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.

Matt Cotton

After leading Foodservice sales for three brands and hiring more than 15 brokers, ranging from large national firms to regional and specialty groups, I realized the industry often lacked the fire, drive, and modern approach needed to truly move business forward.

In early 2020, I decided to build something different and Rooted Food Sales was born. A Foodservice brokerage representing premium, best-in-class brands. Our team is grounded in integrity, thoughtfulness, and tenacity, and I couldn’t imagine a more passionate group to grow with. Through my work, I have had the privilege of serving as a keynote speaker alongside some of the most influential leaders in the Foodservice industry.

Outside of Rooted, I’m driven by family and adventure. My wife and I spent a year traveling through Africa and India after getting married, and later I went back to school in my mid-20s to become a certified health coach. I’m a big fan of competitive racket sports, recently trading my tennis racket for a pickleball paddle.

Founder and CEO

Helping natural food brands grow their Foodservice business.

Welp. At age 44 I performed in my first talent show.

Put on by our regional homeschool group.

The kids did their own thing. My wife had the costumes and was all in, so we went for it.

A song from Hamilton.

Definitely outside my comfort zone, but we did it 😅 

The crowd loved it, fears (somewhat) conquered, and the kids got to see us try something uncomfortable and make it through. 

Good times..

Founder & CEO | Foodservice Keynote Speaker | Passion for Health | Racket Sports Enthusiast

Expo is primarily a retail show, but Foodservice is certainly sprinkled in.

A few years ago I partnered with the Expo team, alongside my friend Hannah Lopez, around a shared commitment to build momentum and awareness for Foodservice. 

Together we created a Foodservice roundtable workshop, and I had the privilege of hosting a panel featuring leaders from Sysco and Sodexo.

If you’re going to be at Expo and interested in diving into Foodservice, be prepared to talk shop (pack size, distribution, success stories) when those badges come your way.

Good luck and have fun!

Brands do not hire a broker for theater.
They hire a broker for progress and truth.

Most brands that come to Rooted show us activity reports from prior brokers that look full on paper, but light on substance and easy to poke holes through.

Fluffy activity does not equal traction.

We are not perfect, but we believe in honest reporting that reflects what is actually happening:

✅ The wins
✅ The stalls
✅ The pivots
✅ The uncomfortable conversations
✅ The actual story behind the numbers.

Sales is fluid. Reporting should be too.

It’s easy for Foodservice sales people to think in cases moved.

We tell an operator they’ll move 20 cases a week and assume that equals success.

It doesn’t.

Culinary operators are thinking in plates, not cases.

If the goal is real traction, anchor the conversation in what actually drives their decisions:

👉 Food cost
👉 Menu ideation
👉 LTOs
👉 Labor saving

Cases moved matters to us. What goes into the plate matters to them.

If you want to move more cases, speak the language of the culinary operator!

(Pic features Rooted Food Sales sales team member Kristina) talking in plates 😉

There are billion-dollar Foodservice brands with no cold outreach strategy.

Not even for independent restaurants. 
(Which make up 71% of the market.)

Why?

Because manual prospecting is brutal:
💥 Research the account
💥 Study the menu
💥 Find the buyer
💥 Find the contact

Do that 25x a day at high quality? 
They won’t.

So teams say cold outreach “doesn’t work.”

It’s not the market. It’s the motion.

🎙️ Another great moment from our conversation with Reed McCord!

I love seeing classic sales tactics in the wild.

Received a note from a local company claiming they’ll be “in the area.”

Are they actually? Who knows.

But it’s smart.

It lowers friction. 
It feels timely. 
It feels efficient. 
It makes saying yes simpler.

There are dozens of plays we use in Foodservice sales to land meetings.This one is simple, scrappy, and effective.

Most brands are selling ingredients.

The best brands are selling solutions.

In our conversation with Jake Briere, he breaks down the mindset shift from ingredient supplier → solution provider.

Operators aren’t buying features. 

They want relief, less labor, better margins, and more simplicity.

If your product doesn’t solve something real, it becomes background noise.

Listen to the full conversation below 👇

Reposting to support. 

Join Kristi McGill and Clarissa Boston for coffee at Expo!

View company: Foodservice Women's Alliance - FWA

Headed to Anaheim for Natural Products Expo West? Bring a friend with you and join us for our FWA Member Meetup to connect with fellow members!​
​
📍 Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Resort/Convention Center​
 📅 Wednesday, March 4, 2026​
 ⏰ 8-9am PST

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Will Nitze

Matt Cotton

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The Battle

Will Nitze

Matt Cotton

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Will Nitze's LinkedIn Performance

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