Hema Reddy is the Founder and CEO of Crafty Counter, a food company that specializes in nutrient-dense food that also is pleasing to the taste buds. Their flagship product, Wunder Nuggets, provides a well-balanced meal contained in every serving. Crafty Counter is designed to help flexitarian families have better choices so that they can help long term health and still have a positive impact on our planet.

Join G. Steven Cleere as he is joined by Hema to talk about flexitarianism, Hema’s Food Startups Podcast, and what is coming next for the Crafty Counter Line.

• [2:36] Background on Hema and the origins of Crafty Counter
• [8:44] The longevity of Flexitarianism
• [11:20] Challenges Hema had starting a commercial kitchen
• [16:40] Selling in the frozen section versus the fresh section
• [21:51] Marketing strategy for Crafty Counter
• [28:13] Upcoming products that Hema is planning to add to the line
• [32:08] The unique relationship children have with food
• [36:48] Wunder Nuggets don’t need a dipping sauce
• [37:42] Hema’s experience on the Food Startups Podcast
• [40:29] Advice for developing brands

• Crafty Counter
• Food Startups Podcast
• LinkedIn for Hema

Encore Presentation from 2020: Ryne O'Donnell is the Founder of Sol-ti, a living beverage company. Ryne’s personal obsession with health and well-being along with the undeniable benefits of good, organic food and juice had on his body made him realize that there was a lack of quality options for travelers. This, coupled with the incessant infiltration of plastic packaging got Ryne thinking that it was time to address the gap in the market for glass bottled living beverages which was how Sol-ti was created in 2014.

Ryne is also the Founder of Permaculture Planet, a Costa Rica-based corporation specializing in permaculture design land development and design properties. He invested in a farm in Costa Rica as a backup plan in case his business failed and later moved there.

How Ryne O’Donnell's personal challenge led to the Sol-ti

Ryne talks about making smoothies and other beverages at home before starting his business

What prompted Ryne to leave the tech industry and develop a mobile phone app to help people find healthy food and juice bars

How Ryne started his Sol-ti business and the returns he got during the first month of sales

Ryne’s initial plans for Sol-ti, how he produced his products at a rental kitchen, and his initial sales run at a local yoga studio

Ryne explains what Sol-ti means, the flavors they currently have, and where the products are sold

How Ryne filled the gap between demand, distribution, and production

Ryne talks about Costa Rica and his decision to sell the beverage company only to buy it back later on

How Ryne handled sales for his business and what he learned from hiring sales reps

Ryne talks about the glass element and pricing of his products and why he refuses to use PET (Polyethylene terephthalate)

Ryne's advice to fellow entrepreneurs on building a classic and iconic company and brand that stands out

Many entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry started their businesses to solve a specific personal challenge they had. For Ryne O’Donnell, the lack of quality healthy beverages on the road because he traveled a lot and the infiltration of plastic packaging for the available products got him thinking about addressing this obvious gap in the beverage industry. He then decided to make his own glass bottled living beverages.

However, Ryne soon found out that the food industry is tough and requires tenacity and persistence. He has learned so much about entrepreneurship after leaving the tech industry and knows that it can take years to build an amazing brand. But while it’s challenging, Ryne vouches that the view from the top is amazing.

In this episode of Nexxt Level Brands Podcast, Ryne O'Donnell joins Steve Cleere to talk about how he started and grew his beverage company, Sol-ti. He talks about the expectations he had while starting his entrepreneurship journey, growing his business, selling it and eventually buying it back again, moving to Costa Rica, and his future plans for his beverage brand. Stay tuned.

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Encore Presentation:

Katherine Harvey is the Co-founder of Bare Bones, a San Diego based nutrition company offering a full menu of protein-infused products including ready to use bone broth, collagen protein powder, and instant bone broth beverage mixes. After three years as a business reporter at the San Diego Union Tribune, Kate left journalism and took the leap into the food industry to run Bare Bones along with her husband Ryan Harvey.

Bare Bones quickly became one of the top innovators in the bone broth industry by pushing the limits of how to deliver bone broth to consumers with a focus on maximum convenience and top quality. Kate's words to live by are 'May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears'.

Kate talks about her husband's transition from being a fine dining chef to a bone broth maker

How Kate transitioned from being a reporter to writing a cookbook and entering the food industry

The difference between bone broth and bone stock, and benefits of taking bone broth

Why the new business decided to move to Oregon and how they landed their first investor

Kate talks about the process of getting into retail, the challenges they faced and what they learned from that process

How the company's first frozen product line was shipped and how they changed it to shelf stable

How customer feedback prompted the company create a less expensive and more convenient product

Where to find Bare Bones’ products

How selling on Amazon has impacted the company's sales

How Bare Bones’ broth products fit in with different lifestyle diets

Challenges faced in marketing to people in different consumer groups and demographics

Bare Bones’ plans for the future and new products coming out soon

What Ryan Harvey has been upto and what he does in the company

Why the company decided to move back to California

How attendants of Expo West were affected by the health crisis

Kate's advice to fellow entrepreneurs on managing through failures and resiliency

Where to learn more about Bare Bones and get their cookbook

It is ironic that a good number of chefs live unhealthy lifestyles despite working in restaurants. They rarely get the time to sit down and enjoy a good meal. Many times they drink stock to sustain themselves through service, and if this stock is store-bought, it is often not very nutritious.

Katherine & her husband Ryan are in the business of creating 100% organic bone broths to provide nutritious protein alternatives to people. Ryan was a fine dining chef who faced the same challenge many chefs working in busy restaurants face regularly. He & Kate launched their bone broth side business out of a local food delivery service and soon grew to not only selling in supermarkets but also in online marketplaces.

Katherine Harvey joins Steve Cleere in this week's episode to talk about her journey and her husband's transition to the food industry. She also talks about the benefits of her company's bone broth over common stock products found in food stores, how the company found its first investor and entered the retail market, and how selling on Amazon has impacted sales. Stay tuned.

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