Mochi Love Founders on Building a Modern Snack Brand

Brandie Miller and Will Miller are the Co-founders of Mochi Love, a company expanding how mochi shows up in grocery stores with fresh, non-ice cream formats and upcoming shelf-stable products. Brandie is a 17-year CPG veteran recognized as a Supermarket News Disruptor and Progressive Grocer Top Woman in Grocery, known for spotting trends and building retail-ready brands. Will, with a background in engineering, tech, and operations, brings a systems-driven approach to scaling the business and integrating tools like AI into operations. Together, their complementary skill sets and shared passion for innovation have helped Mochi Love carve out a unique position in modern snacking.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[04:57] How Brandie Miller and Will Miller balance strengths across operations, finance, and brand building
[06:32] Why Mochi Love’s fresh mochi stands apart from traditional ice cream mochi
[10:55] What retail buyers look for when evaluating new food brands and category fit
[14:45] Brandie shares how sushi placement unlocked early retail traction
[19:25] How Will integrates AI into forecasting, inventory, and daily operations
[27:10] Using community resources like Startup CPG for emerging founders

In this episode…

Building a food brand is rarely just about the product. It’s about timing, intuition, and the willingness to bet on something people don’t realize they want yet. So what happens when experience meets experimentation at the dinner table?

According to Brandie Miller and Will Miller, success comes from creating products that surprise and delight while building the systems needed to support growth. As experienced operators across retail, supply chain, and technology, they combine creative intuition with operational discipline. They emphasize testing where a product fits in-store, working within existing retail systems, and prioritizing quality to drive repeat purchases. Will focuses on building systems that support scale, while Brandie highlights the importance of treating retailers as true partners to unlock long-term growth. Together, their approach shows that balancing experimentation with structure is the key to building a scalable business.

In this episode of The Missing Ingredient, CJ Bruce is joined by Brandie Miller and Will Miller, Co-founders of Mochi Love, to discuss building a modern mochi brand from the ground up. They break down how their complementary skill sets shape the business, why merchandising next to sushi unlocked early growth, and how they approached manufacturing for quality at scale. Brandie and Will also talk about navigating supply chain challenges and using AI to streamline operations.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“I have a passion for giving people something they didn’t know they wanted.”
“A retailer isn’t successful without great brands, and brands aren’t successful without great retailers.”
“We just decided to dive in together, so it’s been a fun journey since.”
“When you can do that, then you can replicate it. And then it becomes a scalable business.”
“It’s okay to just get out there and start trying stuff and figuring out what works.”

Action Steps:

Test different merchandising placements early: Experimenting across departments helps identify where your product naturally fits and drives the strongest sales performance.
Prioritize product quality and ingredients: High-quality inputs create better customer experiences, leading to repeat purchases and long-term brand loyalty.
Build strong retailer partnerships: Treating retailers as collaborators ensures mutual success and increases opportunities for placement and growth.
Design operations to fit existing systems: Aligning with standard store processes makes scaling easier and reduces friction across distribution and supply chains.
Take action and learn quickly: Launching and iterating in real market conditions provides insights you can’t predict, accelerating smarter decision-making.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is sponsored by The Missing Ingredient, a food and beverage marketing agency that believes a better future starts with food. They partner with purpose-driven brands to drive growth through smart, results-focused marketing — without the “set it and forget it” approach.

From brand awareness and paid media to content, influencer partnerships, and loyalty programs, they act as true strategic partners invested in your long-term success.

To learn more about how they help food and beverage brands grow with impact, visit themissingingredient.com today.

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Full Transcript

Introduction and Show Overview

Intro: 00:01

Welcome to The Missing Ingredient podcast with CJ Bruce, where food and beverage founders, operators, and experts share the real strategies behind building successful brands. Let’s jump into today’s show.

CJ Bruce: 00:15

Hey, I’m CJ Bruce and welcome to the show. This is the podcast where founders and leaders of high impact food and beverage brands who are serious about scaling. Each episode, I sit down with the people who power the food and beverage industry brand operators, agencies, vendors, creators, and retailers to uncomplicate the strategies that take brands from early traction to serious scale.

This episode is sponsored by The Missing Ingredient, a food and beverage marketing agency. With over a decade in the industry, we take a different approach, starting with your business goals, looking at the full picture, and building a marketing strategy that actually ties back to growth. From content performance marketing to influencer partnerships and AI powered workflows. We’re an extension of your team, not just another vendor. Learn more at themissingingredient.com. Now, before I introduce today’s guest, I need to give a big thank you to Casey Harshman, who originally introduced us. You can check out Casey’s website at frooishen.com. That’s frooishen.com.

Woo! All right. Now for today’s guests. Brandie Miller is the Co-founder of Mochi Love and a 17 year CPG veteran whose career has been built on spotting food trends with staying power and turning them into retail success stories. A supermarket news disruptor, progressive grocer, top woman in grocery, rising star Nexty judge and former natural foods merchandiser cover feature. She’s known for challenging convention and bringing products to market that consumers didn’t even know they were missing. She co-founded Mochi Love alongside her husband Will, a secret Olympian 3D printing Excel wizard, and the where there’s a Will, there’s a way operator behind the scenes. Welcome to the show, Brandie and Will.

Will Miller: 01:51

Great to be here.

Brandie Miller: 01:52

Hi. It’s just always funny to hear, hear, hear someone else talk about us.

CJ Bruce: 02:01

So much to talk about here.

Brandie Miller: 02:02

There’s so much to unpack.

CJ Bruce: 02:05

Yeah, lots to unpack. So let’s let’s start unpacking. So I think Brandie, we’ll start with you. You’ve got, you know, 17 years, like I mentioned in the industry. You’re a grocery outlet misfits market.

So just could you tell us a little bit about, you know, your, your background and kind of like what that leads to, you know, to starting your own brand?

Brandie and Will’s Background Before Mochi Love

Brandie Miller: 02:25

Yeah, I think one, the food industry is amazing. It’s always changing. It’s so much fun. And having watched it evolve over the years has been really fulfilling and cool. But really, I have a passion for giving people something they didn’t know they wanted.

So creating assortments at store level was really fun. And kind of optimizing it to meet customer needs has always been my goal. And working with small brands, you know? So after misfits, I also did some consulting for brands. And I always feel like the relationship is somewhat one.

You know, a retailer isn’t successful without great brands and brands aren’t successful without great retailers. And treating our relationship like partners has always been something I value, no matter which side of the business I’ve been on. And taking a lot of those learnings from those years and pouring it into a brand we love and we care about a lot has been a journey for us that I’m just thrilled about and thankful for. So yeah.

CJ Bruce: 03:38

Love it. Awesome. And Will you have a different background? So help scale multiple companies, former Olympic rower deep into AI and the tech side. And so tell us a little bit about, you know, that transition. And then I guess bringing it together, like how the two of you decided to, to launch Mochi Love.

Will Miller: 03:57

Yeah, yeah, my background is definitely different. I mean, I studied civil engineering in college. Bridges and things and, and then got done and pursued rowing and did that through my 20s. And then that went back into the business world and was involved in tech and things. And then I think we were both kind of happy to be at a crossroads in our careers.

And I was maybe a little bit burnt out on the tech world and looking for something new. And I was just always secretly envious of Brandie when we had to go to social situations. And she gets to talk about food all the time. And, and this idea came up and Brandie had been, you know, experimenting in this space and thinking about it. And we just decided to dive in together.

So it’s been a fun journey since.

Brandie Miller: 04:40

Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 04:43

That’s great. That’s very cool. Now I’m curious, I guess, taking some of the backgrounds into today. So talk a little bit about how, you know, the two of you, like bring that background and those skill sets into the day to day work at Mozilla.

Brandie Miller: 04:57

He does all the things I’m really bad at, so a lot. Operations. Finance. Accounting. Yeah.

It’s yeah.

Will Miller: 05:07

Just I don’t know, there’s like when you put a force to be reckoned with, there’s a lot, you know, which is Brandie. Like I just fill in the gaps around it. So whatever that needs to be.

Brandie Miller: 05:17

I cause a little chaos and you bring the kind of organization and the business acumen to it.

Will Miller: 05:24

It’s been a fun learning process for us to just being partners and parents and now coworkers. It’s, it’s interesting. And I think we’ve had this conversation a lot just from a, you know, we sit on a dinner table and sometimes these conversations around what’s going on in the food, in our with our business world come up around the dinner table and our kids are there. And I think we’re both kind of happy that we’re exposing them to that side of, of the world a little bit. Our kids are soon to be seven this week and nine.

So it’s like, you know, they, they ask questions. They want to know like what we’re talking about and things like that. So I think it’s kind of a fun kind of bringing it into the home environment. Yeah. But yeah, the.

Brandie Miller: 06:01

Kids always want to be involved and they have opinions and I don’t know. I think if that’s all we get out of it, it’s pretty cool.

CJ Bruce: 06:10

Yeah, that is very cool. No, I think it’s yeah, it’s super cool. And I think it’s one of those things with food too, where it’s like everyone kind of, you were saying, well, can experience the food and knows what it is and then has opinions and yeah, that exposure is, is really cool.

Brandie Miller: 06:24

Yeah.

What Mochi Love Is and Product Vision

CJ Bruce: 06:25

Okay. So we talked a little bit about the business side, but for people who don’t know, can you tell us what love actually is?

Will Miller: 06:30

Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 06:31

What’s the product?

Brandie Miller: 06:32

So our current item is a little two pack of fresh mochi. And what’s revolutionary about it is it’s not ice cream. So we all know how amazing ice cream mochi is. And our goal is to get mochi in more places by being creative and reinventing what people know as mochi. So this first item is merchandise in the fridge and it’s merchandise next to sushi.

and it’s a grab and go little delicacy. So mochi is simply rice flour. And what’s so cool about it is it’s. You can do anything with it. It’s squishy, sweet, savory, umami.

It’s like a flower or a base that you can really do anything with. It’s an amazing ingredient, hence the name of the company. There’s a lot of love for mochi here. It’s it’s a pretty cool ingredient. And then this summer we are working and hoping to launch this summer.

A shelf stable version so we can get more mochi and more places in the store. Bring it to center Store as more of a snack item. So yeah.

CJ Bruce: 07:40

Awesome. Great. And what just a little bit about like, what, what flavors are there on the current product and maybe a little bit about how that, how you decided on those flavors?

Will Miller: 07:50

Yeah, yeah. So our current products, we call them the créme clouds, just because they’re so soft and pillowy and cloud like. We wanted to incorporate that into the into the name. But we have a mango passion fruit. We have raspberry, lychee, chocolate, coconut.

Brandie Miller: 08:03

Our favorite.

Will Miller: 08:04

And a chocolate ganache. Yeah. So we have the for four SKUs there. And yeah, they’re they’re all delicious. It’s, it’s really fun to sample them, especially when you’re kind of go like at a trade show and you’re there all day kind of thing.

Like in the morning, it’s usually the citruses and then like, we’re after lunch, people want the chocolate and things like that. So it was fun to see a little bit of all the different flavor profiles out there.

Brandie Miller: 08:24

And then our shelf stable product, I think we have two flavors we’re super stoked on is key lime pie and strawberries and cream. And they’re so freaking good. They what’s cool about them is there’s lots of different textures and flavors when you bite into them. So it’s definitely an experience. Yeah.

Transition from Buyer to Founder Perspective

CJ Bruce: 08:46

Exciting, exciting tease. I love the, you know, most opportunities throughout the day. Yes. It’s great. So going back Brandie your, your background.

So now you know, you’ve you’re on the other side of things. So how how has that been, you know, going in your, you know, are there any, anything that you’ve experienced, you know, thinking about when you’re on the buyer side and now you’re, you’re trying to pitch, you know, sell products and how is that shifted your perspective or, you know, what’s that experience been like?

Brandie Miller: 09:16

So my very first job in food was actually on the sales and marketing side for a small ice cream company. So right out of college, I did a couple startups and one of those startups was a food like an ice cream company. And I’ll just say, since then, the food industry has changed so much. It’s harder to compare the same or similar role, but that many years apart. But, you know, having been on the assortment side.

I think what’s interesting is all the things that, like I really cared about, are things that I still really care about that like I try to push forward, like I try to make it really important brand blocking that you can see the item from far away, that the flavors resonate with consumers or the trends that’s happening, that it’s really high quality for repeat, like all the things that like I cared about as a buyer, I want to try really hard that we can execute that really well. But yeah, it just, I feel like the industry changes so much that like, you can’t apply the same logic ten years ago that you can today because it’s just a different kind of world or landscape.

CJ Bruce: 10:36

Yeah, yeah. I think you just touched on a few things that are really, really great there. And I think that you’re thinking about, you know, for other other brands listening that are, you know, trying to grow and trying to sell into retail, like maybe you could touch on that a little bit more and just like, what are some of those kind of key things that you’re thinking about, you know, that you have in mind for the brand as you’re having these conversations?

Brandie Miller: 10:55

There’s the brand, right? And it has to look and resonate with what’s happening within that specific category, right. So had we been a completely different within a completely different category, we might have chosen to do a different go, a different route with branding or colors or all of that. So knowing where you’re playing and is that the category that you feel is a long term win? And what, what’s after this, like you have this item that you’re going to go really deep on and really hard on, but like, does the brand have hierarchy?

Can it scale beyond today? And being open to being able to scale beyond today, because the item you create today could be something that evolves into something else that’s a lot more successful. So I think being open to kind of those realities within the grocery store and how consumers shop.

Manufacturing Decisions and Choosing France

CJ Bruce: 11:58

Yeah. That’s great. I think that’s a really good insights. Interesting. Yeah.

Interesting to think about. Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about how, you know, where the product’s made, how the product’s made and so crafted in France. And there’s, you know, a lot of logistics and things going on in this. So curious if you could touch a little bit about, you know, how do you, how do you make that work?

And obviously, there’s, you know, there’s got to be these, these trade offs between, you know, quality and costs and all of that. So I’d just love to, you know, hear, hear from both of you. And how do you think about that? And you know, what are the some challenges you’ve had in overcoming that?

Will Miller: 12:34

Yeah. I mean, when we kind of start started kind of going down this path and exploring different options around manufacturing and R&D and things like that, we we knew it was going to be a challenge because mochi is mochi is incredibly versatile. It’s an amazing product, but it’s also it’s got some sensitivities and it needs a very specific production to, especially when you’re shipping and supply chain. And we, you know, we looked in traditional places, we looked domestically produced domestically, we looked at Asia where you’d expect to produce, produce a lot of mochi. And we eventually settled on France because for a number of reasons, like number one is we were able to source incredibly incredible ingredients.

I think that’s a big thing that separates us is that, you know, we really strive to be as high quality ingredients as we can in the motion that we think that that’s a differentiator. And I mean, honestly, it was also a little bit of a different landscape when we started going down this path. You know, we kind of we the world has changed a lot. But despite like kind of all the curveballs got thrown in our direction after kind of making that decision, we still think it’s the right call. You know, we still would have made the same call back when we were going through it, just because it’s just been working with our French team.

It’s been amazing. And it’s just that the product, I think the quality of the product speaks for itself with what we’re able to produce and then import from France.

Brandie Miller: 14:00

Yeah. And it’s kind of a serendipitous thing that our plant isn’t very far from some family that we have in France. So it’s a, it’s it’s nice. Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 14:13

Always nice. Not a bad place to visit either. Nice. Cool. I want to go switch gears to talk a little bit about, you know, the growth of the brand and how it’s, it’s kind of evolved.

And so could you talk maybe first, you know, talk a little about the founding story and coming up with the idea of the brand and the product. Can you talk about, you know, you got it into some stores, right, in retail in the Bay area, and what was that moment where then kind of, you know, started to pick up or got share more known more widely? And what did that, you know, what did that look like?

Brandie Miller: 14:45

I feel like this question relates to your last question a bit. It’s where are you going to play? Like where is the item going to? Merchandise. And I think going into this, we had to make a series of assumptions on like where we think it’ll sell best and even having some experience in asking, you know, people in the industry, we learned a lot.

We tested merchandising it next to grab and go foods, tested it in the bakery department. We tested it next to sushi. Those were our three. We tested at coffee shops in like a desert area and by far the best movement. And now the best use of our time has been focusing on sushi sets.

So merchandising the product next to sushi. And what’s cool about that is we’ve been able to kind of avoid traditional. Distribution that can be really complicated and costly for new brands. And we have a captive audience. You have a customer who’s looking into the case.

For lunch, they are there to make a purchase. It’s going to be sushi and they’re going to buy a sushi. And they have one option a dessert next to it in four different flavors, hopefully. And so it’s really cool to have one be the one, you know, the only branded item in a sushi set. And then to be the only dessert has proven to sell really well there.

So and it’s incremental to the category. So from the buyer perspective, like it’s a no brainer to have this item in there. It takes up little, a little bit of space, but yet the basket grows by 3 to $4, $5 in one transaction.

Leveraging Sushi Placement for Distribution

Will Miller: 16:38

Yeah. And I think something maybe you skipped over there, but I think it’s worth touching on is that some people don’t. Not everybody knows is that in the grocery store, a lot of times the sushi. The sushi set is independently operated. So it’s like a third party that is owns the case, owns is hiring the person working behind the counter and stuff.

So you’re really kind of working on like a back channel into the grocery store. That is, it’s had some challenges, but it’s also like a very interesting kind of unique path to get into the grocery store for us. Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 17:04

Yeah, that is really interesting. I’m curious, you know, as you’ve been working on the brand and growing the brand, like, are there any, any mistakes that you’ve made.

Brandie Miller: 17:15

Frozen supply chain? Like I sold ice cream. Like I, I, I know it’s hard and like really didn’t want to do a frozen item and went back and forth. But like, like just having the kind of thoroughness and very careful about who you pick to transport your, your moquis.

Will Miller: 17:41

And it’s a fresh product needs to be stored and controlled in a very specific temperature requirements when it’s frozen and then it gets slapped out at the grocery store. And then as you know, it’s a fresh product, so it has a shorter expiration date. And once it gets slacked out. So this has been a lot of learnings there on what works and what doesn’t work. And when you need to verify things with at the grocery store level or supply chain level and things like that, because you want to be giving people the highest quality product that you can.

And there’s a lot of hands changes hands a lot throughout the whole process.

Brandie Miller: 18:13

There’s another learning. So every retailer distributor and there’s thousands, you know, of instances and people touching the product. That supply chain has to be efficient for operators at the store. So like, you can’t just expect like, you know, someone in the who manages the frozen department to walk over and grab something from a different department, like everything has to flow through that same system. And so you can’t really travel upstream or create a new system.

You have to kind of fit in to a standard operating procedures that already exist. And when you can do that, then you can replicate it. And then it becomes a scalable business.

Using AI and Tech in Operations

CJ Bruce: 19:03

Interesting. Very good. I’m curious. Yeah. Well, I got a question for you on the the technology side.

So it’s, you know, you’ve got experience in tech. I know, you know, we’ve, we’ve nerded out about, about the joy of coding, but I’m curious, you know, how are you bringing that, you know, that background and the kind of AI piece into the business?

Will Miller: 19:25

Yeah, I think it’s there’s a lot of testing that goes into everything. Just seeing like, where’s, where is it going to kind of alleviate some pain points that you would just be doing something manually? And then where is it kind of, you know, really providing lift or where is it kind of just taking too much management to really provide that lift? I think it’s a fast changing world. I think one of the things that we want to continue to pursue is like being authentic about everything.

So it’s like finding the right place to kind of implement some AI. You know, we’ve, we’ve been building and continuing to build our own inventory management tools, kind of like some of the more operational pieces of the business forecasting, forecasting, cashflow stuff all through like basically utilizing AI to help build those tools. And it’s been an interesting process just as a, as it continues to evolve. But yeah, it’s like figuring out kind of where can you take some, some operational pieces that you might kind of be dreading doing? And where can you start leveraging AI to start helping you manage those tasks more efficiently?

Yeah, there’s lots of different, lots of different places. It touches on the business. Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 20:39

Yeah. It’s interesting. Have you have you talked to any other brands about that you have a sense on kind of like, is that a common thing that’s happening or people exploring it a little bit? Is everyone kind of doing it in their own different ways right now?

Will Miller: 20:50

Yeah. I mean, like just kind of anecdotally talking to like, I think everybody’s kind of it’s like the Wild West. Everybody’s kind of figuring out where, where it can fit into their workflow. Some people, you know, say email marketing for some people and some it’s like responding to responding to different customers and things like that. We haven’t really implemented too much in that front yet.

We’ve, we just really want to be on the front lines there and in connecting. But I think that everybody’s kind of, yeah, everybody’s kind of figuring out exactly how they do it. I think everybody’s using it to some degree. There’s I think there’s anybody in this world that doesn’t use AI to some degree. It’s at this point, whether or not they know, whether they know it or not.

It’s just how how ingrained in their workflow do they want to be?

Future Vision and Brand Growth

CJ Bruce: 21:31

Yeah. Interesting. Cool. So talking about kind of, you know, how it started, where it is, what I take a minute to talk about the future. And so like where, you know, where do you see mochi going and growing?

And I mean, there’s the immediate, you know, what’s coming up. You mentioned the shelf stable launch targeting this summer. Beyond that, do you have and I mean, you said this earlier, Brandi, you got to be flexible and things can change and evolve and be dynamic. So acknowledging that and then what will just said about AI being everywhere and that also changing fast. But how do you how do you see the brand growing and evolving in the future?

Brandie Miller: 22:06

I think the over like kind of arching theme or is just to work towards being an iconic brand that everyone thinks of when they want to snack, like and taking it one day at a time. But yeah, I mean, we have this short term DTC launch with the shelf stable is really exciting. I, I think, you know, it’ll be great to like, really connect with a lot of customers, you know, in real life about the product through by going online direct to them. So short term, really excited about that. And then long term, just building a brand.

CJ Bruce: 22:48

That’s a great. Great answer. Cool. Okay. I want to shift into just like some broader questions. So I’m curious, you know, y’all are in I mean, in the food and beverage space and connecting with, you know, other other brands and founders as well.

And I’m curious if there are any, you know, other brands that you think are doing great work out there that are interesting that you want to give a shout out to. Oh, okay. I wish we could have samples. Is this is this a tasting opportunity?

Brandie Miller: 23:17

Okay. Do you want to start? How about we start savory to sweet?

CJ Bruce: 23:22

I love it.

Favorite Brands and Product Recommendations

Brandie Miller: 23:23

Okay, first up, Paro chips. They’re lentil chips. And we’ve all had lentil chips. These have seasoning on them that are yum.

Brandie Miller: 23:34

Like nice. Super good. Barbecue tikka is my favorite. We’ll eat the whole bag and didn’t share it with me. So we’re going to talk about that later. Next up Mama Teav’s.

This one’s the hot one though I’ll be honest, it’s a little too hot for me. But this is a chili. It’s chili paste garlic though. Like really crunchy. Super yummy.

Like, I think we eat one every like two months and it’s a pretty big jar. It can go on everything from rice eggs. We do bowls. You can put on anything. I don’t know, this one’s really good too.

And then.

CJ Bruce: 24:16

I have that one.

Brandie Miller: 24:17

You have. Okay.

CJ Bruce: 24:18

Yeah. It’s great, it’s great.

Brandie Miller: 24:19

It’s very good. It also comes in a bigger jar, which I need to upgrade, so. And then Lexington Bakes are my favorite brownie. Cookie. Now he has bars that are like breakfast and protein.

But I’m old school. I go with the brownie or the blondie. So.

CJ Bruce: 24:41

Yeah. All right. Yeah. Officially hungry. Yeah, I love it. The first time I’ve asked that question, if someone has had samples like ready to show and cures on display. I love it, appreciate it.

Brandie Miller: 24:55

I love grocery shopping for new brands. Oh, but then I also know these founders, you know, so like, it’s like. Your friend who’s in the same industry creating like amazing food. You’re like, this is I like you.

CJ Bruce: 25:12

Yeah. That’s great. I want to before we shift into kind of last question here in a moment, but I’m curious, just just on that point, can you talk a little bit about, you know, the community around food and the other founders you’re connecting with and just, you know, maybe how for people in the space or not? Like how, how is that happening? Where are you connecting with people and what is that? What is that community like, you know, of that shared like founder experience?

Brandie Miller: 25:38

I, you’re new to the community relatively.

Will Miller: 25:40

And yeah, I mean, I’ve just, I’ve been floored at how welcoming everybody is and how willing to share. And it almost feels like, I think in a different space, you would kind of look at other people trying to get to the same market as competitors, but it doesn’t feel like that. I think I think there’s enough just natural challenges being in the food space that everybody looks at it like we’re all in this together, trying to figure out how to navigate this world. And it’s been honestly amazing from my perspective, just to see how much, how willing people are to help you out and answer questions. And it’s like, there’s a lot to learn in this, in this space.

I did not realize even I was like looking at the surface level of like this ocean of information. Even stuff, just how important it is to be just like hyper on your margins and like distribution and supply chain stuff, manufacturing stuff. There’s just so much to learn. And I think that, you know, people are always willing to share their learnings with you with. And you know, it’s, it’s changing all the time.

So learning from other people, I think it’s been amazing working. And you kind of experienced a lot when you were consulting with brands. Like you have a lot of people coming into the space that don’t have any background in this space. And they’re like, you know, I have I’ve been working on this salsa or whatever it is kind of thing. And they and they were getting into space and it’s like, I think it’s been really interesting hearing you work with these brands on teaching them all these different parts of the industry that are, that are really important to have a successful brand.

Resources and Networks for Founders

Brandie Miller: 27:10

Yeah. And there’s now there’s resources out there like Startup CPG. Shout out to Daniel and his, the team they have like put together like a community, not only a community, but a database of information you can access on all topics. CPG and I incredible what he’s built and how popular it’s become. It’s pretty cool.

So sign up for slack.

Will Miller: 27:40

And there’s like Julie Merkel and your Tig group to work with. And then there’s so many different.

Brandie Miller: 27:46

Naturally network.

Will Miller: 27:47

Groups that you can get involved with and have tons of resources in just their communities, their communities around helping you learn and navigate. And you need somebody that’s a specialist in one particular area. Like they’ll find you somebody that can help you with that.

Brandie Miller: 28:00

It’s like the tech opposite world kind of. Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 28:08

Yeah. And just everybody. Sharing versus keeping everything kind of close to the, to the vest.

Brandie Miller: 28:12

Yeah. And like, I think there’s a culture around like everyone, let’s raise everybody, you know, let’s like succeed together.

Will Miller: 28:20

I think there’s some authenticity here. Yeah, it’s like really refreshing.

CJ Bruce: 28:25

Yeah, I love it. Okay, so I’ve got one last question. But before I ask that, I want to point people to the website, which is Mochi love.co. And is there anywhere else that you would recommend we point people to learn more about Mochi Love and stay connected?

Brandie Miller: 28:42

The grams of course.

CJ Bruce: 28:45

Instagram follow on Instagram.

Will Miller: 28:48

@eatmochilove. On Instagram.

Brandie Miller: 28:50

Yeah.

Will Miller: 28:51

And then yeah, we’re grocery stores.

Brandie Miller: 28:54

Buy mochi.

CJ Bruce: 28:57

Buy mochi. Yeah. Where can people buy the products today?

Brandie Miller: 28:59

Mostly. H-E-B H-E-B has been an incredible partner. That’s our biggest customer. And yeah, we’re doing a combo loco this week. So buy sushi, get a mochi free.

CJ Bruce: 29:11

People may have missed out by the time this was released. Just full disclosure. So don’t don’t complain to HB if the promo isn’t live.

Will Miller: 29:18

True, true.

CJ Bruce: 29:22

Awesome. And there’s a the full store locator on the website too if you want to find it is available near you, so check that out. Okay, so the, the last question I had, and you know, this is I’m curious, given your different backgrounds now you’ve been working together, you know, for a while. I’m curious what like, what’s a piece of advice that you would give the other one? Now that you’re in it?

So like Brandie, you’ve been in it for a long time in CPG world, obviously. Is there something that you feel like will still, you know, doesn’t quite get or isn’t quite on board with in that world and vice versa? Will to Brandie if there’s something coming from kind of the tech, you know, operations like that, the kind of finance, you know, pieces that you would give to each other.

Will Miller: 30:02

Yeah, yeah, I don’t I mean, I think they were pretty giving of our advice. So I don’t know if there’s any advice that I would give her right now that I haven’t given her before, but I think maybe.

CJ Bruce: 30:12

That you have given.

Will Miller: 30:12

Yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe the way to answer that is, is how we’ve kind of figured out, like our own kind of operating models and how there’s like a push in like a natural push and a pull. I think that I am a little bit more on the lines of like, let’s stop, let’s figure it out. Let’s figure out the strategy. Let’s make sure we are verifying our assumptions. Let’s kind of slow down our rollout here.

And I think that you are very much biased towards action. And let’s get things going. And we’ll learn it as we go. And I think that we kind of are constantly figuring out where to balance that out with each other. And I don’t think it’s something I want to correct in you, because I think that I need that version of you.

And I think to some degree you need the version of me. But I think that maybe something I have learned that I probably should have learned coming from my background is that it’s okay to just get out there and start trying stuff and figuring out what works because you don’t, you’re not gonna be able to predict your velocities. You’re not gonna be able to predict whatever the problems are you’re going to see. But like just getting into the store and doing that, I think it’s been less of a pain than I anticipated. When you just get just putting it out there and just learning as you go.

And so I think maybe advice for myself, my previous self, that it would be more advice for Brandie at this point.

Brandie Miller: 31:28

Yeah. And to add on to that is I immediately went to things I want to remind myself, but then of course, like remind you, because we’re in this together as like patience, like it takes time to like get the next account. It takes time to build the brand. It takes time to like put all the pieces together because we are trying new things and we are like building something completely new. So yeah, I agree.

It’s it’s true.

Will Miller: 31:59

It just takes a long time. Like things, everything takes longer.

Brandie Miller: 32:02

Than you expect. Like that buyer isn’t responding.

Will Miller: 32:06

Yeah.

Brandie Miller: 32:06

It takes time.

Will Miller: 32:08

Yeah.

Brandie Miller: 32:09

Everyone’s busy. We’re all doing stuff. Yeah.

CJ Bruce: 32:12

That’s awesome. Awesome. All right, so we’ve been talking to Brandie and Will Miller, Co-founders of Mochi Love. Be sure to check them out at mochilove.co. Check out the store locator.

Go ahead, try some product. Also follow the brand on Instagram @eatmochilove. Brandie, Will, thanks so much for being on the show.

Will Miller: 32:30

All right. Awesome. Thank you CJ.

Brandie Miller: 32:32

Thanks, CJ.

Outro: 32:35

Thanks for listening to The Missing Ingredient podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.

Breaking Into Grocery Retail and Winning Shelf Space With Brandie Miller and Will Miller

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Full Transcript

Introduction and Show Overview

Brandie and Will’s Background Before Mochi Love

What Mochi Love Is and Product Vision

Transition from Buyer to Founder Perspective

Manufacturing Decisions and Choosing France

Leveraging Sushi Placement for Distribution

Using AI and Tech in Operations

Future Vision and Brand Growth

Favorite Brands and Product Recommendations

Resources and Networks for Founders