Kuli Kuli Foods - Surviving an Avalanche and Building a Brand That Lasts

Ramon Vela (00:00)
Welcome back everyone. This is going to be a great show. I have with me such an interesting founder and brand. Please welcome Lisa Curtis, who is founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods. Welcome to the show.

Lisa Curtis (00:26)
Thanks for having me, excited to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:29)
Well, I appreciate you making time for me. I know you're busy, you're running a company, and I appreciate just giving me and my audience a little time to kind of get to know who you are and who the brand is. I have a lot of questions. As I mentioned to you right before we started, I had an opportunity to re-go over your website because I had done it once, and I just found it fascinating, and I've just got a ton of questions. But let's start off with...

my sort of my first question, which is sort of my signature question, and that is one of gratitude. And I asked this question for those of you who are new and listening. I'm a big believer in gratitude. I've used gratitude as a way to relieve stress and anxiety as an entrepreneur. It has helped me through some of my darkest moments back in 2008. I had to close the business and it just took its emotional toll on me. And gratitude was that thing that really helped me. It's free.

It's available to everyone and it's extremely powerful. Whether you journal, you pray, or you meditate, I meditate. But it's ⁓ any way you use it, it can be really helpful. The other reason why I ask this is that I'm a big believer that it's really easy for consumers to see a product online or on the marketplace and simply think of it as a sort of a faithless corporation. And I want people to know that there are real people

care deeply about their product and about their mission, about their communities that we feature here on the show. And one way of getting to know someone is by understanding what they're grateful for. So Lisa, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential?

Lisa Curtis (02:08)
Yes, before I answer that question, I wanted to plus one in the sense that I also have a gratitude practice. actually every night before I go to bed in a calendar on my wall.

physical calendar, I write down one little thing in each square for the day that I'm grateful for. And I think it is the singular reason I am still running Kuli Kuli after 12 years. There's lots of ups and downs, but if you can pour some gratitude into it, it goes a long way. So in answering your question, someone who I'm incredibly grateful for is a mentor of mine named Wendy Davidson. And I met her probably now like seven

Ramon Vela (02:33)
Thank

That's great.

Lisa Curtis (02:52)
years ago, I was an emerging entrepreneur. We had just raised our first round of funding and I told her the story of Kuli Kuli and what I was trying to do. And she said, you know, do you want help? I was like, I would love help. I would love connections. And, know, often people say things like that, particularly very busy people. was a very high level executive at the time. And I followed up and sent her a note, you know, would love any connections. And I was blown away.

She introduced me to execs at Starbucks, at Walmart, at huge major retailers and potential customers for us. She gave one of the kindest introductions I've ever received in the sense of telling them how inspired she was by me, by what I was building, and really opened the door for Koolie Koolie to get introductions. Now Walmart is one of our largest

customers. So that is definitely someone who I am still very grateful for and very much still consider her to be a mentor.

Ramon Vela (03:58)
Wow, that's fantastic. you know, it's it's amazing that it's on this journey, this entrepreneurial journey. You have these people who show up in your life, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in much larger ways. But there's just a lot of people. And it's really important, like you mentioned about your gratitude practice, to kind of remember these things, because it could be it could be very trying this journey. There's obstacles all the time. There's big, small ones.

you know, term ones. There's obstacles all the time. And then of course, not to even mention your own sort of mental health, you know, it's tough facing rejection. There's sometimes you don't feel like you can do what you're doing. Sometimes you feel like giving up. Sometimes you feel like you just don't want to get out of bed. I mean, there's all sorts of different ways you feel. And it's just really great to have those memories that you can turn back to and those people in your life.

that really kind of motivates you and just really make you feel like, okay, you know what, one, there's really great people out there who really want to help others, even they may or may not get financial gain. And then there's people out there who really can motivate you and really want to help you succeed because they see something in you, my question, they see something in you that maybe sometimes you don't even see within yourself. And so I love that. So, wow, thank you for sharing that.

And by the way, have you closed the loop? Have you told her how much she meant to you?

Lisa Curtis (05:27)
I have, and actually the reason she came to my mind, A, because she's my mentor and B, because she is now joining our company more formally and joining our board, which is probably the most exciting thing I can ever think of. So it's really cool to see how, you know, mentorship over the years can sometimes turn into a more formal business relationship too.

Ramon Vela (05:54)
Yeah, that's fantastic. Great to hear that. So I was fascinated by by what you're doing. There's a couple of components within it that I really love. And for everyone out there, as I mentioned, the brand is called Kuli Kuli Foods or we'll just refer to as Kuli Kuli. And you can go to CoolieCooliefoods.com is the website if you want to check out what we're talking about. And I found it fascinating for a couple of reasons. One is it hits

several different areas that I find really interesting and I think a lot of people do. One is it's about health and wellness. And so you're exploring the superfood space and making that available to people. You're bringing a lot of ingredients that I hadn't really thought about before or hadn't heard about and or don't know enough about. And I think that's pretty cool to kind of, you know, there's a lot of foods out there and

And we see the same ones over and over again. So I like to see this mixture and this, and, and, ⁓ and this variety that you have within your product line. And then the third thing was I love how you work with these farm, ⁓ these, ⁓ small local farms in these areas that you work with in Africa and India and so forth. And I think that's really cool. Like there's, there's, there's sort of like, and then of course, I think there's also a sustainability aspect to it. So you have a variety of different things that I think just make.

coolly, coolly so fascinating and I think attractive to a lot of people. So right off the bat, that's more of an observation than a question, but I have to tell you that I was just really fascinated the more I read about the company.

Lisa Curtis (07:28)
Thank you. Appreciate that.

Ramon Vela (07:31)
Yeah, of course. Well, so I guess the question is for those who haven't gone to the website yet and haven't really heard the story, what is the impetus to starting the brand? And then also, most importantly, if you can add this component of it, I saw that you, I don't know what kind of business background you have, but I'm wondering

You know, I'm fascinated by people who not only have a great idea, but, you know, jump off the fence and, and, and make the effort to try to turn it into a reality, right? Cause that's where most people stop, right? They have a great idea, but they're like, well, you know, I don't have time. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to start a food company. I don't know anything about manufacturing or formulation or anything like that. But I would love to find out what it is about you that motivated you to say, yeah, I may not know how to do this, but I'm going to try.

So with that said, tell us how it would

Lisa Curtis (08:26)
Yeah,

it's a great question. So I've been doing this for 12 years, believe it or not. And our story actually begins even farther back. In 2009, I joined the Peace Corps. So I was a volunteer in Niger, West Africa. And I was placed in a very rural village in Niger with no electricity, no running water, and not a lot of healthy food.

And I'm a vegetarian and found that there was very little for me to eat. I was eating kind of like, you know, rice and pasta every day and it was a diet that left me feeling really tired, really weak, just...

I was lacking in protein and vitamins and minerals. So I asked some of the women in my village, what can I eat to give me more energy, to give my body the nutrients that I was lacking? And they literally pulled these leaves off a tree and mixed them into a popular local peanut snack called Kooli Kooli. And they said, eat this Kooli Kooli Moringa, it'll make you feel better. And I was like.

tree leaves like what what is this but totally trusted these women and at that point i would have taken anything just to feel better so i started eating this coolie coolie moringa snack every single day and after about a week or so i i just felt

Like I was totally transformed. Like it transformed my health in a way that nothing else ever had. And so I did some research. I was like, you know, what is moringa? Like I've never heard of it before. I learned that moringa is a tree, grows all over the tropics and the leaves are packed with.

protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and minerals. It's kind of like nature's multivitamin. And it also has all these phytonutrients and medicinal benefits around inflammation, around people use it to manage diabetes, a lot of really cool properties. And so I started just asking some of the women in my village, how do we get more people locally to grow it and eat it? I was living in a village with very high malnutrition and long story short, they're like, we're not gonna grow

a crop that we can't sell. There's not really a market for moringa here, but how about you help us sell it and if we can sell more of it, we'll grow more of it and we'll eat more of it locally. And I was 22 at the time and I was like, sure, no problem. I'll help you sell moringa in the US. Like no big deal. forward to today. I'm still doing it. And you know, as to your question at the beginning.

I had no background in business. joined the Peace Corps right after college. As I was starting Kuli Kuli, I worked at another startup kind of part-time.

just to pay my rent, but really learned by doing. And I think that's one of the things I often tell other entrepreneurs. think a lot of people think like, well, I'll start a company if I can get an MBA, if I can build up enough savings, if I can do X, Y, and Z, and then they never actually start. And for me, I think sometimes just starting and going all in, you have everything you need and you

everything you don't have, you'll find a way to find.

Ramon Vela (11:32)
Well, you know, ⁓ and I like that aspect of it, but what were some of the biggest challenges upfront? Was it creating a business plan or putting a strategy in place of what you were going to do? Was it finding someone to formulate this or manufacture it? Did you right from the beginning decide that you were going to work with the local farmers and or maybe some facility there, you know, wherever was grown?

I'm sure there was a lot of challenges, off the top of your head, which were some of the bigger ones that you remember?

Lisa Curtis (11:59)
So many challenges. Yes.

Yeah, so I think there are a couple of challenges. you touched on a few of them. think supply chain was certainly a big challenge. I came back to the US and was like, how do I get moringa from small farmers in West Africa to the US? How do I ensure that it hits all of the highest quality standards? How do I make sure that we're able to build up enough volume that actually makes sense to ship it? How do I even figure out what the FDA regulations around

importing it were. I think one of the interesting things for me was we learned pretty quickly that because moringa isn't a widely used food in the US and certainly wasn't back in 2013, we needed to put together an FDA grass notice, generally recognized as safe, which costs about $70,000. And I had

$2,000 my bank account Peace Corps doesn't exactly make you rich and So what I ended up doing was I just emailed various professors who you know had

worked with Moringa who had expertise in Moringa and one of them, a guy named Dr. Jed Fahey responded and said, sure, you know, I love what you're trying to do here. I love the impact you're trying to have on small farmers. I'll help you put together a grass notice for free. So that was kind of the first big hurdle that we overcame. And then another big hurdle was just figuring out like most people don't know what Moringa is, what's going to make them buy it. So how do we make this product really compelling?

And that we actually did a lot of testing at farmers markets. So again doing this all with a very very limited budget This is like, you know, initially nights weekends project. I got together

roped in a few friends, we made Moringa products by hand in a commercial kitchen. We eventually decided on our Moringa bar as our first product. And then, you know, spent all day Saturday making it, all day Sunday testing it at a farmer's market and really trying to be very deliberate in our testing. So everybody who came by, we did a little shotgun survey of like, you know, what was there.

gender, approximate age, what did they like, what did they try, what did they not like, and then what did they buy, and from there we were able to get a sense of our conversion rate and also who our target customer was. And that ended up being super valuable data that we could take to Whole Foods and say like, hey, yes, we're new, yes, we're not in any other stores, but look at the amazing conversion rates that we have in farmers markets, and this is who our target customer is, and we think this really aligns with the Whole Foods Market Shopper.

Ramon Vela (14:25)
Mm.

Wow, that's then, so yeah, and then by the way, like I had never really heard of the ingredient either. So I was very surprised and then I started reading it ⁓ on your website and I was more fascinated by it. And it sounded like just this amazing, amazing product. And so at that point, were you able to get the Walmart to carry the product?

Or did they want you to have a more, I don't know, structured, laid out strategy for supply chain and making the product and bringing it to market?

Lisa Curtis (15:18)
Yeah, so Whole Foods was actually our first customer. Walmart became a customer later on. For Whole Foods, they were thankfully open to sort of accepting our handmade samples. ⁓

Ramon Vela (15:29)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa Curtis (15:30)
But when they said yes, we realized very quickly, it's not scalable for us to be making these ourselves in a commercial kitchen and also trying to grow this business. So let's find a co-manufacturer and let's raise some money to do an actual production run. So we did a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and raised $53,000, which was just enough to do the first Moringa Bar manufacturing run.

Ramon Vela (15:57)
That's great. And how about the formulation? like when I'm reading the I mean, obviously this evolved since then. And did you how difficult was it to get the formulation? Because when I look at it, there's so many different really cool nutritional benefits from it. Was there any difficulty with putting the formulations together or the recipes?

Lisa Curtis (16:15)
Yeah, good question. I am not an expert formulator. I'm the kind of person who will like eat, you know, super green, super earthy everything. I kind of like the greener the better. And so I pulled in a friend who became a co-founder who had a lot of experience in, you know, sort of both professionally and personally, she was just like a great cook.

great at sort of product development. And she was the one who started just kind of like tinkering with the formulation. And I will say the cool thing about starting small and scrappy and, you know, being at farmers markets is we were super nimble. So we could get a lot of feedback one weekend of like, hey, you know, it's a little too earthy. And then we'd add like cinnamon and try the next weekend of like, okay, we hit that but like, it needs some more crunch. So then we decided, okay, let's add some chia seeds and some pumpkin seeds.

and it really enabled us to refine the formula quite a bit before we did our first big manufacturing run.

Ramon Vela (17:16)
And then are you still using third-party manufacturers or have you brought that in-house?

Lisa Curtis (17:23)
Yeah, so we have four different manufacturers that we work with all across the western United States.

Ramon Vela (17:32)
interesting. How has I know this is always a big, big issue, but or this authority issue, know, tariffs, how have tariffs interrupted or challenged ⁓ even further, like bringing in product in from the different countries?

Lisa Curtis (17:45)
Yes, know, are a short answer. Yes, we are a global superfoods brand. So we source from seven different countries across Africa and also India. Terrace have been changing.

Ramon Vela (17:47)
Short answer, yeah.

Lisa Curtis (18:00)
all of the time. ⁓ Just got word a couple days ago that some of the African countries are now excluded. Obviously India tariff is now 50%. So it's been a total nightmare and it's been particularly tricky because this is at a time when a lot of Americans can't afford.

Ramon Vela (18:02)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa Curtis (18:21)
large price increases. And so we're doing everything we can to keep our costs down and not actually raise prices at shelf. But it's wild. And it's, I think it's so hard to plan for. We just don't know what's going to happen.

Ramon Vela (18:31)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think the uncertainty is probably the biggest thing. If they were set and you knew what they were, then you can sort of plan for it. But given the uncertainty, I think that's probably the worst of it. I think that's people, think us humans just naturally hate uncertainty and it's even harder when you have a business. But no, I appreciate that. And I personally think that even though it's difficult on these challenges and they can impact consumers,

I think consumers need to hear this kind of stuff because as I mentioned in the beginning, a lot of people take for granted just this products that they see online and they don't realize that, you know, it's not always a faceless corporation. It's people like you who have a mission and want to, you want to complete it and, and you're everyday fighting the good fight and trying to overcome all these challenges, but you know, from the outside, internally, whatever. and I think it's important for consumers to know about all this stuff.

So, okay, so that's definitely a challenge. In terms of distribution, whenever I've interviewed people, they've always, there's always a decision to be made and or a decision that probably is the most likely. What were your thoughts about bringing it to market in terms of online versus like whole foods? Was it?

Did you feel like Whole Foods will give it some sort of credibility and then you can expand into ⁓ other areas? And did you expand right away? Or did you entertain an online account or website where you can sell it online?

Lisa Curtis (20:15)
Yeah, it's a really good question. And I always caveat this response was like, my, how the world has changed in 12 years. ⁓ I think, you know, when we launched, we launched with a website and it was pretty clear that there were not a lot of people looking to buy Moringa bars on the internet. It was very clear that we were not gonna get a lot of traction even running ads, that kind of thing. Today, you know, I think...

Ramon Vela (20:21)
Hehehe.

Lisa Curtis (20:42)
D2C is one of the most important channels you can have regardless of if you're a retail focused brand or if you're only focused on online. I think there's a real halo effect of selling online where people see products in their social media feed, they see it in their Amazon, they see it other places, and then they see it again at Whole Foods or Walmart and they buy it. So we...

absolutely are investing quite a bit in it today, but that was not always the case. In the early days, our focus was 100 % retail.

Ramon Vela (21:15)
Yeah, and I can see that. And normally, I would say something like, or think of, I would say that the D2C component of it, it's sort of almost like a lab, right? Like it could act as a lab to gain customer feedback and things like that, which it can be. But at the same time though, I think you guys did a great job of

creating that lab experience at the farmer markets, which is another great place, right? Because D2C is great to get that customer feedback as you're working directly and you can take that feedback and that data to the retailer. But in this case, or in the cases where this happens, the farmers markets, I think are great. I mean, that's like the old school way. That's where a lot of brands that I've had early on, whether it's peanut butter or other stuff, they went direct to the consumer.

via farmers markets and got all that feedback from there, which sounds like you did a great job of kind of formally gathering that and taking it over to Whole Foods.

Lisa Curtis (22:17)
And I think it still works both ways. Like I think kind of the way that we do it now is, you know, we finally have a big enough G2C presence where we can test out products online. think Amazon's really interesting because you tend to get reviews pretty quickly and so you can see what do people like, what do people hate. But then we also like doing events. I've actually found like Costco road shows to be a really great way to get a ton of feedback about a new product. We did a Costco road show.

earlier this year with our new Superfood lattes and it actually ended up leading us to change some things on the packaging just due to what we were hearing from customers. So I think the more you can get both that direct in person, somebody tastes it and says something and also the traction online and reviews online early on in the product journey, the better.

Ramon Vela (23:08)
Yeah, no, I 100 % agree. And you know, 12 years, you've been around 12 years, I think that has a lot for a brand because a lot of brands don't last that long. And especially now in this, we're having a really mixed environment. Some brands are doing great, some brands are struggling. And 12 years is a long time. mean, it's like a lifetime, right? And even like you've seen in terms of like selling online, it feels like a whole different world.

Lisa Curtis (23:34)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (23:38)
What would you say if you were to it in sentence or maybe in a couple of words, what would you say is the secret to that longevity?

Lisa Curtis (23:46)
I'm a big believer in the the hologram quote that startups don't fail founders quit

Ramon Vela (23:55)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa Curtis (23:55)
I think

there's always another way. There's always a pivot. There's always a, you know, something else you can make if you just keep trying. And there were so many moments in Guli Guli's history where it felt like the end. And I was just so determined to keep this business going that kind of by pure force of will, I got through it. And I think that

so many of the businesses I know, even ones that people perceive as being this like overnight success, often there's like ⁓ a, you know, a lot of hardship and challenges behind the scenes that could have led to the business failing at any point.

Ramon Vela (24:38)
Yeah. And I've captured a lot of that on this show. There's so many stories where, you know, people say, you know, we were, we were like this close to closing or we were two weeks away from running out of payroll or whatever it is, whatever the story was. And then something, you know, something happened and then things were able to kind of turn around from there. But yeah, it definitely is a struggle. So

Lisa Curtis (24:54)
Yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (25:05)
I was also fascinated by a post we were just talking about earlier and it kind of fits along with my next question in that I love what you said about grit and I'm just going to make this assumption. I feel like you think a lot about the business and the entrepreneurial journey in the life and what it takes and

And I would love to get your feedback from, those who are kind of in your, maybe 12 years ago or, you know, 14 years ago, someone who's out of college is coming, maybe starting their, their, their, a new job or they want to start a business and they're like you, they didn't really know what they were doing or know what they're doing. What kind of words of wisdom would you give to them to prepare them for the journey or to prepare them, maybe to help them.

avoid certain pitfalls.

Lisa Curtis (26:01)
Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is to like map out the little steps before thinking about the big journey. I sometimes find that early stage founders like have this, okay, I need to sell nationally in order to sell nationally. I need to raise $2 million in order to raise $2 million. I need to have all, know, X, Y, and Z.

Often I coach them about, let's just backtrack a little bit. What's the first proof point you can get? For me, that first proof point was, can I make a product in my kitchen that my friends and family don't think is disgusting? That was proof point one. My second proof point was like, can we make a product that...

total random sampling of strangers at a farmer's market would like enough that they would buy. And can we hit, you know, our goal was above a 15 % conversion rate from sample to sale. That was what we were told like a good product would have.

We were hitting 20%. That was my second proof point. My third proof point was like, can I get people to put their money behind it? Like, is this idea compelling enough that total strangers from the internet will give me money to make this happen? That was our Indiegogo campaign and ended up being the most popular food campaign they'd ever had at the time. And so that, those three proof points were like, okay, I need these three things to be true before I'm going to quit my job and go all in on this. And even today, I really try to

map out of like, okay, know, we, we're just earlier this year, we launched five products in 4,000 Walmarts nationwide. That's like a really big thing. And so we sort of tried to take it step by step of like, okay, what do we need to do? You know, sitting in January, what are like the small little things we need to do to ensure that this launch in June goes well? And let's like map it out step by step.

Ramon Vela (27:44)
Thank

Lisa Curtis (27:59)
And I think if you can be really methodical and thoughtful and kind of like figure out all the little steps, then the overall Germany doesn't feel quite as overwhelming.

Ramon Vela (28:09)
Yeah, I love that. And you know, that's a great way to have, it's a great structure that not only allows, rewards you, you know, not at the end, but at the different points, right? Like at the different proof points. And that helps with resilience too, because if you can say, okay, I'm going to have these different proof points and you accomplish one.

And that makes you feel good, right? Like that, okay, I got this one done. And that kind of gives you a little motivation to go on to the next one. And then hopefully you get the next one and that makes you feel good about, and I can, you know, and I kind of feel like kind of related to our earlier conversation about gratitude. I think it's important to recognize the wins and the motivations, not just be focusing on how difficult things are or the challenges.

I think that's, like I said earlier, I think it's like, like to talk about it here on this show because I think it's good for consumers to know. But as an entrepreneur, I feel like you have to remember the wins. You have to find those moments of those wins that kind of keep you going. And if you can structure it and create this, this roadmap of proof points, I think that that's a great way of doing it. Plus, you know, for an early, an early founder,

it could feel enormous, right? Like what's that? There's a saying something about like, how do you eat an elephant or something like that? Like one bite at a time. Cause it's so overwhelming. Like how can you get started? So I love this. And that also proves to me that what my assumption was just of like seeing your posts and everything that you're very thoughtful about this whole journey, which leads me to that post, which is,

Tell us just a few seconds about this organization you're a part of because I was blown away. I was like, wow, that is so cool. 18 days is a long time, but wow, it's like, that's pretty cool. Tell us a little bit about this organization.

Lisa Curtis (30:03)
Yeah, so I, you know, as I was in this sort of early stage, I've just gotten back from Peace Corps wanting to start Kuli Kuli. Not sure if I had kind of everything I needed and the confidence I needed to quit my day job. I started applying for all sorts of things. And one of the things I got was called the Wild Gift. And the whole idea behind Wild Gift is that this organization gives you a three week deep wilderness track.

funding and connection like a whole community of entrepreneurs to help you launch your venture and this is a nonprofit that supports specifically seed stage better world ventures so mission-driven companies

companies and nonprofits, and I got it at the perfect time. And it was one of those things where I was sort of shocked that somebody believed in me enough. And then I was also surprised by the idea of like, ⁓ three weeks. I don't actually have three weeks of PTO. Like I have to quit my day job in order to do this. So it really was the thing that kind of.

gave me the confidence and the courage and the financial support to quit my day job and go all in on Kuli Kuli. And the LinkedIn post that you're referencing, I tell the story of part of this back country ski trip that we ended up doing. We skied down this mountain and I was not.

the world's greatest skier, certainly one of the worst on the group. And so everybody else kind of skied down this mountain and I like followed along behind as the last one down. And right as I was like sort of ending towards the bottom of the mountain, I set off an avalanche and I like quickly ski out into the trees. And as I...

Ramon Vela (31:48)
boy.

Lisa Curtis (31:53)
got there, I was remembering what our guide had taught us where he said, you know, the thing about avalanches is if you freak out, you're going to die. But if you can take a few deep breaths and focus and calm yourself and, you know, anchor your decision making, you'll survive.

Ramon Vela (32:03)
Hmm.

Lisa Curtis (32:14)
And it was one of those moments that has stuck with me forever, where, you know, anytime I have this like wild, you know, business experience that I want to freak out and like, okay, think of the avalanche. If you deep breaths, calm yourself down. You'll make better decisions if you breathe.

Ramon Vela (32:27)
Hmm

Lisa Curtis (32:35)
and you might just survive. And so I sort of have this idea that if I can survive an avalanche, I can survive anything. And that confidence that came from that wilderness trek has inspired me still to today. And I actually ended up joining the board of this nonprofit wild gift and becoming the board president because I'm so inspired by the mission and want to give back to other entrepreneurs.

Ramon Vela (33:03)
Wow. That is an amazing story. And I, and I love that. And, know, that's a great analogy, but it's, but you're, but you experienced it and it is, it's, that's, that's amazing. I had a small version of that, not an avalanche, but it was pretty scary where I was in a, river rafting down the Kern river and our guide fell off of, of the, of the raft, right? Everyone had fell it off except for me and some other.

Lisa Curtis (33:13)
Yeah.

no.

Ramon Vela (33:30)
And he, they mentioned something similar to what they told you. Like, first thing is don't panic. Just remember what they taught us and do exactly that. And, and it's those moments where I think they're so valuable. And, and I can see how valuable it is for you because there's so many, especially early on, there's so many things that can make you feel like you want to panic. Like you, like you, you just want, you, you want to run away. You want to panic. And.

Lisa Curtis (33:36)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (33:58)
That's just not how you're going to build a business. so I think that's incredibly rewarding and great experience that you had. And it's great that you, that it's still available and you're offering it to others. And I saw that you're, that you're raising money for others, which I think is great. And we'll make sure to have a link to the website on the podcast description, because I love to promote that kind of stuff. But yeah, this is a, that's a great experience. And so, all right.

Lisa Curtis (34:15)
Yeah.

Thank you.

Ramon Vela (34:25)
Well, that's a good tie in to our end of our discussion around entrepreneurship. Let's talk about the product. So let me remind everybody, if you want to go and take a look at the products that we're going to go over right now, you can go to coulacoulafoods.com, coulacoulafoods.com. Couli is spelled K-U-L-I. So it's couli, couli foods with a S.

dot com is a website and let's talk a little bit about what we're going to find there. So if someone's listening to this, loves the advice you just gave, loves this journey that you're on, appreciates all these challenges that you've had to overcome and they want to start this journey, they want to go to the website and start this journey with you. Kuli Kuli, where do you want them to start?

Lisa Curtis (35:14)
Yeah, so you know our bread and butter and what we're known for is that same product that I ate in the P score that totally transformed my health, which is our pure Mareinda powder. So that's an amazing leaf, like I said, packed with protein, calcium, iron, vitamins. For most people who take it, they find that it gives them energy without caffeine.

and then also helps digestion. So I would say those are kind of the big things there. If you're not into smoothies or you don't know how to kind of use an earthy green powder in your life, we also have it in a green scummy. We also have it in a matcha Meringue Latte. You can just like froth and hot water.

good to go. And then we have some really other cool products that actually don't have moringa in them, but have other climate smart community grown superfoods that provide some amazing other benefits. So one of my favorite ones of those is called baobab. It's actually something I was introduced to relatively recently in Zimbabwe. And it's this amazing plant that the tree grows for thousands of years and it has this gourd that you crack open and there's this like

tannish powder inside and it's incredible for skin health and for gut health. So we have some really cool blends and really cool gummies, a marine glow, a very beautiful gummy all around using baobab and other ingredients to support skin health.

Ramon Vela (36:35)
So that's amazing. So I'm actually on your website and I'm looking at the page for the, how do you pronounce it? Baobab? Baobab? ⁓ I see some trees there. Are those the trees that it grows from? Because those are fascinating trees.

Lisa Curtis (36:43)
Yeah, Beobab, Baobab, Sim, yeah.

does. They're

beautiful trees and actually most people are probably familiar with this tree because most people have seen the Lion King and that tree that Rafiki hangs out in is a baobab tree and that know gourd that he cracks open is baobab.

Ramon Vela (37:03)
wow.

Yeah, I mean, it's a fascinating, ⁓ fascinating tree. It looks amazing. It looks, it looks like prehistoric almost. It's so, so big. okay. So there's that. And I know there's other stuff too. So I was just fascinated by the variety that you have. So you have, you know, you have gummies, you have blends, have lattes, have shakes. and from there, and I love the, you know, the, the moringa that you, ⁓ that you mentioned.

Lisa Curtis (37:14)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (37:31)
But is there one that's your favorite or one that people love? Because I know that gummies is very popular right now. I also know that lattes are very popular right now. like my, I'm a latte person, so my attention immediately went to the lattes. But I know gummies are very popular now. What are you seeing out there?

Lisa Curtis (37:44)
Yeah.

I mean, I do use it all. I will say I add Moringa powder to my oatmeal every morning. I also add it to my kids oatmeal. It's a really great way to just get a little greens in their diet and get some added energy in my diet. It enables me to take on the world. I also do the greens gummies. I've got some right next to my desk. They're really great way to just like.

you know, kind of keep the energy going as sort of like sweet treat, but actually healthy one during the day. And then I particularly love our Marine Glow. So it's made with blue spirulina kelp and has natural iodine, 100 % iodine from seawater. A lot of people think iodine, they think like World War II, what is that? But it's actually super important. It helps with your thyroid health and also helps with your skin health and particularly for women. Often our thyroids are

of whack and it causes all sorts of weird things so I mix that into my yogurt and it's just a really lovely like sometimes that's my lunch and it makes it blue which is also very fun.

Ramon Vela (38:51)
Yeah,

well you have some really great flavors there too. I was looking at like for instance the lattes. You've got the matcha of course, which is very popular. I love matcha. You've got the ube coconuts, which is great. That's really popular and my daughter loves ube. You've got the strawberries and cream. You've got the vanilla lavender, which sounds amazing. So there's a lot of really great flavors that you have there. And then the blends.

So the blends, help me understand the blends. Are the blends simply a powder that you can blend into any food or drink, or what distinguishes the blends?

Lisa Curtis (39:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, so the blends, exactly what you said, you can blend it into juice, blend it into water. Often people blend it into like yogurt or smoothies and even baked goods too. Like I make a lot of like healthy muffins with like our gut bliss, for example, is really nice for that. Adds like a little bit of kind of a gingery green kick. So yeah, we try to have kind of a variety of products to fit.

every function that you need. If you're like, I need help with my digestion, go to our gut bliss or to our strawberries and cream latte. If you need energy without caffeine, go to our pure Moringa powder or our matcha Moringa latte. If you need help sleeping, we have the vanilla lavender latte with magnesium that's great for that. If you are worried about your skin health, Moringa or Berry Beautiful gummies are good for that. And our whole product line is based on the idea that we're not

pulling a million different ingredients and a ton of extracts, but are actually having these amazing plants that have been used for millennia and other cultures. And we're giving you like a real substantiated dose of them so that you can really feel the impact in your body.

Ramon Vela (40:39)
Wow, that's fantastic. Yeah, and I'm looking also at the shakes. You've got chocolate peanut butter shake, which sounds delicious. You've also had the vanilla shake as well. They're both superfood energy shakes for energy and focus. So those are really great. You have even one that's zero gram sugar. So there's a lot of stuff for a lot of different people and a of different and a lot of, you know, taste for people.

Lisa Curtis (40:52)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (41:05)
Some people want the latte, some people want the shake, some people want zero sugar, some people want low sugar. So this is great. ⁓ You've got also plenty of fiber in these. I always tend to look at the fiber more than the protein, because I find like there's so many products that have protein, but I'm always interested in the fiber, which I love to see that you guys have there as well. Yeah, this is fantastic. So walk us through how you work with these small farms.

and the impact that you're having with many of these communities.

Lisa Curtis (41:36)
Yeah, so we partnered directly with about 3000 small farmers through our supply chain. So we know them, we've been there, we've visited them. I spend about four weeks a year visiting different supplier partners. So last year I was in eight different African countries. This year I think I'm up to four so far, but the year is not over. And we really want every product

Ramon Vela (41:59)
you

Lisa Curtis (42:06)
resource to meet the highest quality standards to be both like, you know, good for your health, but like also highly efficacious. I tell people all the time, like you're not taking Moringa powder because it's like the most delicious thing that you could take. You're taking it because the impact it has on your body. So how do we ensure that all of our products deliver that nutrition you can feel? And that starts at the farm. So we test the soil. We know how it's grown. We know how it's processed. And then, you know, as this bleeding heart pre-score volunteer, that ethos till

continues on in the sense that we really want to ensure that we're sourcing from supplier partners who prioritize empowering women, who pay fair wages above market wages, who do a lot to reinvest in their community and coolly coolly actually reinvest 10 % of our profits back into the communities we source from. And we do it in a pretty cool way. So we don't say like, you know, I'm going to build you a well because I think you need a well. We ask them, you know, what

would a five to ten thousand dollar grant. ⁓

do in your community? Like what's a project that you've been wanting to do but just haven't had the resources to accomplish? And we find that our suppliers have such cool projects. So we funded a rainwater harvesting project that's providing clean drinking water to 800 school kids in Uganda. We funded solar on a birthing clinic to prevent maternal deaths in Mozambique. We have done worker housing in India so that these women didn't have

Ramon Vela (43:31)
Mm.

Lisa Curtis (43:36)
to walk for like literally hours a day to and from where they were working. So we've done a lot of really cool projects and it's always amazing to go back and see the project that we helped to build and see the impact that it's having.

Ramon Vela (43:52)
Wow, I love that. And like I said earlier on, is there's so many elements to the brand that you've created that that someone can really enjoy, right? Someone can really like whether it's the giving back or the the impact that you're having or the ingredients or the nutrition. There's something for for everybody. And wrapped all together, I think it makes like such a great sort of stack that people can love.

And by the way, I've done some interviews with people who have products, not products like yours, but do something similar. And what I've learned is the impact that fair wages and jobs can have, especially on women in these communities, because these women, you know, in much of their lives, they're like the center of the family. And when they do well and they bring in money that not only helps them, it

It's like a rippling effect and it impacts so many other people. so, so that's kudos to you guys. think, I think that's fantastic. So like I said, this is great. think you guys meet my criteria. Whenever I say that you're a brand, a product worth buying in a brand we're supporting, there's so much to support for, from what you guys are doing. So this is fantastic. So,

What else would you like to leave with the audience that you'd like for them to take with them?

Lisa Curtis (45:09)
think the biggest thing to all the entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs out there is just the courage to get started and the audacity to believe in yourself and to believe that you can do it. And I think I'm living proof that you don't need a business experience, you don't need an MBA, you don't need experience in business. I had never really worked in a business until I started my own.

You have everything you need and make it happen.

Ramon Vela (45:40)
Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you so much. This has been fantastic. I want to be respectful of your time. So let's make sure to leave people with where you want them to go. So in terms of your website, your social media, and then any partners you want to shout out.

Lisa Curtis (45:55)
Yeah, so our website, CoolieCooliefoods.com, K-U-L-I-K-U-L-I-O-F-O-O-D-S. We are big on Instagram and TikTok. You can find us, CoolieCooliefoods. You can also find us and me on LinkedIn. Lisa Marie Curtis is my full name, so sometimes searching that pops it up. And we're in 11,000 stores nationwide, so look for us if you shop at Whole Foods, if you shop at Sprouts, if you shop at Walmart. We are super excited to help more people

Ramon Vela (46:11)
you

Lisa Curtis (46:24)
these incredible products and feel the impact that it can have on their bodies and on our planet.

Ramon Vela (46:29)
That's fantastic. I really enjoy this conversation and I love everything that you're doing. And like I said in the beginning, there's so many different elements to what you're doing that I think that a consumer would love. Everything from the ingredients to your story, to your mission, to how you're impacting these farmers and these women in these locations. And also just like the nutrition and the

way you're discovering these really great superfoods or bringing them to market and bringing them to places that don't know about these foods. I think that's great as well. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you making time for us. And I really enjoyed the conversation. There's, know, I have to pick and choose what I talk about because I want to try to hit as many things as possible. But there's so many things that I would love to like dive into, like that whole wild gift thing. I think it's fascinating. So many entrepreneurs would really appreciate that. And I'm going to make sure to help.

Lisa Curtis (47:08)
Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Ramon Vela (47:25)
Spread the word to so we'll make sure we'll link that Yeah, no, definitely So thank you so much for being on the show everyone out there Please visit the website sign up for the newsletter that way you get to know where they're there You know having new products or product launches or where they're new partners and all that other stuff So thank you again for being on the show

Lisa Curtis (47:28)
Thank you.

Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Ramon Vela (47:49)
Yes.

Everyone out there, we have just had Lisa Curtis, who is founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods. And that's also the website, cooliecooliefoods.com. We're to have that link and their TikTok or Instagram all on our podcast description. We're going to have a link to the wild gift as well. And please make sure, like I said, go to the website, sign up. And I always tell you...

to stay sane, stay safe, and stay healthy. And in this case, a great way to stay healthy is to check out the Kuli Kuli Foods. There's so many really great blends and shakes and gummies and everything else, but they're all nutritious. They've got these super foods that you wanna look into and you definitely wanna go take a look. So go to the website, cooliecooliefoods.com. By the way, is this available on any marketplace like Amazon or Walmart or?

Lisa Curtis (48:39)
all over Amazon, yes, amazon.com, walmart.com, we are all over the internet.

Ramon Vela (48:42)
Okay.

Okay, great. So yeah, in case, go to the website, go to the partners, but if you can't find them, go to Amazon and so forth, you'll able to find them. So beyond that, everyone, like I said, this is a product worth buying and a brand we're supporting. So go check it out. And then beyond that, thank you. And one last thing, we've all been going through a lot in the last five, six, seven years now, pandemic and geopolitical wars and politics. And I mean, it's just crazy out there. People are feeling stressed.

Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone is going through something. It could be financial, it could be a layoff, it could just be the stress of everything that's going on. Let's do ourselves a favor and let's just be kind to each other, just a little kinder to each other. And I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.