Hannah Perez - How SEEQ Went from TikTok to Target in 3 Years

On this episode, we’re joined by Hannah Perez, the Co-Founder and Brand Visionary behind SEEQ — the clear protein brand that’s pioneering one of the most refreshing (literally) new categories in sports nutrition.

What started with a college friendship has turned into a rocketship brand that's now stocked nationwide at Target, growing a cult following on TikTok, and giving legacy supplement brands a serious wake-up call. In this episode, Hannah breaks down how she and co-founder Ben Zaver went from blending samples in a Minneapolis apartment to building a vertically integrated DTC and retail business, all while staying true to their vision of “bringing the juice” and making wellness more approachable.

We get tactical on everything from formulation and co-packers to launching new SKUs in retail, hiring a CEO within 18 months, and why she believes storytelling is more important than features when it comes to building in public.

Episode Highlights:
💧 What clear protein actually is — and why it’s not just a gimmick
🧪 The 3 biggest R&D hurdles in clear protein formulation
📦 Why they passed on dozens of co-packers before going back to the first one
📲 The TikTok strategy that sold out 4,000 units in 60 days
🛠️ How they kept building during a 4-month stockout
🚀 Getting into Target via a cold email — and what they did to stand out
🛍️ Why front-of-store placement drove massive velocity
📚 Lessons from launching a new format just for retail
🏗️ How EOS helped them plan, prioritize, and stay focused
👥 Why they hired a President and CEO just 18 months in
🔥 Hannah’s shift from CMO to Brand Visionary — and what she’s building next

⏱️ Table of Contents:
00:00 – Intro & Clear Protein 101
02:30 – Founding Story: From Marketing Agency to CPG Startup
06:00 – The Formulation Process: What Makes Clear Protein Work
11:00 – Viral TikTok Growth, Street Sampling, and Early Sellouts
15:00 – Finding the Right Co-Packer & Building the Product Backbone
17:00 – Landing Target: Cold Emails, Broker Help & Buyer Pitch
21:00 – What It Takes to Succeed in Retail: Velocity, Displays & Education
26:00 – Packaging Lessons for DTC Brands Entering Retail
30:00 – Staying Focused: Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome
32:00 – Operating with EOS & North Star Goal-Setting
34:00 – Hiring a CEO and Letting Go of Ego
38:00 – How Hannah’s Role Evolved & Why Brand is Bigger Than Product
45:00 – Where to Follow Hannah & Try SEEQ

🔗 Links:
SEEQ – https://seeqsupply.com
Follow Hannah on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-perez013
Follow Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg
Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.

Transcript

Adam Steinberg (00:00)

All right. Welcome to Shelf Help Today we're speaking with Hannah Perez who's joining us from LA. Hannah is the Co-Founder and Brand Visionary at Seeq, a really fast growing brand that's really pioneered the clear protein category, which I'm going to assume you may not be familiar with. Clear protein is a clear whey protein isolate that blends into pretty much any liquid, including water, creating a protein supplement that's much more similar to

Gatorade or fruit juice or any other sports drink versus your typical chalky milky muscle milk type protein shake and then Before launching see can of built and ran a marketing agency in the Minneapolis area soon to be my home base before Being forced to hand over the reins as seek seemed to immediately just took off like a rocket ship So with that let's get into it. So Just first off for the listeners Hannah that are just as not as familiar with seek you just give us a quick lay of land in terms of

the origin story, why behind the brand, core products you guys offer, then, know, where people can get their hands on them.

Hannah (01:00)

Totally, yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I am super excited to be here. I love talking about what we are building here at Seeq. It gets me really excited. We like to say, you know, we bring the juice to everything and getting to talk about that is a lot of fun for me. So, yeah, happy to give you the lay of the land on unclear protein, but you had a great intro on the product itself. you know, for us, protein has stayed very, you know, traditional.

to the chocolate and vanilla shakes as I've been growing up. used to work at a supplement store. I was big into strength training. Prior to that, I was a soccer player and into all the things growing up as far as sports go. As a consumer of this product, sometimes you don't even know the problem exists until you're presented with the solution.

for clear protein and why we decided to go deep in it. Ben, co-founder, me and him met at a marketing agency back in college and both of us had dreams of becoming an entrepreneur and unsure of what that path really looked like for us. And for me, I really wanted to lean into the marketing perspective on how do we really connect with people and really sell a product. So I really leaned heavily into that and

Ben himself has a mechanical engineering degree but had this passion for wanting to start something and saw some other things in the space of marketing and creative spaces that he wanted to lean into. And eventually after the agency, we looped back together as he had identified this product from another competitor of clear protein where how have we never heard of this before in the States at the time? It was a UK product that he had tried.

And he was like, you know, this might, this might be it. This might be the thing that I lean into to start something big. And, he was in the moment of giving out samples of this product to just friends and family and past connections. So he had come back to the creative agency that we originally met at and gave me this product of clear protein. And my background, again, being in the strength training used to work in a supplement store, like

I'd never heard of a clear protein before and I was so surprised because I was so close to the industry. And I was at that point in my, my career where I'm like looking for anything that I can apply my skillset to, really grow and, and build a business. So when he presented me with this product, I was like, Hey, if you have, you know, any ideas that you want to bounce off of me, or you want to go deeper and have somebody just as a soundboard, like

I am super into what this product is and the potential that we could have here creating something special. So literally that next day we started working together on this product. But for me, again, going back to just like, sometimes you don't know that the solution exists or that the problem exists. But I was definitely that consumer that, you I cared about hitting certain health and wellness goals and nutrition goals and getting your daily protein intake just from food alone can be challenging when

You know, you're a busy professional doing a lot of different things. Sometimes food is the last thing you're thinking about. So for me, having something that I can actually sip on and enjoy versus, you know, just mixing it with the bare minimum amount of liquid just doesn't do it for me. You know, I want to really savor life in every aspect of what it is. And I was having a conversation yesterday about our product and why I drink our product.

And for me, it's like, I don't want to rush through anything in my life. I want to really enjoy it. So the same with my protein drinks. I don't want to rush through my protein drink just to hit my goals. If I can have it compliment my life in a way that feels good and is refreshing and nourishing, that aligns so much more with my personal lifestyle, as well as just hitting your health and wellness goals can sometimes, you know, the gym is intimidating, supplements are intimidating.

And I think that's really ultimately what we're trying to do here at Seeq is have a more meet you, meet you where you're at type of mentality, as well as like, you look at our packaging, you can see it in the background of our, of our call here, but it's bright, it's punchy. It feels more approachable than, you know, the typical, you walk down a supplement aisle and you see some very like stark medicinal or, or white and black and very like hyper masculine or hyper feminine packaging. It's like, where's the brand that's really just going to meet me.

where I met whoever I am, whatever my background is on my health and wellness journey, whether I'm getting started or I'm an advocate of the gym, you know? So that's kind of the lay of the land as far as just where me and Ben met and this product was born. But ultimately, you know, once we started leaning into, OK, we're going to work together, we're going to build this product, finding the right manufacturer was the toughest battle at the beginning because we were

you know, reaching out post college, early 2020 or end of 2020, early 2021. And, you know, we're still reaching out off of our like college emails to these manufacturers. Who's going to take us seriously? And surprisingly, a lot of them did. And that was kind of the hurdle for the first year is just trying to find the right product that really mixed well and tasted good. Because at the end of the day, taste is king. And that's what we didn't want to sacrifice. So

Adam Steinberg (05:59)

you

Hannah (06:17)

We were told from a certain manufacturer that, know, MLQs are going to be over 2000 for a single flavor. And we're like, that's impossible. We can't take on that much risk. So we spent like, I would say eight months or more just looking for other manufacturers who could do something similar in terms of the product, but at a much lower investment. And we ended up going right back to that very first manufacturer because the product was so much better.

than anything else that we tried. And clear protein, although it's been around for the last couple of decades, there hasn't been a lot of innovation up until late in the last few years as it's gotten more awareness on the mixability, the way that it foams, the way that it just generally dissolves into water. So that's something that we're consistently looking at. But that was a big risk that we decided to take early on in the business. think.

Thank you to, you know, the Zaver household for one, investing in us and taking in that risk as far as just putting in that first order of the inventory and then turning their entire living room and basement into our shipping and fulfillment center. And that's really where the magic first started was just out of Maple Grove, Minnesota and out of their living room and believing in us.

Um, so that was like the very early phases of, just us getting the product and getting started. And then when it came to selling the product, we had no money to invest in as far as marketing goes. And at this time, again, we launched October of 2021. We were like, we're going all in on TikTok. That's what we're going to do. That's what feels right to us right now when it comes to where the lay of the land was, um, in terms of the TikTok space.

And we wanted to lean into the founder storytelling content, building in public content. So we decided to really make Ben positioned as the face of the brand and lean into him as a creator on, watch me build this business. rather than, you know, positioning it under the, seek supply name, which I think just generally when you're, when you're looking at content from a person versus a brand, it's just a lot more authentic.

And you can feel closer to that specific brand when you're seeing the person that's actually building it behind the scenes. So we really leaned into TikTok from the very start. And I think Ben had posted, I don't know, some 40 videos before we had gotten launched and had some traction a little bit here and there, but nothing really sticky until our first week of having our product.

and going out on the streets of Minneapolis, downtown with samples in hand, and just getting the product in front of people. Because even today, what I'll recognize is I'm talking about our brand and our product and clear protein. And even as you've introed, a lot of people don't know what clear protein is. The awareness is still so small compared to where traditional Thickenokie protein lies in the perception of consumers' minds that for us, it's like,

We have to get our product in front of people to really have people register what clear protein is. You know, we can have a million different ads showing the consistency and other people's reactions was definitely moves the needle. But a lot of times that aha moment happens in person. That's what happened exactly with me when I tried it for the first time. It was like, Whoa, I didn't know that this existed. and I can't believe this is protein. And those are the same sentiments that we hear from consumers today.

So when we first had the idea of going out on the street and giving samples, we thought it was a great idea and then we posted it. And then it was confirmation that it was a great idea because we had our first viral video on our hands. And then from there, it was a snowball effect from the first couple of weeks of launch to then 60 days. We've sold out of those first 4,000 units. Mark Cuban got his eyes on it and it was like.

That moment in time was one of the most special. I have goosebumps right now as I'm saying it again, because it truly was the most incredible moment for us and just realization that like, wait a second, like, we really do have something here on our hands. And that was the kind of trigger for me to be, I need to go all in on this. Like, yes, I need to pay my bills, but there is a line of sight now to when we and Ben can start paying ourselves and this can become our full-time thing.

And that was kind of that inflection point for us as a whole. We graduated from the Zaver household to getting our own warehouse just a few months later, hiring Ben's younger brother to be our warehouse manager and his younger sister and all their friends to pack our orders. And that energy that we were able to create in the warehouse was so unique. And from that point on, we've had some incredible momentum. We've had to make

Adam Steinberg (11:05)

Okay.

Hannah (11:11)

know, quick decisions when it comes to how we want to scale and grow the business. Because at the end of the day, you know, we do want to be the ones pioneering the clear protein category. We want to be the leaders of clear protein. We want to be the face of it where you are looking to seek for all things innovation on clear protein and knowing that they have the most superior product when you're comparing it against other me too brands that are coming out in the space.

Adam Steinberg (11:33)

That was a great, very succinct overview. You answered a lot of the questions that the questions I already had,

Rewinding back a bit when you're talking about the early days, like the R and D formulation side of things. I think I read somewhere that you said something along the lines of, "the hardest part was keeping it clear without it tasting weird", which doesn't surprise me. without giving away any trade secrets I was just curious

what are some of those key variables that you guys were playing around with or key tweaks you made along the way, but between that first version and the final version where you were like, this is right, this is it. And like, many batches did that take to actually get to that point?

Hannah (12:10)

Yeah, yeah, know, surprisingly, I remember when we were finalizing our first two flavors that we launched was mango pineapple and strawberry splash. Strawberry splash has now entered the vault and been replaced with a new, new red flavor. We like to have the full like colors of the rainbow. So strawberry splash took a few renditions of just formulating the right flavor profile.

But ultimately, it's the base product itself that really is the magic and like the secret sauce to having a solid clear protein. And it really comes down to those factors of how it dissolves in the water, the consistency overall once it's actually mixed up, and then the foaming, whether that goes away or stays there. Those are the three kind of like barriers to entry, I would say, with a clear protein. And then it's just a matter of finding that right mix of flavor.

There's certain flavors that pair better with the clear protein than others. But we actually went in and they gave us, they mixed up mango pineapple and we put the stamp of approval on formula one. But for example, like we are, we are working on some new flavors coming into this next year. And we did like 17 different versions of one single flavor. And when you're in the lab, you don't even know what you're tasting by, by sample 17. It's like,

We got to come back to this and with a blank, you know, a fresh, a fresh palette. but it's, it's, it's really comes back down to how can we make it better consistency? How can we make it foam less and how can we get it as close to that sports hydration drink as possible? So it's, it's very variable on the different flavors, but it's, it's really those three pillars that we're consistently trying to dial in.

Adam Steinberg (13:57)

Yeah, that totally makes sense. And then you talked about that journey of, of nailing down that co-packer that you ended up working with sounds like you spoke to one and then you ended up all the way, did a bunch of research and ended up circling back to that first one, just for maybe some founders that are a year or two behind you guys, thinking about that process of, starting that search for a co-packer

convincing them,

why to make them give you the time of day.

and ended up,

finally nailing down that one that felt like it was a good fit. Like any recommendations you might have for some of the up and coming founders that are a bit behind you guys that are about to start that search for a co packer?

Hannah (14:33)

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's the most important relationship you're going to have in your business period. You know, they are the closest ones to your product. They're making your product. ultimately, you know, remembering that they are humans behind the brand and that so are you. And at the end of the day, you present a business case that is something worthwhile that they want to get their teeth sunk in on. That to me is the most valuable thing you can do in the early stages is really building that rapport.

taking them out to dinner, having them take you out, like just really beyond just the business transaction, the relationship is the most important thing. And just remembering at the end of the day, we are all human and we all want to win. We all want to win in business, you know, when it comes to, hey, is now launching nationwide and Target, right? Like that's a huge win, not only for us as a business for Seeq, but that's a huge win for the co-packer and manufacturer as well. to me, it's building the business case, showing them that

what you are creating is something so special. That's why like one of our core values is we always bring the juice. So when we are meeting with our manufacturer, like we get them so excited about what we're building because we genuinely believe it. We genuinely believe that clear protein is here to stay and that it's going to be potentially as massive as traditional protein. So really just selling that story, selling the brand, selling the vision.

And then remembering, you know, everyone's human. We're all just trying to build relationships. We're all trying to win. And it's really as simple as that. But also sometimes you gotta walk the walk. You gotta walk the walk and talk the talk, even when you don't know all the things you're walking or talking. And I think that's important too. You know, like I said, we were reaching out from our college emails, but it's just stepping in with some delusional confidence sometimes.

and, and again, just, just doing it anyways, doing it scared, doing it without all the information, just doing it and, and mass mass contacts, you know, reach out, don't just throw one, one shot, you know, it's the same thing. Like I used to, I did an internship where you had to go door to door and like, you're one door away from a yes, you know? So I think that's the same thing, the same concept that you can apply to your co-packer manufacturer relationship is.

There's going to be someone that does take a bet on you. You just got to find the right one.

Adam Steinberg (16:48)

jumping forward a bit, I think it was towards the end of 2021, you and Ben were writing down your three year goals, and one of the big ones was like launching Target by December, 2024. From what I know, cause I know we did a bit of work on that stuff. You guys did it. You hit that goal. Um, which is huge to say the least. I mean, just for yeah, aspiring founders, if that's like one of their big dreams, just maybe tell me a bit about that journey and

maybe to start, how did you get a meeting with the buyer in the first place?

Hannah (17:17)

Yeah, wow, that truly came like out of nowhere for us transparently. And, you know, going back to like what you said with those those three year goals that we had wrote down in 2021. I think it's important to have that North Star vision and consistently come back to it and have conversations around it, because that's ultimately how you make things happen versus when you just say things. There's a difference between saying things and then putting action behind them and having follow through conversations.

So that's one piece of advice I'd have just generally speaking to all founders is having that North Star vision, being in the blue sky, but also bringing it back down to earth and what's real, what's reality and what can we put action towards right now? And then when it came to, you know, how we got Target in the first place was we had our annual planning session for, 2024 presented it to the team. Retail was on our minds maybe for late 2024, but

It wasn't a priority for the year. And in the first two weeks of January of last year, we got a cold email from a broker and they mentioned, Hey, Target is hosting an innovation summit for the first time in OTC and healthcare. And your brand showed up in some data and we can bring two brands to represent. want it to be you.

And we got that email. We looked at each other right in the face and we're like, yeah, we can't say no to this opportunity. This is way too good to be true. And so we spend up a pitch deck in a matter of a couple of weeks. And before you know it, we're in our, you know, our own stomping grounds because we're based, we were based in Minneapolis and we show up to the meeting. And again, we love bringing the juice. I heard, when I heard that,

we were going to be sitting around a conference table and we'll be presenting it like sitting down and stuff. was like, Whoa, that, doesn't feel like the right energy. Like, can we stand, can we like do like, I don't know, certain things in that meeting that make it special to seek. And I think that's one thing that really won us over is just how we showed up in that meeting. And again, it comes back to just really selling that dream, selling the vision of what we believe is true and getting people behind that. So

Our entire 2024 game plan shifted after we got that cold email from the broker. We said yes, did the pitch. And our entire year shifted to being, how are we going to support the retail business? What product do we need to bring to retail? How was that going to show up? What are the promotions? And a lot of the heavy lifting was on the team when it came to just making it happen. Everyone had their own responsibilities.

but it was a very unique opportunity. And sometimes that's what happens, you know? That's why nothing can be concrete in business. Any decision that we make today could ultimately change tomorrow. There's certain things that need to remain true, but there's many things that are, you know, we are willing to flex on if the opportunity is right, which that one was absolutely correct for us and has shifted our business entirely now going into this year.

which we're incredibly grateful for. And now retail is 100 % where our focus is right now when it comes to the future of Seeq. Granted, we have obviously a very healthy D2C business that we are continuing to grow and nurture. But when you say yes to retail and when we have these big goals of a potential exit in the next three to five years, saying yes to these other retailers is on the horizon. It's not a is it or isn't, it's just a if and when. So.

Um, yeah, very unique opportunity and just the timing of everything again, like I still can't believe that our manifestation of 2021 to, we're going to launch in Target December of 2024, because many people on here probably are listening and know that Target has two typical reset dates, um, in the spring and in the fall. So to say we were going to launch December of 2024, um, is just. Yeah, very, very like far and few between that we would actually make that happen.

And the fact that we literally launched December 29th, 2024 just really, really was a kicker for me.

Adam Steinberg (21:32)

I love that. So like when from that time you got the commitment from Target of, "hey", we're going to put you on the shelf to the point where you actually got on the shelf, and I know there was

a fair amount of time, like leading up to that, from a tactical or operational standpoint or, know, preparing marketing strategies, like anything from,

that really kind of tactical standpoint

What should they be planning for if they want to have success by the time they actually launch?

Hannah (21:55)

Totally. Yeah, I would say the process, I mean, for us, it was like a nine month process of just all the things included. Obviously, some things took, they were segmented out over those nine months. But for us, we had to introduce a net new format of our product. We offer a 25 serving tub on our DTC site. We've never offered anything else other than that. So Target wanted a 15 serving tub at a lower price point.

And so we had to figure out all of the things to build that product to life. You know, we got rewarded a, an end cap display for this last February. so we had to figure out what does that look like? And, know, we had brought on a fractional, director of sales to really help us button up, our promotion plan because all of us come from DTC e-commerce backgrounds. So I think my piece of advice to.

anyone that is going down that path is just making sure you're surrounded by people who have been there before that you can lean on for questions and can support you and not just trying to go in blind with what you believe is true. We always have leaned on mentorship and people that know more than us in the business from the very, very beginning. And I would do the same thing over and over again when it comes to new channels we're exploring, especially when it comes to retail.

Although it was a nine month process, it was very segmented in terms of when we were working on certain things on promotion or marketing or product. But overall, it was a heavy lift for those nine months, especially with the small team that we have.

Adam Steinberg (23:24)

Yeah. So now you're on the shelf at Target Sound like from what I'm hearing, it's been going well. So what's been key to moving units and really maximizing velocity.

Hannah (23:35)

Yeah, that's always the magic question. It's the buzzword. What's the velocities this week? Yeah, for us, we had amazing placement going into December 29th. That's when they kicked off their New Year, New Me kind of resolution season towers. And we had front of store placement. So right when you walked in through the Target doors, you saw Seeq. And

I think because of the presence we've already had online, people are already somewhat aware of the product as well as it stands out. Like I said, know, our product, it's bright, it's punchy, it's got packaging that will stop you in your tracks. And so just being there in the front had that just brand visibility that really allowed us to just move quickly on units as well as identifying to like we didn't obviously launch with all five flavors. So figuring out what our best selling skew is.

as well as what a good variety is when it comes to flavors. So we felt like we put in a good mix of our flavors with watermelon, strawberry, lemonade, and blue ras. And having that front of store placement as well as launching during resolution season when people are looking for high protein, they're looking for supplements to support their health and wellness journey, that was incredible support for us. And then again, moving to...

the end cap right out of resolution season was again great visibility for us. We also had some product education on there. So when it comes to clear protein again, like I had said earlier, it's so important for people to understand as much as we can verbalize it because they can't just rip and try the product right there. So that was really important for us was trying to figure out how can we educate enough, but not too much where people just understand what it is.

So I think that's one thing that's really important in terms of if you have a product in a unique category is how can you educate whether that's on packaging or on display? I think that's a really important piece that we're learning in retail is you know, maybe we need to shift some things on our packaging to better describe clear protein. So although we've made some verbal changes, I think there's opportunity to continue to refine that. But education is huge for us in terms of moving velocity.

And now that we're placed in aisle and we don't have this brand visibility, that's been a shift this past month in April where we got to get people down the supplement aisle that aren't necessarily just going there for supplements. Cause those are the low hanging fruit, the people that know what they're getting, they go to the supplement aisle. But how do we get people to go down the supplement aisle in the first place? So, you we're leaning on partnerships, we're leaning on creators.

to tell that story, we're also positioning content on our own organic channels, to push in IO placement. but again, it's just, it's, think awareness and frequency of that. So getting our product in front of people, IRL telling them where we're located, you know, if we're trying to push Target, then we're going to tell them, Hey, we're located in Target. We don't need to say, you know, Hey, you can find us in Target on Amazon, on TikTok shop on Shopify.

Customers don't like decision. Decision fatigue is so real. You give them one thing, it's like, great, they'll remember that. So really figuring out that funnel of where you want to send customers when you're having those in real life conversations, as well as digital conversations when you're talking to people and just having the frequency of, yes, we're in Target. Yes, we're in Target. Because then people will start to just remember that as well. But that's the name of the game, velocity all day.

Adam Steinberg (26:58)

a lot of brands that I talked to that start in the DTC channel first, and then they shift into retail, I think it's definitely like, seemed like it's often a thing you really have to kind of rethink, I think, especially from a packaging standpoint, because in the DTC side of things, you have your whole funnel, people are coming to your website by the time they actually get to those product detail pages they've already kind of got a pretty good understanding of the brand, but a lot of times when people walking down the aisle at retail,

that's the first time they're ever introduced to the brand and you've got, you know, like three to five seconds to catch their attention and really give them a sense of like what you're all about and what this brand is about. So I know that's the thing I hear often is when you're, when these brands start in DTC and they've transition to retail, it's definitely a lot to think about from a packaging standpoint.

Hannah (27:38)

Totally, totally, completely agree.

Adam Steinberg (27:40)

Unless you guys have already done a national rollout in Target, which would be crazy, you've done that so fast, but assuming you haven't, has Target told you what the path looks like to get a national rollout, and if so, what does that path look like, and what do they need to see from you guys?

Hannah (27:54)

So we actually did roll out nationwide right in December 29. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We rolled right out the gate nationwide. And it really came back to, again, believing in what we're building. Like that vision of clear protein is going to be just as massive as traditional protein and truly believing that, not just having this delusional optimistic mindset, but

Adam Steinberg (27:56)

wow, that's awesome.

Hannah (28:18)

really believing our product is superior and something that people will actually look forward to drinking after they're working out. So that was something that we really leaned into as well as being the ones leading it and believing that. So not just believing in the category, but believing we are the face of clear protein, the same way that White Claw is the face of seltzers, Liquid IV arguably is the face of hydration. You want the leader in your source in that category.

That's what's going to drive people down your aisles is by having that leader. So I think again, just having that conversation around believing in the vision and what you're building and making sure that vision is crystal clear, very much pun intended. But I think that's really, really important. And that's something that we've had brand positioning workshops to get the team aligned on where we're going because you can stray very quickly off course.

when it comes to shiny objects. made a post on this last week on on LinkedIn, but shiny objects are so real for anybody that is starting literally anything. It could be a hobby business. It could be an e-comm business. It could be anything. And you see opportunity in what you're building. It's your baby. And it's like, I see this, you know, accessory we could add. I see this thing, the shoes that we could add on our baby. Like, no, like say so crystal clear on what that is because

Although yes, we could launch and not to say we won't in the future, but we could launch, you know, a creatine supplement. We could launch a pre-workout and now all of a sudden we're a supplement brand. And right now the positioning that we're really anchored in is clear protein and clear protein innovation around that. And not to say, you know, that might not change in the next 12 to 18 months, but knowing the

opportunity we have right now and the awareness that exists today versus the awareness tomorrow on this category, that's what's so important for us to continue to pioneer and lead the category. So shiny objects, watch out for them, but staying clear on your mission and vision and then presenting that in a way that everybody feels that energy behind when I'm sharing about our product and the mission and vision of Seat, you can feel the energy that we have within it.

So translating that to your own business in your own way, but that to me is like the most important thing.

Adam Steinberg (30:37)

Yeah, totally. So you guys are in a national rollout in Target. It's amazing. did like right off the bat. Big focus on retail. So in terms of distribution as that retail footprint expands, do brands like Seeq in the Supplements space use the KeHE and the UNFI's of the world,

or are there supplement specific distributors? And I guess what does this look like for Seeq, especially as you guys continue to expand the retail footprint?

Hannah (31:02)

Yeah, for sure. You know, we have a very great relationship with our co packer and manufacturer and they have direct shipments right now for Target. So we don't have to work with a distributor or anybody externally right now. That may change in the future as we continue to expand into other retailers. And that's a conversation that that we'll have to have internally, but I'm unaware, at least right now, as far as like if there's specifics for supplements.

But assuming using the tried and true distribution centers that other retailers and other brands use, but we haven't had to explore that yet.

Adam Steinberg (31:38)

Cool, that's great.

Shifting gears a bit. So from what I read, you guys are using EOS at Seeq, assuming that's accurate, what impact have you guys felt like that's had on the business? And for other up and coming CPG leaders that are considering implementing or shifting to EOS, what's?

what's going to be key to implement the system effectively and really get the most value out of it on an ongoing basis?

Hannah (32:02)

Totally. Yeah, EOS was something that I had used in my past world at a marketing agency and then applied it as well to my own business. And for me, it goes back to just having that North Star. So although we have shifted kind of the EOS model to be more suited to seek, and we've dumbed it down a lot to really what's key and important, but ultimately it hasn't shifted too much from the core of, you know,

Again, revisiting that mission and vision statement every quarter, every year. Who is our Target market? Making sure we're crystal clear on those things. We're all behind those things. And then going into what needs to happen this year to hit our goals. Obviously, we have big revenue Target that we're trying to hit each year, and then we break those down into our quarters. And then what needs to happen to continue to elevate when it comes to the brand, the community, the awareness. So ultimately, I don't know.

what other systems exist out there. But I think it just, as long as you have a system that you are consistently coming back to from the core executive team or the founder team, or if you're a solopreneur, like just yourself having a clear vision of like, okay, these are the 12 things I want to do this year. What can I take action on right now? And then revisiting that, you know, not trying to get it done today, but getting it done in the next 90 days, you know, like some big action items that are on your plate.

They feel so daunting and so heavy because they're big. You know, some of the stuff that I've been working on for three to six months, I was assigned three to six months ago and I'm still not across the finish line with some of them. So I think ultimately it's like, what are all the pieces laying out your puzzle and figuring out what pieces you're going to move first, but knowing that like you're going to be building the puzzle and the puzzle will be built eventually. Just knowing which ones do you grab first? Are you going to grab the corners first? Are you going to start in this little section where you can see more of the picture?

I'm very much an analogy person, so if I whip those out, just know. But I think, yeah, just having that clear vision and coming back to it and holding yourself accountable, whatever accountability tracker you use, I think that's just really what's important.

Adam Steinberg (34:05)

Yeah, that I totally agree with that. Um, so at, at the, the previous company that I co-founded, we scaled really quickly too. We were lucky enough to raise a pretty ridiculous amount of capital pretty early on. We eventually brought in a really talented and seasoned exec team, specifically a President, a COO and then, and a CFO. And looking back now, I'd say we should have done, made that move much sooner, frankly. Um,

and I think I read that you and your co-founder, Ben, you brought in a seasoned CPG operator as well to take over as CEO, think within the past year or so as well, or maybe along with one or two others. So I'm curious, how did you and Ben going to come to that conclusion that it was time and what was that journey or process like?

Hannah (34:52)

Yeah, yeah, a lot of people ask us that and sometimes they're taken aback by how quickly we had brought in somebody to really, you know, help lead the ship with us. And I think we were about a year and a half in business, two years into business when we had brought Keenan on and we initially brought him on as president, which was triggered through a conversation that we had with a business mentor that we surrounded ourselves with because

Like I said, from the very beginning, we've always had different people, just like local to Minneapolis at the start that we would lean on for business support that would ultimately just try to connect us to whatever thing that we needed or whoever we needed, which is again, one piece of advice to any founder or anybody in business. People want to support you. You just have to be willing to ask for it. So when we would surround ourselves and have these conversations, were at this point like six.

Were we only six months into business, eight months into business maybe? And we had already done quite a bit in revenue and no marketing spend. And it was just me and Ben and then Ben's younger brother that we had on the team. we were like, if we want to hit these crazy goals and we want to sell the business for whatever in the next like five plus years, like,

we have something special in our hands and we don't even have any ego or pride attached to titles or where we want to go, as well as being crystal clear between me and Ben on what we actually want to be doing in the role of Seeq. What's our role? What's our secret sauce? What's our zone of genius? And at that point, we were like, we need to bring someone in that has more experience than us. And at first, we started Keenan off as president. He has incredible background in terms of Ecom.

marketing, understanding, just operating a business in full. And we jammed with him right away. interviewed him. We looked at ourselves and we're like, you know, we can look at other people for this role. But we also are very intuitive people between me and Ben. And when it feels right, it feels right. And we lean into it. So we leaned into Keenan right away after, you know, we looked for a couple more weeks at other people that we could potentially fill the seat with. But

went back to Keenan because it just felt so right. So ultimately, the decision on why we brought him in was one, scaling very quickly and knowing we want to continue to scale and not let this steam that we have behind the business go. And two, me and Ben don't necessarily want to wear that CEO hat or president hat and knowing kind of where our zone of genius really lies is within other buckets of the business.

where we can have our own individual impact on. So those were kind of the reasons why we brought in Keenan. And it has just been a proven every single day. It's proven why it was one of the best decisions we've made in business.

Adam Steinberg (37:29)

Yeah.

Yeah, I I have to say, really commend you guys. And you make it sound like it was like not that hard of a decision and you guys kind of just came to it naturally. But I think for a lot of founders, it's a really hard decision to make and kind of, you know, a lot of founders, they have an ego. That's like part of how they gotten so far. And then I think it's, can be a really hard thing for some people to finally come to that conclusion. And it's, I just commend you guys for doing it, you know, so easily and you just kind of came to it and you did it when you felt like it was right, even if it felt like it might've been early.

Hannah (38:07)

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I completely agree with that.

Adam Steinberg (38:09)

How has your role changed? What does your day to day look like before and

what does it look like now? And maybe a bit similar for Ben as well...

Hannah (38:17)

Yeah, it's changed quite a bit, but it also hasn't. So at the beginning, I really wore the hat of CMO, you could call it, and running everything under the sun when it came to all things marketing until we could eventually outsource some stuff. So I was running, you know, designing the website, designing the emails, targeting customer segments. All of those things were under my bucket, running the social.

anything under the sun when it came to the marketing mix, digital marketing mix, as well as me and Ben were obviously the field marketers at the time going out and doing all the sampling. We were the product developers. And a lot of those things are still true. And my role ultimately, I've taken off a lot of hats to delegate to people that just know more than me. think that's ultimately what's really important in business is, again, knowing what you're good at, what you want to lean into, and what ones you want to let go of.

Marketing is so wide in the different activities that just occur on the day to day. So for me, it's like email, SMS marketing. I'm going to hand that off right away to an agency or somebody internally that can really take this thing to the moon because they know way more than me here. I'll stick in my content kind of lane right now because I'm more familiar here. But as soon as I can take off that hat, pass it to a social media manager, as soon as I can take off the ad hat that I'm managing, like those were the hats that I took off kind of right away.

and continue to manage the strategies of the day to day of what are we doing this month? Where are we launching product? How are we launching product? What does that look like? How do we take product off if we decide to discontinue it in a unique way? We always come back to what we call the seek spins and what are those seek spins? So like when we launched homemade lemonade, we had a whole lemonade stand that Will ended up using the pallets of our lemonade bottles that we were received.

made a whole lemonade stand out of our pallets and we brought it down to a lake in Minnesota and had all of our friends show up for this big grand lemonade stand. And figuring out what those seek spins are. So that's still in the wheelhouse of what I'm doing is just that day-to-day marketing. But ultimately again, surrounding ourselves with people that can take off some of that heavy lifting. So recently we have brought on a VP of marketing.

who will be really managing the day-to-day. So that way I can step back into this brand visionary seat, which I shifted into about six months ago. And the kind of like key trigger for us positioning me as this brand visionary and this more elevated seat is because we really needed to think about like the differentiation on why Seeq is so special. Like, yes, we have an incredible product, but product can only get you so far.

And especially when, you know, everybody could make a clear protein tomorrow, all the, the legacy brands could create clear protein in a matter of minutes. And for us, it's important to distinguish between our product and our brand. So how are we driving community? What does Seeq really stand for? How is that bleeding through our ethos, bleeding through our messaging where Seeq can become yes, synonymous with clear protein, but it also is synonymous with this feeling of living well and living long and living healthy. So.

That's the shift that I've made, which we've had, you know, some new brand identity visuals come to life on the website and through socials. And now it's, it's really driving impact for me. That's what, what gets me going every day. That's what motivates me is, is building the soul of seek outside of just the product. So although I had made that shift now that we have brought in this, this new person in marketing that's working really closely with me, I'm kind of back in the day to day of like the mud of just like,

making sure one, she's caught up to speed on things and the systems and things that we're building feel true to what we already have built for Seeq. So that way, hopefully in the next, call it eight weeks, I can be back in this elevated position of building brand, building connection, building community. But ultimately that's been kind of the course of my role. And when it comes to Ben's role, we had him positioned as our lead content creator, our face of brand.

and really showing up in his own content as well as the brand content. And that's where all of his time was at the very beginning, as well as wearing a lot of that CEO hat when it came to, you know, managing the manufacturer relationship, forecasting, inventory. We would kind of go back and forth on things and collaborate on a lot of those things early on, but he was really the one managing those things in full. So ultimately letting go of those operational duties to our

CEO now Keenan, as well as we have a fractional COO on hand. those things are now delegated off of Ben's plate, where Ben is now leaning deeply into product, because ultimately, we do want to be the ones leading this category, which means we can't just say what we have on shelf is good enough. There's always room for improvement. And I think that's important for anybody in business or anybody with a vision is your vision isn't going to be what you what you put out in the world right away.

That's just, that's just, you know, unrealistic. You just have get it out. You got the great idea, get it out there and refine along the way. You know, make sure what you have there is great. so like taste for us was king. That was the most important thing that we couldn't sacrifice. now there's been a lot of innovation in terms of just the technology and how clear protein is created that now we can shift away from certain ingredients in our product into a more elevated, label.

Adam Steinberg (43:10)

Totally.

Hannah (43:35)

So those are the things that he's working on when it comes to all things product, formulation, certifications, everything under the sun when it comes to all of that, as well as like new line extensions in the future and what that really looks like for Zeek and why we're positioning it that way with our consumer base. So yes, he's still in some content pieces. He's become less maybe face of in terms of the consistency of his output on content.

But I also think that's another thing when it comes to if we want to be acquired in the future, having that attachment too closely where it's the success of the business is relied on somebody, it can sometimes hurt that potential exit. So I think it's also fitting in terms of where Ben's own position is kind of leaning into. But both of our roles have shifted, but ultimately it stayed pretty similar, you know, like

product and like brand, how do we show up in this world and what are the, what are our product offerings? and then having a team that just believes so deeply in what we're building and we feel so strongly to empower them in their skillset and the muscle that they bring to the team to really do the things that we say we're going to do. so that's been, that's been the shift and it's constantly a shift and you know, we're wearing hats, we're taking them off all the time. we still are a very, very small team. so we all are.

multiple hats, but the shift has been fun.

Adam Steinberg (44:55)

That's awesome. Well, I mean, Hannah, this has been a lot of really useful, helpful insights. I think a lot of up and coming CPG operators and founders are going to get a lot of value out of this. Where can people find you, follow along with you and the brand as well?

Hannah (45:09)

Yeah, of course. So you can follow me on LinkedIn. Feel free to connect. I'm trying to, you know, build my build my personal brand more on on LinkedIn. And I just want to connect with more operators, founders, people who love community and love brand. So feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn under Hannah Perez. Connect with the brand on Instagram. I think that's the best way to keep in touch with what's going on, the fun things that we have that's happening IRL.

or product launches and then shop us on Target, shop us on Amazon. And no, this was incredible. Again, I love sharing about the story and the brand that we're building. So greatly, greatly appreciative to you, Adam, for having me on.

Adam Steinberg (45:49)

Yeah, for sure.

Thanks for coming on. Appreciate the time.