S6 Ep4: How to Create Clean-Label Products That Are Indulgent, Scalable, and Well-Priced with Simón Sacal
“For a good idea, there’s a lot of money.” — Simón Sacal
Eating clean foods is one of the most important things we can do for our health. It helps keep our energy levels up, reduce cravings, and maintain our weight. In addition, clean foods are nutrient-dense and packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which are essential for maintaining a healthy immune system, and preventing inflammation and chronic diseases. With its many benefits, it’s not surprising that clean eating has become one of today’s hot topics.
In this episode, Justine sits with Simón Sacal, the CEO of Solely Fruits. Simón strives to give back to society with Solely's work, particularly the ones that have helped create the company— the farmers, who do not have efficient market access for the fruits that are grown on their farms. Thus, he established a long-term partnership with them to help bring delicious and nutritious fruit snacks to the world!
Solely’s values are evident in its dedication to clean and real ingredients. All of their products are made solely out of Certified Organic produce which is purchased from the farmers they work with. Additionally, Solely has invented an innovative technology that eliminates the need for traditional additives, preservatives, and other artificial chemicals, meaning the nutrient content in their fruits remains intact. Ultimately, this makes their products not only safe to consume but good for everybody and the planet as well.
Listen in as Justine and Simón dive into the conversation on the need for clean foods, how to make a family business work, how culture impacts how we perceive healthier alternatives, how Solely built a framework for sourcing out high-quality ingredients that are well-priced, Simón’s tips to scale your business, and Solely’s product lines you may want to try!
Connect with Simon:
Simón is the co-founder and CEO of Solely, the maker of the fastest-growing line of real fruit snacks. In an effort to help the Mexican government provide accessible fruits to children, Solely shifted their primary focus from rice and potatoes to fruits. Solely prides itself on only using real and clean ingredients as its products are made from Certified organic produce bought from organic farmers they work with. Additionally, Solely's innovative technology allows them to develop stable fruit bars without the artificial chemicals that compromise the fruits' nutrient content.
Episode Highlights:
00:57 The Need for Clean Food
08:22 Why Fruits?
13:04 Making Family Business Work
18:33 The Impact of Culture on Food
23:02 Good for You Products
39:06 Solely’s Product Lines
34:03 The Importance of Working with the Right People
37:09 3 Practical Ways to Scale Your Business
Tweets:
Building a business model that supports clean eating is challenging— but possible. Make your vision a reality as @jreichman and Solely’s CEO, Simón Sacal share how to build a business system that allows you to create clean-label products that are indulgent, scalable, and well-priced.#podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #SolelyFruits #realfruits #cleanlabel #foodandculture #familybusiness #businesstips
Inspirational Quotes:
13:04 "[Working with your family] is the best thing in the world if you make it work because it's an extension of yourself, so you can cover a lot more and they’re people you can trust blindly.” —Simón Sacal
14:31 "[The boundary between business and family] is something that you have to recognize. I don't think it's something you have to fight with because it is what it is. So you better recognize and work with it. And that's the way to solve it.” —Simón Sacal
16:31 "Invest a lot in communication because there's a lot of emotional noise between the communication with family.” —Simón Sacal
35:20 "You are the one who has to make due diligence on who you're inviting to the company, not only the other way around because it is for a long time and it affects the company. If you have the right people sitting at the table, everything is better; you get a lot more opportunities, and that's very important.” —Simón Sacal
36:33 "For a good idea, there's a lot of money.” —Simón Sacal
38:07 "Oftentimes, we're not sure what kind of experience we need. But as the visionary, I surround myself with the people that have the skills that maybe I lack or don't have that specific expertise in so that they can help take that vision and bring that to life.” —Justine Reichman
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Hello, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm Justine Riechman your host, with me today is Simon Sacal. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Solely. Welcome, Simon.
Simon Sacal: Thank you, thank you so much for having me here.
Justine Reichman: I'm so pleased to have you here. I was just eating your product the other day. I'm a big fan. And when I got the email that you were gonna be on the podcast, I was excited, because many times I get all these products that I don't know, and I did know your product.
Simon Sacal: That's a good start.
Justine Reichman: It was a great start. So welcome. And for those who are not familiar with Solely maybe you couldintroduce yourself and introduce your product.
Simon Sacal: Yeah, ofcourse. So Solely is a brand that's meant to be a platform for clean food coming from the source, clean indulgent food alternatives, especially for produce.
Justine Reichman: Okay. So and 20 years ago, when you started this clean food was not the hot topic it is today. It was important and it was starting to become a conversation. But why was this so important to you and what inspired you?
Simon Sacal: So it started a bit differently 20 years ago. 20 years ago, it started by-- we invented a technology to make fat free potato chips, which 20 years ago was the real thing. The definition of healthy was how much fat a product can-- I don't know if you remember everything was--
Justine Reichman: I remember eating that in college. All the fat you could eat but somehow I used to gain more weight.
Simon Sacal: Exactly. That's at the end of the 90s. So inventing a technology to make a fat free potato chip was a huge deal. Because it was like the Holy Grail at that time because you could eat all the sugar in the world and you could drink whatever, but you couldn't eat potato chips, because they had a lot of fat. So it was inventing that technology was the start of the company and of understanding that good and bad in for was not really well defined. But that still started and we launched the product in Mexico and then they might get started to change into more clean label. Everyone started to talk about clean label. Before that, everyone started talking about Atkins, again, while read talking. I don't know if you remember South Beach Diet again, and so once again, carbs were bad, and fat was good. And so we live through all this fads that changed the way people understood what's good and bad. And then we understood that in reality, there's a natural definition of good and bad even food, and it's whatever we've been eating as humans for thousands of years, that's good. If we crave for a fruit that's because you need what comes with food and then we've adapted as humans and nature has adapted the products for us to be nurtured by them. So people started talking about clean label more at the end of the 2000s 2009, 2010. I remember in 2011, 12 that I saw on the same three months we-- I saw CEOs of huge companies, Pepsi and Kraft and talking about clean label. And basically what happened is that millennials started growing up and having kids and first they had a lot of access to information because of the internet. And they started understanding that there were so many additives to foods that were doing a huge harm. And then there were these huge expose on on big companies that they knew that some ingredients were bad that carbs weren't causing extra process, fluids were causing specific illnesses and so it was a natural return to food to real food and I lived through all these changes of fad, now this is bad, now this is good, now it's all about guilt and free, now it's all about pay off for the wild. I don't know if you remember in New York, everyone was trying to eat kale.
Justine Reichman: What was it?
Simon Sacal: Kale.
Justine Reichman: Yes. Yes, kale. I do.
Simon Sacal: Flaxseed and then kale and then something is bad. And while we were getting all these fads, it was good for companies, for some companies. But we never saw that people got healthier, the opposite, if people got fatter and unhealthier and counterintuitive. So we understood that we had to return to nature. And by then, we have built a small company by then, but we had a lot of contact, first of all with farmers and sourcing. And we had a very good r&d department that we've invented and patented technologies and build machines. And so we were in a very good position to try to do something better. So the way that all this started, was by-- there was a problem in Mexico with schoolbooks lunches, lunchbox programs, because they didn't include fruit, because it's very difficult to distribute massively fresh fruits and vegetables, especially if there's rural schools where they don't have power or even running water or, so it's impossible to just send a truck with apples because they get rotten. It's just impossible. So we started working with fruit, because there was a big opportunity to solve that problem. So we invented and patented a technology to make fruit bars out of apples first, but with a very special process, that's we still own the patent, that let you keep all the nutrients of the original apple, because it's very mild process. It's not aggressive. That's how we started working with fruit and change from fat fried potato chips, which were basically all natural as well. But that's where we shifted to this fruit world. And it took off first with local statewide programs. And we were really solving a problem for the government. And then we needed to balance. So in reality, fruits and vegetables are seasonal.
Justine Reichman: Right.
Simon Sacal: That's not what we experienced here in the US, like, you can go to a supermarket and there's always apples and there's so--
Justine Reichman: We always have fruits from Mexico, right? And you have them from all over because they bring them in whenever they're not available here. It's like in New York, you never know what's actually local, because people are just buying, they want everything. So they bring it in from everywhere. So you have access to everything, although you should really eats what's growing at that time.
Simon Sacal: Exactly, exactly. So that's not what happens in nature. In reality, there's a season for apples, and then there's a season for mangoes, and then there's a season for pineapples, etc. So, long story short, we were working a lot with apples for this lunchbox programs, and by the way, it's a huge program. There's times that we do more than a million apples per day, per day to little children through these programs. So it's a big thing. It grew a lot. But the season-- the apple season is only in the winter, so we needed to do something in the summer. So we started working with tropical fruits. And it was pretty shocking that the consumption of, let's say dry mango here in the US, 10 years ago, it was 90% coming from Asia, and it was mango with sulfur dioxide with a lot of added sugar. Like I don't know if you remember the little blisters with a mango glow in the dark that were everywhere. And that's what people were eating. And there's a reason, and the reason is because it's very difficult to make all natural products because you have to control the input of the fresh fruit. It has to be perfect. And selecting perfect fruit in industrial quantities is very difficult.
Justine Reichman: Right.
Simon Sacal: But we had all this relationship with the farmers. So we could do that, we weren't local there. And we started doing that and we started exporting to Europe, dried mango, pineapple. And that's how the company started to evolve. And then in around 2014, 2015, we developed a new technology to make a product like this, which was a piece. So the first time we tried this, it was like, like a mass of pineapple. But it was amazing, because the whole room smelled like pineapple, and it was bright yellow, and it was beautiful. And it's very, very difficult to do that without adding flavors, or sugars or anything else. So it was a time when everyone was fighting to talk about clean eating, clean food, and we couldn't resist it and we we've made a brand out of it called Solely. And we started by doing some tests in Mexico, very small test. And then we launched here. I move to San Diego to have this effort.
Justine Reichman: What year was that?
Simon Sacal: I moved here in summer of 2018. We had a hard-- well, luckily, this is a family company. So my brothers are in Mexico and we could separate a bed and divide and conquer. So I moved here in summer 2018. We had a very, very soft launch at the end of 2018. And then we can have hard launch in September 2019. That's when Solely really launched.
Justine Reichman: Simon, I have about a zillion questions for you. I so appreciate you sharing your story. Because I think first it talks to the kind of product you have, and how far you've come and the integrity of it. And that's so important to really learn about these products, especially for founders that could be listening that want to grow their product and to really understand how it changed from potato chips to what it is today and to see how a company can grow and pivot as times change. Right? But you know, in your last comment you mentioned, it's a family business. And you know, one of the first questions I had that I wanted to ask you was about your co-founder, which I now learned is probably a family member. Right. And is it your brother?
Simon Sacal: My two brothers. Yes, we're three brothers. Yeah, we co-founded Solely together,
"[Working with your family] is the best thing in the world if you make it work because it's an extension of yourself, so you can cover a lot more and they’re people you can trust blindly.” —Simón Sacal
Justine Reichman: Solely. You Solely co-founded.
Simon Sacal: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Justine Reichman: And what is it like to work with your family, I worked with family. So I'm curious what your experience is like.
Simon Sacal: It's the best thing in the world if you make it work, because it's extensions of yourself. So you can really cover a lot more, it's people you can trust blindly. And I'm very lucky to have very, very smart brothers and that's very good people. But it's tough as well, because you never stop working. There's never family time. There's all these feelings as well. So it's not easy but it's amazing if you make it work because it has a huge reward if you can make it work. So it has been very good. And my father from the start used to work also with us. And now he's a little bit more looking from the distance. But it was also a big part of it to learn from his experience and it's hard, but it's good.
"[The boundary between business and family] is something that you have to recognize. I don't think it's something you have to fight with because it is what it is. So you better recognize and work with it. And that's the way to solve it.” —Simón Sacal
Justine Reichman: And my question to you, as you mentioned, you know, because you're always together, and sometimes maybe the boundaries are blurred between business and pleasure. Did I understand correctly? Like sometimes, you know.
Simon Sacal: Yeah. They're always blurred. It's not not even sometimes, they're always blurred, because when you meet you're always talking about the business, you're always thinking about the business. And also when when you're at the business, you're always family, so they're blurred. And I think it's something that you have to recognize. I don't think it's something you have to fight with because it is what it is. So you better recognize and work with it. And that's the way to solve it.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I used to work for my mother for years, a 100 years ago. She had a financial services company. And for many years, we'd go see clients, right, her clients were Verizon and you know, large companies, right. And my challenge was because I was the daughter and I've worked there for many years. I never wanted to call her mom. Just say excuse me? Excuse me?
Simon Sacal: I understand. Yeah,
Justine Reichman: Because I was young. I was in my late 20s, you know, I didn't want to say excuse me mom. It was like, you know, the President or the CEO, the VPs, the people I felt like I was a child, right. And then when I was the vice president of her company when she was, you know, semi retired, you know, it just felt-- it just felt weird, because I just was quite young at that point, you know, anyway, so,
Simon Sacal: Yeah. It has huge challenge, working with family has huge challenges and it's very difficult to make it work. But if you're lucky to make it work, it's a huge advantage.
"Invest a lot in communication because there's a lot of emotional noise between the communication with family.” —Simón Sacal
Justine Reichman: Are there any recommendations you would make for anybody listening that works with family like things that you have found that, you know, tools that you found to make it work with family that you might recommend?
Simon Sacal: I think there are two things be very transparent. And all the agreements, do it by writing. Be very, very transparent and clear of how the relationship works, legally. I think that's important, because sometimes people feel that something is wrong, but they don't say it. So making everything so very clear, that's step number one. And second, invest a lot in communication, because there's a lot of emotional noise between the communication with family. So it's very important to be extra aware of what you're saying, what is the other person saying, what are you feeling? I think cleaning communication channels is a huge deal.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I think communication can be the root of so many good and positive and as well as evil things in the same in the same way. Right? Depending on how you use it.
Simon Sacal: Of course, of course.
Justine Reichman: Right? So I want to go back to the beginning. 20 years ago, you started Solely, right. And we know food was big at its time. But, you know, why was food so important to your family at that moment?
Simon Sacal: It wasn't. It wasn't. My family wasn't in the food business. I just thought that there was a very clear transpiring opportunity in the market. And I wrongly thought that it was an easy way-- it was an easy path. Because food is so tangible, like everyone eats, everyone can comment. So it's mistakenly thought of as an easy path forward. And it's not. It's a very complex industry. And there's so much that we learned, but I just saw an opportunity in that area. Because in Mexico, 22 years ago, or 23 years ago, there were no healthy alternatives for on the go. So that's the reason.
Justine Reichman: And then so you decided to be-- your vissionary, you saw. You're like, we need healthier options. And I gotta tell you, when I lived in Mexico, there's still a lot of unhealthy options there. There's a lot of-- even agua frescas have sugar in them. Everything-- there's a lot of stuff with sugar around you.
Simon Sacal: Yes. But at the same time, it's more culturally is-- I think that culture was, it's harder to introduce a healthy product in places like Mexico than here in the US. Here everyone is open to trying new healthy products, and Mexico and Europe are more difficult, are more about traditional foods are more, the market is more price oriented as well. It's a difficult market for healthier alternatives.
Justine Reichman: Well, it's interesting you say that. I mean, I think one of the interesting topics that I've been investigating, if you will these days, is the impact of culture on the future of food. Because as you bring culture into it, right, whether it's Mexico, whether it's Spain, whether it's France, whether it's New York, the US, right? And people's traditional food, you know, it may not be the healthiest form in its original format. But what would it look like if we took the original format of that food and tried to create a healthier version of it? What would that look like? And how would people respond to it?
Simon Sacal: Yeah. I think that's difficult because also culturally in Mexico, as you said, the refrescos are now-- everyone have them. And even though the diet alternatives, people still think that they're healthier, which evidence shows they're not. So it is difficult. I think culture shifts. What I really think is that food has to be indulgent. And that is the main thing. So you can, like or not like mango, for example, but you do like mango, you will love a mango fruit jerky, because it's only made of one whole fresh organic mango. So if you can do this at any level, then you give alternatives, healthy alternatives to people, but if it tastes like cardboard, or has an after taste that you can only sustain that for a while, it's not sustainable.
Justine Reichman: It's like diet drinks. To me, they have a very, I don't like the aftertaste. That to me would not be a sustainable option. I mean, I don't drink regular soda, but I would not drink a diet soda because I don't like the after taste of aspartame.
Simon Sacal: And if you go deeper than that, we now know that all these sweeteners, artificial sweeteners cause a lot of damage. And there's a lot of chemicals that cause other damages and you end up with a very, very bad product. And it's not only about the aftertaste, it's about--
Justine Reichman: Your health.
Simon Sacal: -- actual product that is indulgent. And third, that is priced accordingly to the consumers reality. Even if it's an amazing product, and it's very clean and very indulgent, if it costs $10, then yes, some people will buy it, but it cannot be massive. So that's the reason that we had, in order to bring this to the market, it took us 20 years because we have to build a vertically integrated supply chain, and go to the farmer and work with them and buy all the ugly fruit, when no one was talking about ugly fruit, and help them convert to organic and help them get better yields. And by doing all that and eliminating middlemen, you can have a mango that is perfect and that is priced correctly. And then we invented a process to make-- to go from a fresh mango again, to this. And then we had to build the machines and the other plants and hire other people and then you can do the brand. So it's a very different approach.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. But it's a smart approach and it allows you to create a better for you product at a price that's accessible with a product that's better for you. So I think it's a win win win,
Simon Sacal: I think but there's a very, very important change. I think that what we're doing with Solely is not a better for you product, but a good for you product. Which has a very different connotation. So when you're talking about a soda that you're saying, and, okay, there's a regular one with a lot of sugar and the better one with--
Justine Reichman: I'm not sure I'd agree with this statement. I don't think that there's any better for you sodas.
Simon Sacal: I agree. I agree with that. But I was just giving an example of better for you. I completely agree with you. I was just giving an example of better for you.
Justine Reichman: But you're right. I just want to acknowledge. I actually read the ingredients on your Solely package, and there's literally like an ingredient. It's very transparent. It is what it says it is. There's nothing more
Simon Sacal: Exactly. I think-- no, and the ingredient is--
Justine Reichman: Pineapple, coconut.
Simon Sacal: -- whole fresh pineapple. And that's it. And there's deeper than that because the ingredient is an organic pineapple. So there is no filler. There is no-- I don't know an apple paste that has a lot of pesticides. There is no-- it's what I want my three year old to eat. It's just the organic fruit with all the fiber, with all the nutrients with all-- so it's a completely different paradigm. And that's very difficult to communicate to consumers because especially here, everyone's used to the better for you alternative. So this is better because it has vitamin C or this is better because it has less calories. So everything that we do at Solely, we believe that it's good for you. For example, we just launched the pasta--
Justine Reichman: I have that is that. Is that the spaghetti squash? No, different. That's the Fusilli, okay, I don't have that.
Simon Sacal: It's made out of organic green banana. That's the only ingredient. And it has a texture very close to a pasta. But you're eating a green banana, which is a banana without the sugar because it's green. So it's good for you. You're having a very healthy produce as a pastor. So it's something that you would tell your kid, "Oh have more of this." Because it's not just have a little pasta, you eat your litle chicken or it's has more because this is the healthy part of the dinner. So that's what we do at Solely. Everything that we do is first very indulgent, well priced, and clean to a level that it's good for you. But it is so difficult to make a one ingredient product. It's counterintuitive, but it's a lot more difficult than to have a product with 100 ingredients and have stabilizer, and the sugar, and the preservative and etc.
Justine Reichman: So I have two questions before we wrap up. And they are kind of big questions. But there's two that I got. And the first one is, I mean, these products are really inspired. They're very innovative. I mean, banana pasta, who comes up with this? I mean, tell me about the research and development behind this and how you come to hire these teams that are so innovative to come up with these products? Or are you just-- are you the man behind these really innovative ideas? And how do I get that banana pasta. Can I get to see that in the store?
Simon Sacal: My brother, Gabriel, that runs the factory in Mexico now runs well in Costa Rica now running r&d department. And the first patent I did it myself and the second I did with my brothers. And now Gabriel runs that department. We have things that we have built a system that is that works by itself, because we have the sourcing. So we have a lot of fruits and vegetables coming in. And we cover an r&d department that tries things all the time. What if we do this? And what if we do that? And we're not binded by whatever I call manufacturer can make. So we have the machines, we have a very good lab. So it's a trial and error.
Justine Reichman: How do you come up with trying a banana for pasta?
Simon Sacal: Yeah. It was crazy.
Justine Reichman: I mean, spaghetti squash I get it, right? But, like that's not like and I like it, I'm just saying that I've seen or I've heard of or but this is very innovative.
Simon Sacal: Yeah. So it's about having this conversation of my kids only eat pasta or not mine, but having that conversation with someone, and how would you be happy as a parent. And on the other side, we opened a manufacturing facility in Costa Rica, and we have a lot of banana. And sometimes we buy it green. So we started experimenting with the green banana, what can we do with it? How does it taste and, we had the pasta in the market, that spaghetti squash in the market. So it all adds up and trial and error and this was Gabrielle with his team's idea. And it worked. And we also work very closely with some of our retail partners. And sometimes they tell us, "Hey, I need an alternative pasta because that's growing and we have some research and that's the way we develop new categories."
Justine Reichman: I can't wait to try it. I haven't seen it. Where do I get it? How do I get it?
Simon Sacal: It's a whole foods and online as well. And we're starting-- it's very, very new. It's a couple months in and we're starting to distribute to other retailers. And I think it's an amazing solution because you're eating a salad instead of pasta, but you can put a sauce on it and it is a pasta so it's a cool thing.
Justine Reichman: So, okay. I can't wait to try that. And you're gonna have to share some recipes with us of some of these things that you make maybe with your family or your brother, somebody that we can share with our listeners or our viewers because I think they're gonna want to see this.
Simon Sacal: That's a good point. We share recipes all the time and our website is Solely.com and our Instagram account and Facebook accounts where we have a professional chef. We share recipes all the time. And we have four lines of products. We come the food jerkies, which are, I think, the best solution to having food on the go. And it's a moister experience and cutting dried fruit. We have a dried fruit line with some specialties like this one has 100% cacao drizzle
Justine Reichman: I haven't seen that one either. Does or not offered by me. The only ones I've had are the pineapple with the Cayenne, the regular pineapple and then the pineapple jerky.
Simon Sacal: Oh no, no, this is an amazing product. This is--
Justine Reichman: I need to get, like I need a whole thing of everything. I need to go to store or something because I don't have access to it. I feel very not in the know here, in my area.
Simon Sacal: So all of these products, most of these are at Whole Foods at CVS and Walmart
Justine Reichman: Do you sell them online too?
Simon Sacal: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Justine Reichman: Okay. So everybody can get them at Solely.com Walgreens and Whole Foods,
Simon Sacal: The CVS, Whole Foods
Justine Reichman: Okay. I shop at Good Eggs, this is my problem.
Simon Sacal: I think we do sell them but not all the line.
Justine Reichman: I think that's the problem. I go to Good Eggs.
Simon Sacal: So you should ask them to bring all the line.
Justine Reichman: I will. This is what I do. Now that I know all your lines, I'm gonna email them and be like, can you get A, B, C, D, and E.
Simon Sacal: So the jerky, we have 11 different skills. And we have like a banana with the can, that tastes like banana bread. We have the mango, the pineapple, coconut that you like. We have a lot of product and dried fruit. We have a lot of products as well. We have a Chilean salad, we have been 100% cacao drizzle. So you have the chocolate experience
Justine Reichman: I guess your like teasing me now. Now it's just like a big tease.
Simon Sacal: And I think one of the most innovative wines that we have are the gummies or fruit bites. So this product, this product is amazing. This product is made only of organic mango, and a little bit of vitamin C, but they have the texture of a gummy and the taste of a gummy but there is no gelatine, no color, no preservatives, no sugar, nothing.
Justine Reichman: You know that's a really big deal for people that are vegan, and don't like the gelatin in it too.
Simon Sacal: That's a huge deal for kids. This is good for you in terms of you're eating whole organic fruit, but as if it was a candy, a gummy. So this line is amazing. We're so excited about this line, and it's doing great. And it's priced very, very aggressively. So we have the four lines the jerky, the dried fruit, the gummies, and the pastas.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. So let me just get back to my one other question. Because remember, I said I have two. The other question I had was when you, you know, you built your company, you're with your brothers, you're scaling up, you went from potatoes to Solely Fruit, you know, what was it like to build that team because you had to, you know, either raise money. I don't know, if you, you know, you went, you did it privately, or then you raise money. But then you also had to, you know, build your team, and get those advisors and get those people around you. And you know, I know it's a bigger conversation, but just for those people that are looking to do that. Because, you know, just if you could like give a little insight as to what it was like for you to go out there and do that I think it'd be really insightful for people to hear. Because you grow in your big success now and it can be scary for people and they don't know where to start.
"You are the one who has to make due diligence on who you're inviting to the company, not only the other way around because it is for a long time and it affects the company. If you have the right people sitting at the table, everything is better; you get a lot more opportunities, and that's very important.” —Simón Sacal
Simon Sacal:So raising money is a huge deal. We decided to go with a very capital intensive business model, because we build manufacturing facilities, we have a lot of people working with us and that's the way we grew. So we needed to raise a lot of money. So my advice is, be very-- go at it with your eyes wide open. Because you're really getting in bed with the investor for a long time and you need good people to be at the table with you, and good hearted people and people that bring value, and there are. And so it's very important to be very selective and do it with your eyes open. And there's always a lot of money, especially here in the US, but everywhere in the world. There's a lot of money for good ideas, for good products that is not an unbearable obstacle. That's something that's easy but it's possible, not easy but possible to overcome. It's just hard and long process. And we've been doing it for a very long time. But the advice here is, you are the one who has to make a due diligence on who you're inviting to the company, not only the other way around, because it is for a long time, and it really affects the company. If you have the right people sitting on the table, everything is better, you get a lot more opportunities and that's very important.
Justine Reichman: Would you say that when you were looking for investment, that you're looking for both financial and human capital, with that being sort of the way you would sum it up a little bit?
Simon Sacal: So I've done many rounds. At the beginning, I didn't understand that so well, but I had-- I was very, very lucky to have always very, very good partners, always, always. And that it was not that I was very smart, I was very lucky. And then once I started to understand how it worked, it was easier for me, and how important that was. It was easier for me to select better partners. So I think a good advice is start with your eyes open. It's not their decision only, it's your decision mostly, because for a good idea, there's a lot of money,
Justine Reichman: Okay. And I really appreciate you sharing that because I know that it can be a tough road for many founders. And it can be overwhelming and daunting even as to where to start and how to approach the process. And so once you have this money, or even before you have this money, many times people need to, you know, sort of figure out how to surround themselves with the experts that they need. And that can involve advisors and mentors. What was that process like for you? I mean, I know you've had your family, but how did you approach that?
Simon Sacal: So I think three ways, one is trying to hire really experienced people. That's very important, very, very important, and that's a difference for everything. We are blessed to have an amazing team. There are a lot of people that have a lot more knowledge than me in many areas and that's the only way that a company works. So I think that's crucial. And then when you're raising money, also, first filter is good people. People that you share values with, I think that is the most important. But second, if you can also choose people that has experience, and maybe not specifically food, maybe the financial part, on this structural part, on in the strategic part, that helps a lot. It changes everything.
"For a good idea, there's a lot of money.” —Simón Sacal
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I think that that's really helpful because I think oftentimes, we're not sure what kind of experience we need. I often look at it, like, I like, you know, as the visionary, right, I think I have the larger idea and I surround myself with the people that have the skills that maybe I lack or don't have that specific expertise in, so that they can help take that vision and help execute it in a way that, you know, so that we can as a collective as a team, bring that to life.
Simon Sacal: Exactly. That's exactly the vision.
Justine Reichman: So wonderful. Oh my gosh, Simon, this has been amazing getting to know you here, all about Solely. I can't wait to try the plethora of products you have. So what's new and what's next on the horizon for Solely that we haven't heard about, or that's in the pipeline.
"Oftentimes, we're not sure what kind of experience we need. But as the visionary, I surround myself with the people that have the skills that maybe I lack or don't have that specific expertise in so that they can help take that vision and bring that to life.” —Justine Reichman
Simon Sacal: So new, new is spaghetti--
Justine Reichman: The banana spaghetti? Okay.
Simon Sacal: We just launched this a few months ago and that's what's new. We're working on new flavors of the gummies that are coming soon and new jerky varieties. And long term, there's a couple of categories we've been experimenting for a couple of years, but it's still the coin still up in the air, which is the next one that will go to.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. And I will try all your other products that I have yet to try.
Simon Sacal: Thank you so much. Thank you very much for your time and enthusiasm and this was great. Thank you so much.
