Newsletter #27: An Interview with the Co-Founders of Kokada

Karl Bracken of Ocampo Capital recently sat down with Jared and Breanna Golestani, co-founders of Kokada.  Kokada is a better-for-you, indulgent snack and spread company located in North Carolina.

KB: Jared and Bre, thank you both for taking the time for this chat.  Starting off with my first question, what is Kokada?

JG: At Kokada we craft naturally sweet spreads and snacks. We've started with our flagship coconut spreads and most recently Dunks that pair our coconut spreads with perfect vegan butter pretzels. Our mission is to offer better-for-you, allergen-friendly foods that are enjoyed by the whole family.

KB: What is your lineup of currently available products?

JG: Our current lineup of products includes our flagship jars of coconut spread in multiple different flavors, including our original caramel coconut, our brownie flavor, which is chocolate flavored, our cinnamon toast, as well as a brownie crunch that we bring back from time to time.

We also have a Dunk's snacking product line, which is essentially a better-for-you version of DunkAroos that pairs our flagship coconut spreads with vegan butter braid pretzels in on-the-go snack packs.

KB: How did you come up with the name of your company?

JG: We got the name Kokada from a family friend who is Brazilian that tried our original coconut spread and told us that it tasted exactly like cocada, which is a Brazilian coconut dessert bar. She made some cocada from Brazil that night and we tried it and realized that that would be a perfect name for the brand. We Americanified it a bit by using K's instead of C's.

KB: I actually didn’t know that the Brazilian snack was spelled with a “c.”  Interesting!  Next question: please tell us about your experiences leading up to starting Kokada.  What about your background helped you?

JG: I started my career as a management consultant, predominantly focused on pre- and post-merger acquisition work in the Life Sciences industry. Consulting gave me a framework for digesting, organizing, and solutioning around complex problems / processes. I found consulting to be a great place to start my career and provide me the confidence to work through ambiguous problems, often which are mirrored in the typical day/week as an entrepreneur.

BG: I spent most of college trying to make it as a professional athlete. Injuries had other plans, but that detour led me to consulting, specifically AI-powered marketing strategy, where I got really good at building systems that help brands grow. I was also lucky enough to still represent Jamaica on the national volleyball team part time, so for a while I was juggling a demanding career and training at an international level simultaneously. That combination turned out to be the best crash course in entrepreneurship I could have asked for.

KB: Who is the Kokada customer?

BG: We have two core customer groups. Since day one, we've focused on being a snack for the whole family, but our primary buyer is parents purchasing for elementary-aged kids. And naturally, those same parents tend to love Kokada Dunks for themselves too, which is why we're seeing great traction in offices across the East Coast!

KB: I recently read that childhood food allergies have more than doubled in the last 30 years, and that over 40% of the kids who have food allergies have experienced a severe, potentially life-threatening reaction.  How is Kokada’s brand positioning supportive of kids with food allergies?

BG: Kokada was built form the start around one simple idea: a snack that everyone can enjoy. Naturally, that means being school safe and free from the top allergens that affect so many families today, but what makes Kokada different from most allergen-friendly options is that we didn't build a "safe" product and stop there. We focused on building a delicious one, that everyone will want, that happens to be allergen-friendly. When you think about inclusion, that's exactly what you want! Everyone enjoying the same yummy snack at the same lunch table!

KB: You recently took on the ambitious task of becoming vertically integrated.  Why did you decide to do that, and how has it been going?

JG: Ambitious task, it certainly has been. We did it because we wanted more control over our supply chain as we continue to scale tighter controls around quality as well as the flexibility to produce on faster turnarounds. Historically we've co-manufactured all of our products out of Sri Lanka and imported them into the U.S. for warehousing and distribution. Vertically integrating gives us supply chain flexibility, cash flow flexibility, and margin expansion opportunity.

BG: And I’ll add that this was something we wanted to do at the onset, but given we didn’t have a Consumer or Food Manufacturing background, we felt that it was best to focus on the other aspects of the business (supply chain, operations, marketing, retail dynamics etc), and then once the business was at a certain size and we felt confident in our understanding of the larger CPG and Retail space, we could then build an internal manufacturing capability that would take us to the next level. We’re excited that we’re finally there

KB: What were the biggest surprises as you launched Kokada?

JG: Just how hard it is to earn the customer loyalty of our consumers. We know that we have a great product. Educating people on that and introducing it to them is hard to do and in today's world there is so much availability of product inundation through advertising and influencing that it's really hard to win that loyalty.

BG: It all just sounds easier until you're really in it! Developing a product that people will love and scaling it nationwide, designing packaging that pops off shelf, and growing same-store sales: each of these things takes far more time and focus than you expect. To really grow a consumer product business in a meaningful way means bringing the product to customers, over and over again for years. It's generally not glamorous to drive results but once you start seeing the efforts compound, it's very rewarding.

KB: What have been the most memorable moments or milestones in Kokada’s history, thus far?

JG: One of the most memorable moments for me was when we got our launch in our first grocery store of four locations. It was a giant milestone for us at the time and I look back on that moment fondly when the general manager gave us the green light.

BG: We've had so many since we started now almost six years ago! My favorite is probably in 2022 when we won NOSH Pitch Slam, one of the biggest pitch competitions in the food industry. When we were invited to pitch, we weren't full time and we were so early stage. Both of us were not even sure if we were going to really pursue this full time (despite the customer feedback saying how much people loved the product). That moment of winning (with judges from Whole Foods, Sprouts, etc), was a "oh wow this is a real national product, not just a farmers market for fun product". It was a feeling I'm probably going to remember for the rest of my life because I remember explicitly deciding that moment on stage that we were going to give this company 100%

KB: That is really cool- I am sure you will never forget that moment!  On the other hand, what’s the biggest challenge you have faced thus far as a company?

JG: From my side of the business, I think our biggest challenge has been building a global supply chain to support a national brand. From production to shipping time frames, import, and then distribution, those timelines add an increased importance on inventory management, which has forced us to become incredibly disciplined in this arena. That said it was certainly difficult in the early days and we've learned a ton along the way.

BG: From my side of the business, it was definitely our first major retail launch with Sprouts Farmers Market (about 450 stores). My only experience leading into that was launching in a 4-store local retailer! It was a big bet, and I new a lot was riding on that being a success. Luckily, I was able to lean on a lot of modeling skills I learned in consulting to put together a plan that was as solid as possible and go from there!

KB: In my experience, taking on that first national retailer is a massive jump for any business.  To use a baseball analogy, it is like getting promoted from low Single A ball to the major leagues overnight!  Both exciting and scary – and with lots of detail that you have to get right once you are under the bright lights.  With that said, what advice would you give other entrepreneurs?

JG: I'm going to sound like a bit of a curmudgeon here but focusing on building what you want to build and ignoring the noise is, I think, really important. For me this means not really engaging through LinkedIn / socials. I find often times people just, like, in social media, hype up their successes and shelter their challenges. This is certainly not representative of everyone but definitely a theme that is strewn throughout the way that people present themselves publicly. Naturally this is, as part of your self-interest, to continue to generate the momentum that people want to see; however, when you look under the hood, seldom is it always sunshine and rainbows as is portrayed in the public eye.

BG: My advice to other entrepreneurs is actually the same advice that I got as a young athlete. Focus on the process! We all want the outcome (the big retail accounts, the exit, etc), but you're never going to get there if you don't focus on the process and the day-to-day little things you can do to improve by 0.1% over and over. Once you learn to love that grind, you'll see that not only do you end up achieving the outcomes you want to achieve, but you also achieve them in the way you want to achieve them (in your own time, with quality measures and no need to "artificially grow" anything).

KB: All that advice is awesome.  Trying to get just a little better every day compounds over time.  It isn’t as fun a story as “everything came easy,” but it is so true.  Now flipping the question, what’s the best advice you have received from another entrepreneur?

JG: To what I shared above we heard from a few founders to stay out of the noise and focus on what ‘you're building.’ That doesn't mean bury your head in the sand or avoid building a network of trusted advisors / founder relationships with people that you can rely on and seek guidance from. It's definitely been helpful advice for me as we’ve built Kokada.

BG: A very wise founder friend gave me two pieces of advice that sound like opposites but both turned out to be exactly right. The first was in 2021 when I was on the fence about going full time on Kokada. He said just go for it, because you won't regret it if it doesn't work out, but you will regret not trying. The second came a few months later, ahead of our first retail launches. His advice was to never launch anywhere that could single-handedly sink the business. Push hard, but always be able to honestly answer: if this launch doesn't go well, is the business still solid? Bold enough to jump, disciplined enough not to bet everything on one moment. That balance has stuck with me.

KB: I am a HUGE believer in regret minimization, and I had a very similar feeling when I decided to launch Ocampo Capital.  Next question: what traits in entrepreneurs are most crucial to success, in your experience?

JG: Resilience and grit are two of the most important traits in an entrepreneur's success from my standpoint. We've gotten lucky breaks along the way throughout the short time that we've been in business and hopefully we'll have many more to come. Having the humility to realize that you manufacture your opportunity through all the hard work that you put in. However certain things are out of your hands and sometimes that's hard to come to terms with. Continuing to put your head down and work hard even when results don't go exactly to plan is a hallmark of what allows for the survivorship bias of what I think we see in successful entrepreneurs.

BG: I'd say confidence and discipline. Confidence in your ability to keep pushing no matter what. Discipline in showing up every day and doing just that. These two things go hand in hand, and over the years as you keep showing up, you’re confidence will continue to improve as well (but it takes time)!

KB: True, true, true!  What do you see as the biggest upcoming challenges and opportunities for Kokada?

JG: From my perspective our biggest challenge will be to continue to find the right people to hire into our organization. Finding and retaining good talent is critical to building an organization as you continue to scale. On the opportunity front I'm not sure I know what I'm most excited about since we have so much going on. I'm really looking forward to the challenge and the reward of bringing our vertical integration to life as well as exploring the opportunities that come along with that.

BG: The next big challenge is growing into conventional and mass channels. Natural retail will always be our original home and the place where we heavily invest in our brand, but on the outset, we set out to build a brand that as many people as possible can enjoy. That means mass and conventional channels, which is a very different game. Vertical integration was a big part of getting us ready for this move, and we’re all excited to continue growing in our home channel and also take on a new frontier!

KB: What does an ideal advisor look like to you?

JG: An ideal advisor for us comes in many shapes and sizes. We've built our portfolio of advisors to help guide us in areas relevant to their specific domain expertise. We haven't looked for general business advisors but instead for specific folks that we can tap when we have questions in supply chain, sales channel strategy and approach, distribution, early to mid-stage strategy as well as late-stage strategy, etc.

BG: An ideal advisor for me is most importantly, someone we can trust and speak 100% honestly with. Secondarily, it is someone who is focused on the long-term outcome (versus the quick wins that may not be oriented for long term success). Especially in consumer where building that brand awareness and long-term loyalty takes time, it’s really invaluable to have someone to look at Jared and I and keep us honest and focused on the end outcome we all want!

KB: How do you leverage your various advisors?

JG: The way that we leverage advisors is probably similar to how I think most people leverage advisors. We use them as sounding boards as well as look to them for their guidance as well as biased opinions about our company and how we're building. Often times we look for them to challenge us on our ideas so that way we can iterate and more fully build out our strategies and future game plans.

KB: Finally, what kind of advice do you have for me and Ocampo Capital?

BG: You already do this so well, but keep selecting early-stage investments based not just on the business plan and product, but just as importantly on the founders. The grittiest founders figure it out no matter what curveballs come their way. Plans, markets, and consumers are constantly shifting, but the best founders stay the course and pivot when they need to. That combination of stubbornness and adaptability is rare. When you find it, back it.

KB: This was awesome.  Thank you both for taking the time today for this interview.  You guys are building something really exciting, and it is fun to be able to watch you do it!