Encore Presentation: Did you know that humans are hard-wired to crave calorie-dense foods at bedtime? This traces all the way back to prehistoric times. Currently, over 80% of Americans snack regularly at night, and every week, over 700 million nighttime snacks are consumed resulting in a weekly spend of over $1B. The most popular nighttime snack choices are known to be unhealthy and also disruptive to sleep quality: cookies, chips, and ice cream top the list.
Today’s guest is Sean Folkson, Founder and CEO of Nightfood. When Sean went online looking for healthier late-night snacks, he was disappointed to find zero options specifically made for better sleep. Knowing that most people are going to snack at night anyway, he founded Nightfood to deliver snacks formulated by sleep and nutrition experts to satisfy nighttime cravings in a better, healthier, more sleep-friendly way. Hotels across the United States are adding Nightfood sleep-friendly snacks for their guests, and Nightfood is now publicly traded as $NGTF.
I’ll speak with Sean about his journey from his initial product offering of bars, to the realization that people still want to eat cookies, chips, and ice cream at night, so why try to get them to switch to bars? Sean went on to create a variety of sleep-friendly ice cream flavors that are now becoming available in more and more hotel chain lobby stores, where the business of sleep is the main focus.
The “NexxtLevel Brands Podcast’ is hosted by G. Steven Cleere, Founder and “Chief Pot Stirrer” of NexxtLevel Brands. This show focuses on disruptors and thought-leaders from the Entrepreneurial Food, Beverage, and CPG Industry, but we also share tips from veterans and key suppliers that may help fellow CPG professionals achieve their goals.
Discussion Points
- Sean’s early years and late-night snacking and sleep disruption.
- Online searches found nothing for night snacking
- Did you work with certain industry research? Do an incubator?
- How funding tech startups is completely different than food and beverage startups
- The initial offering of Nightfood bars did not catch on
- Switching to ice cream brought tons of media coverage, hotel placement
- Late 2022 will see cookies and chips launch
- Expenses, loss of capital, wife’s wavering support
- Copackers and distribution
- Why Nightfood is a ‘better for you’ solution
- The captive hotel audience is perfect for Nightfood
- Did you model a plan? Do a one-sheet?
- The change in consumer behaviors due to pandemic
- Words to grow by: “Fall in love with the problem” and do all you can to understand that problem
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