In this session of Highlight Showcase 2025, we explore the world's favorite macronutrient. Protein is no longer just for bodybuilders—it’s for everyone. Join this session to uncover how brands are formulating next-gen protein-packed products that fuel performance, satisfy cravings, and meet evolving consumer needs and wants.

Automated webinar transcript

Nate Rosen, founder at Express Checkout:  Welcome back to Showcase. I'm Nate Rosen, founder of Express Checkout, and today we're here to dive into the biggest trend in food and beverage world, protein. Today I am joined with two amazing people, Casey and Elan, and we're gonna dive into protein. Welcome Elan. Let's hear a little bit about yourself.

Elan Halpern, co-founder at Sourmilk: Awesome. Thanks for having us.

Nate: Yeah, of course. My name's Elan. I am one of the co-founders of Sour Milk Yogurt. We're a probiotic yogurt that's specifically designed for your gut. It's a Greek yogurt, so it's high protein and, and low-carb and all of those things, but we took the probiotics that you might find in a pillar powder supplement and put them into a yogurt so you get the equivalent.

We are very new. We just started working on this back in January, and I've done a whole kind of distributed market sort of thing in New York City. I've been selling that way, but yeah, excited to dive into protein.

Nate:  Awesome. Casey, welcome.

Casey Young, Sr Manager of Consumer Insights at CLIF Bar:  Hi. Good to see you. See you too. I'm Casey Young. I am a consumer insights professional within the food and beverage space, I've spent the past five and a half years in the bars category specifically, working for brands such as Cliff Bar, Luna Z. Bar, and Builders within, now at Mondelez's International.

Nate: Amazing. Very fun. We love bars, we love yogurt. I like both sometimes together.

Elan the brand name, Sourmilk. It's certainly memorable. It's punchy, it's descriptive. Can you share a little bit about the story behind the name and sort of what inspired you to take on the yogurt space, which is a crazy space to start in.

Elan: Yeah. No, absolutely. So, I mean, I'll start with the, the yogurt space and I'll tell a little story about the name. It's a funny story there. So,  I have always kind of been a health nut and somewhat of an optimizer.

Nate: A bio biohacker. 

Elan: So speak bio, hacker speak. I  have always kind of done health tests and experiments on myself. I was an athlete in college, so my co-founder and I both went to Stanford and I was on the rowing team, so diet and fitness and, and that whole thing was always a really big part of my life.

And a couple years ago I was actually facing a bunch of gut health issues and this manifested in really interesting ways. So, you know, you get the classic bloating and chronic inflammation, but there was also things like brain fog and I even got a hormone panel done and all my hormones are really low, which is crazy because I was in my early twenties at the time.

Yeah. So, it sort of set me down this rabbit hole of like, what's going on and as it turns out, all roads led back to the microbiome. So I don't know how much you guys know about gut health, but it's just this incredible powerhouse that really contributes to our entire wellbeing every single day.

Like 70% of your immune system resides there. 90% of your serotonins produce there. So there's a ton of mental health connections to your gut.

Nate: Wow.

Elan: Yeah. And so I decided to start paying attention to this, and in the process of trying to heal my gut, I learned that one of the best ways to do so is by consuming probiotics.

And at the time I was eating a lot of Greek yogurt. Our coach after practice would make us all a Greek yogurt bowl. So it was just like a part of my everyday routine, which is actually a key part here. You know, that being that I was already eating this product, but when I looked at all the yogurt on the shelf.

I realized that none of it is actually probiotic. And you know, Greek yogurt that's plain can be high protein and low carb, which is great, but it's not really doing anything for your gut. And so what I did was actually decided to reverse engineer a yogurt and make it the equivalent of a probiotic supplement, first and foremost.

And then I figured out how to make it taste good. And so now I could take this thing that I was already eating every single day. Something that 92% of American households are already eating every single day and actually make it really good for my gut. And so that was sort of the kernel of what Sourmilk is today.

That was years ago. I've been eating this product myself for like years. It totally healed all of my gut health issues that I was facing. And, we're taking that product to market now with Sourmilk.

Nate: Wow.

Elan: Yeah. And then the name thing, the quick, the quick story on the, we actually had a different name when we first launched.

Nate: I remember that.

Elan: Yeah, you might have remembered that. And we ended up getting, you know, I think this was like maybe two days before we were about to order 40,000 units of our packaging. And, you know, doing the whole gambit...

Nate: It is always the best timing.

Elan: Right. We get a cease and desist from another company that shares a name.

Our previous name was Benny. And there was another company that shared the name Benny. They were in the energy drink space, which is different from yogurt, but we're in the same sort of category. And so, we get the cease and assist and we're like, you know, we basically have like three options. We could either try and like, push back and, spend a bunch of legal fees fighting it.

We could just like hope for the best because you know, we're both pending, so it doesn't matter. Or we could kind of do damage control and pivot now.

Nate: Yeah.

Elan: And so we decided to take the third option and the way we really thought about name was like, let's actually use this as an opportunity to open more doors.

So name is like a huge aspect for any consumer brand as like you both know.

Nate: Oh yeah.

Elan: And our criteria for this new name journey was number one we need it to be memorable. Right. So, so often, especially in the yogurt category, people are like, I eat the one with the red talk and the one with the green thing, like no one knows what it is.

Number two, we want it to be easy to pronounce. I think the other thing with yogurt is that people don't know how to say a lot of the brand names and, you know, Fage, Siggis, Chobani, you know, they're all kind of funny names. And then number three was that we wanted it to help you understand what the product is.

And we were really inspired by things like Liquid IV and you know, some of these other Vitamin Water, even some of these other companies where you read it and you're like, I get, I get what this is. And so we decided to go with Sourmilk, which is something that kind of helps us stop the scroll and is also tells you about what the product is.

Nate: It's very punchy and there really isn't. That doesn't really exist in the, in the yogurt space too much. I think the closest thing I could think of would be Activia.

Elan: Yeah. Yeah. A little bit, yeah.

Nate: Actually that's a good thing. But they, they've had their own set of problems, which could be a whole other discussion.

But also, you know, makes sense too, especially with this protein craze. Like hearing a name like Sourmilk, what do you know? You know, yogurt's a bit sour. But then the milk party, you know, you know what you're getting, you know, and protein bars are the og like protein snack. I mean obviously there's, there's eggs, there's yogurt.

But in terms of packaging it for the mass market, for convenience, I feel like protein bars were a big thing and Clif was a big brand, you know, when Mondelez's bought them, it made a lot of sense to me. And recently we've seen a lot of demand for protein from consumers. How have you seen demand from consumers evolve even over the past few years? because it's shifted a lot.

Casey: Yeah, certainly. So to us, like protein has been a critical macronutrient for active people for over 30 years is how long Clif has been playing in this space. Obviously in more recent years we've seen that extend massively to many different product categories and also, you know, people's desires as far as how much protein they're seeking.

People just want more and more of it. So, we have another brand called Builders out there that is really, appealing more to people who are seeking higher levels of protein. So there's just a mass proliferation of protein products and different needs for different types of people and products that satisfy anything that they may be seeking.

Nate: Protein has proliferated through social media recently, I think there's been a lot of fitness influencers. There's been a lot of just influencers just talking about, Hey, you need to get your protein. Has the way consumers from their preferences through influencers and online content changed either of your approaches as well?

Casey: Yes. Yeah. I would say it has had a massive influence, to your point, even just, the consumption of influencers content, kind of seeding the conversation and acting as the buzzwords or the, you know, what people are gravitating to in this moment is just, you know, talking about protein, but for us, in addition to the development, I think it's massively influencing the marketing of those products as well.

So you know, people are really being pushed by who do they trust? So people trust their friends, they trust their family, and now they trust these personalities who, are the ones that they are electing into following to be informed by those people. So they are having a huge influence on, you know, sharing about how consumers are finding out about  these products.

Nate: Yeah. You seeing something similar?

Elan: I mean, I totally agree. I think we at Sourmilk , my co-founder and I both make a lot of content. She

Nate: Yeah. You guys are influencers in your own rights.

Elan: Yeah. So we do a lot of, we, we do it all in-house. Really? Yeah. so we haven't partnered with any influencers directly, but I think the whole thing is around communication and how do you tell a story or explain a product.

You know, 10 years ago we might have made the same exact dish and said, this is a low fat X, Y, and Z dish. And now it's a, this is a high protein X, Y, and Z dish. And that sort of like trigger description word is so pivotal in all of the content that we made, in all of the recipes that we show and the things that we're purchasing.

Nate: Yeah. Casey, you mentioned the Builders bar a little bit earlier. I'm familiar with that subset of, of Clif Bar. I've purchased it and I've seen now, you know, now that there's a merger, the Oreo has come into it. But yes. I'm curious to hear a little bit more about how Clif is thinking about expanding that line and getting that into, you know, a wider audience now that especially protein bars are, are also such a hot topic.

Casey: Yep. So again, this is a brand that has been around for decades. But, it's really in this moment of expanding beyond just serving like a bodybuilder type of audience. So, I've spoken to all sorts of people seeking protein, for a variety of reasons and what's most important to them, and there's big differences in what these people aur seeking, you know, you range everything from like the hardcore protein seeker who is really looking for the functional benefits of muscle recovery and rebuilding muscle mass, and things.

Very functional benefits where they really have ultimately nutritional needs. Where high quantities of protein are critical and those individuals are willing to sacrifice a little bit in terms of taste in order to achieve their nutritional needs.

But then there's a newer universe of more casual protein seekers who maybe aren't quite as strict on, they're willing to accept slightly lesser protein, but then you really have to deliver something that tastes great. So, there's just a broader range of people, seeking these types of products and what's important to individuals.

Nate: Yeah. No. Yeah. Taste matters a lot. I think especially as protein is spread to a, to what you're saying, a much wider audience of of folks, thanks to social media and thanks to all of these brands coming on the market, it, I could really see builders sort of taking a lot more market share over the next few years is more people just also want something that tastes good as well.

I think something that has also come up recently is the rise of GLP-1. And that has impacted the protein market greatly. In what ways do both of you think GLP-1 usage has or will continue to impact the CPG product innovation?

Elan: Yeah. I mean, I think it, it plays a massive role in where the food industry at  large is going.

I mean, the, the majority of America, I think is obese at this point. So above 50%, so they're is a lot of people who are going to be starting to take GLP-1 and GLP-1 analogs. And when you're on a GLP-1 you, the weight that you lose, I think is like something like 30 to 60% in terms of lean muscle mass.

So GLP-1 consumers and users have to make up for that loss in lean muscle mass by consuming much more protein. So I think that there's sort of like a bunch of factors that play into it. Number one is obviously marketing and it's communication and these foods that have always had protein in them, naturally things like yogurt and things like protein bars are gonna have to double down on that messaging.

And then number two, what, which I think is really interesting in in terms of trends is we're seeing protein showing up in bizarre places.

Nate: Yeah, we are.

Elan: We're seeing protein, ice cream, we're seeing protein pizza, we're seeing protein, popcorn...

Casey: Protein, everything.

Elan: So you're starting to see it, and I think it's in some ways reflective of like the numbers game that we're playing. Right? So there's the GLP-1 users have to consume a lot more protein than normal people. But also there's all this new research and data saying that you should consume one gram per pound of ideal body weight. Which, you know, for, that's a lot.

That can be a lot of protein for people. And those numbers are really hard to hit. And so now you have to convert your dessert that was just your dessert to also a contribution to your, to your number hitting game.

Nate: Right.

Elan: So I think all of that contributes to the changing evolution of foods. And I think for products like Greek yogurt that is high in protein, it's really going to be at the forefront of our messaging.

Like the thing that's on the front of our package is how many grams of protein is in this. And you know, several years ago that might not have been the case.

Casey: Yeah, it's very disruptive to  the food industry right now. So about like eight to 10% we're seeing reported, of Americans are currently on GLP-1's. And there are many, many more people interested, especially if the pharmaceutical companies can expand beyond the injectable format. So it is something to your point, people on the GLP-1's are seeking more protein, because it is believed to increase the effectiveness of those GLP-1's and also to make sure that they're preserving their, their muscle mass as losing that weight.

And then just from a, an impact standpoint, these medications are satiating people, right? So, their GLP-1 users are still having those snacks and meals, but they don't need, huge snacks and meals. So portion control I think will become  more, you know, focus of interest for GLP-1 users of how are we offering products that are the appropriate size  for their snacks and meal needs.

Nate: Yeah. And it's something, it's not going away anytime soon. And there's many brands even putting GLP-1 friendly on pack or even in just like backup pack descriptions. And Yeah.

Elan: I mean, I've heard of restaurants making GLP-1 menus, like how you have a kid's menu when you went to a restaurant.

I've heard that they're the same foods, just like smaller portions.

Nate: Yeah. I mean, if it's already at 8 , 10, 12% of Americans that It's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. And it makes sense that it's playing such an impactful role in this world. As we've been discussing, protein is very pervasive now.

It's in everything. It's in popcorn, it's in of course bars. It's in pretzels, it's in ice cream. It's crazy how many different products there are, but there's also a lot of different types of consumers. I'm curious, how do you build a product that delivers to protein lovers, but across all these demographics and behavioral stats especially because like yogurt is almost a blank slate.

So for you, do you feel like it's more of just different marketing sets, you make different videos, different ads, different sort of, how do you find the right.

Elan: Yogurt. Yeah. Yogurt's a really interesting product because it's so versatile. So you can have it like savory, sweet in the morning, at night, in the afternoon as a snack.

Like all these different ways,  and you know, in our case, yogurt itself is 92% household penetration in America. So it makes our like target customer raise pretty, pretty large. I think the really interesting thing as it pertains to protein, is that, you know, we're simultaneously seeing protein show up in all of these interesting foods and places and,  maybe in unexpected ways, and it kind of sits at the intersection of this other movement that is back to traditional whole foods.

It is the raw milk movement. It is the grass fed beef? It is the, you know, local eggs, like get your protein from a piece of chicken, not from a potato chip. And I think  we, I feel fortunate in this moment because yogurt is, is a whole food product. It just has probiotic cultures in our case and milk.

But I think that these two things are in some ways at odds with each other. There's like the protein-maxers who are just trying to hit that number and then there's this like, move away from processed foods. And a lot of the new protein things that we're seeing are like ultra processed food. 

So I think that that intersection is going to be interesting to follow.

Nate: Yeah, I think that that makes a ton of sense. And I think going off of that, you know, the world of like better for you foods has shifted a lot and it probably will shift a lot more in the next 12 months, probably even six months.

But are there any tools or strategies either of you're using to sort of future gaze and try to understand the trends before they happen or even as they're happening to sort of best prepare your brands for the next 12 months, 24 months in the future.

Casey:  Definitely. It's the core of my work that I do and, it ultimately comes down to, we look at things on a bit of a curve, like is a trend dormant, is it, you know, a few conversations here and there by the real, starters of a conversation. Is it emerging, growing more in a mature place? And it's really having the knowledge of your brand, of where consumers expect your brand to play, with those, within those trends from either a claims perspective with nutritionals, flavors, things like that.

Like, are you a brand that is gonna be the first to introduce something? Or are you gonna ensure that it has been growing and developing for a bit of time and you're gonna  capture the wave as it has been increasing. So I think it's really, you know, yeah.

Nate: Yeah.

Elan: I think for us, there's a couple of things. We've been doing, a lot of building in the public. So based, you know, and what that means in context is. We basically share every single thing about the company from like, Hey, we got a cease and desist and we need a new name. Like that was, we immediately posted. It was, what do you guys think? To, Hey, what should we choose for our color for this specific thing?

So all of it is built in the public and because of that, we have this really tight feedback loop with all of our customer base and followers, and we're able to immediately get feedback and input about what they wanna see and what they like and what they don't like. And so that's been really helpful for that.

And the other thing I would say is that like social media is just an incredibly powerful tool for monitoring trends. I mean, you know better than most. I can think of a one concrete example. Is there, there seems to be this sort of interest in dates this year. I dunno if you guys have noticed that, but you're seeing dates show up a lot.

And traditionally that's been like a kind of ethnic food

Casey: Dates, the food.

Nate: Dates. Well, I mean, dating has also showed up a lot. There's a lot of that out there.

Elan: I'm referring to the food,

Casey: The dried fruit.

Elan: Yeah. And I think it, it's sort of, yeah, now become a very mainstream food, whereas historically  it was pretty niche.

And, you know, Kiki and I saw that trend was like, okay, let's, let's make a date. Yeah, let's make a date video. We made a date video and it like went crazy viral, like one of our most watched videos. I think that's an example of like, okay, we're seeing this kernel start to spread. We're seeing people talking about this thing.

Let's make a social media post and post it. And if it goes viral and there's a lot of good feedback on it, then you know, that's probably a thread you want to keep pulling. So it kind of is, is a really interesting experiment ground for that.

Nate: Right. Yeah. There's  a lot of ways you can, you can test on there and get really quick feedback.

And the nice thing too about also being under the monolith umbrella is you have so much data. Lots of so much and historical data too, so you can actually see where things have moved over time, which I actually think is really interesting because a lot of CPG hasn't, I mean, it's changed a lot, but there's also, I think, learnings from the past also understand how we got here.

Casey: It can help you and hurt you because, sometimes things are just a matter of right thing at the wrong time.

Nate: True.

Casey: And so you always need to have the context of what was, you know, what was the context of why something in the past might have worked well or didn't work well?

Nate: Right.

Casey: You know, what did, was it a matter of the world just wasn't ready for it? Or was it truly a reflection of it wasn't the right decision?

Nate: Right. Yeah, the context matters. I mean, especially around the conversation about protein today. Like it, we, there's a lot of things happening as to why it's becoming so popular, and it would be really hard to discuss it without that context.

Casey, I would love to hear from you about sort of this, what the world a better for you might look like, in the next 12 months, 24 months. And how you're sort of thinking about that.

Casey: Oh, how I wish I had my crystal ball. But I mean, I think protein will continue to be, something we see on the rise as we talked about.

Especially should there be, more adoption of the GLP-1's. I think those two conversations go hand in hand. The one that I am very curious to see how things unfold. Is the world of sugar. So probably equal to protein is the changes going on in consumers. You know, understanding and changes going on  in the sugar landscape and more.

Products touting low no sugar. Yet those products aren't arrived to without, often like alternatives being subbed in, and consumers are becoming a lot more knowledgeable about those alternatives. So in the next 12 to 14 months, I think we will see how this all shakes off. Is this a trade off that consumers, feel good about or will it be more like, the world of reduced fat in the nineties?

That there's people revert back to, you know what, I'm okay with a moderate amount of this product. So I think that is something in the Better For You space that will be very interesting to see how it continues to evolve and unfold.

Nate: Thank you.

Casey: Yeah.

Elan: Yeah. I have a, I can I add to that? I think it, I totally agree with everything that you're saying and I think my possibly hot take on the better for you space is that. I can see a world in which the term better for you becomes somewhat obsolete or devalued. In the same way that naturally flavored did. Like in the, you know, originally naturally flavored is actually like a great thing.

It was like, oh, that means that it's a natural product. I would argue that now consumers see naturally flavored and think artificial. Like, they see that and in their head they're like, oh, that means it's artificial. And I can see the, the term better for you becoming so diluted. To the point where people become dismissive of it.

And there might be a reversion back to just like, is it a whole food or not? And that is how you define like something that, is it made with nuts or is it made with some random chemical that makes it taste like some sort of way? Is it, you know, made with milk or are there added guar gums and stabilized?

Like what, what is it actually in the product? And that becomes the like true definition of what's "good for you" or "better for you" is like what's in the product.

Nate: Yeah. That's a good hot take. Yeah. The consumer education piece too. A lot of consumers I feel like,  one either feel like they're more educated or are actually more educated.

Have either of you sort of found that has sort of shifted the way you present your products too, because seemingly more people, at least think they're more educated on these products,  and the ingredients inside of them because there's tons of influencers, you know, sharing information. Plus people are also more curious about what's in their food.

And I feel like especially with this protein trend, people are even more curious. Has that shifted the way you sort of think about presenting the products and even, you know, product development going forward?

Elan: Yeah, I mean, I would say a hundred percent. Like I think, you know, years ago if we were to reference a probiotic supplement, people would be like, what the, what is that?

You know, what is a pro? Why would I take a probiotic supplement? And now we can say that as a part of our explanation for what Sourmilk is, and people get it. They're like, oh yeah, I take seed, or I take another probiotic, and then understand what that is. So I think that, that there's assumptions made about how we communicate in terms of what the, you know, consumer knows and doesn't know.

As a rule of thumb, I think it's always best to assume the consumer knows nothing, but there are certain privileges that we can take now in terms of their education around protein and probiotics and things like that.

Casey: And both of us play in a very crowded landscape. I mean,

Nate: Fair, I think, to the grocery store.

Casey: You wake up, and you know, there's more brands, more options for people.

And so when you're, you're shelf shopping the shelf, I think a lot does, consumers are by default educating themselves because before when there were fewer choices. They didn't put a whole lot of stake into, they're shopping, they're putting their favorite brands in their cart and they're going on their way.

Now they see all these options and they're actually spending time like, how do I make this decision? Let me compare brand A versus brand B. What am I getting in this one that I'm not getting in this one? So, they are investing more time in making these product comparison and so they're more informed of.

What's, on the back of the label? Both from a nutrition standpoint, from an ingredient standpoint, all of these things.

Nate: Awesome. Wow, that's a lot of information. If people wanna find more information and hear from you, where can they find you?

Elan: Yeah. Sourmilk's Instagram handle is at getsourmilk. My co-founder posts a lot of the behind the scenes of our product and building and her handle is at CouchWoman. And then I post a lot on LinkedIn. Elan Halper on LinkedIn.

Nate:  Amazing. Casey?

Casey: Also on LinkedIn, Casey Young.

Nate: I'm also on LinkedIn if anybody's curious. Awesome. And with that we'll wrap up our protein panel discussion.

It was a protein packed day. And we will be sharing information about how you can find more on Elan and on Casey and on Sourmilk and on Clif Bar. Stay tuned because there's more to come.