TRUFF's Founders: 'The Status Quo Is In All Of Our Hands'

Summary

Taste Radio Podcast Summary

Episode: TRUFF's Founders: "The Status Quo Is In All Of Our Hands"

Host: Ray Latif, BevNET Inc.
Guests: Nick Guillen & Nick Ejlooni (Co-founders, TRUFF)
Date: June 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the evolution of TRUFF, a brand that disrupted the hot sauce market with its premium, design-forward condiments that became an online sensation. Now, as TRUFF broadens its product line, refines its retail strategy, and undergoes a major rebrand, founders Nick Guillen and Nick Ejlooni join Taste Radio to discuss how they’re scaling up while staying true to the edgy, elevated ethos that fueled their viral success. Key themes include retail expansion, brand accessibility, balancing instinct and data for product innovation, leadership evolution with a new CEO, and TRUFF’s vision for becoming a category-defining, enduring brand.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Instagram Sensation to Mainstream Brand

• TRUFF’s Origins & DNA:
  • The brand was built as a “digitally native” concept engineered for virality ([02:56]).
  • “Our roots, I think, will always be digital. The brand was built on the Internet for the Internet.” – Nick Ejlooni ([02:59])

2. Evolving the Brand – Retail Focus & Accessibility

• Retail Expansion:
  • TRUFF is shifting from digital-first to a strong retail presence.
  • "It's no secret that we're making a big retail push and we haven't over the last few years." – Nick Guillen ([06:31])
• Rebrand & Packaging Renovation:
  • TRUFF’s rebrand was designed to improve shelf presence, conveying flavor, product use, and price value quickly. The iconic vertical logo remains but the label is now more informative.
  • “…We're kind of undergoing a renovation of the brand... Educating the consumer at shelf very quickly within three seconds when they see the product, but not stepping so far away from the true DNA and the roots of our brand.” – Nick Ejlooni ([09:01])
• Price Accessibility:
  • Initial ultra-premium pricing limited market share; moving to sub-$10 allows wider consumer adoption.
  • “As we move the brand to a sub$10 price point, we're now able to talk to consumers that are willing to even consider our product because it's at a price that they're willing to pay.” – Nick Ejlooni ([11:02])

3. Innovation: Product Pipeline & Approach

• Expansion Beyond Hot Sauce:
  • TRUFF has diversified with aioli flavors and tomato sauces, responding to consumer demand and category opportunities.
  • “We want to bring something to the set that doesn’t exist.” – Nick Guillen ([17:56])
  • Lemon Pepper Aioli highlighted as a culturally resonant, unique flavor ([18:08]).
• Balancing Data and Instinct:
  • Innovation is guided by both internal gut-checks and analytical tools (market data, retail feedback, social trends).
  • "Data kind of points the direction of the shift...We’re pretty connected to the Internet and culture and we can just kind of see what’s going on in food culture, see what’s happening on TikTok…” – Nick Guillen ([17:01])
• Iteration vs. Perfection in Launches:
  • TRUFF now emphasizes near-perfection at launch due to the scale and visibility of releases, compared to earlier online “test and learn” methodology ([14:46]).

4. Building an Enduring Team and Culture

• Leadership Shift: New CEO:
  • After scrappy, founder-led growth, Nick & Nick recruited an experienced CPG CEO, Essie, from Tate’s and Colgate, to scale with discipline without losing TRUFF’s unique DNA.
  • “Bringing in leadership and a new CEO like SE to really help lead the whole team and drive the ship… it brings a lot of that traditional, really best in class CPG prowess to the organization…” – Nick Ejlooni ([18:45])
  • “And with SE, it was kind of abundantly clear…she had the CPG prowess. She understood food and culture…she’s a foodie…she was a big Truff user prior to ever meeting us.” – Nick Guillen ([22:40])
• Values, Team, and Ownership:
  • Hiring independent, expert professionals and instilling ownership across the org; everyone at TRUFF is an owner ([26:44]).
  • A focus on ethical leadership and genuine care for team members ([27:52]).

5. Investing for Sustainable Growth

• Top Investment Areas:
  • People (“team and people is first and foremost”, [24:59])
  • Operations and supply chain excellence
  • Maintaining uncompromised product quality ([25:41])
  • "We haven't cut any corners ever on the quality of product. That's an investment in itself..." – Nick Guillen ([25:58])

6. TRUFF’s North Star & Legacy Ambitions

• Vision for the Brand:
  • Aim to become “America’s number one premium condiment.”
  • Inspiring a new generation of founders by proving the “status quo is in our hands.” ([29:47])
  • “When you think about what Truff can become, I think we're lucky that we have the opportunity to build something that can truly impact… people eat three meals a day… we can truly impact that experience at scale…” – Nick Guillen ([30:05])
• Potential Endgame?
  • Building an iconic brand is the primary goal (vs. just an exit), but openness to strategic partnerships for enhanced scale and ability ([31:15]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On repositioning TRUFF for bigger reach:
  “Every pixel of that label was thoughtfully placed there to accomplish kind of that goal.” – Nick Guillen ([11:00])

• On how TRUFF is different:
  “Truff breaks a lot of culinary rules…It pretty much breaks every rule.” – Nick Guillen ([29:47])

• On what makes a great workplace:
  “We treat people extremely well because we care about them as people, not because we're trying to manipulate them into performing at our organization.” – Nick Guillen ([28:04])

• On the founders’ core philosophy:
  “The status quo is in all of our hands.” – Nick Guillen ([30:54])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro & TRUFF’s Origins: [00:58] – [03:23]
• Rebrand, Retail Focus & Accessibility: [06:02] – [12:38]
• Innovation Strategy (Data, Instinct, Product Dev): [13:11] – [17:58]
• Leadership Evolution & Bringing on CEO: [18:14] – [23:35]
• Investments in People, Product, and Ops: [24:30] – [28:51]
• TRUFF’s Future Vision & Impact: [29:02] – [31:38]
• End-of-Show Reflections & Closing: [31:38] – [33:55]

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Concluding Perspective

The founders of TRUFF demonstrate how a viral, digitally native brand can evolve into a potential household staple—by learning from the market, investing in both people and infrastructure, continuously innovating with both instinct and data, and preserving a powerful, culture-driven vision. By reframing “premium” as accessible quality and refusing to compromise on ethics or flavor, Nick Guillen and Nick Ejlooni chart a path toward not just CPG disruption, but lasting cultural relevance.

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Transcript

[Bevnet Live Announcer]

Bevnet Live. New York City is June 10th and 11th, and if you haven't registered yet, now is the time. It's two days of conversations with the people moving this industry forward. Founders, buyers, investors, all talking about the challenges and opportunities shaping the beverage industry right now and in the Future. Head to bevnet.com to grab your spot and if you're already registered, post about it. Tell people what you're looking forward to, what you're bringing to the show, or what you're doing to get ready. Tag us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok. Add BevNet as a collaborator and you might just end up on our feed before the show even starts.

[Ray Latif]

Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're tuned in to Taste Radio Radio, the

[Taste Radio Host]

number one podcast for anyone building a

[Ray Latif]

business in food or beverage. Truff built its reputation by breaking the rules. Now, as the company expands beyond its viral hot sauce with a major rebrand, new product lines and a retail focused growth strategy, co founders Nick Guillen and Nick Ejlooni are focused on scaling the business without losing the edge that that made it a phenomenon. In this episode, the entrepreneurs discussed the strategy behind Truffs refreshed packaging, more accessible pricing and new aioli line, as well as how they balance data and instinct when developing products. They also explain why bringing in an experienced CEO was a pivotal move for the company's next chapter and share their vision for evolving Truff from a disruptive startup into a lasting category defining condiment brand. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to

be sitting down with Nick Ashlooni and

Nick Guillen, the co founders of Truff.

Nick G. How are you?

[Nick Ejlooni]

Fabulous. Thanks for having us. Ray, how you doing?

[Ray Latif]

I'm fantastic.

Nick A.

[Taste Radio Host]

Great to see you again.

[Nick Guillen]

You too, man.

I'm excited.

[Ray Latif]

Yeah. So when we first met, it was back in January of 2020.

We're at the Winter Fancy Food show. We sat down IRL in the press room and it was a thrilling conversation for me because at the time there was a lot of hype around Truff. There still is for sure. But no one had seen a brand like yours before and it really represented change, particularly within the category that you

[Nick Ejlooni]

were competing in, Hot sauce.

[Ray Latif]

One of the most interesting things about Truff is that when it debuted, it was differentiated by the fact that it was, quote, a digitally native brand. It was engineered for Instagram. Nick G. I mean, how would you

[Nick Ejlooni]

describe Truff at this Point.

So, I mean, our, our roots, I think will always be digital. The brand was built on the Internet for the Internet. But as we've matured, we have really tried to do a good job at what a best in class CPG brand would do from a retail strategy, from hiring, from showing up where the consumer is, aside from just on social media and TikTok and the Internet and.

[Ray Latif]

Nick A. You know, the idea of Trough, the vision for Trough was to be a lifestyle luxury hot sauce brand. And right now you are so much more than that. When you started the company, did you envision having, say, an aioli line? Did you envision having a tomato sauce line? Did you see that this brand had the opportunity to become a food portfolio brand?

[Nick Guillen]

We always say we, we kind of

modeled the business off of like Red Bull, where they had one product for like three decades and even like a Cholula, for example. And so our early days where we will never sell in stores and we're only going to sell one thing, but

life happened, the Internet happened, food culture happened, retail happened.

And I think we've risen to those occasions and evolved with the demand for what the Truff brand stands for and what the Truff brand can offer.

[Ray Latif]

How would you describe Truff in say,

[Nick Ejlooni]

five words or less?

[Nick Guillen]

Nikkei Thoughtfully crafted, accessible culinary experiences.

[Ray Latif]

Impressive.

[Taste Radio Host]

That was really good.

[Ray Latif]

I like that.

[Nick Guillen]

Thank you.

[Ray Latif]

And I think that again speaks to how the brand has evolved beyond simply

[Nick Ejlooni]

being a hot sauce brand.

[Ray Latif]

How do you decide on timing when

[Nick Ejlooni]

you are launching new innovation?

[Ray Latif]

How do you think about getting not just the product right, but the time and cultural moment for a new product line?

[Nick Ejlooni]

Nick G. So it's interesting because there's never a perfect time, I would say, and especially with so many different things going on, we want to do our best to time the market and what's on trend with the consumer and kind of what's hot. But at the end of the day for us, looking at the dipping sauce category, the aioli category, we knew we could create an incredible product first and foremost. You know, we had an incredible mail line. But I think the new form of putting an incredible tasting liquid in a squeeze bottle makes it a lot more easy for consumers to use. But it allows us to now venture into things outside of hot sauce. And with our line now we have four incredibly tasting aioli. Our garlic parm Caesar, our smoky jalapeno, our original and our lemon pepper aioli.

[Ray Latif]

Along with the new line, we've seen a brand refresh for truff that feels

[Nick Ejlooni]

like it's really focused on the retail end of what you're doing and the shopability of your products.

[Ray Latif]

Again, I think this speaks to the development of Truff as a retail first brand. I could be reading into things, but Nick A. How much of the present and future

[Nick Ejlooni]

of Truff is really focused on retail versus online?

[Nick Guillen]

It's no secret that we're making a big retail push and we haven't over the last few years.

The rebrand was part of a push

for accessibility and education. And so, like you kind of alluded

to at the beginning, if you hadn't been online and you just showed up

at a retail store, say Kroger or, you know, Publix or somewhere, you see

this product and it just says Truff down the front.

Maybe you don't know what Truffle is, or you don't know what Truff is

and you don't know how to use

what you're looking at. And it previously was $15. You might pass on that. You're likely to pass or be skeptical

or think about it and come back later. The rebrand was a very long and tedious and thoughtful process and took us

actually many years and many different work streams, different groups we worked with, and as well, mainly our in house team, actually.

But the future, I think of trust is retail. But we're actually continuing to double down online in this moment.

We're actually doing a lot of different things that will be rolling out over the next few weeks, months and maybe years that are very digitally focused.

If we had to pick one, it's

probably retail, but the Internet's not going anywhere.

[Ray Latif]

So you alluded to the fact that it took a lot of time to introduce this rebrand. I imagine that there were a lot of disagreements and challenging conversations to be had about making any kind of change to what already has been an iconic

[Nick Ejlooni]

and very effective label.

[Ray Latif]

And I would be, if I were a founder of Truff, a little concerned about perhaps losing some of the magic. Yes, you definitely want people to know

[Nick Ejlooni]

more about what you're selling and make it as clear as possible.

[Ray Latif]

But one of the things that made

[Nick Ejlooni]

Truff so successful at the outset was that luxurious packaging, that beautiful vertical logo

[Ray Latif]

that still exists on your packaging. There was nothing else like it, and I don't think there's been anything like it since.

So, Nick G. I mean, how much

concern did you have? What were some of those questions? Like, what were some of those challenges that I imagine existed? How did you get through them? How did you Talk through them. How did you make sure that you weren't again losing the magic of what

[Nick Ejlooni]

you already had with Truffle?

Yeah. So it's funny, I've actually been thinking a lot about this over the last couple weeks, and the way that I best describe it is we're kind of undergoing a renovation of the brand. Right. We had built this beautiful modern house for the Internet that at the end of the day had an incredible product inside of it, but the outside didn't really do a good job of telling consumers what's the flavor profile, what is the actual product, what are some of the flavor cues, how hot is it? How prominent is truffle? And we've basically been trying to renovate what we've currently built to answer a lot of those questions. And that has us considering, okay, maybe we gotta change some of the fixtures, maybe we got to change some of the wallpaper. Maybe the staircase over here wasn't as functional as we thought it would be. So for us, it's really trying to move into the direction of educating the consumer at Shelf very quickly within three seconds when they see the product, but not stepping so far away from the true DNA and the roots of our brand. And I think one of the best things we did was keep the vertical aesthetic of the Truff logo down the front. But now we've used all of the real estate in a very productive way to answer all of those questions that the consumer has at Shelf.

[Nick Guillen]

You know, our goal is to be America's number one premium condiment.

And if you look at where Truff was to start, if you look at

just like average selling price, it was an ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra premium condiment. Right.

Four to five times the category and the word premium we could talk about all day. Argue it, hate it, love it. But when you look at accessibility and

truly getting into tens of millions of households, it's a different proposition than selling

a shiny object on the Internet. And so I think every pixel of that label was thoughtfully placed there to

accomplish kind of that goal.

[Nick Ejlooni]

At the end of the day, the product inside the bottle is always going to remain as top tier as you could possibly imagine. We're going to continue to source the best ingredients from all over the world. We're going to work with the best in class manufacturers to really bring the idea of this high end flavor profile that's extremely unique in our category to consumers. But now we're able to open our aperture and, and allow customers who wouldn't pay 15, 17, 18, 19, $20 for a hot sauce to now try it at a sub $10 price point. So as we look to make the brand more accessible, we're not necessarily doing it from a, you know, how do we get all of our costs down? How do we use cheaper suppliers or cheaper accessories for the brand? It's how do we put offer together for the customer that allows us to capture more of the shopper market share within the category. If you look at the category, I believe 90% of the dollars are spent between 4 and $7 price points. For odds losses at 14 to $20, we're only speaking to a very slim percentage of the category shopper. So as we move the brand to a sub$10 price point, we're now able to talk to consumers that are willing to even consider our product because it's at a price that they're willing to pay. So we're essentially just making it more accessible through price pack architecture and also flavor innovation.

[Ray Latif]

Yeah, it's interesting because the way I am hearing what you're talking about is that premium doesn't necessarily mean exclusivity. It's really about quality and versatility. And I think Truff has gradually become a more versatile brand via innovation. And I think about mild hot sauce

[Nick Ejlooni]

and how that could speak to a lot of different consumers and more consumers in ways that the original Truff had not.

[Ray Latif]

How do you think about trying to innovate to reach more consumers, but in a way that doesn't alienate anyone, in a way that embraces the TAM opportunity

[Nick Ejlooni]

that you might have in cpg?

Yeah, I mean, you kind of, you know, nailed it right on the head with. When you were alluding to, like, our mild sauce. Like, that was kind of our. Our very first, I would say, venture away from our. Our true core. You know, we have our. Our Buffalo and our Jalapeno. But Mild, essentially, is a luxury version of Taco Bell mild sauce with, you know, a trough twist. And so many consumers out there enjoy sauces. They enjoy elevating their food with these flavor enhancers. But a lot of people don't like spice at the end of the day. And for us, a lot of people, when they look at our brand, it's like, oh, trust a hot sauce brand. But, you know, we're more than just a hot sauce brand. We're a. A flavor elevator. And with this mild offering, it allows us to bring those consumers into our flywheel that have sensitivity to heat, and we can deliver that thing that they're looking for. But we also now have other Offerings like our ILY line that aren't very hot. And it really just continues to bring new shoppers into our ecosystem.

Do you have to be perfect when you launch new products or is it okay to say we can iterate after this launches?

First off, one of the best things we've ever did for our brand was hire a chief saucier officer individual named Elliot, who has been an incredible, incredible resource and a leader on the R and D front, aside from our incredible operations team to really bring these products and ideas to life, as well as our marketing team which really bring consumer insights and real data internally to say, okay, this is what's going on, this is what the number's saying, this is what's happening in grocery. How could we truly innovate and deliver incredible tasting products to our consumers? And first we start with the data and then we understand, okay, how can we really innovate in the trough way? And a lot of times it starts with a retailer relationship first. In the past it might have started on E Comm where we could spin something up, we could test it online. If it hits with the consumer, then we'll launch it into a retailer. But now it's more so a little bit thoughtful, like nothing's ever going to be perfect. But it really needs to hit, it really needs to work. And internally, Nick and I are still extremely involved with any sauce, any product that comes to market. We have samples that we're trying constantly. We're working with our R and D team and Elliot to really fine tune things. But from a perfection standpoint, we try to get as close to perfect as possible because when these things release, it's on a big stage. It's not just a small test and learn for our own.com anymore.

[Ray Latif]

Yeah, typically when I see a new product coming out from Truffle, there is

[Nick Ejlooni]

a huge social push behind it. You first tease it on Instagram or other social platforms and when it launches, it seems like there's a lot of people who were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what it would be.

[Ray Latif]

And I think data really helps to

[Nick Ejlooni]

identify what consumers are looking for.

[Ray Latif]

But I think at the end of the day, gut will tell you a

[Nick Ejlooni]

lot about where you should go for new products and innovation.

[Ray Latif]

But what really informs trough at this point? Is it a gut feeling about a

[Nick Ejlooni]

particular new product or is it really rooted in data?

[Nick Guillen]

Nikkei, it's a mix, it's a hybrid. I think data kind of points the

direction of the shift. Data is in buyers, candidly, I mean, buyers are not shy about what's missing in their set or how consumers are behaving about wanting to partner with brands to fill needs. Data can tell you how people are behaving. We also, we're pretty connected to the Internet and culture and we can just kind of see what's going on in food culture, see what's happening on TikTok, see what other launches are getting hyped, see what is missing unfortunately from other launches.

And the whole team on our end

is kind of synthesizing all this information

and collaborating on the quote unquote right

way forward for X category or whatnot.

And so with our Aiolis, if you

look at the lineup, a classic truffle is a staple at Truff. That's quite simple.

But we don't want to just be

a me too in the set. We want to bring something to the

set that doesn't exist.

And so that's why you see some of these. Lemon pepper is such a culturally relevant flavor. It's talked about in music, it's wingstop known.

And I don't see a staple lemon

pepper, mayo or aioli being used nationwide. And there should be one.

[Ray Latif]

It helps when you have a great

[Nick Ejlooni]

team and you both have referenced your team a number of times and you've

[Ray Latif]

brought a new CEO on and I imagine that this is something that has

[Nick Ejlooni]

been a long time in the making,

[Ray Latif]

a long time in the works and

[Nick Ejlooni]

trying to find the right person to steer the ship going forward.

[Ray Latif]

Just talk about your new CEO and

[Nick Ejlooni]

some of the non negotiables that you

[Ray Latif]

had to see in this person such

[Nick Ejlooni]

that they could take it from Truff 1.0 to Truff 2.0 without any disruption.

Nick G. Yeah, so you know, talked a little bit about the brand renovation and I think another big part of that renovation is bringing in leadership and a new CEO like SE to really help lead the whole team and drive the ship. You know, Nick and I, we were first time CEOs were scrappy entrepreneurs. A lot of gut instinct and just hustling our way through without really, really knowing. And I think with this incredible hire, it brings a lot of that traditional, really best in class CPG prowess to the organization and it allows Nick and I to really lean back into our entrepreneurial roots and continue injecting that early DNA of Truff back into the brand. But this time we have an incredible leadership team. You know, SE was a brand new CEO that we brought in and we continue to rebuild out the whole leadership team amongst many other roles that are really bringing in that new best in class, more longer term big CPG to the organization.

[Ray Latif]

It's scary. I would imagine it's really scary because

[Nick Ejlooni]

that big CPG experience and creating a

[Ray Latif]

brand that can be everywhere hasn't necessarily

[Nick Ejlooni]

been the identity of Truff for a long time.

[Ray Latif]

And you want the culture to remain what it has been. You want the vision to remain what

[Nick Ejlooni]

it has been while building out that bigger presence.

[Ray Latif]

So again, you know, Nick A. If I were to bring on a

[Nick Ejlooni]

new CEO, if I were in your shoes, I think one of the most

[Ray Latif]

important things would be to make sure

[Nick Ejlooni]

that that person is culturally aligned with what you guys are all about.

[Ray Latif]

I have a sense I've, I, you know, first met you guys in, in 2020 and I feel like I'm still talking to the same guys, at least

[Nick Ejlooni]

from a cultural perspective.

[Ray Latif]

You're both laid back, you're both highly

[Nick Ejlooni]

intelligent, you're both highly ambitious, but you're

[Ray Latif]

not willing to compromise.

[Nick Ejlooni]

And that's been clear throughout our conversation.

[Ray Latif]

So when you were first talking to

[Nick Ejlooni]

Essie and continuing upon that conversation, how did you know she was the right one? Nikkei?

[Nick Guillen]

Yeah, I don't know if we're highly intelligent, but we're working on that.

[Ray Latif]

Yeah.

[Nick Guillen]

So, I mean, look, it was a very kind of long process, right.

It was a very thoughtful decision with our new partner. Partner being the investment we took.

As Nick G Said, you know, big CPG is. It's its own category, it's its own industry.

And you know, SE came from Tate's. She ran a multi hundred million dollar

P and L. She has very long

and accomplished and impressive career at various brands like Colgate, L'.

Oreal. I think she's in that MTV first stint and we probably talked to 30 plus candidates over maybe eight months or so. And we weren't in like some crazy rush to like just get someone in the seat. No, it was very much so, like,

hey, this is what we're building.

Having the right almost like, you know, giving LeBron the ball is a really smart and strategic move at the stage

we were at and the stage we want to get to.

And with SE, it was kind of abundantly clear. It's funny because it's always like, you know, we'd have kind of some of

these long multi week conversations and kind

of get closer to the line with one individual and then it would kind

of like not quite work out or

we would feel really good about certain of their skill sets and then a

little bit hesitant or apprehensive. About another.

And Truff is not like your run

of the mill, just like, oh, we'll just do this. We'll add distribution, we'll do more promos. And, like, I mean, we're building something

truly thoughtful and special that we think can be here in a hundred years. And so it was clear with Essie

that she kind of had the whole package, right?

She had the CPG prowess. She understood food and culture.

She's a foodie.

She loves amazing food.

[Nick Ejlooni]

She's also a culinary professional.

[Nick Guillen]

She's a trained, culinarily trained. She was a big Truff user prior

to ever meeting us.

We had some good mutual friends in the network shout out to Craig at a happy coffee, and every conversation, we

were just speaking the same language.

And when she kind of put this plan together of, you know, where she thinks this brand could be, it was like, this just makes so much sense. Like, she's just in sync with us. She's in lockstep with us, and she has a level of enthusiasm that, like,

you could be having the worst day ever. And you get on a call with

Essie and you're just, like, you're perked up and you're ready to go, and that's a really strong energy to bring to an organization. And so, yeah, it took us a while, but we found her, and she's

been with us for over a year, almost a year and a half now, and it's been nothing but amazing.

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[Ray Latif]

Truff scaled very quickly and has built enormous cultural momentum. But what investments, in particular behind the scenes, were really necessary to turn the brand from what had been a viral success into a durable business? Where did you invest most heavily in

[Nick Ejlooni]

over the past few years?

[Ray Latif]

Was it talent?

[Nick Ejlooni]

Was it operations?

[Ray Latif]

Was it supply chain, innovation, retail?

[Nick Guillen]

I think team and people is first and foremost.

Our ops team is, like, off the charts. It's incredible that they move mountains every day. Anyone who runs a CPG brand knows that pretty much every single day is operationally miserable. There's nothing that ever goes right.

Even when you do everything right, you

can check every box 50 times, and

then somehow they get unchecked by the powers that be. And so I think treating people well is the number one thing operators can do. Not because it's good for the business,

but because it's the right thing to do.

But it pays dividends as you're running the business.

I think another area that we've invested is quality, right? So our products, we haven't spent a lot of time talking about our actual

liquids, but they're like best in class

and they're more expensive because of that.

But, you know, we could talk about

label and package and price all day,

but when you get down to it,

people are taking what's in that bottle and they're ingesting it into their bodies and they're. Before they do their has a whole flavor experience.

And we haven't cut any corners ever

on the quality of product. That's an investment in itself because at

the end of the day, that's what

we're here for, right? We're here to make meals better, here to make ordinary meals extraordinary.

And that is where we should be investing.

And so even like Nick mentioned, Elliot, our head of culinary, essentially, and our

tiff who runs our ops team. And so when we look at the offering, it needs to be best in

class in every way.

And making it, that is an investment.

You know, it's an investment every day.

[Ray Latif]

Nick G. Nick A said that you

[Nick Ejlooni]

have to treat your people well.

[Ray Latif]

What does that mean? Are you talking about just being nice to people and treating them like professionals? Is it about compensation? Is it about career development? What in your mind, what is the

[Nick Ejlooni]

trough way of treating people? Well, I think it's.

It's everything. It's first off really trying to hire the right people and allowing people that are professionals and experts in their field bring that juice to the organization. The last thing we want to do is, is hire the chief saucier and tell him how to make sauce, right? So a lot of the time we really try to instill independence and ownership with everybody in the org. And when Nick and I or anybody else needs to jump in and maybe bump something back online, we'll do that. But I would say there's a lot of independence. I would say, you know, people are taken care of very well in many different ways. You know, we. We really want to make people feel like they're owners within the org. And, you know, everybody at Truff is an owner, so there's a lot that we do across the board to really make people feel like true owners.

[Nick Guillen]

We've always had a very ethical framework,

Nick and I, and I think that's why we get along so well.

And I doubt you'll ever hear a

story that, you know, Nick and Nick shaded us.

We just treat people extremely well because

we care about them as people, not because we're trying to manipulate them into performing at our organization. We just actually care as people.

And so I think just having that

as your North Star naturally will trickle down all those kind of things that you mentioned, including career growth, including autonomy, including making sure the work environment is good doing.

You know, our head of people, Aaron,

does these monthly pulse surveys.

What's going great at Truffle?

It's not. It's hard to be a remote organization, largely remote.

And there were rough patches of our

journey that we probably didn't do the best job.

And things were so chaotic that people were like, hey, I haven't talked to anyone about this in a couple weeks.

Or, you know, I feel like I'm

out of the loop. What's our objective? You know, and so learning from those

things and continuing to develop them. But, yeah, I mean, people is everything. People is what builds the business.

[Ray Latif]

I have always been excited about what Trough was and what it could be today, what it could be in 10 years from now. You've talked about the opportunity to be

[Nick Ejlooni]

in tens of millions of households, but what is the big, hairy, audacious goal for Trough? What is. What's perhaps the end game for you both as founders?

[Ray Latif]

Are you motivated by a potential acquisition,

[Nick Ejlooni]

or are you more motivated by, you

[Ray Latif]

know, the opportunity for Trough to be a truly iconic brand and one that's

[Nick Ejlooni]

known perhaps as well as, say, Heinz?

[Nick Guillen]

Yeah, I mean, look, I think they're.

They're one in the same acquisition in 10 million households. I think the goal is.

When we started Truff, you know, Nick

and I, we don't have a culinary background. While we were foodies and we were college kids that used a ton of

hot sauce, we really wanted to turn heads.

We wanted to show people that you

can make something that kind of breaks some rules.

Right? Truff breaks a lot of culinary rules. It breaks a lot of packaging rules, it breaks a lot of distribution rules. It breaks a lot of positioning rules. It pretty much breaks every rule.

And when you think about what Truff can become, I think we're lucky that we have the opportunity to Build something that can truly impact.

I mean, people eat three meals. Most people eat three meals a day, every day.

And we can truly impact that experience at scale. And we can offer people an experience three times a day that or however

many times they want to, you know,

get home or whatever. Something that they look forward to. And it brings them joy, and it

allows them to connect with family and friends.

And we can do it in a way that's cool, that's culturally relevant, that's accessible. I can't tell you how many people

I've walked up to, Nick and I, at trade shows or in our DMs, or like, hey, I started my brand because you guys started truffle.

I would never think that someone would

start a brand because we started Truff. I wouldn't even fathom that.

And so to us, it's very meaningful to show that the status quo is in all of our hands.

Right?

We as humans can kind of create things. And so the symbol of truff is very important to us, whether or not we change hands over the next few years, whatever. But I think there is value in.

I mean, there's a lot of very cool acquisitions. I think Unilever Tripled Liquid iv. Right? That's like a platform that an independent just doesn't have.

You know, Chulula has become an incredibly. The amount of offerings they've come out

with that are actually amazing since McCormick

took them over is insane. Like, there's.

There is value in working with a strategic partner to do things that you just don't have the ability to do independently.

But I think we're very focused on

just building the best thing we could build and doing it with great people and doing it in a great way.

[Ray Latif]

Very well said. And I love the phrase you use. The status quo is in our hands. And I think for entrepreneurs, especially in cpg, it truly is. When I meet an entrepreneur for the first time, whether they're in food or

[Nick Ejlooni]

beverage, and they have something, it makes me really excited because I was there at the beginning. And those folks include the people who say, started Poppy or started health aid or started Simple Mills or sort of trough. And it's really exciting, isn't it?

[Ray Latif]

Because you guys are changing the landscape

[Nick Ejlooni]

of food and beverage one brand at a time. And consumers are buying into this idea that we don't have to rely on legacy brands to make our food what it is. We can eat spicier, we can eat healthier, we can eat with more freedom in how we think about what food should taste like. And it's just incredible to see what you both have built.

[Ray Latif]

And I mentioned at the top of

[Nick Ejlooni]

the show, I'm supremely honored to sit down with you.

[Ray Latif]

I really mean that. Thank you so much for all that you've brought to this industry. And thank you so much for sitting

[Nick Ejlooni]

down with me today.

[Ray Latif]

I really appreciate it.

[Nick Ejlooni]

Thank you so much for having us, and thank you for all that you do for the industry. It's been incredible to see you grow as well.

[Ray Latif]

I really appreciate that.

[Nick Guillen]

I will just say this. I said at the beginning before we start recording, but we extremely enjoy speaking with you because it's so much below the surface on cpg.

It's. It actually is very stimulating. It always has been.

And I think every time we talk to you, we're like, God, we want

to have more of those conversations because

it's typically, you know, very surface level, and to be able to really jam at a deeper CPG level is, like,

our favorite thing to do.

So thank you for your perspective on brands and bringing those perspectives to the masses.

[Taste Radio Host]

Well, I'm down to do this once

[Ray Latif]

a month if you guys are down,

[Nick Guillen]

so send the cow.

[Ray Latif]

In all seriousness, we'll do this again soon, I hope, and perhaps the next time a strategic partner might be involved,

[Nick Ejlooni]

and it'll be a completely different conversation

[Ray Latif]

about how that process went.

[Nick Ejlooni]

And it'll be very interesting to pull back the layers and pull back the curtain on how that process unfolded.

[Ray Latif]

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just be happy with what we got right now, and I'm very happy we had this chance to speak. So thank you once again.

[Nick Guillen]

Thanks, Ray.

[Taste Radio Host]

That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNet.com incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Kratchi. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinsky, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple podcast app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is Bevnett Taste Radio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to askaseradio.com on behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time.