Tapping Into Consumer Trends To Build Your Brand With Kathryn Moos, Co-Founder of OWYN
Kathryn Moos is the Co-founder of OWYN, one of the fastest-growing plant-based health and nutrition companies in the US, whose name stands for “Only What You Need.” She is also the Managing Partner at Groundswell Ventures, which addresses critical problems in the areas of health and wellness and climate and sustainability. A former professional soccer player, Kathryn has spent most of her post-athletic career in the health and wellness sector and also founded VROU, a brand that simplifies the way people can get nutrients.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Kathryn Moos shares OWYN’s origin story
What early challenges did Kathryn face in getting OWYN products on store shelves?
Kathryn discusses the recent expansion of her brand
How is OWYN’s D2C subscription model doing?
Kathryn describes the way education is used to combat attrition among subscribers
The biggest obstacle Kathryn faces with OWYN
Why Kathryn is involved with Groundswell as its Managing Partner
What you’ll learn in this episode:
In the saturated food and beverage and health and wellness market, it’s hard to get a foothold to advance your brand’s growth. Consumers have multiple purchasing options — supermarkets, specialty and big box stores, or various websites, including Amazon or through a brand’s website. What is the best way to position your business to reach its core audience?
When establishing a brand, you’ll have to determine the best place to get your name out in front of consumers and monitor their engagement to grow your business. As the founder of three food and beverage companies and with years in the health and wellness space, Kathryn Moos started by launching D2C initiatives to understand how people were using her plant-based health and nutrition products. By monitoring consumer behavior, Kathryn determined the retailers in the best position to sell her products. In addition to her retail strategy, she uses a subscription model to garner repeat business and stays laser-focused on the data to determine how to expand further.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni is joined by Kathryn Moos, Co-founder of OWYN, for a conversation about staying focused on consumer behavior when establishing a brand. Kathryn talks about starting OWYN, determining the most effective venues for product sales, observing which products generate brand loyalty, and using education to attract and retain subscribers.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design is the strategic foundation for your brands’ success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:34
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal, where I get to speak with top leaders changing customer behavior so they can propel their brands forward. Before I get to today's guest. This episode is sponsored by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we use behavioral science to create meaningful loan to brand trust which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation prompts them to shift their behavior. And if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you truly can unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavioral models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand's success. Visit offmadisonave.com to learn more. And now without further ado, I have with me, Kathryn Moos, who is an experienced founder, operator, and investor. And a side note she's a former professional soccer player. So that's not so bad either. Kathryn has spent the majority of her professional career in the health and wellness sector, she astounded over three better-for-you food and beverage companies including OWYN, Only What You Need, one of the fastest-growing plant-based nutrition brands in the US. And as an admitted vegetarian and someone who needs that sort of plant-based protein. I'm really appreciative of this conversation. So Kathryn, welcome to the show.
Kathryn Moos 1:59
Thank you so much, Roger, I'm excited to be here.
Roger Hurni 2:01
Good. Well, you know what? Everybody loves a good origin story. So I'm kind of curious, what was the idea behind starting OWYN?
Kathryn Moos 2:12
Yeah, so for me, I've always had a passion for health and wellness and kind of recognized early on that, you know, human wellness, you know, was directly impacted our, you know, how we felt each day, whether we're performing on the field or just at our desk job. You know, I grew up as an athlete, I played two sports in college at the D1 level, soccer, and hockey, and then I went and played soccer professionally afterward. And so Nutrition has sort of always been at the foresight, you know, of, of who I am and, and how I perform and how I think about living my life. And, you know, earlier in my career, I saw there was an opportunity to create a product that was better for you, and also better for the environment, something that's also near and dear to my heart, and one and with this insight found, founded, OWYN, spelled O-W-Y-N, as you mentioned, stands for Only What You Need, that really kind of serves as the thesis for how we create our products, how we think about our brand. Ethos, and how we live our lives is really kind of keeping it simple and including the only, the things that we truly need. As there were two kind of big factors that played into a win and its founding one was kind of being in the professional athlete world. A lot of our peers were either still playing or had now become trainers or coaches nutritionists. Besides a big shift happening away from the traditional dairy and whey proteins towards plant-based, recognizing how plant-based proteins can be just as good if not better for performance and recovery. The kind of, the old way of thinking especially for male athletes was meat, potatoes, dairy ways, the way to build muscle, and the way to kind of perform at a high level. And I think that that thinking is very much evolved with recognizing that plant-based yes, you can have the Chi the same amino acid profile that's important to an athlete while also not having your body sort of compete in pharma digestibility standpoint with itself and so, kind of recognizing that shift at the top of these elite athletes, we felt like there was going to be this shift happening amongst as kind of a trickle-down effect to, to more of the kind of the mass consumer and everyday, the everyday athlete. The second trend that we saw was you know, again, this was close to eight plus years ago you know when plant-based certainly was a thing, but not nearly what it, what it, what it is today and you know, we sort of felt that gravitation pulling society relate towards wanting to include more plant-based ingredients into their diet, whether or not they become full-fledged vegan or vegetarian. Not necessarily. But being able to conveniently accessibly incorporate healthier ingredients into their diet was one that we felt was quite compelling.
Roger Hurni 5:20
Yeah, I will two things. One, thank you for correcting me on that. Because I had O-W-Y-N and you say, “oh, when” so I'm going to, I'm going to go with that instead, you would know better than me. But you are, you're right, there's been an evolution in thinking and as an avid cyclist, I know that, that my plant-based diet has certainly helped my performance, and I'm significantly older than you. So that's good. I'm reminded that I had read once that, in the early 1900s, the Tour de France that the cyclists used to smoke before they got started, because they thought the smoke opened up their lungs to make them be able to get more air in our which is a weird, weird thing to think on today. But I can totally see that, that evolution happening where like, you don't have to necessarily walk away from me. But if more athletes, or former athletes like yourself, start embracing these kinds of concepts, I do think it's a you must believe right, it does trickle down into, into the general populace.
Kathryn Moos 6:30
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you just even think about, you know, the elite athletes and how much they track about their body, about their training about their sleeping about kind of every aspect about the of their heart rate and on their training, and when they're sleeping and heart rate variability, you know, now that everyday person is doing that with wearables, and you know, people are really tuned into, you know, how are they sleeping, you know, what metrics, you know, what things are impacting, you know, different parts of their life, and really make trying to make changes.
Roger Hurni 7:06
Netflix had a really good series, our new good movie documentary, 2019 called game changers in it, but I do recommend it to people out there who might want to learn a little bit more about sort of some of the other athlete’s stories. I was sort of fascinated by that.
Kathryn Moos 7:20
Yeah, absolutely.
Roger Hurni 7:23
Let's get back to you, though. All right. So the idea is there. That's great. What were, what were some of those early challenges that you've faced, because it's tough to get product on the shelf? It's tough to get it produced? So what did financing look like? What did those early challenges? What were those early challenges?
Kathryn Moos 7:44
Yeah. Yeah, um, a lot, I would say, you know, first, when we set out to create the product, we actually had a different company, prior to OWYN called Vrew was a functional water, water product that was already on the market. So it really kind of gave us a leg up in terms of making relationships within the industry, understanding how the industry really works, the different dynamics from a distribution standpoint, you know, and, you know, what, when we had the idea for OWYN we're like, sure, no problem, we'll make a plant-based protein can't be that hard. Well, four years later, you know, we had a product on the market. So it really took in an incredible amount of time to really perfect the product to a point where we wanted to put it on shelves, and a lot of factors played into that. Again, this being you know, eight years ago, you know, plant-based technology and ingredient sourcing and things like that has come in a significant way. And not only from like a texture, taste standpoint, functionality standpoint but also consumer perception. So we were fighting kind of an uphill battle from actual ingredients that we're using to the consumers that we're going to be selling to and that, you know, they had, if they had had plant-based products prior, they likely didn't taste that great. And so we really had to do a good job. And, you know, our main thing wasn't, you know, one of the first things that we did, you know, once we got pretty close to the final prototype was for samples outside of in our local New York City gym against some of the big dairy and whey-based competitors in unblinded people and you know, we really wanted to strive for that same kind of milk like consistency. So there were no trade-offs. There were no excuses as to like why they wouldn't choose plant-based, you know, so from a, from a production, you know, actually creating the product that was definitely a big challenge. In one insight that we had, having had a brand on the market prior was the opportunity that existed, how the distribution industry really works, and knowing that there were no ready-to-drink, plant-based beverages on have, you know the big-time distributor trucks. And so the sell-in wasn't as hard necessarily as we might have thought or one would think, just because there was no competition. So we had sort of the opportunity to sell into these distributors and each of these retailers with a lot of the data of kind of the trends that we were seeing and that they were seeing in other categories within their stores or in their distribution, distribution system. And, you know, this was sort of an easy, yes, yes, let's give it a go. And I think another kind of key point for us was, you know, really wanting to go big with this, you know, we wanted to get it into the hands of our target consumer as fast as we could, and with that raise capital to be able to support that type of launch. And, you know, we, we took on a significant amount of capital and partnered with a group early on before we actually launched the business to enable us to have that capital to scale the business.
Roger Hurni 11:10
Our, in that, in that influencer part of it, since you, obviously, maybe not obviously know, a lot of athletes, are you putting it in their hands to try to build that reputation?
Kathryn Moos 11:24
Yeah, certainly, this was one of our kind of go-to-market strategies was my, my husband is actually was my co-founder, and he was a professional football player. So he too had access to a lot of professional athletes in kind of the football world. And a lot of our friends in NHL, NBA, so definitely use them as almost guinea pigs too to say, like, hey, we're creating this for the best of the best, is this something you would drink? You know, does this live up to your standards?
Roger Hurni 11:55
Now well, that's the now having again, having professional athletes drink something, or, or consume something is, is definitely a huge endorsement, the, the, besides what you're making now, what is growth look like? Are there, are there product extensions or other areas you're trying to go into?
Kathryn Moos 12:14
Yeah, for us, you know, more recent or most kind of recent product line that we launched was an Elite line. So higher protein, so 32 grams of protein and above that has really expanded our audience. So you know, if you think about a kind of a talking about athlete, this really targets the athlete, this is one of the highest protein in general products out there on the market. So it's bringing in additional consumer group to, to our brand and that's been a huge success. So we've been focusing really on expanding that line. And, you know, we're coming out with new flavors and kind of new concepts off of our core lines. Sure.
Roger Hurni 13:00
How is the subscription model going? I know, you can pick it up at some retailers. But you also do subscriptions on the website, has that grown, and because you didn't really launch the product, use it for years to development? So it's only been on the shelves for a couple of years. Couple, three years, right?
Kathryn Moos 13:18
Yeah, but probably three or four or five years. Yeah.
Roger Hurni 13:23
So how's the subscription model going?
Kathryn Moos 13:26
It's good. I mean, we, we launched direct to consumer. First, to really understand our, our customer and our core audience understand how they were using why they were using it, and then quickly knew which retailers were going to. And we, we identified two retail partners that sort of fit the two segments that consumer segments that I talked about the athlete worlds, so Vitamin Shoppe was our, one of our first national retail partners gave us credibility in the space, and then Whole Foods Market and we launched kind of in the New York City region, which was our backyard and allowed us to really attract the natural grocery shopper that was educated understand the benefit of plant-based stores last educating needing to be done there. They were already looking for these types of products. So those were kind of the retail and for direct consumer and subscription, it's been a significant part of our business and how and I think always will be I think it's interesting because they're shipping a lot around waterways isn't exactly the most efficient or economical thing. However, you know, it's been a significant I mean, through Amazon as well. It's been a big part of our business and something we stay laser-focused on using data to really understand again, you know, our consumer where they're shopping, you know, what geographies are good for expanding into retail.
Roger Hurni 14:55
This is your mentioned data. Let's go down this rabbit hole. Little bit more. I've dealt with a lot of subscription-based businesses and one of their biggest challenges is just attrition. Are you looking at the data behaviorally to mitigate any of that? What, what sort of tactics or strategies do you employ?
Kathryn Moos 15:16
It's a question, I almost have to defer to our CMO and CEO for that he's a very much a data-driven, driven guy that, you know, would have probably all the answers for you there. But, you know, I think what we try to do is really continue to please the consumer with education too. So there's other sort of new “value add” services that we provide in terms of a dietitian network, and different partnerships that we, you know, are a part of one of our strongest core consumer groups is actually the allergen free community, we've made our product free of the top nine allergens, and we spend an insane amount of money testing our product to make sure that it's clean of those nine, nine allergens. And with that, comes a very trusted consumer. And with that, you get people that are loyal to the brand, and just come back and come back and come back again, that's much different, you know, to want a product, you know, yes, it's awesome to say that our products sold in the professional athlete’s locker rooms and, and by, you know, those types of people, however, it's a whole nother world when this product serves that need. And there's, you know, not that many functional, tasty, you know, allergen-free safe products out there. And, you know, some of these allergens that people have today are life-threatening. And so you know, they feel safe with us. And those are the consumers that you know, really build upon our subscription subscribers,
Roger Hurni 17:02
They will be your highest ally, I, when talking to brands I often and they talk about brand loyalty, I'd say, look, there's a lot of brand loyalty or brand affinity. But the next level up to that is people who are brand Nabi kids but you with, with that allergen, I got to imagine you are at the highest level, which are these Brand Evangelists because they're obviously, this is a critical need for them. And that's a whole, you know, audience to tap into, to really spread OWYN around to other, other groups, I speak from the heart only because my daughter's allergies are off the chart, too. We spent the last four years giving her allergy shots, like every few weeks, to try to help with some of this kind of stuff. And I know that in our own community, you know, when you find something, you love it, you stick with it. But more importantly, you tell everybody, so I got to imagine the word of mouth for you is pretty high when it comes to certain qualities of your product.
Kathryn Moos 18:03
Yeah, I mean, you're spot on there. Yeah, absolutely. And those, you know, just like your daughter, our, you know, evangelists that, you know, you as a parent, we like to kind of talk about, you know, the one person in the household has an allergy that impacts, you know, three, four or five other people and because you all have to eat that way. You know, and so the market beyond just those that are impacted by allergies is much greater than, you know, a lot of people really realize
Roger Hurni 18:36
What, what's the biggest challenge you're facing right now with OWYN, that you need to keep you up at night?
Kathryn Moos 18:43
Um, supply chain? You know, I think it, you know, beyond were more past sort of the COVID challenges, I think, however, we have an incredible amount of demand that keeping the product on on shelves has been difficult, you know, my, my dad always tells me, every time I talk to him targets out of this one targets that one, you know, so I'm thankful that I get those reminders. So I can, you know, pass that along. But I would say that's one of our biggest challenges is being able to produce enough to stay in it stay in stock.
Roger Hurni 19:23
Parents, they keep it real. Yeah, right. For years, my mom didn't know what I did, actually became, “Oh, he owns a company” and that was it for her, I knew that I want to cover one other area. I know that you're part of another company, Groundswell, and that venture capital I think it's in the, in the same space that OWYN is in. I'd like to just why is that company set up and what are you doing with it to try to support Oh, in and other products like it?
Kathryn Moos 19:58
Sure. Yeah. So Groundswell is a growth venture fund investing kind of at the intersection of climate tech and human wellness. So you know, OWYN’s kind of a perfect example of a company that could fit that thesis, who actually don't actually do that much consumer, but it's in a war really believe that there, those two, climate tech and human rights are inextricably linked. And to be able to invest in capital and founders that are driving real change for the better of all of us and our and our planet. You know, we think there's huge opportunities, there's a ton of innovation happening right now, in that space, and we're excited to be part of it.,
Roger Hurni 20:49
Nice nice, I don't have the opportunity, that much to speak with, former or professional athletes. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go off topic here, and just I'm gonna take the liberty as the guy who owns this podcast, I'm curious about how you feel on how women's soccer has really come into its own. And how you feel about that growth. But more importantly, what is what does the sport need to do to keep this trajectory going and, and really take it to new levels?
Kathryn Moos 21:22
Yeah, it's been exciting. I think the last kind of 5-10 years, there's been a ton of learnings, a lot of ups, some downs, you know, with the, the growth of the sport and just overall treatment of athletes. But in I think one of the best things we can do is continue to excite young girls to participate. I mean, if you look at the talent, I mean, I've been dating myself, but and I've been out of college now for several years. But I watched these girls play today. And I'm like, dang, these girls are good like the level of talent has just jumped significantly. And I say that across, you know, multiple sports, you know, so I think having girls getting involved in sports, at a younger age, really will help foster the growth, the excitement, the talent, that I think will level up the entire industry.
Roger Hurni 22:19
I see it. What I love about soccer, it's probably the world's most accessible sport. And I've done some volunteering in an orphanage in Moshi Tanzania. And you give these kids a ball of aluminum foil, and they will turn it into a soccer game. Both boys and girls and, you know, for us to really get kids involved at an early age should be able to do that. I think we'll eventually get to the point where we just level up this game to an incredible degree and, and maybe be taken more I think the Women's Soccer is taken seriously at, an at a global level. But I think we as a country, need to be taken more seriously at a global level. I just don't think we are. Yeah. I have my own two cents, personal opinion. You've been really great. There's some interesting learnings in a lot of what you said, I do end every podcast this way. Because I always believe that you have to always evaluate whenever someone says you should have tried this, or you should do this, you should thing. I'm kind of curious as to so what's the worst advice you've ever gotten that you went? No, man, you're gonna have to be with OWYN, and it could be anything in your life.
Kathryn Moos 23:37
That's it. I feel like that's even more pressure. No, that's a great question, I think I think we're maybe the I would go to maybe the launch of a when you know, there was a lot of kind of pressure to I kind of mentioned that we wanted to do fast. But going fast doesn't necessarily mean kind of skew out in terms of launching every single product you can possibly manage at, at once. So I think being really focused on really what your hero product is, who you what you stand for, as a brand will help you be you know, most mindful with their growth, and then allow you to expand and innovate once you already have that core consumer audience. So I think just being tried and true to the product and the brand belief that you started your company about around is, you know, some of the most important things to stand by.
Roger Hurni 24:43
Excellent advice. Excellent advice. I'm glad we didn't come back with the “My mom said once I should go into basketball, so I ignored her and played soccer.” But that would have been a good answer. Thank you so much for being on the show today. I really appreciate it and you've been, are, very gracious with your time. Thank you.
Kathryn Moos 25:03
Thank you. Thank you for everything.
Roger Hurni 25:04
I have been speaking with, no worries. I've been speaking with Kathryn Moos. She's the co-founder of OWYN. That's O-W-Y-N. Kathryn, where can people learn more about you and OWYN?
Kathryn Moos 25:17
Yeah, you can find OWYN at liveowyn.com. We're sold everywhere from Whole Foods to Target and Walmart, Sprouts, Carawan, etc. And you can kind of find us on Instagram as well and you can find me, you know, through that channel as well.
Roger Hurni 25:35
No matter what their flavors are, I mean, I tell everybody to drink the dark chocolate just, you know, because I need to keep her product alive. But I love it.
Kathryn Moos 25:43
You're not alone.
Roger Hurni 25:45
I'm Roger Hurni. This is From Persona to Personal and we'll see you next time.
Outro 25:51
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
