September 30, 2025 • 28 mins
"We always say our mac and cheese is like a break from the chaos. When things are crazy in your life, you just need a break. You don’t have to go off the deep end and eat a bowl of some boxed XYZ... I want to eliminate that ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ part after you eat." —Myles Powell
Comfort food isn’t just about taste—it’s about trust, memories, and feeling good from the inside out. Too often, the foods we love come with a side of guilt or mystery ingredients, but there’s a better way to enjoy the classics without compromise.
Myles Powell grew up cherishing family meals, only to find that most store-bought comfort foods fell short of those memories. Driven by a passion for real ingredients and honest business, he set out to reinvent mac and cheese and more, building a brand that puts people and purpose first.
Listen in for a no-nonsense look at building a clean-label food business, the real hurdles of funding and scaling, and how comfort food can be both nostalgic and nourishing. You’ll walk away with practical insights, inspiration, and a fresh perspective on what’s possible in your kitchen and beyond.
Meet Myles:
Myles Powell is the founder of Myles Comfort Foods, a purpose-driven comfort food brand dedicated to clean-label, better-for-you classics. Inspired by family meals and a passion for real ingredients, Myles turned his love for authentic food into a business that puts transparency, quality, and emotional connection first. With experience in both self-funding and raising capital, he leads with resilience and a commitment to making comfort food that’s as honest as it is delicious.
Connect with NextGen Purpose:
Episode Highlights:
00:47 Better-For-You Mac&Cheese
05:31 Real Ingredients, Real Impact
08:27 The Challenges of Shipping Perishable Goods
10:35 Emotional Eating vs Food That Feels Good
13:26 Brand Values Over Product Hype
17:38 Funding the Dream, Learning to Pitch, and Handling Rejection
26:45 New Products on the Horizon
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Justine Reichman: (00:15):
Myles is here for Comfort Foods. And while
this product, I believe, used tobe direct to consumer, now it is
not available direct toconsumer, and you've changed the
format of it. You've moved awayfrom Etsy, and you've changed
the whole structure. I'm excitedto learn more about what you
guys are doing, and share withour loyal listeners what Comfort
(00:40):
Foods is, for those that are notfamiliar with it. It's mac and
cheese. So Myles, welcome.
Myles Powell: (00:47):
It's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited to tell
you the story, the ups anddowns, and really just have some
Justine Reichman: (00:54):
I'm with you because I think every story is
fun.
so unique, and each founder hashad a different journey, both in
the way they get there. Whatthey do when they are there, and
then sort of the pivot and thedifferent challenges that come
up that needs to be taken. And Ithink it's important to share
those things, because it's thethings that are challenging, the
(01:15):
failures that we make thatenable us to be the founders and
innovators that we are today. Sofirst, just tell us a little bit
about yourself. Why mac andcheese? And why a better for you
mac and cheese?
Myles Powell: (01:29):
So it's funny when I first thought of this.
The intention was always justmake food. How food should be
made? And how I ate as a kid.And so for me growing up, the
dinner table was like the placeto be in the household, like the
best place. It's where all mymost fond memories had from
(01:50):
setting the table to the eating,to even just cleaning out by me.
All those small moments reallyhad an impact. And so as I got
older, I wanted to relive thosememories through the food that I
used to eat. And for us, comfortfood was like the best. It was
southern inspired collard greensand chicken, and sweet potatoes,
(02:13):
and mac and cheese was like abig part of that plate. But when
I got older, I would look atwhat was considered mac and
cheese in the market. I won'tname names, but there's certain
staples out there that I look atlike, that's not mac and cheese.
Justine Reichman: (02:28):
So that leads you to--
Myles Powell: (02:31):
When I first launched this company, we
Wow. So tell me a little bitabout this recipe. You don't
started out making barbecuesauce even before the mac and
cheese. It was fruit basedbarbecue sauce. It was very low
in sugar, clean label. Theintention was to inspire
creativity through the sauces,because I would use these sauce
pairings as a way to be verycreative with recipe creation
(02:53):
early 20s, just exploring thekitchen, exploring my own
palate. Just really having agood time. And the sauces were
launched on Etsy, and that wasall direct to consumer. We were
doing Farmers Market, wingingit. Didn't know what I was
doing. I was just shipping outbottles to people. And it got to
a point where we were gettinginto retail, but very, very low
(03:16):
key local retailers, and didn'tknow how to grow beyond that.
But then it got to a point whereI would go to Farmers Market's
and I'm like, no one's buyingbarbecue sauce at 9:00am on a
Tuesday. So I would sit therebored, and I would notice that
people would buy things thatthey get either right on site,
(03:36):
or go home and warm up. Andthat's when it clicked. And I
went, I should make food thatpeople can pair with my sauces,
And mac and cheese, I wouldbring to the market. I pair from
my buffalo sauce, and it was ahit. People are like, I need
this mac and cheese all thetime. And that's why I pivoted
to making the mac and cheese.
(03:59):
It's funny. I always tell folks,hey, this is not a healthy mac
and cheese because it's gotcheese, it's got butter. But
there are no ultra processedingredients. I approached this
(04:24):
as I would approach any recipein my kitchen. What ingredients
am I going to use that peoplecan read and understand nothing
that's got like five syllables?And that was how I dedicated
this company to make, hey,whatever we make, it's got to be
all natural. The consumer shouldbe able to read the label and
go, I know every single thing onhere, and they feel confident in
(04:44):
the purchase. And because ofthat, it's actually high in
protein, which is crazy. Wedidn't go out to this saying,
oh, we want to make a highprotein mac and cheese. No, we
just said, we want to make a macand cheese like we'd make it at
home. As a result, 24 grams ofprotein in a serving,
Justine Reichman: (05:04):
That's amazing. What an aha moment to
not even realize that that issomething, A, that people could
be looking for. People want thatkind of information so that they
can make a better choice. But Ithink it's interesting that you
were talking about that, thatit's healthy for you. But I do
want to acknowledge that it'sbetter for you than the
(05:26):
alternative, and so I thinkthat's important to focus on.
Myles Powell: (05:31):
And it's really about the quality, the
ingredients, and recognizableingredients, exactly that the
body understands. And I thinkwe've fallen victim over the
past few years to a lot of fooditems showcasing all of these
features, maybe like this fiberand this, which is great. The
(05:52):
problem is underneath all thefeatures that are a bunch of
foreign ingredients, and yourbody doesn't know how to handle
those. So we don't injectanything, we don't fortify
anything.
Justine Reichman: (06:08):
Let's go back for a minute because you said
that you were originally sellingon Etsy, and you transitioned
from Etsy to retail. What wasthat decision making process
like? What was the journey likefor that? And why?
Myles Powell: (06:25):
We always had an end goal of getting into retail.
But Etsy was at the time, thething I knew how to do, right? I
spent so much time, I havenightmares wrapping bottles of
barbecue sauce with bubble wrap,putting in the box and shipping
it out> And then hearing thatthe bottle broke and shipped in.
(06:46):
And we did that for years. Andso when I was gonna transition
to mac and cheese, I knewshipping frozen was gonna be
very hard and very expensive. Wetried various solutions, but
nothing was economicallypossible for the consumer. The
retail was always the end game,and I just didn't know how
(07:07):
complicated retail was. So onthe direct to consumer side,
you're battling against the costof advertisements. You're
battling against consumers beingnaturally scatterbrained online,
which means it's hard to grabyour attention and keep it. But
now, your challenges in retailare of massive scale. Because
(07:28):
now, you're dealing withdistribution relationships,
retailer relationships. And now,your consumer is so far removed
from you, it's hard tocommunicate. Where direct
consumer, I can do an ad, and Iknow if the person clicks on the
ad and goes to my page. If theycheck, I can see their journey.
But when I ship my product outto retail, it goes to like a
(07:50):
black hole, and I have no ideawho's walking down the aisle and
seeing the product, who'spicking it up. That transition
is probably one of the biggestchallenges that I continue to
face today.
Justine Reichman: (08:05):
Wow, I can imagine. There's always going to
be a challenge, whether you'reshipping it, and wrapping it,
and then there's broken glass.And if you're shipping it and
it's perishable, right? So whenyou move to from something that
was more shelf stable tosomething that was perishable,
what was that like?
Myles Powell: (08:27):
Very tough. Because now, it's getting more
expensive. Because now, you'redealing with ice packs and
insulated shippers. You'reputting your trust in the hands
of the shipping company evenmore, because you're selecting a
two day ship window. You'repaying for it. If there's a
delay, there's literally nothingyou can do about i. And now, the
(08:49):
customer is getting it, and theproduct is spoiled. Now, you're
reshipping it, you're trying toget a refund. It creates just a
whole mess. And because it's somore expensive and the consumer
has to pay more now, you have tojustify the higher price point,
which means you have to build abigger, bigger brand awareness.
Justine Reichman: (09:06):
So talk to me, what was it like when you
started this company? Let's goback to the beginning. I know
it's personal for you. I know itwas based on family and what you
created. And I often talk aboutcultural competency and the role
that culture plays in food,because there are a lot of foods
that traditionally people haveeaten over years. They make them
(09:28):
feel nostalgic, but they're notnecessarily healthy, and so
people have tried to adjustthem. Make a creative 2.0
version, so that it's better foryou in this day and age. And
with people's intolerances andallergies all sorts of things,
they're being a bit more mindfulto that, and just being healthy.
(09:50):
This is sort of the root ofwhere you came from? I think
it's important, because wealways want to improve what
we're doing, and we always wantto create better solutions and
make it more accessible tofolks. And I think there's so
many different kinds of foodsthat, traditionally, have not
(10:11):
been so healthy. Maybe they'renot going to be perfect, but
they're going to be the betterchoice. You have yours or one
that's with saturated things andall sorts of things, right? I
was trying to go away fromsaying the name, so all of a
sudden, I was going to nameingredients. That just seemed
like a bad idea, because I don'thave box in front of me. But you
get my point. My point is thatyou just want to make an
(10:33):
informed choice.
Myles Powell: (10:35):
Yep. You want to be confident about that choice.
And a lot of times, it'semotional. I'm an emotional
eater, and so I want to makesure that whatever I'm putting
out into the world fits from anutritional standpoint, but also
fits from a emotionalstandpoint. Something that's
reliable, and something thatyour soul can feel good about
eating. We always say that ourmac and cheese is like a break
(10:57):
from the chaos. Things are crazyin your life, we just need a
break. You don't have to go offthe deep end and eat, name the
food, a bowl of some boxed X, Y,Z. I grew up on Frosted Flakes,
and there have been times whereI was in a mood, and I would eat
(11:17):
three bowls of Frosted Flakes.And I'm like, oh, my God. What
have I done? I want to eliminatethat.
Justine Reichman: (11:22):
I think that that's really inspirational,
too. And I think it's achievablewhen we think about it as a
better option, when we're nottrying to create something
that's going to be completelydifferent. Because then, I think
it just needs a new category. Ifit's not actually mac and
(11:44):
cheese, then we just createsomething else. But
understanding the mac and cheeselandscape, it's a bit of a
crowded space. I'm wondering whyyou chose that space versus
others?
Myles Powell: (11:55):
So the one thing about me is that I tend to leap
before I look a lot. So when Ilaunched the mac and cheese
business, or the side of thebrand, I didn't really fully
consider all the players andwhere they sit. And you can
break them down into threecategories. You've got your
frozen brand, like your stoversof the world. They've been
(12:15):
around for almost a century atthis point. You've got your
shelf stable category. So you'vegot your Kraft mac and cheese,
you got newcomers like Goodleswho really shook things up,
shout out to them. And thenyou've got the nameless brands
that you can get in therefrigerator section at your
grocery store. Funny thing isthat those are three different
(12:36):
shoppers. And before I even gotin the space, I just decided
that I want to go frozen becauseI want the convenience. I knew I
couldn't get the convenience Ineeded from refrigerated,
because I also know that thatthing's been sitting there for a
week, and probably the qualityis degrading over time. It's not
going to taste how it should.Definitely not in the box
(12:58):
section, because I'm like,powdered cheese is not real
cheese. I can't go that route,so I went frozen. And then when
I got into frozen, I realizedhow complicated and crowded it
is. It made me really thinkthrough, how do I carve out my
own lane in that category? Andso, hey, it's a continued
challenge. So one of the thingsis leaning really heavy onto
(13:23):
what we stand for, and notnecessarily just the product
itself.
Justine Reichman: (13:27):
So you're saying product face is a direct
correlation to your values?
Myles Powell: (13:32):
Exactly. And people now buy brands more than
products. The people buyproducts for the brand itself.
And so for us, we're like, howdo we communicate what we stand
for to someone that's in frozen?And the challenge is, how do you
communicate that to them beforethey walk down the aisle? We're
(13:53):
also trying to adjust whatfrozen has been telling us for
years. Look at the veggiesection. Veggies came in, and
they did a really great job ofeducating consumers to say,
flash frozen veggies are reallyhealthy for you. And even more
healthy than the actual veggieaisle. So now it's like, how do
(14:14):
we tell consumers that frozenmeals can be just home cooked
meals that are frozen?
Justine Reichman: (14:20):
And I think you also tapped on something as
I was listening to you, andyou're like, you know your
ethos, your values on whatyou're building, what you're
putting into your food, howyou're treating your employees,
the kind of culture you create.I think that all goes into your
ethos. And I think people dowant to support a brand that
(14:44):
just doing it in a way that isholistic. And I don't mean that
word in that holistic way. Butin the way that you're thinking
about it from the minute youcome into the office, wherever
you work with your colleagues,and how you're interacting, how
they're being compensated, andhow you're paying for them and
the ingredients that you'reputting in there. So what you're
(15:07):
saying is that, understandingwho you are helps you better
understand what you're going toproduce versus, here's a brand,
and it's a gluten free brand,but it doesn't tell us anything
about the ethos of the family,or the person, or the business
that runs this. So all we knowis it says it's gluten free, but
we don't know who they arebehind it, and what their ethos
(15:30):
is, and what's important to themthat they're going to
prioritize.
Myles Powell: (15:33):
Exactly. Now, we leave of Gen being genuine,
being transparent. We're smallfish in a big pond. This sector
is run by conglomerates. Andconglomerates spit out products
left and right. So we say, okay,then we need to stand on
something that's true. We're notjust a product factory. We're
(15:55):
much more than that.
Justine Reichman: (15:58):
I know that you're a small company,
obviously, as you just said.Tell me about your team.
Myles Powell: (16:04):
So funny enough, I'm currently a solo founder,
run operation with fractionaland contractors that work on our
behalf. So for instance, we'vegot a manufacturing partner up
in New York. We've got anaccounting team. We've got
pieces that are not solelydedicated to us, because we are
(16:24):
so small, and we're still tryingto make our way through the
market. We don't want to be in asituation we're we overstaff
early, and then we put ourselvesin a pretty critical spot.
Justine Reichman: (16:35):
So I think that's like a really smart thing
to do from looking at this as afellow entrepreneur, having
employees comes with moreresponsibilities. And being able
to have contractors, you're ableto be a little bit more scrappy,
and then become strategic aboutit as you grow. And you can have
these people less hours. You canmaybe have better people more, I
(16:59):
don't want to say better, I wantto say more experienced people
or less experienced people,depending on what the need is
and the project, so it allowsyou to be able to get to the
next step in a smart and scrappyway. And then as you grow, you
can become more strategic aboutthat, and figure out how you
want to expand. But the idea ofbringing on such a large team,
(17:23):
both whether it's responsibilityor it's cost, it's all those
things that can be overwhelmingand even a little intimidating
and unnecessary. I didn't evenask, but are you self funded? Or
did you go raise money?
Myles Powell: (17:39):
Both. We started out self funded prior to even
knowing what raising moneymeant, because raising money is
a whole full time gig on itsown. We were very naive early
on. The initial plan was, we'rejust gonna build this thing,
we're gonna bring in cash, andwe'll just use the cash we bring
into the state operations.That's far from the case in this
(18:03):
industry. So we ended up raisingsome money over the past three
and a half years. Now, we raisedabout 1.5 million in funding,
and we continue to grow becauseyou're dealing with the economic
environment, even the politicalclimate, all these things impact
the fundraising cycle. We'realways fundraising like it never
(18:24):
ends because you're alwayslooking to continue to grow.
Unknown (18:27):
What was your experience prior to this? Or the
skill sets that you had thatallowed you to be able to go
fundraise? That is anintimidating endeavor. And
oftentimes, very much out of ourskill set. In some ways, some
people are better at presenting,some people are better at
talking. Some people are betterat being behind everything. So
(18:48):
where were you in this? And howdid you get yourself ready to be
able to go forth and raisemoney?
Myles Powell: (18:57):
I learned once, like everything else, the hard
way. So the first six months toa year, I learned how to build a
pitch deck from those no's andhow to present better. I will
say, though that I'm an engineerby trade. I struggled in college
all four years in engineeringschool, and that taught me
(19:18):
resilience. So once I graduate,I had this strong backbone of
how to handle bad news. So whenI began fundraising, the common
thing is you'll get 99 no's andone yes. So the resilience
helped me continue pushing,continue pushing, improving the
debt. And sometimes, it's notyou, it's a no, it's just the
(19:39):
timing's a no. So with that,practice also became
understanding what investors arelooking for, what you need to
emphasize. It just took time.But eventually, I began to feel
like I'm an expert at pitching.But it wasn't overnight. And
even when I had a perfect pitchdeck and the perfect pitch, I
(20:02):
still get a NO. And so you haveto learn that the NO's are going
to come, but all you need is onegood YES.
Justine Reichman: (20:10):
True. It's not a but, it's an end with all
that frustration, or challenge,or experience, and learning that
you do in that. To our listenersand our viewers that are tuning
in to hear this from you,somebody that's gone through
this and had some no's and someyes, and just gone through the
(20:34):
whole experience, can you givethem three tips so maybe they
won't hit some of the challengesthat you hit, or things to lean
into?
Myles Powell: (20:42):
Yes. So my number one tip, it's a question mark as
well. In this industry, you haveto understand in the beginning
that no one's going to careabout your product. I know that
sounds harsh. But in the grandscheme, I think that no one's
going to care. So you have todetermine, what is it about this
(21:06):
brand? Or whatever the casemight be, that someone's going
to fall in love with it, andthey're going to need it. All
the big food brands havedeveloped a need where the
consumer is putting you on theirshopping list every week for
whatever reason. So you can'tlean on taste, because taste is
subjective. It's got to besomething bigger than that. So
(21:28):
thinking about branding, it'scritical early on to figure that
early. Number two, discover yourWHY. Because the industry is so
tough. Really think through whyyou're doing this in the first
place, because that's what'sgoing to keep you going when you
get the rejection, and you getthe bad news and things like
that. And then the third one,which is something I'm still
(21:50):
working on, is find time formental space.
Justine Reichman: (21:54):
Oh, my god, definitely.
Myles Powell: (21:56):
So horrible, so hard. I still struggle with
that. But I know when I do focuson it, I feel like I'm more
mentally clear, as opposed togo, go, go, go, go, and then you
burn out by Wednesday. Sowhatever it is, carve out some
time just for mental space.
Justine Reichman: (22:15):
I think those are great tips. So the other
thing I was curious about, whenyou started this and you started
looking for money, did you lookfor any loans, grants or
anything like that? What wasthat journey like? And what
would you recommend to peoplefor them to think about if
(22:37):
they're going after any grantsor loans?
Myles Powell: (22:41):
So crowdfunding is good because it actually
helps you with brand awareness.Because you're putting your
brand out there, you actuallylearn about your own brand
through crowdfunding becauseyou're forced to put it on
display. But crowdfunding likeeverything else takes a lot of
marketing or a great network.And if you are starting a
(23:05):
campaign, it's important to knowwho in your immediate network
can be an early contributor.We've done two smaller
campaigns. We hit our goal, butit wasn't what we wanted. We
also launched a third one. Itdidn't go well because we didn't
have a strong network at thetime to bring in some
(23:27):
significant capital through thiskind of campaign. That's an
option. It's for smaller dollarsfor a lot of food brands, but it
is an option. Business loans arereally tough. If you're not
profitable, banks will typicallygoing to say, and at least in
food, nope. Right now, if you'rea woman owned brand, especially
(23:47):
a woman of color, there is grantmoney out there for you. And I
suggest going after it hard,because a lot of it gets unused.
So you just need to eitherbecome really good at grant
writing or hire someone to helpyou because that's a whole
nother game. And then angelinvestors are probably your best
at early on, because angelinvestors are going to invest
(24:08):
more emotionally. They're goingto invest in the company, but
they're going to invest in youas a person too. If you've got a
great idea, but they see you asthe founder to build that they
going to believe in you, thenyou'll be able to invest money
that way. So those are all theearly stage options. Of course,
you can self fund as much as youcan, which we did. But that's
kind of what's at your disposalearly on.
Justine Reichman: (24:29):
Wow. I think those are great recommendations.
And I think as a woman, I'vealso looked into some of those
things just for informationalpurposes at times, to better
understand the landscape ofthat. And whether that you are
from one of the minorities,whether you're LGBTQ, whether
you're black owned, whetheryou're female founded, there's
(24:54):
so many different things that Ithink people need to explore.
And not overlook, and thingsthat we don't even think about,
right? it could be a void inthe space that all of a sudden,
they're looking to fund becausethey need research on it, or
they need information. So Ithink people need to dig deep.
Myles Powell: (25:15):
Yeah, I agree. It's a lot of research, don't
get me wrong. There's a lot ofinformation out there, and so I
dedicate a few hours per week tojust finding opportunities.
Justine Reichman: (25:27):
So tell me, as you're evolving here, and now
you're no longer doing thedirect to consumer, tell us a
little bit about where you aretoday, and where you hope to be
in the next few years.
Myles Powell: (25:41):
So right now, we're over 500 retail locations
across the country. Whole Foodsis our biggest customer right
now. We want to continue togrow. That's for sure. We also
want to place our product inother places of consumption. So
that would be your hospitals,your school system, your
(26:02):
airports, your hotels. We wantto really expand clean label
food outside of retail. Andquite frankly, I've got the DTC
bug. I still want to figure outhow to do direct to consumer
with the frozen product. Part ofit comes later when we have a
better brand awareness andpeople are looking for us
online. But part of us like, howcan we turn that into more of an
(26:23):
experience? Where someone's notjust getting a five pack mac and
cheese. What else can we buildinto that where they're excited
about the delivery? Maybe it'slike a wine pairing, or dessert
pairing, or something like that.So that's constantly in the back
of my mind, and something thatwe want to do in the near
future.
Justine Reichman: (26:40):
And can we expect to see some other
products and SKUs?
Myles Powell: (26:45):
Yes. So the next one that's gonna come out, which
we're still really early on withis shrimp and grits. That one's
a bit more complicated becauseit's grits. And grits are a
little more finicky. But you cando this. I think it'll be a hit.
Justine Reichman: (27:04):
I'm a big fan of grits. I grew up going to
camp in North Carolina, so wehad a lot of grits there. I love
them. If folks wanted to learnmore about you, what's the best
way?
Myles Powell: (27:14):
So I'm super active on LinkedIn, full name,
Myles Powell. But also, we'refully active on Instagram and
Tiktok at Myles Comfort Foods.
Justine Reichman: (27:24):
Myles, thank you so much. I want to thank our
listeners and our viewers todayfor tuning in. Our family
continues to grow, more friends,more community, and it's just so
wonderful to see, and it'sthanks to our guests, like Myles
and those folks that are tuningin to learn more make more
informed choices. So if you arelistening to us on a podcast,
(27:47):
don't forget that we can also beviewed on our YouTube channel at
Essential Ingredients. And ifyou want follow us on Instagram,
at essential.ingredients. Wewant to hear from you. We want
to hear what you liked, whatquestions you have, whether it's
for Myles, or for me, so wecontinue the conversation. Thank
you, Myles.
Myles Powell: (28:05):
Of course, it's been a pleasure.
Myles is here for Comfort Foods. And while
this product, I believe, used tobe direct to consumer, now it is
not available direct toconsumer, and you've changed the
format of it. You've moved awayfrom Etsy, and you've changed
the whole structure. I'm excitedto learn more about what you
guys are doing, and share withour loyal listeners what Comfort
(00:40):
Foods is, for those that are notfamiliar with it. It's mac and
cheese. So Myles, welcome.
Myles Powell: (00:47):
It's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited to tell
you the story, the ups anddowns, and really just have some
Justine Reichman: (00:54):
I'm with you because I think every story is
fun.
so unique, and each founder hashad a different journey, both in
the way they get there. Whatthey do when they are there, and
then sort of the pivot and thedifferent challenges that come
up that needs to be taken. And Ithink it's important to share
those things, because it's thethings that are challenging, the
(01:15):
failures that we make thatenable us to be the founders and
innovators that we are today. Sofirst, just tell us a little bit
about yourself. Why mac andcheese? And why a better for you
mac and cheese?
Myles Powell: (01:29):
So it's funny when I first thought of this.
The intention was always justmake food. How food should be
made? And how I ate as a kid.And so for me growing up, the
dinner table was like the placeto be in the household, like the
best place. It's where all mymost fond memories had from
(01:50):
setting the table to the eating,to even just cleaning out by me.
All those small moments reallyhad an impact. And so as I got
older, I wanted to relive thosememories through the food that I
used to eat. And for us, comfortfood was like the best. It was
southern inspired collard greensand chicken, and sweet potatoes,
(02:13):
and mac and cheese was like abig part of that plate. But when
I got older, I would look atwhat was considered mac and
cheese in the market. I won'tname names, but there's certain
staples out there that I look atlike, that's not mac and cheese.
Justine Reichman: (02:28):
So that leads you to--
Myles Powell: (02:31):
When I first launched this company, we
Wow. So tell me a little bitabout this recipe. You don't
started out making barbecuesauce even before the mac and
cheese. It was fruit basedbarbecue sauce. It was very low
in sugar, clean label. Theintention was to inspire
creativity through the sauces,because I would use these sauce
pairings as a way to be verycreative with recipe creation
(02:53):
early 20s, just exploring thekitchen, exploring my own
palate. Just really having agood time. And the sauces were
launched on Etsy, and that wasall direct to consumer. We were
doing Farmers Market, wingingit. Didn't know what I was
doing. I was just shipping outbottles to people. And it got to
a point where we were gettinginto retail, but very, very low
(03:16):
key local retailers, and didn'tknow how to grow beyond that.
But then it got to a point whereI would go to Farmers Market's
and I'm like, no one's buyingbarbecue sauce at 9:00am on a
Tuesday. So I would sit therebored, and I would notice that
people would buy things thatthey get either right on site,
(03:36):
or go home and warm up. Andthat's when it clicked. And I
went, I should make food thatpeople can pair with my sauces,
And mac and cheese, I wouldbring to the market. I pair from
my buffalo sauce, and it was ahit. People are like, I need
this mac and cheese all thetime. And that's why I pivoted
to making the mac and cheese.
(03:59):
It's funny. I always tell folks,hey, this is not a healthy mac
and cheese because it's gotcheese, it's got butter. But
there are no ultra processedingredients. I approached this
(04:24):
as I would approach any recipein my kitchen. What ingredients
am I going to use that peoplecan read and understand nothing
that's got like five syllables?And that was how I dedicated
this company to make, hey,whatever we make, it's got to be
all natural. The consumer shouldbe able to read the label and
go, I know every single thing onhere, and they feel confident in
(04:44):
the purchase. And because ofthat, it's actually high in
protein, which is crazy. Wedidn't go out to this saying,
oh, we want to make a highprotein mac and cheese. No, we
just said, we want to make a macand cheese like we'd make it at
home. As a result, 24 grams ofprotein in a serving,
Justine Reichman: (05:04):
That's amazing. What an aha moment to
not even realize that that issomething, A, that people could
be looking for. People want thatkind of information so that they
can make a better choice. But Ithink it's interesting that you
were talking about that, thatit's healthy for you. But I do
want to acknowledge that it'sbetter for you than the
(05:26):
alternative, and so I thinkthat's important to focus on.
Myles Powell: (05:31):
And it's really about the quality, the
ingredients, and recognizableingredients, exactly that the
body understands. And I thinkwe've fallen victim over the
past few years to a lot of fooditems showcasing all of these
features, maybe like this fiberand this, which is great. The
(05:52):
problem is underneath all thefeatures that are a bunch of
foreign ingredients, and yourbody doesn't know how to handle
those. So we don't injectanything, we don't fortify
anything.
Justine Reichman: (06:08):
Let's go back for a minute because you said
that you were originally sellingon Etsy, and you transitioned
from Etsy to retail. What wasthat decision making process
like? What was the journey likefor that? And why?
Myles Powell: (06:25):
We always had an end goal of getting into retail.
But Etsy was at the time, thething I knew how to do, right? I
spent so much time, I havenightmares wrapping bottles of
barbecue sauce with bubble wrap,putting in the box and shipping
it out> And then hearing thatthe bottle broke and shipped in.
(06:46):
And we did that for years. Andso when I was gonna transition
to mac and cheese, I knewshipping frozen was gonna be
very hard and very expensive. Wetried various solutions, but
nothing was economicallypossible for the consumer. The
retail was always the end game,and I just didn't know how
(07:07):
complicated retail was. So onthe direct to consumer side,
you're battling against the costof advertisements. You're
battling against consumers beingnaturally scatterbrained online,
which means it's hard to grabyour attention and keep it. But
now, your challenges in retailare of massive scale. Because
(07:28):
now, you're dealing withdistribution relationships,
retailer relationships. And now,your consumer is so far removed
from you, it's hard tocommunicate. Where direct
consumer, I can do an ad, and Iknow if the person clicks on the
ad and goes to my page. If theycheck, I can see their journey.
But when I ship my product outto retail, it goes to like a
(07:50):
black hole, and I have no ideawho's walking down the aisle and
seeing the product, who'spicking it up. That transition
is probably one of the biggestchallenges that I continue to
face today.
Justine Reichman: (08:05):
Wow, I can imagine. There's always going to
be a challenge, whether you'reshipping it, and wrapping it,
and then there's broken glass.And if you're shipping it and
it's perishable, right? So whenyou move to from something that
was more shelf stable tosomething that was perishable,
what was that like?
Myles Powell: (08:27):
Very tough. Because now, it's getting more
expensive. Because now, you'redealing with ice packs and
insulated shippers. You'reputting your trust in the hands
of the shipping company evenmore, because you're selecting a
two day ship window. You'repaying for it. If there's a
delay, there's literally nothingyou can do about i. And now, the
(08:49):
customer is getting it, and theproduct is spoiled. Now, you're
reshipping it, you're trying toget a refund. It creates just a
whole mess. And because it's somore expensive and the consumer
has to pay more now, you have tojustify the higher price point,
which means you have to build abigger, bigger brand awareness.
Justine Reichman: (09:06):
So talk to me, what was it like when you
started this company? Let's goback to the beginning. I know
it's personal for you. I know itwas based on family and what you
created. And I often talk aboutcultural competency and the role
that culture plays in food,because there are a lot of foods
that traditionally people haveeaten over years. They make them
(09:28):
feel nostalgic, but they're notnecessarily healthy, and so
people have tried to adjustthem. Make a creative 2.0
version, so that it's better foryou in this day and age. And
with people's intolerances andallergies all sorts of things,
they're being a bit more mindfulto that, and just being healthy.
(09:50):
This is sort of the root ofwhere you came from? I think
it's important, because wealways want to improve what
we're doing, and we always wantto create better solutions and
make it more accessible tofolks. And I think there's so
many different kinds of foodsthat, traditionally, have not
(10:11):
been so healthy. Maybe they'renot going to be perfect, but
they're going to be the betterchoice. You have yours or one
that's with saturated things andall sorts of things, right? I
was trying to go away fromsaying the name, so all of a
sudden, I was going to nameingredients. That just seemed
like a bad idea, because I don'thave box in front of me. But you
get my point. My point is thatyou just want to make an
(10:33):
informed choice.
Myles Powell: (10:35):
Yep. You want to be confident about that choice.
And a lot of times, it'semotional. I'm an emotional
eater, and so I want to makesure that whatever I'm putting
out into the world fits from anutritional standpoint, but also
fits from a emotionalstandpoint. Something that's
reliable, and something thatyour soul can feel good about
eating. We always say that ourmac and cheese is like a break
(10:57):
from the chaos. Things are crazyin your life, we just need a
break. You don't have to go offthe deep end and eat, name the
food, a bowl of some boxed X, Y,Z. I grew up on Frosted Flakes,
and there have been times whereI was in a mood, and I would eat
(11:17):
three bowls of Frosted Flakes.And I'm like, oh, my God. What
have I done? I want to eliminatethat.
Justine Reichman: (11:22):
I think that that's really inspirational,
too. And I think it's achievablewhen we think about it as a
better option, when we're nottrying to create something
that's going to be completelydifferent. Because then, I think
it just needs a new category. Ifit's not actually mac and
(11:44):
cheese, then we just createsomething else. But
understanding the mac and cheeselandscape, it's a bit of a
crowded space. I'm wondering whyyou chose that space versus
others?
Myles Powell: (11:55):
So the one thing about me is that I tend to leap
before I look a lot. So when Ilaunched the mac and cheese
business, or the side of thebrand, I didn't really fully
consider all the players andwhere they sit. And you can
break them down into threecategories. You've got your
frozen brand, like your stoversof the world. They've been
(12:15):
around for almost a century atthis point. You've got your
shelf stable category. So you'vegot your Kraft mac and cheese,
you got newcomers like Goodleswho really shook things up,
shout out to them. And thenyou've got the nameless brands
that you can get in therefrigerator section at your
grocery store. Funny thing isthat those are three different
(12:36):
shoppers. And before I even gotin the space, I just decided
that I want to go frozen becauseI want the convenience. I knew I
couldn't get the convenience Ineeded from refrigerated,
because I also know that thatthing's been sitting there for a
week, and probably the qualityis degrading over time. It's not
going to taste how it should.Definitely not in the box
(12:58):
section, because I'm like,powdered cheese is not real
cheese. I can't go that route,so I went frozen. And then when
I got into frozen, I realizedhow complicated and crowded it
is. It made me really thinkthrough, how do I carve out my
own lane in that category? Andso, hey, it's a continued
challenge. So one of the thingsis leaning really heavy onto
(13:23):
what we stand for, and notnecessarily just the product
itself.
Justine Reichman: (13:27):
So you're saying product face is a direct
correlation to your values?
Myles Powell: (13:32):
Exactly. And people now buy brands more than
products. The people buyproducts for the brand itself.
And so for us, we're like, howdo we communicate what we stand
for to someone that's in frozen?And the challenge is, how do you
communicate that to them beforethey walk down the aisle? We're
(13:53):
also trying to adjust whatfrozen has been telling us for
years. Look at the veggiesection. Veggies came in, and
they did a really great job ofeducating consumers to say,
flash frozen veggies are reallyhealthy for you. And even more
healthy than the actual veggieaisle. So now it's like, how do
(14:14):
we tell consumers that frozenmeals can be just home cooked
meals that are frozen?
Justine Reichman: (14:20):
And I think you also tapped on something as
I was listening to you, andyou're like, you know your
ethos, your values on whatyou're building, what you're
putting into your food, howyou're treating your employees,
the kind of culture you create.I think that all goes into your
ethos. And I think people dowant to support a brand that
(14:44):
just doing it in a way that isholistic. And I don't mean that
word in that holistic way. Butin the way that you're thinking
about it from the minute youcome into the office, wherever
you work with your colleagues,and how you're interacting, how
they're being compensated, andhow you're paying for them and
the ingredients that you'reputting in there. So what you're
(15:07):
saying is that, understandingwho you are helps you better
understand what you're going toproduce versus, here's a brand,
and it's a gluten free brand,but it doesn't tell us anything
about the ethos of the family,or the person, or the business
that runs this. So all we knowis it says it's gluten free, but
we don't know who they arebehind it, and what their ethos
(15:30):
is, and what's important to themthat they're going to
prioritize.
Myles Powell: (15:33):
Exactly. Now, we leave of Gen being genuine,
being transparent. We're smallfish in a big pond. This sector
is run by conglomerates. Andconglomerates spit out products
left and right. So we say, okay,then we need to stand on
something that's true. We're notjust a product factory. We're
(15:55):
much more than that.
Justine Reichman: (15:58):
I know that you're a small company,
obviously, as you just said.Tell me about your team.
Myles Powell: (16:04):
So funny enough, I'm currently a solo founder,
run operation with fractionaland contractors that work on our
behalf. So for instance, we'vegot a manufacturing partner up
in New York. We've got anaccounting team. We've got
pieces that are not solelydedicated to us, because we are
(16:24):
so small, and we're still tryingto make our way through the
market. We don't want to be in asituation we're we overstaff
early, and then we put ourselvesin a pretty critical spot.
Justine Reichman: (16:35):
So I think that's like a really smart thing
to do from looking at this as afellow entrepreneur, having
employees comes with moreresponsibilities. And being able
to have contractors, you're ableto be a little bit more scrappy,
and then become strategic aboutit as you grow. And you can have
these people less hours. You canmaybe have better people more, I
(16:59):
don't want to say better, I wantto say more experienced people
or less experienced people,depending on what the need is
and the project, so it allowsyou to be able to get to the
next step in a smart and scrappyway. And then as you grow, you
can become more strategic aboutthat, and figure out how you
want to expand. But the idea ofbringing on such a large team,
(17:23):
both whether it's responsibilityor it's cost, it's all those
things that can be overwhelmingand even a little intimidating
and unnecessary. I didn't evenask, but are you self funded? Or
did you go raise money?
Myles Powell: (17:39):
Both. We started out self funded prior to even
knowing what raising moneymeant, because raising money is
a whole full time gig on itsown. We were very naive early
on. The initial plan was, we'rejust gonna build this thing,
we're gonna bring in cash, andwe'll just use the cash we bring
into the state operations.That's far from the case in this
(18:03):
industry. So we ended up raisingsome money over the past three
and a half years. Now, we raisedabout 1.5 million in funding,
and we continue to grow becauseyou're dealing with the economic
environment, even the politicalclimate, all these things impact
the fundraising cycle. We'realways fundraising like it never
(18:24):
ends because you're alwayslooking to continue to grow.
Unknown (18:27):
What was your experience prior to this? Or the
skill sets that you had thatallowed you to be able to go
fundraise? That is anintimidating endeavor. And
oftentimes, very much out of ourskill set. In some ways, some
people are better at presenting,some people are better at
talking. Some people are betterat being behind everything. So
(18:48):
where were you in this? And howdid you get yourself ready to be
able to go forth and raisemoney?
Myles Powell: (18:57):
I learned once, like everything else, the hard
way. So the first six months toa year, I learned how to build a
pitch deck from those no's andhow to present better. I will
say, though that I'm an engineerby trade. I struggled in college
all four years in engineeringschool, and that taught me
(19:18):
resilience. So once I graduate,I had this strong backbone of
how to handle bad news. So whenI began fundraising, the common
thing is you'll get 99 no's andone yes. So the resilience
helped me continue pushing,continue pushing, improving the
debt. And sometimes, it's notyou, it's a no, it's just the
(19:39):
timing's a no. So with that,practice also became
understanding what investors arelooking for, what you need to
emphasize. It just took time.But eventually, I began to feel
like I'm an expert at pitching.But it wasn't overnight. And
even when I had a perfect pitchdeck and the perfect pitch, I
(20:02):
still get a NO. And so you haveto learn that the NO's are going
to come, but all you need is onegood YES.
Justine Reichman: (20:10):
True. It's not a but, it's an end with all
that frustration, or challenge,or experience, and learning that
you do in that. To our listenersand our viewers that are tuning
in to hear this from you,somebody that's gone through
this and had some no's and someyes, and just gone through the
(20:34):
whole experience, can you givethem three tips so maybe they
won't hit some of the challengesthat you hit, or things to lean
into?
Myles Powell: (20:42):
Yes. So my number one tip, it's a question mark as
well. In this industry, you haveto understand in the beginning
that no one's going to careabout your product. I know that
sounds harsh. But in the grandscheme, I think that no one's
going to care. So you have todetermine, what is it about this
(21:06):
brand? Or whatever the casemight be, that someone's going
to fall in love with it, andthey're going to need it. All
the big food brands havedeveloped a need where the
consumer is putting you on theirshopping list every week for
whatever reason. So you can'tlean on taste, because taste is
subjective. It's got to besomething bigger than that. So
(21:28):
thinking about branding, it'scritical early on to figure that
early. Number two, discover yourWHY. Because the industry is so
tough. Really think through whyyou're doing this in the first
place, because that's what'sgoing to keep you going when you
get the rejection, and you getthe bad news and things like
that. And then the third one,which is something I'm still
(21:50):
working on, is find time formental space.
Justine Reichman: (21:54):
Oh, my god, definitely.
Myles Powell: (21:56):
So horrible, so hard. I still struggle with
that. But I know when I do focuson it, I feel like I'm more
mentally clear, as opposed togo, go, go, go, go, and then you
burn out by Wednesday. Sowhatever it is, carve out some
time just for mental space.
Justine Reichman: (22:15):
I think those are great tips. So the other
thing I was curious about, whenyou started this and you started
looking for money, did you lookfor any loans, grants or
anything like that? What wasthat journey like? And what
would you recommend to peoplefor them to think about if
(22:37):
they're going after any grantsor loans?
Myles Powell: (22:41):
So crowdfunding is good because it actually
helps you with brand awareness.Because you're putting your
brand out there, you actuallylearn about your own brand
through crowdfunding becauseyou're forced to put it on
display. But crowdfunding likeeverything else takes a lot of
marketing or a great network.And if you are starting a
(23:05):
campaign, it's important to knowwho in your immediate network
can be an early contributor.We've done two smaller
campaigns. We hit our goal, butit wasn't what we wanted. We
also launched a third one. Itdidn't go well because we didn't
have a strong network at thetime to bring in some
(23:27):
significant capital through thiskind of campaign. That's an
option. It's for smaller dollarsfor a lot of food brands, but it
is an option. Business loans arereally tough. If you're not
profitable, banks will typicallygoing to say, and at least in
food, nope. Right now, if you'rea woman owned brand, especially
(23:47):
a woman of color, there is grantmoney out there for you. And I
suggest going after it hard,because a lot of it gets unused.
So you just need to eitherbecome really good at grant
writing or hire someone to helpyou because that's a whole
nother game. And then angelinvestors are probably your best
at early on, because angelinvestors are going to invest
(24:08):
more emotionally. They're goingto invest in the company, but
they're going to invest in youas a person too. If you've got a
great idea, but they see you asthe founder to build that they
going to believe in you, thenyou'll be able to invest money
that way. So those are all theearly stage options. Of course,
you can self fund as much as youcan, which we did. But that's
kind of what's at your disposalearly on.
Justine Reichman: (24:29):
Wow. I think those are great recommendations.
And I think as a woman, I'vealso looked into some of those
things just for informationalpurposes at times, to better
understand the landscape ofthat. And whether that you are
from one of the minorities,whether you're LGBTQ, whether
you're black owned, whetheryou're female founded, there's
(24:54):
so many different things that Ithink people need to explore.
And not overlook, and thingsthat we don't even think about,
right? it could be a void inthe space that all of a sudden,
they're looking to fund becausethey need research on it, or
they need information. So Ithink people need to dig deep.
Myles Powell: (25:15):
Yeah, I agree. It's a lot of research, don't
get me wrong. There's a lot ofinformation out there, and so I
dedicate a few hours per week tojust finding opportunities.
Justine Reichman: (25:27):
So tell me, as you're evolving here, and now
you're no longer doing thedirect to consumer, tell us a
little bit about where you aretoday, and where you hope to be
in the next few years.
Myles Powell: (25:41):
So right now, we're over 500 retail locations
across the country. Whole Foodsis our biggest customer right
now. We want to continue togrow. That's for sure. We also
want to place our product inother places of consumption. So
that would be your hospitals,your school system, your
(26:02):
airports, your hotels. We wantto really expand clean label
food outside of retail. Andquite frankly, I've got the DTC
bug. I still want to figure outhow to do direct to consumer
with the frozen product. Part ofit comes later when we have a
better brand awareness andpeople are looking for us
online. But part of us like, howcan we turn that into more of an
(26:23):
experience? Where someone's notjust getting a five pack mac and
cheese. What else can we buildinto that where they're excited
about the delivery? Maybe it'slike a wine pairing, or dessert
pairing, or something like that.So that's constantly in the back
of my mind, and something thatwe want to do in the near
future.
Justine Reichman: (26:40):
And can we expect to see some other
products and SKUs?
Myles Powell: (26:45):
Yes. So the next one that's gonna come out, which
we're still really early on withis shrimp and grits. That one's
a bit more complicated becauseit's grits. And grits are a
little more finicky. But you cando this. I think it'll be a hit.
Justine Reichman: (27:04):
I'm a big fan of grits. I grew up going to
camp in North Carolina, so wehad a lot of grits there. I love
them. If folks wanted to learnmore about you, what's the best
way?
Myles Powell: (27:14):
So I'm super active on LinkedIn, full name,
Myles Powell. But also, we'refully active on Instagram and
Tiktok at Myles Comfort Foods.
Justine Reichman: (27:24):
Myles, thank you so much. I want to thank our
listeners and our viewers todayfor tuning in. Our family
continues to grow, more friends,more community, and it's just so
wonderful to see, and it'sthanks to our guests, like Myles
and those folks that are tuningin to learn more make more
informed choices. So if you arelistening to us on a podcast,
(27:47):
don't forget that we can also beviewed on our YouTube channel at
Essential Ingredients. And ifyou want follow us on Instagram,
at essential.ingredients. Wewant to hear from you. We want
to hear what you liked, whatquestions you have, whether it's
for Myles, or for me, so wecontinue the conversation. Thank
you, Myles.
Myles Powell: (28:05):
Of course, it's been a pleasure.
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