Ashley Thompson began MUSH to make it simpler for individuals to eat wholesome – beginning with breakfast
Mush
Caught in an unfulfilling job on Wall Avenue, Ashley Thompson was searching for one thing extra. She discovered that inspiration in probably the most unlikely of locations with able to eat oats. Beginning in farmer’s markets, Thompson began MUSH to make it simpler for individuals to eat wholesome – beginning with breakfast. I sat down with Thompson to be taught extra concerning the early days of the model, how they ended up showing on Shark Tank, and the recommendation she provides to fellow entrepreneurs.
Dave Knox: What’s the founding story of MUSH?
Ashley Thompson: For individuals who haven’t heard of MUSH, we make plant based mostly able to eat oats with quite simple entire meals components that offer you clear and pure vitality; like oatmeal however cooler that’s excessive in good fiber, protein, and is gluten-free. We do not use any added sugar, synthetic flavors or colours or preservatives to make the product. And so they are available in quite a lot of scrumptious flavors for all totally different events, significantly for breakfast, however you too can use it as a pre or post-workout refuel , and even as a snack or dessert at night time. And MUSH was actually born out of the assumption that higher outcomes in life start with higher meals – beginning at breakfast. There’s an plain scientific connection between what you eat and the way you expertise life, significantly how you’re feeling, the way you suppose and what you do. And so actually we simply attempt to get rid of the friction between individuals and wholesome meals selections by making meals that is nutrient dense, like oats, accessible from a value and distribution perspective and completely scrumptious. And that is actually vital to me as a result of it’s a large a part of an answer to what has now grow to be a human well being disaster, significantly in America. 32% of People are obese and 38% are overweight, which makes a collective 70% of us too heavy, and coronary heart illness kills 1 / 4 of us. And all of those points had been basically non-existent till the twentieth century, and so we’re right here simply attempting to assist individuals enhance their general wellbeing, particularly initially of the day with a fantastic breakfast choice. I am an enormous believer in beginning off on the best foot and the more healthy we eat, the extra we thrive. So it is a fantastic alternative to assist make the world just a little bit higher.
Knox: What was the private inspiration behind you tackling this mission?
Thompson: Most decision-making processes are preceded by a number of catalysts, and my sister’s prognosis with kind one diabetes was one in every of many, but it surely was a powerful one as a result of I noticed her endure so drastically from one thing associated to her physique and diet and her physique’s incapacity to course of sure issues like sugar. I additionally noticed my household’s struggles with bodily and psychological well being and the detrimental results of poor weight loss program and habits. After which I used to be working in an unfulfilling job popping out of faculty. Lastly, simply observing the weight problems epidemic in America was one other catalyst. Mixed, these had been all factors which led me to beginning MUSH. My strongest one was simply my innate curiosity in well being and wellness. I am a agency believer that so as to achieve success in life and the period of time and vitality and creativeness it’s essential to put into one thing to achieve success, it needs to be one thing of nice curiosity to you. And so all of these issues led me to start out the enterprise.
Knox: What led you to leap from Wall Avenue to the world of Client-Packaged Items?
Thompson: After college I went into buying and selling on Wall Avenue as a result of I simply did not even know the place to start out my profession, however I did know that I’d be capable to make sufficient cash in finance to hopefully begin one thing of my very own sometime. Subconsciously that was all the time at the back of my thoughts, and once I received to Wall Avenue I shortly realized that it wasn’t going to be for me in the long term. Once more, again to that concept of getting a powerful curiosity in what you do, I had little or no curiosity within the markets and I particularly did not like the sensation of taking part in a zero sum recreation each single day. In finance, most of the time, another person’s features might be another person’s losses. In the course of the early days of my profession, I used to be struck by the stark actuality that even on Wall Avenue, it was actually onerous to entry nutritious meals. In an try to reconcile my robust beliefs with what I discovered to be unacceptable, I found a white house and stop my job to create a wholesome, scrumptious and handy meals product impressed by my favourite hack as a child: cereal and oatmeal soaked in milk. I simply mustered up sufficient braveness to take that first step and took a leap of religion and received began.
Knox: While you took that leap of religion, how did you determine the class that was most fascinating to you?
Thompson: Effectively, in a single day oats and cereal usually has performed a very large function in my life. I ate a ton of cereal rising up. My household, we did not have actually nice means as a child, and so cereal was fairly low-cost, accessible, and tremendous satiating. And so I ate lots of cereal and oatmeal rising up. Once I was working in finance, I used to be working loads on the time and wanted lots of carbs to gas my runs, so I turned to oats. And what I actually favored about it was that oats are such an unsexy commodity, however they’re so low-cost and so satiating. And so I believed, , these little mighty grains that may be actually highly effective, I feel they may help rework what we eat within the morning, and I simply sort of received hung up on it and form of began obsessing over it and took it fairly far. I stop and I did not know the place to start out in any respect, so I simply began making in a single day oats in my kitchen. I moved to Southern California the place there are lots of farmer’s markets, and that was form of the sport plan at first. I did not have a five- yr marketing strategy, it was a six-month marketing strategy the place I began making and promoting in a single day oats out of my kitchen after which at native farmers markets. And it was one of the simplest ways to start out, we received a lot shopper suggestions. The suggestions loop was speedy and it actually helped us develop an exquisite product in the long term.
Knox: When did Shark Tank are available in your journey?
Thompson: Shark Tank got here in a couple of yr and a half into the journey. We lastly reached retail cabinets by then, and one of many producers discovered our product in LA and reached out and requested us to come back on the present. We had been actually excited concerning the alternative as a result of one of many largest obstacles that we have wanted to beat in constructing this enterprise is simply consciousness across the class. MUSH is actually revolutionary as a result of chilly oats which can be refrigerated and able to eat had by no means existed, at the very least in a commercialized approach. And so we wished to teach the American inhabitants at massive about this new class and this new product. And we thought Shark Tank is the right approach to try this. We’re so grateful for that chance, it was pivotal and only a great expertise. That is when Mark Cuban invested, he actually believed within the model and that helped us construct just a bit extra confidence and just a little extra conviction within the journey that we had been on.
Knox: The model began as “direct to shopper” the old style approach with farmer’s markets and you then expanded to retail. As a rising model, how have you considered your retail technique?
Thompson: Direct to shopper for refrigerated merchandise, that infrastructure in America, nonetheless is not fairly there. And also you see that form of percolating, , FedEx and UPS do not even have the infrastructure to ship all the dry items essentially and refrigeration is actually powerful to beat. In order we have grown, we have leaned extra so into our retail technique as a result of structurally it is so sound and arrange, and there is a rather more frictionless path to progress in retail. And I feel individuals are likely to neglect that we’re transferring to a digital world, but it surely’s not digital but. And so you’ll be able to’t neglect concerning the bodily world. The bodily world of retail is much more economical and environmentally pleasant to be delivering merchandise to shops in lots of methods. We have leaned closely into retail and that is actually paid off, particularly as lots of people proceed to expertise logistic challenges and unit financial challenges with DTC.
I’ve been lucky as effectively as a result of all my buyers have been earlier operators and a few of my bigger buyers have been operators throughout the meals and beverage house. They’ve intimate data with the difficulties of transport direct to shopper versus the retail play. And so they had been so supportive of the strategic imaginative and prescient that we have had for the corporate over the previous few years, which has actually made all of the distinction. Lots of success in constructing a model comes right down to execution, and in case you’re not aligned on the imaginative and prescient, particularly with buyers, it may be troublesome. There’s lots of wasted time and vitality. I’ve the best individuals across the desk and the help I’ve acquired has been superior.
Knox: How have you considered the constructing the mission of psychological well being and weight problems into the essence of what MUSH is?
Thompson: I feel we construct that in on daily basis by simply focusing maniacally on making this product as scrumptious as attainable, as nutrient dense as attainable and as accessible as attainable from a value and distribution perspective. As a result of we all know that essentially we will fight the weight problems epidemic with this superb choice. That is actually been the main focus within the early days. Over the long run, as we proceed to construct the model, which is a by-product of doing onerous issues effectively, we will use the social fairness that we construct up by way of the belief and loyalty and credibility with customers. And we are able to use that in methods like educating extra customers round what is going on on in America, because it pertains to well being and wellness, perhaps even spearheading initiatives with different like-minded corporations who’re additionally serving to to fight these points, as a result of there’s such nice power in numbers. So proper now it truly is concerning the product and getting it on the market. I am an enormous believer that the extra we develop with the product, the higher off society will likely be because it pertains to the weight problems epidemic. After which long term, we might like to do increasingly more because it pertains to issues exterior of shopper packaged items.
Knox: How have you considered persevering with to innovate and convey newness to the class that you simply helped create?
Thompson: I have a tendency not to consider rivals an excessive amount of as a result of enterprise actually is not a zero sum recreation. I feel “higher for you” is just persevering with to develop. So even when market share declined, we may nonetheless be in progress mode, and that is actually thrilling. So I have a tendency to not deal with rivals an excessive amount of. After which by way of innovation, MUSH is the very definition of innovation. Refrigerated, ready-to-eat oats have by no means been commercialized earlier than. It’s one of many solely spoonable breakfasts available on the market made with easy components, no added sugar, no dairy, and no components.Fairly frankly, we’ve not innovated loads because the inception of MUSH. We innovated in an effective way with the primary product line, however since then, we have simply had a maniacal deal with getting it off the bottom. It is taken lots of time and vitality to construct a brand new class, however we proceed to come back out with new flavors which can be nice. Like we have now Snickerdoodle, Pumpkin Pie, and Combined Berry accessible and shortly coming down the pipeline however, usually, we have simply actually targeted on what we’re doing now. It’s essential to deal with issues for an uncommonly lengthy time frame so as to make them succeed. And that is precisely what we’re doing.
Knox: In your early days of launching MUSH, you didn’t come from the meals and beverage trade. What benefits do you suppose that gave you to have a look at this house in another way?
Thompson: It was the perfect benefit. I like to speak a couple of newbie’s mindset versus an professional’s mindset. A newbie’s mindset thinks there’s countless potentialities to resolve issues, whereas an professional’s mindset normally appears at issues and sees it a technique due to how deep they’ve gone. And so I feel it made a world of a distinction. To start with of our journey we went to the specialists and wished to collaborate with them on find out how to make this product, and so they principally mentioned we could not do it the way in which that we wished to. And I simply did not consider them in any respect and saved looking and looking, and finally landed on an answer that works. We now have a very cool manufacturing course of the place we do not use warmth, we truly use strain to pasteurize the product and prolong its shelf life. And it is by no means been performed earlier than, and I feel the one approach we received to that resolution is as a result of we had no expertise within the trade and simply did not take into consideration all of the methods wherein it would not work, we simply considered all the methods wherein it might.
Knox: You talked about that professional mindset versus the newbie mindset, as you discuss to different entrepreneurs that see the success that you simply constructed and need to observe your path, what recommendation do you give to them in these early days?
Thompson: You realize, as entrepreneurs, our job is to construct one thing worthwhile and we construct worthwhile issues by pursuing worthy alternatives and making nice selections over an extended time frame. And good decision-making requires good considering and nice perspective. And good considering simply requires time. I feel individuals do not realize that you simply even have to sit down down and suppose by way of issues and it takes much more time, particularly as issues grow to be extra advanced and greater. So my recommendation is to actually refine your perspective to be extra in step with actuality and go away time for good considering so that you could make actually good selections.
And the opposite piece of recommendation that I really like to offer, and it is most likely, I feel, an important factor. It is also actually cliche, which is to observe your intestine. And it is very easy to say and onerous to do as a result of intestine is such a humorous factor. In society there are actually frequent misconceptions concerning the intestine. Individuals suppose that intestine and information don’t go hand in hand, and we’re in a knowledge obsessed world so we’re usually form of shunning individuals for listening to their intestine, however intestine is definitely a compilation of hundreds of knowledge factors collected by way of statement and expertise. So from my perspective it is a actually highly effective device and entrepreneurs ought to use it increasingly more. They actually do know what’s finest, they know why they began their enterprise. They know the way it works, the way it operates, the place the chance is, and they need to lean into to what they know versus rummaging by way of information units on a regular basis.
