#3: Can Peanut Butter Be Disrupted? This Founder Thinks So

Daniel Tsentsiper (00:01.303) Brian, what's up? How's it going, man? Bryant Williams (00:03.16) Daniel doing good man, how are you doing? Daniel Tsentsiper (00:05.101) I'm doing well. Thanks so much, man, for coming on on your day off to speak with me. I'm really excited about this conversation. When I was first looking at your website, I was kind of blown away by the marketing. I thought it was like super futuristic and right off the bat, I ordered myself, I think the peanut butter coffee flavor. I don't know if that one has the extra protein or if it's vegan. I don't know which one it was, but I'm excited to get it in the mail, hopefully very soon. Bryant Williams (00:35.598) Yeah, yeah, no, the coffee one is really exciting. that item in particular, we actually partnered with the group that's here local in the Twin Cities. It's a group called Norte Cafe. And so it's a family-owned business. They're right from Columbia, think of Paramitos. And it's great to know that I'm supporting, I know exactly where it's coming from. And I'm also getting able to support a fellow entrepreneur too. So yeah, it's got an amazing taste. And a lot of people have never tried a coffee-flavored peanut butter. So we're really excited for you to give it Daniel Tsentsiper (00:58.286) Amazing. Daniel Tsentsiper (01:03.938) It's my first time. It's my first time. And where are you calling in from today? Bryant Williams (01:05.197) Yeah. Bryant Williams (01:08.676) So I'm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, way up north. Daniel Tsentsiper (01:10.848) Nice, awesome, welcome. I'm here in the Bay Area, so we're a bit far, but hopefully one day we'll get a chance to meet ourselves face to face. But Brian, like I said, super excited to have you on the pod here. You want to give our audience a bit of a highlight about yourself, what you're working on, and then we can kind of go into some of the really cool stuff about your brand. I have a lot of questions to ask you. Bryant Williams (01:38.284) Yeah, yeah, so, you know, again, thank you for having me on here today. Brian Williams, CEO, founder of Hardcore Peanut Butter. I've got an extensive background in food and product development, by degree, chemical engineer from Purdue, but, you know, I've worked with a lot of major CPG brands. We're talking Colgate-Palmolive, Hill Science Nutrition, General Mills, Kaelin Family Brands, a lot of big groups that make a lot of different items. And in my background, having experience in supply chain and operations, procurement and product development, I can literally just make about anything, take it from bench top to mass scale production. And so that's kind of what gave me the confidence to kind of start this business and to kind of launch things. And what's exciting is that I think that, you know, talking or why to focus on peanut butter is that it is so ubiquitous. It's a first food. So many people come into contact with it. And as soon as I start talking about what I'm doing or the things that I'm trying to do with it, people's minds instantly start racing and they get excited. So I'm really excited to be in this space and to continue to develop some new items. Daniel Tsentsiper (02:44.755) I definitely want to ask you about your background. I looked on your LinkedIn. There's some of the biggest CPG brands out there. I actually worked at Clorox for an internship and sometimes funny enough, people don't think of Clorox as a food manufacturer, but they actually have one or two brands that's food based. like Hidden Valley Ranch, the famous ranch dressing is produced by Clorox. Let's talk about your CPG background a little bit later. wanted to talk about what was that, you know, when you were thinking about starting Hardcore Peanut Butter, was there something missing in the market that you sort of thought, hey, this is an amazing opportunity for me to, you know, to build something and to try something new? Or was this like, you know, an experiment that you were doing yourself? Like how, what was the founding story of your brand? I'm very curious about that. Bryant Williams (03:38.51) Yeah, so I will say, I'll answer this in a few different ways. And so, you know, like as a product developer, you know, in my, my tenure, what I've seen happen a lot of different times is people want to come up with something new or launch into the market and they want it be different. They want it be unique. And so sometimes it's organic. Sometimes it's grass fed beef. Sometimes it's upcycled. There's constantly all these things that are trending that are happening that are new in the market and people are seeking out. And so, In particular for me, like there's already a push across all industries to kind of be less chemicals, less artificial preservatives, like just don't put things in my product or food that are gonna harm me. And so like, so that was easy. That was step number one. But I think step number two was really like, hey, let's add some functional health benefits, which there's a lot of great items out there, but I didn't really see anybody kind of honing in on those. And so the ingredients I chose to put in hardcore peanut butter. The taste was, I mean, I knew I was gonna make it taste great, but that was kind of like secondary. It was like, look, let's just put in things that are gonna be good for your body. So we added blueberries, which is a great source of antioxidants. Coconut oil supports cognitive health, metabolism. And then agave is a natural plant-based sweetener, much better than high fructose corn syrup or refined sugar. So I put all those in and I kept telling people about the health benefits, but they're like, dude, that's nice, but yeah, this tastes amazing. Like, just give me the peanut butter. And yeah, that's how things got started. Daniel Tsentsiper (05:02.056) Hahaha Bryant Williams (05:04.794) And I started passing out samples, giving it to friends. And this is a story that you're going to hear with a lot of food entrepreneurs, where you start getting some really good feedback. And then the next question is, OK, you've got this amazing product. How do you build it up? How do you penetrate? How do you get into hands in kitchens and cabinets to as many homes and people in America as possible? Daniel Tsentsiper (05:26.336) I love that. Yeah. it sounds like you knew all along that you can make this product taste wonderful, but you were trying to look for some sort of differentiator for your peanut butter against normal brands. And I've seen recently, I'm a huge peanut butter lover, but there has been a shift amongst a lot of the different peanut butter brands where they're trying to eliminate some of the... you know, some of the harmful additives, I'm thinking like palm oil, you there's been a lot of, it's a bit controversial, but there's been a lot of talk about palm oil being unhealthy. Also the types of the peanuts that they use. The shift that I'm seeing is to get it as natural, as simple as possible. And when I was looking at your ingredients, like I love being able to look at the back and actually understand where each ingredient comes from. If I have to look at it and... question what ingredient is, I get a little bit freaked out. So when you were thinking about the different types of flavors for your different peanut butters, what is your thought process about coming up with new flavors and adding ingredients into the mix? How do you kind of go through that decision making? Bryant Williams (06:41.198) Yeah, so I would describe it as, so after creating like the base product with the peanuts, the blueberries, coconut and agave, one thing that I've always had success with as a product developer is I call it combining two things that people love. So as an example or two things people are in agreeance in. A simple example is like the NFL, know, like people hate cancer, people love football, therefore you have crucial crucial catch. which the NFL does to kind of like help support, you know, different types of causes. People like supporting veterans. People also like coffee. There you have Black Rifle coffee and they've in all the races. So yeah, I knew people loved coffee and I knew people loved peanut butter. So it was kind of very simple for me to put the two together. And the key to like with also making like a great tasting coffee peanut butter is you got to choose the right ingredients. You know, I take the saying from Papa John's, Daniel Tsentsiper (07:18.323) Yeah, that's right. I see. Bryant Williams (07:38.598) better ingredients, better pizza. Same thing with peanut butter, better ingredients, better peanut butter. So that was kind of one idea. And then I knew people also liked the taste or the idea of bourbon. And so, you know, we kind of played around with that too, because it's actually hints of vanilla and cinnamon in there. But we thought the labeling of like calling it just a bourbon flavored peanut butter would really get people excited. yeah, we went with those two and Daniel Tsentsiper (07:59.815) Absolutely. Bryant Williams (08:03.106) You know, I think that, you know, it's interesting to your point too about kind of like some of like the harmful ingredients. So I think what I've seen so far, you know, like in terms of like natural, I would say roughly there's like a 30 % like peanut butter contingent that like they want to stir their peanut butter. Like it's got to be stirred up. We know that's the good stuff. And there's also a group too that's like, hey, stirring is difficult. Like there's oil, it splashes, it gets all over the place. So. Daniel Tsentsiper (08:03.412) Let's start. Daniel Tsentsiper (08:28.604) Right. Bryant Williams (08:30.158) So we're balancing both. So I think what we're trying to do since we're already getting the health benefits in there, we'll realistically probably come up with a version of both where it's like one where some people that want to stir it, hey, we got you. Some people that don't want to stir it, hey, we got you as well. So I think the main thing is just making sure they can get those health nutrients in their body. That's where we're going to really win. Daniel Tsentsiper (08:50.506) That's so interesting. I never actually thought about the psychological element of stirring your peanut butter. And I totally agree. If there's a peanut butter that comes, you know, already prepared, I have to do anything. I get a little bit sketched out. I want to be able to see the oils and mix it up. And sometimes I'm a little bit afraid of oil, so I dump a little bit out before I actually stir it. But if you're telling me there's coconut oil in there, I'm definitely, yeah, I'm definitely for that. Awesome. I saw that you were kind of grinding it out early on when you were building out this brand. You were selling it in farmers markets, probably friends and family. What was that moment for you to go all in? What had to happen and when did you make that decision? Bryant Williams (09:33.314) God. Yeah, well, and let me build a timeline a little bit because, you know, this was always kind of like a side project, you know, like still have like the day job and everything. And, you know, I was very cautious with talking about it work too, because I just didn't want anybody to freak out that like, Hey, this guy has like this peanut butter empire over here. but, you know, I did it on the side for, quite a long time and, things really started to accelerate. Like I said, you know, I, it was real when I put in my first production run and then, you know, I had a peanut butter. Daniel Tsentsiper (10:03.529) Okay. Bryant Williams (10:05.07) I was like, okay. And then when I hopped into my first farmers market, you know, like it was like a funny thing. You know, at the time it was my ex-girlfriend. We were like, how much should we sell it for? And then like, you know, like, do we need anything else? Like, you know, like, should we get cloths? Should we get a banner? What should we have? And I still remember our first sale and that was kind of like the first moment of validation. It's like, okay, we're not crazy. This is a good product. Like people will actually buy it. And you know, from then on it was like just getting in front of as many people as possible. I would say even like doing the farmers markets too, like it's good for like any early stage founder. Like you need to hear directly what people think about your products. So like, you know, we'll pass out like a thousand samples and you know, say we'll sell like, you know, 50 jars. But each sample I pass out, some people like, Hey, I like it. Or, you know, I just like peanuts or it's like, you know, like I want it, but like, you know, just not today. Cause you know, it's a pound of peanut butter. And some people like that's typically kind your buying size. That can last some people depending on how you use it like up to a month But again, you know, like if you're like a heavy consumer some people eat every day You're gonna blast through that like a couple weeks. It's like alright I need some more So just kind of like hearing a little bit about that and then kind of understanding like what might be like a repeat customer It's like okay, they buy it once but I might hear from them again for like a month and so I think that that that was interesting but you know, I think it's just Back to the the farmers market point too. Is that like as we continue to grow? I think it's so important to have like a grassroots movement for like the product. And so like we've got someone on our team that's actually going to help with that because I think it's important seeing a brand, talking to the brand owner, talking to like the foundational team and like just like, know what, like I'm choosing these guys because you know, they're, they're starting out, they're small. They want to disrupt, you know, like, you know, shake up some of what the big companies are doing. They've gotten lazy. And I think that's always going to be important and people are going to be like, yeah, like I saw you guys at like, you know, event outside of CHS field, or like, you guys were at like the youth hockey tournament, or hey, like there was something on going near the state fair. So we're always going to try to be in front of our consumers beyond just being like in retail stores and other things. Daniel Tsentsiper (12:10.608) Yeah, yeah, that's, I totally agree with that. Some of the brands that I support, I've actually met them in person, whether it was at REI or farmers market. I think the grassroots is extremely important. And, you you start to as you start to scale, you know, your time gets more and more valuable. So you can't always be there at the, you know, you know, they're directly in front of the customer. But I think it's still very important to have that. Bryant Williams (12:34.606) for it. Daniel Tsentsiper (12:37.628) that flavor of your own authenticity and yourself in the brand. And I've noticed on your social media, you're not afraid to talk about the product, to put your face out there. When thinking about doing the marketing for your product, what is your strategy around that? And how do you think that's gonna change as you kind of scale up and get more customers? Bryant Williams (12:59.63) Yeah, so a few things like when it comes to marketing and I think like the big thing that in 2026, 2025, I'm sorry, like now more than ever, I think what we're seeing is that like there is so much competition for your eyeballs. There's multiple podcasts. There are multiple Instagram accounts. There are multiple peanut butters. So what are we going to do to like say, hey, look over here or hey, like, you know, like check this brand out versus that. And so I think it's very important that as we continue to grow on scale, we've got a program that we're going to be launching with user generated or content creators. And so these could be fitness influencers. These could be busy moms. These could be couples. This could be foodies. This could be people that just like trying new and different things. So I think we're trying to tap into that to try to see how much more of a market we can penetrate. And in particular also to, you can think of an old saying, competitive brand, know, choosing moms, choose Jif. Well, there's a new generation of moms and these moms are looking for different things. They don't want chemicals in their body. They're busy. And like they've got yoga practice and then they've got Bible study and then, you know, like maybe they have time to hang with their significant other. In the meanwhile, they're always on the go and like peanut butter is something that they can throw on like real quick on a sandwich, dip some fruit sins for a snack. You get protein in your body and it tastes amazing. So Those are the types of newer generation audiences that we want to try to target. Daniel Tsentsiper (14:31.299) I see. Got it. Yeah. There's also a huge focus on fitness and I can see that you're really you're in great shape. I saw some of your posts. You are also power lifter. How are you thinking about tapping into the fitness market? Sounds like from your experience, that's kind of what those are. Those are the folks that you might feel more comfortable selling to. And how are you thinking about maybe getting some potential like sports sponsorships? Excuse me. and affiliates with some athletes. Bryant Williams (15:03.566) Yeah, and I will say too that, you know, retired powerlifter now, but man, I'm getting older, these joints, they don't move the same. And what happened, I think the last competition I was in, I tore my shoulder a little bit, which was actually, it was kind of annoying. Yeah, it was, I think it was like 560 pound deadlift and like, Daniel Tsentsiper (15:10.16) Did you hurt your back or something? I feel you. Daniel Tsentsiper (15:22.35) Okay. That's pretty bad. Bryant Williams (15:31.19) And honestly, I could have gotten it. Like if I could have kept pulling it, I would have gotten it. But I'm like, I don't need to do this. So like maybe if I was getting paid millions of dollars, but you know, that community is just so motivating and so uplifting. And so there's a few folks that, know, like I have a very good relationship with some people that compete on a national level that have, you know, records, Olympic records. And I think just finding the right time to tie into those groups because I want to help support them too. Daniel Tsentsiper (15:37.329) Yeah. Yep. Bryant Williams (16:00.814) So make it make it a real symbiotic relationship that like they've seen like me start They've seen me compete a lot of those guys have beaten me But you know want to try to build a relationship with some of them and so that might be like hey like whenever you're at a competition like you know Like maybe we'll you know warm up in like a hardcore peanut butter t-shirt And it's not even just powerlifting. You know I've got friends wrestling community I've got people that are in gymnastics and so a lot of it sometimes too is that also highlighting on sports that or athletics that aren't as Daniel Tsentsiper (16:19.899) Yeah. Bryant Williams (16:30.542) like in the forefront and focus. Not everything's football and basketball. There's a lot of people out there busting their butt playing pickleball and like, hey, they're very passionate about it and we want to be able to find a way to tap into that group. Daniel Tsentsiper (16:34.586) That's right, that's right. Daniel Tsentsiper (16:43.844) And the common theme is that everyone eats, mostly everyone eats peanut butter. You you put it into your shakes, you can eat it on a sandwich. I'm kind of crazy. I just like dip a spoon in there and just eat it the way it is. I love that. And how do you think about kind of structuring these sponsorships, affiliate programs, you know, your customers and with influencers? Bryant Williams (16:55.854) There you go. Bryant Williams (17:10.112) Yeah, so I think what we've seen success with the past with some other brands is like having like a code that they can redeem. So it's like very direct, like say, hey, Daniel 10 to get 10 % off. And so you know directly like how much that you're influencing in terms of sales and like, you know, like they're, you know, figure out like, Hey, like what are going to be the right terms? Like, you know, there's gifted collaborations, there's ongoing partnerships and like really the idea is like, if you're making a post, well, you're trying to gain followers. Daniel Tsentsiper (17:16.174) Okay. Bryant Williams (17:38.398) We're trying to gain followers as well too and pop buys or purchases So it's like hey like we want to help you grow your audience and attract more followers, too And then also your followers are also looking for things that kind of like fit into their lifestyle, too So we want to present you with a few different things that can kind of help you grow and help us grow too So I want to make sure that it's not like a one-sided relationship. I think for anything to be successful Both sides have to be successful fulfilled Daniel UGC needs to be successful, Hardcore Peanut Bar needs to be successful, how do we find a way to do both? Daniel Tsentsiper (18:12.611) I hear you. Let's go back to kind of the early stage of Harcourt Peanut Butter. What were some of the, as I talked to a lot of founders, there's always that like, always those moments of roadblocks that they face, which makes them stronger, gives them an insight into something about the market or their customers that takes their business to the next level. What were some of the early challenges that you faced and how did you overcome that? Bryant Williams (18:42.124) Yeah, so I would say early one that ran into and which really made things difficult, like especially starting out early is that as we wanted to continue to grow and to try to gain more accounts, we had received an email from our manufacturer that they were going out of business. Yeah, which was scary, not fun. And in the meanwhile, we were trying to figure out like, okay, there's still demand. Daniel Tsentsiper (18:59.876) Go, wow. Bryant Williams (19:09.016) people still want to buy it. And then in meanwhile, too, I'm also doing this dance of selling things I didn't have. we were, yeah, you know, we were trying to find a group that would work with us from a price point and also that, you know, like had MOQ levels that would like be conducive for us as we grew. You know, we're still very much an emerging brand, you know, still working to get out to nationwide distribution. But in the meanwhile, like, you know, we've got a plan to do that. And so Daniel Tsentsiper (19:14.98) know how that feels. Bryant Williams (19:39.074) That was one thing that kind of like really jarred us early on at the start was that like we didn't have a co-manufacturer. We didn't know where things were going to be produced. And we knew immediately that that was not something that we wanted to jump into. Just knowing the amount of time, the amount of investment and capital that you would need to have to purchase equipment, facility, inspection, cleaning and different things. It's completely different ballgame. And as a founder too, like one of the most valuable things you have is your time. And I can control how fast things go. You know, you don't have, you know, millions of dollars in the bank yet, but, you know, in the meanwhile, like I can push or I can press hard on things to make them just move faster. And so I think that was one thing that's, you know, it took us about a good two or three months to really find a good, a good fitting partner. There were some out there that were wanting to work with us, but because of the unique ingredients we were having, like they, just weren't conducive for us. So, Daniel Tsentsiper (20:32.301) I see. Bryant Williams (20:33.226) Yeah, and I would say to the group that we're working with, they've been great partners with us. I've been really excited to have them help support our brand. Daniel Tsentsiper (20:43.332) I'd love to kind of double tap on that for, you maybe someone in the audience is thinking about launching a food product. What would you say are some of the important characteristics when looking for a, like you mentioned, a co-manufacturer partner to develop your product? What would you be looking for to figure out if you can actually work with this supplier and this manufacturer? Bryant Williams (21:05.934) Yeah, yeah, I will say the biggest thing, you know, is trust. You got to be able to trust them, have good communication. I lived in manufacturing for more than 15 years. I mean, there's things that happen, right? With out of your control, raw material comes in out of spec or like equipment goes down or like, you know, the case quantities that you were projecting, you got like 10 % of a couple items and then you got 200 % of another. You know, all those things happen and that's normal and you got to work through those. And so I think one important thing too is that when those issues do arise, like what's the conversation like or what's the dialogue like? Like, hey, you know, like if say hardcore, you know, we screwed up something, you know, like maybe we gave you the wrong numbers or the wrong information. Well, that's on me. And I got to do better as a business owner, as a leader to try to figure out how to prevent that. As a co-manufacturer, like, hey, you know, we're trusting you guys to produce our product too. And when there's some issues or some things that don't work out right, like, hey, we've got to make this whole. And whatever that can be, you got to figure that out. But I think it's important to have a open and trusting relationship. The group that we're working with now, we share a lot of information, and they've been phenomenal. I think one of the best things that as we've built our relationship is that we go back and forth with a lot of things in terms of development. And I know when you're developing a new item, don't make it difficult at the start. called that because then you're signing up for something that can be a long-term challenge and at some point something's gonna have to change whether that's gonna be the recipe or the facility making it you're gonna have to try to find a way to continue that or keep going what you have planned to produce. So start out by making things as simple and easy as possible if they come up with recommendations like hey we like this packaging producer we recommend you work with them be open to that there's a lot of vendors that Daniel Tsentsiper (22:43.352) Right. Daniel Tsentsiper (22:59.714) I see. Bryant Williams (23:01.518) they have very similar capabilities. you know, unless it's like a huge price difference, most of them can be competitive in that space. So be open to that. If they recommend, you know, a different type of case or shipper, if they recommend a different type of lid or seal or a different way that your item can be produced, be open to that because again, too, your co-manufacturer needs to be successful and your brand needs to be successful. How can you find a way to do both? Daniel Tsentsiper (23:08.707) Right. Daniel Tsentsiper (23:28.489) I see. Yeah. And when you said, don't be that difficult customer at the start when trying out a new product, I guess, what do mean by that? Do you mean some founders come in with like everything already kind of figured out, you know, it's their baby. They want it this way. They want this packaging. They want this ingredient. I guess like how can you like not be as difficult? Like when you're you're coming out with a new product, you want it to be perfect, right? You have this vision. But then there are certain elements that you might not be able to control. And like you said, you have to be able to trust this co-manufacturer to kind of provide their own input and their own trusted relationships into the mix. Yeah, what can you avoid to be that difficult customer for the co-manufacturer? Bryant Williams (24:17.238) Yeah, so I would say there's when you're developing or coming up with a new item or you're working with a manufacturer to not be difficult. So there's three ways that typically items will come into like a co-manufacturing facility. One is that I'm a brand. This is my recipe. I'm not changing it. You need to produce this. And so that's typically sometimes where it's like the item that's existing out on the market. And I'm like, hey, like this needs to be consistent. This can't change. You know, we already have Daniel Tsentsiper (24:34.817) Okay. Okay. Daniel Tsentsiper (24:41.269) I see. Daniel Tsentsiper (24:45.897) Right. Bryant Williams (24:46.562) buying it, quality is a huge deal. So that's one example. A second example would be you have no idea, you know like this group they make peanut butter, you don't have a recipe and they kind of give you a formula or they can kind of give you a stock recipe. So that's one way that things can, an item can be built with a new co-manufacturing facility. And then two, which is probably the third, which is probably the best in my opinion is you work on it collaboratively together. Daniel Tsentsiper (25:04.786) I see. Bryant Williams (25:16.686) So this group that I have now, probably built, call it 90 plus percent of the formula. And there were a few things that we had to tweak to make sure that it worked for them. I think being open to that, because I've lived that life on the other side, where some people, they don't want to change for whatever reason. And sometimes it's just because I think it's important as leaders to be able to listen and to understand what's being communicated because these groups too have years of experience doing this and they understand the equipment the best. Daniel Tsentsiper (25:25.439) Make sense. Bryant Williams (25:45.452) And while you can call them a co-manufacturer, they're making your item and they have a vested interest in you to be successful too. So I would say just, you know, don't be stubborn. Don't say like, hey, it's gotta be this or else. I understand like if it's a brand that's existing, that's out in the market that you can't change and maybe the right relationship, the right fit. But if you can make it work, you know, definitely try to do that. It's gonna help you in the long run, give you some flexibility and allow you to. Daniel Tsentsiper (26:03.041) and make sense. Bryant Williams (26:14.03) kind of do some things that you might not have been able to do in the past. Daniel Tsentsiper (26:16.853) I love that. That was some great insight. I think this is a great segue to kind of talk about your background from our conversation. sounds like you're definitely the expert, the CPG expert in the room here. How has your experience in working across all these different brands prepared you to start your own company? And some of the things maybe like around some of the challenges that you saw working on the other side for one of these large companies. How did that kind of help play into Bryant Williams (26:37.24) Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (26:46.08) the founding of hardcore peanut butter and what kind of differentiates you from other food entrepreneurs? Bryant Williams (26:51.822) Yeah. So I'll say this is that, you know, mentioned some of the, big companies that I had worked for, but where I really, um, I think grew the most as a person and as a professional, I was when I actually left a big company and I started working for a small company. And so this is, this is really fun because, um, you know, this was a space that, you know, like I knew it was a good role, a good position for me. Um, and, uh, it was a very lean group. Uh, and I also had a manager that also pushed me. It was really dedicated and focused on my growth as a person. And so when I left General Mills and went for Phelps Pet Products, was working there, I think the thing that was most eye revealing for me was that when you're a small company, you're not gonna be like a lot of these big players. We needed to be unique, we needed to be different, we needed to be special. And so it was normal, we were making pet products. It was normal to do organic items. It was normal to do grass-fed beef, to do up-cycled. to do supplements. were on trend and leading in that space before everyone else was. I was doing supplements. We were one of the first supplement producers working with some of the top groups in the country, I won't say any names, but they have a certain color. You can look them up. We did quite a bit and I was doing that for about three years, being ingrained with being unique, being different, being special. Daniel Tsentsiper (27:55.946) I see. Bryant Williams (28:17.228) trying to find a way, trying to create something that is going to make you different Santa Fe consumers versus become a race to the bottom. And so, you know, did that with that group there. And I continue that mindset and that knowledge when I joined KEL and Family Brands was that like, hey, we need to come up with things that are unique, that are different, you know, in the R &D space. You know, there's plenty of people that can come up with a recipe, they can do shelf life testing, know, palatability studies. There's not that many people that are going to walk up to the plate and hit a home run every single time. And so that's what I try to do every time I try to make an item is that like, Hey, this needs to be the best biscuit that's out in the market. It's got to have the best palatant, the best probiotics, different things like that. And that was always my mindset going into any item is that like, Hey, like we've got to make this the best thing, give them the branded and sales team, everything they need to make this product successful. Daniel Tsentsiper (29:08.06) Love that. That's amazing. You focus on the quality, you focus on the customer satisfaction, and then you combine that with the experience and from seeing it from the back of the house, seeing how everything kind of comes together and how all those different relationships kind of work together and marry themselves to create an amazing product. that's amazing. And I totally agree with you. Working at a big company gives you a lot of structure. You kind of see how the beasts operate and their you know, they're massive for a reason. But then when you actually get a chance to go into a smaller venture, similar to kind of what I'm doing right now, you get to have a lot more input and you can really develop your own unique brand around how you make decisions and what types of products you believe in. I think that's a, yeah, I can definitely see how your background has kind of Hardcore Peanut Butter. And maybe now we can kind of talk about the future of the brand. Bryant Williams (29:38.638) Yeah. Daniel Tsentsiper (30:06.247) I saw on your LinkedIn, you've been going around kind of doing a bit of a road show. You were part of different programs, Bend, Black, VC, Connect Up. Also, notice that you partnered with Brand Vault 360. It sounds like there's just been a lot of excitement and a lot of people talking about your brand. What are you, guess, like from that experience, kind of putting yourself out there, going public with this, you know, with your brand, what have you learned? how have these programs kind of helped you take a hardcore peanut butter to the next level? Bryant Williams (30:42.03) Yeah, so I would say that there is no shortage of support or information if you know who to reach out to. And when you're an entrepreneur, you're a founder, you're starting out, a lot of people, like to think they know things with business. The same way that I kind of, you know, I know product development, but in business, there's a lot of different ways you can start a company. And there's no right or wrong way. I've seen People launch other nut butter companies one way. They're doing amazing, they're doing great, they did it their way. And hats off to them for doing it their way. I've seen people do it in other ways. And I think you're constantly learning, you're taking things from different groups. It was in the ConnectUp Institute Accelerator, one thing I learned, was always challenged with. Shout out to Elaine Rasmussen, Angel Leven for the help there is that always try to look for alternate means of revenue. And kind of exploring that is even how I found out with the opportunity with the United States government. The US government gives out over $2 billion in awards for peanut butter year over year. Department of Act, Department of Defense, Department of Justice. So it's significant. And I'm like, hey, I want a piece of that pie. Trying to find more B2B opportunities. And I even just like restaurants and bakeries. OK, well, hotels, they have peanut butter too. I want a piece of pie. Daniel Tsentsiper (31:51.463) Whoa. Daniel Tsentsiper (31:55.751) Wow. Daniel Tsentsiper (32:04.466) Yep. Right? Bryant Williams (32:09.592) pitching at events in Bend, Oregon was absolutely phenomenal. I had a couple of really, really good coaches that helped me perfect my pitch where there's certain things about sending out an email and like reading a deck that can kind of attract people to a brand. But when you're on stage, when you're in front of people, like this is a show, like you got to get people excited. You got to get motivated. You got to hook them and draw them in and make them believe in what you're trying to do. So got a lot of great help there. Daniel Tsentsiper (32:34.813) Exactly. Bryant Williams (32:38.604) going down to the BLCK event, a VC that was at Afro Tech. That was amazing too, because I was able to build some connections and talk face to face with lot of key investors that, you know, they're telling me specifically what they're looking for in a founder, in a company, in a brand, and you know, what the future might hold in terms of like finances. And then also, you know, this was this past, my gosh, I didn't even do the post yet. This was this past week where I did a presentation at Beta. Stay of the founders. And this was actually really my first big presentation in front of Minnesota as part of our ecosystem. And I got a lot of amazing feedback from there. So it's about getting the word out. It's about getting in front of as many eyeballs kind of back to what we were saying earlier, getting as many people as possible and just letting them know that, you know, like I'm all in on this. I'm not walking. I'm not crawling. I'm going full speed as fast as I can to make hardcore peanut butter the biggest thing in the country. Daniel Tsentsiper (33:23.495) Yes. Daniel Tsentsiper (33:35.887) Absolutely. And once you have that momentum, it just, it just a rocket ship. And from my experience, did a lot of that with, with my last company, because I was still a student at Berkeley, there, there is countless accelerators and pitches and investors that you can, you can meet with. And then once you have that momentum, like you just, people just start to reach out. They're like, Hey, I can introduce you to, X, I can introduce you to Y. But then What I've learned is that eventually after all of that excitement, then you actually have to go back and actually focus on building the product and refining it and talking to customers and dealing with some of the headaches around, you know, missing certain milestones. And it gets extremely hard. So I commend you for putting yourself out there. It's definitely not easy to give up what seems like a very cushy, well-paying career. to start something new, but I think that's that is really the only way to kind of level yourself up and take it to the next level. Bryant Williams (34:41.294) I would add to that too is that, how do I think about this? When, and I'm talking to you, but obviously to other entrepreneurs or students that are getting ready to graduate is that for the longest, model was, okay, go to high school, go to college, get a degree, get a job, work your way up. And that's kind of what you do in this country. And I think what we're realizing now is that people, can work for themselves in a number of different ways, just as what you're doing here. And bigger than that is that people have dreams. People have things that they want to accomplish. And I don't know how many people before us, you know, like had a vision or had a dream, and not to knock anyone, but like, you know, your dream might've just been get a nice livable wage, you know, build a family and... two and a half kids, white picket fence and a dog, which is great. And there's nothing wrong with that. But a lot of people have never even had or explored the idea of potentially starting something on their own or how to do that. Or then even to try to scale something that's going to be a nationwide brand. Like, whoa, like these are the things like, you know, on Martin Luther King Day, we're talking about dreams. These are the things that I think about and like the people that I can work with. And then that's what gets me so motivated and so excited of like what I'm doing now and with the future. and then touch a little bit too with Brand Vault 360, they're really the partner that's gonna help me do that. And they've done that with a lot of other brands, a lot of beverages, specifically Ghost Energy Drink, trying to help them scale and grow that brand. Daniel Tsentsiper (36:18.989) What did they do? What did they do? Bryant Williams (36:21.582) So they helped with some of the branding and then also getting the so like ghosts wasn't just an energy drink They also had a ghost cereal. I believe they have like yeah Daniel Tsentsiper (36:24.025) Okay. Daniel Tsentsiper (36:31.439) I remember that the protein, the protein powder and the energy drinks. Yeah. Bryant Williams (36:36.898) Yeah, and so what they did was you got familiar with the brand, Ghost, and then you see something else that's like, this is cool. Like, I know this from over here. Like, I love them. I love what they produce. Let's go over here. So they kind of helped with that. And that's the same vision that I see for hardcore peanut butter, hardcore protein powder, hardcore bars. You know, it might be like a hardcore cafe section in Starbucks one day. You know, just all those different types of things where we can take the brand. Daniel Tsentsiper (36:40.283) Yes, that's right. Daniel Tsentsiper (36:48.603) Wow. Bryant Williams (37:05.174) And then, you know, like as we continue to kind of like, you know, influence, you know, with fitness athletes, with moms and different things, you know, I had that, that list of the big three, like if I'm able to land like a big name athlete, like, man, that'd be huge. And then like I said, you know, if I can do something with the Olympics, putting that energy out there now, that'd be tremendous. Daniel Tsentsiper (37:25.145) Well, who's your dream athlete that you want to work with? Bryant Williams (37:31.377) Man, gosh, know, so big in basketball, big in football, you know, and I always think like just go to the top, right? So if I can get Patrick Mahomes, he's easily the number one now. Who's my favorite? I would say football athlete right now, or who's maybe the hottest. Yeah, I'd have to say Pat Mahomes. And granted, they're probably on their way to win another Super Bowl, but you got all of them there. And then basketball. There's a lot of up and coming athletes. I would say a big Tyrese Halliburton fan. And then Luca, I put Luca up there too. Luca's actually really tapped into the younger generation because I know he's big into video games too. Daniel Tsentsiper (38:04.847) Nice. Daniel Tsentsiper (38:09.093) Cool. Daniel Tsentsiper (38:13.899) Yeah, there we go. That's what I was going to say. You got to kind of go behind the scenes and see what these athletes are eating. Maybe you'll find one athlete is like a huge peanut butter nut. Like he just has a jar with him everywhere. He or she goes and you can tap into it. You're like, yo, if you like peanut butter so much, try mine. then like you said, tapping into the new generation. I think that's a huge market, right? Bryant Williams (38:30.926) Absolutely. Daniel Tsentsiper (38:40.618) Now, when you mentioned Ghost, thinking back to your website and some of your marketing, it's uncannily similar, I would say. There's this thing that I got when I looked at your website, it just popped. It looked different, it looked unique, and just all the colors and the overall brand just kind of stood out. And when I started looking through your website, it seems like you've kind of positioned yourself with all the marketing, with all the products that you have on the website, it looks so clean. And I would say to any entrepreneur that's watching this, whether you have a restaurant, whether you have a CPG brand, whether you're coming up with software like we do, branding is important. Branding is everything. And then when you combine yourself with a good brand, good product, good marketing, and an amazing founder like yourself, Brian, I think that's the... That's the winning combination. So last thing here, it's been an amazing talking to you. What's the future for your brand? maybe tell our audience about some, if you can tell us about some cool things you're working on. Maybe another flavor on the way. What do we have in store? Bryant Williams (39:53.922) Yeah. Yeah. So we've got, well, we got the base three, you know, peanuts, blueberries, coconut agave, there's coffee, there's the bourbon flavor, you know, tinkering around with the idea of doing a chocolate chip version. So that'll be pretty fun. And then, you know, there is like a certain like audience that like, they like almond butter too. So we might just do an almond version. And I think it's important too, to kind of not to be over-skewified. So five is a good number. We might just do like a something else to service like the B2B sector, but those are the flavors coming. You know, one great thing too, didn't touch on it too much, but you know, we are partnered with the lab and what we're hoping and looking to do is, this is pretty big. So, you know, there's millions of Americans out there today that suffer with peanut allergies and know that some people are listening, they're like, oh, we'll never be able to try this product. Well, I'm here to tell you that we're working on a solution. And so a few years out, you know, we're talking at least 2027. What we want to do is we want to use some unique technology called CRISPR. CRISPR is gene editing technology that's going to allow us to edit the peanuts, specifically the proteins that cause the anaphylactic shock risk. We want to neutralize those proteins. And then once that's done, we'll be able to grow the crop and then place it in the peanut butter. And there you have the first ever allergen-free peanut butter, which is very exciting. And it's going to provide a lot of relief for people that, you know, I can't relate to what it's like to live in fear, where every single day you don't know that there's a dish or something getting brought to you that could be harmful, that could put you in the hospital, maybe even something worse. So, you know, I think that that's a very real problem. You know, I'm hoping that what we're working on is going to be a moment or a period in time where people look back and like, yeah, that was a problem, but not anymore. Back when polio used to ravage people. Yeah, that was a problem, but not anymore. back when there was the potato famine, yeah, that was a problem, but not anymore. And we're gonna be talking about, yeah, people use to die of peanut allergies and we're here to say not anymore. Daniel Tsentsiper (41:58.083) Amazing. Brian, it's been an absolute pleasure connecting with you. I can chat with you for hours. Thank you so much for taking the time. We definitely need to do a check-in, maybe in a few months from now or in a year to see what you're up to. It's crazy to think that you've only been, I guess, doing this full-time for almost three months now, right? Bryant Williams (42:19.319) Yep, yep. Daniel Tsentsiper (42:20.681) And if you continue this momentum, man, you're gonna go places. So awesome. Thank you so much, Brian. It's been a pleasure talking to you. You take care. Bye. Bryant Williams (42:28.27) Thank you, Daniel. Take care. Daniel Tsentsiper (42:32.609) end the recording.