Ian Tecklin - Redefining Frozen Pasta, Top Chef Style

On this episode, we’re joined by Ian Tecklin, the Founder & CEO of Ripi, a recently launched, fast-growing upstart that’s redefining frozen pasta. Ian spent years in M&A and early-stage investing before partnering with Top Chef alum Joe Sasto to bring chef-level pasta to the masses through an accessible, freezer-friendly format.

With explosive early retail traction and a growing fan base, Ian shares an inside look at how Ripi developed its formulations, chose its first SKUs, and built a distinctive brand identity in a sleepy category.

We dive into R&D, how he selected and onboarded co-packers, and why launching with the right hero SKUs matters in frozen. Ian unpacks what most brands misunderstand about the frozen aisle, why packaging architecture matters more than founders think, and how Ripi thinks about shelf placement, facings, and competing behind a condensated glass door.

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Episode Highlights:

🍝 Building Ripi: a chef-led, premium frozen pasta brand
🧪 Formulating restaurant-level pasta that scales
🏭 How to choose and work with the right co-packer
📦 Why product set is critical in frozen
🎨 Packaging architecture that wins in the freezer aisle
🛒 Retail go-to-market & early traction
📊 Tactics for capturing more shelf space
❄️ What brands misunderstand about the frozen category
🧭 Advice for entrepreneurs entering frozen
🔭 Trends Ian is paying attention to

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Table of Contents:

00:00:00 - Ian Tecklin intro
00:41:08 - Ripi origin story
03:55:13 - Formulation and R&D
07:56:11 - Copackers
12:41:22 - Go-to-market SKU decisions
15:15:24 - Brand identity and packaging design
21:43:19 - Retail go-to-market
26:49:12 - Capturing more shelf space in a competitive category
30:17:19 - The frozen category
35:25:10 - If Ian could redesign the frozen section
37:33:02 - Recs for other frozen entrepreneurs
39:45:05 - Trends Ian is watching

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Links:

Ripi – https://ripifoods.com
Follow Ian on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-tecklin-44655698/ 
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ 

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Transcript

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Today we're speaking with Ian Techlin founder and CEO of Rippy the fairly recently launched fast growing frozen pasta brand based out of New York City prior to Rippy Ian LED early stage investments and new incubations for a family office did strategy and corp dev work at an adtech company and also global talent agency UTA which you may be familiar with so lots of great experience that aren't that familiar with Rippy just give us a quick lay of the land in terms of an origin story why behind the brand core products in the in the lineup today and then maybe just a few places people can get their hands on them today and then we'll go from there absolutely we'll thanks for for having me on love the pod love the apps that you've uh released and so appreciate the opportunity to tell our story um yeah so rippy it's short for the Italian word ripieno which means filling or stuffing so it speaks to not only our core product of frozen stuffed pasta but also the whole brand ethos of filling life with more of the good stuff ultimately I see a massive opportunity to disrupt what historically has been a stale legacy category of frozen pasta where the average brand is 65 years old everyone's focused on the same basic standard flavors like cheese spinach and cheese mushroom Butternut squash the packaging is is fairly similar across the board and no one's really leaned into social to create engaging content and foster sense of community online and all you have to do frankly is look at what grasa has done in olive oil fishwife and tin fish truff and hot sauce Jenny's and Van Lewen and ice cream you know Mila and frozen dumplings there's example after example all of these challenger brands who've introduced premium chef driven products had a unique voice on social and found success and to me frozen pasta is that next frontier that's ripe for disruption and we wanna be that next big challenger brand and so I partnered with this guy Joe Sasto who was on Top Chef twice has done a lot for the Food Network is very well known on social for his pasta making I had initially dmed him five years ago when I first thought of Rippy and can get into sort of what that origin looked like um didn't launch it at the time but when it came time to really pursue this you know brought him on as our Chief Colony officer and with his help we officially launched our first three skews uh this past February so we've got a brace short rib ravioli with Swiss chard Parmesan and red wine got a chicken parm ravioli with crushed tomatoes mozz and basil and a sweet potato ravioli with brown butter Rosemary maple so it's meant to be sophisticated and elevated but accessible at the same time both from an ingredient perspective as well as a pricing perspective and what we're doing is using frozen pasta as a vehicle to empower the average home chef and really help them elevate their weeknight meals I've heard you say that you're not just making better ravioli you're reimagining ravioli and I was gonna ask kind of what this looks like but I think you kind of just laid it out there yeah no look it's about prioritizing bold flavors um you know eye catching design you know not only from a packaging perspective but from a social perspective and just frankly from a branding perspective bringing energy and having you know a modern brand voice and and tone and ethos that frankly is bringing energy to a stale legacy category that's what we're looking to do let's um working with your partner on some of that initial R&D formulation um when you're working on reimagining raviolis I mean I imagine it definitely took a while to probably dial things in and find formulation process that worked without giving away any of your trade secrets or anything what were like some of those kind of key variables you guys were playing around with or kind of key tweaks you had to make along the way between that it's like the first version that came out versus the final version that you felt like this is right this is it I'm ready to go to to to bat with and I'm kind of curious yeah a lot of batches many months it's funny when I look back or think back on you know the whole R&D process as I mentioned I first thought of the idea for Rippy five years ago this was June 2020 Covid as we all recall restaurants were shut down people were cooking at home more than ever before and I was walking the aisles of a grocery store by me when I was living in LA at the time uh and had this light bulb moment you know and I thought why can't uh the the freezer aisle specifically frozen pasta why can't there be you know sophisticated unique flavor profiles that are you know different and and accessible from an ingredient to pricing perspective you know I'm a born and raised New Yorker like so many people have come to love uh some pretty amazing pasta dishes you know for places like Missy and Lilia and L'artusi and Via Carota and I thought why can't that type of quality be available in the freezer aisle and if you can you know lean really into uh unique packaging and bold flavor profiles and have a unique voice on social then it's a very interesting proposition and having been a Top Chef fan my whole life and I think that's my favorite show in the world I dmed Joe just out of the blue and said hey you know huge fan have a crazy idea for a pasta venture uh can I tell you more about it and coincidentally he lived 5 blocks away from me in LA at the time and so for the next 6 8 months during Covid every week he would drop off a different stuffed pasta version you know different filling a different dough option different shape option and we continue to tweak the the ratios of the ingredients accordingly for each called skew we have a recipe book of you know 70 to 80 flavors right now wow and so we spent so much time during Covid ultimately with the world upside down I didn't think it was the right time to to launch a brand and so I moved back to New York started working at this family office but I've been thinking about Rippy every single day and ultimately got to this point where I decided you know to dust off all the materials I'd put together a few years prior and and pursue Rippy you know after fully diligenceing it and in that whole process reengage with Joe from a small batch R&D perspective and you know at that time we had basically perfected our recipes on a small scale but then we knew we obviously had to commercialize them and make them feasible at scale you know in a manufacturing setting and so I spoke to I think 18 co packers if there's someone who produces frozen pasta scale I've spoken to them and we asked a number of key questions for us that were sort of non starters you know in terms of their ability to create IQF frozen stuffed pasta then being USDA certified because we have two meat based products then being able to support the ravioli shapes we we want to do and then most importantly having an R&D team in house to work with us on this whole commercialization process and so you know we launched the brand in February of this year but last year was just a big behind the scenes build year focusing on on branding work with our agency but most importantly on the product side R&D with our co packer and we went through dozens of iterations and we had Joe's small batch sample as a as a comparison if you will and we spent you know virtually 12 months and probably around 10 months in R&D land last year and genuinely we were able to recreate Joe's uh recipes on a small scale which is you know incredible that's great was it hard to find that that you ended up circling around and then once you found that one was it hard to kind of get them to take a chance on a you know upstart brand and getting them convincing them to get excited enough to take you know the risk on smaller production runs and kind of seeing seeing the vision or did they kind of get it right away you know I I mentioned I'd spoken to 18 co packers you know obviously some were fast nose because they didn't want to work with us in R&D because they didn't have the capability or didn't have the bandwidth to lean in so we went into called various stages of discussions with different partners you know the one we ultimately ended up working with you know was willing to work with us and spend the time because they believed in in the vision and the market opportunity and our ability to execute you know ultimately we're we're in it on a commercial side to to have long term partners and it's just an amazing situation to be in that we found a commercial partner you know our our key production partner who before we even launched was willing to take that risk you know from a timing and and bandwidth perspective on there and to to lean in to roll up their sleeves and go through again dozens of iterations to commercialize these initial recipes and and make them feasible at scale yeah which you know very grateful for what the kitchen your partner's kitchen to larger scale co packers it what trade offs you had to make in terms of the one thing we would not I will never make a concession on is on quality it's quality the product obviously has to taste great I'd say that's priority one a priority 1 b being we have to be clean label and have transparent ingredients it cannot the back of the box cannot read like a periodic table where the average consumer has no idea what we're putting in our product you look at our ingredients today on the back of our box our side of our box you're gonna be familiar and know how to read every single you know ingredient listed there so that was the most important piece for me here on quality obviously but we have to you know make some I don't want to call it concessions in a negative light call it optimize efficiencies if you will you know there are things that we need to do in a commercialized setting because what we did on a small scale is not feasible you know perfect example our sweet potato ravioli with brown butter Rosemary maple you know that on a small scale involved Joe taking sweet potatoes cutting them in half roasting them whole putting them through a sieve and and mashing them together to get a sweet potato puree and then mixing in uh brown butter and and maple and Rosemary and a few other seasonings that's not you know scalable or efficient you know and it's very laborious you know it gets expensive it's complex from a production lens and so with that skew for example we found a fantastic partner who provides a sweet potato puree you know which is the same exact flavor and and texture profile that Joe created on a small scale but takes a fraction of the time so that's one example that yeah comes to mind that makes total sense they're just starting that kind of co packer search trying to nail down who's gonna be a good fit things they should just keep top of mind yeah I mean the first is I would talk to as many co packers as possible there's for any category unless you're a super niche product there's a number of potential co packing partners out there and I would talk to them all and and compare and contrast because they each have their own merits and considerations the second one being know your non negotiables you know for us it was as I mentioned having a a co packer who was USDA certified because we have two meat based products it was finding a co packer who had an in house R&D team and our capability to work with us over you know many months the third I would say with that is somebody who has small batch quality you know they're not just so mechanized or industrial out of the gate they can you know craft unique flavor profiles with that sort of small touch flavor while not being too small from a production capacity lens in in the sense of you being able to grow with them and then the last piece just from a financial lens ensure that you know the margins can support the business from uh the get go you know that there's a clear path importantly on top of that to margin expansion as you scale because if your margins don't work out of the gate you're sort of d O a and especially if there's no clear path to to margin expansion you know over the next couple years then you have no business being in business right totally you mentioned you guys have a big recipe book that I think you said like 70 or so different recipes yeah you watch those three how'd you decide in which three to go with it's a great question because the benefit obviously and the benefit and downside of stuffed pasta is that there are endless filling options and so you can get creative you know very creative in terms of what you put in the pasta which is great from a creativity lens bad from a call it analysis paralysis lens cause you know there's unlimited options but for us with our existing you know skis we have in market and the ones you know we're launching soon and or that are in our future pipeline it's all about striking the right balance between something that's sophisticated and elevated but accessible at the same time from an ingredient and pricing perspective and we wanted something that was familiar and approachable but you know a bit more elevated at the same time so short rib you know I want to say everyone but most folks know what a braised short rib you know tastes like you know it's it's rich it's unctuous it's homie we wanted to capture that you know essence in a pasta you know in a ravioli which I think we've done fantastically well it's actually our our best selling skew right now the second you know the chicken parm very familiar everyone knows that I'm comfortable with saying everyone knows what a chicken parm tastes like you know so it was familiar there and then the third you know the sweet potato there are so many called Butternut squash products out in market today we wanted a vegetable based product you know knowing that we have the other two meat ones and so we thought okay well what's good from a color and and texture uh and flavor perspective thought sweet potato you know really could work well and we were able to really elevate it by adding you know brown butter and Rosemary and maple so it tastes you know very very homie and and perfect for fall actually though I love it around and so those were the initial three that we prioritized out of the gate so there were some wacky flavors we also went into we had initially planned to do a fourth skew as well it was gonna be a spicy crab tortellini so blue crab clawing chili and kale but you know we could not get the margins to work and so we scrapped it and ended up going with these three and you know it's been great so far let's talk packaging design for me and you you obviously did uh did some things right cause I think you guys got some awards and some recognition pretty early on in that front what were um some of like the key variables that were top of mind for you when and I I appreciate the the comment well first I have to shout out and and thank RAF and and the truffle team who were fantastic partners still are fantastic partners they're our agency and they worked with us from brand strategy visual identity packaging design logo web design just sort of full service soup to nuts for me packaging was so important because that's the number one marketing vehicle for us as you think about countless people just walking the aisles of a grocery store and seeing it on shelves so it had to pop especially with the freezer aisle the conventional called Heritage Value brands in the space today all have very similar packaging we wanted something that immediately drew your drew your attention from the coloring to the typography but equally as important is that visual that you see in the front of the box which is just a big ravioli you know with the sauce dollop on top which I just think is so striking visually that was really important for us from a packaging lens you know obviously we didn't start with packaging first it all goes back to sort of the initial brand ethos that we really drilled down on which is providing restaurant worthy pasta without the reservation and using frozen pasta as a vehicle to empower the average home chef and instilling in consumers that we are doing the hard stuff so that they can enjoy the good stuff you know which is one of our mantra so we're you know braising our short rib at scale we're roasting our sweet potatoes we're making the pasta dough we're shaping the ravioli we're cooking it um part cooking it rather and then freezing it so all you have to do is drop it in in boiling water for three to three half three to three and a half minutes at home and you know you have a true restaurant quality meal in a matter of minutes all of that type of sentiment should be communicated one way or another on the packaging whether it's just through the front or it's on the side panels or it's on the back and I think you know we did a great job yeah totally agree with that what you obviously narrow no circled all circled around a great agency partner what would that decision making diligence process look like that helped you owning them yeah and again I I think this is where my background as an investor is helpful in terms of just diligence in every call it opportunity or consideration of this business I mentioned with our co packer talking to 18 manufacturers to land on the right partner with our agency search I probably spoke to a dozen agencies large and small what initially drew me was just googling brands I admire or I've heard about and finding their agency and then reaching out and having a number of calls sometimes just one call sometimes a couple but for me it was important to see the clients that they had worked with the work obviously that they had done it was important for me to find a full service agency because I wanted someone to provide a range of services all just under one roof and then obviously the the important piece of pricing those were sort of the key criteria for us I think truffle checked all of the boxes for us and we made the right choice there yeah totally launching a CPG brand getting ready to kick off kind of brand packaging design any kind of tips that come to mind or things yeah out for that I uh holds in minds I can avoid well I would say the first is don't design for yourself design for the shelf you know I think a lot of founders make the mistake of falling in love with something that looks great on a laptop per se you know not necessarily in store and so I would say if you're in love with a particular packaging design you know print it tape it on our freezer door stand 10 feet back and that's sort of the test you know there's there's a really big difference between what I call it singular package looks like in isolation versus if you put it you know whether in in real life or digitally what it'll actually look like on shelves so that's the first piece I think the second is not to go in order of priorities just things that that come to mind budgeting for photography and and printing tests now that digital file isn't the finish line it's just one component of of the broader packaging design phase and so you need to do a number of printing test to ensure that there's color accuracy to make sure that the substrate choice and and finishing all um are in coordination with you know your color and how you want your product to feel I think you can't sort of over iterate if that makes sense you know it'll never be perfect nothing's ever perfect but try to get it to 90 to 95% let's say and launch and you know real consumer feedback will I think be more valuable than you know another round of of agency revisions if you will totally and then I'd say the last piece actually two more that just come to mind one is just I'd say clarity beats clever meaning you have literally three seconds to tell someone what it is that you're selling and and why it's different I wouldn't try to be clever and bury the product name or flavor in design you know it should be treated as a walking billboard as I mentioned and be very clear from the outset what it is that you're selling and why you're selling it and the value you know that you're offering and then the last piece is don't ignore really frankly plan for the boring stuff you know getting your UPC's set up on on GS one getting your nutritional panels in order your ingredient statements you know all of the call it unsexy compliance work that ultimately could call it derail your timeline if you forget about it you know it's important to consider as you're you know kicking off that process shifting gears a bit like fast forwarding a bit I'm pretty sure you guys got a good a good number of retailers pretty quickly out out the bat I'm just curious thinking back tell me a bit about that journey of getting on shelf in terms of just getting that first buyer meeting or two getting that first commitment or two and kind of once you got that that first or two yeses kind of all the steps leading up to actually getting on shelf and and ensuring doing everything you could to have a successful launch from there yeah you know we we launched in February of this year initially with 33 stores we're now in you know eight months later over 150 stores right now I'd say the initial focus from a retail perspective you know we wanted to prioritize the natural channel wanted to prioritize the independent and specialty stores in this channel you know just to call it crawl before we walk and dip our toes or get our get our skis under us operationally before we scale up and you know are ready for the big players and so the focus you know really it didn't uh geography cause you obviously can't be everywhere all at once but we had targeted you know Pacific Northwest and Norcal as one area uh on the West Coast or two areas the New York metro area um cause I'm here my friends family investors are here I want to be able to visit stores frequently and then the third bucket is just called strategic ad hoc opportunities so retailers that are outside the two areas that I just mentioned but potentially unlock a larger opportunity through their ownership so Market District is is one example by Giant Eagle that we're in right now in the Midwest now our first two retailers were Nugget Markets in Norcal and Hagen you know in in the Pacific Northwest and we just made sure we launched there in February so we started shipping out product I believe late December early January to make sure that we were ready and you know it was really important that we were buttoned up operationally obviously being onboarded with unafy and having those dcs activated you know in those two areas but from a production planning perspective making sure that all of the packaging was printed in advance and and ready to go all of the raw materials were ordered and and delivered in advance and you know demand planning is a bit tricky early on because there's no science to it it's all sort of art you can make some you know estimates based on preliminary demand but you don't really know until you get in it making sure that we obviously weren't shorting stores that we had some called backstop of inventory available and you know we launched pretty seamlessly and 33 stores I mentioned in February we're over 100 now by the end of this year you know we'll be in uh 700 stores really what I'm excited by as well though over the next six months we're rolling out to over 15 stores we have some large logo accounts that you know will announce at a later time be sure to let you know though that we're very excited about and I think that just speaks to the the reality that a lot of these retail buyers that we're talking to see you know the vision and and business opportunity frankly the white space that we're going after and have really leaned in accordingly what have you started to kind of find in terms of tools on the ground tactics that actually have the most impact in terms of you know maximizing velocity and driving cell through you know I'd say for us it's the in store promotional trade activity you know that is driving the most call it in store purchase right now there's a lot of stuff that we're starting to do from a top of funnel social perspective just to get the word out there and we have a lot of exciting stuff planned there but in terms of call it in store execution it's really you know TPRs and Bogos and other similar called trade tactics that we're prioritizing we dipped our toes a little bit in demos and sampling you know it's a bit harder and comes with its own considerations as you think about demoing a frozen food you know that's not ice cream you know we need to boil water and plug in our portable stove top and cook the pasta and so there's just an added complexity there but it's really you know the in store promos that we work with the stores on to drive trial cause that's my focus right now is to do everything we can both from a top of funnel perspective on social and with the collabs that we're doing with creators and chefs and what not to you know in store tactics that we're executing on is to drive that initial purchase to drive that initial trial because the biggest challenge but also the biggest opportunity for us as a brand is the preconceived notion that people have around frozen food and when people think about frozen pasta their minds automatically go to more conventional value brands like Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's for example and look don't get me wrong there's always going to be a market for those types of products our bed is there's also a large swath of the population who appreciate good food and are open and are looking for something a bit more sophisticated bit more elevated that's again accessible from an ingredient to pricing perspective and so it takes time you know to invest in the brand and convince folks that the freezer aisle can in fact be a destination for delicious food and I'm convinced once you buy our product you try our product the quality is there that you're gonna become a a repeat customer and so it's about driving you know that initial trial across a number of different ways and we just I've seen success so far and now as we ramp up into larger stores we wanna you know really accelerate growth yeah for those obviously with the conventional value brands today but increasingly with private label brands these retailer owned and operated brands and so there's only so much shelf space available and so it's really about what is the the value that you're providing to the retailer that would convince you know this retail buyer to give you an extra shelf placement or an extra row whatever that looks like you know for us it's a two pronged argument which is so you're you're selling hey as in to the retail buyer you're selling primarily the same conventional value brands today in addition to your private label product swap out your your lowest performing non private label brand uh you know and replace it with Rippy existing customers who like that brand will either trade into a similar branded product or to your private label product or they'll trade up to a premium brand like Rippy so it's an incremental margin opportunity for you but also given our brand ethos and our flavor profiles and our packaging you know in the fact that we're a modern brand bringing energy to a stale category we're bringing a new type of buyer to the freezer aisle as well so it's that call a dual argument that two prong argument that we've been giving to to retailers I'd imagine that's very similar to a lot of other brands you know in in other categories we're not entirely calling reinventing the wheel at least in frozen pasta we are but that pitch has been applicable to to other categories where you've seen you know success with certain challenger brands and so that's why you know we we've seen pretty good pick up so far from retail stores in terms of them buying in that's why we've on average most stores are taking three skews and we're actually launching another skew in January you know with a with a notable retailer and we're launching a that'll be our fourth and we're launching a fifth skew with a notable retailer in the spring and so come springtime we'll we'll have five skews I think we'll trap you know each box right now it's a 9 ounce box feeds two people comfortably I think we'll cap this at maybe 8 skews total so in an ideal world if we can take over two rows now with four across at a retailer that would be amazing but again it's just about continuing to communicate that value prop and obviously having the the retail sell through data speak for itself yeah any sneak peeks into what those next skis are come coming or too early so far it's a little early but I I will tell you I'm happy to hop on back on the pod or I'll text you on the side um it's a you know this business is at a very interesting inflection point where you know we're only eight months old but you know look I'm very proud and and happy with all we've accomplished to date but I'm very excited by the near term pipeline that we have and you know very rarely and I say this humbly very rarely is there a situation where a young brand like ours gets an opportunity to sell in you know some pretty major stores and so really wanna uh you know prove this out and and obviously spread the ravioli love and convince folks that the freezer aisle can be a destination for delicious food and so that same mantra of you know striking that balance between sophistication and elevation but accessibility that's gonna be applicable to all of the skis that we launch all of the products we launch in the future totally just talking about this frozen category in general it definitely seemed like it's getting a lot of attention right now there's a lot of cool things happening like what um yeah what what do you feel like is kind of unique about this category versus all the other non frozen yeah I look I think look the frozen category has been around for a while but I think it's having a renaissance right now you know it's it's having a real moment you know all you have to do is look at what Whole Foods and this just validates a proof of concept for us but Whole Foods you know released their 2026 uh trends for um uh you know their stores are really the industry at large and number five in that list you know that forecast was freezer fine dining which I think perfectly captures what Rippy is all about it's been in our DNA it's been part of that core thesis since I first thought of the business five years ago we are still on the top of the first inning as it relates to this whole premiumization of the freezer aisle but that's where the puck is going I think as I mentioned freezer aisle has been around for for decades but I feel like people really started to think about it seriously in terms of being a destination for innovation around covid you know when when restaurants were shut down people were cooking at home more than ever before they wanted elevated at home dining experiences because they didn't want to go out or you know they couldn't go out for whatever reason I feel like that's when most consumers and it's just a gut check anecdotal based on my experience and others I've spoken to but I feel like that's when people really started to take the freezer aisle seriously and you know all you have to do is look at uh a number of of categories across the freezer aisle you know these are brands that have popped up over the last few years and you can see the type of innovation that's possible you know whether it's Mila and Lao Ban and Dumpling Daughter in frozen dumplings whether it's uh Jesse and Ben's in the frozen you know veggie space with their French fries whether it's uh true fruit in the frozen novelty space evergreen in the frozen waffles there's been category after category you know throughout the freezer aisle that have proven that innovation is possible and to us you know frozen pasta is an untouched category it's going to be that next big area that's ripe for destruction and we want to be that big challenger brand to take it on and be a category leader accordingly and so what it enables us you know the freezer aisle is to be and to really be a convenient indulgence you know meaning we have a 12 month shelf life and so we go through a flash freezing process which in its own right has its own benefits by locking in you know that flavor and freshness and preserving that nutritional value but also the convenience factor that it affords and that you could park us in your freezer for 12 months though I'd hope you'd eat us sooner than that take us out enjoy us whenever you want you know on a weekly basis biweekly however often you wanna eat pasta um and simply boil water and drop us in for three to three and a half minutes and you have a true restaurant quality meal you know at a fraction of the price of going out while not settling for subpar quality with value brands that's what the freezer aisle affords that's why I'm so excited by it and you know I feel like every year that's gone by since I first thought of this idea just become even more and more bullish on the frozen category and you know I think consumers in in large are gonna really catch up cause again I really do think it's early and we're in the top of the first inning here but again that's where the the puck is going ultimately it does seem like this category from like pop standpoint can be more challenging you're you're sitting behind a freezer door like but you know shelf talkers and that kind of stuff anything you found to kind of get around some of those just challenges that everyone has in this space and anything that can have an an a real impact yeah you know unfortunately you nailed it you the reality is with a I'd say a most you know 99% of retail stores there really aren't uh secondary freezer placements you know merchandising is is limited and so that's why it's so important you know going back to our discussion on the packaging front to have something that pops to to use promos effectively to drive that initial trial because you know it's not like a Graza for example and I absolutely love that brand it's it's not like a shelf stable product like that which is also ubiquitous you know and able to be applied across a number of different areas you can't merchandise us throughout the store there's really only one area primarily in which we can be placed which you know is a downside I do have this sort of wish list of things that stores can be doing but who knows if you know that'll ever happen right totally yeah I think that's I think that's that's a good reality check I mean on that front I'm not sure if you have every even time to think about this or whatever but if like you had to got an opportunity to kind of redesign the entire frozen section layouts or I think about this all the time what could that what could that potentially look like yeah you know well one I would increase a bunch of things cause I I think about this all the time one is bringing frozen forward in the store you know typically most stores have the freezer aisle you know sort of in the back of the store I would that's how I often see it you know some are center store and what not but I would I would treat frozen products as part of meal discovery not an afterthought at the end of a grocery run that's yeah first and foremost you know call it philosophically but there's things you could be doing in terms of moving us around in stores the second is to the extent possible I would increase the number of frozen end caps and secondary placements like I love the idea of having glass door islands or mini freezers in high traffic zones you see that sometimes with ice cream I feel like Yasso you know has these coolers everywhere or like my mochi my Mo I forgot the brand yeah yeah yeah had those everywhere by by cash registers you don't really see that for frozen meals frozen pasta for example yeah good point but I think that's certainly an opportunity and what that enables is also just cross merch opportunities with sauces or or wines for example if they sell alcohol you know there's basically limited to no merchandising opportunities for frozen brand today and then the last piece I would just say better or improved presentation you know better lighting having digital screens perhaps or QR codes that can show the chef from brand stories to really make frozen feel curated and not so industrialized I think those are a lot of things I I think about I think those they're investing more in expanding you know their frozen offerings and so the curation itself I think brings an aura of discoverability by having the average consumer walk by and see wow look at all these brands that's part of the whole notion of having people see the freezer aisle as a destination for delicious food but on top of that obviously there's I think a number of areas that retailers can get creative from a merchandising perspective yeah totally you know considering maybe building a brand that's gonna be focused on this frozen category any kind of things they should keep top of mind other than don't do it yeah it's you know it's not for the faint of heart you have to have a high level of conviction you know you know for me personally I mentioned I was an investor before this LED early stage investing at a family office did for a talent agency before that and you know I always told myself I wouldn't leave a call it nice comfortable situation unless I had a high level of conviction around whatever idea I came up with you have to have a lot of conviction around the white space you know the business and and market opportunity and most importantly your ability to execute first and foremost yeah totally but then once you've decided okay yeah I do want to launch a frozen brand there's a number of things that people should keep in mind that mine I'd say packaging matters more you've heard me say the word packaging a lot because it's so important it must stand out through glass you have to test out how it looks how your packaging would look under condensation under a glare what it looks like you know 10 feet back for example but there's limited as we just talked about merchandising opportunities and so that's your real estate so how do you make that billboard as as sexy as possible the second is really nail nail down that pitch to to retail buyers as I mentioned you know frozen there's only a finite amount of space available you need to show these retail buyers you know why you're a value add here why you'll drive new traffic or provide an incremental margin opportunity or you know bring a new type of buyer to the to the category I mentioned our sort of two pronged approach I think every brand is different but there has to be some justification whether it's on the product side whether it's on the um you know ingredients side whether it's on whatever it is in terms of being able to convince a retail buyer to bring you on and then the last piece I would say is just ops are everything find a copacker and or a 3PL that specifically specializes in frozen not just one that can handle that's yeah that's really important last question for you any any like trends or brands in this frozen category beyond let's say like the frozen pasta category that you're tracking or if anything outside of frozen in general in CPG that you're got you've gotten excited about lately yeah you know look from from a frozen lens there's a number of of brands that I admire that you know just have proven out that innovation as I mentioned is possible in the freezer aisle you know and these are brands I mentioned like Mila and Jessie and Ben's and True Fruit and Evergreen you know they're ushering in a new wave I'd like to think Rippy you know is on par with those brands you know for frozen pasta but they've each disrupted stale legacy categories they have clean label fantastic branding fantastic product um you know those are brands I admire I'd say those are comps for us in terms of the level of innovation that's possible in the freezer aisle today and then there are brands outside the freezer aisle that I admire just simply because of their branding and ability to build community and their packaging is great you know Fishwife Graza Sauce you know those brands come to mind and so for us it's about meshing you know those two comps if you will really drilling down on on branding and community and and leaning in and investing in social accordingly uh while also proving out that you know we can be a destination brand in in the freezer aisle and you know a challenger brand accordingly yeah yeah really appreciate the time a lot of really great insights here think people are getting a lot of value out of this what's the best place for people to follow along with Rippy and then best place to fall along with you as well yeah well first off thanks so much for for having me on this has been fun always good to talk pasta talk frozen um you can follow us at at Rippy Foods on Instagram and TikTok you know I'm LinkedIn in Techlin and uh yeah I appreciate the time yeah likewise and that's the pod how many batches months you find in the Copacker when you're going from from the was there any like big yeah it's a it's a great question for us a year behind you any things jump out in terms of recommendations yeah you know just from a a go to market standpoint frozen pasta we're competing taking a bigger step back a merchandising and like you know you know maybe freezer clings or things you're doing more and more retailers are prioritizing the freezer aisle well yeah Ian this has been awesome