.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pretty soon after we launched. And so, but that's one of the things about designing a product and making sure it's differentiated. Were there other French vanilla products out there? Yes, but we were unsweetened, which meant that you could use your own preferred sweetener and sweetness level, including none at all. And so with nut pods, we were differentiated because it's very difficult formulaically to have an unsweetened product that still has flavor that you can taste without the crutch of sugar.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Get me wrong, we were still short, we were still short on cash, but I would say, you know, for the nine years that we've been in business, we've been profitable for five of them.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, when you sell on Amazon, you're getting paid very quickly. And so the cash flow on Amazon was so much quicker than it was in stores because And so the cash flow was really alleviated for us by being able to sell on Amazon.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The initial reviews came back and they were very positive. And I remember talking to Jeff saying like, do you think they're just being nice because they're a kickstarter backers? And he said, no. And he said, if I waited two years and the product was just mediocre, I'd be pissed. And so it ended up being number one new release, number one best-selling item. It was just this rocket ship that was amazing. And so we ended up constantly stalking out and getting back in. And I was protecting that 12-store chain PCC, making sure that they didn't run out of product because I didn't want that retailer to kick me out. So we would short ourselves on the Amazon side to keep the retailer in stock. And actually, you know, it worked to our favor because we just had this scarcity theory going for us on Amazon where it's like, okay, we stocked back up, you know.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be launched on Amazon because at that point I had 510 Kickstarter backers that had waited two years to see product. And I also launched in a small 12-store chain up in Seattle, Washington called PCC Natural Markets. And a lot of entrepreneur startups start in the natural channel because the natural channel is a great incubator for small startup brands.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Circle up out of San Francisco, and it would match make investors to vetted companies. And then these companies, you know, had a built-in Angel network. And then in return, Circle made a percentage off of what was raised. And so that really was our Series A round.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I needed a couple hundred thousand. And I was still scratching the ground, guy. I mean, like I entered a business plan competition at Seattle U where I got my MBA. Because the first prize was $10,000. And so that's how small we were trying. To eke together money, and everybody was on consultancy. I couldn't afford anybody. I was a full-time paid volunteer for NutPods for the first three years. So I was trying to get just enough money to finish the commercial formula. And make one run, just one run. It was going to be a big run because of the minimum water quantities. And then it should last me nine months to a year. So it gave me that time to talk to grocery stores, sell it online. And so At that time, my husband Jeff knew of this company called Circle App and they had a platform.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not being responsive to you or not giving you value, and then you've already given them equity and you can't take it back.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, my advisory board were people that I came across at trade shows or any type of industry events. If it was someone And they were friendly, and I could ask them a question. And I said, I'd love to keep in touch. You know, I would immediately link with them on LinkedIn. And then I would ask them maybe just one question because I didn't want to annoy them. And then when it came time to do an advisory board, I had heard from someone else about why Combinator had this fast advisory board template. And it laid out in terms, and you can download it for free, that, you know, if you are a startup and you need more input from an advisor and maybe that means instead of once a month call, maybe once a week call, then the more you ask of them, you give them a little bit more equity. And it could be 0.65, it could be 0.75% in equity, still a vesting schedule. And that vesting schedule is very important because you don't want to have an advisor that is”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was resistant because our name was NutPods. Can we be nut pods without the pods? And so I went back to my industry advisor team and I said, Okay, this is what the Whole Foods Forager told me and the marketing advisor said, starting out as a premium brand, which means you're going to be more expensive and unknown and food service is very difficult. And so the consensus was then maybe we should consider cartons. And so this kicked off the whole like, can we be nut pods without the pods and a little bit of soul searching? And the answer is yes, because what do you call a nut that is growing in trees? Oh my God, thank God they're called pods. Coca-Cola. And so we then produce the cartons.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it doesn't require refrigeration. And he said, I can see consumers buying it in our store maybe once a month. But if you make a carton, they'll buy it every week. Let me know if you make a carton.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So they had local forger. So it would be someone like you and you would specialize in the San Diego area and you would see what trends are trending in your area. You could bring in special items that met that trend for your region. Met the one for Orange County and the local forger at the time, his name is Dwight. He said, you know, it's an interesting concept. I think I can see it in our stores, but have you thought about making a carton? I said, well, no, our name is Nut Pods, and we want to make the little pods. And it's going to be convenient and it's on the go.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly right, and I think it's important to say I started this company from the lens of a consumer, what kind of product I would have wanted to buy, in what format I wanted. And so when I went to do this, I remember back when Whole Foods had a local forager program.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Jeff introduced me to one of the entrepreneurs that had had a successful sale. And so this person initially verbally committed to $100,000, which was like so much money. And I used, you know, his verbal yes to get all of the people off the fence. And within 24 hours, he called me back and he backed out. And I was just utterly crushed. I cried. And now I just felt like that game of sorry where you felt all the way back down and you had to like start all over again. And I had this ethical dilemma of do I tell the people that got off the fence because of the anchor investor that the anchor investor then backed out and then I ended up saying like I just can't start a relationship without disclosing that. And so, thankfully, the majority of the people that committed still stayed committed.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I could not get any credit. In fact, we started the company with those prepaid green dot credit cards. You know, the one where you give $500 and then you get a $500 credit line. But I was still going for it and I was still talking and I was still running through the numbers. Oh, I kept hearing the whole like, you've just got to get your anchor investor. And then the other investors that are on the fence will follow.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly I think one more thing that I wanted to just explain about why we were this incredible underdog story is not only because, I mean, you have to take a look at me objectively. I am a female founder, person of color, pregnant when I started this company, never been a CEO before, brand new to the industry. And Jeff had a real estate portfolio company that, you know, went sideways when the bubble burst. And we actually had a bankruptcy. To our name as well.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I only had what was available on Google. And so, you know, you could sometimes have just a snippet of an industry report like IBIS on coffee and coffee creamers. And I would just try and reach through and see what fuzzy parts, you know, behind the paywall that I could get in gleaming. And so.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is very important, and that's what I would tell like other people that look for me for advice is that you have to make sure that you understand there's a whole host of the reasons why they're saying no, but I hate it when my husband would say, this is just a numbers game. And the more no's you get gets you closer to the yes.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was going to anybody, I was going to Angel Networks, I was paying money to pit two angels. So I didn't have any money. I needed money, but I still had to come up with thousands of dollars to pit to angels in the hopes that some of them would invest. I also flew all the way across the country to this one guy that could be an angel investor in the dairy space. And you learn these really painful, costly lessons, which is don't ever Take a red eye across the country just for one meeting. You have to have multiple meetings set up. And I came home empty-handed. And I took it so personally that they were rejecting me or my business or my team. But really, when I look back at it now, it could have been as simple as the stage was not appropriate for their investment portfolio or they were more in apparel or hard goods and they didn't know food.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you're a startup, it's like, you know, it all was enough for us. And that's. So, and you know, I just didn't have any built in network of people that were investors or even knew about this. Jeff, to his credit, he tried to make introductions to different entrepreneurs that he had helped even exited his business. But we just didn't get any bites. And I took it so personally, guy. I felt like they were saying my idea was terrible or I am inadequate.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. They're so nervous. They're so big. Yeah. But you know what? That's actually our secret weapon was that For them, anything under $10 million, right? It's like not worth it.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Too small of a niche is too difficult to produce, and that's why the big food companies Didn't bother with it And I said, not all good ideas come from big food companies.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jeff is my husband And it was difficult for him to support and give his bonus money towards an idea that he honestly didn't think was a good idea, but he wanted to support his wife. He didn't want to let me down when I really finally found that dream that I would cry over, like the American idol people.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, there was no saving money, guy. I mean, we had two young kids, we had a dog, we were living in an apartment when Everyone had a house in Orange County, and we were young professionals, but it kind of felt like college days again when you were really poor and like your dates were going out to happy hour because that's what you could afford.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know he was his salary was supporting our family and his bonuses were going to nutpods. And it feels so vulnerable when you're an entrepreneur and you have this idea and then you ask family and friends, it's difficult because my circle wasn't the circle of angel investors. And we were in our 30s and we were living paycheck to paycheck.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had a concussion. And I went through all the things, and then they said, well, we're just going to run a blood panel just in case. Wow. And they told me I was pregnant and I didn't believe it. That's when I found out I was pregnant with Claire.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We ended up having about 28 different trials. The Kickstarter money was long gone. We had done a promissory note round with family friends who would loan me money. We had done a convertible note round that said I was going to have a series A and then they would have a discount and it was time because I also felt it was ticking. It's been like a couple years and I need to give these Kickstarter backers some product.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because as a startup, I need as much shelf life as I can so that by the time that I make it, I have time to market, sell it, distribute it, and actually like replenish it.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it's steam injection 284 degrees for four seconds. Got it. And then it's filled in a clean room environment that's not open to open air.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Other ways sometimes it would come out gloopy, like pudding sometimes you couldn't taste the French vanilla. And so we were formulating all of these different tweaks of has to be the right flavor. And you have a product like ours where we only can use certain ingredients to make sure that we hit all of our certifications of non-GMO project verified vegan gluten-free kosher whole 30 and glyphosate free. We couldn't use so many of the standard ingredients that processed creamers used. And I didn't want to. I didn't want to.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because it doesn't have anything to emulsify. You're taking that alkaline product and put it in an acidic environment. And like any chemistry, it will have a chemical reaction. Oh, wait. But some people like their coffee iced. Some people like it standard hot. Some people like it extra hot. The temperature affects your pH and your roast. Blonde roast is more acidic. Dark roast is less acidic. Yep.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Included packaging, it includes the line time, it includes all of the ingredients. You think coffee creamer is this easy thing. And I thought that too. It's just almond milk and coconut cream and a little bit of salt, right? Yeah. But it's actually a very, it's a highly variable product. You're taking an alkaline product into an acidic environment like coffee. So if you made almond milk from home, just almonds and coconuts.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So there was a tetrapack, which is the packaging company, had a pilot plant. Now, you couldn't sell it, but it was just a development pilot plant that you could use to develop new products and test it out. It's not certified or licensed to sell finished products.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So when I was working with Tara, my very first consultant, she connected me with food technologist who would help me formulate commercially, you know, my kitchen formula into something that could be commercially scaled and produced. So I started looking in the grocery store and turning around different cartons. And I saw Pacific foods was, oh, great. They're local. They're just here in Oregon. And they are making aseptic shelf-stable products that are nut-based. So they should be able to handle my allergens. And I called them up and I said all the wrong things. Hi, my name is Madeline. I'm the CEO of a new startup. As soon as they hear startup, they don't want to work with you. And I'd love to talk to you about my product. And I would never get a response.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just like a little coffee meat because at that point, I was tired of carrying around the stupid cooler pack with the stupid cooler like and I just wanted something that was shelf stable and I could pop in my bag and go.”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I learned about what a food technologist does. And so I ended up just networking through some of the speakers that came to that Chapman University. And I said, oh, Barry, can you introduce me to Tara? Because Tara has worked with a co-manufacturer. I told her about my formula and she put me in touch with Took two years”
2024-05-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · nutpods: Madeline Haydon · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT