Fungi. Sustainable Business. Healthier People.

Erica Huss & Zoe Sakoutis are founders of not one but two health-conscious businesses. First, they helped start the cold-press juice craze years ago and now, they're exploring the health benefits of fungi with Earth & Star. And boy are there a ton of great benefits to discuss. Additionally, they've prioritized sustainable packaging and production, even during these difficult supplier times. Click play and listen to how these two founders met and grew two new market businesses together!  https://earthandstar.com
  

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Transcript

Triple Bottom Line |Episode 17 |Erica and Zoe|

[Upbeat theme music plays] 

Female Voice Over 

[00:03] Welcome to the Triple Bottom Line, where we reveal how today’s business leaders are reaching a new level of success with a people-planet-profit approach. And here is your host, Taylor Martin!

Taylor Martin 

[00:17] Welcome, everybody! I am so excited today because today I get to talk about something that’s kind of near and dear to me which is just my little health nut side. I was at South by Southwest a few weeks ago and I came across Erica and Zoe’s little booth at the wellness section of South by Southwest, which I didn’t even know they had. Erica and Zoe are founders of a wonderfully healthy and fast-growing company called Earth and Star. Now, Erica and Zoe are not new to building businesses. If everybody can remember when the juice cleanse was happening, and you started to see cold-pressed juices on the shelves everywhere. Well, you can basically thank them for that. They sold that business and moved on to bigger and greater things in the healthier life for all of us and what would that be? It would be mushrooms, fungi, aka, yes. Erica and Zoe, I know you have a lot more to share about how you started your business and how you got from the previous one to this one. What were some of the big turning points for you guys? Who would like to start?

Zoe Sakoutis

[01:17] Oh, good Lord. Hi! Thanks for having us. Yeah, so we started out in the plant kingdom and then we now find ourselves in the fungi kingdom. Yeah, Erica and I have known each other for quite some time back in the early aughts, early 2000s. We met in a bar, the old-fashioned way.

Taylor Martin

[01:35] Nice.

Zoe Sakoutis

[01:36] Yeah, we were working at the Hudson Hotel together, which was a pretty new, cool, trendy bar at the time, an establishment. Yeah, we kind of had some overlapping interests and became friends pretty quickly. At the time, I was sort of a very bizarre raw foodist when no one knew what that meant. Yeah, it was an area that was obviously very early. I was introduced to that by a hippie ex-boyfriend and I kind of went deep and just dove into that space and was fascinated and brought my weird snacks into the Hudson Bar all the time like my crinkly bags that didn’t have any branding on them and everyone would sort of give me shit for eating weird things that smelled bad or were sprouted or whatever. 

Then the fascination was definitely there. Erica was intrigued. We kind of went our separate ways. I kind of went further down the rabbit hole of raw food and sort of self-educated around all that good stuff and nutrition. Erica went down the path of PR and was repping a lot of chefs and – you can tell your part better than me. Yeah, I had this sort of idea around juice cleansing, which I did and was obsessed with and fascinated by and saw the healing benefits of doing a fast or a cleanse firsthand at a place called the Ann Wigmore Institute in Puerto Rico and thought that was sort of a bit extreme that someone would need to kind of uproot their life and literally go to an island and sprout things in their tub and self-administer enemas and all that other stuff.

I thought there’s got to be an easier way. At the time, I was young and partying as well, so I didn’t necessarily want to be so all-or-nothing about it. I just thought there had to be a sort of milder way to incorporate something like this into your daily routine or just to do it once in a while. I came back and had this idea for a cleanse. Erica and I hooked up again, started talking about it. I had done a bit of beta testing in 2006 with a group of women out of juice kitchen. It was formulated, the first sort of version of the cleanse. They kept coming back and it got very sticky. Yeah, I mean, Erica, I’ll let you take it from there, but there was definitely some traction, and we had a lot of very early positive feedback by a group of women that we like to say were kind of like binging on cleanses.

Taylor Martin

[04:17] Alright, so there was heavy adoption.

Zoe Sakoutis

[04:19] Yes, early. Everybody who does something good for themselves, they typically feel kind of weller than thou and they want to tell everyone else about it and sort of educate. It really is like the best way. The best way to just spread the word is to make people feel like they’re slightly better than. [Laughs]

Erica Huss

[Laughs] 

Taylor Martin

[04:37] Referrals are the best form of advertising, absolutely. You guys grew the business and then you sold it and then you thought, what is next?

Erica Huss

[04:47] Yeah, we grew the business over five years. We sold it at the end of 2012. About halfway through 2014, it was time for us to move on out. I think probably typical to any founder’s story who has had their business acquired – except for us, it was the first time, so we didn’t know. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. It wasn’t the smoothest exits or transitions, I suppose, that then culminated in the exit. I think, for both of us, we felt like we still kind of had some unfinished business. We still had things that we wanted to do and things – contributions that we wanted to put out in the world. We felt like – we certainly didn’t regret the decision that we made and the deal that we made. It was the right thing at the right time. I think we’re both very grateful and appreciative that it went the way that it did, but we felt like we still have more that we want to do together and independently.

We spent a couple of years working on some side projects for ourselves and doing a little bit of advisory work and collaborating here and there on other projects. Then, I think, for both of us, it really wasn’t about okay, well, let’s back into something that we know is going to be an explosive hit so much as it was like well okay, well, what are you doing right now? What are you interested in? What is fascinating to you? 

We had both been using functional mushroom products that, at the time, and this is several years ago, the form factor was pretty limited. You had powders that – the brand that people are most familiar with is like Four Sigmatic or MUD\WTR. Those require some element of mixing and prepping. Then you’ve got pills and that more traditional root. Again, coming from CPG and coming from the ethos of – we took something like juice, which was very marginalized and kind of in a small, sort of insular community. What we did with it was really just present it and kind of put it out into the world in a different way that made it feel a little bit less dogmatic, a little bit less preachy, a little bit more accessible. 

We kind of felt that the same thing really needed to happen with mushrooms because as we both dug in and got more educated on the absolutely enormous range of benefits that can come from this entire kingdom, it was like, okay, this is actually something that literally everybody should know about. I think as a Western culture, we’re a little bit sort of scared of the concept of mushrooms. We don’t use them in a culinary capacity in the same way that they have in Asia for millennia or even in Europe. It’s definitely a little polarizing as a food. I think for a lot of people, that’s where the understanding or the even thought process stops, like oh, I don’t eat mushrooms, so I don’t need to know about that. Then, on the opposite end of the extreme, you have, psilocybin and the psychedelic concept which, again, super fascinating and amazing strides being made but also not functional mushrooms in the same way. It’s a family-friendly kind of thing. We really felt like the form factor could definitely stand some improving and the overall world of what this kingdom can provide in terms of health benefits really needs to be presented in a way that people can actually kind of latch onto it and not feel like, oh this is not for me because I’m not already a wellness seeker. The long answer to your short question was we really felt like we wanted to – the white space that we saw was taking something that already existed and had been proven efficacious and really translating it in a way that a mass audience could kind of wrap their arms around it.

Taylor Martin

[08:26] Yeah, I see what you mean by the delivery that we’ve had in the past of pills or powders or mixes and things like that. People just want – they want now. They want to click a button.

Erica Huss

[08:36] Well, and at this point I think we’re – sorry to cut you off. I think the deliciousness factor is important because we now – as a wellness culture, we’ve evolved past the point of, you have to choke something down in order to make sure that you’re getting the right thing and it’s good for you. There’s way too much evolution and innovation happening in the world of R&D that we can now create a product that is equally as delicious as it is functional so we shouldn’t have to sacrifice that.

Taylor Martin

[09:03] Just to kind of tell people about the products we’re talking about, they have products that are chocolate-based, coffee-based. They have coffee and a ground coffee as well as pre-made drinks in cans that you can get that are different varieties and then they have tinctures as well for quick and simple health product there. How did you guys – I mean, I’m just fascinated because if you go out into the mushroom kingdom, like you mention, it’s just enormous. I mean, how did you focus it down to the ones that you’re using?

Zoe Sakoutis

[09:32] The kingdom Is enormous. I mean, millions. The functional mushrooms are, at least the ones that have some actual history in terms of white paper, are a handful. It’s about 20 basically that we were looking at. Then, we thought about the sort of most bang for your buck, the mushrooms that basically checked the most boxes that people typically battle or desire on a daily basis and to make it somewhat streamlined and not to complicated. For the most part, we picked a handful. Most of our products across the board have anywhere from two to ten blends of mushrooms. For example, have Lion's Mane, Reishi, cordyceps, and chaga, and those four were pretty well-rounded in that Lion's Mane addressed a lot of issues that people complain about when it comes to memory, cognitive function, focus.

Taylor Martin

[10:31] Brain fog.

Zoe Sakoutis

[10:33] Brain fog, all of that good stuff, and there's a ton of research on Lion's Mane. There's some studies that say that's been known to ward off dementia. Cordyceps is the other one that is a big one for a lot of athletes. It is basically associated with increasing your oxygen uptake, so it's great for energy, stamina, libido, which I think again, a lot of people desire. 

Taylor Martin

[Laughs]

Zoe Sakoutis

[10:58] Reishi is – checks a ton of boxes but most often associated with calm and has relaxing quality. Chaga is my personal favorite because it is, I think, so timely in that it is the most – maybe, go out on a limb. I don't know. Someone, prove me wrong – immune-supporting food on the planet. It is just – blows away anything that you would typically associate with antioxidants like pomegranates or goji berries or blueberries. I mean, it just eclipses all of those in terms of its antioxidant level. So that's a really powerful one. And so it's a bit of a grab bag. We thought those four were checking a lot of boxes for people. Then we have some that are a little bit more focused in tinctures. We have some single mushroom SKUs. We have one if you just want to double-down on brain fog. We have a tincture that's just Lion's Mane if you want to treat this just as a general multi daily vitamin mushroom vitamin, and we have a gummy that is a blend of ten different mushrooms, and it's delicious. Americans love their gummies, as it turns out.

Taylor Martin

[12:09] Yes, they do.

Zoe Sakoutis

[12:10] They do!

Taylor Martin

[12:12] They do. They do, man. Every time I look around the vitamin aisle, it's like, what are all these gummy things, these gummy – I thought they were for kids, and they're for adults. I'm like, seriously? 

Zoe Sakoutis

[12:23] Yes, 70% of gummy consumers are adults. It's not even the kids who are eating them at this point.

Taylor Martin

[12:30] If you pan back into our childhood, it's like a lot of things we were doing in our childhood, gummies, and Marvel comics, or cartoons, if you look at where we're at now, there's still gummies and there's still – Marvel Studios is huge and their movies all over the place.

Erica

[12:47] We're just a bunch of adult babies is really what it comes down to.

Taylor Martin

[12:49] There you go. I have to tell you guys, I have – I actually pre-ordered some of your stuff. I ordered the variety pack of your drinks because all of them seem very interesting and I want to try them all. Chocolate, that's a given. I'm a choco-holic, so I'm probably going to end up trying all of them at one time, but I got the salty because that's my favorite. Then I tried your tincture. I haven't tried it yet, but I also bought the tincture, the Lion's Mane, because any time I can help improve my brain capacity, I think the better. I can't wait to try those products. How did you guys decide on choosing those kind of product types, coffee, chocolate, and tinctures, and the gummies?

Erica Huss

[13:28] Well, it was a combination of a couple things. One, the whole idea here really was to create a real suite of products so that you can find a number of ways to incorporate mushrooms into your diet on a daily basis because the thing with adaptogens, which is the classification of the type of compound, I guess, that mushrooms are a part of, and that means really helping you to achieve balance and homeostasis. It's not a magic bullet; it's not something that you take and feel instantaneously. It does have to be in your system over time. It's a bit of a loading process. Because of that, we feel that this is something you have to take every day, but it's something that you should want to incorporate every day. Rather than ask you to create yet another occasion and add one more pill or whatever it's going to be, let's just put it into what you're already consuming daily. We started with the easy ones, coffee, tea, snacking chocolate, for sure. The tinctures, obviously that's not something that everybody consumes on a daily basis, but that is something that it's like a very direct delivery and you can put it into something that you're already consuming. If you don't like our coffee or you're not a cold canned beverage person, then the tinctures are a great way for you to add it to literally whatever you want. It's soup or even a cocktail or whatever it is.

Then the other piece of it is that foods that are bitter like coffee, tea, and chocolate, really pair very well with the mushrooms. In general, we do want to be clear. We're not talking about actual ground-up mushrooms in any of these products. They're extracts, so there's very little, if any, detectable flavor at all. I would challenge anybody to drink one of our lattes next to a non-functional version of it, macha latte or turmeric, or a chocolate bar, and really, I would honestly challenge you to actually be able to determine which one has the mushroom extract. With that being said, there are a richness that is added to certainly the ground coffee and certainly the dark chocolate People who love dark chocolate are really shocked and excited that it adds another level of depth to the taste. The mouth feel is really nice, and so it was really a combination of those two things.

Taylor Martin

[15:43] I think some people, when they think about extractions, they're always concerned about the quality of it. I think I remember reading on your website that the way you process the extractions, it creates it to be more bio available Can you speak to that?

Zoe Sakoutis

[15:56] I mean, it's a dual extraction. We use hot water. I think one important thing for consumers to know, and we try and speak to this often and really underscore it on our packaging and in our messaging is we use the fruiting body. We do not use the mycelium, which not enough people are familiar with yet. It's fine, so we're just going to have to do some educating, but basically – 

Taylor Martin 

[16:21] Let's get into the weeds. Come on.

Zoe Sakoutis

[16:23] Yeah, quick lesson, let's do it. We have the fruiting body, which is the top of the – is the actual mushroom that you see usually on top of the ground or on top of the log. That is the part that contains the highest concentration of polysaccrides [inaudible] the functionality, the piece that we're attributing all this functionality to. The mycelium underground is the root structure and while it has so many other benefits, when we're talking about consuming and it being functional and having the same concentration of polysaccrides, beta glucan, it does not; it has very trace amounts. Therefore, we do not use that part. It's technically not the mushroom. The mushroom, the fruiting body, is above the ground. When you hear the word mushroom extracts, it should be fruiting body.

So there are some companies that are using the mycelium and/or a blend of mycelium and fruiting body, so they'll blend it up together. The problem, as I mentioned, is that doesn't contain enough of the compounds that we are attributing all this functionality to. A, it's not going to do anything for you. Then on top of that, how they grow it is usually on a unnatural sub strait A log would be a natural sub strait for a mushroom to grow on. This is often times in the US mostly grown on grain or rice or oats. The reason is because it's cheap; it's easy; it doesn't take up much space; you can stack it. It's very cost-effective. People usually have no idea that that's what it's being grown on and often times, they will grind up both the mycelium, the sub strait, the fruiting body all together, put it in a bag, call it mushroom extract, boil it down from a tincture – into a tincture and that's very deceiving In our eyes, it's cutting a lot of corners, not only from a cost standpoint but from an FQC standpoint. It's just very unfortunate for the entire industry that some mushroom companies are doing this. In fact, some of them are even touting that their mushrooms are grown in the USA which if they are, you can almost guarantee that it's grown on a – sometimes they're using the word myceliated biomass, so it's grown – it's mycelium and not fruiting body.

Taylor Martin

[18:35] Wow, okay.

Zoe Sakoutis

[18:36] So anyway, the takeaway here is that you should only be consuming functional mushroom extracts that are utilizing the fruiting body, not mycelium and not some blend of the two. 

Taylor Martin

[18:48] How hard was it for you guys to source mushrooms at this capacity?

Zoe Sakoutis

[18:51] Not hard at all.

Taylor Martin

[18:52] That's great.

Zoe Sakoutis

[18:54] There are plenty of suppliers, yeah.

Erica Huss

[18:56] Yeah, it's not a source thing challenge at all. It really – like Zoe was saying, it all comes down to cost and not to knock the amazing uses that mycelium is being applied to because obviously I know sustainability is a big passion point for you. The fact that you can make leather, and you can make packaging, and you can make paper, and you can make all sorts of textiles and new materials out of mycelium is incredible. It really just speaks to how actually seemingly magical this entire world of fungi is. That being said, if you do want actual wellness benefits, you're not getting it in the mycelium and it's really just a cheaper way to go.

Taylor Martin

[19:32] Yeah, I was talking to somebody. I can't remember who it was, years ago, where I was just thinking – because I was just wanting to be healthier at the time, and I was thinking, why can't we just eat things and drink things that are actually good for us as opposed to having to read a label and try to parse out what is that? What does this crazy long word mean? Why does salt have 30 different words for it, but it's not really the same or sugar or preservatives and things of that nature? You talked – you briefly mentioned packaging. In terms of sustainability, how hard or easy was it to source out sustainable packaging? 

Zoe Sakoutis

[20:08] I mean, unfortunately, because of the pandemic and just in general, the fact that we haven't made any great strides in this area—It's not the easiest thing in the world. I think, you know, for the most part, we're conscious of—trying to be conscious of how we're packing things up. You know, our lattes are not in plastic bottles. They're in, you know, cans, aluminum. We've got tinctures in glass. We have gummies in pouches instead of plastic bottles. So I mean, we're trying to be—do what we can where we can. You know, it's interesting, I mean, the cost of aluminum and corrugate has gone up so—like just so much in the past couple of years because of the pandemic. 

Erica Huss Huss

[20:45] And because of Coca-Cola and Topo Chico, [laughs] if we're being honest.

Zoe Sakoutis 

[20:48] Yeah, Topo Chico. In a way, I mean, I think—I hope that that sort of accelerated the conversation about the fact that we need to come up with alternatives. And you know, it would be great if someone can [laughs] figure out a little faster how to utilize the mycelium to replace, you know, things like Styrofoam and plastic, because you can do it. It does exist. It just hasn't been commercialized in any great scale yet, so—because, you know, we haven't found a way to do that. But I think it's coming. And I—Again, it's just incredible that mushrooms are literally answering like so many just big problems that we have right now from sustainability—you know, again, like literally can gobble up an oil spill and consume plastic and turn it into its own food. It's just incredible. So yeah, I—You know, the packaging thing is—It's always a head-scratcher, but it looks like hopefully it's making progress.

Taylor Martin 

[21:44] Yeah, I would say—You know, we did a podcast a while ago about an ethical promotions company, Swag. And they, you know, put your logo on different things. But they only put it on things that are, you know, ethically sourced and produced and shipped in sustainable in terms of materials. And they have to do a lot of vetting. You know, that's where they spend a lot of their time is vetting all their sources and all their suppliers and the chain of command everything. 

[22:09] And they had this thing where they call it, you know—I think it's good, better, best. You know, they have like three levels, because sometimes people don't have the budget for the best. The thing is that we all have to be doing something. We all have to be moving down that line to getting to the best, whatever that is. And sometimes there is no best. Like where I think a lot of companies are right now, there's just no best option right now, so you just choose the better one that you can, and then you line yourself ready for when someone does figure out how to make, you know, packaging like the ones you have right now, but they make it out of mushrooms. I mean, how would that be to have like your chocolate packaging, and the packaging itself is made out of mushrooms?

Zoe Sakoutis 

[22:52] Oh my God, it would be—I'm like so excited for this day. It's coming.

Erica Huss 

[22:55] It will come. It will definitely come.

Taylor Martin

[22:57] Exactly, and I think that's it. You know, we're just focused on it. And you know humans, you know, as we focus on things with problems, we always try to find a way, and we always end up doing—finding a way. We just spend the energy and time to get there.

Erica Huss                                                                                                                     

[23:09] Yeah, and to Zoe's point, you know, and to your point, I mean, we're doing what we can for everything to be better. So we're not using glass, which is certainly better than plastic, but it's still heavy, which means it's expensive to ship and it's also—You know, the carbon emissions are exponential after that. So like our gummies, for example, you know, they come in a pouch. And it's just like—You know, it's the little tweak that we can make. It, you know, ends up costing the consumer less than, you know, a competitive brand. And it's just lighter weight and easier to transport. So we're doing it where we can.

Taylor Martin

[23:42] And also glass is extremely highly recyclable, as opposed to plastics. I mean, the data on plastics is that only such a small percentage actually does get recycled. The rest of it gets to landfill or unfortunately to the ocean. So I definitely like it when I can get things in glass. You know, we did a podcast on a co-op that was actually trying to—co-op grocery store that was trying to remove all plastic from their—from their store. And I was like, wow, that seems intense. But he's—Evidently, he's done it.

Erica Huss 

[24:10] Really?

Taylor Martin 

[24:10] And it's in the Philadelphia area. I think they have three or four or five locations. 

Erica Huss 

[24:14] Weren't they doing that—Z, weren't they also doing that at Goods Mart? I feel like she—

Taylor Martin 

[24:18] I don't know Goods Mart.

Zoe Sakoutis 

[24:19] Yeah, she was not taking on any plastic bottles. It wasn't—It wasn't a hundred percent like a plastic-free store, but she definitely was not having any—

Erica Huss 

[24:27] Right. Yeah, very tiny operation.

Taylor Martin 

[24:30] Again, she's, you know, trying to do the better—Good, better, best, you know. So there's she trying to do something better and just pushing it down that way and trying to create a better sustainable environment, circular economy.

Erica Huss 

[24:40] Yeah, and we also—We've kind of adapted that into our return policy as well, which is that, you know, if there's an issue with your product, then we're not asking you to send it back, because we're not—[laughs] We don't want you to put any more packages in the mail than are already necessary. So I think we have a pretty flexible return and guarantee policy.

Taylor Martin

[24:59] Yeah. I've seen more retailers moving to that, you know, scenario depending on what the—what the products are. So what do you guys have lined up for the future? Anything you guys can share with us besides more flavors of gummies maybe?

Zoe Sakoutis

[25:12] Yeah, we have a lot of products coming down the pipe. I mean, I think, yes, the gummy [laughs]—The gummy line will certainly expand. Ground coffee is certainly expanding. We've got, you know, some ideas in the works there as well. But I mean, for the most part, I think, you know, we're trying to stay in our lane, which is functional mushrooms that you can consume, adaptogenic mushrooms. Again, trying to find habitual products that people are consuming every day and just focusing on that. It's easy and it's very tempting to sort of want, you know, to go down the mushroom rabbit hole and dabble in other areas, because there are so many places you can go. But you know, for the most part we want our brand to be associated with functional mushrooms that you can actually eat and enjoy, that are delicious.

Taylor Martin

[25:57] So what year did you guys start your business?

Zoe Sakoutis

[26:00] That's kind of a—That's a tricky question with COVID.

Erica Huss

[26:03] I know.

Taylor Martin

[26:04] Oh my God, any time you put COVID, like memory, it just—It's like a time warp socket. It just screws up your memory.

Zoe Sakoutis 

[26:11] I think we're—We've been saying 2019. Is that right?

Erica Huss

[26:15] Well, we say we founded the company in 2020.

Zoe Sakoutis 

[26:18] Right.

Erica Huss

[26:19] But we, you know, really officially launched last year with actual, you know, product out in the marketplace. So ideas were germinating in 2019.

Zoe Sakoutis

[26:27] But yeah, so it's now 2022. So okay, we've been in business for officially about a year. [laughs] A straightforward answer to that question. It could've just been like, when did you start your company?

Erica Huss

[26:37] When is your birthday? I don't know.

Taylor Martin

[26:39] Well, I mean, it does—It falls in the world of the pandemic, so to me, you know, that just is par for the course. I can't tell you how many times people ask me about something that happened during that time, and I can't even tell you when it happened, before, after, middle, during. What about where you guys are now? Where can people find your products?

Erica Huss 

[26:56] You can find us on our website, which no one will go to, because that's not how people shop anymore. But it's earthandstar.com. There actually is a lot of information. There's a lot of white paper. All the scientific studies and links are there. So there is—There is value to actually visiting our website, but it—

Zoe Sakoutis

[27:12] And we're super—There's going to be some really cute merch up there soon too, so.

Erica Huss

[27:15] Yes.

Taylor Martin 

[27:16] Oh, nice.

Zoe Sakoutis

[27:17] The best reason.

Erica Huss

[27:17] Some cute, sustainable merch. We're on Amazon. We're on a handful of other e-comm platforms, but Amazon is probably the one that is, you know—resonates most with people, unless they are the anti-Amazon shopper, which I have much respect for. And then we are—Actually, you do have to go to our website, because we've got a locations page that tells you all of the small kind of boutique retail operations that we're in nationwide. But we are in about 250 stores in New York and kind of the metro area. We're in LA at all of the Erewhon Markets. We are in Austin at Central Market, Neighborhood Goods, and soon to be more Central Markets. And what am I missing?

Zoe Sakoutis

[27:57] Those are—Those are good ones.

Erica Huss

[27:59] Yeah.

Taylor Martin 

[28:00] I just went to your site, and I see the map of the United States. And you're all over the place. That's great. 

Erica Huss

[28:04] Yeah, and we actually—We're at—We work with a very cool platform called Fair, which is kind of essentially connecting small businesses that don't necessarily have the footprint to work with a big distributor with brands like us, a lot of startups. And we're actually in, you know, a number of retail locations that we may not even be totally aware of, because Fair orders through—Like we're in their catalog. But that's nice, because you know, when we do—When we're able to see it come through—Like we're in one random location in Louisiana, and it's not New Orleans. And we're in one random location in North Dakota. And these are places that we wouldn't otherwise be—necessarily have access to or focus on. But that platform has made it really nice to be able to sort of, you know, establish a presence in unexpected places.

Taylor Martin 

[28:49] Yeah, this part of the growing pains, you know. I mean, the fact that you guys have done that in that short of a time span is really saying something. Well, I look forward to seeing your company grow. I love your, you know—the look of your products. Your brand looks nice and everything. So I think the merch would be a good idea. I'm so glad I ran into you at South by Southwest and we're able to have you on the show. I just love any type of business that follows in the world of, you know, things I like, have to come with health or sustainability or, you know, business in general. You can lump all those together, and it always makes for a good podcast. So Erica and Zoe, thank you guys so much for being on today's show. How can our listeners follow? Are you guys on a lot of social media platforms?

Zoe Sakoutis 

[29:29] Oh, a lot. [laughs] No. We're on—Yeah, I mean, you can get us on—You know, Instagram is @earthandstarco. Probably the only important one.

Erica Huss

[29:37] Earthandstarco.

Zoe Sakoutis

[29:38] Yeah.

Taylor Martin

[29:38] Well, all right. There we go, everybody. You can check out their products online at earthandstar.com or follow them on Instagram at earthandstarco. Over and out, everybody.

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[29:50] Thanks for tuning into the Triple Bottom Line. Your host, Taylor Martin, is founder and Chief Creative of Design Positive, a strategic branding and accessibility agency. Interested in being interviewed on our podcast? Then visit designpositive.co and fill out our contact form. If you enjoyed today's podcast, we would appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or whatever provider you're logging in from. This podcast is prepared by Design Positive and is not associated with any other entity. We look forward to having you back for another installment of the Triple Bottom Line.

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