Heroes in Business - Brendan Synnot founder of Bare Naked Foods is interviewed by David Cogan

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Brendan Synnot founder of Bare Naked Foods is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes radio show amfm. Synnot was a popular Survivor reality TV show cast member and also created Evol Foods sold at fresh markets around the country. Now his latest venture is PACT Organic wear for men women and children.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Now, back to our super host, David Kogan, founder of Alliances. What a morning it has been. We've had heroes. We had the president of Telemundo. Plus, she's the one that created the swan. We just had the president of Ikea. She grew it to $3 billion in sales. But it doesn't stop there. Our next hero is making his mark on the world. Well, he did it in the food industry. He's now doing it in the clothing industry, which literally, I kid you not, within the past 24 hours, I purchased many things that he has been the one who's created.

The founder of many companies. You'll recognize him for being the founder of Bare Naked Foods, Brendan Sinnott. And Brendan, you start companies in a super competitive market, and yet they all seem to take off. What's the secret? Yeah, I think, well, thanks for having me on, number one. But I think for me, it's always just started with the consumer. And really, I've in a lot of ways built products for myself. And myself, I kind of grew up coming out of the internet age and went like Napster,

basically upended the entire music industry and gave the power back to the consumer. And where the consumer got like total transparency, and I just kind of like took that expectation and applied it to large consumer categories where, honestly, I felt like consumers weren't being told the truth. being told the truth and where larger CPG businesses just kind of, you know, did a lot of brand marketing and controlled distribution, but it wasn't about product truth or brand truth. And so I just tried to take that approach and apply it to a couple of big categories. But you co-founded Bare Naked Foods. You sell it to Kellogg for over $80 million. Why sell and what were you feeling at the signing of those contracts?

I mean, this was one of your first of many successes. Yeah, I mean, selling Bare Naked was totally bittersweet. But, you know, to give a little more context, I started Bare Naked when I was 23 years old. And, you know, we grew to $50 million of sales over five years. And I was 27 years old, 28 years old, running a company with 40 people. And honestly, like I, we had a great success there, but I was still young. And, and, and so, you know, when we sold the business, we just, we, we, we had a group of investors that kind of had expectations and my partner wanted to move on. So we all sold it together. And for me, it was, it was never that that was going to be the only business. I just thought this changing consumer behavior was going to apply to so many other categories that while sad to sell it, it was never that that was going to be the only business. I just thought this change in consumer behavior was going to apply to so many other categories that while sad to sell it, it was kind of exciting to see what was next.

And you could reach Brendan by going to packedorganic.com, which we'll talk about a little bit later, or you can go to alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. So Brendan, you sell Bare Naked Foods. What do you do? Yeah, you start another company in a very competitive market, Evolve Foods, which makes frozen burritos and other food items. I literally, literally purchased a ton of these at the store, not knowing even you were going to be on the show when I purchased them. What are the three top secrets, the magic sauces, so to speak, that you learned from creating Evol Foods. Yeah, I think with Evol, it was really about product truth.

And it was around the time where consumers were really getting into foodie culture and really getting into where food was coming from. So I think kind of really bringing the consumer in there from a transparency standpoint. And then also this kind of concept for us with Evil Foods was, you know, going to your freezer door shouldn't be like going to the penalty box of your kitchen. Like you should be able to go to the freezer door and get something like truly fantastic out of your freezer and cook it up for yourself at home and have a great meal experience. And, you know, I think those were the big things that we learned in Evil that really resonated and turned the brand into a success for us. Incredible. And I'll tell

you, I'm falling off your seat because what happened with that company? And again, that's spelled love backwards, E-V-O-L. Well, you sell it to a publicly held NASDAQ company, Boulder Brands, and anyone else, Brendan, you know, would stop. But yet you continue to work on changing the world with your products. So you start another company, yet this one is in food. And I'm not going to steal your thunder on this, but I got to tell you, last night I ordered products from your site. Share with us what it is you created and why being me so picky would go ahead and order these items from your site yeah so you know i had spent a lot of time in food but to me again my journey always starts with the consumer and really starts with you know my own perception of how categories should change

and i just started to think about like you know everybody was asking these questions about where their food comes from in the refrigerator and everything in our pantry they know the ingredient they know how it tastes and they have this great relationship with the products and it's transformed the way food is made and it's going to transform it in the future and like how beautiful is that and so I started to think more about like well what else is a consumer experiencing every day where they have the impact to go to go change the world with. And it's really like the clothes on your back. Like, nobody knows where their clothes come from.

Nobody knows how their underwear is made, where the cotton is sourced from. And currently, the way it's made, it's kind of a problem for the universe in terms of how it impacts people on the planet. And so we just thought of, like, is there a better way to build a brand that transforms the apparel and cotton industry in a way that is similar to what we did in the food space around bringing kind of better for you brands, better for the planet brands within the food space. I mean, it's just absolutely incredible. You're listening to Alliances Heroes. Be a hero. Go where entrepreneurs align.

Be part of the community. Alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. We're speaking here with Brendan Sinnott, who has just created so many companies, including Bare Naked Foods, Evolve, which is love spelled backwards. And now you can go and purchase clothing. But this isn't just your ordinary. This is special. PackedOrganic.com. Brendan, I want to borrow your brain, the part of your brain that comes up with all this. How do you think the best way is?

Because, you know, you're clearly motivated. You started doing it at a young age. But what do you think is the best way maybe for some parents to motivate and or teach their children to be able to come up with ideas and implement them to change the world like you have? Where does that come from? Yeah, I was really blessed.

Both my grandfathers were entrepreneurs. So I feel like I had that kind of spirit in my family growing up. But at the age of five or six, I remember him taking me to like the local Costco and I'd buy a bunch of bubble gum and like sell it out in the front. And so it's like literally the lemonade stand mentality to me still is just so true in terms of like, you know, just, just get your kids to be able to, to go execute even the simplest thing and give them confidence that they can go take on the world. And I feel like that to me is like the genesis of it.

It's like I was always told that, Brendan, you can go do anything. And then they, I think, helped me experience some things in life that gave me confidence to believe that was true. And I feel like that's like the greatest gift you could give to your kids. But you're doing so much too. I mean, you created Revelry Brands, that's R-E-V-E-L-R-Y Brands, which is this really cool vehicle to provide strategy, provide people capital to new ventures, including, I mean, I want to buy all your products. I got to tell you, because even pet care brand, I and Love and You, and a candy brand, Little Secrets,

what's the best quality, though, that one can have when making a pitch to you that really would stand out most? Because I got to imagine you must see a gazillion pitches in that. But what's maybe the best way to be able to pitch to you that would stand out for most for you to be able to fund someone and for them to be part of this revelry brand? Yeah, I think it, again, for me, goes back to the consumer and starts with, like, a really smart insight around the consumer and their need. And then from there, it kind of ladders to, like, well, what's the path to that need? You know, and there's multiple paths via products, via the brand language, via the

distribution channels. And so I think, you know, understanding that insight and then that path. And then ultimately, like, they got to want it. Like the person starting the business, like nothing works. It always breaks. It always takes more money. It's always harder. You don't get the right people all the time.

There's just like constant trauma of a startup. And so does somebody want that? And is somebody just not going to quit? And is somebody just going to continue to pivot beyond the trauma versus being overwhelmed by it? And I think that quality right there to me is like by far the most important because the strategy is always going to change. Incredible. And again, you could reach Brendan by going to pactorganic.com.

I can only imagine what Brendan will create next. A hero is one that isn't a one-hit wonder, and our hero has created multiple companies, funded many. Remember, things break, but he's the one that fixes it. He doesn't quit and is changing the way in which we look at clothing and food for the better. That's our hero. That's Brendan Sinnott, David Kogan with E-Liances.