Purely Elizabeth

Elizabeth Stein was a nutritionist who wanted to recommend anti-inflammatory, gluten-free diets to her clients, yet felt hampered because she couldn’t point to any products she could endorse. From there, Stein turned to her kitchen, and Purely Elizabeth was born. Business boomed dramatically; she hoped for merely 20 orders upon launching the company. She got 10,000 in the first 3 hours! Today, Purely Elizabeth remains a healthier alternative to traditional granolas and bars. But, Stein says, “I’ve always envisioned Purely Elizabeth as a bigger lifestyle brand.” She has released a cookbook, expanded into categories from oatmeal to body scrubs, and continues to be an innovator in the healthy products community.

Beautycounter

When Gregg Renfrew launched Beautycounter in 2013, her single focus was to create transparency and safety in the personal care industry: “I wanted to create a safer and healthier place for my children, family, and ultimately everyone in the world.” The US remains dramatically behind the EU in banning harmful substances from the skincare industry (having only banned ~30 ingredients to date, compared to nearly 1,800 in the EU). Beautycounter has barred over 1,500 ingredients and educates consumers on the reasons for this standard. Beautycounter has also galvanized the safe product movement through community selling, uniquely connecting the brand story with Consultants selling on its behalf.

Talea Beer Co.

Talea Beer Company is named after its co-founders Tara Hankinson and LeAnn Darland, and their company’s target is someone who does not like beer. How do they do that? They don’t mimic the time-honored traditional brewers that dominate the mainstream landscape. Talea’s ‘flavored’ offers don’t feature a hint of (artificial) lime or berry; rather, they’ve reengineered the craft process to create delicious, boundary pushing offers with milk and fruit sugar. Their approach is grounded in meeting a need – over 70% of female craft-beer drinkers feel frustrated that brands view them as an afterthought, and Talea is reaching these women with their innovative approach.

Simple Mills

Kaitlin Smith of Simple Mills lives the tale of “you are what you eat.” Due to chronic joint pain, she turned to more natural foods and saw a gap in the market for natural and organic baked goods. The brand started from humble beginnings in 2013 when Smith was baking the product’s muffin mixes and taking samples to each Whole Foods store in Atlanta. Today, Simple Mills has an extensive product portfolio, and Smith has been named a Forbes 30 under 30. She attributes her success to disrupting a category in decline – the baking aisle. “If it’s easier and tastier, people will eat differently, and as a result will be able to do more with their lives.”

Fur

Laura Schubert and Lillian Tung are the co-founders of fur, the first for-women brand focused on body, hair and skin. Both have one goal in common: “We are on a mission to remaster how people feel about body hair and to remove the shame many people have around their bodies.” Their hero product “Fur Oil” is meant to clear pores and soften and reduce ingrown hair, resulting in healthier skin. Fur products have premium distribution in upscale boutiques like Free People and Kith, as well as spas and salons. The brand receives incredible love online due to celebrity endorsements from the likes of Emma Watson, as well as influencers and general beauty care users, who appreciate the overall feminist message and confident tone discussing a traditionally taboo topic.

Miyokos

Miyoko Schinner is the CEO and founder of Miyoko’s Kitchen. She is a chef, an author, and perhaps most importantly, a perspective changer – she is shifting how people think about vegan food and lifestyles. Miyoko has dedicated her life to convincing others there’s a different way to eat. Miyokos launched online in 2014 and has taken off, offering vegan dairy products (cheeses and butters), with the goal of “help(ing) people see the power of their plate in creating a more peaceful, compassionate planet.” Crafted in California wine country, the products aren’t just humane, they’re delicious. Award winning products are helping Miyoko take on the $120 B cheese industry one dairy product at a time.

Health-Ade Kombucha

Daina Trout and Vanessa Dew started selling Trout’s first batches of kombucha at Brentwood Farmers Market in 2012. The kombucha sold out. In 2013, when kombucha was still a nascent category, they got distribution in 8 Gelson’s stores as a trial. This unlocked partnerships with distributors like Nature’s Best, propelling Health-Ade to West Coast and eventual nationwide distribution. Health-Ade’s built its brand as the “champion of the happiest and healthiest you.” From humble beginnings at a farmer’s market, Health-Ade is now found in more than 26,000 stores around the nation.

Coolhaus

Natasha Case and Freya Estrella started baking cookies, making ice cream, and combining them into ‘cool houses’ in Los Angeles in 2008. They shared their products with the people of Los Angeles by buying a postal van, and making the trek to debut these ice cream sandwiches at Coachella Music Festival. Coolhaus touts its certified women-owned status, citing that it’s “such an important cause and a challenge our World faces. To change you have to lead by example.” And lead they have. Coolhaus has achieved incredible success in over 7,500 grocery stores across the US, with over 30 offers. Yet, the brand has remained true to its roots: Coolhaus continues its founding tradition with 10 mobile ice cream trucks and carts in LA, NYC, and Dallas.

LOLI Beauty

Tina Hedges of LOLI Beauty is a veteran in building startups. She launched a celebrity haircare brand and a hangover prevention beverage before LOLI. In 2017, Hedges created the idea of “Living Organic Loving Ingredients,” the inspiration behind LOLI. LOLI Beauty is the world’s first zero-waste, organic, and customizable beauty brand. All products are waterless, food-grade, and made with up-cycled, sustainably grown, superfood ingredients. Designed with the sustainability-conscious consumer in mind, even the packaging is compostable. Recently, the Global Cosmetic Industry featured LOLI Beauty as one of the top 30 disruptive beauty brands to watch for in 2020.

Step 2: Carve out a unique positioning

What pain point does your brand uniquely address that others cannot? What’s your true competitive edge?

Lily’s Chocolate

Made with fair trade certified chocolate and sweetened with plant-based sugar substitutes, Lily’s provides shoppers an indulgent chocolate experience without nutritional sacrifice. Delighting consumers comes by way of achieving taste parity to traditional category options, while eliminating the guilt element of fulfilling cravings. Lily’s fulfills a unique positioning that no other better-for-you category player has been able to figure out – delivering on what consumers care about most in indulgence: taste.

Step 4: Be seamlessly omnichannel

Meet your consumer personas everywhere they are.

Soylent

Started as a meal replacement for busy techies, Soylent has aggressively expanded its consumer targets, its product offering and its omnichannel footprint. Soylent targets multiple consumer personas from the college student to busy moms through seamless omnichannel engagement. In addition to a winning online presence on Amazon (#1 grocery product on Amazon in January 2017) and DTC, Soylent has been gradually expanding its brick and mortar presence across foodservice, retail, and convenience stores while also using influencer mediums such as campus ambassadors and sponsoring bicycle rides to class. This ability to meet consumers where they are allows Soylent to delight consumers by making it easy to buy.

Step 6: Pull consumers in through the right value equation

Education on brand’s value will pull consumers in. “Attainable premium” will convert them.

Cora

Made with 100% Certified Organic Cotton, Cora provides the discerning woman a natural and organic feminine care option that resonates with both personal values and desire for quality. The feminine care landscape is rapidly changing as women are taking a more hands on approach to their personal care regimens, period care included. Cora provides consumers an organic cotton option that is free of pesticides, dioxins, polyester, and fragrances. The brand’s value extends beyond the product itself; for every purchase, the company gives health education and a month’s supply of pads to a girl in need in a developing country. Cora’s efficacious, modern product provides shoppers an attainable premium trade-up option in the category.

Step 8: Inspire more usage

Cultivate more usage occasions of current offerings. Fuel exploration of broader portfolio with thoughtful expansion.

Ancient Nutrition

Ancient Nutrition is a vitamins and supplements category disruptor, restoring health, strength and vitality by providing the healthiest whole food nutrients to today’s modern landscape. This means adaptability, convenience, and personalization. Their protein products are formulated to be soluble in water, almond milk, coffee, or tea, to be enjoyed both hot and cold, and to be used one or more times a day, for different occasions. In doing so, Ancient Nutrition allows you to seamlessly incorporate their products into your routine, no matter how specific or hectic.

Step 10: Continually iterate, adapt, and innovate

Make sure your brand is adapting to consumers’ everchanging needs and desires

Siete Family Foods

Siete Family Foods delights consumers wanting authentic Mexican food offerings that are clean, healthy, and delicious. What started as a grain free tortilla company has turned into a tortilla, chips, hot sauce, taco shell, and queso powerhouse of healthy Mexican food that extends far beyond the tortilla space. The team has thoughtfully expanded as consumers have proven different dietary preferences: tortillas come in different flour types (chickpea, almond, coconut, to name a few), chips come in both different flavors (sal y limon, nacho, sea salt, etc.) and pack sizes (new 6 ct now featured for on-the-go consumption). Their queso is vegan. Their bean dip is sprouted. Their chips are made with 100% avocado oil. Siete continues to adapt and keep their finger on the pulse of the health movement and consumers’ food preferences.

Bright Farms

Produce

Bright Farms is changing our food system by producing healthier and more sustainable local produce. The company finances, builds and operates hydroponic greenhouses near retail distribution partners, allowing the stores to reliably carry locally-grown, high-quality packaged vegetables.

The greenhouses are financed by long-term retailer agreements, effectively barring competitors from entry once Bright Farms gains distribution. Having already established successful partnerships with major retailers like Kroger, Ahold, Albertsons and Walmart, and posted 890% growth over the past 3 years, the brand is poised for continued expansion in the coming years.

New Wave Foods

Plant-Based Seafood

New Wave Foods co-founders Dominique Barres and Michelle Wolf knew there had to be a better way to give consumers the seafood they want while protecting the ocean’s finite resources. In 2015 they developed their first product: algae-based “shrimp.” The proprietary product story allowed them to enter leading-edge foodservice locations like Google’s campus.

New Wave Foods is an example of how a challenger brand can use new technologies, processes and ingredients to build a breakthrough product story that creates a moat even at start-up stage. Their early commitment to identifying, sourcing and processing the specific algae to recreate shrimp’s color, taste and texture will give them a significant head start as other brands start to bring plant-based trends to seafood.

Vital Proteins

Supplements

Vital Proteins has become a leading brand in the collagen space by using digital marketing and partnerships with “endorsers” from values-based groups. For example, the brand’s clean ingredient list won it “Whole30-approval.” (Whole30 is an increasingly popular eating plan focused on whole, unprocessed foods.) The brand has roughly tripled in sales the past three years, using these values-based endorsements to build a moat in the highly competitive supplement space.

From the Seal of Good Housekeeping to celebrity chef recommendations, brand endorsements have been around forever. What has changed is the source of these endorsements and their ability to act as challenger brand moats that help consumers navigate a sea of confusing food choices.

Oatly

Dairy Milk Alternative

Oatly, an oat-based milk free from dairy, soy, GMOs, gluten, or nuts, entered the U.S. market by eschewing mainstream retail and going directly to coffee shops. In doing so, they won over influential baristas and leading-edge coffee enthusiasts. This influencer channel continues to be a moat for Oatly to reach new consumers and generate demand and momentum to fuel its entry into mainstream retail and into new geographies.

Bevi

Healthy Beverage Dispensers

Bevi is unique on this list in that it’s not a packaged good. In fact, Bevi has forsaken packaging altogether. This Boston-based company places digital healthy beverage dispensers in offices around the U.S., providing employees with healthy, tasty beverages that generate less waste than traditional canned or bottled options. The machines also track consumption, allowing Bevi to proactively restock machines and build a database of consumption insights. The brand says it has reduced office beverage costs by 50%, and Bevi itself posted 1000% revenue growth in 2016.

Bevi’s “moat” comes from the way in which it developed a complete solution model with distributors to help with the sale, delivery and maintenance of machines to offices.

Urban Remedy

Fresh RTE Meals & Snacks

Urban Remedy is bringing consumers ready-to-eat fresh meals and snacks whenever, wherever. Their omni-channel model, which spans home delivery, owned retail storefronts and branded kiosks inside of other forward-looking retailers, allows them to win a greater share of in-home and out of home occasions. The proof? Urban Remedy has experienced 100% growth over the past two years.

The company tracks data from owned points of sale, using the insights to tailor its assortment in real time (a kiosk’s assortment on a given day is determined by analysis of yesterday’s sales). Furthermore, Urban Remedy uses kiosks and branded stores to incubate and identify the 2-3 SKUs that are worthy of being rolled out to larger accounts like Costco. This “always-on insight strategy” provides a better chance of success when launching new products in mainstream retail channels – and creates a moat to stave off other brands considering entering the fresh packaged space.