Jordan buckner (00:00)
Today's guest is Gardar Stefansson who's the founder and CEO of GoodGood. And Gardar started the company in Iceland with a simple but ambitious mission, really to help people reduce the amount of sugar they're consuming without giving up the foods that they love. I actually first discovered the product in my local Whole Foods store, and we had the grape and apricot jam, which were delicious. We finished them to the bottom.

and excited to have him on the show today. And so what began as kind of a small international startup has grown into a globally distributed CPG brand, spanning jams, nut butters, fruit spreads, and is now sold to retailers like Whole Foods, Sprouts Market, Kroger, and HEB. Guy there, welcome to the show today.

Gardar Stefansson (00:43)
Thank you, Jordan. Excited to be here.

Jordan buckner (00:44)
So

you are originally from Iceland. Are you still based in Iceland now?

Gardar Stefansson (00:48)
No, I'm actually based in Austin. I've been living here in Austin, Texas for almost one and a half year. yeah, still got the Icelandic accent though. I don't think I can get rid of it. Well, my kids, they have a Texan

Jordan buckner (00:58)
It's alright.

Gardar Stefansson (00:59)
accent and that's my contribution. So.

Jordan buckner (01:02)
It's okay, I'll

get you into a lot of meetings anyway that way. So I'm what

Gardar Stefansson (01:05)
Maybe, we'll see.

Jordan buckner (01:07)
led you to really start this product and this business and why kind of reducing sugar consumption?

Gardar Stefansson (01:14)
Yeah, so it started basically as we started as a sweetener company in Iceland, like way back, me and my two other co-founders just acquired like a Stevia drop facility. And we were just pumped about it and excited because Stevia was just allowed in the EU in 2011. And we were like, okay, this is great. This is gonna change the game. You got a sweetener that is natural zero calories and you know, it's gonna...

you know, replace sugar and you know, that's the idea. We started to produce that and you know, had high hopes that everyone would buy it and you know, be like super successful, you know, and we produced a lot, but we didn't, you know, the sales didn't follow. So, we had a lot of inventory and a lot of sweeteners that were like expiring. So then we just were forced or like then we had to pivot basically into something else. It was just either to discard the inventory and

you know, accumulate a huge financial loss or pivot into something else. And that's when the idea for the spreads came, you know, because I always, as a kid and as an adult, I always go to the mountains in Iceland in the fall and pick berries and I make jam. And I was just, I've always like been appalled of how much sugar goes with those amazingly nutritious, fresh blueberries, you know? And I was like, okay, maybe that's something there that we can do. So.

got my aunt who is a diabetic to help me and you know to and also pretty good cook and you know we cooked up the first jam and you know the first version was not tasted horrible you know to be honest like all prototypes I think and from there we did maybe 100 trials on until we got the recipe we have today and we've just been improving it a tiny bit since then but yeah that's how we got started started selling Iceland and

and you know, in Scandinavia, Netherlands, and then we got interest from a retailer in the US. So we went to Expo West, which many of you listener knows about, I assume. And yeah, we like didn't know a lot about the American market. We were there like in the attic, you know, like with

Jordan buckner (03:11)
Yeah.

Gardar Stefansson (03:11)
all the cool new brands are, you know, with all the weird stuff and the smell and, and then a retailer stopped by. We had no idea it was a...

We it was a corner store in the Midwest, but it was basically the biggest retailer there and they picked our products and then we got into distribution and then been growing the brand since then.

Jordan buckner (03:29)
So here you

were as a Icelandic brand expanding a little bit within the EU and some of the Nordic countries there, and then you had this opportunity to expand in the US. Did you see that as like, hey, this is our big break. If we're gonna make it as a company, we need to be like in the US as one of our main focus, or like, was it part of the plan or was it just all serendipity and that would happen?

Gardar Stefansson (03:53)
So, I mean, being from Iceland, we're like a really small country, you know, we're like 400,000 or when we want to make ourselves big, 0.4 million. And it's just like, you can't, it's super hard to grow and scale from there. So it's like...

We always have this mindset of we have to export if we're going to make it. it's either Europe or America or Asia. That's our biggest markets. And our focus was Europe in the beginning and to grow there. But then this opportunity from the US came and we just started to grow there much faster than we had anticipated. And there was more demand there for better for you products, low sugar.

because of various reasons. and then it's just like, it fitted us and the opportunities came and we just had to make a decision. Are you gonna seize the moment, you know, and grow there? It's easier, it's not easy to scale at all. You know that, Jordan, it's super hard to build a company and grow. I mean, I still have nightmares. And also, you know, it's like, it's always something, but it is a little bit, you know, it's one packaging that works for an entire market.

You know what mean? In Europe we have like 40 different versions of packaging, 40 different health authorities, 40 different languages. It's just like, it sounds amazing, 500 million people market and like, but it's like, it's a bureaucracy, like a nightmare to try

to scale there, you

Jordan buckner (05:11)
Yeah, and really complicated.

Gardar Stefansson (05:12)
know? Like, it's just like, it's super hard unless you pick certain countries. And I mean, like even the UK is 60, 70 million, you know? Like, so it's just like...

I mean, it's pretty good market, but it's like in the US you have that opportunity and we worked on that. yeah, so we had to make a decision and we had to follow our gut and the growth and we know where the interests were. And we're still selling in Europe, but we are specifically focused on the US market. I mean, that's why I live here and that's why we set up our office here in Austin, Texas.

Jordan buckner (05:41)
Yeah,

I was gonna say that was a big move there. I'm curious, was there a moment when you felt that the brand and the product truly kind of found product market fit? I know from your past experience with the Stevia business, it was more difficult to find demand. And now with this product, like, was there a moment where you're like, I think this actually might work?

Gardar Stefansson (05:59)
Yeah, yeah. that's like, and it's so funny because it's a moment, you know, I remembered like yesterday, it was like, we just tried, mean, I created the prototype, we created the prototype in 2016, 2017, we got like sold to a couple of countries. And then we just tried Amazon, like, I just sent like a one box product to Amazon in the US and we listed it up. I mean, the

The first listing was horrible. But then we improved it and then just the demand went insane. And suddenly, we optimized, course, and we became the best selling jam on Amazon. And we're selling a lot. And then suddenly, a couple of retailers came to us and asked for that particular product. That was basically the aha moment. was like, OK, there is something there. We're much smaller than...

than we are now. But the growth was like triple digits, you know what I mean? And you felt it and like, okay, there's something there and we need to lean on that. So Amazon.

Jordan buckner (06:57)
I'm that you mentioned that because

yeah, Amazon is actually one of my favorite selling channels. It used to be even more so, but I think still now because I always say if you want to understand how well your product will do, put it on Amazon because...

most people in the US still shop there, it's very easy to convert and people are searching for things. You can tell if you either have a known demand for your product, if people are searching for your brand or not. You can tell if people are searching for products like yours, like low sugar jams, no sugar jams, what people are and how they're searching. Or you can tell if zero people are looking for your product. And all of those are very, very helpful.

found this sense of this ability for what I call unknown demand where no one knew about GoodGood as a brand, I'm assuming, but they were looking for the product that fit their need directly. And when they found you, they were like, perfect, this is great, like add to cart and buy. And that really tells a really strong growth story of existing consumer demand for this type of product.

Gardar Stefansson (07:59)
Yeah, yeah. And you'd know when you're a brand, when your competitors are bidding in your branded keywords, you know, then you know. But yeah, I think Amos is a great channel. I mean, it's super expensive and you have to use it as, mean, in our case with a heavy product and like most CPG brands, like popcorns or snacks. I mean, it's like the costs are heavy, but it's a great test market. You know, it's just like gives you meaning specifically with new product. It's just like.

Are we going to make it or not? And if you have more green lights than red, then you know, like, maybe this is scalable and we can build some business out of it.

Jordan buckner (08:30)
So you talked about this a little bit

too of like the competition within the market, right? Like the pantry kind of jam category is filled with some larger legacy brands that consumers have been using for decades. I'm curious about how you think about building your brand in this space and building products in this space. Obviously I think you have a great differentiated product, but.

I'm sure they've come out with no sugar or low sugar versions of theirs. How do you think about making sure your brand and products stand out amongst the competition?

Gardar Stefansson (09:00)
It's the taste and the ingredients. So it's like that's the key. mean, if the taste doesn't, if the taste is not there, you know, the consumer is not going to buy it. And end consumer is king. are the, mean, they are the ultimate decision makers if you're going to make it or not. And that's why Amazon is also great because people buy it at a premium price. And then they rate you, you know, like you get a one star or five star and it's like,

If you spend $12.99 on a product there and it's horrible, you cannot let them know. It's more likely you write a negative review than a positive. So I think the key is to never compromise the taste and flavor. And like the big legacy brands, yes, they have a sugar-free option because it's a fact that diabetes is everywhere. And it's a fact that around 50 % of American adults, for example, have either pre-diabetes or diabetes. So it's just like...

So the need is there, you know, involuntarily, you know, to eat less sugar. And the rest just doesn't have the taste. It's just like, it's artificial, it's flavoring. It's not like, and it's just designed as a science, scientifically approach to like the metric they need to fit hit, you know, like no blood sugar races or whatnot. And I think the key there is like to use great natural ingredients like we do, but still, you know, maintain low

sugars that doesn't raise the blood sugar levels. And I think that's the key for us. It's like we just taste good. And that's never going to change. We're never going to compromise that. Even though it costs a little bit more and our cogs are not as amazing as those other sugar-free legacy brands, it's just like, hey, we are building a forever customer that we want to be purchasing us again and again.

Jordan buckner (10:35)
Yeah, I think that's really important

because I always have this theory around almost like culinary created products versus lab created products where

The approach is completely different in terms of how do you get the taste, the quality, the experience different, right? Like you can have a blueberry flavor that has a certain taste, but it's not delivering that real blueberry experience within the product. And I think more and more consumers are realizing that something is lost in these lab created products versus, it's more like culinary approach created products.

Gardar Stefansson (11:08)
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I mean, the consumer is not an idiot. I mean, it's like, and it's just important. mean, as food prices go up and you have to like pick and choose what you want, then, you know, it's like people are figuring out like, yeah, food is the most important thing, you know, regarding my health, you know, like diet is and like, so I think like,

The key there is not to fool or compromise the quality and taste first and then nutritional facts and benefits. That's just second, that's in my opinion.

Jordan buckner (11:36)
Yeah, I think that's so key. You know, one thing I'm curious about too, so coming from Iceland, you scaled into major retailers like Whole Foods, Sprouts Kroger, H-E-B. What did you learn about retail expansion in the U.S. that surprised you the most?

Gardar Stefansson (11:50)
It's so expensive, man. It's like, know, Europe is like, it's so different, so diverse. I think like the market, like the country in Europe that is most like the US is the UK in terms of how the retail is set up. Most of it is like most retailers in Europe want to buy direct from brands, you know? So, it's like

You have to work on lower costs, know, I'm sorry, you have to work on lower margins and they, you know, and then they split it with the less middlemen, to be honest. That being said, I mean, it's super hard to be a CPG brand here. you have to pay for slotting, free fill. I mean, you have the distributor that, you know,

helps you get the product from A to B and then you get the retailer, you know, and one thing is that you go into like, even though you win, not the win, even though we get like a yes in a category review and you get the products on the shelf, it's just like that you're not there, you know, you need to sell it. Like the, like the buyer say, I'm not going to sell this product for you. You have to sell that product, you know, and that's why you have to have strong promotional programs. You have to build up the brand. So.

It is costly and I think a lot of CPG entrepreneurs don't know that when they enter this chapter. know, it's not, the grass is not always green and it's just like, it's a lot of work, hard work. You need to figure out your pricing. You need to have the cost

as much under control, you need to have a promotional plan, you need to know that you are gonna be... there's a lot of investment involved on getting there and...

Jordan buckner (13:16)
Yeah, I hear you. mean, that was

something that was so surprising to me as well. Not just that the costs are high, but how disconnected all the pricing is that makes it hard to understand what your true costs are. If a brand is selling exclusively on

their own DTC site, they might have the product cost, fulfillment, advertising costs, website and backend. You can track all of those numbers. When you're selling in retail, you have ...

all the distributor pricing fees, invoices and bills that come paid with miscellaneous charges months after you send them the product. You have the trade spend that happens that you're not even sure what you're paying for until after it all happens and then they bill it back to you. And then there's all of these fees and price changes that happen all the time where it makes it really tough to get a clear picture of what's happening with your business. And most experts almost say like, just have to build

enough margin because you're not gonna figure out all that stuff to a dollar. You have to just know that it's gonna get really messy in there, but you have to kinda come out and top after looking at it as a whole. And I think that's really hard, right? Because it's one thing to say it's expensive, but it's another thing to say it's expensive, but we don't know how much it's gonna cost you.

Gardar Stefansson (14:30)
Yeah, and that is like those deductions you're talking about those distributor deduction

Jordan buckner (14:33)
Yeah.

Gardar Stefansson (14:34)
and like, if you have a distributor retailer, you know, the retailer charges the distributor and the distributor charges the brand. And there are a lot of fees added there in between that you're like, you're willingly signing when you do those terms. And that's like, and that is pretty hard. I mean, you're maybe having your best month, but then your margins are crushed because of a promotion that happened.

three months before, but they were charged that month. So it's just like, and then your bottom line doesn't look as good as you had hoped. So it's just like, it is super tricky. And I think like, and it's hard to teach because very few people understand exactly how it works, you know? And I think the game is designed that way, you know? And that's why you need to lock everything, you know? There are some good tools now, thankfully, and AI is also helping in that regard of, you know, going through...

tremendous amounts of data and trying to figure out where those costs are. At the same time, it's super hard to dispute and you know, they're not always the right, you know, it's hard to figure out where it is like and what to do and who to talk to. So it's just like, it's an endless struggle, man. It's just like, it's just super hard and specifically for small brands that have few team members with millions of hats that need to figure out everything. So yeah.

Jordan buckner (15:42)
Yeah, one thing I'm curious, you mentioned AI. I'm hosting a webinar coming up. By the time this comes out, it'll be in the past, but I'm doing a series around AI for CPG brands. And I'm curious around how you're starting to think about AI tools and workflows for your business.

Gardar Stefansson (16:00)
That's an amazing question. I'm all in. That said, I'm all in. I've been using AI for, I don't know, two, three years or something. And I think it's gonna, my hope is it's gonna make us, the output is gonna be much more. I mean, depends on the input. It needs to be good data, good decision and strategy involved before you try to build something.

And not only for like writing emails or whatnot, it's good for that. It's great. mean, AI is a great search engine, first and foremost. You know, it's just like if you compare it to the search in your email and then use it, you can find everything. So it's going to help us build better quality output. And I think humans are always going to be involved at least the next 10 years, I think.

Jordan buckner (16:41)
Thank

Gardar Stefansson (16:42)
Not always, but that said, I mean, we're utilizing it a lot.

I already created an app because we always go, we have like remote team members, we go to stores, we check on our, on the store. So I created an app that, you go to the store, you take a photo of the set. It uploads it to the cloud and the app, you know, has AI and it analyzes everyone else, all the competitors and everything and put it into a, like a sheet. And then we can pull that information to our dashboard and just like.

you know, see some trends, what happening, you know, what are the newest competitors and whatnot. And this is just an internal app I created. It doesn't look good, but it works, you know, and, that's one thing. And then I think first and foremost, it's going to help us make better decision, you know, because it can read through data super fast. My hopes is that AI is going to make everyone's life better and more efficient and just help us, you know, enjoy life a little bit more.

work smarter, which means that not necessarily work 10 hours, but like work a little bit fewer hours because we have some backup there. So I think it's also, can help us like from a production side point, from logistics side point, just, you know, making better decisions so we can hopefully just lower costs of products, and that's.

Because if it's going to help us make better decision, you know, we better see it like in raw materials, know, or products or whatnot or production schedules, you know, so I'm on the positive side of AI. I, funny you said, I just had a team meeting and I encourage everyone to play with it, you know, like just

and

Jordan buckner (18:09)
Yes.

Gardar Stefansson (18:10)
I'm all in and I think like, this is going to help everyone to be better, like more output.

and just like be aware that you know everything you put in you know that's how good the output will never be as good as what you put in so if it's online i'll be joining that workshop

Jordan buckner (18:24)
Yeah,

I absolutely love that. I might have to have you present in our next one because I'm sharing real stories from founders and similar to you, I've been kind of all in on how it helps. you know, even I actually had a conversation this morning with one of my team members and we've built apps internally as well and say like, what else can we be building, right? It's less about giving her and my team members like less.

fewer hours, it's more about how can I supercharge your abilities so you can go out and do more to get more, to make your life easier too, right? Like with a repetitive task that you shouldn't be doing so you can do more high level thinking, that's gonna really set you apart now, so absolutely love that. And then kind of as we're wrapping up, I'd love to know.

For founders building mission-driven CPG brands right now, what advice would you give about balancing growth, purpose, product qualities, and the financial realities of scaling in terms of your lessons that you're learning?

Gardar Stefansson (19:17)
Yeah, I read this great quote the other day, know, don't design your product for millions of consumer, know, you know, try to design it or like develop it for like 200 people that will love it, you know, and I think the key is just like continue to, you know, find your market fit and do it in a small scale. And that's why

Iceland is a perfect market for us. We tried the product there. know, like we like there have a couple of retailers and you know, we tried it there and like, and we saw immediately, you know, people are picking it up, people liked it, we tweaked it. So it's like, I think the key is just starts more, you know, even though like we're somehow, you know, watching all of those shows, you know, and, Shark Tank and everyone's just like super successful.

You know, like all those brands that actually didn't like or bought up or whatnot. And like people are thinking about, yeah, that's, that's where I'm going. But like the fact is that 19, 9.5 % of us are grinding, you know, and you know, working hard. So it's just like times 10,000 on how many hours you need to put into it. And it's like, it's a hard work, but

If you're passionate and you love what you're doing and you think you're changing something or making things better or just bringing something that is going to really make the lives of their users like better, you know, in whatever form that is. I think that's like the true aspiration that one needs, you know, and then, you know, before you go out and like buy the biggest production facility, you know, whatnot, just do it really small, you know, do it in your kitchen, you know, get like 10 friends, you know.

start small, it on Amazon. It's easier to fail on Amazon or test there than getting a deal with a 100 store retailer that's gonna deduct and charge and whatnot. So it's like, just be prepared and just ask questions, find people out there, find mentors. What I feel with the CPG community is that there's a lot easy to knock on people's door and people are happy to answer any questions or give you feedback.

So it's a tricky world. I haven't figured it out yet, you And I'm not sure if I will, but I'm trying and working really hard on it. it's like, there are just so many ways to fail and so few ways to succeed. And just like you're gonna fail more often than succeed and just do it in a really small scale if possible. Like that's the key so you can learn from it and pivot into something great as soon as you grow and scale.

Jordan buckner (21:38)
Yeah, I think that's amazing advice. I think that that's definitely the way of doing them, but I recommend the brands as well. Go there. Thanks so much for being on the show today and for sharing. Good, good. I can't wait to see where the brand continues to grow from here and wishing you the best of luck.

Gardar Stefansson (21:51)
Thank you Jordan. It's been a pleasure.