Will Nitze

Founder, IQBAR (iqbar.com) 🍫+💧+☕️

🍫 Founder/CEO, IQBAR (iqbar.com)
🎙️ Co-Host, "Eating Glass" Podcast
🎓 Harvard BA

Founder/CEO

We make superior brain + body fuel. IQBAR® plant protein bars, IQMIX® hydration sticks, and IQJOE® instant coffees are packed with the functional compounds you need to win your day.

🚨 New product line launch 🚨

IQBAR PB&J Protein Bites are live today, only at Sam's Club!

High-protein, high-fiber, low-sugar, "poppable," and nostalgic. Coming in hot at the absurdly good value of $9.98 / 15-pack.

It took a full year to figure out how to manufacture and perfect these (shoutout to Matt Stinson). They may just be the best things we've ever made.

Major thanks to Alek Guzman and the Sam's team for making this happen 🚀

On the Costco [dot] com homepage for the first time ever.

Pretty rad.

🚨 EXPO TAKE-AWAYS from airplane text exchange with Daniel Puckett:

→ Taste is still king
→ Good design / packaging is now a commodity
→ Not much true “innovation” - very few surprises
→ The breakfast category is under-served; big oppy
→ This industry has great humans; more collegial than others
→ Nutritional “no man’s land” is a death sentence; pick a lane
→ Most big booths have been in the game a while; build to last
→ Booths are only as valuable as how engaging folks at them are
→ Meat sticks are now ultra-competitive; chicken's having a moment
→ Protein everywhere; less fiber / creatine / GLP-1 stuff than expected
→ More loyalty erosion (bad for Big CPG; good for upstarts / private label)
→ A.I. wasn’t mentioned much, but when it was the tone was positive (CPGs will get more efficient / profitable; none of the "doomerism" you see elsewhere)

💭 Solid add-ons from the comments section:

→ A shocking number of honey companies (h/t Drew Mabry)
→ In chips, tallow continues to steadily grow (h/t Jeremy White)
→ International flavors - esp LatAm - was big (h/t Andres Siman)
→ This year was mostly "back to the basics" (h/t Eric M.)
→ Energy / attitude / quality was higher than past years (h/t Andy Godish)

- - -

CRITICAL CAVEAT: true insight into brands is *entirely invisible* at at Expo cuz it's under the hood. Supply chain creativity, manufacturing excellence, cash management, media buying efficiency, SG&A streamlining, negotiation prowess, contracting strategy, etc. etc. etc.

If the "engine" isn't assembled and maintained right, trends don't matter.

Today I witnessed a non-negligible cohort of folks walk out of Natural Products Expo West and immediately light up a cig.

Humans are an interesting bunch.

Extremely niche Expo observation…

Lithuania goes hard in the paint.

Must’ve dropped a milly on 100 feet of booth space plus an army of people.

Never forget - you aren’t just competing with rival cookie / chip / bar startups.

You’re competing with entire Baltic states.

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I've made the difficult decision to age in reverse.

Compete with me if you'd like. But I wouldn't recommend it.

You know the clunky aspects of CPG you hate?

They're protecting you against AI.

Which means clunk is now a feature, not a bug.

Embrace it.

"Mainstream weird" is the best brand positioning.

If you're too mainstream, you'll get knocked-off into oblivion.

If you're too weird, you'll never achieve major scale.

Mainstream weird is juuusssttt right.

Optionality is the desired end state.

But FLEXIBILITY is how you get there.

Create maximally flexible products. And positioning. And teams.

Heck, ensure your OWN BRAIN is maximally flexible. (Can you learn new stuff quickly? Can you change your mind quickly in light of new data?)

In today's environment where the chess board is violently shaken up on an annual basis, the most flexible player adapts best.

And...over time...wins.

Mark A. Samuel

Founder and CEO at IWON Organics | Health and Wellness

I’m a dad. A health and fitness enthusiast. And I’ve spent the last 23 years building startups.

Today, I’m the founder of MARK’S, a seed oil-free snack brand that just launched a non-GMO kettle chip line. I also host Let’s Eat, a podcast for CPG founders—where every interview lives right here on LinkedIn.

Previously, I was the Founder & CEO of IWON Organics (since licensed).

What fuels me most: my kids, training hard, and living a balanced nutritional lifestyle. Professionally, it’s partnering with exceptional people to build companies that matter—teams committed to helping one another level up in business, health, and life.

Specialties: 
•	Creative Branding and New Product Innovation
•	Strategic Business, Market & Sales Planning
•	Business Development and Management
•	Operational Management
•	Strategic Partnerships and Joint Ventures

Founder and CEO

•    Lead all aspects of business development and management, from operations, to sales and marketing
•   IWON's snacks can be found in over 4,000 stores nationwide, including Sprouts, Whole Foods, Vitamin Shoppe, Safeway, Wegmans, and online at iwonorganics.com, Amazon and Thrive Market.

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Will Nitze

Mark A. Samuel

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The Battle

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