HighKey - The Low Sugar Snack You’ll Crave
The Story of a Brand
Ramon Vela
5 • 145 Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is brought to you by Ordergroove.
Getting HighKey's products in people's mouths is driving the velocity of the brand's success online, says Joe Ens, CEO of the brand that creates snacks low in carbs and sugar.
HighKey had the No. 1 chocolate chip cookie on Amazon within the first several months. That incredible customer loyalty helped sales explode in grocery retailers when HighKey's products hit their shelves.
"At one of the largest national retailers, we accounted for 53 percent of their better-for-you growth the year we entered," Joe says. "That's a wonderful story to get to sell behind because now we can show up to a retailer and say, 'Look here, it's the most loyal brand in the world.' "
Joe spent the first few decades of his career with a Fortune 200 big food company, but he wanted to break free and build something new.
"The wonderful thing about my experience that I'm very fortunate and grateful for is that I've got that fundamental training in a large food company. I wouldn't trade it for anything, and I've been able to transfer it to the startup world because of my orientation," Joe says. "Living on that razor's edge is a different thing. The decisiveness, the agility, the way you move. It's not for everybody."
These days, HighKey has 11 different flavors - with the chocolate chip being the preeminent product - but they've entered the cracker market and mini treat space.
Joe's advice to other startup entrepreneurs isn't complicated: Do your hard work upfront and make sure you have a business model that you can scale.
"For those that think they have that internal intestinal fortitude, bet on yourself and go for it," he says. "If you're not comfortable, you can find somebody who's done it, and you can partner with them and bring them something that they don't have. But it's still the same decision. It's a decision to bet on yourself."
In Part 2, Joe talks about:
* How HighKey leveraged the online market space first before tackling the retail space.
* The strategic questions on where to present their snacks on retail shelves.
* How the company has built on its early success in the retail space.
* How he transferred the skills and fundamentals he learned working for a big food company and used them to help build HighKey.
* Why he calls his career change "Project Timberlake" (and eventually "Project Jay-Z.")
* HighKey's continued plans to expand its retail footprint.
* How the brand tackled the pandemic and economic downturns.
* Advice for other entrepreneurs considering startup brands.
Join Ramon Vela and Joe Ens as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.
For more on HighKey, visit: https://highkey.com/
For more on the Institute for Mindful Leadership, visit: https://instituteformindfulleadership.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's a seismic shift that's going on on the American diet where people, whether it be because of biotechnology, |
| 0:06.7 | wearing a watch, wearing a ring, or even a glucose monitor, I think they are now starting to realize how much sugar is not hidden, you know, maliciously, but embedded within their food. |
| 0:19.9 | Right now, 51% of Americans |
| 0:21.9 | are trying to cut sugar from their diet is the highest limiter in the American diet. Number two |
| 0:27.8 | is fat, and that's 33%. So the gap between fat and sugar as it relates to what people are |
| 0:33.3 | trying to cut out is growing. And, you know, I often say to folks, you know, sometimes there |
| 0:38.4 | are waves in the ocean as it relates to food trends, but there's not going to be a Time |
| 0:42.9 | magazine article in five years that says, sugar is back, baby. I mean, that that article's not going |
| 0:47.9 | to be written. And unfortunately, part of it lives in the fact that a third of Americans are pre-diabetic. |
| 0:53.5 | But I think more than that, |
| 0:55.1 | there's a reality that people realize that sugar has had real consequence over the last |
| 0:59.7 | several decades. And so that's why we've made it our mission to drive it out. You know, we talk |
| 1:04.6 | about sugar reduction being of movement, but we don't take it. It's not political for us. And what I mean by that is, |
| 1:12.2 | you know, we're a sassy brand. We're kind of lighthearted. We don't take ourselves too |
| 1:17.3 | seriously. We just want to make sure people have the options to make better choices. And it's |
| 1:22.6 | not about right or wrong, good versus evil, at least for us. But we certainly know that there's a mission to do, |
| 1:28.6 | which is getting sugar out. |
| 1:36.3 | Recorded at Sendlane Studios. This is not your average entrepreneur or e-commerce podcast. |
| 1:43.1 | And he's not your average host. This is the story of a brand |
| 1:47.6 | with your host, Ramon Vela. It's time to let your customers enjoy the products they love |
| 1:55.4 | without the friction of reordering. And that's why innovative brands like Pete's coffee |
| 2:00.0 | rely on orderGroove's |
... |
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