Caroline Dai is the Founder and CEO of TofuGo Snacks, a company creating savory, high-protein, shelf-stable tofu snacks for modern, on-the-go lifestyles. In her role, she leads the brand’s product innovation, growth strategy, and community building. Since launching in March 2026, TofuGo has gone viral, generated $20,000 in revenue in its first month, and is on track for $1 million in revenue in 2026. Caroline previously worked in strategy and finance and draws on that experience while celebrating her Chinese heritage through flavors like Soy BBQ and Spicy Chili.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [2:21] Caroline Dai shares the early growth story and managing cash flow in a bootstrapped brand
- [5:27] Why Caroline became the face of the brand and embraced content creation
- [8:31] What the future of protein could look like for modern consumers
- [11:30] Building an authentic social presence and stronger creator relationships
- [16:11] How Caroline navigated manufacturing challenges and repeated rejection
- [17:56] Retail strategy, product differentiation, and appealing to new shoppers
- [23:09] Caroline shares her test-and-learn approach to organic social content
- [30:39] Caroline discusses whole-food trends, ingredient quality, and innovative brands worth watching
In this episode…
Innovative food products can generate buzz, but scaling a CPG brand takes more than a strong idea. Founders need clear positioning, steady demand, and a growth strategy that can evolve with the business. So how do you turn early traction into sustainable brand growth?
Caroline Dai, a CPG entrepreneur with a background in finance and strategy, believes scalable growth comes from combining product differentiation with constant testing, strategic partnerships, and direct customer feedback. A big part of her strategy is building trust through founder-led marketing, using organic social performance to guide decisions, and creating long-term partnerships with manufacturers and retailers that support growth. Caroline also emphasizes staying lean, using organic traction to guide paid marketing, and maintaining strong customer relationships as the brand expands. Together, these strategies offer a practical roadmap for turning early momentum into a scalable food and beverage brand.
In this episode of The Missing Ingredient, CJ Bruce talks with Caroline Dai, Founder and CEO of TofuGo Snacks, about turning an innovative product into a scalable brand. Caroline covers founder-led content, manufacturing partnerships, and retail growth strategy. She also discusses organic social testing, AI tools, and whole-food trends shaping the CPG market.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- CJ Bruce on LinkedIn
- The Missing Ingredient
- Caroline Dai on LinkedIn
- TofuGo Snacks: Website | Instagram | Email | Newsletter sign up
- “Unlocking Growth Through Strategic Branding and Design With Fred Hart” on The Missing Ingredient
- Fred Hart: LinkedIn | Website
- Daniel Modlin on LinkedIn
- OHME! Foods
Quotable Moments:
- “I knew very early on that there’s no better ambassador than me as a founder.”
- “We tested different formats, so it wasn’t like the first video we posted was fire.”
- “So I just want to demonstrate the innovation of the product while also being interesting.”
- “The organic content is more to make sure we test out different formats to see what works.”
- “I’m really excited to bring something that actually tastes like food to the protein aisle.”
Action Steps:
- Become the most authentic ambassador for your brand: Showing up as the founder can build trust, strengthen audience connection, and make your content feel more relatable.
- Test different content formats and hooks: Experimenting with multiple approaches helps reveal what captures attention, earns shares, and resonates most with your audience.
- Use customer feedback to refine your strategy: Reviewing comments, shares, watch time, and other signals after every post creates a faster learning loop for future content.
- Build strategic partnerships with a long-term mindset: Presenting manufacturers and other partners with a clear shared vision can unlock expertise, reduce costs, and strengthen the business.
- Use organic growth to learn before scaling paid marketing: Testing what works organically gives brands stronger data and proven creative formats before investing more heavily in advertising.
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 Guest Background
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 for 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 introducing today’s guest, I want to give a big thank you to Fred Hart, who introduced us. You can check out his website at fredhart.com. And he specializes in CPG branding and strategic package design, helping food and beverage brands stand out at retail shelves. We also had an interview with Fred, so be sure to check out his episode on the podcast for some great branding and packaging insights.
Now for today’s guest. Caroline Dai is the founder of TofuGo, the viral snack brand reimagining tofu as a savory, protein packed snack built for the modern snack aisle. After starting her career in M&A and strategy, Caroline traded boardroom decks and financial models for product development, community building and a bold bet that tofu could become craveable portable and mainstream. Since launching in March 2026, TofuGo has already caught the attention of Bon Appétit, theSkimm, and Everyday Health. And today we’re unpacking the founder’s story, the viral momentum, and what it takes to create a snack category people didn’t even know they were waiting for. Welcome to the show, Caroline.
Caroline Dai: 01:52
Thanks so much for having me. Happy to be here.
CJ Bruce: 01:56
Awesome. Well, let’s start with your background. So you went from M&A finance to running cashflow for a bootstrapped CPG brand. So when you, you know, when you first started getting into it, and I guess curious, you know, as you, how you think about cashflow, like how that, you know, that experience obviously could be very applicable to what you’re doing now, but how does it apply and how is it, you know, change how you think about cash in your business?
Caroline Dai: 02:21
Yeah. When I was at my finance desk job, I would actually snack on sweet protein bars and drink protein shakes all the time. I quickly realized I was consuming so much sugar just because all the snacks on the aisle were full of sugar, artificial ingredients. So I decided to bet on something more savory. When it comes to managing cash flow, I think we are really fortunate to be very viral very quickly.
So we launched in March, and two weeks after we launched, we went viral organically on social media. And that got us not only organic press mentions attention, but also orders. So orders started piling in. We started to be nationwide very quickly. So right now we’re month three into the business.
We’re already covering 40 out of the 50 US states in terms of our customers. We just got onboarded to a bunch of wholesale accounts on Faire. So TofuGo became nationwide very quickly. I think it bubbles up with the industry tailwind that people are tired of sleep protein bars and they want something more savory. So I think cashflow for us has always been really demand driven.
So because we have so much demand for our product, we fully sold out of our first production run. And now we’re selling our second production run as a result. So the, the revenue from the first production run was actually able to fund a lot of marketing initiatives, flavor development, a lot of exciting things on the way.
CJ Bruce: 03:52
Oh that’s great. And do you feel like there are any even just getting started in product development and all of that areas where your finance background helped you avoid mistakes or kind of think about that differently than maybe somebody who doesn’t have that background starting a food brand.
Caroline Dai: 04:06
Yeah, I think coming from a finance background, I always knew that creating partnerships and negotiations are really important. So when we actually pitch to, you know, two dozen co manufacturers, we always pitch them in the same way you would pitch an investor for them to seek a long term vision. What is it in for them? So everything from like the strategy deck, the conversations, I was very strategic. And as a result, actually, when it comes to the recipe development process, we’re able to share that cost with the manufacturer as part of that partnership, which was really helpful.
They’re really experienced in shelf stable tofu snack, which also saved us a lot of time in, you know, instead of starting something from scratch, they’re able to weigh in and provide a lot of expertise.
Becoming the Face of the Brand
CJ Bruce: 04:54
Yeah. That’s great. So you mentioned a few times the viral, the viral moment, viral launch moment. And I read and also I did some research before this. So feel free to push back or correct any of the research if there’s anything that’s incorrect.
But you said you were terrified of being on camera and being, you know, the face of the brand on social. So, and I think this is very common. Like we see this with clients, people we work with all the time. Like, I don’t really want to be the face or I’m not comfortable on social media. So what got you past that?
And can you tell us a little more about the story of just, you know, how that came to be and what happened with that first viral post?
Caroline Dai: 05:27
Yes, yes, of course, you know, I don’t come from like influencer creator background came from like, you know, just very corporate desk job. But I knew very early on that there’s no better ambassador than me as a founder. So of course, I was nervous and terrified because I, it’s something I had to learn from scratch and just face that fear of like being cringe or whatnot. We tested different formats, so it wasn’t like the first video we posted was fire. We tested different formats, different hooks to see which one would really take off.
And after that one video took off, two weeks after we launched, it gave me so much confidence. I was like, oh wow, I’m actually really good at this. And it motivates me to even create more content. And now, you know, just fast forward, this is probably like my month forever and creating content. I just have so much fun with it.
And I actually learned a lot about like the algorithm, what the audience likes, try to create contents that are not only, you know, really interesting, but also really shareable because that’s what also drives algorithm. So, you know, for me, I just always knew that tofu would just take off much faster if I become the ambassador. And I’m comfortable with showing up for my brand every day. So that’s what happened.
CJ Bruce: 06:47
Nice. And were there any like, did you come in from the beginning with, okay, we’re going to test different things, and I’m just going to commit to this and figure out how to make it work, or I guess, and or during those early ones where it didn’t work. And granted, having somebody work in two weeks is great. So that’s awesome. Yeah.
But you know where you posted something and then it didn’t get any traction, you know, how did you, I guess, deal with that? Or were you kind of prepared with that from the upfront? Like we’re going to figure out how to make it work?
Caroline Dai: 07:15
Yeah, yeah. Of course, I knew early on, like we’re so early, right? Like we’re still considered early startup and, you know, all things considered, but I always knew that part of the early process, it is about, you know, receiving feedback from the audience, seeing what works like for our brand because it’s such an innovative product. A lot of people haven’t seen shelf stable tofu snack when they think of tofu, think about the fridge. So just the fact that I was like talking, I was like, hey, I created the world’s fastest tofu, you know, just like ripping the packaging in front of the camera.
It actually is very scroll stopping because people were like, what is this? So I just want to demonstrate the innovation of the product while also being interesting. And, you know, I think we figured out kind of the format to do that.
Creating a Savory Alternative to Protein Bars
CJ Bruce: 08:01
Yeah. Awesome. So let’s dig into the end of the product. So we talked a couple times about, you know, you’re, you’re eating the sweet protein bars, you’re just kind of protein bar trend in general and you’ve clearly gone a different direction. I could have gone into that, could have had tofu in a protein bar, but you’ve got the, you know, the savory tofu snack on the go.
And so curious your, you know, how are you thinking about that from a, you know, a culture and a trend perspective and how you’re more shaping where things are going versus kind of chasing, you know, the existing protein bar trend.
Caroline Dai: 08:31
Yes. TofuGo the format. It’s inspired by the Chinese dog and I grew up eating. So it’s very nostalgic for me. Of course, we made it more portable, more accessible, more clean ingredients for the American, you know, North American audience.
When I think about the future of protein. You know, I think 2025 was a really big year for protein. And I think 2026 and onward is going to be about the quality of the protein. You know, where’s the protein derived from? Is it whole foods?
Is it fillers? Is it artificial ingredients? People are paying close attention to the ingredient deck in addition to the quantity of protein that they consume. So I think the future of protein, the way I see it, is going to more focus on whole foods, the whole foods protein, just higher quality. Think about, you know, soybeans, chicken, eggs, steak, all these whole foods ingredients.
So I think I’m really excited to bring something that actually tastes like food to the protein aisle.
CJ Bruce: 09:31
Nice. And then so yeah, bringing it to, you know, to shoppers. So I know one of the first, you know, flavors, you had your soy barbecue. People thought that it was chocolate right over barbecue flavored. It was.
How did you, you know, correct for that? Was that like, where did that education live? Was that packaging? Is that online? And I guess how are you thinking about, you know, communicating, you know, the product, the taste to this audience that’s not as familiar with the, the traditional product.
Caroline Dai: 10:00
Yes. Of course, when people think about tofu in a soy sauce, when they see it for the first time, they just haven’t seen anything like it. Obviously, soy sauce is darker in color. So when you think about a dark square, they associate that with chocolate, which is more sweet. So that actually motivates us to double down on social media as well as our website development.
All the photos and visuals for the brand to make sure we communicate that it is a savory product. And I think over the time, tofu actually shows up in conversations when it comes to savory protein bars. Like we saw another article of another savory protein mentioning tofu, like kind of how we are, you know, in line with the trend of more savory protein. So I think along with the visuals and the education on social media, people associate tofu with savory. It’s because we create this whole universe.
Turning Viral Content Into a Repeatable Social Strategy
CJ Bruce: 10:56
Yeah. Nice. And then so we’ve talked a few times about the viral post after that. How can you talk a little bit about how you went from, okay, this one kind of a lucky thing to like have this hit in the first couple weeks. I think a lot of brands would love to have that.
And then how are you, I guess, transitioned that into more repeatable, consistent, you know, content and posting. So like, how do you think about, you know, was there an element from that or things that you learned even in those first few weeks of posting that now you’ve honed in that social strategy a little bit more to be, again, more repeatable and sustainable.
Caroline Dai: 11:30
Of course, we tested different formats, and some of them actually includes professional videos from like a studio, like the whole campaign. But I find out that people just generally like more authentic content, like, just like showing up in front of an iPhone. They can see the founder behind the brand. People are drawn into the authenticity of the brand so that, you know, allowed us to create a lot of founder led content, which do amazing as well. We have a lot of repeat customers as well who refer us to other customers, as well as really create greater relationship.
So a lot of the times right now as a brand, we have a lot of inbound from creators. So they say, hey, I’d love to try TofuGo go. I’d love to share this with my audience via a real or a story. And we’re always happy to gift. So I think that’s helped us to create a really healthy ecosystem where people are really drawn to the brand and want to be part of that journey.
CJ Bruce: 12:26
And in those, just to double click on the creator relationships for a second. So when they reach out, happy to gift you get into, you know, they’re looking for paid or how does like the gifting versus paid balance, you know, work for you? Or you’re just kind of like, hey, we’re happy to gift, we’re not doing any paid Relationships or what does that look like today?
Caroline Dai: 12:44
Yeah, for now, we’ve actually spent zero in ads or influencer partnership, which is really impressive for our size. You know, we have a lot of demand from creators. So we, we’re always happy to gift, I think as we scale that, you know, the math won’t work differently, right? Especially just as we want to scale faster and grow faster. But right now, I would say everything is fully organic.
It’s 100% gifting instead of any like formal collaboration. Yeah. Of course, we want to grow and foster these relationships.
CJ Bruce: 13:18
Yeah. Have you seen pretty good response just based on, again, people being excited about the product to being responsive to that gifting approach?
Caroline Dai: 13:25
Yes. I think it actually is very different when we like do outbound versus inbound. Like I would say right now, because we have so much demand and interest, everything is inbound. And when they inbound, they already like watch a couple videos. They already are like really curious to even send us a message, which, you know, these creators, they have a large following.
They obviously have brands who pitch them all the time. So we’re really happy to have that warm introduction from them as opposed to pitching them cold.
Standing Out and Educating Shoppers at Retail
CJ Bruce: 13:57
Yeah, that makes sense. So we talked a little bit about how you’re educating people about the products on social and on your website. As you shift into retail, how are you thinking about educating people at shelf?
Caroline Dai: 14:10
Yeah, we build out the shelf display for our products. So all the TofuGo, they come with the product that looks a lot like other protein brands. So we like have messaging, the flavor, the macro callouts, and our fufu, which is like our tofu mascot with the world’s fastest tofu. It really pops up on shelf. Like we tested a bunch of different stores across different states in the US.
And tofu actually saw some very fast because people think it’s so innovative. The color really pops up on the shelf. If you think about traditional jerky, you think about like a lot of earth tone color, like black or brown, but you know, our color is more like red and orange. Like when we actually went to New York and stopped by different retailers, we’re like, hey, look at this product we created. It’s mixed colors and everyone’s like, give me a case tomorrow.
We love it. So that was kind of like an unexpected, unexpected bonus that, you know, it’s just like when you’re in that city, you played that game, right? So it’s really fun. But yeah, I think when before we launched, it was a little bit concerned. I was like, are we going to get it?
And then, you know, shock was like, oh, we’re sold out right now. We want to order more. I was like, oh, this is pleasant. Pleasant to hear. So I think that the shelf top definitely talks about the information about the product.
Having an active social media is great because people always DM us, like, where can we find 12 people in the store? And we direct them, which is really great because they specifically go to that store to look for tofu.
CJ Bruce: 15:39
Yeah. Yeah. Nice. You mentioned the, you know, your common search and you talked to a lot of different people and curious about just to dig in a little bit about how that went. So the, you said that you found some people that are like really focused on shelf stable tofu.
So where some people, it was just like, this is not something that we do outside of the playbook. And how did you, I guess, just talk a little bit through that, that process, like, you know, why, why did you talk to so many? How did you then land on the ones that you did land on? And what did that, what did that look like?
Caroline Dai: 16:11
Yes, we talked with at least two dozen and more co manufacturers. We actually faced rejections from the first 23 before we find the one that would take on the partnership. And a lot of it is actually comes to expertise. A lot of co manufacturers, they’re really familiar with protein bars and protein shakes. But when it comes to shelf stable tofu stack, they haven’t seen anything like it.
Like one of the feedback from a comment we talked with LA was, you know, tofu has a water content, so we refrigerate it. I knew very early on I want something more shelf stable and portable and differentiated. So we face a lot of rejections early on when it comes to that relationship. When we finally found the one that, you know, is really experienced and happy to chat with us, obviously that was a really great turning point for TofuGo. You know, that conversation, you know, gave us a lot of confidence and we always position it as a long term partner.
CJ Bruce: 17:11
Yeah, I was most of the other, you know, where you were rejected was mostly about the product itself. So like, this is just not something we could do or we don’t think it’s going to work, that kind of thing.
Caroline Dai: 17:20
Correct. That’s why you don’t typically see shelf stable tofu snacks in American grocery aisle. It’s because there’s so limited capability when it comes to producing it.
Pitching an Innovative Product to Retailers
CJ Bruce: 17:32
Interesting. So it’s good to want to talk a little bit about, you know, actually pitching, you know, distributors and or retailers directly and like, what’s the obviously now you have some, you know, you have some velocity stories you can tell, but going into the outside of that, like, what are the things that are interesting to retailers when you’re talking to them, you’re pitching them about the product. Like, how are you framing that up and what’s getting them excited?
Caroline Dai: 17:56
Yeah, of course, I think there are different angles, right? Like obviously protein is huge. There are, you know, a couple retailers. That protein has its own subcategory. Like Costco is a good example.
I think Fred even talked about just like protein is such a huge demand. People go to grocery stores typically looking for protein product. And ours is truly differentiated, right? It’s not just protein isolate right now. There’s a shortage when it comes to weight isolate as well.
It’s protein derived from whole foods, which is in line with the macro trends. It’s also about the savory flavor, right? Something, something that’s truly innovative and differentiated to the aisle, I think when it comes to retailer. In addition to talk about the growth of 12, it’s also about the benefits of them. You know, are we able to drive new demographics to the store, potentially a younger demographic, you know, a different demographic they haven’t seen before to really drive up their total basket sales.
So I think there are different ways we approach that partnership. Obviously, we have really great mentors and partners in the industry that help us facilitate those conversations as well. I think in line with the protein trend, as well as being a really, truly differentiated and innovative product to the store, that’s two things we lead with.
CJ Bruce: 19:15
Cool. Very good. I’m assuming, too, that the, you know, having the social component and active social and founder led social, does that ever come up in those conversations as something they value?
Caroline Dai: 19:24
Of course, of course, people want to see great social media momentum to actually drive people into the store And you know, when people have tried your product, you know, from maybe your website, they buy even more in store, they go to the store and maybe clean up the whole aisle and share it with their friends. Right. They’re just like so excited. And, you know, they really feel like they grow with the journey. Like last Friday, I actually called a bunch of different customers just, I have their number from our Shopify order and just like, want to get more feedback.
And they’re so excited. They’re like, oh my God, you know, I’ve been following you guys from the start. It’s so amazing to see it grow. So I actually really appreciate building these relationships because I think they will be like lifetime TofuGo community members.
CJ Bruce: 20:09
I love that. I think that’s such a smart approach. And actually just talking to the customers, getting right down to the ground floor. And, you know, it’s, we’ve had conversations in the past with brands and you talk about how, you know, just the difference as you scale, right? You kind of start to get disconnected.
Obviously you’re at the beginning stages, but compared to you’re at a farmer’s market, you’re selling to someone directly face to face. You see them try, you talk to them about it. And then keeping that, you know, connection to the customer and really understanding what is driving people and what are they excited about. Anyway. So yeah, I think that’s a really smart approach.
I want to talk more about money. So you don’t have VC money, right? You’re running with on, on the cash flow. And how do you think about that? How are you, you know, planning against that?
Obviously, there’s a, I mean, things have changed a lot, right? Previously, you know, call it five, six, seven years ago, a lot of VC money coming into food and beverage. People are a lot more, you know, cash conscious now profit minded. And so just digging into a little bit as you’re thinking about scaling and growing, like, how do you think about that financial aspect?
Caroline Dai: 21:12
Yeah, I mean, we always have people who reach out to us. That’s Angel service’s interest in investing to grow that actually have a Friends of TofuGo newsletter I sent out every month to potential investors and retailers of interest. And that’s been really great to keeping the relationship warm and sending them updates. So in the future, when we do open up around, I anticipate it will be filled up very quickly and be oversubscribed. And I’ve been very intentional on building warm and strategic relationships with investors.
Balancing Organic Growth With Paid Marketing
CJ Bruce: 21:44
Yeah, that’s a great takeaway there to just having that, maintaining those relationships and, you know, not just saying no, but not now and staying top of mind as you think about, you know, continue to grow the brand. So we’ve talked a lot about the organic content growth. And you mentioned, you know, both in terms of organic social and also organic creator relationships, how do you think about, you know, at some point needing paid to scale or have you thought about that, whether that’s paid on the ad side or on the creator side? And yeah, what are you thinking about that? Like, is that something that’s, that’s in the cards for you?
Or how are you thinking about paid?
Caroline Dai: 22:24
For sure. I think as brands scale paid is going to be a really important component of that for us. The organic content is more to make sure we test out different formats to see what works. Ideally, in a great environment, we see great growth from both organic and paid. So I think about it as a staggered approach.
So not just one, but both working really great. Right now we’re still learning about different formats and testing what works, what doesn’t work, and to get more data from our demographic and customers. But of course, as they scaled, paid is going to be really important.
CJ Bruce: 23:02
And how can you talk a little more about how you’re approaching a test and learn with organic social?
Caroline Dai: 23:09
Yeah. When it comes to social, definitely like different hooks, the time of the content, you know, is it like the format of the content? Is it more like POV? Is it more me in front of the camera? Is it more other people in the video?
So just like understanding what subcategory of content will perform the best and drive the most interest.
CJ Bruce: 23:34
How often are you measuring that?
Caroline Dai: 23:37
Every video, every video, we get feedback instantly, which is great. We see how many comments, how many shares are some feedback from people. We actually see what and they actually drop off. So we always want to incentivize people to watch the whole video to improve the algorithm. So we see data very quickly after the video, which is the beauty of social media is, you know, what thing works instantly, what doesn’t, you know, you got a good video.
People actually comment a lot and share because that drives even more views. Like we just had another video that hit 25 K and that took us less than 20 minutes to make just with a friend and a coworking space. And we can, we can do things like that all day, every day. We just need to figure out what kind of format are people the most interested in it, and the content themselves actually doesn’t take that long to film. It’s like you said, the data and like the learning from it, but we get feedback from every video.
CJ Bruce: 24:34
And then the feedback loop there is. So yeah, you get that, you get that data and then how are you? Then we’re going to go shoot something the next day. Or you have like a content calendar you’re planning ahead, or how do you balance, you know, planning ahead versus kind of producing in real time? Or are you leaning one way or the other?
Caroline Dai: 24:52
Yeah, I think definitely we have a content calendar. So right now we’re full speed ahead when it comes to our Hawkeye site tofu campaign, which I need to chat more about that as well, how we shape the culture about, you know, the like negative connotation with soy like soy boy and how we’re flipping the script on that. But when it comes to like some other ad hoc content, we also publish things in real time. So these are like typically filmed and published the same day. Like we were in New York for New York Tech week two weeks ago, and we had some great content there interacting with New Yorkers and Knicks content.
So those tend to be more ad hoc.
CJ Bruce: 25:31
Nice. Well, you since you brought it up, let’s dig into the campaign. Yeah. Tell us what like where it came from, what it looks like today. And yeah, let’s talk a little bit about it.
Caroline Dai: 25:40
Yes. I always actually new guys love tofu would be a really great trend or really good campaign from early on. I just think, you know, that is kind of what customers or audience stopped the scroll and like want to learn more like because it’s so differentiated. What really drove kind of us to push the campaign out faster is I went to a creators Instagram. His name is Jacob.
He published a lot of really useful insights on soy and tofu. And he has a very loyal following as well. So we as a brand, we commented on one of his videos that already went viral for him. We said, we’re launching a Hawkeyes TofuGo calendar. Hawkeyes TofuGo campaign soon.
We’re so excited and we got like 1000 likes overnight. Just like people are like hopping on the trend, commenting like, I love this. Like I’ve always wanted to do this. I feel seen x, Y, z. And one of the girl actually commented, you should do a Hawkeyes TEFL calendar.
Like that’s smart because we can have something from our website. People can just download and they can have it in their phone screen or something like something that actually like is really tangible for them, right? Like sometimes the video, they save it and then move on. But when it comes to like photo assets, they can do whatever they want, you know, whether that’s like a desktop or on their TV or on their phone, like obviously iPhone is very digital native, but I think that really speaks volume to the, the demand from people to actually see change and more innovation from the TofuGo category. Like I think TofuGo has been humble and quiet for really long and really underestimate it.
So we want to bring spa and protein.
CJ Bruce: 27:28
I love it. I also love tofu. I just said that up front. But yeah, I’m a big tofu fan. I eat a lot of tofu prepared in many different ways.
Caroline Dai: 27:36
There you. Go. There you go. All right.
CJ Bruce: 27:37
Nice little application for the next calendar.
Caroline Dai: 27:41
Yeah.
Using AI to Build With a Lean Team
CJ Bruce: 27:42
So what has shifted to, you know, kind of looking ahead and a little bit. Well, a little bit of yeah. Outside of the kind of the day to day, the weeds. So one question is, and I ask every guest about AI and how that’s affecting your work and the work that you do. So I think specifically at your stage, you’re wearing a bunch of hats and also, you know, starting the brand kind of where other brands you’ve talked to have been around for a while, it’s like, okay, now how are you applying AI to your existing workflows where you’ve started it in the middle of all this stuff already exists.
So I’m curious, how is AI show up for you and your business or different aspects and how are you utilizing it?
Caroline Dai: 28:18
It’s great. Yeah, I really launched Xofigo in the time that, like any solo founder, can launch a lot of things without a really elaborate and big team. So AI has been great. Everything from like market research to the manufacturer surge to workflow. Like, you know, we receive so much inbound.
So it helps us sort out that information as well. But I truly believe there’s no better time to build. Like now is the time. If you know, there’s any aspiring entrepreneurs watching this, now is the time to build. You actually don’t really need like a 50 person team to start with.
You can start with, you know, a solo founder, a couple co-founders and actually build meaningful momentum before expanding a team. I would love to expand the TofuGo team as we grow and scale, but AI has been really helpful in getting the brand off the ground.
CJ Bruce: 29:19
And are you curious to dig in there a little bit? Like tools like are you using, are you using, are you using GPT, Gemini, a combination of those? How are you approaching that?
Caroline Dai: 29:31
It’s a combination of those. I really like the Gemini meeting notes taker. I think that’s been like one of the most seamless transition I’ve seen, but also other AI tools like Lee and Claude and tragic, as you mentioned, just want to make sure things can be really streamlined as opposed to a lot of different.
CJ Bruce: 29:52
Yeah. That’s great. And like you said, there’s so many, so many opportunities now to, to, you know, breaking down the barriers of what’s possible and the level of depth you can get going, even just thinking about market research, right? Going from just kind of searching around yourself to doing, using the tools for deep research and gets you a level of quality that you didn’t previously have access to for, for companies of your size. So we talk a lot about savory protein, protein, wave and everything with, you know, that you’re riding with tofu.
Go curious, just taking a wider view, you know, being in the, in the industry now, like, are there any other, you know, trends that you see or things that you see kind of growing in, in food and beverage?
Caroline Dai: 30:39
I think people really like things that are made from whole foods, like actually have some, maybe I’ll give a shout out to them, have some OHME! with me. So, the older Jenny and Hannah are also friends of mine. So these are freeze dried fruits. So literally just fruits and freeze dried. So really natural and whole foods ingredient.
I think that’s been a really great trend. Like obviously Whole Foods has always exists. It’s not like we’re like discovering whole foods for the first time, but I think people are in general more comfortable, like feeding their children or their loved ones. things are whole, foods are natural. So obviously I think that’s great.
And that translates into beverage as well, right? Like we see beverage brands saying like real fruit juice as opposed to like ingredients or cane sugar. So I think anything with whole Foods I’m really bullish on. I am very intentional about filling up my plates and diet with Whole Foods.
Food Brands Caroline Is Excited About
CJ Bruce: 31:39
Great. Yeah. I think it’s interesting with the Whole Foods, like you said, it’s obviously Whole Foods have been around for as long as humans have been eating food. Yeah, but I think it’s seeing this moment where it’s, you know, it’s meeting kind of modern life and modern convenience. And, you know, people want to see a lot of that.
Even like the snack you just showed. It’s like you want to have be able to eat on the go or have something quick, but also that’s whole food and that you know what it is and can read the ingredients and, you know, there’s a ton of opportunity. I agree with you in that, in that space. Well, that transitions perfectly. My next question, which other food and beverage brands that you know, you’re excited about and you think deserve more attention, more attention, and want to give a shout out to.
Caroline Dai: 32:19
OHME! Yeah, they just, they’re just killing it. They’re growing really, really fast. And they actually have a lot of innovative products in the freeze dried fruit space. So they have like yogurt crunch.
And also they launch new SKUs when it comes, like they’re the passion fruit crunch with protein that’s really innovative. They have apple fries that looks like a fries, but it’s like apples. It’s great for kids. Yeah, I think I have some here I can show you. It’s like this.
It’s also a newer product that they brought for Apple. Yeah. They’re just like really cute. And you know, who knew fruits can be so cute. I think this is a great brand.
Yeah.
CJ Bruce: 33:02
Awesome. Great. Well, I had one more question I was going to ask, but before I ask that, I wanted to point people to where they can find you in the brand and connect. And so definitely go to the website tofugosnacks.com. You can find you on on Instagram, social media, anywhere else you want to direct people to or tell people to go to find out more about you and the brand.
Caroline Dai: 33:24
Those are great. Yeah. When you email hello@tofugosnacks.com, I always reply, we can actually send it to like an AI or VR. Actually love responding to customer email and just building up a relationship. So if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out.
I always respond.
CJ Bruce: 33:45
Love that. The direct line to the founder. That’s cool. All right, so my last question for you is, you know, you actually mentioned earlier, you know, mentors and people have helped you along the way, right? No one does this alone. And so I wanted to give you some, a chance to give a shout out to, you know, mentors or who’s helped you in your journey in food and beverage.
Caroline Dai: 34:06
Yeah, I think there’s so many people. My publicist, Daniel Modlin, he’s great. So he has his own PR agency, One Five Collective. He’s been really great at pitching to go to meaningful media and getting us featured. So I think that’s been amazing.
And he’s a really great person to get in touch with. That sounds.
CJ Bruce: 34:30
Awesome. Anyone else that comes to mind?
Caroline Dai: 34:34
There’s so many. How much time do you have? But yeah, this is great. I really appreciate the honest.
CJ Bruce: 34:41
Cool. Awesome. Well, we’ve been talking to Caroline Dai, Founder of TofuGo Snacks. Be sure to check her out at tofugosnacks.com and shoot her an email at hello@tofugosnacks.com. Caroline, thanks so much for being on the show.
Caroline Dai: 34:55
Thank you so much.
Outro: 34:57
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.