50+ retail doors, refrigerated snack brand, Costco roadshows + Whole Foods in progress, raising first angel round
Hi all, I’m a co-founder of a refrigerated snack bar brand based in California.
My wife and I started it during my stage 4 cancer treatment because we couldn’t find snacks made with real ingredients we trusted. She began making our bars at home, and it turned into a business.
Today we’re in 50+ retail stores across SoCal, doing ~15 units per store per week with consistent reorders. No outside capital to date.
We’re currently preparing for Costco roadshows and working toward a Whole Foods launch later this year.
We’re now raising our first angel round to:
- Scale production with a co-man
- Expand retail distribution nationally
- Support inventory and operations
We’re building in the refrigerated snack space with a focus on real ingredients, repeat consumption, and strong retail velocity.
I’ve taken a number of investor meetings so far and the most common feedback has been “too early.”
From our perspective, we’ve spent the past 18 months proving product market fit at the store level. Customers are buying, stores are reordering, and velocity is consistent. We have not pushed aggressive growth yet because we are still producing in a commercial kitchen and want to scale properly with a co-man.
Last year revenue was ~$40k, with most of it coming in late in the year as we expanded into more doors. Year to date we’re at ~$20k and growing, but we’ve been intentionally holding back on adding new accounts until production scales.
Curious how others have navigated this stage where traction is strong at the store level, but top line revenue doesn’t fully reflect the opportunity yet.
Also, where have you found the best angel investors for early stage CPG?
We’re raising $500k on a SAFE at a $7M cap. ~$100k is already committed.
Happy to share our deck or send product if helpful. Appreciate any direct advice.