Carbe Diem’s booth at the 2025 Expo West
Meet Team Grind
Three co-founders started in April 2022 as Team #8 in the Internal Venture Studio of a Fortune 500 Company, with the purpose of developing something within the Opportunity Area of “Weight Loss Feels like a Full-time Job”.
One internal co-founder focused on the Technical aspect of the solution, one external co-founder with operational expertise for Scaling Brands, and one co-founder with expertise in Marketing.
Seed 1: The Problem
Through interviews, in-home diary studies, and Facebook Ads, we got to two problems with the following consumer language: 1) Dinner for busy moms 2) Losing weight on-the-go it’s hard
Given the size of Dinner category, we moved forward with Dinners for busy moms. Moms behaved very well for breakfast (with willpower) and lunch (usually did not have the kids) but dinner was hard because the kids wanted something that did not fit mom’s diet, and there was little time to put one dinner for the whole family.
Seed 2: The Solution
After testing 13 different solutions in one-on-one interviews and group studies, there were two solutions that were raised to the top in this space: 1) Vegetable sides that mom could add to the dinner table 2) Pasta, already in the home but hard to solve for mom.
Improving on a formula that already existed in the company, we launched an MVP at a retailer through a Salable In-Store Demo and it was a success. We run out of product in 2.5 hours and saw a high conversion rate per sample.
Seed 3: The Business Model
Utilizing a burner brand, we launched a Direct-To-Consumer site to learn more about the repeat rate of the solution as well as the Willingness-To-Pay of the consumer for such solution – given that the category of dry pasta has been commoditized throughout the years.
With the confidence of both high repeat rate and high willingness to pay for the solution, we moved to pitch to the investment committee for a meaningful dollar amount to: create a brand that jump on shelf and could host multiple categories, test four different channels, and prepare to commercialize with a co-manufacturer.
Pilot: Product-Market-Fit
Commercialize: Route-To-Market
With a strong brand and value proposition, the retailer launch took many weeks to reach the top third of the category but it did! Top third of the category is the best indicator of a unicorn ($100MM in revenue in 5 years). Amazon blew us away selling 10x what we hoped to sell in the first month. DTC had high Cost of Acquisition, but it was a great place to build brand equity and launch new pasta shapes. Club retailer showed us that we needed more brand equity and trial in the marketplace before satisfying the expectations of the retailer on $ turns.
As we optimized the premium brand and packaging, and partnered closely with the co-manufacturer to scale production, we launched with a large premium retailer in the south and through BOGOs we were able to hit the top third of the category rather quickly. So, we moved to launch with a large nation-wide mainstream retailer. Both showed that with trade you could get to the top third of the category - which is the best indication of a Uniform.
We also learned that by using ecommerce as a tool for household penetration, every time we launched with a retailer our starting turns were higher than the previous launch.
Scale: Execute Playbook
At this point, we could confidently say that there was strong evidence of product-market-fit. By the choices we made along the way, we were able to achieve 34% Aided Awareness among pasta shoppers. The brand and solution was ready to be placed in 60% ACV.
Team Grind’s vision for the Brand was to launch future categories with similar value proposition. We wish success to the Brand and those that come after us! Cheers.
What Sets Us Apart
Brand Purpose tied to Co-Founder Life Purpose
My Life Purpose in Life is to feel that the world is a playground. Our brand purpose was to unlock more joy in the world; the joy that emanates from freeing people to enjoy the foods they love again. See the connection?
Shared Values and Beliefs
We hired team members on core values: Humility, Candor, Trustworthiness, Collaboration, and Commitment.
Team Grind beliefs included: Simplicity, Love Over Fear, Team Over Self, Authentic Relationships, Bias Towards Action, All input and ideas are appreciated and the right ideas are implemented.
Ongoing Evolution
From doing to delegating to leading. From weekly decisions to 90-day strategic retreats. The team evolved as our business evolved through the Adizes’ Corporate Lifecycle (Dr. Ichak Adizes). We led in the Age of Personalization (Glenn Llopis) and we Scaled our Passion (Rob Craven)