Brian Rudolph, Banza: People want more from their food, and incumbents haven’t been agile enough to seize the opportunity
Next we caught up with Brian Rudolph, founder & CEO of chickpea pasta pioneer Banza.
What keeps you awake at night?
I don’t like that this is my answer because of how it sounds, but it’s that we honestly can’t keep up with demand. I wish I could increase our capacity yesterday. We’re working on it, but for the time being I just have to take a step back and remind myself that these are amazing problems to have. Once we figure it out, there are some amazing retail partners that I can’t wait to work with!
What trends are you tracking?
It’s an incredible time to launch a food product. People want more from their food, and incumbents haven’t been agile enough to seize the opportunity.
For example, a lean startup could release a gluten free cereal in a few months, but it took General Mills five years to make a gluten free Cheerio, and it hasn’t been smooth sailing. We used to think, so what? General Mills will still crush that startup with low prices and big marketing dollars. But I’m not so sure.
By that same logic, Muller and Pepsi should’ve dominated Chobani when they opened up a plant to produce Greek Yogurt in Batavia, NY. Instead, the opposite happened, and unfortunately that plant was recently sold to Dairy Farmers of America.
I’m expecting some exciting new food businesses to pop up over the next several years, and hope to work with and learn from them.