In this session of Highlight Showcase 2025, explore how today’s most forward-thinking brands are reinventing baby care. From clean-label diapers to tech-enabled feeding solutions, this session dives into product innovations that are redefining care, convenience, and trust for modern parents.

Automated webinar transcript

 Calista Corley, CRO at Highlight: Hello everybody. Welcome to Showcase. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Calista, the Chief Revenue Officer here at Highlight. I am joined with two incredible insights leaders who are here to represent impactful brands and talk to us today about innovation in the parent and child. We're gonna start it out with some introductions. Steve. Give us an intro.

Steve Wolf, Director of Consumer Insights at Little Spoon: So I'm Steve. I'm the Director of Consumer Insights at Little Spoon. We are..

Calista: Little Spoon.

Steve: You have little spoon.

Calista: Yes.

Steve: So you know all about Little Spoon?

Calista: Yes. I am one of your customers.

Steve: Okay, well thank you for that.

Calista: And, you're welcome.

Steve: Our task is breaking the, well, you know, focusing on kids food, baby, and kids food, basically.

Calista : Amazing. Okay. Thank you for being here, Steve.

Steve: You're welcome. 

Calista: You're welcome. And Kris Krista, you're, tell us a little bit about you.

Krista Krista Maas de Villiers, founder & CEO at Nunona: Yes. I'm Krista. I am the founder and CEO of Nunona. Nunona is a real food pre and postnatal vitamin. So we focus on the field of nutritional programming from conception until the baby is two, filling mom's needs during this programming window for baby.

Because half of baby's programming actually happens through mom before they get onto solid food. Previous t o founding Nunona,  I was head of Global Marketing and Innovation for about a billion dollar infant formula brand.

Calista: Oh wow. Good for you.

Krista: So had deep category experience focused on baby. But then through lived experience learned that we're actually not paying enough attention to the earlier programming period, or to maternal nutrition that's being overlooked.So Nunona is solving for that.

Calista: That's great. Thank you. Well, thank you so much both of you for being here. I have so many questions and I'm so curious To start with you Krista, curious, how did you get here? What made you so excited to found this incredible company?

Krista: Right. So like I said, I worked in the category for a long time.

Calista: Yeah, yeah. 

Krista: I led global market research, thought we were doing amazing things. And then when I actually became the consumer, I Felt the gaps firsthand. When you are pregnant, knowing the science like I'm a dietician, like I've worked with, global key opinion leaders on the scientific side.

So understanding that when I was the consumer, I was like, great, this is what I wanna do. Looking for the products, couldn't find the right products that met the standards, that I had, and initially just became very frustrated. Right. The only thing on the market for women when they're pregnant is synthetic supplement.

Calista: Yeah.

Krista: Synthetic supplements are not fearmongering, but they're made with petroleum. Yeah. They're, they're synthesized in a lab. They're made with petroleum, and we're starting to see kind of what happens, and maybe that's not good for you, and now we're pulling back on red dyes. The consumer is getting smarter and they're demanding more, but already knowing this, it's like, that's not what I want.

That's not how I want to nourish myself or my baby. But then I couldn't find anything that would actually fit my needs. And then when I was postpartum. I was starving. I was like only focusing on the baby and letting my own nutrition slide. Not intentionally, but because you're just so consumed with them.

I said, do you need 500 calories? A day if you're breastfeeding, like in addition to what you're already eating, why are we only giving, you know, pills with no energy in them? Like that's, that's not good enough. That doesn't make sense scientifically. Why is this the mass market? So I started making this product literally for myself, and now it has 27 organic micronutrients from Real Food, but it gives you 270 additional calories.

So you're getting the macronutrients. With the micronutrients, which means you're actually absorbing them, but it's organic, so you're getting petroleum or pesticides.

Calista: So you saw the gap.

Krista: I actually think felt the gap.

Calista: Consumers, including myself as a mom of three, I don't think we realize what's truly in the supplements that we're taking or the gap that potentially exists. So it's really cool to hear you describe it scientifically, and I'm a little disappointed I didn't find you before.

Krista: We are pre and post and we were speaking post postpartum.

Calista: That's what I need. I need that.

Krista: It's, it's not like six weeks postpartum is literally, you can have postpartum depletion up to like seven to 10 years.

Calista: Yeah.

Krista: Your body literally gives everything to your baby, to make your baby, and then ultimately to feed your baby right? Postpartum if you're breastfeeding and it takes literally years to recover from that  nutritionally so we don't just need to like focus on mom when she's pregnant, we actually need to focus on her postpartum as well for her own health, but then equally so she can show up for baby.

Calista: Yeah. That's great. Thank you. And congrats again for such an incredible success you've had, and I'm so excited to unpack more with you in a second.

Krista: Thank you.

Calista: Steve, question for you. Little spoon. I did out myself. I am a consumer of Little Spoon. My children love your products and I wanna know all about the innovations. But before we get there, you are positioning the brand certainly as food and nutrition, but really as a holistic partner for your consumers. I'm curious, has there been something that has surprised you when it comes to what your consumers say they want versus what they actually want?

So we all know that say-do gap exists. I'm curious if you have any insight that has come up. I'm sure a lot. 

Steve: yeah, a couple decks at least.

Calista: They say this, but they really want this.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, parents are in this space. I mean, they want the absolute best for their children. And we play in a space that is in effect taking a category that was a little, you know, quiet, relatively, maybe call it 10 years ago, maybe even less.

And you know, adding modern touches to it. And to, I mean, get to your question of like parents, they want the best. So they want to know that what they're putting into their own bodies, they can also put the best what's possible into their children's bodies. And we as a, you know, our products range from as early as four months all the way up through, I mean, I'm a consumer as well.

Calista: Yeah. I might have just consumed myself.

Steve: I may have brought some treats. But, you know, it can, it can go up. You know, through adulthood and so on. But of course we focus on children, and I think the important part that's in there is like, you want the best for your child, but they also have to eat it.

It also has to fit certain criteria, you know, on a nutritional basis of what they actually need in their bodies, and you know, I mean, we all know, I think all of us here know at least the trouble that is a flipped over plate at dinner time. You know, there goes however many calories, however many nutrients, however many whatever, which is just on the floor.

And I think, yeah, to the save versus do gap, you're trying to talk to someone who is, you know, in one state in a survey, let's say. Wanting the best for their child, and then the other state it's dinner time and they just need to get them fed.

Calista: And that's competing priorities.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Always.

Calista: Yeah. That's interesting. I would say, you know, I think thinking about all of the needs of a parent. There's a lot of times the say-do gap exists because I definitely want nutrition, but I'm on the run and we're at a soccer game or something. You might make, you know, not the greatest choices, which is cool to me that little spoon is really as a brand creating a lot of trust, which I think is an important part of that.

Steve: So, yeah,  thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely. Just to the trust element, like parents, we don't have any time for ourselves, right?

Calista: No, none.

Steve: And if we have time, we're giving it to our children and as a result, we need to, you know, off board basically the trust elements to is it a pediatrician? Is it an influencer? It's something like that because at the end of the, if you can't trust what you're feeding into your child, like, you know, what can you do? Right? That's like table stakes. So yeah.

Krista: I think what little spoon does really well is. Not just trust, but transparency. Right. So showing behind the scenes, showing this is the lab showing heavy metal testing and this is what it is in organic blueberry, like from the shops versus. I think that education and that transparency is an area that the brand is really leading.

Steve: Yeah. It's the peace of mind play, essentially. If you can feel good that what you're putting in is not dangerous, at the very least, let alone. Nutritionally, you know, additive, then, you know, I mean, that's the whole game, right?

Calista: Yeah. Yeah. And it's also, we're always on the run as parents, right? So being able to see the brand and have that trust and know there's transparency is critical. And you're doing it. So, congrats.

Steve: Thank you.

Calista: And Krista, I know we hit this with you a little bit, but I wanna get into, and Steve, I'm not sure your, but what got you really invested in jumping into this space? So for you, you talked about a gap. But you're also a parent.

Krista: Yes. So I studied nutrition, I studied marketing. I ended up working with an infant formula. And I thought, this is the most amazing thing. Right. Like to have the ability, because our field is nutritional programming. So having the ability to positively influence the programming of a child that impacts them for the rest of their life, like what could be better,

Calista: What could be more nutrition important.

Krista: It always matters, but it matters the most. And this little window period of time. But then through my own lived experience, when I had my daughter, I was like, wait a minute, like my nutrition matters too. It's not just her nutrition, it's not just the scientists that are working in infant formula.

Right. What about the mom who's pregnant? What about the mom who's breastfeeding? We're trying to encourage breastfeeding, but we have no products to actually support it beyond lactation cookies,  right? Which is, you know, just a fallacy and predatory marketing and sugar and processed foods and, you know, it's, it's terrible.

And like that's the state of postpartum nutrition in America. We know better. But we need to actually do better. And at first I just felt it. I'm like, this is terrible. Like, I don't have the time to do this. I know what to do, but I don't have the capacity. Then I was like, well, if this is a problem for me as like a dietician and somebody who is passionate about this, like what's happening for everyone else?

So, it went from just like frustration to purpose.

Calista: Yeah. Great. Steve, what about you?

Steve: Yeah, I mean, not Dissimilarly. My son, our son was like seven months, eight months old when I first got a call from Little Spoon, so I was like in the thick of it.

Calista: Perfect time.

Steve: I mean, that is like starting solids period for us. We started around six months and so we saw like, I mean, we tried to go the route of cooking everything from scratch for our son. And that involved like, you know, taking  sweet potatoes and putting in the oven for however long. And I'm pureeing them... 

Calista: Pureeing them forever.

Steve: With whatever machine, whatever apparatus is gonna get through. And then of course, letting it cool down. And then of course, I mean, to the flip dinner plate...

Calista: Which is starving, right? It's still hot. Yeah.

Steve: And, and you know, I mean there's this like, food before one is just for fun element and like having been, breastfed, right? He was breastfeeding at the time, or taking milk.

You know, maybe he wasn't that hungry, like he tried the sweet potato, but then hours of work turned into just like, you know, a little bit of this and maybe he spit it out and maybe he got it, but like there was no satisfaction, let's say at the end of it. So I think that Little Spoon called right in this time.

And of course I saw how like quickly the brand was growing, how aligned my own like nutritional. I don't know, wants and needs for my own child, was you know, basically captured. And then there was the time element like, you know, it's just ready, it's just there, right. We're talking about cutting hours down to minutes and, I couldn't think of a more, you know, better place to work really than someone focused on making parents' lives easier and kids healthier.

I mean, there's few stronger missions than that I think.

Calista: Yeah.

Krista: Someone said to me, person, she's an influencer, but she was on a mom's group of mine. She said, I love Nunona, because when I eat it, I don't have to think. Right. And I think that that goes for a little spoon as well. It's such transparent thing.

It's taking away that mental load. Right.

Calista: Yeah. It's like every mental load off is so helpful.

Krista: Yeah. Yeah. If you eat this, like we've got you. You're getting what you need, your baby's getting what you need. Right. And you can just relax because it's a very challenging time and you wanna do everything right. Because the stakes feel so high and they kind of are...

Calista: They are high, pretty high.

Krista: Right. So it's just that, that ability to be like, if you do this... 

Calista: We've got you.

Krista: We've gone through all, everything that we could possibly consider to make sure you're getting the best and you don't have to stress about that anymore.

And you can, you know, that makes sense for baby food as well. It's like, what do we give them? Like how do we introduce the allergens, right? Like what texture is safe and what if they choke constant, like.

Calista: Yeah. All the things, constant. Like what texture is safe and what if they choke constant, like.

Krista: Right, because that's the most precious thing in the world to you. And like you need help.Because it's not just food, it's not just nutrition. It's not just mom's nutrition, it's clothing, it's diapers, it's strollers. It's overwhelming. Yeah.

Calista: Yes. It's juggling lots of things. So you all are saving parents, with that transparency and trust and nutrition, doing our best. I have a question for you.

Changes in this space, so I can think of a bunch and I'm curious. You are in it every day. So in the parent and baby space, what are the biggest trends? What are the biggest changes over the past, let's say six months that you see, Steve? You wanna start either one?

Steve: Sure. Yeah. I think that the biggest one is going back to that like 10 year, five year ago kind of lens, is that what we're differentiating factors five, 10 years ago are now just table stakes. I mean, we think about transparency, we think about new legislation that affects transparency. And heavy metals testing and so on. Like these are just what the category is right now. And so the stance that could have been years ago, like, oh, we're gonna make a better for you baby food, kids food, even, I mean, prenatal, postnatal kind of stuff is not even in the conversation as strongly that long ago. Right.

Krista: It'll be, yeah. Yeah.

Steve: But it will be.

Krista: Yeah. Because it needs to be.

Steve: Yeah, it absolutely, absolutely.

Calista: Yeah. What are your thoughts?

Krista: Yeah, I would take a broader lens as well than just like the last six months.

Calista: Yeah, of course.

Krista: But I would say. Probably at a macro level, just intentionality. I think people are having less babies. Right. And with having less babies, you're able to focus more on what you're doing for each one. So I think parents are being more intentional than maybe a generation ago.

And I think that that also couples with access to information. We can research anything. And maybe within the last six months. Now with the unlock of ai, right?

Calista: Oh my goodness. Let's go there.

Krista: So it's like you're incredibly intentional, but then you also have anything you possibly want to know. Whether it's right or not,  TBC. Right. But like at your fingertips, right? So what maybe would've taken you hours to research can be done in a few minutes. So then what does that do? That raises the stakes for all players in the category because now you have to make sure that you're able to supply all of those needs once wishes, whims, with your product offering.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny you brought up the parent or the influencer, right? Yeah. Who does just trust what you have, we, of course, trust is kind of a core component of what drives, you know, whatever purchase intent and retention and so on.

But one of my first projects at Little Spoon actually was defining trust, right? What bleeds up into trust? And one quote that came from one of our parents was nutritional labels. I'm in the store, Little Spoon, what have you. I don't need to read it anymore. I know that little spoon. I don't need to read this to the end, to the end of,AI and the information in coming in seconds.

It's also, there's a lot more information there and you have even less time to read whatever ChatGPT generated for you, I think. And so again, you have to out two seconds outsource someone else to just make this call for you have the standard for you as a parent so that you can just say you Nunona, like done whatever it is.

What flavor makes the decision easier than of course becoming a dietician or a reading or what have you.

Krista: Right. I mean, that goes back to brand building, right?

Calista: Right. Yeah.

Krista: And what does it actually mean to the consumer?

Calista: Yeah. Yeah, that was very clear. In terms of a lot of the trends happening. Is there anything we missed on potential future trends? When you think ahead, is there anything coming our way that maybe hasn't hit your brand yet?

Krista: Sure. I just, the standards are raising, right? So specifically within my category, I think consumers are going to become aware that there's petroleum in your prenatal.

Calista: Yeah, I can't believe I'm admitting this. I didn't know, I didn't know that.

Krista: Why would we, of you just, we kind of just accepted like it was like manufacturing efficiencies, rule nutrition. Right. We can make this cheaper, faster in a lab and synthesize it into a pill, and therefore that's good enough for the population and now we're realizing maybe it wasn't.

Calista: Not so great.

Krista: Right. So I think that's gonna change where people are gonna start questioning the food system more. They already are. But that realization of what's actually in the pill or in the bottle. Or like what you're putting into your body and what that does. I see that changing legislation within my category.

Pre and postnatal nutrition is going to be changing. It definitely needs to, heavy metals, we're gonna have a lot more awareness around that as well. These are all nutritional things. Yeah. but I think in general, just the knowledge and awareness of the consumer and the more that grows, the higher the demands go in terms of what they...

Calista: Higher expectations.

Krista: What they expect, but at that equally, marries with price. Right? You can deliver all of these amazing things, but what does that do to price? And then what does that do to like healthcare in general? Right. So I think that's probably gonna be Steve, from your perspective around like insights and innovation, you know, how do we solve for that?

But then equally make sure that this is something that is accessible to the mass.

Steve: Absolutely. It's gonna be a challenge. Yeah, it's, I mean, I think to. Piggyback off that, you know, we have some data that parents of this generation, right, are willing to basically forego paying a utility bill before they pay for their children's like food and specifically nutrition.

Like paying more for children's nutrition comes before basically something that's, you know, pretty critical, keeping the lights on and so on. And I think I bring that up because they're going to prioritize their child's nutrition, but we're not out here trying to rip people off. Right? There has to be some kind of balance and also real stakes, being raised right for everyone.

The bar that you'd say, Hey, this is a decision I'm making to prioritize my child's nutrition. That is gonna be available among other companies too, right? Little Spoon is not the only player in this game. And we'll continue to be even less of the only player in this game as time goes on, which I think just the onus is on us.

Yeah, both of us, right? To continue raising the bar of like what is, where is the benchmark, what does the future look like? The future of kids food for the future of pre and postnatal health to, I don't know, you know, like continue to win basically in a really competitive space with some seriously big players.

Calista: Right. It's the challenger brands though, right?

Krista: Yeah. It's not that these things aren't necessary well to some. To some effects, maybe not because like working in industry myself, I had blinders on until it was a lived experience. I'm like, wait a minute. Like I was like, oh my, okay, this, you know, we really need to shake things up.

But it's the challenger brands that have to do that for the bigger players to start to realize, oh, okay, somebody's doing it now. Like we need to, we need to stop sleeping on this. We need to actually innovate as well.

Calista: Speaking of that, thinking about renovating your brand current existing hero products versus innovation, how do you balance that?

I'm thinking about lots of players, right? Especially in your space. I would say. Well, both actually. Lots of players and the stakes are getting higher. So with that, are you thinking about innovation all the time? How do you keep up? How do you move the brand forward, and how do you balance that?

Steve: Yeah. One of, Little Spoon's values is that the customer is our center of gravity. And so I think that every conversation about like, should we do this? Should we stay where we're at? Should we find this new thing? It's just like, let's just bring it back to the customer, right? Like their center of gravity, what do they say?

And that then ladders into their need states essentially, which is a common term in insights where, like, what are they looking for? What are the pain points in any given category? And if the pain points are not something that we feel we can win with something that will be truly differentiating regarding, challenger brands if you're not pushing the needle then or pushing the envelope, then what's, what's the point? Right? To some extent, right? Like it might be a big category, but if we can't wow people, then that, for me is like, as it relates to innovation renovation, like, is this worth getting? 

We talked about bandwidth before, like there's only so many hours in a day. You can only focus on so many things. So yes, innovation is at the core of what we're doing. I mean, we are, we have 120 sku's now, which is massive.

Calista: That's a lot.

Steve: And yet there are so many categories and subcategories. I mean, we're talking about, call it six months to five years.

Like there's a lot of different things that kids are eating at those age stages. So. Yeah. I mean, short answer is innovation's top of mind for sure.

Calista: Yeah, I'm sure. And what about you?

Krista: We have eight SKUs. Right. And we're, we're just a few years in. In terms of innovation for us, we have, I mean, we have an entire timeline across the first thousand days mapped out, patented.

Like we know where we're going. But we're finally reaching a point where we can start bringing some more products to market. So next year,

Calista: How fun.

Krista: Every quarter we're gonna be launching new innovation.

Calista: That's great.

Krista: Which I'm really excited about because it's hard to like have it and then not be offering it to consumers.

So, and it's all around mom and like, how can we show up for mom and actually prioritize her nutrition in the pre and postnatal period. So we'll be launching four new products next year and we'll also be launching, a new flavor every quarter of our bites, which is our hero products.

So that's your pre and postnatal. It's real food. Flavor fatigue. We have seven different flavors. You're eating this every day. We wanna make sure that we're keeping that exciting and keeping the variety.

Calista: That is so exciting. I cannot wait. It's such a gap around the mom. You brought it out before, but it's really a gap in the market.

Krista: It's an afterthought. It's an afterthought. Yeah. Or not even a thought. Yeah. Right. So it's how can we actually solve. Yeah, for that, for mom and take that off her plate. 

Calista: I love that. And I love you are balancing with new flavors and your core product and what brought consumers to you while you're expanding in such big way. Congrats. That's great.

Krista: Thank you.

Calista: Okay. Taking a step back, thinking about retail strategy, whether you want to be on retailer shelves or not is one decision. And then what retailers, what is that decision tree? What goes through your mind as it relates to choices around retail strategy?

Krista: I know you guys are not in retail. Do you wanna make a...

Calista: Yeah. What's that decision and what's the plan there? You wanna tell us all the secrets here at Highlight Showcase?

Steve: What I think I will say is that, of course, this is a question that we get all the time.

Calista: I'm sure.

Steve: And at the same time, you know, we're about seven years old now, a little over that and just with DTC, we've been able, we're on track this year to do over $150 million in sales just online.

Calista: Yeah, that's so impressive.

Steve: With 120 skews, right? It's not just among eight skew. Know a little bit of time that gets in the middle there, but I think that

Calista: You have years. You have years on it. Yeah. She'll catch up.

Steve: But, I think the, the fact of the matter is like, consumers are, I mean, there's a convenience play with being DTC, right? There's a convenience play, of course. Like we're just shipped straight to your door, right. And the other side of it is the human connection side of it, where we have that direct relationship with our consumers.

I mean, I have a database that I access pretty frequently to just find out like, where am I getting these quotes? It's just from moms that I call up on the phone, right. And say, Hey, tell me about what does it mean? What does trust mean to you? That's not reading a nutrition label anymore. Right? And I think we've gotten to a certain scale.

I think to the innovation side, there's a lot more room to grow. And also like retail. Like that's a hard question. Like you gotta make sure that the fit is right because there's mom shopping at all different types of places too.

Calista: You're time, you're your trusted brand into retails. You know, brand trust. By the way, can you expand up to 11? Because I have an 11-year-old, so that should be in your innovation strategy.

Steve: I think the fruit ripper will go over very well.

Calista: I think so too. Yep. Thank you. What are your thoughts about retail?

Krista: I guess coming from a retail environment within infant formula? I was abroad, there was no direct to consumer marketing with infant formula. Everyone but America follows the WHO code. Right. So WHO code says you can't market directly to consumers in America? We do. So our only route to consumers is via retail. With Nunona, I've been very intentional to say we're not going to do it until I'm confident and we'll set some metrics and we'll do some polling that will be like, our consumers gonna be pulling the product out.

I think where a lot of brands go wrong is it's sexy to be in retail. And to say, look, we're here and we're there, and maybe it's kind of more like an ego metric than actually the best thing for the business, right? So like just the cost of the free fill. To fill the shelves for the product to potentially sit if the brand isn't ready for it. And then you only get one chance. Because if it doesn't sell through, you're out and all of that data gets shared. And you're not gonna get back in.

Right. So for me, I wouldn't say that I'm even a hundred percent confident that I want to do retail. But my benchmark is we won't even consider it until we know that the product is gonna get that pull through. We're doing things very differently at Nunona. We're very innovative.

We've got a lot of innovation we're gonna be bringing to market. Honestly, the gold standard is probably what we have where you actually have a connection with your consumer. You have their data, you can communicate with them directly. The market research we do is amazing.

Calista: Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Krista: Yeah, we have that relationship. We ask our consumers, we send them free product. You can't do that. When you start to like really break that relationship. And I think something to even add onto that is Amazon. Right? I mean, you don't get data with Amazon, you don't have that customer relationship by not being in Amazon, you're giving up some sales. Right. But it's definitely,

Calista: Yeah, it's balance.

Krista: Pros and cons. Balance. So retail, I think what a lot of brands get wrong is doing it too soon, and that's where we're at. We're not now. Maybe 2027 would be the earliest we would consider it. But right now, Target's had a huge push on baby.

Calista: Right? Yeah.

Krista: Right. There's a lot of brands that have gone in there. They're really shaking up the baby aisle, and they should be, I think they're making the right play as a retailer. But some of the brands that have gone in, some might be successful, others may not. And that's really expensive for emerging brands to take that gamble.

So I would rather really have full access to that customer relationship. And really build the brand to a point of strength where like it could be something we might consider, but we don't need it.

Calista: Yeah, I love that you said that. So, just to speak for highlight in our customers that I get a chance to work with every single day, like you, we support so many brands with claims testing to get on retailer shelves.

But before that, you, the thoughtful playbook design around making sure you have true, confident success metrics before you make that play. To be honest, sometimes it's hard to convince brands to take a step back. Because a lot of brands are like, get me on that shelf. Claims testing is huge. Get me in. So yeah, we deal with that every single day with brands that we work with.

Krista: It probably speaks to how competitive is your category. With little Spoon, kind of leading the fresh baby food, better standards and baby food with Nunona leading like real food, maternal nutrition. There isn't, you know, 10 other companies, that you can go to or that you would see on shelf.

We would be category creating at that shelf. So if you're a category creator the consumer is also just willing to go to your website.

Calista: That's right. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Also, I mean, where do they look for you in store? Like that's a whole challenge that you have because you're now just on a shelf with someone that's not in your category if you're a category creator.

And I think like the businesses that gets thrown around with this one is, it's a one-way door, not two-way door. Right. You go in, there's no going back. Right. You've now gone to retail, so you wanna make sure to get it right. And make sure it's a success right out of the gate.

Krista: And if you don't have to, then maybe that's even better.

Calista: Yeah. I think it speaks so much to being very thoughtful about your brand's retail strategy, whether it's at some point, whether it's not because it's not, right? Fair. There's so many components to it, including the success and metrics around your product and the relationship you have with consumers.

Krista: I mean, with shipping so quick. Right. Consumers probably receive your product within 48 hours.

Calista: I know it's one thing if it was years ago where you couldn't get products fast enough.

Krista: Subscription. Right. Like it's really solving a lot of things that retail can't do. Like you have to get out now you've got a, you know, you're pregnant or you've got a baby.

Calista:You have to like, yeah. Run to the store. 

Krista: go to the grocery store.

Calista: You have like, things are changing. It makes it more accessible.

Krista: Yeah. The pros and cons. But I think it's great for us to not need it. And if it makes sense, eventually we will be incredibly intentional about the strategy to pursue it.

Calista: Smart. I love to hear it.

Krista: With a lot more skews.

Calista: She'll be at 120, before you know it.

Steve: Yeah. I can't wait.

Calista: All right. Okay. What is one goal for your brand? One particular goal that you have for your brand over the next 12 months that you wanna share with us here?

Krista: I already shared. So our goal is that we're gonna be expanding from like a one product, eight SKU company, to having multiple, we'll have like five different products and then SKUs within those products over the next 12 months. So that's a big change.

Calista: That is a big goal

Krista: In our brand. So we're, yeah, we're really excited.

Calista: Are you feeling ready for it?

Krista: Absolutely, because it's a lot. Honestly, it's a lot easier when you're direct to consumer. Right. Launching a new product. When you're direct to consumer versus launching a product at retail scale and level is completely different.

So it's like understanding the consumer needs state testing it with potentially low volume production. Testing it, tightening up anything if you need to. Optimizing it and scaling it. And you can do that a lot easier when you're direct to consumer. You can get immediate feedback, you can tweak it.

You can't do that when you're on retail shelves.

Calista: Yeah.

Steve: I agree. And, yeah, me too. One goal for Little Spoon that I have at least, is kind of what I mentioned earlier, which is just like deepening the platform like deepening and getting our fingers and knees and so on, even deeper into the platform that we've already built.

We have got something pretty special. With the age ages we talked to today and the gaps in like, just call it the calorie counts. That people are right now filling with Little Spoon versus something filling with something else, right? Like there's plenty of room to grow there.

The deeper part also talks to just the awareness piece. You know, Little Spoon is a pretty big company, but still, you know, most people may not have heard of it and certainly haven't picked it up at this point. We got millions of customers, but not the like, you know, tens and hundreds of millions that we might eventually get to. You know, we've got something special. I think that just continuing to do what we do best is gonna be, at least for the next year, the main goal.

Calista: That's a great goal. I am so impressed with that. I thank you both so, so much for joining us today.

Steve: Of course.Thank you for having us.

Calista: What incredible brands, what incredible insights leaders we have. Thank you, Krista. Everything you're doing at Nunona is so impactful. I'm gonna be in touch with you. And then thank you Steve. Also, Little Spoon. You all are inspiration. What you're doing is so great, and we're so proud to have you Join us today at Showcase.

Thanks guys. Thank you for those of you here in the audience, thank you so much for being with us today. Don't worry, we will be following up with all sorts of details, about this great panel and about everything you've heard today. And also we have a lot more coming up. So get ready. Thanks so much for joining us.