Shopify Happy Hour

From Gut Issues to Product Innovation: Xeba Zareie’s CPG Journey with Preme Foods

• Dan Cassidy • Season 1 • Episode 17

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In this episode of Shopify Happy Hour, we sit down with Xeba Zareie—founder of Preme Foods, a wellness-driven CPG brand helping people with chronic illness and sensitive stomachs enjoy indulgent nutrition again.

What started as a personal battle with gut health turned into a mission: create functional, prebiotic-powered products that don’t compromise on taste or ingredients. From handmaking puddings to launching a shelf-stable, collagen-rich cocoa mix, Xeba’s story is equal parts resilience, research, and real innovation.

We talk about:

  • Why most gut health products on shelves are not made for sensitive stomachs
  • The difference between prebiotics and probiotics (and why that matters)
  • How Xeba scaled from small-batch to co-manufacturing without compromising quality
  • What most new founders get wrong about packaging, messaging, and retail
  • Her exact process for landing ideal retail partners—including a few bold outreach tactics
  • Why powders > puddings (at least to start)

If you’re building a wellness brand, formulating a CPG product, or launching on Shopify, this episode is packed with firsthand lessons from the trenches.

Also: it’s our Aries birthday episode—cheers to that!

Connect with Xeba Zareie
Instagram: @x_eba
Brand: @drinkpreme
More info: drinkpreme.com

Products mentioned during the episode:


Chapters

00:00
Introduction to Preme Foods and Xeba Zareie

02:11
The Science Behind Gut Health and Nutrition

06:18
Founder's Journey: From Personal Struggles to Business

11:09
Scaling Production: Challenges and Solutions

12:03
Transitioning from Puddings to Powders

13:39
Navigating Retail Partnerships and Consumer Education

19:16
Marketing Strategies for D2C Success

21:19
Lessons Learned and Future Directions

Dan (00:00)
Welcome to the Shopify happy hour. On the show, you'll hear from Shopify founders, operators, and experts on growth marketing strategies, lessons learned from the trenches, and other nuggets of e-commerce wisdom shared over a different drink or snack each episode. Today, I'd like to welcome Xeba Zari, co-founder and CEO of Preme Foods, which is on a mission to make indulgence possible again for people with chronic illness and sensitive stomachs through premium prebiotic powered nutrition. Xeba, welcome.

Xeba Zareie (00:29)
Thank you for having me, Dan. I loved that intro.

Dan (00:31)
Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining. So first of all, we got to talk about so we're shooting this April 23rd and both of our birthdays are just a few days apart. So I'm 19, you're 27. Is that right? Awesome. So go Aries. April birthdays are the coolest. That's right. That's right. So we got a special edition of our birthday episode right now. Fantastic. Let's talk about what we're drinking. So I see you're sipping in.

Xeba Zareie (00:43)
exactly yes

Dan (00:57)
And I've got my mug over here of cocoa But why don't you tell me what we are drinking over here?

Xeba Zareie (00:59)
No.

We're drinking Prem Hot Coco. It's a sweet and salty kind of version of an electrolyte drink. And I designed it to be sort of a coffee replacement. We all know coffee is hurting our gut. If you eat it, drink it on a sensitive stomach. And finding ways to drink a warm beverage that'll give you nutrition before you start a coffee was kind of my goal with this. And I actually already just made this drink on my own all the time. So it was nice to just have it in one easy scoop.

So it includes electrolytes, it has 100 milligrams of bioavailable magnesium, and it has just probiotic fiber, collagen, protein, all the things you'd want first thing in the morning. Cheers.

Dan (01:40)
All the goodies, fantastic. Well, cheers, virtual cheers to you for the happy hour.

So I just took my first sip a minute ago and it's delicious. It is really good. It's like hot cocoa, but a little more mealy, almost like malty, like rye bread. ⁓ Super delicious. Yeah, this is really nice.

Xeba Zareie (01:48)
It's different,

Cool.

think something

that's like a chocolatey sweetness would be too much every morning. So something that has like a little bit more neutrality to it was kind of the goal, like some earthiness, the way a coffee is.

Dan (02:10)
Yes, yeah, definitely earthy, not bitter at all. Like, you know, there's no bitter notes like there would be in coffee and less sweet than kind of a standard hot chocolate, but really nice. Very, very well done on the recipe. So what is in this that makes it good for our guts?

Xeba Zareie (02:20)
Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

So, you know, I think we're all on this protein craze, but I think a lot of people, what a lot of people don't talk about is if you're not digesting your protein properly, you're not actually getting the benefits of the protein. So what I like about this is it's an easy to digest collagen protein. It's bovine collagen, which has been shown to be the best source of collagen when you're healing from leaky gut and burial issues. So that's why we chose that one. And then we have a low FODMAP certified prebiotic fiber. It's a sun fiber.

and it literally just is safe for anyone who has like IBS, SIBO, really good for kids and you know it's it's only sweetened with dates and coconut so you're not getting any refined sugar and

know, the dates and coconut have glucose that helps you absorb your minerals even more efficiently when you have gut issues or stubborn waking, you're already having absorption issues. So it's really important to make sure you have that bioavailability in your drink if it's gonna function.

Dan (03:25)
What is, you said FODMAP? What is that?

Xeba Zareie (03:28)
Yeah, for now.

Sure. that's like an acronym for like, I'm going to mess it up. But oligosaccharides is kind of how it all goes into there. it's FODMAP diet is a common diet that's prescribed to people with IBS, SIBO, if you've had your gallbladder removed, things like that. It's not something that you should be on for like your whole life because it definitely limits the plant diversity that you can take in and which can limit your microbiome diversity. But it's something that you can do to manage your bloating system or bloating situations.

just a good practice to have in your arsenal if you are experiencing like a little bit of bloat.

Dan (04:04)
Awesome, thank you for sharing that. I've heard the acronym but I didn't know exactly what that meant. So how do you come up with this recipe? You said you've been making this kind of on your own for a while. How do you come up with, like, how do you know which ingredients to put in here and how do you grate this?

Xeba Zareie (04:18)
Well, I this goes back to like my founders journey when I was, you know, working in TV and film long hours, stressful hours. I was starting to experience like debilitating gut issues that kept me from working. And I, you know, worked with, you know, a traditional Beverly Hills gastroenterologist who just put me on antibiotics and sent me on my way. But that ultimately made me worse. And I was fortunate enough to work with a functional medicine doctor who taught me all about like the power of diet lifestyle.

taught me the difference between prebiotics and probiotics, which I had never known there was even a difference, and just taught me that not all prebiotic fibers are created equal.

So finding the right prebiotic fibers for people who naturally blow all the time is something that I really had a hard time doing in the snack aisle. Most snack brands, most CPG brands contain three of the same prebiotic fibers. You see Inulin, you see Chick-Ree-Roo, and you see Jerusalem artichoke. Unfortunately, those are more of a high FODMAP irritating prebiotic fiber. So if someone is already experiencing gut issues, it's probably not the right fiber for them, which is really hard to know because they're touting gut health and they're touting

this

is good for you. And I really wanted to make that differentiation in the snack aisle. So that was kind of my whole basis for starting Prem. I wanted to offer gentle yet effective approaches. And these are all ingredients that followed my strict diet that I was on when I was really, really sick and I had to make all my food by scratch. And I just was craving for a brand to come along and be what I needed. So I thought I would just do it myself.

Dan (05:47)
That's fantastic, I love the story. I love when founders are going through a problem, they create a solution, and then that solution then gets turned into a business. So that said, lots of people will kind of create solutions on their own for whatever problem they have, and then they think, okay, well, that's done, maybe I fixed something for myself, but that's it. So what was the spark that turned you into realizing, like, hey, I wanna actually...

turn this into a business and help other people with this product and product set.

Xeba Zareie (06:15)
When I was so she put me on such a limited diet and I would make this oatmeal every morning and it had my sun fiber and my protein and and I lived in LA at the time and I would go to Arawan and I'm like if Arawan doesn't even have this option available to me like an option that meets my limited diet and I have three other friends who just told me they were diagnosed with the same issue. This seems to be like a growing issue and the more I did my research the more I started to understand why our gut microbiome is under threat as

species. And it really started to concern me. It's systemic. And I just really felt like there wasn't enough CPG brands that were actually incorporating cutting edge research and root science medicine. So I really felt almost like obligated and like implored to do this. I really felt like it was my responsibility and I just feel so passionate about it. So I'm excited to bring this brand into the snack aisles.

Dan (07:06)
Fantastic.

So how did you go from what was it? What did it look like going from? Sounds like you've been working with a functional doctor to help dial in the recipe. And once you have it in a good place where it's working for you, you really, you know, are feeling the health benefits from that. Tell us about how you then move that into a into manufacturing where you're able to produce at scale. What was that like?

Xeba Zareie (07:29)
Look!

So our first journey was a cold chain pudding, and that really taught me a lot about the importance of being able to scale. I was hand making these puddings in like a tub, you know, and then the process, if you want to have something in grocery, I'm going to spill CPG secrets right now. If you want to have something in grocery, you want to have a minimum of a three month shelf life, and most people want six months. So, you know, having a fresh product that...

is healthy for you and doesn't have artificial preservatives is really, really difficult at scale. And having the right commands or the right people on your team to guide you through that process is super, super, super important. I was kind of just like by myself in this test kitchen creating puddings and selling them locally. And that really wasn't scaling. So when I learned that creating, you know, if I want to go into co-manufacture, they require certain volumes. If I want to do those volumes, I have to do sort of a neat

nationwide launch in grocery, but that's how most brands fail. They go to grocery too fast. They launched nationwide without having sort of this background cult following, especially me. I'm bootstrapped. I don't have millions of dollars to just make those mistakes. So for me, I wanted to really tiptoe and make sure the market was responding well to the product. And once I got a lot of good feedback from our puddings, I really felt like it was on me to scale and expand because so many people were asking me for Prem in New York.

in Europe and in Florida and I couldn't get it to them. I wanted to go back to my why which was serving as many people as possible through their gut issues and making this accessible. So I started with the powders as something I can lift by myself with a command that doesn't limit, you know, my, it doesn't limit how far I can scale. So I found a co-manufacturer in Dallas and something I'll say about co-manufacturers is

They don't have gut issues, most of them, and they're used to working with traditional ingredients. So I have had to sort of not battle my way, but negotiate my way with the comand to be like, no, we're really going to go with this premium ingredient. I know the cogs are going to be higher and I know that it doesn't really make sense for the bottom line. And I know you've probably never heard of this ingredient yourself, but I know that this works. We're using it. So I self formulated everything.

I double checked it with a consultant and then I double checked it with our functional medicine doctor. So that's kind of been my process. I think most brand founders are not dealing with the formulation themselves. And I think that that's something that differentiates me from others. know, most snack brands are made by the same few manufacturers and formulated by the same few manufacturers. So we're seeing the same options out there. So it's just sticking to my principles and negotiating with my, you know,

and together we created this product that's now allowing us to scale.

Dan (10:14)
Fantastic, I love that you are being assertive and having control over the formulation, because otherwise, yeah, I can easily see where comands would default to the ingredients that they're already used to purchasing or running through their manufacturing process. So do you order ingredients yourself or does the comand, gotcha, okay, so you're actually controlling that part too.

Xeba Zareie (10:40)
controlling every

aspect, they pretty much just mix and fill for me. But that's just my personality type, probably something I'm working against. You know, I've tried talking to other comans who they can't make the numbers work this way. So I'm very fortunate that they are letting me make the numbers work this way. And I think that's what makes our product so unique.

Dan (10:58)
Awesome. So when did you, what year did you launch?

Xeba Zareie (11:01)
So we launched our puddings in 2022 with a snack shot event in Los Angeles. And we were selling them locally to a few retailers. And then online, you could order it for local delivery. And then we just launched our powders January of this year, so 2025.

Dan (11:15)
Okay, awesome. And how have things been going with the powders versus the puddings?

Xeba Zareie (11:19)
It's night and day. feel like I'm having a completely different experience. I mean, being able to ship my product nationwide, being able to get into retailers that I'm not able to physically drop it off myself. It's just a completely different dynamic. So I now I'm marketing before I was not marketing. I didn't have enough product. It was very hush hush. Don't tell anyone. Now I'm like, okay, let's show the brand off. Let's, you know, practice marketing. So now, you know, servicing different retailers. What does that look like with a powder versus a pudding?

completely different journey and also customers who loved the pudding, it didn't always translate to them wanting the powder.

Dan (11:53)
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, well, you've done a really nice job with branding. the site, you know, has some nice, very nice personality. I like the little, would that be, so what would the little icon be? Is that like a gut bacteria? Gotcha, fantastic. Yeah, so I love that on the packaging and on the website that really speaks to the brand. So what,

Xeba Zareie (11:57)
Thank you.

The little icons are like, yeah, they're bacteria.

Dan (12:14)
know, looking back from launching the puddings and going through that process for a couple of years now, launching the powders, which seems like you're having more success with or less headaches with as well. What were some of the biggest struggles getting your brand and products out to market?

Xeba Zareie (12:29)
I love this question because we are sort of this new category product. It's more premium. It includes ingredients that you don't see on your snack aisle, but you see from your functional medicine doctor. So getting certain buyers to sort of like understand the premium costs that comes with that and just all the functions of it, I think has been difficult for me.

But some people just automatically get the brand, which is amazing. So some people, requires a lot of education. You know, even small health food stores, a lot of people just, they don't.

They're not as educated on nutraceuticals as say I am. So I think in future I will try to sort of make the packaging even more approachable. Right now I feel like it doesn't explain enough to customers and customer education has been the crux of this brand. Most people still call my product probiotic. There's no probiotic in there. It's a prebiotic drink. Most people didn't know that there's prebiotics. Most people don't know that you

might have absorption issues if you have gut issues and what bioavailability means and so you know

I think finding unique creative ways to get buyers to understand the product has been exciting, but also difficult. I really love sampling when I'm at retail because you can just understand the consumer. And I think the right retail partnerships is key. So for example, we were selling at a small retailer on the west side. They're an old school retailer. Their customer base is a little bit more old school traditional. So their idea of trying something new

They're not as excited to try something new, especially when it costs more. But if you go to like an Airwann, the customer basis is like searching for novelty. They almost searching for novelty that costs more. They want that premium. They want to spend money on that. So it's just finding the right partners, I think, has been instrumental to the growth of Priem.

Dan (14:22)
Yeah, it sounds like there is a whole educational campaign that needs to almost be launched for D2C but along with retailers because Well and and with the price point almost positioning it as a health product slash, know, like if somebody is struggling with chronic illness or gut health It's not about taking antibiotics or popping random pills. It's about improving your diet and your health from the ground up

Xeba Zareie (14:41)
Right.

Dan (14:49)
And if this can be viewed as that solution, then people should be willing to open up their pocketbook and pay a premium price for better ingredients that actually improve their life.

Xeba Zareie (15:00)
Well, the people who understand it are definitely opening up their pocketbook and they love it and we've switched them from, you know, common brands to ours. A lot of people with gut issues across the board who are our customers report that it's just so soothing to them, which is how I feel. So I think ultimately if we find our right niche customer basis.

they will help us educate because at the end of the day I found on organic marketing, a lot of the customer doesn't want to be like taught to, if that makes sense, by the brand. They like education but not too much education. So finding like that perfect balance between here's some information and lifestyle is really key for us as well.

Dan (15:42)
Gotcha, awesome. So for the retail accounts that get it, that you're in, how did you land those retailers?

Xeba Zareie (15:50)
It required a lot of follow-up, I will say, from all angles. I will stalk them on Twitter. I will find them on Instagram and DM them. I will email them. If I believe that the retailer is the right retailer for us, I will follow up with them for years. So with Live Healthily Online right now, I think I was in communication with them for...

over a year and a half and they finally answered me. And I think it's because I tweeted at one of the co-founders. But we've had so much success. We sold out on the first day on their site and then they doubled their order. So that was really exciting to see a group of audience and customers that really just get the brand.

Dan (16:26)
Awesome, awesome, yeah persistence seems to be the key to success with retail, or you just have to continue to follow up and stay in front of them and show that you're not gonna wait.

Xeba Zareie (16:32)
It's not just that you have to also pitch

like, why does this go so well on their shelves? Why will this be something that they haven't had yet? She didn't have a fiber on her website yet. So that was, you know, an obvious thing for her. It's just, think about like giving the retailer ideas and also.

traditional grocery is not always the end all be all. Like we had so much success with a small restaurant cafe and just pitching the idea of having one of our drinks on the menu like sparked some things for them, you know? So it's just getting creative about different ways to sell that might not look like the traditional this product is on a shelf and you're taking it home with your groceries.

Dan (17:06)
idea of going after restaurants and health food stores and having this as, I mean, the hot cocos, you just put hot water in and it's delicious. So it's super easy for them to make and, you know, the markup for them would be very well worth pouring hot water in and it's something, for instance, something unique. And if it can help people feel better, then, you know, fantastic. so that's, yeah, I love that, that angle.

Xeba Zareie (17:14)
You just thought about it. Exactly.

Right.

Dan (17:32)
What marketing have you done that you've found successful for D2C, for actually going after your final consumers and not retailers?

Xeba Zareie (17:40)
So I find that brand partnerships and gifting has been working super well for me.

I think gifting establishes, they all kind of have to work in tandem. Like, you you talk to any marketing specialist and they're like, all areas have to work together and they all come together. And so I'll do like a lot of gifting and then that creates sort of this like brand awareness. And then at the same time, if we're doing events with like-minded people and we're doing giveaways and affiliate marketing with professionals who are in the space. So like anyone who's a registered dietician, functional medicine doctor, people really

trust their advice. so having that exposure with the gifting plus the expert awareness and knowledge, it really, really has helped us a lot. Event partnerships create brand awareness, but it doesn't always create that purchase because people go home with the freebie and then they don't think about it that much.

Dan (18:33)
How are you finding those experts or

influencers or affiliates to work with?

Xeba Zareie (18:39)
I am just a research freak. I'm a research freak. That's how I started this brand anyway. I'm so tapped in. Literally all my free time is spent listening to health and wellness professionals. If I'm on the weekends, I'm listening to a podcast about the powers of magnesium. That's what I'm doing. So that's how I find them.

Dan (18:59)
Awesome, Fantastic. Well, it sounds like you've got a fun birthday trip we were talking before this. So maybe take a few hours off of your magnesium podcast and have some fun with your friends.

Xeba Zareie (19:04)
Thank you. It's fun

for me is the thing. That's the thing. That's so crazy.

Dan (19:15)
Nice, awesome, awesome. So

if you were starting over and wanted to grow knowing then what you know now, what would you do differently going back in, know, 2022 is when you launched, but I'm sure you were prepping even ahead of that. So what would you do differently?

Xeba Zareie (19:25)
Yeah.

So I don't know if it's like my cultural background and upbringing that caused this, but I had the powder idea when I first launched the puddings. To me, it just felt like too quote unquote easy and attainable and I think simple. And so I think for me, I felt a little bit too insecure to come out with a powder that it's just gonna be another powder on the shelf and it's not gonna be anything. And I needed to do something super, super inventive and creative just to get any traction. And I wish I could talk

to my old self and just tell her that like you don't have to work that hard, you know, to be well received. So I truly wish I had started crawling before running, if that makes sense. Pudding is literally, when I talk to any food chemist, they say it's the hardest product you could possibly do. So knowing that and knowing what I know now, I wish that it started with the powders and then I could have created a bit more traction and then we could have...

raised by then and gone to the puddings with market. But you you live, learn, and I'm here to play catch up a little bit, and I'm so game.

Dan (20:30)
Well, it's nice that you started with the harder option because you kind of built some resiliency muscles and learned a lot along the way. And now ideally you've got a little bit of a possibly an easier journey with the powders where at least there's less things to worry about in terms of shelf stability with a pudding worst powder.

Xeba Zareie (20:33)
true.

You you talk to lot of founders who have had cold chain brands and they've all said they regretted doing it and that they wish they did a pantry item. So I don't think the puddings are gone forever, but it is something that requires strong partnership and, you know, good CPG background experience to succeed.

Dan (21:04)
Gotcha. Makes sense. All right, well, let's move on to the speed round. So each answer in about 30 seconds or less. So what is one of your most recommended books?

Xeba Zareie (21:15)
I really like, I'm not gonna say like Peter Thiel zero to one or ramping up your brand. I really like the seven laws of spiritual success. I think like you're only as good as who you, like your brand is only as good as you in a way. So if you can work on yourself, your brand grows as well.

Dan (21:31)
What's an under the radar product or brand you've used and like, but most people don't know about?

Xeba Zareie (21:35)
⁓

So everyone talks about Shilajit, but no one talks about Shilajit gummies. Shilajit's really hard to take, but Organifi creates gummies that makes it super easy to just pop in your mouth. Shilajit is so many benefits. It's literally like clears your hormonal balance. It can help your gut. It helps your skin. It's full of acumic acid, so it's like pulling all the heavy metals, toxins out of your body.

Dan (21:47)
What does Shalaja do?

Xeba Zareie (22:01)
It's like a cure-all. Just really hard to take and maneuver. So if you have the gummies, it's better. Yeah, tuck it out.

Dan (22:06)
Gotcha, I'm check that out.

What is one thing in life you do better than most people, and how do you do it?

Xeba Zareie (22:11)
I'm gonna toot my own horn here and just say I think I make the most tastiest gut-soothing CPG products on the market. And I say that because I have my own gut health issues and I test everything on my own stomach and just, you my research freakness. So I think that that all equips me to create the best, tastiest CPG gut health brand.

Dan (22:31)
Nice. Well, definitely smart to build a brand around that. Tell me about

your favorite shopping experience online or offline.

Xeba Zareie (22:37)
So Revolve Online I love. They have so much product on there, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. They have a really good way of making me feel inspired, and I go on that website even if I'm not shopping just to look. And then I think in person, I would say Air One. Like they're the only grocery store that has like a full line of drinks. And I go to all their grocery stores and they're like separated into three different aisles and mostly in the pantry. we don't want that as consumers. We want a big refrigerator of all these ready to drink drinks.

at our chills.

Dan (23:07)
Yeah, it'd be great if they're out on the East Coast. We've got Whole Foods and Fresh Market and other healthier options, but Arowan is not, at least in the Southeast.

Xeba Zareie (23:14)
I've other

grocers are going to start doing this beverage wall. I've heard.

Dan (23:19)
Gotcha. Nice.

Good deal. Good deal. Who is a brand founder we should have on a future episode?

Xeba Zareie (23:25)
I like that question. I really like the Pistachio founders. I think they're doing super well. I really like the Charmley founders. They do an adaptogenic beverage. I think those are a few. Yeah, the Knorr dressing that Annie Balto is amazing as well.

Dan (23:45)
Like, Ziba, where can people connect with you to learn more?

Xeba Zareie (23:49)
You can connect with me on Instagram at x underscore eba. That's my personal Instagram. Or you can just DM me on Prem at drinkPrem. Or you can shoot us an email at highPremfoods.com. Love to hear from you.

Dan (24:01)
Fantastic. Ziba, thank

you so much for bringing premium foods to market as a way to offer premium prebiotic nutrition designed to improve our health, sharing your expertise and insights with our audience, and for joining us on the Shopify happy hour.

Xeba Zareie (24:14)
Thank you so much for having me, Dan. It was such a treat.

Dan (24:16)
birthday friends for life. Aries forever. Woohoo!

Xeba Zareie (24:18)
What they're doing.

Woo!