#213 - The Rise of Almonds with Daily Crunch and Philosopher Foods

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Turn every BFCM QR code scan into sales—get the free report now: www.uniqode.com/bfcmcpg

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff welcomes Laurel Orley, Co-Founder of Daily Crunch, and Tim Richards, Founder of Philosopher Foods, to discuss how they are redefining the almond snacking category through innovation, quality sourcing, and functional nutrition.

Laurel shares the origin story behind Daily Crunch’s signature turmeric and sea salt sprouted almonds, a product born from a family tradition and bootstrapped R&D in her own kitchen. She breaks down the sprouting process, nutritional benefits, and how texture innovation helped them crack into conventional retail like Meijer and airport kiosks across the country. Tim introduces Gut Nuts™, the first fermented almonds on the market, explaining the role of probiotics, postbiotics, and lacto-fermentation in creating a tangy, umami-forward product that supports gut health.

Whether you’re a snack lover, a founder, or a buyer looking for what’s next in CPG, this episode serves up insights on product innovation, texture as a differentiator, and why almonds are more relevant than ever..

Tune in now and explore the future of almond snacking. Then grab a bag of Daily Crunch or Gut Nuts and taste the innovation for yourself!

Special thanks to the Almond Board of California — visit them at almonds.com to learn more about their work and resources.

Listen in as they share about:

Brand Origins and Founder Journeys
Sprouting and Fermentation Processes
Product Differentiation Through Texture
Health & Nutritional Benefits
Innovation in Flavor Development
Retail & Distribution Strategy
Support from the Almond Board of California

Episode Links:
Website: https://www.dailycrunchsnacks.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurel-orley/
Website: https://philosopherfoods.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-richards-522285a4/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (20K+ members and growing!)
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Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've always wondered about QR codes. Who's scanning them? How impactful are they?
0:06.0	But now there's actually a really cool new research report from our partners at Unicode.
0:11.0	You know what's wild? In this report, you can see 74% of shoppers say they'll scan a QR code during Black Friday Cyber Monday,
0:18.0	but only 37% of marketers think that those campaigns actually worked.
0:22.3	That's a big gap. And they also found that most brands focus on where to place the QR codes
0:28.1	just to get the scan, but then they forget to optimize what happens after the scan.
0:32.9	Marketers, fellow data nerds, you won't be disappointed. There's so much to learn in this report.
0:38.3	Like, shoppers want value, fast. 56% of shoppers said they expect discounts when they scan,
0:43.6	like automatically applied discounts with a quick checkout or instant reviews. And you can check
0:48.5	out who scans those QR codes, demographic insights, purchase likelihood, and learn how
0:53.9	effectively they've been used in campaigns. So, when you use QR codes, demographic insights, purchase likelihood, and learn how effectively they've been used in campaigns.
0:56.4	So, when you use QR codes during Black Friday Cyber Monday campaigns, make sure they are working as hard as your offers.
1:03.2	Check out all the insights in the full free report. It's in the show notes, but it's www.unuchode.com slash BFCM-C-G. That's www.utico.com slash BFCM-C-C-G.
1:11.7	That's www.
1:12.6	un-I-Q-O-D-E dot com slash B-F-C-M-C-G.
1:18.6	Thank you. So we actually use the turmeric.
1:37.3	We use the nutritional yeast, obviously sea salt, but then to activate turmeric, we use a pinch of pepper, black pepper, and that activates it
1:47.7	so the nutritional properties can go to use in your body. And that's something that I didn't
1:54.6	know previously that you need to have black pepper to kind of activate the turmeric.
1:59.6	You know, we are fermented, but we're also sprouted.
2:02.6	And so I'm sure you've heard a lot about sprouted from Laurel.
2:05.6	Basically it makes the almond sweeter, more digest, more nutritious.
	...

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