Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast. Startup CPG is a launchpad and community for small brands.

We host interactive events and serve as a resource for insights and expertise to build a brand that's better for people and better for the planet.

Today's episode is a conversation with Clara Pay, founder of Unite Food.

Unite packs globally inspired flavors and wholesome, gluten-free ingredients and superfoods

into nourishing high-protein snacks.

Our mission is to unite.

Clara is technically a one-woman show, but it's so clear that she's building something

much bigger than herself.

Bringing inclusion and diversity to bars, that's every culture.

We're not about leaving anybody behind.

And on this episode, we talk about the inspiration and process of shaking up a pretty

basic niche of CPG and bringing more flavor, vibrancy, diversity, and inclusion to it.

Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast, Clara. Thanks for having me, Amanda. Delighted to have you

on board and share your story. So we wanted to create a protein bar that was really representative of many different cultures. Backing up a little bit, you know, I was an avid nutrition bar, energy bar, protein bar eater. And the same obstacle I kept coming up against was that I just didn't really care for a lot of the flavors on the market.

And looking at the category, it was always kind of the same flavors, vanilla, chocolate,

lemon, blueberry, maybe a birthday cake, repeat.

And every manufacturer seemed to kind of be making the same flavors over and over again.

And I have kind of a unique perspective because my family and I

immigrated to the United States when I was five and I grew up in California where, you know,

there's a lot of immigrants and one out of two of us has an immigrant parent. And 27% of us are

foreign born. So I grew up in and around a variety of many, many cultures. And, you know,

my point in USC for my undergrad,

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