Prompt Cast
How Katlin Smith Built Simple Mills from Grain-Free Baking Mixes
TLDR Katlin Smith started Simple Mills after experimenting with a paleo diet, leading her to create almond flour baking mixes that gained popularity through influencer marketing and strategic selling strategies, eventually expanding to over 28,000 stores nationwide.
Timestamped Summary
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05:46
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11:37
Katlin Smith experimented with a paleo diet, leading her to discover the impact of food on her health and energy levels, sparking the idea for Simple Mills baking mixes using almond and coconut flours.
17:01
Katlin Smith experimented with recipes for grain-free baking mixes, starting with muffins, in her Atlanta apartment on weekends and evenings, drawing inspiration from bloggers and eventually pitching her almond flour baking mix to Whole Foods after about a year of experimentation.
22:29
Katlin Smith pitched her almond flour baking mix to Whole Foods, leading to an order of 5,000 bags and the need to fill out paperwork to get into the store.
27:25
Katlin Smith's almond flour baking mix gained traction after an influencer wrote about it on Facebook, leading to a surge in sales on Amazon and becoming the best-selling muffin mix on the platform.
32:38
Katlin Smith baked hundreds of muffins for demos, focusing on promoting her gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo-friendly product, but later realized she needed to emphasize taste over health benefits to attract more customers.
38:06
Katlin Smith expanded her Simple Mills muffin mix into multiple grocery chains through cold calling and strategic selling strategies, while also navigating the challenges of working capital and securing funding for her business.
43:43
Katlin Smith strategically balanced building her Simple Mills business with attending business school, focusing on courses that would directly benefit her company's growth.
48:55
Katlin Smith strategically leveraged a startup challenge during business school to secure her first investment, leading to the eventual closure of a two million dollar funding round that allowed her to expand Simple Mills beyond muffins.
54:20
Katlin Smith expanded Simple Mills by strategically reaching out to Whole Foods regions with baked muffins, overcoming challenges to secure initial placements in the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, and Denver, and later scaling to over 28,000 stores nationwide.
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Katlin Smith discusses the growth of the grain-free category and how Simple Mills differentiates itself from larger food companies by avoiding the use of natural flavors, leading to significant growth during COVID-19 as more people are baking and cooking at home.
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